Good morning, everyone. All right, we're going to begin.
And this morning we're going to be in Mark 16, finishing up
Mark today. Mark 16, and our text will include
verses 17 through 20. Mark 16, 17 through 20. Now last week, we saw how Mark
was drawing his gospel to a close. And he says there in verse 19,
so then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up
into heaven and sat on the right hand of God. And we looked at
that and saw how that mark was concluding the earthly ministry
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so now in these final verses
that we're gonna look at, we see that by the authority of
Jesus Christ, through His Spirit, the promise of His Spirit, and
the promise of His spiritual blessings to us, we see how that
the Lord Himself gives us power and authority to do His will,
to do that which He would have us to do here as His people,
as the Church of God, here on the earth. Now I've titled this,
Confirming the Word with Signs. Confirming the Word with Signs. All right, so we know that when
our Lord ascended into heaven and was seated in power and glory,
we're told then in verse 20, and they, his disciples, went
forth and preached everywhere. the Lord working with them and
confirming the word with signs following. Amen, he says. Alright, so the disciples went
forth, meaning that they were sent by their Lord. They went forth being sent by
the Lord and they preached. They preached. And that's the
purpose of the Church. That's the purpose that our God
has given to His Church. We are to preach the Word, preach
the Gospel concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. And He assures
us that this is our purpose even to this day. And we're told that when they
preached, they went forth preaching everywhere. Everywhere they went,
they preached the Lord. And so they were sent by God
to preach the gospel, to preach what it is that they knew, what
the Lord had taught them, what the Lord had showed them here
when He walked upon the earth, teaching them and doing the miracles
that He did among them, and what He said concerning God and concerning
their salvation. And so they went forth preaching
the gospel. And the gospel reveals to us
the Lord Jesus Christ. And the gospel also reveals to
us His resurrection. You know, we preach Christ and
we preach the resurrection and the importance of speaking of
the resurrection, the importance is because it puts us in mind,
it puts us in memory that we are going to one day stand before
Holy God. We're going to stand before the
true and living God one day very soon. And He's going to judge
the people according to perfect righteousness. And all those
outside of Christ are going to stand in their own works of righteousness
whereas those in Christ are going to stand before God in the righteousness
of Jesus Christ and therefore be accepted by God even as Christ
is accepted by God for His righteousness. Alright, now in Acts 8.4 we read
that when the church was persecuted We read that they that were scattered
abroad went everywhere preaching the word, everywhere preaching
the word. And Paul, when he wrote to Timothy
in the second epistle to Timothy, chapter four, verse two, he told
Timothy, preach the word. preach the word, Timothy. And
then to Titus, another pastor, he writes to him in Titus 1.3
saying that God had manifested his word through preaching, through
preaching. So we see the importance of preaching
the word. Not our focus isn't to be on
ministering with services to the community or having various
programs that suit the tastes and desires of the people there
in the community, but rather the service that we're to provide
to the people in our community, in our generation. is to preach
the word, preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you look up
that word preach, just put in preach, you'll see that in Acts,
in Acts alone, the word preach or preached or preaching will
all come up just by putting in preach there in a search there,
and you'll see it comes up 37 times. 37 times, just in the
Book of Acts. And in all those cases, with
the exception of a very few exceptions, they all speak of, everywhere
it's talking about preaching, we see the Church preaching Jesus
Christ and His Resurrection. That's what we see throughout
Acts. And the only time that there's
a difference was when it's speaking of John the Baptist and what
he preached. He preached the coming of Christ. And then there's one case where
it's speaking of the Jews who preach Moses. and the law, right? That's the only other time that
they speak of it, and you see that there's those who are yet
in darkness under the veil of blindness, in nature's blindness,
preaching, not Christ, but preaching Moses. And that says a lot about
the state of so-called churches in our day who aren't preaching
Christ, they're preaching Moses. And still to this day, they call
themselves Christian churches and yet they preach Moses and
they preach the law and they preach all manner of things. It's mostly application and what
you're supposed to be doing and how you could be doing better.
It's all focused on man to the exclusion of what we see in the
scriptures to preach Jesus Christ and His gospel. And so that's
what we're to be doing. We're to be preaching and preaching
Christ, because that's preaching the Word. And so when you read
of the Word being preached, see that it's to reveal the purpose
of our preaching is to reveal Christ, it's to reveal the gospel,
right? Peter, for example, and know
the gospel written by Peter, 1 and 2 Peter, they're wonderful
books and it's condensing everything that we see Paul say to the churches. And Peter in 1 Peter 1.25, He
says, but the word of the Lord endureth forever. It endures
forever. And we see how that even means
to us that it's appropriate for every age, for every culture,
every generation. we preach this word and it's
still relevant and necessary for every one of us in our day
to hear it just as it was necessary and needful to those alive in
Paul's day, in Peter's day, in the Lord's day, and all throughout
the church, throughout all ages, preach the word. It was necessary
then, it's necessary for us today. And so, He says, and this is
the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. Meaning,
when we're preaching, we are to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ. We're to exalt Him. If we're
not preaching Christ, then we cannot say that we are faithfully
preaching as it's revealed in the Bible. We're not preaching
biblical preaching unless we're exalting the Lord Jesus Christ
in the salvation of His people, in the deliverance of His people.
That's biblical preaching as we see revealed in the Word. All right, now I mentioned also
that they preached everywhere. They went forth and preached
everywhere. That tells us what our scope and our boundary is,
right? We're to preach everywhere. And pray that the Lord help us
in season and out of season because if we're preaching everywhere
then it can there there comes a need anytime and anywhere we
go or at any time. And so our responsibility as
a church, and that's what we are, we're a church that the
Lord has assembled together. Our responsibility, therefore,
is to faithfully preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to our generation,
to see and to know that we've been put here to minister to
those in our day, in our age, those that with the problems
and the issues of the day, We are to minister that gospel faithfully,
just as we saw other pastors that we saw faithfully ministering
Christ and preaching the gospel in their day. It was important
for them to do it in their day, so we do it in our day. And we're
going to be addressing the issues that are coming up in our day
that are warring against the truth of God revealed in Christ. Because that never changes, that
never ceases. They're always looking to the
spiritual forces that are enmity against our God and against his
Christ are ever-present, ever-warring, ever-seeking to destroy Christ,
ever-seeking to destroy the foundation, ever-seeking to destroy our hope. which is the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so when we get off of preaching Christ and we get focused on
other things out of the context of preaching Christ, then we've
given place to the enemy. We're not doing what we've been
called to do faithfully. in preaching our Lord. And so,
if we're sent by the risen Christ, then we're going to faithfully
preach Him. Alright? Those who are sent, are sent
to preach, and to preach Christ. Therefore, it follows that if
we're sent and we do the work that we're sent to do, then we're
going to experience what the disciples of our Lord experienced. Mark 16 20 says, "...and they
went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them."
And so, It puts the work that we're called to do in the light,
right? In the right perspective. And
it shows that when we're preaching that word, Doing that which our
God has ordained us to do and given us the power and His Spirit
to do, we see that the Lord is working with us. If we're rebelling
against God and doing our own thing, the Lord's not working
with us. We may find some form of success,
as men count success, but the Spirit won't be working with
us. We'll be doing our own thing. He's the worker, our God is the
worker, and we are but the tools in his hand, the tools that he
uses in his kingdom as he sees fit. And turn over to Romans
12, Romans 12, and look there at verse 1. Romans
12.1, he says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies
of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy,
acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. We have
the promise that the Lord is working with us. And oftentimes,
we wonder, especially young believers, we wonder, well, what would the
Lord have me to do? How can I faithfully serve the
Lord? How do I know what I'm supposed
to do? Well, that could be very hard for us to know what we are
to do. I can only say for myself what
the Lord did. was I didn't know what to do.
I only knew that I wanted to serve the Lord and wanted to
serve his people. And so what ended up happening
was just when my pastor would go away to preach, he would ask
me to preach. And it wasn't that I necessarily
felt qualified or gifted to preach to the people of God, but I trusted
the Lord that if they asked and they continue to ask, then I'm
going to do what the Lord has given me to do. He's going to
reveal his will, and it's that way with all of us. We're not
all necessarily preachers, but we do find ways to serve and
to help one another, whether it's giving of our resources,
giving, and that includes our time, right, or the things that
the Lord's blessed us with, and he gives us that desire and that
ability to serve and do for one another as he enables us to do
it, right, and to labor among one another. Now as you continue
through Romans 12, and I'm not going to go through it all, but
you can read almost the whole chapter of Romans 12, and you
see how there's various gifts, but I'm just going to read a
little bit more in it. In verse 2, he says, and be not conformed
to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect
will of God. And He reveals that will to us
in the preaching of the Gospel. To know that it's about our Lord. It's about Him. And we're to
exalt and bring honor to His name. For I say, Paul said in
verse 3, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is
among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to
think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to
every man the measure of faith. And I was actually corresponding
a little bit this morning with Clay, actually, and he had responded
to the Bulletin article, and we were talking, and I could
just see, you know, just how pastors or people, when you're
preaching, you see how you see things and then others see other
things that you didn't see. And I was just thinking of how
we see the glory of our God in that, how He reveals a little
here to this person and he reveals a little back to that person
and all of it is always sufficient perfectly sufficient to the needs
of the brethren and yet there's always other things that the
Lord is revealing to us over time or to this one or to that
one so that none of us ever thinks more highly of ourselves than
we ought to think, but that we always see that continued blessing
as well as a need for the fellowship of the saints and the unity there
in the body. As Paul says in verse 4 there,
for as we have many members in one body, and all members have
not the same office, so we being many are one body in Christ,
and every one members one of another, having then gifts differing
according to the grace that is given to us. And so, the Lord
is the one who gives the gifts, right? And he enables us to use
those those gifts and puts us in position to use those gifts. And so we pray to that end, Lord
help me, right? Because oftentimes, most of the
time, we don't see it. We don't see any success with
us necessarily. And we're usually focused more
so on how we've stumbled and bumbled and fumbled things and
how we're coming up short. And yet the Lord, in his glory
and power, is able to make his will effectual in the hearts
and minds of his people, so that they're comforted and taken care
of and provided for, all by his spirit, working in the members
of that body, that body of believers that love the Lord and one another. And you can see all that as you
continue to read Romans 12, at another time. All right, so with
that being so, we come back to our text there in Mark 16 20.
It says, they went forth and preached
everywhere, right, and we see that they know the Lord was working
with them. right? The Lord working with
them and confirming the word with signs following, right? The Lord confirmed the word with
signs following. And so we in ourselves are weak,
we're not strong, but our strength and our understanding of the
deep things of God all comes from His Spirit revealing them
and working these things in us. And again, though we're weak,
the Lord is strong and able to pass all understanding and to
reveal those things that we have need of knowing in Him. I like
what Paul said in writing to Timothy again, in 2 Timothy 2.9,
he tells us, the Word of God is not bound. And I'm thankful for that, because
though we ourselves are weak, He is strong, right? And His
Word is not bound by our weaknesses and our frailties and our failings,
right? His Word's not bound, and He's
going to accomplish His will among His people. Paul would
tell the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 12, 9, and 10, He said, the Lord, Paul was praying
because of an infirmity. This is a man whom the Lord used
to work miracles among the people. And he himself has an infirmity,
and he's praying, Lord, take this from me. And the Lord said
unto him, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is
made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will
I rather glory in my infirmity Therefore, he said, I take pleasure
in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions,
in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then am I
strong. And so in spite of our weaknesses,
and us coming up short, and us unable to do things and hit that
mark that we think We need to be hidden. The Lord is still
able to deliver with power and glory to His name what He's working
in and amongst His people. And so the Lord will confirm
the word with signs following, He says. All right? So having
said that, let's go back, because we didn't really get into verse
17 and 18 at all yet. So Mark 16. 17 and 18, because
this speaks of signs, right? Signs. And he says, these signs
shall follow them that believe. These signs shall follow them
that believe. In my name shall they cast out
devils, they shall speak with new tongues, they shall take
up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not
hurt them, they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."
Now we know that in the apostolic age, those men who saw Christ and were called and
sent directly by the Lord Jesus Christ, those are the apostles. We don't have any apostles this
day, right? But we do know that there were
12 apostles and that Paul was the one who the Lord raised up
to replace Judas, right? There were 12 apostles sent by
the Lord and they had those gifts and the ability to even lay hands
on others to confer those gifts in that age, in that time, because
it was all done by the Lord to confirm that this Word preached
is indeed the Word of God, revealed in His Son, Jesus Christ. Alright? So these were literal
gifts during that age, while the Scriptures were being written,
while the Church was being established there on the earth. Alright? Now turn over to Hebrews 2. Hebrews 2. And let's look at verse three,
verse three and four. And he says, how shall we escape
if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be
spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him? It was, this was confirmed through
signs in the preaching of the word with the Lord attending
it with signs that this is indeed the word of God. God also bearing
them witness both with signs and wonders and with diverse
miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to His own will. So now that the church has been
established, now that the scriptures are completed, those miracles
and that display of power is no longer necessary because we
now know this is indeed the Word of the Lord. And if you are honest
with it, you understand and see there's a greater miracle going
on here in that we who aren't seeing those miracles and that
display of power yet believe the Word which was confirmed
to them. And that's what our Lord said
in John 17 20. He prayed for this very thing when he said,
neither pray I for these alone, these my apostles, but for them
also which shall believe on me through their Word, through the
Word, right? And that's what we believe. We
believe the preached Word revealed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
apart from seeing those magnificent displays and miracles and wonders
before us. Even so, God has revealed with
power by giving you faith to believe that this is the Christ. He is my salvation and my hope. And I need nothing more but what
my God has revealed to me in His Word. And though He be pleased
to let me perish, and suffer by his grace and glory I shall
be yet able to praise him and give him all the thanks and continue
hoping in him till the end." That's what he works in us, right? Was it Job? Though he slay me,
yet will I praise him. And so that's by the power of
our God, right? I mean, even think about the
Old Testament, looking unto Christ, they didn't necessarily have
all these. miracles and yet they believed and trusted and looked
unto Christ's coming and so it is that we too are looking back
now even without that physical display of such power that the
Apostles had in their day. Now having said that, it doesn't
mean that these signs spoken of have no purpose or have ceased
even in our day. Now what do I mean by that? In
other words, what I'm saying is they have a very real spiritual
fulfillment in all the believers of the Lord, right? So everyone born of the Spirit
shall have this power, these signs revealed to them. All right? Our Lord said, verily,
verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot
see the kingdom of God. And so when you look there at
this word, what do we see it says? This is verse 16. It says,
and these signs shall follow them that believe. Did you catch
that? These signs follow them that
believe. Not necessarily the apostles
who are preaching the word, but every one of you that believe
these signs follow. So these miracles are worked
in every single believer as the Lord is pleased to reveal his
word in them. So first, he says, in my name
shall they cast out Now, there's a sweet correlation that we have
even as it was revealed in Mary Magdalene. And we looked at this
once before, but I think it's a beautiful picture. If you turn
over to Titus 3, Titus 3.3. Remember, Mary Magdalene is that
disciple of her Lord out of whom he had cast seven devils. He cast out seven devils out
of Mary Magdalene. And I would say to you, brethren,
that's the case with every one of us. Every one of us, as we
see revealed in Titus 3.3. Paul said, for we ourselves also. Just like Mary Magdalene, we
ourselves also, at one time, were filled with seven devils,
as it were. We were foolish, we were disobedient,
we were deceived, serving diverse lusts and pleasures, living in
malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. We had those seven devils. They
still, right, in the flesh, we're still wicked sinners, and our
Savior has cast those things out as we look to Him in the
inner man, in the new man, in the creation of our Savior, Jesus
Christ. And he says, but after that,
the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared,
not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according
to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration and
renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly through
Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified not by works,
but by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope
of eternal life. And so He delivered us from the
works of darkness, out of those things that we might know and
serve the true and living God. Second, they shall speak with
new tongues. Now hasn't our Lord done that
for us? Don't we speak with a new heavenly
tongue? Don't we now give glory and praise
to our God? Rather than speaking of our dead,
filthy, polluted works, we boast in our Lord and Savior. We speak
of Him, right? Now the people of this world,
they still don't understand us, but we not only declare and speak
in other tongues, We even understand the other tongues. We understand
when our brethren are speaking to us and when that word is preached
to us. Because He hasn't given us the
spirit of this world, but the spirit of our God. Whereby we
know these things and He reveals these things. So that mist and
darkness and confusion of Babel, we've been delivered from that
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we speak with new tongues
and we understand them as well. Third, they shall take up serpents,
and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them."
Well, we know that our Savior crushed the serpent's head, right? His deadly poison has no more
power or effect on us. When we see His works, we do
feel sick to our stomach often time and are disgusted and pained
by it, but it doesn't kill us. Our Savior doesn't let us fall
into eternal death and condemnation, but He delivers us from that
so that even when we're afflicted with that poison of His fiery
darts, they shall be quenched with the power and the glory
of our God and Savior. And the fourth, they shall lay
hands on the sick, and they shall recover." Right? So this is accomplished,
brethren, through the preaching of the gospel. That's how our
Lord delivers us. That's how he ministers faith
in our hearts, whereby we believe and confess with the mouth that
Jesus Christ is both Lord and Savior and that God hath raised
Him from the dead unto the salvation and deliverance of our souls,
all right? So the Lord makes us, through
the preaching of the gospel, to know I'm the sinner, I'm the
rebel, I can't save myself by my own works of righteousness,
but God has provided full and free salvation in his Son, accomplished
by the Lord Jesus Christ, apart from my works, so that it's all
of his grace and to his glory and praise. And so our God has
shined upon us in grace in the Lord Jesus Christ, right? From that tiny little seed when
our Lord laid down his life and died and was buried in the ground
and sprung forth in his power and glory a tree fruitful, right? Bearing fruit in his people and
bringing us out of darkness, out of death and the prison of
bondage and In bondage to this nature's darkness and night,
our Lord delivers us from that. Alright? And so brethren, we
go forth confident, preaching this Word, knowing that our God
attends His Word with power and with glory. Isaiah said in Isaiah
2, 3, Many people shall go and say, Come ye and let us go up
to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob,
and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.
For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord
from Jerusalem. And so brethren, know that our
labor is not in vain. He's teaching us, right? He's
settling us. He's revealing himself in us. And so we have that confidence,
right? They that sow in tears shall
reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth,
bearing precious seeds shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
bringing his sheaves with him. Just remember that. Make a sign
and put that in your garden. That would be a good reminder
to us. therefore 1st Corinthians 15
58 therefore my beloved brethren be steadfast unmovable always
abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as you know
that your labor is not in vain in the Lord all right now let
me just say finally the last word mark puts in his gospel
is amen or amen if you prefer, amen, which means so be it, or
so it is. It is so, this is what it is.
And so we say amen to all that our Lord has revealed to us,
right? In this study, as you read this
blessed account of what our Savior said and talked to us and did
among us, how our God reveals His glory and power in us through
His Son, Jesus Christ, in this preached Word. And by His Spirit,
we say, Amen. Amen. Let it be so, even in us. Lord, let it be so as you say. And I'll just close with Revelation
22, verse 20 and 21. where this is the Lord speaking,
He which testifies these things say, surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, we respond, even
so come Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
be with you all. Amen. I pray the Lord bless that
word to these people. All right, let's pray. Our gracious
Lord, Father, we thank you for Just the blessed study, just
the blessed revelation of Christ that you've revealed to us here
in your Gospel of Mark. Lord, we're so thankful for Your
Son and for Your power and how You attend Your Word with signs
following them that believe. We pray that You would manifest
these things in our hearts and in our minds and let them be
heard on our tongues that we are our Lord and Savior, that
He is our God and Savior. and let him be exalted by the
things we say and do in the midst of one another before you. It's
in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that we pray this,
amen. Okay, brethren. So I went a little long, but
let's come back at about 11.03. All right, 11.03 on your clocks.