In Mark 16, verses 14 and 15,
there almost seems to be a contradiction. Did you notice how strange? For
our Lord knows sooner than he has upbraided these apostles
for their unbelief. And we saw it in our last lesson.
They sure enough, they didn't believe that he was risen. They didn't believe that the
Lord Jesus was alive. Just flat out didn't believe
him because he told them what would happen and it happened
and they didn't believe it. And he upbraids them for that
and then he turns around and sends them on the most important
business of all time. Did you notice that as I read? You might well expect it to say,
he upbraided them for their unbelief and their hardness of heart,
and then said to them, well, I was gonna send you to preach
the gospel, but you don't even believe what I said to you over
and over again when I was with you. But our Lord's not like
that, we know that. Isn't it remarkable who God sends
with the gospel? You think about what's riding
on this thing. You think about what's at stake. We read it there. He said some are going to be
saved and some are going to be damned. And the difference is going to
hinge upon what you say and whether they believe you or not. Now it's God's message. We deliver
and we're ambassadors of Christ. Ambassadors of the King. It's
His message. And we know that He gives faith.
He decides the matter. But I'll tell you this, the message
is in our keeping. It's committed to our trust.
And we're to deliver it that way, with that understanding.
Turn to 1 Timothy 1. Verse 11 Paul said according to the glorious
gospel of the blessed God Which was committed to my trust He
said some things before that and he said these these things
I'm teaching you there according To the gospel of the glory of
the blessed God. That's the literal language there
which was committed to my trust and And I thank Christ Jesus,
our Lord, who hath enabled me. Don't thank me, and I appreciate
it when you say thank you for the message, Brother Creel, I
enjoyed the message, that encourages me. But we've all got to thank
him for it. I thank God, Paul said, that
enabled me, putting me into the ministry. He counted me faithful,
putting me into the ministry. Who was before a blasphemer,
he didn't find me faithful, he made me faithful if I am. He
didn't find me worthy, he found me a blasphemer. A blasphemer
and a persecutor and injurious but I obtained mercy. I did it
ignorantly in unbelief and God had mercy on me. And the grace
of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is
in Christ Jesus. I have faith because the grace
of our Lord was exceeding abundant toward me. I believe what I'm
telling you this morning. You know why? Because the grace
of our Lord was abundant toward me. And I love you for the same
reason, his grace. Verse 15, this is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners of whom I am chief. You know that's the
gospel. The gospel is not Jesus wants
to save you if you'll let him. The gospel is the son of God
came into this world to save sinners. He didn't come to give you a
choice. He came to save you if you're
his. And Paul said he came to save
sinners and I'm the chief of sinners. So there's hope, there's
hope even for me. Howbeit for this cause I obtain
mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering
for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life
everlasting. You know what Paul is saying
right there? He saved somebody as wretched as I am and as vile
and hopeless as I am to show you that nobody's beyond his
grace. Now unto the king immortal, seeing
that he is that gracious and that powerful that he came to
save and saved. Now unto the king Not unto sweet little Jesus that's
trying and wants to, if you'll let him. Unto the king, eternal,
immortal, invisible, the only wise God. Let's honor him. Let's
glorify him forever and ever, amen. How about that? Let's do
that this morning. And from now on, the king, that's
who we're talking about now. The king of glory and grace.
The king of love and mercy. And he sins now. He counts worthy. Do you see the irony in that
life and death, eternal, infinite life and death hinge upon believing? That's what he said now. He that
believeth you and is baptized, I'll save him. And he that believeth
not, I'll put him in hell now. It hinges upon what? Believing. And what did he upbraid them
for before he sent them to preach that? Not believing. And what else? Their hardness
of heart. God said, I'll give you pastors after my own heart.
And what does he do? He sends a bunch of hard-hearted
men. That ain't God's heart now. You see the teaching here. A couple of things. If you expect
anyone in the ministry to be something more than a good-for-nothing
sinner, you're gonna be disappointed. You're just gonna be disappointed
because that's what they are. God picked the worst among you now.
The base, the weak, the foolish, Paul said, the things which are
not hath God chosen to put to naught the things that are. And
secondly, learn this from this, now he did send them with his
gospel. He entrusted them with his gospel, not that he trusts
our flesh, but it's committed to our trust. He wasn't lying
now when he said he would send, when he says I'm gonna send you
pastors after my own heart, according to my own heart, what's he saying?
I'm gonna send you kind, loving, long-suffering, faithful pastors. So if he takes a bunch of hard-hearted, unbelieving people and sends
pastors after his own heart to preach that upon which life and
death hinges, and the difference is faith,
believing, then God must have done something
about it. He didn't just find us as we were and send us as
we were. He had to make a change, didn't he? He had to do something
about it. He had something to do with, we weren't born with
hearts according to his heart. I guarantee you that. And as
I said, he chose the base, weak, foolish nothings, and he gave
them a heart to love him, to love his word, to love his sheep,
to love his honor, to love his gospel. Let's learn that here. They believed not And then he
said, now you go preach the gospel for me. Notice the words all and every
in verse 15. I don't know what resources these
11 men had or how far they were able to go out into the world
to preach the gospel. I don't know that. But he said,
go into all the world and preach the gospel to every I don't believe
he's saying that each one of them had to cover the whole world
But I do believe he's teaching that every available resource
should be used and no one should ever be excluded all and every Well, what about here our resources
are very limited here we're We're out here among the cows and the
turkeys. I Are we gonna be able to obey our Lord's commission
to go into all the world and preach the gospel? Would it surprise
you if I told you that I preached to people in Canada, Hong Kong,
India, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Trinidad
and Tobago just this past month? Oh, and also 30 states in the
United States of America. But let me say this also about
that. The Lord, here's the lesson, the Lord can take nothing and
a bunch of nobodies and he can make something out of it. And count even them worthy to
be in his ministry. I didn't come to Tennessee to
preach to people in Hong Kong. I came here to preach to you.
to you that are sitting here this morning. At least it wasn't
my intention to preach to people in Hong Kong, but it must have
been God's. I came to preach to you, and if nobody but you
ever hears my voice, I'm fine with that. I'm fine with that.
The Lord told me to feed his sheep, and he sent me here to
do that. He had some sheep in Tennessee. in Franklin and College Grove
and Spring Hill and Thompson Station and around Nashville.
He had some sheep and he said, feed my sheep. But I'm also fine with whatever
resources the Lord provides us. And may he give us grace to do
what we can with them by his grace to publish his glorious
gospel. And however the Lord uses that
is fine with me too. How about you? In fact, I'm a
little bit excited about it. I don't get excited a whole lot
anymore. I'm a little excited about it. That the Lord would
use such as we to go into all the world and preach the gospel
to everybody that'll hear, everybody that'll listen. I thank God for
it. The stakes are high. Do you see life and death in
the words that we read? He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. Who saves and who damns? The stakes are high, and we should
always keep that in mind. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians
2. This is life and death now. Other
things that we do that we think are important to us are not,
but this is. 2 Corinthians 2 verse 14, now thanks be unto God which
always causes us to triumph in Christ and maketh manifest the
savor of his knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto
God a sweet savor of Christ. Now he causes us to triumph always,
whether people are saved or whether they're lost. We always triumph
because it's a sweet saver of Christ unto God. Whenever the
gospel is preached, it's a win. For we are unto God a sweet saver
of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish. To the
one we are the saver of death unto death and to the other The
saver of life unto life, and who is sufficient for these things? You think life and death hinges
on me? I'm not the one that saves or damns, I'm just like John,
I'm a voice crying in the wilderness. But I'll tell you this, if God
sent me, I'm a voice you better listen to. Not because it's me,
but because it's him. And because it's life and death. Who is sufficient? for these
things but we're not as many now which corrupt the Word of
God. Now you know you sat there many of you for years and you've
seen me go through this book verse by verse by verse by verse
and you know I'm telling you what God said. I can't I can't
guarantee that that you'll hear the same thing in every church
building in this city. But you know If I speak according
to the words of this prophecy, it's because God's light is in
me, not because I'm smarter, not because I went to a better
school, or because I'm just, you know, more spiritual or something,
not because of me at all, in any way, but because God is in
it. And it's not real complicated,
is it? It's what I'm saying to you this morning when I'm preaching
from these verses. Is that what those verses are saying? Is it
life and death? Is it salvation or damnation?
Is it the gospel? Is it Christ and Him crucified? We're not perverting the Word
of God. We're not corrupting God's Word now. We're sincere,
of sincerity, and as of God, in the sight of God, speak we
in Christ. Christ is the message. And then
look at 2 Corinthians 3, verse 5. Not that we are sufficient of
ourselves to think anything as of ourselves. Our sufficiencies
of God, that's what we've been saying. Who is sufficient for
these things? Nobody, our sufficiencies of
God. Who also have made us able ministers of the new covenant.
Not of the letter, but of the spirit. Not the law, but the
gospel. You read this context and you'll see that's what he's
talking about. Not the law, but the gospel. Not the old covenant,
but the new covenant. The letter killeth, but the spirit
giveth life. But if the ministration of death,
written and engraven, was glorious." See there that's the law. Those
Ten Commandments are not all of God's law but they represent
the law. That God wrote on those tables of stone His law. Even that's glorious, that's
the Word of God. God wrote that with His finger. That's pretty
glorious. So that the children of Israel
could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory
of his countenance, which glory was to be done away. How shall
not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious? the gospel
of his grace. For if the ministration of condemnation
be glory, and that's what all the law can do is condemn you,
much more does the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. Why did Paul say in Romans 3
that God sent his son to declare at this time his righteousness? Salvation by grace through faith,
not according to the law. After the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified. But God declared his righteousness
when he sent his son. Righteousness without the law.
Righteousness that a sinner can stand before God without keeping
the law. And it's being justified freely
by his grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. Through
faith in his blood. For even that which was made
glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of the glory
that excelleth. The most excellent glory is Christ
the Savior, Christ the Redeemer, Christ the Gospel. For if that
which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth
is glorious, seeing then that we have such hope. Seeing then
that I'm able, seeing then that what I say to you according to
our text this morning is life and death. And you're born dead
now. But there's such hope, such great
hope, Paul said. We have a glorious gospel that
outshines all other glory. And seeing then that we do, let's
be real clear about it. That's what he said. Let's be
just as plain as we can. Christ is your only hope. Through
his blood and righteousness, sinners are redeemed and their
sins are atoned for. He came to save, as we read a
while ago, and he did. He said, it's finished. When
he had saved us, he said, I've done it. I've completed it. When
he gave his soul an offering for our sins. What we are to
preach is not in question, is it? He said, preach the gospel. There's not any ambiguity about
what that is. Christ said, the gospel, and
we know that the gospel is the good news of Christ himself and
what he did for sinners. Paul said in Romans 1-3 that
the gospel concerns God's Son, Jesus Christ. It's everything about Him. I'm
telling you everything I know about Him, not all in one message. I can't put it all in 40 minutes.
But you listen a while now, and we'll look at the glories of
Christ as God enables us to do so, and we'll see Him and what
He did for sinners. He said in 1 Corinthians 121,
after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew
not God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. That's what he said
in our text. You go and preach, and I'll save
those that believe you. For the Jews require, what do
we preach? The Jews are looking for a sign.
They want us to do miracles and things, and they say, we'll believe.
The Lord said, no, my prophets did miracles, and you don't believe
them. The Greeks seek after wisdom.
They want to argue about everything and philosophize and cross every
T and dot every I, but we don't give either one of them what
they want by nature. We preach Christ crucified. And unto the Jews, in their natural
condition, he's a stumbling block. But unto them, unto the Greeks,
they're gonna call us a bunch of idiots. We're smarter than
you. But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greek, I don't
care who you are, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom
of God. He's what both are looking for,
but they're not looking for it by nature. They're not looking
for it in Him. He's the power, the miracle of
God. He's the sign. Isaiah said, I'll
give you a sign. You want a sign? A virgin shall
conceive and bear a son. And his name shall be called
Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace. There's a sign for you right
there. The message is Christ, the person of Christ. He is the
good news. There's salvation because of
Christ. Because he died for his people, he gave his life a ransom
for many. and shed his precious blood.
If you believe on him and claim him as your righteousness before
God, as your sin offering before God, believe on him. He said,
I'll save you. That's how sinners are saved,
by him. We preach Christ and what he
accomplished at the cross. Not what he tried to do, not
what he made available, what he did. He came to give His life
a ransom for many, and by His one offering for sin He perfected
forever them that are sanctified. He said He came to do His Father's
will, and that His Father's will was that of all that the Father
had given Him. He said, I'll lose nothing, but
I'll raise them up again at the last day. I'm not going to lose
a single one of them that's included in that covenant of grace. He
came to redeem his people by his sin atoning death, and he
redeemed his people by his sin atoning death. That's what the
gospel is. That's the good news. The results
of his work and the preaching of it, as he is pleased by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe, the results
are seen in the signs that follow the gospel. And notice in verse 20 that it
is the word now. Let's look at that. Mark 16,
20, they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working
with them. I'm thankful for that, aren't
you? He said to them, when he sent
them out, I go into all the world and preach all the gospel to
every creature, all the world, every creature. And he said,
Lord, I'll be with you. I'll go with you. And he does.
He worked with them as they began to preach. He worked with them
and confirming the word with signs. A lot of religion is all
about the signs. Let's put on some kind of a magic
show, you know. No, that's just for confirming
the word. The gospel is what he sent us to do. Preach the
gospel and the word is confirmed by the signs. But the signs did confirm the
word. In this, in that only God can
do these things, they said of one being able to receive his
sight, they said, never has it been heard since the beginning
of time that one born blind was able to see. Only God can do
that. And so these signs confirm that
if these signs are things that only God can do, then the message
that the ones doing the signs preached must be a message from
God. And sure enough, it was. It was God speaking, but also,
also, in addition to that, we see the results. We see what
God is doing by His gospel in those signs. Let's look at it.
Devils are cast out in Christ's name. We see this teaching all
through the Word. In 2 Timothy 2.23, Paul said,
foolish and unlearned questions avoid when you're teaching people. Don't argue about words and There's
nothing really to argue about much, is there? God has a simple
message to sinners. Christ, believe on Christ, come
to Christ, bow to Christ, trust Christ as your sin offering,
as your righteousness before God. It's not complicated, there's
not a whole lot to argue about in that. Knowing that they do
gender stripes, and there's just not any place for that in God's
church. And the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be
gentle unto all. apt to teach, patient, in meekness,
instructing those that oppose themselves. If God, peradventure,
will give them repentance. That's how a sinner's saved.
Not by me winning you to the Lord or some nonsense. I'm just
instructing from the word of God. And maybe, Paul said, if
you do that, maybe God'll save somebody. God's gonna have to
save them. He might just perventure give
somebody repentance. If they repent, they're gonna
have to get it from him. Listen to the rest of it. If
God does give them repentance, you know what happened? That
they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who
are taken captive by him at his will. You talk about man's free
will? If you don't know the Lord, you're
taken captive by the devil at his will. You're nothing free
about your will. So you see that even in the signs
themselves, we see the results of it. What did he come to do?
He came to deliver us from the devil, from the snare of the
devil. And even in those signs, we see
the gospel, don't we? What was the second thing? He
said they're gonna speak with new tongues. What happened there? What happened there? Did the
Lord have his disciples speak in different tongues there at
Pentecost so that churches in ages to come could sit around
spouting off a bunch of gibberish that nobody even knows what they're
talking about? No. He did that because there were
people from different nations there that needed to hear the
gospel. And you know what? When God has a message for you,
you fixin' to get a message from God. Language barrier, it don't
matter what the barrier is. His hand's not shortened that
it cannot save. He'll have you speak and everybody
will hear in their own language. That's what he did here. And
this is the lesson here. When God, when the gospel goes
forth, God's purpose in the preaching will not be thwarted. I don't care what the obstacle
is, all of his sheep are gonna hear his voice and they're gonna
follow him. That's what he said in John 10.
And so isn't that comforting to see that here in this sign? Everywhere you look in the Bible,
it's the gospel now. You think the signs that accompany
the preacher aren't gonna have something to do with the gospel?
Look at the third thing, they'll take up serpents. The serpent, what's that a symbol
of? The serpent in the beginning.
in the Garden of Eden caused us great harm. We can't blame our sin on Satan
because we sinned willfully now, but the serpent beguiled us,
beguiled Eve. And the serpent has come to be
the very symbol of sin and deception. But the gospel message is that
though by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin,
and so death passed upon all men, but by one man also came
righteousness in life. Everybody that Adam represented
in the garden died in Adam because of sin. And the serpent had something
to do with that. But everyone whom Christ represented
as the last Adam will live in him because he represents them
in righteousness and by his sin atoning death. You see that in the serpent?
The serpent can't hurt me now. By nature I'm bent and I'm dying
and I will die eternally if not for his grace. But when the gospel
comes and I believe on him and Christ is mine, I can take that
serpent up. Not that we hold sin in our bosom,
you know what I'm saying. The results of sin, we will never
suffer the consequences of our sin. The serpent can't hurt us
anymore. Where is the sting of sin? The sting of death, which is
the wages of sin. We're more than conquerors through
Christ. You see that? In Numbers 21, the fiery serpents
in the wilderness, they were the judgment of God against the
people's sins. They murmured against God and
they complained and they said, boy, it'd be better if we'd have
stayed in Egypt. We don't need God. He just can't
send us out here in the wilderness to kill us. And God sent fiery
serpents into the camp and they bit the people. And much people
of Israel died from the poison of those serpents. But there
was a cure. A serpent of brass, God said
to Moses, make a serpent of brass and lift it up on a pole and
tell all the children of Israel, look to the serpent of brass
and you'll live. What is that? Well, the Lord
Jesus said to Nicodemus, as the serpent was lifted up in the
wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. Look and live. The serpent is the symbol of
sin and the judgment of God against sin. And why was a serpent lifted
up on a pole? That's the problem. Maybe put
an angel up on it. No, it has to be a serpent. He
had to be made in the likeness of sinful flesh and come for
sin. He had to become what we are
that we might become the righteousness of God in him. He was made in
the likeness of the problem, the likeness of sinful flesh.
And you look to him, the son of man, lifted up between heaven
and earth, and you'll live. Look to him for righteousness.
Look to him for a sin offering. Look to him for hope, for life. Look to Christ crucified and
the serpent can't hurt you. You can pick it up and it won't
harm you. The poison is absolutely powerless
to do you any harm. The next is the same as all the
others, the next sign. The same message that's set forth
in all these signs, you can drink poison and still be just fine.
What was that sign all about? You know we drink poison by nature,
like water? Job, in Job 15, 14, it says,
what is man that he should be clean, and he which is born of
a woman? that he should be righteous.
Behold, God putteth no trust in his saints. Yea, the heavens
are not clean in his sight. How much more abominable and
filthy is man which drinketh iniquity like water." We've been
drinking the poison ever since we've been born and we're still
drinking it now. Our flesh is still drinking the poison. We
drink iniquity like water. But did you see those beautiful
words in verse 18 of our text in Mark? These are our Savior's
words now. It shall not hurt them. We've been drinking the poison
all of our lives. It's not going to hurt us a bit. Because of the precious blood
of Christ, it has no power to hurt us. They'll lay hands on the sick
and they'll recover. I've seen a few sick people in
my day. I've seen a few sick people get
up off their beds and walk in newness of life, spiritually
speaking. Have you ever seen that? We're sick unto death now by
nature. Sin is a mortal disease. All he has to do is take our
hand and say, take up your bed and walk. I thank God for the
great privilege that it is to just preach the simple, plain
gospel that he sent us to preach and watch him do what he does.
Isn't it wonderful? For the last two verses, just
another thought or two. So then after the Lord had spoken
unto them, he was received up into heaven and sat on the right
hand of God and they went forth. That's a beautiful picture now.
If you're a preacher or someone who benefits in any way from
the ministry of the gospel preaching, Christ on the throne, and us
going forth. That's a beautiful picture right
there. He said, all power is given unto me in heaven and earth,
therefore you go and preach. Not all power is given unto you.
I don't have any power, but he does, and he's the one that sent
me. And the results are in his hands. Life and death is in his
hands. He's the one that saves, he's
the one that damns. And his gospel now, he sends
his gospel. You believe it, he said, I'll
save you. I'll save you. Thank God, the Lord working with
them. Without me, he said, you can
do nothing. But let me ask you this, what can we not do, the
Lord working with us? What can we not do? He's on the throne and we preach,
and we preach him on the throne. If he wasn't on the throne, I
wouldn't have any good news for you. And he sits there, he sits. Did you see that in the text?
He sat on the right hand of God. No high priest in the Old Testament
was ever able to sit down on the job. There was no chair among
all the furniture of the tabernacle because there was never full
satisfaction made for sin. The blood of those bulls and
goats could not take away sin. But our great high priest turned
to Hebrews chapter 10. And I'll close with this now.
This is key. This is where our Lord is as
we're preaching. He's sitting down on the throne.
And there's great significance to that. Hebrews 10. Verse 11, and every priest standeth daily
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can
never take away sin. What in the world did they offer
them for? To point you to the one sacrifice for sin, to show
you that the The blood of an innocent victim is necessary
for sin, not the blood of that animal, but the blood of the
Lamb of God. John said, there's the Lamb of
God that takes away sin. These animals can't take away
sin, but John said, there's the one that does, right there, the
Lord Jesus Christ. All right, so this is a picture,
these are shadows, these are type. But this man, after he
had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever. What did he do? Every priest
standeth daily, ministering, always offering the same sacrifice
over and over. But when this man, the Lord Jesus
Christ, offered one sacrifice for sin forever, what did he
do? He sat down. That's what it said in our text. It didn't show directly in our
text why he sat down, but it does here. from henceforth expecting till
his enemies be made his footstool for. Here's why he sat down.
Because his work was done, it was finished. For by one offering
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Oh, how
can you say in light of that that the Lord's done all he can
do and now it's up to you? He did it all. There's nothing
left to do. He finished salvation's work
and sat down on the throne. Henceforth expecting to all of
his enemies we made his footstool. We don't see all things put under
his feet yet, but they are And we will see it He sat down and
we preach There is a throne of grace and there's somebody sitting
on it John said it's a lamb as it had been slain the throne
of grace Do you need grace? The Lamb of God that taketh away
sin sits upon the throne of grace, and he gives life to everybody
that asks. In Revelation 22, John wrote
that the throne of God and of the Lamb are in that heavenly
city, the throne upon which our Lord Jesus Christ sat in our
text. And in that context, in Revelation
22, John wrote this, and the Spirit and the bride say, He's
sitting on the throne, now come. Come to the throne of grace.
Come and let him that heareth say, come. Have you heard? Then you tell everybody else
to come. And you will. That woman at the
well, she said, come, see a man that told me everything I ever
did. Is not this the Christ? She heard and she said, come.
And let him that's thirsty come. Are you thirsty? Come, and whosoever
will, let him take of the water of life freely. And then John
ended it this way. He said, the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. He's on the throne. And we preach. And what do we
say? Come. Come to him. Come to his throne
of grace. To find help, to find mercy.
Do you need mercy? He never turned a sinner away
yet that came to him for mercy. Come, are you thirsty? Come and
take the water freely, the water of life. May God give us grace
to preach Christ and him crucified. Christ is the water of life.
And everybody that thirsts after him, you know what he said, blessed
are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, that's him. You know why they're blessed?
They'll be filled. They'll get what they came for. Come. Let's
pray.