The Mission & Ministry of God's Men, Part 1

Turn in your Bible to Luke chapter 9. Luke chapter 9, as we continue our study through this great and wonderful gospel. You know, it's a great privilege of me to be able to speak through the Bible expositionally. I shared on Wednesday night with the people. The great thing about doing that is that the Spirit of God is in complete control of what we speak on from week to week. I never have to sit in my office and wonder, I wonder what I'm going to say this week. I wonder what text I'll use this week.

Because the Spirit of God unveils to us what it is we should cover next. And so when we go from verse to verse or from paragraph to paragraph or chapter to chapter, then we know virtually where we're going. So you can go home and you can read in your Bible in the book of Luke and you can do your own personal study and be ready for what we're going to have week after week after week. Because we know where we're going to be going. And so as the Spirit of God unfolds for us His Word, that's what we teach on each and every week.

And so that's great. Also the providence of God is seen. We're talking about the ministry of God and His men. The mission of God's men. The ministry of God's men. It will lead us into our missions conference. And in the providence of God, He wants us to understand the great mission and ministry that you and I have. And as we study these men, these 12 men, these 12 apostles, then we begin to realize what God did in their lives. How He prepared them. How He molded them. How He shaped them in order that He might ultimately send them to do what?

To do the same thing that we are to be doing today. And so therefore we begin to see the practicality of Scripture in terms of how it relates to your life and to mine. God chose to use men. He used women to spread the good news of Jesus Christ our Lord. He used people. Now He didn't have to do that. Remember Revelation 14 that there's an angel that flies around in midheaven proclaiming the gospel. Now He could do that. He could send an angel just to fly around heaven. Maybe with some big banner about what it means to give your life to Christ.

But in Revelation 14 that angel is going to go around spreading the good news of the gospel. Now He could do that today. He's not doing that today. He's using people like you and me. Just like He trained and used these men in Luke chapter 9. Let me read to you the first six verses.

We'll cover the first two today and the rest of them next week Lord willing. It says that He called the 12 together and gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases. And He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to perform healing. He said to them take nothing for your journey neither a staff nor bag nor bread nor money and do not even have two tunics apiece. And whatever house you enter stay there and take your leave from there. And as for those who do not receive you as you go out from that city shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them.

And departing they began going about among the villages preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. What we have in Luke chapter 9 is what we call a transition passage. It's Jesus giving simple directions to His men as to how they were to perform the ministry entrusted to them. And when we read this we will see the practical lessons for you and me as we fulfill our obligation to fulfill the mission and ministry that God has given to people like you and me. Our Lord has been ministering in Galilee for approximately 18 months when we come to Luke chapter 9.

It's been a year and a half since He began to come and proclaim the kingdom of God. If you wanted to hear a sermon about salvation you had to be where Jesus was. If you wanted to be healed you had to be where Jesus was doing the healing. If you wanted to have demons cast out of you Jesus had to be there to cast those demons out of you. He was a one man show or literally a one God man show. Okay? And wherever He was that's where ministry was happening. He was the preacher. He was the healer. He was doing it all Himself.

And so that's why this passage becomes a unique transition passage. Because now He's no longer going to do it by Himself. He's going to send out His 12 apostles to do the ministry. And therefore He's going to multiply Himself over and over and over again so that more people can be reached. That's important. So this becomes a major transition passage. Our Lord's about to go to Jerusalem over in Luke chapter 9 verse number 51. It says this, and it came about when the days were approaching for His ascension that He resolutely set His face to go to Jerusalem.

He knows that time is short. He knows there's only about a year and a half left of ministry on this earth. So He's going to one day in a few short weeks make His way up to Jerusalem. He's going to go there. He will be betrayed. He will be arrested. He will be falsely accused. He will be spit upon. He will be mocked. He will be crucified. He will die. He will be buried, rise again, and He will ascend into glory. He knows how that's all going to take place. So He knows that time is short. 18 months is not a very long time.

And so He realizes that He has to train these men who eventually will be seen, according to Acts 17, as turning the world upside down. And so He knows that what He does with these men, what He's already done with them up to this point, and how it is He's going to invest His life into them from this time forward will be the impetus whereby they will be used by Him to turn the world, literally the world, upside down. So much so that we are here today because of the ministry of these 12 apostles. They were obedient to their God, and they followed through on the plan of God.

They had been learners, but now they're going to become leaders. They go from the schoolroom, from the classroom, to be able to branch out and be involved in an internship where they are actually involved in doing the exact same kind of ministry that Jesus Christ has been doing up to this point. Because time is short, our Lord knows that there must be a flurry of ministry in the Galilee area. He's going to leave it. And so He wants to, we know as we studied the Gospel of Luke, He was going from village to village, from town to town, from place to place, preaching the Gospel.

Well, He knows time is short, so He is going to give an onslaught of ministry in that Galilee area before He dies and before He ascends up into glory. We must understand the historical sequence of Luke chapter 9. We've been studying Luke chapter 8, and we know that that's a great story, a great chapter, because it begins with the story of the parable of the sower and the soil, because He wants His men to understand that when they go out to preach the Gospel, not everybody is going to receive the Gospel.

And there's going to be a lot of people, not a few, but a lot of people who superficially receive the Gospel with joy. But because of persecution, because of trials, because of tribulation, because of worldliness, they will fall away. There will be others who receive the Gospel, and there will be true fruit that's presented in their lives, some 30-fold, some 60-fold, some 100-fold. We've already studied Luke chapter 8 and the parable of the sower and the soil. And then He told them, let us get into the lake, and let's go to the other side, let's get in the boat, and go to the other side of the lake.

Why? Because what was He going to do? He was going to teach His men and the other disciples who were with Him a very valuable lesson that He had power over the deep, that He had power over sea. And we know about the great storm that was calmed that night as He said, hush, be still. And the men became astonished, terrified as to the power of the Savior. They went to the land of the Gerasenes. There was a man who was filled with legion. He cast demon out of that man, and we saw His power now over demons, His power over the deep, His power now over demons.

And then He was only there for a short time, and they ran Him out of town. He goes back to Capernaum, and there was a man who was waiting for Him, whose daughter was dying. And so Christ says that He will come and heal her, and as He's going, there's a woman with a disease who has a bleeding for twelve years, and He heals her.

So He's demonstrated His power over the deep, He's demonstrated His power over demons, and then He demonstrated His power over disease. And while He was exercising that power in the life of this woman, the daughter of Jairus dies. But that's not a problem for Jesus, because He holds the keys to death and Hades. He goes to the house, and He raises her from the dead. And so now we see His power over death. His men need to have a complete visual of the power that He possesses. If you go back to Mark chapter 6 for a moment, it tells us what happens next in the life of Jesus.

Mark chapter 6. It's so important to look at Matthew, Mark, and Luke as a unit to see exactly what happens next, because in Mark's account it says this in verse number 1.

After the healing of Jairus' daughter, where He would cast, not cast out, but raise her from the dead, it says in verse number 1 of chapter 6, and He went out from there, and He came into His hometown, and His disciples followed Him. So He left Capernaum. He made His way to Nazareth. It says, and when the Sabbath had come, He began to teach in the synagogue, and the many listeners were astonished, saying, Where did this man get these things? And what is this wisdom given to him, and such miracles as these performed by His hands?

Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James, and Joses, and Judas, and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us? And they took offense at Him. And Jesus said to them, A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown, and among his own relatives, and in his own household. And he could do no miracle there, except that He laid His hands upon a few sick people, and healed them. And He wondered at their unbelief. And He was going around the villages teaching. Then verse 7, and He summoned the twelve, and began to send them out in pairs.

So verse 7 of Mark chapter 6 is Luke 9, verse number 1. So what took place between the great power display in Luke chapter 8, is that He left Capernaum, and He went back to Nazareth. And He goes back to preach in the same synagogue He preached in, way back in Luke chapter 4. And we went into great detail to talk to you about that sermon, and how that sermon offended His relatives. How it offended the hometown crowd, and how they wanted to take Him, and throw Him off the cliff there in Nazareth. And so He goes back one more time.

He wants to give them another opportunity to see Him face-to-face. He wants to give them another opportunity to respond to the truth. But the response is the same. Their hearts are hardened to the message. They don't like to have their sin exposed. When Christ preaches, He preaches to expose their sin. Every good preacher preaches to expose sin in the body. Why? Because the only way that sin can be remedied is through the Savior Jesus Christ our Lord. And every preacher knows that. And so our Lord, who is the consummate preacher, when He preached, He preached against their sin.

He preached against their spiritual bankruptcy. He preached about their spiritual condition to help them understand that they were poor, and that they were blind, and that they were imprisoned. But the reception was the same. The reception hadn't changed in 18 months. Nothing was different. They still rejected the Gospel. They still did not want to have what He was offering them, salvation by grace through faith in the Messiah Jesus Christ our Lord. And so He could only do a few miracles there. Can you imagine?

Here He was in His hometown preaching one more time, knowing that time was short. He was soon going to die for the people of that town. He was soon going to give His life for those who rejected Him. And yet He wanted them to have one more opportunity to hear the Gospel. And still they wondered, is this the son of Mary? Is this not the brother of Simon and Joses and Judas? Is this the same guy? And He told them that a prophet is without honor in his own hometown. He would leave Nazareth once again with many people still unconverted, not believing in His Messiahship.

He could only do a few miracles there. You know, maybe on the way out of town He saw someone who was sick. Maybe they were blind and they were deaf and they never heard what He said. Maybe that was one of the few miracles He performed while they were in Nazareth on His way out of that little village. Just touching that individual, giving them one more opportunity to see a sign of His power. And then Mark tells us He continued to go from village to village still preaching the Gospel because Jesus is a preacher.

He came to preach the good news of the kingdom. If we want to be like Jesus, we must be preachers of the good news of the kingdom. And so when He went around preaching all these different villages, it's now in verse number 7 of Mark that He begins to summon the 12. That He might send them out to preach. And that's where we are in Luke chapter 9. He knows that every message is central to His existence. Every miracle happens because of Him. Every healing happens because of Him. Well, He wants to be able to with a flurry reach Galilee one more time.

To do that He must send out the 12 apostles. To do that He must equip them, listen, with the same power that He Himself has. That they in turn can go and heal. That they in turn can perform miracles. And Matthew's account says that they even, listen, raised the dead. He gave them the exact same power so that it would validate the message, the same message that He had. That when they would go out and preach the same message that Jesus preached, that they would believe it was the same message because these men would perform the exact same miracles that Jesus Himself did when He went from village to village preaching the gospel.

That's why this transition is so unique. That's why it's so important to understand what's happening in Luke chapter 9 because soon He's going to make His way to Jerusalem. He's going to ascend to that great city of God. But this is the last ditch effort in the Galilee region to make sure people hear the truth about the King and His kingdom. Now you must understand the different episodes in the life of the apostles because sometimes you get them confused. So let me see if I can break it down for you, okay?

Remember back in John chapter 1, way back in verses 35 to 51, this is the initial call to salvation for the apostles. You have James, John, Peter, Andrew, and their conversion. It's when they come to realize that Jesus is that Messiah. He is the anointed one, the one that they've been looking for, and this is their salvation experience. We don't know all of the salvation experiences of the apostles, but we do know those four men. We do know about Matthew, the tax gatherer, as Christ called Him to follow as well.

And so we look at John chapter 1 and we see that as their initial conversion. That's when they came to faith in Jesus Christ as the Messiah. When you go to Matthew chapter 4, this is when He calls them to leave their careers. This is when He calls them to leave their fishing occupation. Remember that in John chapter 1, they came to believe that Jesus was the Messiah. They believed in Him. They were committed to Him, but they had jobs. They had to provide for their families. So they went back and they did their careers.

Well, when you come to Matthew 4, He beckons them now to leave that career and to follow Him. That is, He wants them to leave what it is they're doing for their income and be a part of what the ministry is of Jesus Christ Himself. And so it's like somebody who gets saved and they have a job, right? And they give their life to Christ. And then all of a sudden they realize that God's called them into some kind of full-time ministry and they then leave their job to go maybe off to seminary to study the Bible so they can become a preacher or a missionary or some kind of full-time occupation in that capacity.

And so that's where these men were. They had gone back to the nets after their initial conversion. Christ then beckons them to come and say, leave all that behind, follow Me and be a part of what I'm doing from village to village, from town to town. And then in Luke chapter 6, and we've been in this one, Luke chapter 6 and in Matthew chapter 10, then comes their apostleship. He's going to send them out. He tells them, now that you're following Me, understand something, I'm going to send you. You just can't follow Me without Me sending you to.

And so now He understands, He wants them to understand the deeper implications to their leaving their careers to following Him and being a part of His ministry to then understand that they're going to be sent out to serve and to honor Him. They're going to move from learners to leaders. And then you come to a place like Luke chapter 9. This is their internship. This is now where they're going to put into practice everything they've been learning for the last 18 months, everything that they have seen, everything that they've heard.

They've heard about the gospel. They've heard about the essence of the kingdom and that the kingdom now is being presented because the King is here. And now their internship is going to be put into place. Now Christ is going to send them out to do exactly what He Himself is doing. And then when you come to Matthew chapter 28 and you come to Mark chapter 16 and you come to Luke chapter 24, that's that great commission. That's that ultimate sending where He says, okay, now it's totally your responsibility.

Go into all the world and preach the gospel. It's your ministry now. It's your opportunity. Now is the day. And they did it. They were obedient and the world was turned upside down because of what God did in their lives. So now you kind of understand all these different scenarios where Christ is meeting with His men and calling them out and telling them they're going to be apostles and giving them this internship and sending them out to minister for Him. Now you kind of understand a little broad view of what's taken place in the lives of these men.

These men were used by God. In Luke 9 we're at stage four. We're at that internship in their lives. They're going to be called. They've been called. They've been chosen. They are apostles. And now their internship is going to manifest itself as they go from village to village doing what Jesus Himself has done. And you know, our Lord is so gracious. He's so kind. In Luke 10, He's going to send out 70 more. 70 more. Now these 12 are going to go out two by two. You know why He sent them out two by two, don't you?

Because they wouldn't go one by one. That's why He sent them two by two. I mean, it's a lot easier to go with somebody else who's going to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice and go out by your little lonesome, right? He sent them out two by two. The 70, He will send out two by two as well. So there are six groups here and then there will be another 35 groups in Luke chapter 10. He's going to send them out. They too are going to be endowed with power because He wants to flood the Galilee area with the opportunities that He has presented up to this point.

In fact, Luke chapter 10, it says this in verse number nine or verse number eight, in whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat what is set before you and heal those in it who are sick and say to them, the kingdom of God has come near to you. So they were going to do the exact same thing that these apostles did. They were not apostles. They were born again believers. They were, they were understanding of true as to what the true gospel is all about. They weren't the 12 apostles. They were different, but it shows you the grace of our Lord to continue to flood the Galilee region with the truth because people needed to hear the gospel.

You just can't keep going enough. You just can't keep telling people enough about the truth of the gospel. And so that's exactly what Jesus wants to do. These 12, as we have studied in the past, unique, ordinary men. There was nothing special about these men from our perspective or from the world's perspective. They were vanilla. They were just plain vanilla, ordinary human beings. None of them were scribes. None of them were Pharisees. None of them were Sadducees. None of them were rabbis. None of them were priests, which is a tremendous statement against the religious establishment of the day.

You must understand that. See, we forget. We forget. When Jesus began his ministry, how did he begin his ministry? He began his ministry in Jerusalem by going and taking charge and telling the religious establishment they were in error. He took a whip. He turned over the money changing tables in the against an apostate religion. He came out against the religious establishment of the day. I'm not sure you can be a great preacher unless you come out against the religious establishment of the day. That's what Jesus did.

He came out and the very first thing he did in his public ministry was go against religion, was go against the apostasy of the time.

People have turned away from the true God and had ritualized their religion. Turned it away. He came out immediately and spoke against it and they were furious with him. He didn't tiptoe around them. He said exactly what needed to be said. He did exactly what needed to be done because he wanted them to understand they were absolutely wrong. They were apostates. They were nothing like his ministry. They said nothing like he would say because he came to present the true gospel and so that's what he did.

And the Bible says this. It says he struck a devastating, not in the Bible, one author says this. He struck a devastating blow at institutionalized Judaism. He unmasked the religious nobility as thieves and hypocrites. He condemned their spiritual bankruptcy. He exposed their apostasy. He publicly rebuked their sin. He indicted them for gross corruption. He denounced their deception. That is how he began his ministry. It was an all-out assault on the religion of the Jewish establishment. You don't see preachers do that today.

They don't do that today because they don't want to make enemies. They want everybody to be their friend. Well, Jesus wanted people to be his friend too. But the only way you can be his friend is if you've been reconciled to God. He knows that. And so there was an all-out assault against the religious establishment of his day and they turned against him. They hated him. That's why they wanted to throw him off a cliff in Nazareth. That's why the Pharisees would continue to set traps and we'll see it more and more as we go through Luke.

Looking for traps to catch him in some kind of mix-up so that they can hold him accountable so ultimately they can kill him. They want to kill him. They have to get rid of him because he speaks against their system. He speaks against their beliefs. He speaks, listen, against what they hold dear. They hold dear to their religious establishment. That's what they wanted and they believed that that's the way they would get to heaven and he came and said, no, that's not how you get there. I'm sorry. You're wrong.

In fact, he said in Matthew chapter 5, unless your religion is different than that, it exceeds, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you'll never enter the kingdom of heaven. And the people on the hillside there in Capernaum where the Mount of Beatitudes is located must have been wondering to themselves, how does that happen? How can our righteousness exceed that of the most religious people we know? Of the most church-going, most Bible-thumping, most committed moral people we know, how is it our righteousness can exceed that?

It's because their righteousness was one of human achievement and his righteousness was one of divine accomplishment. Totally different. You have to throw yourself upon the mercy of God and beg for his forgiveness and realize you have nothing to give to him because you are a bankrupt sinner. Well, they didn't see themselves that way. They saw themselves as pretty good, see? And so Jesus would come and he would preach against everything they said and they despised him. They hated him so much so that they would have a mock trial that was completely illegal and then they would crucify him.

Albeit all under the providence and plan of a sovereign God. You see, our Lord knows exactly what he's doing. So he chose 12. Why 12? Why not 7? 7 is the perfect number, right? Choose 7. It's the perfect number. Judas is going to be an apostate anyway, then he'd have 6 and he'd have an even number, right? Why choose 12? Why not 10? Well, there are 12 tribes of Israel, right? Symbolically, this becomes the new direction because this is the right direction. There are 12 tribes of Israel. None of the men chosen were a part of the religious establishment.

It's because none of those men could effectively represent the new covenant, that could effectively represent the finished work of Christ, the grace work of Christ in the life of these men. And so these 12 were chosen almost as a indictment against the religious establishment of the day. There's going to be a new Israel. There's going to be an Israel that's born again. There's going to be an Israel that believes in their Messiah. There's going to be a true Israel instead of a false Israel. And so he begins to set the agenda that these men would come and revolutionize the religious structure of the day.

Luke 22, 29 says these words about these men. Luke chapter 22, verse number 29 says this. Just as my father has granted me a kingdom, I grant you that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and you will sit on thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. And if you read Revelation, you realize that in that great new city of Jerusalem, those names are emblazoned upon the gates of that city. Because these men are the ones who gave us the apostles doctrine that we hold so dear to, because it's the truth.

And that's what Jesus was doing with these men. And so let me talk to you a little bit about their mission and ministry.

Let me give you the characteristics, and we'll begin with characteristic number one this morning. We'll see how far we get. It says, he called the 12 together, gave them power and authority over all the demons to heal diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God. We'll stop right there. Now remember, these 12 have been a part of a larger group of people. Some were committed, others were curious, and some were just obstinate against the Lord and were looking for ways to destroy him.

But they were followers, and they were a part of what was happening. But remember, these 12 were not really functioning together as a group of individual 12s to this point, okay? Sure, James and John, they were brothers. They were always together. Peter and Andrew, they were brothers. They were always together, and those four were a part of a great fishing expedition there on the Sea of Galilee, because they were from Bethsaida, and they were next to Capernaum, and they were involved in that great ministry.

So those four would have hung out together. But for all of the 12, Simon the Zealot, as well as Thaddeus, as well as Matthew, the tax gatherer, they weren't necessarily all hanging around together, eating lunch together, eating dinner together, sleeping on the stars together, until this point. It's at this point he calls them out, and these 12 now become a unit. And he unifies them at this point, because they're going to all have the same mission and ministry. He's already chosen them. They already know who they are, but now he's going to band them together as brothers.

He's going to make them one unit, that they might infiltrate Galilee with the truth of the gospel. The Bible says that he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God, to preach, to make a public statement, as a herald would go into the town square, and herald the message of salvation, herald the message of the coming king.

In other words, they would go to the city, or go to the village, and they would say, the king has arrived, and he is coming to present his kingdom to you. And in order to be a part of that kingdom, you must repent of your sins, turn from your evil ways, and embrace him as your Messiah. And when you do that, you experience the grace, and the forgiveness, and the mercy of God. But you must understand that he has come to bestow that mercy upon you. And so they come, and they make that public statement, so all can hear the truth of the gospel.

They came preaching the kingdom of God. If there's a king, there's a kingdom. If there's a ruler, then there is a place where he rules. And therefore, you must understand who he is. You must repent of your sin, call out for his grace, believe that he truly is the Messiah of the universe. And that's what they did. They came, and they preached the same message that Jesus himself preached. Over in Mark chapter 6, verse number 12, it says this. It says, and they went out, and they preached that men should what?

That they should repent. They went out, and they preached that men should repent. They preached against sin, and they wanted people to come to understand that there was a Savior that was available to them, if they would receive him as their king. Men are poor, men are blind, men are prisoners. They're enslaved to their sin, and there is a Savior that will deliver them from their bondage, and that is Jesus Christ, our Lord. Over in Luke chapter 8, verse number 1, it says this about Jesus. Luke 8, verse number 1, and it came about soon afterwards that he began going about from one city and village to another, proclaiming and preaching the kingdom of God.

And the twelve were with him. So they heard him preach about the kingdom of God. Luke chapter 7, verse number 22, go and report to John what you have seen and heard. The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached to them, and blessed is he who keeps from stumbling over me. So the gospel is being preached to people. Over in Luke chapter 4, verse number 43, he said to them, I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose.

I preached it. You are to preach the exact same message. Unfortunately, we can't get evangelicals to agree on that same message. That is just so sad. We just can't get evangelicals to agree on the same message that is to be preached from city to city. I mean, you can go to any number of churches on any given Sunday and never hear the same message about the gospel. You hear it presented in all different ways. Some of it true, some of it false. And that's unfortunate. Because you see, they don't want to follow the simple, concise message that Jesus himself preached.

I just figured if Jesus preached it, if it's good enough for him, it just won't be good enough for me. I mean, that's what he did. And that's the same message we ought to preach. But unfortunately, people have a different gospel. Douglas Webster, great author, says this. Biblical preaching was God-centered, was sin-exposing, was self-convicting, and life-challenging. The direct opposite of today's light informal sermons that Christianize, self-help, and entertain better than they convict. There are so many illustrations in today's market-sensitive sermons that the hearer forgets the biblical truth that is being illustrated.

So many personal antidotes that the hearer knows the pastor better than she knows Christ. So many human interest stories that listening to the sermon is easier than reading the Sunday paper. So practical that there is hardly anything to practice. No wonder nominal Christians leave church feeling upbeat. Their self-esteem is safely intact. Their minds and hearts have been sparked and soothed with soundbite theology, Christian maxims, and a few practical pointers dealing with self-esteem, kids, or work.

But the question remains, has the Word of God been effectively and faithfully proclaimed, penetrating comfort zones, and the veneer of self-satisfaction with the truth of Jesus Christ? Now Douglas Webster wrote that in the late 90s, but A.W. Pink in 1937 wrote these words, the terms of Christ's salvation are erroneously stated by the present-day evangelist. With very rare exceptions, he tells his hearers that salvation is by grace, and is received as a free gift, that Christ has done everything for the sinner, and nothing remains except for him to believe, to trust in the infinite merits of his blood.

And so widely does this conception now prevail in, quote, orthodox circles. So frequently has it been dinned in their ears, so deeply has it taken root in their minds, that for one to now challenge it and denounce it as being so inadequate and one-sided as to be deceptive and erroneous is for him to instantly court the stigma of being a heretic, and to be charged with dishonoring the finished work of Christ by incalculating salvation by works. Salvation is by grace, by grace alone. Nevertheless, divine grace is not exercised at the expense of holiness, for it never compromises with sin.

It is also true that salvation is a free gift, but an empty hand must receive it, and not a hand which still tightly grasps the world. A heart that is steeled in rebellion cannot savingly believe. It must first be broken.

Those preachers who tell sinners they may be saved without forsaking their idols, without repenting, without surrendering to the Lordship of Christ, are as erroneous and dangerous as others who insist that salvation is by works, and that heaven must be earned by our own efforts. That was in 1937. You see, folks, we live in a day where evangelicals have a hard time getting the message right, because they want to alter the message. They want to edit the message. They want to transpose the message. They don't want to transfer the same message.

They want to make it so it's easily acceptable, so it's sweet to the ears, so that when spoken, people don't get upset. But folks, whenever you speak the truth, those who do not want to submit to the truth will always be furious, always. If you speak the truth, those who are against the truth will always be furious with you, because the truth exposes error. It exposes sin. It exposes unbelief. It exposes the true inner part of an individual. That's why it's so important to simply preach the Word.

Isn't that what Paul said in 2 Timothy 4? Just preach the Word. Just preach the Word. But you see, we want to add to the Word, because we don't think the Word is clear enough. We don't think the Word is good enough. We don't think the Word on its own is going to do the completed work. So we're going to add to that message. We're going to add to the Word. We might even alter it a little bit, edit it a little bit, so it comes across in a sweeter, nicer, gentler way. But Jesus never did that. John the Baptist never did that.

They just never did. The apostles in the book of Acts, they never did that. They preached the true gospel about the kingdom of God and that you must repent of your sins and believe in Jesus Christ as the Messiah. They preached that gospel. But so many people today, because they're offended by that gospel, it's not preached anymore. It's not. R.A. Torrey said these words when president of Moody Bible Institute. He told his students in his textbook on personal evangelism to make the lordship of Christ the focus of the gospel invitation to sinners.

He says, lead them as directly as you can to accept Jesus Christ as personal savior and to surrender to him as his lord and his master. You get people to understand that they are sinners and they need a savior and that savior is lord and master and you must surrender and submit to his lordship in your life or you are not saved. You can say anything you want about what you believe has happened in your life but if you are unwilling to submit to that king, to that ruler as lord and master of your life, well you are willing to say lord I am yours.

You are the king. I come into your presence. I bow before you. I'm ready to receive whatever marching orders you're ready to give me because I am your slave and you are the master. I've already denied myself. I'm going to take up my cross. I'm going to follow you and I'm going to do whatever you say lord because you're the king and that's the message. That's the only message of salvation that can be preached. If you alter that message, if you edit that message, you will preach a false gospel and people will superficially receive something that will damn their souls to hell.

We can't afford to be in that place. We can't. We must preach the gospel that Jesus himself preached. If not, then we won't fulfill the mission and ministry of Jesus Christ our lord and that's what he wants for you and that's what he wants for me and may we accept that responsibility with great joy in our hearts because people need to know the truth. Let's pray. Father thank you for today. The great joy of your word. The great ministry of Christ and his men. The mission that he gave them to ultimately go into all the world and preach the gospel.

Luke's account, it tells us that unless repentance is preached there will be no forgiveness of sins and that's the great commission you gave to your men through Luke's account and I pray father that as we go into all the world to make disciples that we would teach them and we baptize them in the name of the father and the son the holy spirit because all authority has been given unto you you've transferred that authority to us that we might preach and teach the gospel of Jesus Christ. I pray father that we would fulfill your mandate for our lives that those who hear would hear the exact truth of the gospel.

We pray in Jesus name. Amen.