I've entitled this message, The
Calling of the Twelve. Now, there were 12 apostles,
not 13. We read of the 12 apostles of
the Lamb. We know that Judas lost his apostleship
and Paul took his place. And there were 12 apostles. And the word apostle means sent
one. And these are the men that Christ
would commission to go all over the world and preach the gospel
to every creature. And this was before internet.
This was before radio and TV. This was before all these different
ways that men spread the gospel. This was individually. They were
to go and preach the gospel to every creature. Now, these men
followed the Lord for three full years. They didn't have employment
at this time. They left it all and just followed
the Lord, hearing his words. Now, during that time, They showed
themselves to have very little understanding. The Lord said,
are you also yet without understanding? Have I been so long time with
you and yet has thou not known me? How long will I suffer you? They demonstrated that the entire
30 years. These men demonstrated a severe
lack of humility. While right before the Lord's
death, they were arguing over which of them would be the greatest.
There was competition between them, severe competition. You remember when John and James'
mother came up and said, grant that these my two sons may sit,
the one on my right hand and the one on my left, when you
come into your kingdom. She wanted that for them and
I suspect that they put her up to it. Maybe they would have
been not brazen enough to say that to the Lord and they thought
we'll get my mom to say it. And this argument between them
was going on and on throughout this three year period. I think it's interesting when
James and John's mother did this, the other disciples, the scripture
says were moved to indignation. It ought to be me. That's what
they meant. It ought to be me. How many times
did the Lord say ye of little faith? He even said, where's
your faith? You can't see it at all. Where
is it? When he stood before them in
his resurrection glory, the scripture says they doubted it. While they
were looking at him, they doubted it. When the women told him that
he was risen after he told them on at least three different occasions
that I would be raised from the dead, Luke's account said it
seems to them as idle tales. They didn't believe. They didn't
believe the report. Turn with me to Mark chapter
16. Verse nine, now when Jesus was
early that first day of the week, was risen early the first day
of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom
also he had cast seven devils. And she went and told them that
it had been with him as they mourned and wept. And they, when
they had heard her, that he was alive and had been seen of her,
believed not. I don't believe you. And after
that, he appeared in another form unto two of them as they
walked and went into their into the country, that's the road
to Emmaus. And they went and told it unto the residue, neither
believed they them. Afterwards, he appeared unto
the eleven, as they said it meet, and upbraided them with their
unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them
which had seen him after he was risen. Right after he was risen,
he told them he would be risen. Not one of them believed the
report. Even seeing the resurrected Christ,
the scripture says they worshiped him. Where it says some doubted,
the word some is not in the original, every one of them doubted. Every
single one of them. They all demonstrated such cowardice. We know what Peter did, but the
scripture says they all forsook him and fled. Now I think of
Peter's conduct. After the Lord had appeared,
he said, I go fishing. And I don't believe he was talking
about just going fishing for that day. He was, I think he
was saying, I'm through with this disciple business. I'm going
fishing. I'm going back to the way things
used to be. And several of the disciples went along with him.
So we see that these were men who were like us. Men who were
weak men. men who had character flaws,
men who were unbelieving, men who lacked so much in this thing
of understanding, sinners saved by grace. Now these are the 12
the Lord is going to use to evangelize the world, and they did. I think
this is the 12 of them, there were 12, Judas, Paul took his
place, you know that. And according to church tradition,
whatever that means, I don't know, all of them were martyred,
but John. And John was probably a teenager when he first started
following the Lord. And I love thinking about that.
A teenager following the Lord, one of the disciples, and he's
the one who wrote like 60, 70 years later when he was writing
the book of Revelation and those epistles. Those were the last
books written in the Bible. Now, let's look at verse 13 of
our text. And he goeth up into a mountain. Now we know from Luke's account
that when he went up into that mountain, he prayed all night
long. I've never done that. I doubt
that you have. Maybe you have. But he did. He
prayed all night long. And I don't have any doubt that
it had something to do with the selection of these 12 men. He
prayed all night long. Now this lets us know something
about the importance of prayer. He prayed all night long. And I feel sure he was praying
with regard to the 12. Now I love this language, verse
13. And he goeth up into a mountain
and calleth unto him whom he would. Now, he didn't say, are there
any volunteers? He didn't say any of you fellows
want to be apostles? He didn't say any of you fellows
want to be saved? calleth whom he would. Luke's account says he chose
or elected the twelve. I love what the Lord said to
his disciples in John chapter 15 verse 16, you have not chosen
me but I have chosen you. Well, we choose him, but it's
because he chose us. Well, I saw what the Lord said
here. He said, you didn't choose me. I chose you. I love when the Lord looks at
the disciples after the 5,000 have left and he says, will you
also go away? And Peter said, Lord, to whom
shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe
and are sure that thou art that Christ, the son of the living
God. The Lord didn't say, well, Peter,
good for you. Congratulations. I'm glad. He
said, have not I chosen you 12? Here's the reason you fellows
haven't left with the rest. Have not I chosen you 12? And
one of you is a devil. They were chosen before the foundation
of the world to be saved and to be apostles. And when the
Lord called Paul, Ananias comes up to him and what's the first
thing he says to him? The God of our fathers hath chosen thee. That thou should know his will
and see that just one and hear the voice of his mouth for thou
should be his witness unto all men. of what you've seen and
what you've heard. He called whom he would. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that did he. He called whom he would. Now, what's your response to
that? Well, you're either happy or you don't like it. It's that
simple. You're either glad it's that
way or you don't like it. And let me tell you why you would
be glad and why you wouldn't like it. You'd be glad because
you know you need him to choose you. Because if he didn't choose
you, you wouldn't choose him. You know that. You know that
about yourself. And you need him to choose you. And you say,
Lord, call me. Lord, choose me. If you don't
like it, it's because you think you have some kind of control.
And this is saying you don't have any control, that you're
utterly in his hands. Now, what is your response? Are you mad or are you glad? There's really no in between.
Somebody says, well, I don't care one way or the other. Well,
you're not hearing what's being said then. You are in his hands, your eternal
destiny. You personally, me personally,
your eternal destiny is utterly up to him. How do you feel about
that? He called, he goeth up into a
mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would. You know what
happened? They came to him. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called. He calleth unto him whom he would. We preach Christ crucified, unto
the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness,
but unto them which are called." Now here, once again, here's
my response. Lord, call me. Don't leave me
to myself. Call me. Lazarus, come forth. That's the effectual call. No,
I don't think I'm going to. That didn't happen, did it? Matthew, follow me. Matthew couldn't have said no.
Zacchaeus, make haste, come down. Today I must abide at thy house. Zacchaeus made haste. He came
down and he received him joyfully. He calleth unto him whom he would
and they came him, you see all that the Father giveth me shall
come to me. That's the words of our Lord.
And him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. Now look at verse 14. Verse 13
says, he goeth up into a mountain and calleth unto him whom he
would. And I love the language of that. I love the language
of that. He calleth whom he would. And they came unto him, verse
14, and he ordained 12. These were to be the 12 apostles,
the apostles who were taught directly by the Lord himself. They didn't have a man teaching
them, a mere man, a fallen man. They had the Lord Jesus Christ
himself teaching them the gospel. And when Judas loses his office. Paul takes his place. What does
the scripture say regarding Paul? Now, first of all, Paul heard
the gospel from a man. The Lord sent Ananias to him,
and I love that. You know, the only time we read
of Ananias is right here when the Lord sent him to Paul. Now,
if I was going to send somebody to Paul, I would send somebody
like Peter or John or somebody like that. I mean, Paul's a big
fish. And I love the way the Lord sends
him a nobody from nowhere that you never hear of again. He heard
the gospel through a man, but the Lord brought him into the
third heavens and taught him the gospel directly. So much
so that he said, the gospel, which I've received, it's not
after man. For I neither received it a man, neither was taught
it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." Now, there are
only 12 apostles. Never says the 13 apostles of
the Lamb. There are only 12. And anyone that claims to be
an apostle is a liar. There are only 12 apostles. They were the ones who could
lay their hands on people, transfer the gifts, When they died, that
was no longer an operation. There's a lot of people claiming
the continuation of the gifts. No, no, it's false. It's foolish. It was the 12 apostles
and they're the 12 apostles of the Lamb. And notice it says
in verse 14, he ordained. twelve. He ordained twelve. Remember these twelve are the
ones whose names are going to be written on the twelve foundations
of the New Jerusalem, representing the doctrine of the apostles,
the doctrine of revelation. All twelve of these fellows,
their names are going to be written. I don't understand how all that works,
but scripture says it. Their names are going to be written
on the twelve foundations of the New Jerusalem. But this word, ordained, and I think this will
help me, help me, I think it'll help you. He ordained twelve.
Do you know that's the same word that's translated generally made?
For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him by whom also he
made the worlds. He made twelve. He made 12. The Lord ordained him. Sometimes the word is translated
ordained. It's translated bring forth and
do and cause and perform and purposed. But once again, this
shows us how much everything regarding salvation is what he
does. He made 12. He purposed the 12. He ordained the 12. Now let me
remind you of something. Salvation is not what you do
for the Lord. It is what he does for you. Salvation is of the Lord in every
aspect. Verse 14, and he ordained 12,
here's the next line, that they should be with him. Now here's their training. He ordained 12 and sent them
off to seminary. No, no. He ordained 12 that they
should be with him. Remember that scripture in Acts
chapter four, verse 13, when it says, when they saw the boldness
of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and
ignorant men, they took knowledge of them that they had been with
Jesus. Now there's two things every
believer desires above everything else. Number one is to be found
in him. Is that your greatest desire?
Is that your greatest desire to be found in Christ so that
all God sees is Jesus Christ? To be found in him. But the second
desire And wherever you have one, you'll have the other, is
to be with Him. To be with Him. To be in Him is salvation. To
be with Him is seeing His beauty, hearing His voice, having fellowship
and communion with Him. Now, what must it have been like
to have been around Him every day for three years? Following Him? hearing his preaching,
gaining his private instruction, seeing his perfect life. This
is a man that never sinned. I wonder, can you believe this? Did you hear what he said? I
mean, I can hear him talking among themselves, just dumbfounded
by the greatness and the glory of this man that they were permitted
to be with every single day. They saw his miracles, they knew
he was the son of God. Now, let's keep on reading, verse
14. And he ordained 12 that they
should be with him for this purpose, and that he might send them forth
to preach. Now, there is such a thing as
someone sent forth by Christ, by God, to preach. There was
a man sent from God, whose name was John. How shall they hear
without a preacher? How shall they preach except
they be sent? It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. God has manifested his
word, Titus 1-3, through preaching, which is committed to my trust.
Now, what is preaching? I believe Brother Henry Mahan
gave my favorite definition of preaching. Preaching is one beggar
telling another beggar where he got bread. It's a good definition
of it. And then Scott Richardson gave
this definition of preaching. It's a nobody telling everybody
about somebody who can save anybody. That's a good definition of preaching,
isn't it? Preaching is God sending a man
with his message, the message of Christ crucified. And there is no preaching without
God, the Holy Spirit. A man can't do anything. He can
tell God's truth, but only God, the Holy Spirit can apply it.
You know, one of the things I hate about these newer versions of
the scripture, they're saying, well, we're trying to make it
understandable. I'm not trying to make the gospel understandable.
I'm trying to preach what God says, and we trust the Holy Spirit
to make it understandable. We're depending on Him to do
it. I can't make you believe. You
can't make me believe, but God, the Holy Spirit can. It's the
declaration of the message with the Holy Spirit sent down from
heaven. and it's given to beget life,
and it's given to edify those who have life. I like this thing
of the begetting of life. You know, you can only beget.
You know, a man can't beget a dog, can he? He begets another man.
When God the Holy Spirit begets something, gives life to something,
he begets something like him. That's talking about the new
nature, being born of the Spirit. Now the Lord said in Mark chapter
16 verse 15, go and preach the gospel to every creature. Now, me and you, our main purpose
in this life is to preach the gospel to every creature. That's our purpose in life. Now
I want everybody to do well on their jobs, You know, one of the difficult things about being
a preacher is there's no way to measure success. Because you don't know. The only
measure of success is being faithful. Not how many come to hear you
preach, not how few, but faithfulness to what God says. You can't look
at something that's measurable and say, oh, I must be doing
well because I've got these many people coming. No, no. Any other job, you can kinda
see whether you're doing well or doing bad, but all that being
said, we're thankful for our jobs, but here's the purpose
of the church. The church, not just the preacher, the church.
To go and preach the gospel to every creature. May the Lord
fill us up with that desire. Paul said, Christ sent me not
to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Now we want everybody
to hear the message. We know we can't save anybody,
but we know he can and does. So we preach the message of Christ
crucified. I love what Paul said to the
church at Thessalonica, for from you sounded out the word of the
Lord. Oh, don't you want that to be
said at this place? From you sounded out the word of the Lord. Now let's go on to read verse
15. Now he ordained 12 that they should be with him and that he
might send them forth to preach verse 15, and to have power to
heal sicknesses and to cast out devils. Now that word power is
authority. I don't have power in that sense. Only the Lord does. But this
word is the word that is means authority. Now, what is our authority
when we preach the gospel? We're ambassadors of Christ.
We're speaking His word, not our own. Somebody said, well, I don't
believe that. Well, I'm sorry to feel that way, but it doesn't
change the fact. We're preaching the word. That is the authority,
preaching the word of God. And we have the scriptures. You
can see whether or not a man is speaking with authority. I love what Paul said to Timothy.
Timothy, preach the word. There's the authority. Preach
the word. You know, I love, does the word
declare inspiration of God and inerrancy? Yes, it does. Preach
it. Does the word declare that God
is God ruling and reigning and controlling everything? Preach
it. Don't apologize for it. Don't
be afraid to preach it. Does the Word declare that men
are dead in sins? Preach it. Does the Word declare
that God elected a people before time began? Preach it. Does the
Word declare that Christ died for the elect, his sheep, and
accomplished their salvation? Preach it. Does the Word declare
that the grace of God the Holy Spirit is invincible and irresistible
in giving life? Preach it. Does the Word declare
that God's people persevere all the way to the end? Does. Preach
it. The authority is this is God's
Word. There is authority in preaching. You know what? I know when I
hear it and I know when I don't. There is authority in preaching. I love that scripture regarding
the Lord Jesus Christ where it says, He spake as one having
authority. I love the slam on the scribes.
Not as the scribes. Not as the scribes. Turn with
me for a second to 1 Thessalonians 2. Now here's what it's like
when you hear the gospel preached with authority. 1 Thessalonians
2, verse 13. For this cause also thank we God
without ceasing, because when you receive the word of God,
which you heard of us, you received it not as the word of men, not
as a denominational distinctive, or this is what Paul believes,
but as it is in truth, the word of God. which effectually worketh
also in you. And back to our text, in preaching
with authority, and that's the only kind of true preaching there
is. If it's not with authority, it's not preaching. I don't know
what you'd call it, but it's not preaching. Verse 15, he sent them forth
to preach, and verse 15, and to have power or authority, to
heal sicknesses and to cast out devils. Now, there are two things
that are taking place in true preaching, healing and casting
out. Where you have one, you have
the other. Where one is absent, both are absent. Healing and
casting out. Now, what is more healing to
your soul than to be enabled by the Holy Spirit to hear the
gospel and the power of the Spirit? What's more healing than that? I can say from my own experience,
nothing. To hear that Christ is all, that scripture, Colossians
3.11, And that's a reminder to us that if I have Christ, I have
all that God requires. I don't have the bare minimum.
I've got the maximum and everything else. I've got all. Colossians 2, 9 and 10, in him
dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you are complete. You, right now, present tense,
lack nothing. all that God requires of you,
you have, you're not lacking a thing right now, present tense. Is that healing? I love Hebrews
1, 3, when he by himself purged our sins. I love that by himself
because that's a reminder to me that I don't have anything
to do with this thing of the purging of my sins. He did it by himself
with no help, no contribution, For me, no contribution from
anybody. He did it by himself. And you know, that's healing
to me to be reminded of that. I love Ephesians 1.6. He hath
made us accepted. He hath made us accepted in the
beloved. 1 Corinthians 1.30, he's made
unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption.
You know what that means? That means right now God can have
fellowship with me as a wise man. He's made unto us wisdom. He's made unto us righteousness.
God can embrace me as a righteous man. He's made unto me sanctification. God's holiness can embrace my
holiness because my holiness is Christ Jesus the Lord. He's
made unto us redemption, full deliverance. Listen to this,
Hebrews 10, 14. By one offering, he hath perfected. Right now. By one offering. What he did
in the past. What he did before time began.
By one offering, he hath perfected forever. Dead, bitter, sanctified. Isaiah 41 and 2 says, Comfort
ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably
to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her iniquity is pardoned.
That her warfare is accomplished. She's received of the Lord's
hand double for all her sins. Romans 8, 28, and we know there's
healing in this. And we know that all things,
I don't care what it is, everything that goes under the umbrella
of all things, all things work together for good. It may not
have seemed at the time, But it did. I think of, well, Joseph
said, you meant it for evil, but I meant it for good. That
said of everything. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are called
according to his purpose, for whom he did foreknow. Then he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
he did predestinate, then he also called, whom he called,
then he also justified. Whom he justified, then he also
glorified. What shall we say to these things?
If God be for us, who can be against us? He hath not beheld
iniquity in Jacob, nor perverseness in Israel. Behold, I've loved
you with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. I love to think of the publican
in the temple beating on his breast, feeling every bit of
it. God, be merciful, be propitious to me, the sinner. And the Lord
said, I say to you. No more powerful words than those,
I say to you. That man went down to his house
justified. without sin, without guilt. And that's the healing of the
gospel. That's healing. He healed them that had need
of healing. But not only did he say they
had power to heal sicknesses, but to cast out demons. To cast out, now, is this talking
about literal demon possession? Well, I'm sure it's certainly
included. And somebody says, what do you know about demons?
Very little. Don't want to know much. And in fact, don't want
to know. I love what Michael the archangel
said, the Lord rebuke you. The Lord rebuke you. You know,
when I've seen preachers say, you know, we're going to rebuke
the devil and so on, it makes my skin crawl. The Lord rebuke
thee. I guess what you would call a
negative aspect of true preaching. There's a positive aspect, the
healing, but there's a negative aspect to preaching. And if that's
not there, you're not giving the positive either. Somebody
says, I only want to hear that which is positive. Well, it's
all positive if God says it. And in a sense, I understand
that. But still, there's that. Well, let me show you. Turn with
me to 2 Corinthians chapter 10. Verse three, for though we walk in the flesh,
and we do, don't we? We don't war after the flesh.
For the weapons of our warfare are nothing but positive thinking,
no? Are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down
of strongholds. Casting down imaginations. and every high thing that exalts
itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity
every thought to the obedience of Christ. Every thought is to be brought
into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Now, any thought you
have that is contrary to your only salvation being the obedience
of Christ is to be cast down. It's anti-Christ. It's opposed
to the gospel. Now, I think it's interesting
that about everybody that if you look at the other translations,
they'll say every thought is to be brought into obedience
to Christ. Well, don't you want every thought
to be brought into obedience to Christ? Sure you do. is every
thought brought into obedience to Christ. Every unbelieving
sinful light you have is contrary to obedience to Christ. Now I'm
not saying, well, obedience to Christ is not important. Sure
it is. It's very important. It's infinitely important. But
that's not what the text says. It doesn't say every thought
is to be brought into captivity to obedience to Christ. It says
every thought is to be brought into captivity to the obedience
of Christ. Now here is an example of both
the healing positive part of preaching and the casting down
negative part of preaching. Listen up, you can hear it in
these verses. For by grace are you saved through faith. And that, how positive is that?
And that's not of yourselves. Now we're getting to the casting
down part. It's the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. There's the casting down. But
now it goes back to the positive. We're His workmanship. Created
in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. Now let's close with Matthew
chapter 9. Would you turn with me there? Matthew chapter 9. This is what happened in Matthew's
account right before he called the 12. Verse 36, but when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion
on them because they fainted. and were
scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. Now there's the
heart of the Lord. He was moved with compassion. Then saith he unto his disciples,
the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray
ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth
laborers into his harvest. And we had called unto him, His
12 disciples, he gave them power. And this is during the calling
of the 12. But what did he say? First, he
looked at the multitudes and was moved with compassion. I pray the Lord will make me
a new that way. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for the
excellency and the glory of thy son. Lord, we ask that. He would call
us. That he would make us. That we
might be with him. And Lord, give us this authority,
this power. To preach the healing of his
precious blood. and casting out anything that's
contrary to Him. Lord, we're so spiritually stupid. Lord, we're so dependent upon
Thee. Give us the wisdom to look to
Thy Son only, to rest only in Him and to preach only Him. And we ask that we might see,
according to Your will, many sinners saved by your grace. Enable us to be involved in this
glorious commission to go out into all the world and to preach
the gospel to every creature. Lord, how we thank you that you're
the one who does the saving. I bless this message for Christ's
sake. In his name we pray.