Turn with me if you would now
to Matthew chapter 10. Matthew chapter 10. It has been
said before that the scriptures are bifocal, meaning they have
a physical application and a spiritual application. And that most definitely
is true. And I want us to start our message
tonight, just physically reading what our Lord has to say right
here at face value. And then I'd like to finish this
with the spiritual application of what he's saying. And, um,
this is for every soul who truly is looking to Christ. You know,
the Lord calls us his people, and I believe it's maybe more
so as you go through life, the longer you live in life, the
more you realize your need to look to him and to really trust
him, really take his word at face value, at what he has said,
and really hope in him and really trust what he's saying for our
security now and the days to come, the eternal days to come.
But this is for those who really, really are looking to and believing
and trusting the Lord, what He has to say. Here in Matthew,
our Lord, we started this chapter a couple of weeks ago. Our Lord
called His apostles and He commanded them to go out and preach. And
in verse 16, He said, behold, I send you forth as sheep in
the midst of wolves." I want to point out that he used the
word wolves. Be ye therefore wise as serpents
and harmless as doves. Now let's really listen to what
he has to say right here. Verse 17, he said, but beware
of men for they will deliver you up to the councils And they
will scourge you in their synagogues. He's telling his preachers, this
that are sent to preach the true message of Christ. And he's telling all of his people,
this who listened to and believe, and then go out and witness the
true message of Christ. If you believe the true message
of Christ, it will get out on you. And let me just go ahead and
say what the true message of Christ is. Okay. The true message
of Christ is his will alone and his work alone and it's forgiveness
in his blood alone. And it's acceptance in his righteousness
alone. It's man getting none of the
glory and Christ getting all of the glory for all of it alone. That's the message. That's the
true message of Christ. Him, not us, his work, not ours,
his glory, not ours. Salvations of the Lord Jesus
Christ. All right. Now our Lord said, beware. You're going to be delivered
up to councils. And he said, you're going to be scourged for
this message of truth. That scourge means flogged, whipped. He said, beware of this verse
18, you shall be brought before governors and Kings. I guess here we'd have to say
presidents for my sake, for a testimony against them. And the Gentiles,
he said, you're going to be put on the spot and you're going
to made to openly condemn them for their, what lies on God lies
against God. Verse 19, but when they deliver
you up, take no thought how or what you shall speak for it shall
be given you in the same hour. What you shall speak. What he's
saying is I'll give you a message in that moment. I'll cause my
word to be recalled to your mind. Verse 20, for it is not ye that
speak, but the spirit of your father, which speaketh in you. If we are not preaching in the
spirit of the father, then we don't want to be preaching. We
need to hear from God, not man. What is preaching in the Spirit
of the Father? Is that preaching in tongues, all the gibberish
and all that? Preaching in the Spirit of the
Father is preaching the actual, true, unaltered Word of God. This Word was not written by
man. This was written by God's Holy
Spirit. It was inspired by God's Holy Spirit. When we preach the
Word, that's not us speaking, that's Him speaking. If we say,
thus saith the Lord, that's not us speaking. That's him speaking. And when that happens, when,
when God's word is truly preached, he said, this will be the result
of it. Verse 21, the brother shall deliver up the brother
to death and the father, the child and the children shall
rise up against their parents and cause them to be put to death.
He said, it will divide a very household. God's true word is
not loved by the masses. The truth of the word is not
loved by the masses. Verse 22. And you shall be hated
of all men for my name's sake, but he that endureth to the end
shall be saved. I want to tell you something.
He said, you're going to be hated for my name's sake. I want everyone
to know this. I do not want to be hated by
men and women. I'm not trying to be hated by
men and women. That's not my goal. I'm not trying
to be hated by men and women. We read something like this in
our initial, but wrong reaction to it is we think that if we're
going to go tell the truth on the Lord Jesus Christ, we have
to go pick a fight with somebody. And that's not so. I'm not trying
to pick a fight with anybody. You know, when you tell the truth,
people, why are you so dogmatic? Why are you so, why does it have
to be so? I'm not trying to pick a fight
with anybody. I'm trying to be truthful. I'm trying to be loving. I'm
trying to be a friend. Really? But because the flesh
of man is the natural enemy of God. When man hears God's word
to him, he hates it. And he lashes out against it.
That's just what happens. Verse 22, you shall be hated
of all men for my namesake, for my namesake, but he that endureth
to the end shall be saved. And what that means is thank
God, not everybody hates it. And this is why we're doing this.
This is why we're doing this. God has caused some to receive
it. And he's going to call some to
endure in it to the end. He's going to keep some sheep. He's going to lay hold of some
centers. He's going to make them his own.
He's going to reveal Christ to them and reveal the blood of
Christ to them and the finished work of Christ to them. And he's
going to keep them there and they're going to rest and they're
going to stay there. He has a people and if he didn't
have a people, then we wouldn't be preaching. We're preaching
because he has a sheep that he has purpose to call out. And
it's our encouragement to keep doing this in spite of these
things. Verse 23, he said, but when they
persecute you, persecutions will come. And when they persecute
you in this city, flee ye into another. For verily I say unto
you, you shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till
the son of man become, he said, you're going to be persecuted.
And when the person persecution becomes so extreme that it brings
harm to you, he said, move, flee into another city and start preaching
the gospel there. And he said, keep doing that
until I come. This gospel is going to go all
over the world. This is how he has moved his
gospel. People get comfortable where
they are and then he'll send persecutions. And people move
and then they start preaching the gospel there and the gospel
is going to go all over the world and the gospel has gone all over
the world. Verse 24, the disciple is not above his master nor the
servant above his Lord. It is enough for the disciple
that he be as his master and the servant as his Lord. If they
have called the master of the house, Beelzebub, how much more
shall they call them of his household? He said, if you preach my word
in truth, what they did to me, they'll do to you. But he said
in verse 26, fear them not. Therefore. For there is nothing
covered that shall not be revealed, and hid that shall not be known. What I tell you in darkness,
that speak ye in light, and what you hear in the ear, that preach
ye upon the housetops." He said, don't fear their persecution. You just lift up your voice with
strength and you cry to the cities, behold your God. He said, what
I whisper into the secret darkness of the ear of your heart, you
just preach it out in the open light, hide it under a bushel. No, you just preach it out. Verse
28 and fear, not them which kill the body, but are not able to
kill the soul. but rather fear him which is
able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows
sold for a farthing, and one of them shall not fall on the
ground without your father? But the very hairs of your head
are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, you are
of more value than many sparrows. Whosoever therefore shall confess
me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is
in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before
men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.
Think not that I am come to send peace on earth. I came not to
send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at
variance against his father, and the daughter against her
mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and
a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth
father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he that
loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. You know,
the apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 16, he said, if any man love
not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him or her be cursed when the
Lord returns. If our love and our devotion
is not to Christ and his truth, we're going to be cursed when
the Lord returns. He said, if anybody takes priority to me
or to my truth, you know, children, the scripture commands children
to obey their parents in the Lord. As long as the command
of the parent is in agreement with the word of the Lord. If
the command of the parent hinders the child from worshiping the
Lord and bowing to the word of the Lord, then the child needs
to obey God. and disregard the command of
the parent. He's saying if anybody or anything takes priority to
me, be warned, be warned. Verse 38. And he that taketh not his cross
and followeth after me is not worthy of me. He's saying, if
you're not a sinner, the cross is for sinners. If you're not
sick, if you're not worthy of death, Verse 39, he said, he
that findeth his life shall lose it. If you're not lost, you're
not worthy. But he went on to say, he that
loses his life for my sake shall find it. He that loses his life,
loses the false hope that he was standing on. What he thought
was eternal life. Loses the self-righteousness
he thought he had, loses his self-worth, loses his reputation,
loses everything that was his life. For my sake, for the gospel
sake, the Lord said, he's going to find life. God does have a
chosen people that he is going to call to himself. And he said in verse 40, he that
receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth
him that sent me. He that receiveth a prophet in
the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward. And he that
receiveth the righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall
receive a righteous man's reward. And whosoever shall give to drink
unto one of these little ones, a cup of cold water, only in
the name of a disciple, barely I say unto you, he shall in no
wise lose his reward. Now, In all those verses, there
are certain things that I believe I feel led to preach on in the
future. We're not just going to continue
on from that was a lot. And there are some things in
there that I want to, I believe I want to bring some messages
on, but I wanted to read all that because that is the full
remaining portion of what our Lord said to his disciples before
he sent them out to preach. If you just look at chapter 11,
verse one, it says it came to pass when Jesus had made an end
of commanding his 12 disciples, he departed thence to teach and
to preach in their cities. So that's what he said to him
before he sent it and sent them all out to preach. Now, in summary,
he said, you're going to be persecuted for this. And I, you know, from a preaching
point of view, it's true, but I'll say from a believing point
of view too, you're going to be persecuted for this. He went
so far and we know that his disciples did endure this and over the
ages, martyrs and believers. And he said, you're going to
be beaten for this. You're going to be interrogated.
He said, division will come to you. Those who are close to you,
he said, you'll be hated. He said, your life may be threatened. It may be taken. He said, the result of preaching
the truth of my word is not going to be peace in the world. Nobody
wants world peace. He said, well, the result of
preaching the truth of my word is not peace, but a sword. That'll be the result of it,
a sword piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit. And
he said, don't be afraid, just go do it. Now, let me tell you what I've
titled this message. I've titled this message, the absolute sovereignty
of God. The absolute sovereignty of our
God. And here's the reason why we
go verse by verse through these scriptures. Every time I come
to these verses, they scare me a little bit. I'm
being honest with you right now. Every time when we hear these
things, we know what our Lord is saying is true. And every
time we hear this, it strikes fear in us. It does. In me, I can't speak on behalf
of everybody, but me, it makes us, it makes God's people
afraid that chaos is coming. That's what we think. You know,
you do this, be warned. Chaos is coming. Uncertainty is coming. It makes us fear. You know, you
read this and it sounds like man is going to have his way
with God. You go out and preach this to
man and man will have his way with God and man will have his
way with God's message and man will have his way with God's
messenger. And man will have his way with
God's people. Nothing could be farther from
the truth. Our Lord right here is not saying
that man is going to have his way with God. He is telling his
disciples, he's declaring to his disciples that God is going
to have his way with man. That's what he's declaring. Look
at a few of these again. Look at verse 17. He said, but beware of men. For
they will deliver you up to the councils and they will scourge
you in their synagogues and you shall be brought before governors
and kings for my sake for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.
This is what he said. They will and you shall. He said that's what they're going
to do. That's what they're going to
do. Why? Why will they do that? Hold your
place right here and look with me at Acts chapter 4. Acts chapter 4, verse 26 says, The Kings of the earth stood
up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against his Christ. The Kings and the rulers, they
stood up against the Lord and his Christ. Verse 27 for of a
truth against the Holy child, Jesus, whom thou hast anointed
both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people
of Israel were gathered together. Why? Verse 28 says, for to do
whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. They did that because that's
what you determined before the foundation of the world to be
done. That's how it was then. That's
how it is now. The King's heart is still in
the hands of the Lord. Still as the rivers of water,
he still turns it however he wants it to go. The heart of
all men, he turns it however he wants them to go. The apostle
Paul. went through everything that
our Lord described in our text. Everything, all those things
that he said, the Apostle Paul went through them. And he said
in Acts chapter 20, that he was told by the Holy Ghost that that's
what would happen in every city he went to before he got there. He said, I was told beforehand. That's how it'd be. Well, we
have been told beforehand. This is going to bring division.
You're going to tell people the truth. They're not going to understand
it. They're not going to hear it. They're not going to believe
it. It's going to make two who used to walk side by side, separate. That's how it's going to be. Why? Why? Because that's how the sovereign
almighty God has predetermined for it to be done. He said, my
word is going to stand and it's going to be a saver of life to
my people. And it's going to be a saver
of death to those who are not, not my people. May God calls
us and may God calls the people we preach it to, to bow to it.
That's our prayer. May we bow to it. We need to
bow to it and we need to cry. Amen. We get to cry. Amen. To the word of the Lord. If that's
what he said would be. Amen. So be it. Look with me back at Matthew
10, Matthew 10 verse. Well, look at the end of verse
34. He said, I came not to send peace, but a sword. He said,
I came not to send peace, but a sword. He said, it's going
to be that way because that's the way I purposed for it to
be. I came to make it that way. It's not that, you know, the
good work of the Lord went awry. He said, I came to make it so. I came to do this. Verse 34, he said, I came to
send a sword. Verse 35, he said, I came to
set a man at variance. I came to separate my people. I have a people and I came to
set, they are not of this world. And I came to separate them out.
I'm doing all this. We just. read in Isaiah 45 for
our scripture reading, I the Lord do all these things. In
Deuteronomy 32, he said, I kill, but he said, I make alive. He
said, I won't, but he said, I'm the one who heal, who heals.
I'm the Lord, I do all these things. And he says to his people,
you're gonna be right here in the middle of it so that you
can see my power in it. Let's make no mistake here. Our
God is the one who is in control of all of these things. I need the comfort of that. As
I preach this word, you know, and here it is right
here in this little bitty room and it goes in that camera right
there as far as it goes. The Lord's provided us a TV broadcast
and we get on that TV and I need to know this. I need to
lift up my voice with strength. And the only way I can do that
is if I know that my God is in control of all of these things. He's in control of everything
that happens around us. He's in control of everything
that happens to us. He's in control of us. And this is what he said about
all of his people. The message that he sends He's
going to call His people one by one. He's going to separate
them out. That's what's happening. He's going to separate them out.
They're going to hear His voice and all that opposition against
His Word all around them. They're going to say, life, life,
eternal life, like Pilgrim's Progress. They're going to run
to Christ. And he's gonna call them out. This is what he said
about every one of his people, all that the father gave to him.
Look at verse 30, Matthew 10, verse 30. He said, the very hairs
of your head are all numbered. What he's saying is, I know you. He said, listen to me as I tell
you these things. This is what's gonna happen.
But he's saying, I know you, I love you, I care for you. This is, this will be the response
to the message. But he said, here's the encouragement
to go preach the message. I care for you all the way down
to the hairs of your head. I will never leave you. I will
not forsake you. You're mine, you're gonna be
kept. Verse 29, are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? One of them
shall not fall on the ground without your father. Nothing
happens outside of the command and control of the father. But
the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not, therefore
you are of more value than many sparrows. He's saying you're
a value. I'm sending you out as sheep
in the midst of wolves. The Apostle Paul in Romans 8,
he was quoting the Old Testament where it said, we're all counted
as sheep for the slaughter, but we're not. We're more than conquerors
through him that loved us. He said, you're of more value
than many sparrows. In Isaiah 43, the Lord said,
fear not Jacob, I'll hold your hand. He said, when you walk through
the fire, I'll be with you. When you pass through the water,
it won't overflow you. You're of more value to me. What makes a child of God valuable?
Knowing that we're all sinners just like everybody else. What
makes a child of God valuable to the Father? Here it is. He's
covered in the priceless blood. That blood is so precious. That means that blood is so valuable.
That blood is so priceless. And when God the Father looks
at one of His own, covered in the priceless, precious blood
of the Lamb, robed in the righteousness of the land. He said, you're
a value to me. And he says, fear not in all
of this, this is for your sake. This is all for your sake. This
is going to bring glory to me. This is going to bring good to
you. And this is gonna bring the gospel
to my people. Just go preach it. Just go preach
it. Just go tell men, this is gonna
bring glory to me. And I'll be honest with you,
as a preacher, if I believe in my soul that
the message will bring glory to the Lord, that's enough. But if it will bring the gospel
to his people and good to all of us, amen, and so be it. Let's go preach it. Let's be
encouraged to go preach it. He said, these things truly will
happen. As you spread this message of
my will, my work, my blood, my righteousness, salvation only
in me, these things will happen. But through this message, I'm
gonna call my people to confess me. We read, he that confesses
me, I'll confess him. We've got to be called to confess
him. Through that message, I'm going
to cause my people to love me. He said, he that loves anybody
else more than me, some are going to be caused to love him. We
love him only because he first loved us. He said, I'm going
to cause my people to follow me through this message. They're going to hear my voice.
They're going to follow me. And he said, you're going to
know who they are. You go out and preach it. He said, you're
going to know who they are because they're going to love you. I say this, just repeating the
word. I say this as a hearer of the gospel, thinking of men
who preached it to me. He said, they're going to love
you. They're going to love the truth concerning Christ that
you bring to them. Verse 40, he said, he that receives
you, he said, you just go preach it. I have sheep out there and
I'm going to call them. And he said, he that receives,
you received me. Paul, the apostle Paul said,
we're ambassadors for Christ. And the Lord said, if he receives
you, he receives me, and he receives him that sent me, the father
that sent me. I'll tell you this, and you have to know, you have
to, I'm just gonna ask you to trust that I'm only telling you
this, hoping it'll be a blessing to you. I almost hesitate, because
it involves me, but after the service this morning, we went
home, Hannah made lunch, We ate lunch. I studied for this. And when
I was finished going over these notes, I needed something from
Lowe's. And so I was going to go to Lowe's
to get a couple things. And last minute I thought, no,
I think I'll go to Home Depot. Lowe's is right by my house.
I think I'll go to Home Depot. Why? I don't know. So I go to
Home Depot and I'm inside there for a minute and thinking about
some things and scratching my head and all that, took me a
little while. And I came out and I was loading some stuff
in my car and as I had my head in the car, you know, I kinda
came out and somebody said, said, are you Gabe? And I said, yeah,
yes I am. He said, I watch you on TV every
Sunday morning. Really nice guy. He introduced
me to his daughter, had his daughter with him. And he said, I watch
you on TV every Sunday morning. He said, I try not to miss a
Sunday morning. He said, I just, it's like, I
wait for you to come on. And he said, I've thought about
coming over there and visiting y'all. And I said, well, I wish
you would, you know, come on. I introduced myself and he told
me his name. He said, can I help you load
your stuff up? And I said, well, you don't have to do that. But
he helped me load my stuff up. And we talked about, he said,
I just appreciate the fact that you tell the truth. And I said,
well, I appreciate you telling me that. I appreciate you saying
hi. And I really would love for you all to come. And he said,
I do want to come. And he said, I honestly believe that show, or however he put
it, is the highlight of my week. He said, I just wait for it on
Sunday morning. I said, well, please come. The Lord has a people out there.
You know that this message is not widely received. You know
as you meet people with it, your mind is already telling you they're
not going to hear this, they're going to hate this, they're going
to reject this. Not everybody. Not everybody. Some people are
going to hear it. Some people are going to acknowledge
that it's so. That's faith that God gives. Some people are going to fall
in love with it. And the Lord said, you don't worry about all
these things. You just go preach and see what happens. Whoever
receives you is receiving me, because they're receiving my
word. And they're receiving the Father who sent me. And he said,
whoever receives a prophet in the name of a prophet is going
to get a prophet's reward. That means whoever receives a
preacher of Christ in the name of Christ is going to get the
reward of Christ. And he said, whoever receives
a righteous man in the name of a righteous man is going to get
a righteous man's reward. That means whoever see receives
a man who has been made righteous and who carries the message of
righteousness in the righteous man, Christ Jesus, the Lord,
he's going to get the reward of that very righteousness. And
verse 42, he said, whoever gives you a drink. Whoever shall give
to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water in the
name of a disciple, for Christ's sake, because I love him. I love his message, love his
ministry. Verily I say unto you, he's not
gonna lose his reward. He's saying, you just go preach,
reward is coming. Mark my word, reward in Christ
is coming. You know, men and women naturally
do reject the message of Christ. So if any man receives it, that's
God's grace to him. And the Lord is saying here,
I have grace to give. I have much grace to give. Go
deliver the message. And let's do that. Let's preach
it, let's believe it, let's look to it, let's trust it. Christ
is the reward and he's coming. Thank God, to him be the glory. All right, Brother Dwight, you
come.