Well, that first message, you
know, that kind of filled everybody's soul there for a moment, didn't
it? So now what's next, John? What's the next? You've done
that. Now let's do the next, right? Have you ever known anyone to
come to church for a little while and then After six months or
so, or sometimes even longer, it's like, well, you know, I've
heard that over and over and over and over and over again.
I need something more. I've heard about the grace of
God every Sunday for the last six months. I know all about
the grace of God. I know all about the graces.
I know all about total depravity. Yes, I understand total depravity. I understand that unconditional
election. I've heard that over and over
and over again. I need something else. It's just
not enough. I need to go somewhere else and
find something more. Nothing can break a pastor's heart faster than somebody who's been
sitting under your ministry for six months is quite a while.
And then come to you and say, you're just not enough. The message
you have just doesn't make it enough. Would you turn in your Bibles
to the book of Luke chapter nine, In a way, this second message
is quite appropriate. I've never preached two messages
back to back before. I wasn't quite sure what I was
going to do. I thought I was actually going
to go over to Hebrews 10 and preach over there, but it just
didn't seem to fit. You know, I'll tell you, the
Lord can change His message the pastor is going to speak about
in a minute. Pastor Gene mentioned to me,
and I haven't experienced this yet, and I'm glad, I'm thankful,
and I'm probably gonna have to experience it now, but he said
one time he was walking out of his office to go to the front
to start services, and he had to turn around and go back and
put the message down and do something else. So he just opened up the
scriptures and read. I want you to, I'm not a learned man. I'm a
retired truck driver, a high school dropout. I dropped out of high school
because I don't like to study. I can't write with the beans. Thank God for computers that
allow me to type one finger at a time my messages. I don't have
much of a memory. I can't remember, I can't remember
scripture unless I've got it printed out for me. So what I bring before you now
is all I have. I don't have anything else. My message is the same. It's
just going to be from a different text. Look with me if you would. Luke
chapter nine, beginning at verse one. Then he called his 12 disciples
together. and gave them power and authority
over all devils and to curse and to cure diseases. And he sent them to preach the
kingdom of God and to heal the sick. And in verse three, he says this,
and he said unto them, take nothing for your journey. Neither staves,
nor script, neither bread, neither money, neither have two coats
apiece. They were to take nothing. No
clothing, no staff, no food, no money. Now, I wanna be sure
you understand what the Lord is saying here. Our Lord spoke. in spiritual matters in all things. Listen to the words of John 6,
verse 63. It is the spirit that quickeneth,
the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit. And they are life. There are
many men who think the Lord is telling you, you don't have to
provide for your family. That's a lie. There are many folks who would
love to just live off of those who can give to them freely. I don't know if you see that
much here in Australia, but in the Americas, we have what's
called welfare. And it was meant to help young
women whose husbands or who didn't have any husbands. And it has
grown into a trillion dollar industry of people who live off
of the government because they don't want to provide. what God
has given, they don't want to do what God has given them to
do, and that's to provide for their family. Our Lord is speaking to you and
I this morning in these words, take nothing for your journey,
neither stays, nor scripts, nor bread, neither money, neither
have two coats of peace. He's speaking to us spiritually. Mark, hold your spot there and
turn over to Romans. He's talking about spiritual
matters. And we are given a clear indication
of this in Romans chapter eight. Excuse me. In Romans chapter 8, beginning
at verse 1, we read these words, there is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the spirit. For the law of the spirit of
life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and
death. for what the law could not do
and that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own
son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin
in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit." We were talking a little bit
ago about I believe I was talking with
this man over here. We were talking about the law. We don't encourage anyone ever
to go out and sin willfully. Sinning willfully is taking a
sin and saying it's right and it's not a sin. Living sinfulness
willfully. Rebelling against God. That's
not the sins that you do and you're like, Lord, I'm sorry, forgive me.
It's the sins that you say, I don't care what the Lord thinks, I'm
gonna do it anyway. We walk after the spirit. This
body of death, this body of flesh fails to keep the law of God. As sinners, you know what I'm
talking about. But my spirit, my spirit walks
perfectly in my savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, the spirit that
dwells in us. Those who walk not after the
flesh, but they are after the spirit, the things of the spirit,
for to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually
minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity
against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be. So then they that are in the
flesh cannot please God, but ye are not in the flesh. But
in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.
Now, if any man have not the Spirit of God, he is none of
his. And if Christ be in you, the
body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because
of righteousness. We walk and live by the Spirit,
back in our text, if you would, in Luke chapter nine. We walk
and live in the Spirit if the Spirit of God dwells in us. We
take nothing of the old man with us. We do still clothe and feed
this body of death, of course, but we are talking spiritual.
We leave all the spiritual rituals behind. You get in the waters
of baptism if you haven't. That's a commandment of God,
but that's not going to save you. You come to the table of
remembrance and partake in the cup and the bread as it is a
commandment of God, but that's not going to save you. Christ
Jesus is our salvation. Leave the rituals that you think
may be saving your soul behind, all the religious ceremonies,
for with the gospel, we need none of that. With the true gospel
of Jesus Christ, you don't need any of those rituals. I don't
need a free will, I have Christ. And I know where my free will
would take me, it'd take me right on that road to destruction as
it was for 40 years. The gospel, the good news. To
a bona fide sinner is Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
he washed it white as snow. That's the gospel in a song. That's the gospel in a song.
Folks, that's all God's preachers have. I've heard your pastor
preach three times now, I think, three? He's preached from different
scriptures, no doubt. But it's always been the same
message. It's always about Christ. Christ and Him crucified. Paul
says, I wish to know nothing of you, say Christ and Him crucified.
That's Paul saying that. Why? Because everything else
would just lead us down a path to destruction. Christ is our
salvation. That's where sinners come to
for relief. for assurance. It's all we have. It's Christ
and Him crucified. We have no need of anything else.
Anything else would be nothing but a pollutant to the Lord's
gospel. The gospel of Christ and Him
crucified, the gospel comes in power, the power of God, not
the power or the wisdom of men. Let me read for you from 1 Corinthians
2. verses one through five, and I brethren, when I came to you,
came not with excellency of speech. This is Paul. Paul was a very
learned man. He knew the Old Testament, yeah,
the Old Testament scriptures, he knew it front from back. And
he's saying, I came not unto you with the excellency of speech
or wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined
not to know anything among you, say Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness
and in fear and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the spirit and of power. That's the sovereignty that we
spoke about in the last message. That your faith should not stand
in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. In 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 5,
we read these words, for our gospel came unto you, our gospel
came not unto you in word only, but also in power and in the
Holy Ghost. And in much assurance, as you
know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. Folks,
we are saved by grace, by grace, through faith, through belief,
A gift of God, not of worksless men should boast. Do you know
that about yourself? My favorite example of this is, I'm probably one of the lousiest
golfers you'll ever meet. But every once in a while, I
hit one right down the middle. And you know who, you know what
I do? Did you see what I just hit? Did you see what I hit?
I hit that ball right down the middle. In the old days, I used
to hit it off of the weeds and I would say things that I'm not
gonna repeat here and blame somebody else. You see how fast we can,
do you understand how fast we can boast about the things we
do? Don't do that with salvation. Salvation is of Christ and Christ
alone. To some, that is not good enough
to hear. Some say that I need more. If some reject and insist that
their works must be included, that they must grow in holiness,
that they must increase in their walk before God, they do not
understand their sin, they do not know the gospel. Look at
verses four and five of our text in Luke nine. For whatsoever
house ye enter, there abide and thence depart. And whosoever
will not receive you when you go out of that city, shake off
the very dust of your feet for a testimony against them. Let me tell you what increases.
with a saved child of God. Number one, our sin. Our sin. My pastor, who is in
his 80s, Pastor Gene Harmon, I had the honor and the pleasure
and the joy of sitting under his ministry for 24 years, or
20 some odd years. And when he retired, he moved
back to Tennessee to live next to one of his daughters to help
take care of him. Not a day goes by Monday through
Friday that I don't call him and talk to him. And at least
three to four times a week, I hear these words, John, I'm just a
bigger sinner than I was yesterday. And I need my savior more today
than I've ever needed him before. What increases to a believer,
to a true believer? Our sin. Our sinfulness. What increases
to a true believer? His majesty. His majesty. Who he is. I don't know about you folks.
But even after sitting under the ministry of 25 years now,
I still boggle my mind that God would become a man for me. You talk about grace. You talk
about magnifying the grace of God and the love for his people.
He became flesh for us. What else? What else increases
his righteousness? As I go through this life and
I see my sin more and more, the increase of my sin, I see his
righteousness just enveloping all around it even more, covering
it from east to west, as it says in scripture. We spoke about our holy brethren. That boggles my mind. That's
what the Lord says. He says we're holy and I believe
it. I believe the works that his
son did was effective and efficient for what needs to be to make
us whole. What else increases? His graciousness. His long suffering in being gracious
to this man who continually has to stop himself from rebelling.
And sometimes I don't quite stop myself and I'll... I'll not have that. Oh, yes,
we will. Look over at Isaiah 43 for just
a moment. Isaiah 43. We'll come back and look at that
last verse there in Luke 9 next. In Isaiah 43, we read three verses
there in verses 10 through 12. Our Lord said, ye are my witnesses,
saith the Lord, and my servant, whom I have chosen, that ye may
know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me there
was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I,
am the Lord, and beside me there is no Savior. I have declared
and have saved, and I have showed when there was no strange God
among you, therefore you're my witnesses, saith the Lord, that
I am God. Witnesses of what? Shall I witness
to you how you should follow the law, how you should be a
better person, how you should do this or that?
Folks, we don't... We don't encourage others to
sin. Just the opposite. Our Lord's word says, be ye holy,
for our God is holy. But that's not the gospel. If you can be holy, then you
don't need the gospel. The gospel is Christ. The gospel
is grace. The gospel is love. The gospel
is mercy. The gospel is redemption. The
gospel is substitution. That's the message of God's ministers. All I have for you is that. If
you ask me to preach again in 10 minutes, 15 minutes from now,
I'm only going to have that same message for you. We'll try to
go to some other scriptures. Now look at verse six of our
text back in Luke chapter nine. And they departed and went through
the towns, preaching what? The gospel and healing everywhere. I come before you this afternoon
with nothing. Paul gives us an example, or
not Paul, I'm sorry. We have an example of that over
in Acts chapter three. Turn over there for just a moment
before I bring this to a close. Acts chapter three. Peter and John are preaching
in Acts chapter three, verse one. We read these words now, Peter
and John. went up together into the temple
at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. And a certain
man, lame from his mother's womb, was carried. And they laid daily
at the gate of the temple, which is called beautiful, to ask alms
of them that entered into the temple. Who seeing Peter and
John about to go into the temple, asked an alms. And Peter, fastening
his eyes upon him with John, said, look on us. And he gave
heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. Then
Peter said, Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, give
I thee. He gave all that he had. In the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took him by the right
hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and his ankle bones
received strength. Verse eight. And he, leaping
up, stood and walked and entered with him into the temple, walking
and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking
and praising God, and they knew that it was he which sat for
alms at the beautiful gate of the temple, and they were filled
with wonder and amazement. at that which had happened unto
him. And as the lame man, which was healed, healed Peter and
John, all the people ran together unto them at the porch, that
is called Solomon's, greatly wondering. And when Peter saw
it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel
ye at this? Or why look ye so earnestly on
us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this
man to walk? the God of Abraham, and of Isaac,
and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son,
whom ye delivered up and denied him in the presence of Pilate,
when he was determined to let him go, but ye denied the Holy
One, and the just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto
you, and killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from
the dead, wherefore we are witnesses. And his name, through faith in
his name, hath made this man strong whom ye see and know.
Yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness
in the presence of you all. I come before you today with
nothing of this world. I have no rituals for you to
go through. I'm not asking anyone to come
down to the in front of the church and pray. Do that right from
where you are. I am asking you to come to Christ,
but you have to come to him in the spirit from where you sit. Look over at 1 Corinthians 1. In verse 29, we read that no
flesh should glory in his presence, but of him, but of God, are ye
in Christ Jesus, who of God has made unto us wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption, that according it is written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.