Good morning. Let's turn to Luke
chapter 10. Luke 10. Luke chapter 10. Our Lord tells
his hearers in verse 11, and he's speaking concerning the
preaching of the gospel. The gospel being preached to
the people, he says to you, be sure of this. Be sure of this, that the kingdom
of God has come nigh unto you. Through the preaching of the
gospel, the kingdom of God is brought near to you that hear
it. This has great ramifications
for the hearers. It either heals you that are
sick with an infirmity, a disease of sin from which you cannot
cure yourselves, or it reveals your condemnation. It's either
a help to you or it speaks of your condemnation. It's either
a saver of life unto life in them that are saved, or it is
a saver of death unto death in them that perish. And Paul rightly
asks, who is sufficient for these things? The power is not of us. It's not of man. It's of God. And we are sent as able ministers
to declare these things concerning the salvation of God in Jesus
Christ unto you. Knowing these things, therefore,
to be true, I want to be sure to preach the gospel of God's
free salvation, free sovereign salvation revealed to us in Jesus
Christ. I want to bring the kingdom of
God near you through the preaching of the gospel of the Lord and
Savior, the only one who saves sinners, Jesus Christ. And my
hope for you this morning is that you are persuaded of God
to press into the kingdom of Christ, that you would press
into the kingdom through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that
you would not be disinterested in these things, that you would
not care about these things and despise Christ and reject him
as the wicked world does, but that the Lord would grip your
heart that he would reveal Christ to you as your only hope of salvation,
because it is so. He is the only salvation under
heaven given by God to men whereby we must be saved. If you are
saved, it is by Christ's blood alone and not by your works. I pray that by the grace of God
you hear Christ and that you see Christ by faith in him alone. I see four lessons that are taught
to us here in this passage from verse 8 down through verse 22. Four lessons that our Lord teaches
us here concerning this gospel of Jesus Christ. Four things
that by his grace we must lay heart Speaking to you that serve
God and serve the souls of men in this world, there are four
things that we must lay to our heart, and it will be done by
the grace of God in us. First, we must be faithful to
preach the simplicity of Christ. We must be faithful to preach
the simplicity of Christ. Our Lord says it this way in
verses 8 and 9. 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. That's because we're preaching
the gospel. We're preaching Christ. The kingdom
of God has come nigh unto you. There were 70 men here which
our Lord sent out to preach this gospel. They were sent as servants
who serve the needs of men. We are sent out as servants who
serve. We're not to be an unnecessary
burden to you. We're sent out as servants who
serve you, who serve you and your needs. You have a need. You're sick. I'm sick. By nature, sick with sin. And there's a cure, one cure.
And that cure is Christ, Christ Jesus. Preachers, he's showing
us here we're not to be high-minded. We're not above you in any way. We are your brethren. We are
your brethren. fellow laborers, we have the
same need that you have. Our cure is your cure. It's Christ. It's Christ. We're not above
you in any way. We're not to be seeking for you
to minister to me, but I'm to minister to you. This is what
God has done. He gives, he gave Christ for
you and he gives men for you to serve you. to declare to you
what you need, which is Christ, which is Christ. This is what
he does. And so God's ministers should
live modestly and we should be easily satisfied, not difficult,
not refusing your kindness and your grace and what you do to
provide for the gospel. We're to serve you. We are there
for the needs of the sick and the infirmed, you that are sick
with the deadly disease of sin for which man does not have the
cure in his own hand, nor can it be obtained by us, by our
works, by our sacrifices, by our labors, by our doings under
the yoke of the law. The only cure for this is the
Savior of men, the Lord Jesus Christ. Luke 5, 31 and 32, our
Lord told the Pharisees. He said, they that are whole
need not a physician, but they that are sick. I don't go to
the doctor for well checks. I know that that's a thing now,
but I don't go. I don't want to go anywhere near a doctor
unless I'm absolutely sick, and they're the only ones that could
help me. Well, so it is with Christ. They that are sick go
to Christ. You that are diseased with sin
from head to toe, I have an incurable disease, and only Christ can
heal that disease. Christ and Christ alone, only
He heals it. And He tells us, I came not to
call the righteous. He's not looking for the righteous.
He's looking for you that are sinners. Buried in sin, destroyed
by sin, dead because of your sin. That's who Christ came to
save. Sinners. Sinners need a savior. Sinners need the physician, Jesus
Christ. That's who he came to save. And
he says, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And that repentance says, stop
laboring, trying to save yourselves and make a righteousness for
yourselves. Repent of that. Repent of those wicked works
and be turned to trust Christ alone for all your righteousness. That's the repentance. Turn from
dead works that cannot save you and look to Christ. Look and
live. Believe Him. Believe Him. He's the Savior whom the Father
has sent. And faithful ministers of the
gospel seek to heal your need with this gospel. With this gospel
of Jesus Christ. We're all sinners, born dead,
spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. That's why we do the
things we do and love the filthy things we love, because we're
dead. That's why we won't hear these things. That's why we won't
be turned to Christ, except God in power comes to us and makes
this word effectual in our hearts. Then we'll hear. Then we'll be
turned. Then the veil will be taken away.
Then we desire Christ. Then we know that we're sick
and come to the great physician, Jesus Christ. He's able to save,
and he does it by his blood, by his blood. We must preach
the gospel simply, boldly, and plainly unto you. Paul said,
seeing then that we have such hope in this Savior, seeing then
that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech. Great plainness of speech. See,
the gospel is a mystery hidden from men. hidden from men, obscured
from men. They can't see the salvation
of God. But it's made plain to the hearer
through the preaching, the exaltation of Christ the Savior. That's
how the mystery is revealed. Look to Christ. In him is fullness,
clearness. It's Christ. Christ is the Savior. And he's revealed through the
plain, simple preaching of the gospel. Turn over to 1 Corinthians
chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. We'll
begin in verse 1. I'll begin reading the first
two verses while you're getting there. I declare unto you the gospel
which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein
ye stand." This is your foundation, Christ. declared and revealed
in this gospel, don't be moved from him, stand, stand firm in
Christ, by which also ye are saved if ye keep in memory what
I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. Those
who are redeemed by the blood of Christ are going to stay in
Christ. Don't be moved off of him. Don't be turned away from
Christ. Look to Christ. He is the salvation
of sinners. Stand firm in Christ. Ready? Now here's Paul's outline, verse
three. For I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also
received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the
scripture. That's what Paul says. That's
what I declared unto you, how that Christ died for our sins. Look to Him. He turns us first
to Christ. The purpose of the Son of God
coming in the flesh was according to promise, according to His
purpose, according to that promise made to us in the garden when
Adam fell. He spoke of the promised seed,
which is Christ, that would come and he would crush the head of
the serpent. He would reconcile us to God. He would put away all our sins
and obtain the forgiveness of our sins by himself and restore
us, bring us into fellowship with God. He did that. He does that for His people. We're sinners, sold under sin,
fit for the just wrath of God. That's what we are by nature.
We are fit for the just wrath of holy God. And there's nothing
we can do about it in and of ourselves, but we declare unto
you, Him that saves to the uttermost, Jesus Christ. He's the Savior. Look to him. Our Lord came from
heaven, born as a man, born under the law, to fulfill the righteousness
of the law for us. And he did that. He accomplished
it perfectly, brethren. And he died once, once in the
room instead of his people, as their substitute, and delivered
us from that wrath of God, justly, justly. having paid the debt
that we accrued, that we built up by our sin. He paid it. And he put that sin away forever
from his people. And he establishes us in light
and life and liberty in himself. He died as our sin-atoning sacrifice
and propitiated the wrath of God, turned it away from us,
satisfied God, so that God is just to forgive all who believe
Christ, all who look to Him. And so through this man is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sins. Through Jesus Christ is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sins. And he gives life and reconciles
us to the Father, saying, whosoever believeth on him shall not die. You shall not perish in your
sins, but you have everlasting life in him. And Paul says in
verse four now, and that he was buried and that he rose again
the third day according to the scriptures. He really died on
the cross as the substitute of his people. And he was laid in
the grave. He died on the cross, was taken
down and laid in that grave for three days and three nights.
And then God, by his power, raised him from the dead. declaring
that he has justified that what he did satisfied God, that God
is at peace with all for whom Christ shed his blood and gave
his life. God is at peace. The Father rests,
and we rest in Christ. We rest in him. We have life
in him. He rose again. And by that resurrection,
God declares not only him justified, but all that believe him. So
that Paul said, by him, all that believe are justified from all
things. Nothing left out. All things
from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. Acts 13.39. Christ did it all. And there are witnesses to this
resurrection. Paul says there in verse 5, 1
Corinthians 15, 5, he was seen of Cephas, that was on the road
to Emmaus, and then of the twelve, that is those eleven that remained
of the original twelve. first of the 10, and then when
Thomas joined them. After that, he was seen of above
500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto
this present, but there are some fallen asleep. After that, he
was seen of James, then of all the apostles. And last of all,
he was seen of me also, as one born out of due time. And Christ
made these men witnesses of these things. He said, you go and tell
the people what I have accomplished for them by myself in dying for
their sins and in being raised from the dead, declaring that
we are justified who believe him. We're justified. We're saved. The wrath is put
away forever in Christ, through Christ. It's all in him. And God's church still preaches
this gospel. The true church still preaches
this gospel, declaring these things because he is salvation. We're not turning you away to
works and to programs and various things. We turn you to Christ
through the preaching of Christ, praying, knowing that God blesses
this word. This is the message that the
Holy Spirit blesses. because the spirit testifies
of Christ. And when we're testifying of
your works, of what you must do to save yourselves, we're
not testifying of Christ. And that's not the word blessed.
But he takes that word of Christ and blesses it to the heart with
power, revealing faith in you where there was no faith that
looks to Christ and Christ alone. That's what the Spirit does.
That's what God does for us in Christ, who is the salvation
of his people. Paul said, the preaching of the
cross is to them that perish foolishness. What? Christ and
Christ alone is salvation? Amen. Yes, he is the Savior. And that's foolishness to them
that are perishing, but to us which are saved, it is the power
of God. and the children of God rejoice
in Christ. We're thankful to hear this message.
This is our food, our spiritual food, the bread of heaven, upon
whom we feed on his body and drink his blood. These are spiritual
things, which he works in us by his spirit, circumcising this
heart, this hard, wicked, blind heart, making us to see that
in Christ is all our salvation. all our hope, all our joy, all
our salvation. For after that in the wisdom
of God, Paul said, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching. Preaching Christ to save them
that believe. That's how he saves us. This
is the ordained means. Is this really the single hope
of the sinner? Jesus Christ? He is mine. He's all my hope. I've dabbled,
and tried, and strove, and fought, and spent, and labored in religion,
and it gave me no peace, no rest, no hope. But once I heard Christ,
by the grace of God, I'm at peace. I'm at rest in Christ, and I'm
thankful, thankful for Him. And so are you that believe Him.
So are you that have found Him, or have been found by Him. By
one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Hebrews 10 14. Christ is what
the apostles were instructed to preach. the resurrected Christ
coming to them. And Luke 24, 48 said, and ye
are witnesses of these things. I've made you witnesses of these
things. Testify to the people of these
things, of my death and my resurrection, how that I died for sinners,
how that I saved sinners by the death and resurrection of me,
of Christ, of Christ himself. When men came to Paul in prison,
Luke tells us at the end of Acts, Acts 28, we're told that this
is what Paul spoke of. And he expounded and testified
the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus. He was
persuading those that came to him concerning Jesus. This is
the kingdom of God, both out of the law of Moses and out of
the prophets. He went to Moses and found Christ
and preached Christ to the people. He went to the prophets and found
Christ and preached Christ to the people. That's what he preached
out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets from morning
till evening. Paul, didn't you leave any room
for the law? Nope. He preached the one who is the
Savior, Jesus Christ, because he alone is salvation. He has
all power and authority to turn the heart from dead things to
living things, to Christ himself. He has the power. Preach Christ.
That's what we need. Preach Christ. Then he received
that came unto him and it says at the very end, preaching the
kingdom of God and teaching those things which concern the Lord
Jesus Christ. 100% preaching the things concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no man forbidding
him. I thank God that when we go to
this Old Testament, we see Jesus, the author and finisher of your
faith. And by God's grace, that's what
I preach to you confidently, confidently knowing that it's
Christ. It's Christ Jesus who saves. That's what he said there in
2 Corinthians 3, 4. And such trust have we through
Christ our God. We're so confident in him that
we preach him. I know that is salvation. He
is salvation. He is the Savior. And everything
you need, everything you must be turned from, He's able, and
He does it without fail. Without fail, He teaches you,
provides for you, gives you everything you need. Everything in Christ
Jesus. And the Lord uses simple men
to preach this simple message of Jesus Christ, Him crucified
over and over and over for the salvation of men's souls. For your salvation. That's what
He does. Now second, these will be a little
quicker. The men our Lord sends, they're
ambassadors. ambassadors of Christ. This means
that the things we are telling you are true and certain. If
we're preaching Christ to you, if we're exalting Him, it is
true and certain. Believe Christ. Depend upon Him
wholly. Cast yourself upon Him alone. Trust Him. He is able to bring
you peaceably accepted of the Father into the presence of God.
He's able, without fail, and without fail. Christ is sufficient
to save you, to the uttermost you may trust him fully. Holy, brethren, holy. Trust him
wholly to provide everything you need and be accepted of the
Father in him. Paul said it this way in 2 Corinthians
5, verse 20, end to chapter 6, verse 1. He said, now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you
in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. Through Christ. Through
Christ. For God hath made him to be sin
for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. That's the salvation God has
provided. Christ Jesus. It's all of Christ. That's all
Paul spoke of is Christ. We then, as workers together
with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God
in vain. Don't be turned away from Christ
back to the law for righteousness. That's receiving the grace of
God in vain. That's not hearing what He's
saying to us, brethren. That's not looking to the only
Savior, which is Jesus Christ. It's not your works or my works
under the law that save you. It's the blood of Christ that
washes us from all our sins. He alone, by His grace and His
power, makes you whole. makes us complete in Him. We're complete in Him. We are
the bride of Christ. He is our husband. We are one
in Him. Complete in Him. Faithful is
He that calleth you who also will do it. What He starts, He
finishes. He's the author and the finisher
of our faith. He's all, brethren. Hear it from
Christ's own words. He said, verily, verily, I say
unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. It's a token that God has given
you faith in Christ. That faith is a token that you
have life already in Christ. Otherwise, you wouldn't believe
him. That's what he gives. He gives a spirit who manifests
faith, hope, and love in the Lord Jesus Christ. He works that
in us. He teaches us. He takes us from
dead things and foolish things and the lust of this world, all
by his grace and power, working it in us so that we love him.
And he teaches us and instructs us in the way. It's by his grace.
It's by his power he does this. And our Lord speaks of those
who faithfully preach the gospel to you, saying in verse 16, now
back in Luke 10, verse 16, he said, he that heareth you, heareth
me. And he that despiseth you, despiseth
me. And he that despiseth me, despiseth
him that sent me. Because again, Christ is sent
by the Father for our salvation, the whole of it. beginning to
end. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. You have life already. Now third,
God is sovereign and able to give you this power unto salvation
through the preaching of Christ crucified. In Luke 10 verse 21
and 22, this is after the 70 returned from preaching, And we're rejoicing because of
the power of God displayed in preaching the kingdom of God.
They saw these things. They saw devils were subject
to them. They have no power against Christ. And it says in verse 21, our
Lord said, well, it says, in that hour, Jesus rejoiced in
spirit and said, I thank thee, O Father. Lord of heaven and
earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent,
and hast revealed them unto babes, even so, father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight. All things are delivered to me
of my father, and no man knoweth who the son is but the father,
and who the father is but the son, and he to whom the son will
reveal him. That's how you're going to know
God and worship Him in spirit and in truth is through Christ.
He reveals the Father to us. He that hath seen the Son hath
seen the Father. And we know the Father through
Christ the Son, because he reveals him to us in grace and mercy. Listen to these words that our
Lord said in Matthew 11, 28. He said, come unto me, all ye
that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take
my yoke upon you. In other words, take that yoke
of the law off your neck and take my yoke upon you. Faith,
believe in Christ, trusting him. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest
for your souls. He promises us rest. He will not fail. He will not
fail to deliver us and to give us rest in him. For my yoke is easy, and my burden
is light. He said to the Jews in John 637,
all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. He will not refuse
you. He will not refuse you. We find him a willing and able
Savior. All who need him He doesn't cast
them away. He doesn't turn away. There are
none in hell who said, I wanted to believe, but you didn't let
me. Nope. All who believe Christ find him
to be a willing and able Savior. Willing and able. Go to him,
sinner. He will not turn you away. Though your sins be as
scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like
crimson, they shall be as wool. Speaking of the sheep, you should
be clean and white as all the sheep of Christ are, having their
wool. The fountain for sin is filled
with the blood of Christ. Be plunged under that blood.
All who are plunged under the blood of Christ come up washed
and renewed and alive in him by his grace in the Lord Jesus
Christ. We are made new creatures of
his grace. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new in Him, and He gives it. He reveals
it to us by faith, by revealing faith in our hearts that looks
to the Lord Jesus Christ and stands in Him. rests in Him,
is not moved from Him, is not turned from Him. And when we
do turn by His grace and power, He turns us back to Him and keeps
us right there, right there in Christ. This faith is the testimony
of God that Christ redeemed you, that He died for you. You that
believe Him, trust Him. It is a demonstration of His
power and mercy for you in Christ. And then fourth, you that hear
me, you do have a responsibility for your sin and unbelief. Either
you'll bear your sin yourself or Christ bear it for you. as
revealed by the faith which he gives to his people. He shows
it. He testifies of what it is. Our
Lord said back in Luke 10 verse 10 through 12, he said, but into
whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you not, go your
ways out into the streets of the same and say, Even the very
dust of your city, which cleaveth on us, we do wipe off against
you. Notwithstanding, be sure of this,
that the kingdom of God has come nigh unto you." And he's saying
those, they rejected it. They wouldn't hear it. They did
not believe Christ. They despised him. He said, verse
12, I say unto you that it shall be more tolerable in that day
for Sodom than for that city. For Sodom, that wicked, wicked,
vile, wretched, sinful city of Sodomites, it'll be more tolerable
for them than for those who hear Christ and reject Him. If you
go to hell, what he's saying is it'll be your fault. You've
heard the gospel. He's declared the gospel freely
unto you in the Lord Jesus Christ, but you despised it. You that
do not believe him, you that do not trust him, you despised
it. You chose instead your own righteousness and said, I figured
it out. I'll figure it out. We'll work
it out. And you despise Christ and somehow believe that God
who sent Christ will receive you for your own righteousness.
It's folly, brethren. It's folly. And the Lord says,
you'll die in your sins and unbelief. Romans 6.23, the wages of sin
is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus
Christ our Lord. That's the gift of God. That's
what we're speaking of here. We won't be able to blame God
for our unbelief because he's sovereign. He's merciful to all
who need him, look to him, believe him. He promises salvation. He
that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. God testifying that you're his
in Christ. He that believeth not hath made
God a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave
of his son. Our Lord sent Jesus Christ to
die that God may be just to forgive the sins of all who come to him
in Christ Jesus. He manifests this life of Christ
to needy sinners who trust Christ alone for all their righteousness. Believe him. Without delay, call
upon him. Fall upon him, begging him to
save you and have mercy upon you and to reveal this faith
in you. Paul said, if thou shalt confess
with thy mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and shalt believe in thine
heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be
saved. For whosoever calleth upon the
Lord shall be saved. But if you refuse him and will
not believe, we have only ourselves to blame. you that believe him
not. I pray that God give you ears
to hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches that you hear
this word which is met together perfectly in Christ. All the
righteousness you need to stand before the throne of God accepted
of him is met and found in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Believe
Him. Trust Him. Call upon Him for
salvation. He is a faithful, a willing and
able Savior to the uttermost you that are sinners and have
no righteousness of your own. That's who He came for, for sinners. Believe Him, brethren. I pray
the Lord bless that word to your hearts. Amen.