The work of the ministry of the gospel is a work which none should undertake unless called to it by God. An uncalled and unconverted ministry is a curse instead of a blessing. The Bible warns us that “if the blind lead the blind, then both shall fall into the ditch.” How many people in this generation, as well as in other generations, will have to lament the loss of their souls because they lived under a godless ministry. What an account godless ministers will have to give in the day of Judgment for having deceived and destroyed the souls of those who were committed to their charge!
It has pleased the Lord to raise up in every generation faithful servants to declare the gospel of His grace to the children of men. These servants He has called by His grace from out of the kingdom of darkness, translating them into the kingdom of Christ. In this way they became humble followers of the Saviour, relying on His grace and strength day by day in order that they might serve Him. When the Lord called them into the ministry of the Gospel He laid this work so firmly upon their minds and hearts that they could not turn away from it. The Lord reserves to Himself the right to call men to the sacred office of the ministry. Those whom He calls will be a blessing to the Church. On the other hand those who run without being sent, and all those who climb into the sheepfold other than by the door are thieves and robbers who can only injure and destroy the Church of God.
How can men know that they are truly called to the ministry of the Word? They are truly called whom the Lord has directed by His word and Spirit to this work. They have heard God’s voice in His word directing them to give themselves over to the ministry of the Gospel. They have to say: “Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel.” The effect of a true call to the ministry will be to humble them in the dust before the Most High. They will be acutely sensible of their own unworthiness and unfitness for such a work. They will say: “Who is sufficient for these things?” At the same time this will not make them turn back and abandon all thought of engaging in this onerous duty. Rather will it make them dependent upon the Lord for all their supply and will make them realise that their sufficiency is of God.
The need of ministers of the Gospel in our own Church and throughout the world is as great today as ever. When we read of a girl of eleven years of age telling a judge in Chelmsford Crown Court that she had never heard of God and did not know what a Bible was, this gives some indication of the need our land has of faithful ministers of the Gospel. If sinners are to be saved it is by having the Gospel preached to them. There is need then for many ministers to be raised up in our dark day. How is this need to be supplied? Is it by pressing those we think likely candidates to enter the ministry? The pressurising of young men to enter the ministry has filled the pulpits with uncalled ministers who will never profit the people. There is only one right way and the Saviour directs us to it when He declared: “The harvest truly is plenteous but the labourers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that He may send forth labourers into His harvest.”
To this duty the Church of God is called — that of pleading with the Lord to provide pastors after His own heart for the needs of His Church. Those pastors whom the Lord will raise up in answer to the earnest prayers of His believing people will be a blessing to their generation and to the flock of God. They will be true undershepherds of the Great Shepherd of the flock. They will feed the flock with knowledge and understanding. They will watch over the flock, prayerfully attending to its needs. Let us plead, then, in our day that the Lord would raise up faithful shepherds to watch over the flock of God. If the Lord has already provided us with these, then let us give thanks to the Lord for them and let us esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. Also, let us prayerfully seek for them that the Lord would supply them with all needed grace for the discharge of the work to which He has called them.
Alexander Gair remarked on one occasion that he would like to have the last mouthful of food at a meal as sweet as the first, referring to such as would be long in religious exercises as to make what was said distasteful to the hearers. “Some”, he added, “will make a grace as long as a prayer, and a prayer as long as a sermon”.