Turn to Mark chapter 6. Mark
chapter 6 and we're moving now to verses 7 through 13. And our title here, in Mark 6,
7 through 13, is Christ Sends Preachers. Christ Sends Preachers. And we'll have four divisions,
but let's get to the first verse in our text, in Mark 6, verse
7, and we'll look at Christ commissions his ministers. He commissions
his people to go and serve. It says in verse 7, and he called
unto him the twelve. and began to send them forth
by two and two, and gave them power over unclean spirits."
Now, what we have here is the calling and the commissioning
of the 12 apostles. And we notice, we want to notice
first that it's Christ who calls men. Christ calls his people
to serve him. And before we look at what these
men are doing, we want to first take notice of what our Lord
does what what he himself is doing and so the first thing
we notice is that he called unto him christ called unto him so
it's our lord that calls men into service for the lord to
serve him and to serve his people it's not a choice of of a man's
occupation he just doesn't decide well i'm going to be a pastor
i'm going to teach people about the things of God. These men
didn't choose this. They were called by the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's just as in the Old Testament,
there was no high priest who appointed himself to be high
priest. He was called of God, as it says
in Hebrews 5. Verse four, that no man taketh
this honor unto himself. And you know, since I'm a pastor
now here, when people find out that I'm a pastor, usually the
very next question out of their mouth is, oh, did you go to school
to learn how to be a pastor? And when I tell them, no, I've
never gone to seminary and have no intention of doing so, you
could tell there's a sort of a surprise and a disappointment
or a confusion or even a disgust that I have no desire for those
things. Yet those same people think nothing
of a young man deciding that he's going to be a pastor and
sign himself up to go to seminary and to put himself in this path,
that he takes it to himself. That they accept, and they don't
see any strangeness in that. They see nothing that a man appoints
himself to be a pastor, but they think it's strange that a man
should be called to the Lord to be a pastor. We see here in
this text that it's a calling by Christ, and what's sweet and
so marvelously sweet for you brethren when you think about
it, that it's the Lord who picks out a person, and it's the Lord
who prepares a person, and it's the Lord who sends a man, and
he does that for you, his sheep." That's a
sweet thing to see that and to think about how it's the Lord
who calls somebody for that very purpose. And he does it for you,
his sheep, whom he loves and delights in and provides to feed
them with the Lord Jesus Christ. I saw it in my own pastor, how
the Lord did that, and how I was able to see when Clay was there,
just how the Lord had done that. And just knowing the things that
I went through while sitting under the gospel there, it made
me really think about what he had gone through because it was
not just me and my problems that he had experience with but also
all the other men and women that were there that had troubles
and concerns and cares and issues that I then began to think, wow,
Lord, have you prepared that man for all the needs of those
people and put him through those things? And it's quite a thing
to think of how the Lord does that that he does it. He calls and he prepares and
he sends a man to preach the gospel. So the first thing though
is that these ministers, they can't just go off and minister
in Christ's name. They need to know the Lord himself. The Lord's going to call them
and they're going to know him. It just says we read in Mark
3, 13, so in the same book, he called his disciples initially
to him and it says, he goeth up into a mountain and calleth
unto him whom he would and they came unto him so we're gonna
be coming to the Lord the Lord's gonna call us and he's gonna
draw us and we're gonna know him and and we'll confess just
as Peter confessed in verse Matthew 16 16 he said thou art the Christ
the Son of the Living God And Jesus, our Lord, said to him,
Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not
revealed this to you, but my Father which is in heaven. So
for us to know who Christ is and to see that this is the Christ
of God. that's not a product of the flesh
that's that's the the father revealing that to us by his spirit
and so that's true not just of preachers and pastors but any
any of his people who serve him who serve him in whatever capacity
he gives you to serve him he's gonna call you he's gonna cause
you to know him you're gonna know that he is the Christ and
that he's the son of the living God and All that that means,
everything that that means that God has provided for you, his
people, in his son Jesus Christ. For example, he shows us and
teaches us that we're sinners. We come to know that we are sinners. And as you grow, don't you find
yourself saying, I didn't even know what a filthy sinner I was.
And the more you grow in Christ, the more he shows you your need
of Him. Just how wonderful it was that
God saved you and delivered you, even when you had no idea just
how foul and corrupted and naive and in darkness we really were.
And we see, Lord, you did all that for me when I didn't know
anything. About about you and how you and
grace and mercy revealed all this to me that to see that I
can't save myself But to see that Christ really is the Lamb
of God slain from the foundation of the world that he really is
perfect and fit and Wonderful and does all things well and
that he is the perfect Savior for sinners so that being taught
what sinners we are, being shown how great Christ is, we then
begin to speak of the glories of Christ. As Paul told Timothy,
he said in 2 Timothy 1.9, speaking of Christ who hath saved us and
called us within holy calling, not according to our works, but
according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. So it's a work of Christ
to call them, and it's a work of Christ to prepare them, and
you can be, to prepare his pastors and his preachers, because he's
stripping them. He's stripping them of all their
natural confidences, and all the things that I might hope
in as a man, as, you know, I've grown up and whatnot, and the
Lord has to strip you of all those things so that we're not
left trusting in ourselves, and not left hoping or looking to
the strength of our own hand, but he frustrates those things,
he crosses all of our fair schemes and ideas that we had that should
work out, but he destroys them all and brings them to nothing
so that we're brought to nothing in ourselves. We don't have any
confidence or any self-righteousness. He's got to take all that away,
because then how can I speak to the people of God? If I'm
looking to my own righteousnesses, then I'm going to speak to you
in that way. And that's corrupt, and that's
deceitful, and that's not help to anybody. So he brings us to
nothing in ourselves that we find are all in the Lord Jesus
Christ. As he says in Jeremiah 315, and
I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed
you with knowledge understanding and you know what we are by nature
you know where we start so if he's going to give you pastors
according to his own heart I didn't I wasn't born with a halo over
my head I know the Lord has tested has to destroy that man and bring
him to nothing in himself that he might be able to preach and
pastor the people of God and not think of himself more highly
than he ought to think, but see that this is the Lord's heritage.
This is the Lord's people. And never forget that. This is
the Lord's people. So he does that. And so after
Christ has prepared that man, he puts him in the ministry.
As Paul acknowledged to the Galatians 1, 15, and 16, he said, but when
it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by his grace to reveal his son in me that I might preach
him among the heathen. And so you'll know when you're
called to serve the Lord because he'll put you in the ministry.
He'll put you in the ministry. You'll find that the Lord has
worked it all out. You don't need to be political. You don't need to go and start
working up a following and doing things because then it's a work
of your flesh. And when hard days and dark days
and trying times come, If you did the work, if you made it
happen, then where's your hope? Because if you made it happen,
then you think, well, wait, maybe I did this. But if you wait on
the Lord, if the Lord does it and he puts you in the ministry,
then when the hard and the trying days come, you can turn to the
Lord and say, Lord, you did this. You brought me here and you did
this work. So Lord, please, can you work
out your will and make your will known in this thing? And Lord,
you do your work. So you can look to him and trust
him because it wasn't your work to begin with. It was the Lord
who did it. And so Christ We'll teach that
man, he'll bring him, he'll put him under a pastor. Like I had
to sit under a pastor. As I said the last week, I came
up through pajama church. I came up through, I mean I went
to many different churches, but they didn't preach the truth.
And so there was times when I sat there alone on the couch or with
another family for a time, listening to other videos, but I didn't
sit under the authority of a man for a while until the Lord, there
was no possibility of me going into the ministry if I didn't
even know what it was like to sit under a pastor. I had to
sit under a pastor and wonder and think, well, why did he do
that? And I had to pray and trust God that the Lord knew exactly
what he was doing, that the Lord humbled me as someone who sat
there in the pew. But if I hadn't gone through
that, then how could I empathize and think, I know what they're
probably thinking at certain times, because I was there myself.
learn and trust the Lord through it all. Because the Lord uses
all these relationships and these times to knit our hearts together
and to show us how gracious and kind He is to His people and
what He provides. But turn over to Lamentations.
So after Isaiah and then Jeremiah, before you get to Ezekiel, there's
Lamentations. It's a little book which the
Lord used Jeremiah to write. In Lamentations 3, this is probably
the most familiar of all the chapters there in Lamentations,
Lamentations 3, we'll pick up in verse 21, and what you'll
notice when you read Lamentations 3 is that the whole beginning
there, it's showing us what Christ has done, what He went through
to purge us of our sins, the pain and the suffering that He
endured for His people, and then in verse 21, The writer says,
this I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. I recall what Christ
has done for me, therefore I have hope. Because he sees what Christ
went through to purge him and her of their sins, to show them
what they are and what he's done. And so he's taught. that the
Lord, verse 25, go to Lamentations 3.25, the Lord is good unto them
that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It's good that
a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the
Lord. It's good for a man that he should bear the yoke in his
youth. He sitteth alone and keepeth silence because he hath borne
it upon him. He putteth his mouth in the dust,
if so be there may be hope. And so the Lord does that, right? In his preparation of a man,
he strips him of his confidences, he strips him of his self-righteousness,
he removes all those dark and corrupt thoughts about God and
the way the world works or the way the world should work. He
destroys all those competences and all those works of the man
brings him to nothing in himself so that he's bowed down, puts
his mouth in the dust so that he's nothing. And then the Lord
lifts him up and the Lord removes that filth out of his mouth and
the Lord gives him a message so that he now sees and knows
Christ. That he may preach Christ to
the people and not himself and not the works of the flesh. So
it's the Lord who does that. You've probably met people like
this but I always was amazed when I would meet people and
we'd go to different fellowships and I remember hearing of a man
uh... who who was in one of these fellowships
they didn't have a pastor but he was certain that he was called
to be a pastor but the people didn't see it the people didn't
didn't see him as a pastor and so he left and you think well
that's pretty interesting the first thing that the man does
who thinks he's a pastor is abandon the sheep rather than sit there
quietly and wait he leaves the sheep and you think that's not
The Lord does. He doesn't put that in the heart
of a pastor to abandon the sheep. And yet that man who thought
he was something when he was nothing, he abandoned the sheep right
away rather than waiting on the Lord to make his will known and
to be patient. And it's a humiliating thing
to go through that. But the Lord, he'll make it evident.
He'll make it evident to his people if he's called to be a
pastor. The man will know that it's the
Lord who separates his man out. So in 2 Corinthians 2, 16, at
the end there, we come to see what Paul says here when he said,
and who's sufficient for these things? We come to see that.
We don't deserve it. We haven't merited it. We haven't
done anything to deserve the Lord to use us. There's nothing
different about us. We have all the same, you know,
a pastor has all the same like passions and desires in the flesh
and the same ambitions and the same, you know, intelligences. And, you know, we do all, you
know, we could do certain things, but the Lord, he brings us to
see that The only one that makes a difference is the Lord. The
Lord is the one who makes a difference in his people. And he says, Paul
said, for we are not as many which corrupt the word of God,
but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak
we in Christ. And so pastors today, just like
the apostles, they're separated out to this work by God. As Paul
wrote to the Romans, he said in Romans 1.1, Paul, a servant
of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the
gospel of God. And so what we see and learn
is that the Lord is constantly separating out his man to the
work, so that every day as I have to do things and have different
errands or chores that are weighing on me and different thoughts.
The Lord constantly is separating me out in a sense that I'm reminded
that I'm not my own. I'm reminded that I can't just
do the things that I want to do, but I'm the Lord's servant
now, and I'm her servant, and I'm here to study the Lord and
preach the gospel to you, that I'm not my own. I'm separated
out to this work. But he makes me willing. When
I was just preaching for Clay, I wasn't always willing. It was
very hard, but he makes his men willing to serve and to understand
what his calling is and that this is what he's called to.
It's not my job to do other things. And the Lord will remind us.
He'll remind his people. He'll remind me when I forget
that and when I am thinking of doing something else, the Lord
reminds me, no. That's not what you're called to do. You're called
to serve me. You're my servant, and you're
here to serve this people. So he is the one that separates
out his men to the gospel. All right. Now notice, too, though,
that it's not just the minister that is called, but Christ himself
was commissioned to this work. Christ himself was separated
out by God the Father and sent to do a work for the people.
If you turn over to Hebrews 5, Hebrews 5, verses 4 through 6,
Again, speaking of the high priest, we see verse 4, that no man taketh
this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God, as
was Aaron. Hebrews 5.5, so also Christ glorified
not himself to be made in high priest, but he that said unto
him, thou art my son, today have I begotten thee. And as he saith
also in another place, thou art a priest forever after the order
of Melchizedek. So that we see Christ was ordained
to this work. He was called of God his father
to do this work for his people. And so we read that it's according
as he had chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.
So before Adam ever sinned, Christ was ordained to this work, that
God chose out a people for the inheritance of his son to be
his bride, that Christ should come and lay down his life and
purchase her with his own blood. He was ordained to this very
work. He was commissioned by the Father to gather all those
that would be lost in the fall and that he would Destroy the
filthy evil works of the devil and deliver his people out of
that darkness that they would fall Into and in Hebrews 5 7
it says who in the days of his flesh when he had offered up
prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto
him that was able to save him from death and and was heard
in that he feared, though he were a son, yet learned he obedience
by the things which he suffered. And being made perfect, he became
the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obeyed him,
called of God, and high priest after the order of Melchizedek. So we see what Christ did, and
you see what he did for you, brethren, and how he did this
work. He was commissioned of God to
do that very work, to be a humble servant, to serve his people
in delivering them from their sins. And you see the pain and
the suffering that he was put through, which he did gladly.
He gladly did that for his people. So that in Hebrews 2, verse 9,
we see Jesus, we see Jesus, who was
made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death,
crowned with glory and honor that he by the grace of God should
taste death for every man. For it became him for whom are
all things and by whom are all things and bringing many sons
unto glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through
sufferings. For both he that sanctifies and
they who are sanctified are all of one for which cause he's not
ashamed to call you brethren, saying I will declare thy name
unto my brethren in the midst of the church while I sing praises
unto thee. So Christ himself was commissioned
of the Father to minister to our needs, to do this work for
us, because we certainly couldn't do it ourselves. And so he did
that. He put away the sin of his people.
He destroyed the works of the devil. He brought us out of the
darkness into the light of his glorious kingdom. He did all
that as a humble servant for you and for me, that we would
be delivered from that coming condemnation. For as much then,
Hebrews 2.14, as much then as the children are partakers of
flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same,
that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death,
that is, the devil, and deliver them, who through fear of death
were all their lifetime subject to bondage. So Christ has made
reconciliation, he was commissioned of the Father, and now he calls
his pastors and his preachers to go forth and to serve the
brethren and to preach this gospel of what God has done for us in
his Son, Jesus Christ. All right, now let's look at
the next two verses in our text. In Mark 6, verses 8 and 9, we
see the commission that the pastors, the preachers, are commissioned
to declare Christ. We're here to declare and preach
the Lord Jesus Christ. As Paul said, as our brother
read there in 1 Corinthians 2, to try to determine not to know
anything among you, say, Jesus Christ and Him alone. Crucified
all right so marks mark six eight and nine and command Christ commanded
them that they should take nothing for their journey Save a staff
only no script no bread no money in their purse, but be shod with
sandals and not put on two coats Let me just touch a few things
there in that one one thing that we see there is that pastors
there They're not going to They're going to be careful not to be
self-serving, to show themselves as self-serving. I just happened
to read a story. I don't know where I caught this
thing, but a pastor, supposedly, on social media, it went viral
that he gave his wife a Lamborghini SUV, a $200,000 vehicle. And
he tried to explain it away. I don't want to judge that, but
the thing is you don't want to appear like you're self-serving,
that you're doing this for yourself and to do really well, because
there certainly are denominations or congregations where you could
really make a living for yourself there, but that's not why we're
doing this. And then he shows us in this
though that they're to focus on serving Christ. They're not
to be divided in what they do, but to focus on the Lord Jesus
Christ, because we're not to be entangled with the affairs
all caught up. I mean, there's things that we
have to do. I mean, I have a wife and I have children, so there's
certain things that I have to do, but as much as possible,
I'm to serve the Lord and put my focus and attention on Him.
And the third thing that we see there is that it's the local
church that are to provide for the pastor. So that in Mark 6
10, he says unto them, in what place soever ye enter into an
house, there abide till ye depart from that place. So that the
Lord's showing that he's going to provide. He's going to use
the local people to provide for the pastor so he could preach
the gospel. And you know many people are
often they like to point out Paul and say well Paul was a
tent maker and he provided for himself and he earned a living,
and that's true. Paul did do that when it was
necessary, but you also have to take notice that it was in
Corinth, which was probably the wealthiest of all the churches
in Greece at that time, so really it was a shame for them that
Paul had to do that, because you had poor churches sending
gifts to provide for Paul and those that were ministering with
Paul. As much as they like to point
out Paul, you ever notice that it was Paul more than any of
the other apostles who actually wrote and taught the brethren
that they were to provide for the Lord's pastor? He actually
wrote more than any of the others. He said, for example, in 1 Corinthians
9.7, he said, who goeth to warfare any time at his own charges?
Who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof?
Or who feedeth the flock, and eateth not of the milk of the
flock? And then he said in verse 14 of the same chapter, even
so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel
should live of the gospel. And then Paul said again to the
Galatians, he said in 6.6, let him that is taught in the word
communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things." So it's
just about that you want the pastor to be focused on serving
the Lord and you don't want him to be fearful and afraid that
he's going to be bankrupt or that he's going to come to ruin
and destruction because he's so worried and caught up about
these things and he's dividing his time and pursuing other avenues
to make ends meet, if you will. You know, like Paul said to Timothy
in 2 Timothy 2.4, no man that warth entangleth himself with
the affairs of this life that he may please him who hath chosen
him to be a soldier. So that really when you think
about it, it's for your benefit, right? I mean, you don't want
me to be fearful or worried or be preoccupied with the cares
of this life because then obviously giving a lot of time to that
rather than just doing what I'm supposed to be doing and serving
the Lord so what you find though is that any investment that you
make in your pastor it all comes back to you in you know in the
end it's all for your good I mean I saw it with with clay when
I when the men would talk about doing something, and I remember
always thinking and always saying to them, it all comes back to
us anyway. It just comes back in dividends to us anyway. The Lord does it. So Mark 6, 12, and 13 then, it
says, they went out and preached that men should repent. And they
cast out many devils and anointed with oil many that were sick
and healed them. So that what we see these brethren,
what these men were doing is they went out preaching that
which they heard. They heard the Lord. The Lord
had preached repentance. If you remember in Mark 1, verses
14 to 15, it says that after John was put in prison, Jesus
came into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God
and saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at
hand. Repent ye and believe the gospel. So that what we see when
repentance is preached, what that means is the Lord's showing
us that In our flesh, when we get religious and when we're
doing religious things, we're looking at what we're to be doing
to earn favor with God. We're doing certain things so
that God won't be angry with us anymore and that'll be kind
to us and merciful to us because we're trying to placate Him,
we're trying to to please him and appease him and calm him
down because we're thinking that he's angry with us. And God is
angry with the wicked every day, the Psalms say. But what he's
doing is he's turning us from our flesh. He's turning us from
thinking that there's something we do to earn a favor with God. And he's showing us there's nothing
you can do. your flesh, and he shows us,
he turns us, we repent of dead works religion, of dead letter
religion, and he turns us from that to behold Christ whom he's
provided, whom he sent to be the forgiveness of his people
so that we look to Christ alone for salvation. That's the repentance
is being turned from dead works and just religious teachings
and and and dead letter religion and trusting in these things
our doctrine or our knowledge or the things that we're doing
and the things we stopped doing and I repented of smoking cigarettes
or I no longer have a drink or anything like that like That's
what men look at. That's what people look at, thinking
that they're earning some kind of favor with God. And He turns
us from those dead works to, behold, our salvation is completely
in Christ. It's not what you do in the flesh
that determines whether God is pleased with you or angry with
you. It's not that all we do is anger
God in the flesh. That's all we can do. It's Christ
that establishes peace reconciliation between God and men. He's the
forgiveness that God has provided. So it's the Lord turning us from
our works of the flesh to Christ, His Son Jesus Christ, to rest
in Him and to be delivered from all that religious things that
cannot save and just confuse people. So Paul said in Galatians
2.16, he says, knowing that a man is not justified by the works
of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. We're not even
saved by our own faith. We're not looking to our faith.
We're looking to the faith of Christ, the faithfulness of Christ,
the faithful work of Jesus Christ. He trusted the Father. He did
everything necessary, and we're just looking to Him and seeing
He's accomplished full, free salvation in what He Himself
did in Him. Even we, Paul said, have believed
in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of
Jesus Christ. So Paul wasn't looking to his
faith, he was looking to the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And not by works of the law,
for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. So that this is that time of
refreshing that Peter spoke of in Acts when he preached in Acts
3 verses 18 and 19. He said, but those things which
God before had showed by the mouth of all his prophets that
Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. He sent them. He
provided all the promises which he said he would provide by the
prophets. He provided them in his son, Jesus Christ. And in
verse 19, repent ye therefore. Be turned from your dead letter
religion and look to the Lord Jesus Christ. Be converted that
your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing
shall come from the presence of the Lord. so that our healing
is is being delivered from that death which we've earned by our
sin right those are the wages of sin is death we earned that
and Christ heals his people that he delivers them from that death
and that darkness and that condemnation because He bore the burden for
His people. He put away their sin forever
and made reconciliation to God so that in Christ we may stand
before Holy God unashamed, unafraid because God receives all who
come to Him in the Son, covered in the blood of Jesus Christ.
Christ does that. He gives us life and hope and
fixes that in Christ so that we now aren't trying to do a
work to earn favor with God, we're resting in Christ and saying,
Lord, have mercy upon me. Forgive me. Put me in Christ.
Save me by his blood and his mercy that he's provided so that
the righteousness we're standing before God in isn't the righteousness
of our works, but the righteousness which Christ himself has accomplished
for the people. And again, Peter said in Acts
2, 38 and 39, Peter said unto them, Repent and be baptized,
every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission
of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost."
This is the Holy Ghost that gave them life to repent and believe
and follow the Lord in baptism. But he says, "...for the promise
is unto you and to your children and to all that are far off,
even as many as the Lord our God shall call." So Christ is
our salvation. He's the one that we're preaching.
That's the repentance that we're preaching. turn men and women
from dead works and glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ as He said,
if I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me. Christ will
do that work. We just have to preach Him and
just declare what He's done. His people and He draws the people.
He calls them out of darkness to Himself. So as the Lord has
shown you your need of Him, as He's shown you that you're a
sinner and that there's nothing that you can do, and that Christ
is sufficient, that He's the fit Savior, He's the one that
God has provided, look to the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness
of sins. It's His faithful work that has
accomplished salvation. There's nothing more for you
to do. There's nothing more you can do. Do you believe Him? You
either believe Him or you don't. Look to Christ because He is
the forgiveness which God has provided. The Lord, we see in
Psalm 121 verses 1 and 2, the psalmist wrote this, he said,
I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh
my help. My help cometh from the Lord
which made heaven and earth. Now was the psalmist who looked
for the Lord and waited for the Lord to provide that hope of
salvation, was the psalmist ashamed? Is anyone ever ashamed for looking
to the Lord? for their hope of forgiveness
and for their redemption. Is anyone ever ashamed looking
to the Lord and trusting in Him? No, never, because He's provided
His Son so that we shall never be ashamed looking to Him. And
that's why Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 52, 7 and 8, how beautiful upon
the mountain, how beautiful upon the hills are the feet of Him
that bringeth good tidings. You look to the Lord, the Lord
provided his gospel by his messengers to being declared by the Spirit
of Christ into the heart of his people. And he says, how beautiful
upon the mountain are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings,
that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth
salvation, that saith unto Zion, thy God reigneth. It says, Thy
watchmen shall lift up the voice, with thee voice together shall
they sing, for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall
bring again Zion. So that the watchmen are the
preachers, they're the pastors, and they're lifting up their
voice, as the Spirit of Christ has taught them, with THE voice,
which is the Spirit of Christ, right? And together, they're
lifting up that voice, and it says, they shall sing praise
unto thee, unto God who has provided this salvation. So that's just
like, like, um, It's just like what Christ said in Hebrews 2.12,
saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst
of the church while I sing praise unto thee. So that all we're
doing is declaring the glories of God in Christ with his spirit,
by his spirit, preaching and declaring what God has done in
his son, Jesus Christ. And it's beautiful to the people
of God. They rejoice in what Christ has done for them. And
they're thankful to the Lord. as Paul said, and how shall they
preach except they be sent? So we see that Christ is calling
men and he's preparing them and he's sending them out with that
gospel to preach and proclaim what he's done for them in his
son Jesus Christ. All right now, our final point.
It says that, well, If we're sent of Christ, if it's Christ
who does this work, if He's the one who raises up a man and He
prepares that man and He sends that man, then ought not we to
hear what Christ has said? Are we to hear what He has said?
Isn't He worthy to hear His words and to hear what What the Lord
has prepared for us to hear and to know of him as Paul wrote
to the Corinthians in his second letter 520 he said now then we
are ambassadors for Christ as though God to beseech you by
us We pray you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled to God For he
hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him." And that's the message
he sent us, that message of reconciliation. that you don't need to fear God
and be afraid any longer. He's provided salvation in His
Son, Jesus Christ. Outside of Christ, you need to
fear God because there is no hope, there is no righteousness
that you can work to appease God. The only salvation that
He's provided, the only means of forgiveness that He accepts
is in His Son, Jesus Christ. So we're to hear his word, we're
to receive his word, not as the word of men, but as the word
of the Lord. If I'm speaking according to
his word, then hear this word. As Christ said in John 13, 20,
verily, verily, I say unto you, he that receiveth whomsoever
I send receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that
sent me. And that's important for us to
hear because if we receive whom the Lord sent, we're receiving
Him. And like in just the opposite, in our text, he says in verse
11, Mark 6, 11, and whosoever shall not receive you nor hear
you, when ye depart, thence shake off the dust under your feet
for a testimony against them. Verily I say unto you, it shall
be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment
than for that city. And the reason why, I mean, when
you think about it, he's saying it'll be more tolerable for Sodom
and Gomorrah. And you think, those people who
did those filthy, wicked works, it'll be more tolerable for them
just because I refuse to hear Christ and refuse to trust in
him? Yes, because one, you're calling
God a liar. You're saying that God didn't
provide salvation for his people. And two, you're rejecting his
Christ, you're rejecting the provision which he's provided.
And three, it's as the apostles say, neither is there salvation
in any other, for there is none other name given under heaven
among men whereby we must be saved. If we're to be saved,
if we're to find forgiveness, if we're to be received by holy
God, and that day when we stand before him and he's seated upon
his throne, If we're to enter into that inheritance which He's
given to His saints, it'll be by Jesus Christ alone. It won't
be by anything we've done. It'll all be based on what Christ
Himself has done. He is the Lamb of God. He's the
one that God provided for this very thing. That's His Word. Receive His Word. You who reject
it, you're rejecting the only means of salvation that God's
provided. Repent, repent of your works, of your dead works, and
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. I
pray the Lord will bless that to our hearts and help us to
see Him and to rejoice in Christ our Savior. Let's pray. Our gracious
Lord, we thank You, Father, for... Lord, You know what we are and
ourselves. You know how foolish this flesh
is, how we think We're something when we're nothing. And we think
ourselves to be wise and we think ourselves to be thoughtful and
careful and logical, Lord, but you know, you know that our wisdom
is nothing, but that you are wise and you've provided wisdom
in your son, Jesus Christ. Lord, you sent him who is perfect
and holy and just and kind and gracious in all things. Lord,
you sent your son, Jesus Christ, help us to see Him, to believe
on Him, and to be covered in His blood, and to be clothed
in His righteousness, Lord. Deliver us from darkness and
from the corruption of this flesh, and deliver us into the kingdom
of Your Son, Jesus Christ. We pray this in Jesus' name,
our Lord and Savior. Amen.