Turn with me this morning to
the 10th chapter of the book of Luke, Luke chapter 10. In chapter 10, verse 1, it says, After these things, what things is he talking about?
Well, the things that he had to say in regard to his rebuke
or reproof of James and John He said here in verse 54, and
when his disciples, James and John, saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that
we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them,
even as Elias did? And he turned and rebuked them
and said, ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of Man is not come
to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another
village. And it came to pass," this is
part of after these things, And it came to pass, as they went
in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow
thee whithersoever thou goest." That's a big statement, isn't
it? This is what I'm going to do. I've counted the cost. Wherever
you go, I'm going with you. I'm going to identify myself
with you." Jesus said, Hold on. Jesus said unto him, Foxes have
holes, and birds of the air have nests. But the
Son of Man hath not where to lay his head. And he said unto another, Follow
me. But he said, Lord, suffer me
first to go and bury my father. It seems like a decent request. And Jesus said unto him, Let
the dead bury the dead. but go thou and preach the kingdom
of God." And another said, Lord, I will
follow thee, but let me first go bid them farewell, which are
at home at my house. And Jesus said unto him, No man
having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for
the kingdom of God. And I might add, he said in another
place, he that endureth to the end shall be saved. He lays great stress and importance
upon being followers of him, upon being disciples, sons of
God, by faith in Christ Jesus, and followers of God, not part-time,
but all the time. Full-time vocation. After these things, the Lord
appointed other seventy also, appointed
seventy men, and sent them two by two before his face into every
city and place which he himself would come. Truly, said he to them, the harvest
truly is great. Great harvest, but the labors
are few. haven't got many to work in these
fields. He said, Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that
he would send forth labors into his harvest. Pray to the Lord
that he might send them, he might raise them up to go into his
field, into his harvest. Go your ways, Behold, I send
you forth as lambs among wolves. Carry neither purse, nor script,
nor shoes, and salute no man by the way." Important and desperate
mission that I'm sending you on. Don't carry. Don't even stop to casually inquire
as to how this man feels or that man feels. Just salute no man,
by the way. Just go on. One objective in
mind. And into whatsoever house ye
enter, first say, Peace be to this house. And if the Son of
Peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it. it shall turn to
you again. And in the same house remain,
that is, if the Son of Peace be there.
And in the same house remain, eag'n drinking such things as
they give. The laborer is worthy of his
hire." Don't go from house to house. And into whatsoever city
ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before
you. And heal the sick that are therein,
and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. And into whatsoever city ye enter,
and they receive you not, your way out into the streets of the
same, and say, Even the dust of your city, which cleaveth
on us, we do wipe off against you. Notwithstanding, be sure
of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. But
I say unto you that it shall be more tolerable in that day
for Sodom than for that city? Woe unto thee, Jorazen! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works had been
done in Tyree and Sodom, which have been done in you, they had
a great while ago repented, sitting in sackcloth and But it shall
be more tolerable for Tyree and Sidon at the judgment than for
you. And thou, Capernaum, which art
exalted to heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell. He that heareth you, heareth
me." He's talking to these seven that he's appointed. and instructed
them as to how they are to conduct themselves and what they are
to say. And he that heareth you, heareth
me. And he that despises you, despises
me. And he that despises me, despises
him that sent. That's a terrible indictment
against a man, isn't it? He that despises me despises
him that sent me. The world is full of men and
women and boys and girls at any given time that have no good
or kind thought concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. in their hearts,
they despise him. And in despising him, they despise
him who sent him. Terrible indictment. Oh, to be
a friend of the friend of sinners, to be his friend, and not despise him, but love
him. And the seventy that he sent
out now. And the seventy. Seventy men. It wasn't a third of some men and a third
of some women. It was seventy men that he sent
out. And they returned unto the Lord
again with joy. They came happy. I mean, they
felt real good. They felt like they were successful in their fulfilling the mission
that our Lord sent them out to do. The Seventy returned again with
joy, and this is what they had to say. They said, Lord, even the devils are subject unto
us through thy name. And our Lord said unto them,
and our Lord somehow blended in with what they said. He had some understanding of
what they had experienced because immediately he replied when they
said the devils are subject unto us through thy name. He said
unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning falleth from heaven. I want you to think about this
seventeenth verse for a few minutes here this morning. The Seventy
returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject
unto us through thy name. Now, I want you to see here that
our Lord, our Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, is correcting a
very natural joy and directing its gladness into a more elevated
channel. The text says, the Seventy returned again with
joy. saying, Lord, even the devils
are subject unto thy name. Verse 19, Behold, I give you
power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power
of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Verse 20, Notwithstanding, In
this, rejoice not. The seventy returned again with
joy, saying, Even the devils are subject unto us through thy
name. I give you power over serpents,
scorpions, power over the enemy, and nothing shall by any means
hurt you. Notwithstanding, in this, rejoice
not. notwithstanding all that's transpired
and taken place and all that you've seen, notwithstanding
in this, rejoice not. Rejoice not in the fact that
the devils were subject unto you. Rejoice not in this fact
that I have given you power over scorpions and serpents and power
over the enemy, and nothing by any means shall hurt you, notwithstanding
in this rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you,
but rather," listen, but rather rejoice, because your names are written
in heaven. Now, he did not put blame or
rebuke or reprove these seventy for rejoicing that devils were
subject unto them. He didn't rebuke them because
the devils were subject unto him, because he himself rejoiced
in that he beheld Satan as lightning falling from heaven, so he didn't
rebuke him for this. I don't want you to misunderstand
me and think that I'm saying that he rebuked him or refuved
him, which he didn't. He did not mean to be actually
forbidding what he only puts in a secondary place. This he did not mean to censor
their joy in their success, but only to make it subordinate to
another rejoicing. It was not that they were not
to rejoice, that devils were subject unto their preaching,
But he said, I want to elevate you to a higher rejoicing that
you might rejoice because your names are written in heaven. He's talking about what Paul
is talking about there in the first chapter of the book of
Ephesians. when Paul said that we were chosen
in Christ from the foundation of the world. Now, the reason
why he wants them not to put so much emphasis upon devils
being in subjection to them, the reason why is, to prevent
them. Well, you know and I know that
the tendency of human nature is to exalt itself. You know, in our day, men who are in this healing business,
where the churches, and denominations are taken up in healing at the
expense of the truth. They tend to take great pride
in themselves. They tend to be elevated to a
high and lofty state. They tend to be important More
important than anything else. And their whole ministry is grounded
and founded upon devils being subject to them. And they make
a great show and a great display out of, I command the devil to
come out of you. I command the cancer to leave
you. I command it. They do that constantly. Well, the reason our Lord, I
believe the reason that He said notwithstanding in this, rejoice
not, that is, I know that you have an elevated feeling about
this, and that's only natural, but I'm telling you, don't rejoice
in that. Rather rejoice in this. Because
if you rejoice in that, watch out. Watch out, you'll be lifted
up in pride, and the first thing you know, you'll be ascribing
what you did to yourselves rather than unto me. See? You'll say with your lips,
You'll put great emphasis upon this. Listen where it says here,
the devils are subject unto us. You'll get that unto us, and
it'll be too big, and it'll grow. And the first thing you know,
you'll be overcome by this to us. And when you come to the
last part of it, when you say unto us, through thy name." You'll
start whispering real softly through thy name. In your heart
you'll be ascribing to yourself what took place. Notwithstanding
this, he said, but rather rejoice. because your name is written
in him." Well, this type of rejoicing
is frowned upon by the Lord Jesus Christ only in comparison to
the other type of rejoicing, that is, rejoicing because your
names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, or your names are
written in heaven, or according as He hath chosen you in Christ
before or from the foundation of the world. We may rejoice
when He blesses our work and blesses our labor, blesses our
witness and blesses our testimony, but still it must be a far less
a prominent joy than that which springs out of our personal interest
in the salvation of God Almighty. Now, it's a joy, I think, when
evil spirits are conquered. Certainly that's a joy. That's
a joy of preaching the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and
seeing the evidence of its power displayed, and men are caused
to bow before Him and to receive the message of the gospel of
grace. But the joy, the joy of talent,
the joy of eloquence, the joy of power, the joy of gifts, and
the joy of success needs moderating to a great extent, because if
it's not moderated, it's apt to degenerate into pride, and
you'll be swelled up, and you'll take the glory to yourself and
not ascribe it to Him. Now, these seven, they were not proud. For they said,
Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. They did not attribute success
to themselves, but ascribed it to the matchless, all-powerful
name which they used, through thy name. There is that name which is above
every name, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
name which they used. Well, so far, so good. All is well so far. But I reminded
you, and let me do so again, that the tendency of human nature
is always towards self. We are self-centered by nature because of the fall. And if you're not careful, not
careful, not living in light of the gospel, you're going to
emphasize the to us. instead of emphasizing through
his name. He must have all the glory and
all the honor. God will not share his glory
with another. He wants it all, and he'll have
it all or none at all. Through thy name, huh? First thing you know when we—well,
you know it so now. It's so now. It's so among us
at times. When we talk about through His
name and praying in His name and for His name and for His
sake, sometimes it's a matter of form rather than something
that's in the heart. It's a matter of form. How many
times do people pray when they say, I come in Your name, and
it's only a matter of form? They do not. They do not understand,
nor do they believe that it's in the virtue of that name, of
who He is and what He accomplished. It's a matter of form. While
in their hearts they still ascribe this success that they've had
to themselves. Got to be careful. whatever success
we have. It's really not because of our
gifts. If I've had any success in preaching,
it has not been because of my preaching or my talent or my
eloquence. It's been because of Him. the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever work is accomplished,
it's because of Him. It's not because of gifts and
talents. Gifts and talents is fine. Gifts and talents don't save
anybody. Because of gifts and talents,
sometimes we are apt to give too much credit to ourselves
and not to credit to Him to whom it belongs. You see, evidences, evidences are not necessarily grace in
our hearts. Just because there's some evidence
out there, some success, that does not necessarily absolutely
mean that we possess grace. We might possess gifts, but have
no grace. Talents are possessed by wicked
and evil men. Grace without talent will save,
but talent without grace will only add to a man's condemnation. Paul in the book of I Corinthians
had this to say. Let me read it to you. I Corinthians
chapter 13, I believe it is. Paul said in chapter 13, verse
1, "...though I speak with the tongues of men." You see what
I'm saying? I said talents are possessed
many times by wicked and sinful men. I said grace without talent
will save, but talent without grace will only increase our
condemnation. Paul says, "...though I speak
with the tongues of men." and of angels. And I have not charity
or I have not grace. I have not love. I become as
sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the
gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,
and though I have all faith that I could remove mountains and
have not grace or charity or love, he said, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods
to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned,
and I have not grace, love, or charity, it profiteth me nothing,
absolutely nothing. Charity suffereth long and is
kind. Charity envieth not. Charity
boneth not itself. It's not puffed up. Does not
behave itself unseemingly. Seeketh not her own. Is not easily
provoked. Thinketh no evil. Rejoices not
in iniquity, but rejoices in truth." Oh, you see what he's
saying here? What he's saying here is the
highest conceivable gift that a man might have for church,
work, or service, the greatest influence that a man might have,
along with his gifts and his talents and his successes. All
these are worthless, Paul says, apart from the grace that's in
the Lord Jesus Christ, grace in the heart. The Bible says
that Judas, worked miracles, Judah preached the gospel, Judas
was a member of the church, Judas was a trusted officer in the
church, he was the treasurer, and the Bible says that Judas
went to his own place, which was where all the sons of perdition
would go. Our Lord said, many, we'll say,
not few, but many. will say unto me in that day,
Lord, Lord, we have prophesied in thy name, we have cast out
devils, but he'll say unto them, depart from me for I never knew
you. I never knew you in time or I
never knew you in eternity. Wicked and evil man has talents
and gifts and successes, but those evidences are not necessarily
indicative of grace being in a man's heart. And so we need
to avoid, like a flag, anything that would tend to promote ourselves,
as if we accomplished We haven't accomplished nothing and we'll
never accomplish nothing. Only God can accomplish anything. Only the Lord Jesus Christ can
accomplish atonement. It's only Christ, our substitute,
standing in our stead and place and room, bearing our sins, making
us accept it in himself. It's only the discriminating,
distinguishing, sovereignty of God Almighty with His own hand
that writes our names down in the book of life. We cannot do anything. Oh, but he says here in this
book of Luke, the tenth chapter, he says this,
Notwithstanding, notwithstanding rejoicing this,
what is it we're to rejoice in? Rejoice in this blessed truth. Rejoice that your names are written
in the Lamb's Book of Life. Rejoice that your names are written
down in heaven. Oh, all the believers in the
Lord Jesus Christ can unite here, having their names written down
in the Lamb's Book of Life, written down in heaven. Everyone, I don't
care if he's a Baptist or who he is, everyone who really, truly,
genuinely, believes in God's Christ as God's
Saviour, even though that individual can
do very little for Him, if he actually really believes in the
Saviour of man, the Lord Jesus Christ, if he is really their
substitute, If He's their obedience, if He's their righteousness,
if their hope is in Him and Him alone, they can rejoice in that their name is written
down in heaven. Can't do much for Him, but you
can rejoice that your name Here's the child of God, bedridden by
some incurable disease, bedridden by cancer, ate up. That poor
soul can rejoice, can't do anything for God in a physical sense,
but they can unite with all other believers and rejoice. Rather, he said, rejoice that
your name is written in heaven. You can do that. Listen, here's
a child of God whose tongue has been silenced with some sort
of infirmity. What can he do? He can rejoice
at his name. is written down in heaven by
the discriminating, sovereign, distinguished grace of Almighty
God. He can rejoice. This joy our
Lord commands and this joy our Lord recommends. It is one joy. which springs from faith. It's a joy that comes from faith. You see that? It is one that
springs from faith. The other rejoicing by the seventh
day comes from what they seen. What did they see? They saw that
the devils and the demons were subject to their power, and so
they rejoiced in what they saw. But true rejoicing comes from
faith, not what you see, but what you believe. Remember I preached to you here
the other night about trusting in the unseen, trusting in an
unseen Christ. You have never seen Him. You
have never seen Him. This business of these visions
at the bottom of your bed and these visions in the open field
and the crosses in the sky and all that kind of things that
you see in the graveyard, there ain't nothing to it. Nothing
to it. Delusions of grandeur. Nothing
to it. Blessed are they that have not
seen, but yet believe. That's what he's talking about.
Trust in an unseen Christ. This rejoicing here springs from
faith. Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Their joy that they'd been talking
about, comes from sight. A man can see his talents just
because a man can sing like a bird, because he can stand before the
people and sing, how great is our God, and can move you is
not necessarily evidence that there's any grace in his heart.
He can see his talent. He can see his success, but rest
assured now, listen to me, believe this, this is the truth, so help
me God, rest assured that every joy which comes to a believer
through the sight of his eye is a doubtful joy. Very doubtful. Don't put too much thought in
it. If it's something that you can
see with your own eyes, put some doubt in it. I'm talking about
that which you can't see. springs and count off what we haven't
seen before we believe. What we know is true. We know
God's true. We know that God won't lie and
can't lie. We know that. The angels never
read that to us any place. They never came down and got
us apart from the crowd and whispered in our ears that God's immutable,
He cannot lie. They never told us that He's
a faithful God. They never told us about justification
and sanctification. The Spirit of God told us through
His Word, and faith arises. truth, believing in the unseen. Oh, these things that come by
sight, there seems to be a lot of honey
in these miraculous things that we see by sight, these successes
that men have. Well, I'm not going to church
there this morning because this preacher's not. My preacher that
I like, he's not going to be there. He's not going to be there,
so I'm not going to go. I'm going to go where I'm going
to wait until our preacher's there. What he says makes a lot
to do about the preacher. He's just a man. He's got no
power except what God gives him, if He gives him any. He's got
no abilities to do anything. He can't make a blind man see. He can't cause a deaf man to
hear. He can't raise the dead. If a deaf man hears, if a blind
man sees, and a dead man rises from his dead state, it's because
God did it, not because of the preacher. A lot of honey in those
things. successes and gifts and talents. And I'll tell you this, if you
eat too much of it, it'll make you sick. Beware of it! Notwithstanding, notwithstanding
over here, devils are subject unto your preaching out there,
these 70 men. Now, I've given you power over
snakes and scorpions and serpents and all that. Notwithstanding
all that, but rather, rejoice! God wrote your name down in the
Lamb's Book of Life before the world ever was. That's something
you can rejoice in. The joy caused by our names written
in heaven comes from faith. For I have not seen, neither
hath e'er heard, neither hath an angel read it
to us, but only because we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and
are assured that it is so. The ground, the ground of assurance
is the Word of God. Not sight, not what you see,
not success, not talent, it's the Word of God. It's what God
says. He that believeth on me hath
eternal life. Listen, all the joys of faith,
are as safe as the water that was smitten from the rock. Not any poison or corruptness
at all in that pure water that comes from that stream. All the joys that come from faith
are pure, are sure, and are certain. Joy comes in knowing our election. Let me read this to you. I'm
going to quit. Stay with me just a second. Over here in the book
of 1 Thessalonians, the first chapter, I believe. Chapter 1. Beloved, your election of God. Your names are written in heaven. That's the election of God. Listen
to this. You and I ought to be thankful
for the grace of God. We ought to rejoice in the grace
of God. Listen to me now. Grace of God. The grace that
was given us in Christ Jesus. before the world. Rejoice, not
that the devils are subject to you. Rejoice in this grace. Sovereign, discriminating, distinguishing
grace given you in Christ Jesus before the world. Rejoice in
that. Notwithstanding these other things, but rejoice. Rejoice
in this. Rejoice in your election, election
of grace. Look what it says, knowing, brethren,
beloved, your election of God. God's election. You didn't vote. You weren't even eligible to
vote. God done the voting. Your election
of God, for our gospel, came not unto you in word only." It
didn't just come like it generally comes from me, just in word,
but it was accompanied with power, power, but also in power, and
in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. that your names are written in
heaven. Joy comes from knowing your election. Make your calling and election
sure. Are you trusting in God's Christ
as He hath revealed Himself in His Word? Is that the Christ
that your soul is anchored to God's Christ, the Lamb of God,
He who knew no sin, but was made sin, that we might become the
righteousness of God in Him. He who died our death, suffered
our penalty, established righteousness. Through His obedience is it Him
Have you been called to trust Him whom God has revealed in
His Word? Make your calling and election
sure. You can't rejoice if you don't know that your name
is written in heaven. You can rejoice if you think
that when you trusted in the Lord Jesus, it was then that
God said, there's a new name in the globe, and we'll put it down then. Oh,
no. You trusted in God because of
your election. because your name was written
down in heaven. It wasn't according to your free
will. You had no free will. Your will only acted in accordance
with your nature. God made you willing in the day
of His power. This joy comes in knowing our
election. knowing that our names are written
in heaven from before the foundation of the world. I'll tell you this
morning, this is an inconceivable blessing to be God's choice. It is the choicest of delights
to be God's choice. In other words, he said, rather
than rejoice in this, Think about this, that you're the choice of God. God, you were God's choice, not
because there was anything about you or in you that constrained
Him to look on you with favor, but He's seen you in your blood. He's seen you cast into the desert,
unswathed. and unsalted. He cried unto you, Live and you
live. Rejoice in that, that God made
a choice and you was the object of His choice and His affections
were set upon you. What does that mean to be Have
your name written in heaven? It means that we are those who
are believers, those who have been caused to see their nothingness
before God, that they have no hope in themselves, they can't
save themselves, and they don't know anybody else that can save
them apart from God's Christ. And they trust in Him. To have
your name written in heaven, it means that we are precious
in His sight. We are seen by Him in the list
of His crowned jubilees. I remember this passage of Scripture
here that I call your attention to. In the book of Malachi, I think. In the book of Malachi. Last chapter, I believe. Listen
to what it says. It says, as I already read this
to you, though. It says, And they that feared
the Lord spoke often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard
it. And a book of remembrance was written before him for them
that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name." And listen
to what this says, "'And they shall be mine, they shall be
mine,' saith the Lord the host, in that day when I make up my
jewels.'" They're precious to me. Why? Because they're special
treasures of mine. I'll spare them as a man. beareth his own son." That's
what it means. It means that you claim the right
of citizenship in the New Jerusalem. It means that you are a member
of the Church of the Firstborn. It means that your name is written
down in heaven. Paul mentions some of his dear
companions and fellow servants He said about them, he said,
their names are written in heaven. As much as to say they have neither
fame, fortune, nor honor down here, but they have a record
up there where honor and fame and fortune mean something. Precious are they in the sight
of the Lord. We are our name written down in heaven.
It means that we're in his family, adopted into his family. It means that we're bone of his
bone, flesh of his flesh, and blood of his blood. It means
that we are friends of Jesus. We're his friends. It means that
we belong to this sacred brotherhood of friends. That's what it means. And it means, oh, a whole lot
of other things. It means that we're justified
before God. We're seen by God as if we had
never seen Him. We're so in Him, the Lord Jesus
Christ, that He loves us with the same love. that he loves
you. He said, notwithstanding, rather
rejoice ye in that your names are written in heaven. Not in your time. Oh, you say,
well, I've got a whole lot of problems in this life. So do
I. I've got so many I couldn't number.
The worst thing Let me tell you something. The worst thing that
can happen to a man on this earth, apart from being designated for
hell, is this, is to watch his own flesh and blood destroy themselves. That's the worst thing that can happen. And I pray that God
will never let you see that. That's the worst thing that can
happen. Huh? Oh, we think things happen to
us. I've got no money. Oh, the baby's
sick, and this and that. That's nothing in light of this. He said, rather than all that,
he said, Rejoice! My God, rejoice! That's your
name. It could have been a name of
a president. It could have been a name of
a great statesman. It could have been a name of
a great politician. It could have been a name of
a great inventor, or a great artist, or a great singer, or
a great influential man, or a great man of learning. But it was not
their name. It was your name. Your unworthy
name was written by the finger of God in the Lamb's book of
life. He set His affections upon you,
and He wrote your name down. And your name written in heaven
guarantees you comfort, peace, security, now and forevermore.