All right, let's take our Bibles
and turn to Luke chapter eight. We'll start a new chapter this
morning, Luke chapter eight. I want us to consider the first
three verses of the chapter. Now, not every little group of
verses is like this, but I wanna I'm laboring to take my time
when we get into these studies because I don't wanna, we read
right past some of the most glorious things that is in the scripture
because it's stated so often and it's stated so simply and
clearly that we just read it and go past it looking for the
next thing. And I want us to slow down when
you're reading the Scripture, slow down, this ain't a newspaper.
This is the Word of God, and we need to slow down. There's
not a word in it that's not inspired by the Holy Spirit. So let's
take our time with these things, and I just wanna consider these
three verses. Let's read these verses together.
Luke chapter eight, verse one. And it came to pass, afterward
that he went throughout every city and village preaching and
showing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God and the 12, that
is his 12 disciples, were with him. And also, I put that word
also in there, and certain women, which had been healed of evil
spirits and infirmities. Mary, called Magdalene, out of
whom went seven devils. And Joanna, the wife of Chusa,
Herod's steward. Now, this is not a nobody. This is the steward of Herod. He was in charge of everything
Herod possessed. and Herod was the king. And Susanna
and many others which ministered unto him of their substance. Now verse one begins with the
words, and it came to pass. Everything that God has purposed
in heaven, in earth, and under the earth, even in hell, has
and shall come to pass, exactly as he's purposed it. God perfectly
orders his providence, like turning the pages of a book that's already
written. In fact, he is in the book of
Revelations, one of the visions John saw in chapter five, was
God holding a book that was sealed. This is everything that God has
purposed to do. This is all God's eternal counsels. All his purposes are in this
book, but this book is sealed. Nobody was worthy to take it.
Nobody was worthy to even look on the book, except one, the Lord Jesus Christ. The lamb, there was a lamb. the
lion of the tribe of Judah, a lamb as if it had been slain from
the foundation of the world. He was worthy to take the book,
and he opened the pages. He didn't write the pages. He
didn't tell you what's gonna happen way off here in 1938.
No, he opened the book and told you exactly as it is, one page
at a time. That's got providence, providence. Without a doubt, those seals
represent the holy character of God, and none except the Son
of God was found worthy to take the book and open it. In Ephesians
1.10, he talks about the great shepherd, the steward of all
things. Everything, everything in time,
he's revealing to the believer that one whom he made accepted
in the blood, whom he chose in Christ before the foundation
of the world, predestinated to the adoption of sons by Jesus
Christ. Redeemed him, forgave him of
the sins, called him by his grace, and he reveals these great mysteries
hidden from the world. hidden from the world, even hidden
from believers for years and years and years and countless
centuries. But now he's revealing these things to us. And what
he's revealing is that Christ is gathering to himself all things,
all things, gathering them to himself. He's gonna right those
wrongs in heaven. He's gonna right those wrongs
in earth. and he's gonna establish hell and everybody in it. Judgment. And Paul goes on to say in verse
11, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated
according to the purpose of him, now listen to this, who worketh
all things. What's he talking about? He's talking about all things.
What things? Everything. He worketh all things
after the counsel of his own will. All things. Everything that comes to pass
in time was purposed of God, and therefore it takes place
in the providence of God. And it may take us by surprise. It may be the opening of a great
mystery to us, but it's not a mystery to God. Not a mystery. Listen to these scriptures. And
this is said time after time after time concerning the events
that came to pass in the life of Christ. It says, and it came
to, this came to pass that the scriptures might be fulfilled. When the fullness of the time
was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under
the law, to redeem them that were under the law. When did
he send him? When the fullness of the time
was come. Paul said, when it pleased God
who separated me from my mother's womb. That's when God called
him by his grace and revealed his son in, when it pleased God.
When it pleased God. And then it says this in the
book of Acts. It said, as many as were ordained
to eternal life believed. They believed. And event after event comes to
pass every day and most are totally oblivious to it. Unaware. No mind of it. Something happens
right in your midst. You don't even think about it.
And as there is a divine order in creation and in salvation,
even so there is in the divine providence of God, there's an
order to it. God's accomplishing something. He worketh all things. He knew the events at Jerusalem
and exactly how they'd unfold. Our Lord told his disciples all
about it. Told them he had to go there,
he had to be delivered into the hands of his enemies, and he
was gonna be crucified. He was gonna be buried, and the
third day he was gonna raise from the dead. He told them that
before he ever went there. He knew the man. They'd never
met. He knew the man who had the wild
ass's coat and knew that this man would be willing, when he
sent his disciples to get it, this man was going to be willing
to hand him over to a total stranger. He said, you tell them the master
has need of it. He went up there and they found
the guy exactly where the Lord told him he'd be. He handed them
the wild ass's coat and they walked away. This providence is ordered with
extreme prejudice for the good of his elect and for the glory
of God. In Romans 8, 28, he said, and
we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. And it's easy enough for me to
see this concerning the life of Jesus Christ, to see this
providence. It's easy enough for me to see
it plainly stated in the scriptures. But can I see it in my everyday
life? Can I see it in the events that
unfold every day concerning me? Can I see God's hand in that?
I need to. I need to. It'll yield me comfort
if I do. It'll make a big difference how
that thing affects my life as to what I know about it. I was born in Ashland, Kentucky
back in 1949. Because that area was a depressed
area, about a year after I was born, we moved to northern Ohio.
There was work up there. We stayed there till I was out
of school and then I joined the Navy. Spent some time in there
and got out, married a young lady I went to school with. And trouble rose up in my business
and I got disgusted with it and moved back to Kentucky. And there
I heard the gospel. There I heard the gospel, and
having heard the gospel, and receiving the things that I'm
telling you today, I could look back on my life and see God's
hand in it. I could see his hand in it, and
I wouldn't change a thing. Even those things I'm ashamed
of, I wouldn't change a thing. God perfectly ordered his providence
to bring me down to Kentucky where I could hear the gospel.
He arranged for a man to learn the gospel and preach the gospel
to people that he might preach it to me. All these things ordered
in God's providence. He brought me in his providence
to hear a man sent from God. And I think I can say of my life
and some of you in here this morning, it came to pass. It came to pass. Our Lord says here in our text,
after these things, it came to pass. What came to pass? It says he went throughout every
city and village preaching and showing the glad tidings of the
kingdom of God. It came to pass. God purposed
it way back yonder before he ever created the world. But now
it's being manifested. When a thing is manifested, you
can say it came to pass. And several things here I want
you to think about. First of all, I want you to see
the greatest example of how a godly man should live out his days
in this world. This life is a sojourn. We need to learn that. We're all ignorant of it. We
need to learn it. It's so unnatural to us. This
life is a sojourn. It's like a camping trip. That's
all it is. Our Lord dwelt in this world
about 33 and a half years and he never owned a piece of land.
He had nowhere to call his home. You never hear him talking about
going home, even though he went back to Nazareth. Never hear him talk about going
home. His home wasn't here. The first 30 years of his life,
he spent honoring God and his obedience to the law and to his
parents, to the authorities around him. And he loved his parents
and his brothers and his sisters, and he worshipped God. As God
instructed him out of this book, he worshipped God. And having reached Jewish adulthood,
which is 30 years of age, I don't know if you all knew that or
not, As a Jew, you weren't considered an adult under the law until
you reached the age of 30. You didn't hold offices, you
didn't do this, you didn't do that. They're talking about lowering
the voting age to 16. You ain't nearby ready to vote.
The fact is, I can't think of more than three or four things,
intelligent decisions, that I ever made until I was 30 years of
age. I look back on it, it's just one blunder after the other.
That's all it is. Look like an adult. I could work
like an adult, but I couldn't think like an adult. It takes
time. It takes time to mature. It takes
time. And the last thing a child wants
is to spend time aging. Tough, ain't it? It is. He spent that time doing those
things, the Spirit of the Lord. One day he walked in the synagogue
in Nazareth, where he grew up. And he picked up the book and
he found the place where it was written. He already knew what
he was going to say. He already knew what was going
to be manifested that day, but he wanted them to see it in the
Word of God, just like I want you to see these things in the
Word of God. And he opened that book, he found a place where
it was written, and he said, the Spirit of the Lord is upon
me, for he hath anointed me to preach the gospel. Oh, my soul. My soul. He had the Spirit without
measure, and he was anointed to preach the gospel. Who's he gonna preach to? The
poor. What's going to happen when he
preaches, he's going to heal the broken hearted. He's going to heal the broken
hearted. I tell you, if God breaks your heart, the only way he'll
heal it is to hear his gospel. He's going to preach deliverance
to the captives, recovering the sight to the blind. He's going
to set at liberty them that are bruised, and he's going to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord. What's that mean? He's referring
back to an Old Testament day or year, you might say. It's
called the year of Jubilee. It happened every 50 years. Seven Sabbath of years. And on the 50th year is the year
of Jubilee. What happened there? All debts
forgiven. Everything that you lost through
your ignorance handed back to you on the year of Jubilee. That
acceptable year of the Lord is that year that he calls you and
reveals all these things in Christ. Everything you lost in Adam,
you have and more and more. Sold into slavery, huh? But you're free in Christ. You're
free in Christ. And then the last 3 1/2 years
of our Lord's life, he lived as a preacher, as a preacher. And somebody said, I think it
was Brother Don said this, though his ministry was but 3 1/2 years,
he accomplished more and preached more in that 3 1/2 years than
most who have been in this thing for 50 years. This was never
a man's fate, like this man. He was tireless. We went all
the way through chapter seven, chapter six, and you've seen
one thing right after another. He's ministering to multitudes,
and he leaves here, and he gets in the ship, and he rests a few
hours, and now he's here. Now he's preaching to somebody
else. Then he's healing the sick, and then he goes here, and he's
preaching to them, and he crosses the sea, and now he's preaching
to them. After all of these things, after that day in Simon's house,
after all these confrontations, after all these trials, after
all these things, after these things, it come to pass. Come to pass. What did he want
to preach? Where'd he go? Every city. Every
city. But he didn't stop there. Every
village. What's that mean? That means
he went to Taylor. 600 people. Somebody told me, said, if I
ever come through there, I won't stop and visit with you. I said,
you don't go through here to get anywhere. The only way you
can come to Taylor is come there on purpose. He went to these
villages on purpose. On purpose. This life, brief or long, is
but a sojourn. It says in Hebrews 11, nine,
by faith Abraham sojourned in the land of promise. Now watch
this. As in a strange country. Huh? He was in a land of promise.
Did he not know it? Yeah, he knew. Then why was it
a strange country? Because that wasn't a promise. He dwelt in the land of promise
as in a strange country dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and
Jacob, the heirs with him of the same
promise. And the promised land was but
a picture of the land of promise. You see what I'm saying? And
he knew it. And you and I sojourn in the
land of promise. If you're gonna receive the promise
of God, you're gonna receive it here. If you're an heir, you're
gonna be an heir right here. But you're gonna travel through
this life as in a strange land because this ain't home. That's what Abraham did. You and I sojourn in the land
of promise, and it's here where the promises of God are given
and received. It's here where the covenant
is established with those who shall be heirs of God. It's here
where the heir shall be born and raised, and it's here where
God calls his elect. This life is a sojourn, and Abraham
believed that, and he understood that, and he sunk down no permanent
roots Hebrews 11.10, far. Here's why. He looked for a city. What kind of city? One that had
foundations, whose builder and maker was God. And it wasn't
Iran and Iraq, and it wasn't where the Jews are today. Our Lord rightly discerned the
importance and value of this little space of time given to
us in eternity, and he fully applied himself to it. What is your life, James said. It's just a vapor. It's seen
briefly, and then it disappears. It's gone. Oh, may the Lord turn
our hearts and minds to see why we're here and where it is that
we're at. And my friend, you and I have,
according to the purpose of God, and that purpose, in so much
as we are concerned, is the ministry of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
That's why we're here. Our Lord went throughout every
city and village, now watch this, preaching, and showing the glad
tidings of the kingdom of God. I know beyond any reasonable
doubt that if preaching was some kind of optional work, our Lord
would not have pressed himself to do it so much. I must needs go through Jericho. Our Lord was a gospel preacher. And he was faithful to the gospel
ministry. He was faithful to the Word of
God. He didn't care whose feathers it ruffled. He was faithful to
the souls of his hearers. He was not an entertainer. He
didn't do things for self-glory. He had souls upon his heart and
his mind. And he was faithful to God who
called him. And what did he preach? Well,
it says he preached showing the glad tidings of the kingdom of
God. What glad tidings? Well, first
of all, that there was a kingdom. There was a kingdom of God. Now,
I'm gonna tell you something. You know where you're at, born
of Adam? You know where you're at, you know what you're in?
The kingdom of darkness. That's what it says. That's what
it says. It delivered us from the kingdom
of darkness, the power of darkness. You read about it over in Ephesians
2, 1 and 2, and you'll see there who you served all your days
as a natural man. At the end of Romans 3, Paul
tells us that sin reigned under death. It reigned under death. You can't resist it, you can't
conquer it, and you can't reform it. That's what religion tries
to do. Our Lord said, the strong man
armed keepeth his palace, and he's armed, and he keeps it,
and his goods are at peace. Well, how are they ever gonna
be released? If a stronger than he shall come upon him. I ain't
talking about you, I was talking about him. When God saves a sinner, He's
delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom
of God's dear Son. It's glad tidings to know that
God has a kingdom and that He sent His Son as King upon that
holy hill of Zion. He's King. He's Lord. What does that mean? What He
says goes. That's what that means. He's Lord. His Word is uncontested
in His kingdom. Unconditioned. And his kingdom is secured. Who's
going to take it away from him? If God be for us, who can be
against us? Huh? And thirdly, it's glad tidings
to know that poor sinners, vile sinners, ignorant sinners, sinners in whom sin reigns unto death. can enter into this kingdom. Their right to enter is the merits
of Christ. He said, I am the way. I am the
way, I am the truth, and I am the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. And then fourthly, he went preaching
and showing glad tidings of the kingdom of God. The way into
the kingdom comes to chosen sinners by way of preaching. By way of
preaching. I love how the Holy Spirit words
this. Preaching and showing. Our Lord would preach a while,
and then he'd give them a parable. And he'd show them what he'd
been saying. Huh? Now you read the Word of God
and see if that ain't so. I've shown you that so many times.
Matthew 13, 34, all these things thank Jesus unto the multitudes
in parables. Without a parable spake he not
unto them that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet.
He's talking about David. I will open my mouth in parables. I will utter things which have
been kept secret from the foundation of the world. That's Psalm 78,
two and three. We preach, Paul said, in demonstration
of the Spirit and power, that your faith should not stand in
the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Now, how does that
work? Well, 1 Corinthians 2.13, he
says, the things which the Holy Ghost teacheth, he teaches comparing
spiritual things with spiritual. Our Lord preached to them out
of the Old Testament Scriptures, The same as the apostles did
and he preached salvation through a substitute and then he showed
it to them through the substitutionary lamb. The picture. He taught them about the great
high priest, their priest, Christ. Priest after the order of Melchizedek. He preached to them the priest
and then he pointed to that old high priest back there and showed
them what this priesthood was about. This priest would take
the sacrifice into the presence of God, into the Holy of Holies. And nobody could preach and show
the glad tidings of the kingdom like our Lord. Those disciples
were downhearted. They saw this one that they thought
was the Christ. They were convinced that he was
the Christ. They confessed him to be the Christ. Thou art the
Christ, the Son of the living God. And then he died. And they took that limp body
down off of that cross, beaten beyond recognition, and they
wrapped it in linen and took it down and laid it in a tomb.
Sealed the opening for three days. He dead. He dead. But he rose from the dead. On
the third day, just like he said, and he met them walking on the
road to Emmaus, and they said, we thought, we thought, surely
this was the Christ. What did he tell them? all fools
and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have written
to me." And he went back to Genesis, to the books of Moses, and went
through there preaching and showing to them the glad tidings of the
kingdom of God. And then he disappeared out of
their presence and they looked at one another and they said,
boy, didn't our hearts burn within us as we walked along the way
and he opened to us the Scripture. That's how our Lord preached
to people. And nobody could preach and show
the glad tidings of the kingdom like He could. He preached to them the forgiveness
of all debts and restoration of your inheritance. And then
he gave them the picture of the year of Jubilee. He preached
and showed the glad tidings of the kingdom of God. May the Lord
grant me this morning that I might be able to do that for you.