Matthew 10, tonight we'll be
looking at verses 16-42. Lord willing, verses 16-42, and
we'll make it if the Lord is willing. If not, we'll just continue
at some other time. But I hope to be able to get
through this tonight because I believe that it's all connected
and it is a blessing. Matthew 10, verses 16-42, we're
going to be taking these verses in their apparent order here. The title of the message tonight
is, Expectations of Christ's Servants. The Expectations of
Christ's Servants. Now in these verses, Jesus here,
after sending His disciples, He has called them, He has given
them the message, He has given them their commission, and now
He has sent them forth to witness and to be His servants in this
world. And now He warns them what they
are to expect as they go out and labor in His service. Now, this passage does not only
speak to the apostles. I believe this passage does not
only speak to pastors and preachers, but it speaks to everyone who
is a servant of Jesus Christ, every believer in Christ. We
are His servants. We are His servants. And our
Lord here, in a gracious manner, gives us what we are to expect
in service to Him. And I'll tell you, it's not what
you think. It's not what you think. And
most people expect service to Christ to be something easy,
something light, something that doesn't cause any hurt. Well,
tonight you're going to find out exactly what Jesus says about
serving Him. What it's going to take to be
His servant. First of all, there are nine
things that I want to show us tonight. First of all, we need
to expect to be sheep among wolves. Look at that in verse 16. He
said, Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Believer, you are to expect to
be like a sheep in the middle of a pack of wolves. Now that's
not too comfortable, is it? Do you not suppose that being
a sheep in the midst of wolves, is that something that would
be desirous for the sheep? Does that sound like something
that it would be comfortable? No, it's not. Believer, we are
His sheep. We are His chosen, redeemed,
called and precious sheep. And He loves us. But I tell you,
our Master, our Shepherd, has sent us into this world which
is full of wolves. In John 17, when the Lord prayed,
He said, I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the
world. Friends, God's church is here
in the world. And He didn't take us out the
moment we believed, did He? Many times we wish he would have.
We wish that that would have been the case. But that's not
the case. His church is here. And he said,
I don't pray that you take them out, but that you keep them from
the evil one. Friends, we are chosen, scattered
sheep that were found of Christ, and now He sent us into a world
that hates us. You can expect that. Believer, beware of men. That's what Christ says. He says
in the next verse, beware of men. Beware of the wolves of this
world. Jesus is telling us to expect
to be hated. Expect to be hated. Don't expect
to be loved by this world. Expect to be their prey. That's what he tells us. Our
Lord did not promise us success in this world, and if we're to
serve Him, we must be expected to be hated, abused, persecuted,
and slandered. And not just by strangers, but
even the people that we love the most. Look at that in verse
21. Jesus telling His disciples,
He said, look, they're going to deliver you up, cast you out
of the synagogues, and this is what's going to happen. He said,
the brother shall deliver up the brother unto death. The father, the child, and the
children shall rise up against their parents and cause them
to be put to death. and ye shall be hated of all
men for my sake. But he that endureth to the end,
the same shall be saved." Friends, a servant of Christ is to be
faithful to Christ until the end. Until the end. Let us be zealous therefore for
the glory of God in everything we do and recognize that when
we do this, this world will hate us with everything in them. And even those who supposed to
love us the most will hate us. Friends, we're not to seek the
approval of this world. The only approval you and I are
to seek is that of God and nothing else, nothing else. We are here as sheep among wolves,
seemingly defenseless. Now what can a sheep do in the
midst of a pack of wolves? Absolutely nothing on his own. He cannot protect himself. He needs someone to protect him. Friends, we have a shepherd.
We are defenseless to protect ourselves. And it is our shepherd
that we rely on to protect us in the midst of these wolves.
It's Christ. And I'll tell you, Jesus gives
the believer a right view of Himself. You who are believers,
listen to me. You are to count yourselves as
sheep for the slaughter. That's how much we should value
our lives. in the service of Christ. Count
ourselves as sheep for the slaughter. Live and die at His command. That's what we're here for. We're
here to live and die at His command and nothing else. Nothing else. Number two, Jesus says this should
be our expected behavior, our expected actions. Look at that
in verse 16. He says, I send you forth as
sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye therefore wise as serpents
and harmless as doves. Now, this word harmless, it just
means simple. It means honest. Friends, we are to be honest
concerning the gospel of Jesus Christ. We're to be honest. Honest
with men. We're not here to trick people
to believe in Christ. We're not here to offer them
special things if they believe in Christ. I'm not here to trick
you into faith in Christ. I tell you, faith in Christ is
going to cost you everything. It'll cost you everything. It'll
cost you your friends. It'll cost you your family. It'll
cost you your life. It'll cost you everything to
serve Christ. Everything. And when we serve Christ, we
are to be simple and honest and plain concerning the gospel and
never compromise the gospel. Never. For nothing. For no one. We're to be wise as serpents.
You know, serpents are a master of escape. You know, snakes,
they can't see very well. But they can always taste the
air. They stick their tongue out so they can taste the air
to see if there's danger. And a snake is more afraid of
us than we are of it. It wants to get out. It wants
to escape. And that's what Christ says.
Be like a serpent and escape sin and temptation. Believer,
we are to escape all temptation and sin. We're to flee it at every opportunity. We must constantly be aware of
our surroundings and the people we're with. Constantly. Ephesians chapter 5 and verse
15 says, walk circumspectly. I've told you before that that's
like walking on a fence with a Doberman pincher on one hand
and a German shepherd on the other hand. Walk very carefully. He says, don't walk as fools. Don't be so foolish as to believe
because you're a believer in Christ that you can handle any
sin, that you can handle any temptation. Friends, we're to
smell the air to see if there's temptation in the air. And then
we're to be wise as serpents to get out as fast as we possibly
can. Jesus says, you'll be wise to
do that. You'll be wise to escape temptation. Believer, our worldly
friends will only set us up for failure, and you should be aware
of that. I'm not saying we shouldn't have friends that are in this
world. I have friends that are lost. But I'll tell you this,
I'm always aware of them. I've always got my eye on them,
and I don't bring them closer than I bring you. I'll tell you
that. I keep them at an arm's distance
and a long distance away from me, and they are set to move
me from the gospel. That's their disposition. That's
what they want to do. And they don't even know they're
doing it. They don't even know it. But that's all they want
to do is move us from Christ. Lost friends will try to move
us from the service of Christ. And we in prayer should not follow
them. We should pray about this and
we should ask ourselves in everything we do, is this honoring to Christ? Is what I'm about to do, is there
an appearance of evil in it? Because if there is, we should
get out. We should leave. Jesus said, you're in the midst
of wolves, friends. You're not in safe country. You
need to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. You need to
be honest about the gospel. When you're cornered, and believe
me, you will be, you'll be put in a situation to where you can't
escape it. And you have to then be honest
with them. I'm not going because I serve
Christ. You need to be honest. When the apostles were brought
before the Sanhedrin, they didn't want to be there, did they? They
didn't want to go, but they were there. And what did they do?
They honestly conveyed the gospel to these wicked men and let the consequences fall
where they may. We're to expect these actions as we are in this
world. Number three, do not expect to
receive better treatment than Christ. Look at verse 24. The
disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his Lord.
It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master. And
the servant as his lord, if they have called the master of the
house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?" Let me ask you this. What kind
of treatment did the Lord Jesus Christ receive when He came into
this world? How did the world treat Him? Go over to Isaiah chapter 53. Isaiah chapter 53, beginning
in verse 2. For he shall grow up before Him
as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground. He hath no
form nor comeliness. And when we shall see Him, there
is no beauty in Him that we should desire Him. Friends, there was
no beauty in Christ to them. There was no beauty in Him that
they should desire Him. He was despised and rejected
of men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. We hid our faces
from Him. He was despised and we esteemed
Him not. Look in verse 7. He was oppressed
and He was afflicted. Verse 8, He was taken from the
prison and from judgment. He was cut off, He was killed
by this world. Our Lord Jesus was despised,
rejected, hated, and esteemed as though God had smitten Him.
He had no beauty or form of cuddliness and nobody loved Him. Not of
this world. Believer, we must not expect
to be treated any different. If you expect different treatment
from this world, you're setting yourself up for failure. Jesus said, they shall put you
out of the synagogues, and yea, the time cometh when they shall
kill you and think they do God a service. Believer, when this world sees
that they cannot get us to join them, they will kick you out
of everything they have. and they will despise you and
abandon you. If you stand for the gospel of
Jesus Christ, I promise you this is what will happen. How do I
know? Because it's what Christ says.
Don't expect anything different. Don't expect it. I believe we
have so much sorrow and depression because of this, don't you? We
think that the world owes us something, or that the world
should give us something, and that we think that the world
should treat us better, and then we become so down and depressed
when it doesn't happen. Why not listen to Christ and
hear what He's saying? Don't expect it. You're not going
to get it. Don't expect it. And you'll save
yourself so much heartache, so much trouble, if you'll know
that the world is not going to accept you. Not if you stand
for the gospel. Christians, we are to love God
and we are to love men. We are to long for the souls
of men to come to Christ. We are to preach the Gospel to
them freely, openly, and with compassion and love for them.
But don't expect them to love you back. Don't expect that. This world would rather embrace
Islam, a religion of murder and hatred, they would rather embrace
them than you. Does that not sound strange?
That sounds strange. What did they do to Christ? Release
unto us Barabbas and crucify Christ. Give us a murderer and
do away with Christ. Don't expect anything different.
They'd rather have a murderer than you. Number four, expect and wait
on God's judgment. Look at verse 26 in our text.
Verse 26, He said, Fear them not therefore, for there is nothing
covered that shall not be revealed, and hid that shall not be known. What I tell you in darkness,
that speak ye in light. And what you hear in the ear,
that preach ye upon the housetops. And fear not them which kill
the body and are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear
Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." I'll tell you, many times we
are discouraged because of the world's hatred. They abuse us. They forsake us. I'll tell you
what, this generation is a very vile generation as far as divorce
goes. I don't know how many in the
last week I've seen that men have just left their wives and
just ran off with other people and abandoned them. Just abandoned
their family. It's a wicked generation. An
evil generation. They falsely accuse us. They
steal from us. They lie to us. And for the most
part, it goes unpunished. Isn't that right? Goes unpunished. We don't see
the punishment, do we? In this country, I know this,
criminals have more rights than victims. They do. They do. But listen to me very carefully,
when they do these things to you, it is not for you or me
to take vengeance on them. That's not for us. Expect them
to do it, but wait for the judgment of God and not take it upon yourself
to judge them that way. It's not for us to take vengeance. Those things that are covered,
those things that are hidden, those things that are vile, those
things that they have done unto us, God will expose them. God
will manifest that in due time. Don't take it upon ourselves
to be their judge, jury, and executioner. That's not for us. Don't do that. Commit thy way unto the Lord.
Trust also in Him and He'll bring it to pass. Don't worry about
that. Don't worry about what men do to you. Dearly beloved, Romans 12, 19,
Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves. Is that not strange to the world?
Is that not totally opposite of what the world teaches us
to do? Defend yourself. Get up and take yourself and
take your case and just make people. Do what you want them
to do. That's what the world does. Take
vengeance. Somebody takes your hand, cut off their leg. That's
not us. That's not for us. And I'll tell
you, if you expect them to steal from you, when they do it, you'll
feel a lot better about it. You won't want vengeance if you
expect it. Instead of running around all
the time saying, I can't believe. Why can't you believe it? Christ
said He'd do it. They said they would do it. But
it's not for us to take vengeance. And I recognize we are to make
judgments about people. That's not what I'm saying. We
have to make judgments. If we're to be wise, we're to
make judgments. In other words, I really wouldn't
leave a thief alone in my house. If he's a known thief, I would
kind of stand with him or watch him and make sure, you know,
go out with him. That's wise to make that judgment. But if he does steal, I'm not
to avenge myself. Now, there are courts and laws
and things like that. If a man... there are laws of
the land. God has provided those things,
hasn't He? He's provided governments to execute judgment on the evil
and to reward the just. But I'll tell you this, the results
of it belong only to God. We must do this because of the
reverence of God. We must wait for God's judgments
because we reverence Him. He said, don't fear them, fear
Me. Don't worry about them, fear
Me. That's what God says. He says
reverence Me rather than reverencing them. Instead of taking vengeance
which is not ours and it doesn't belong to us, we are to surrender
to Jesus Christ. Believer, let us surrender anything
and everything but the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's what
we're supposed to keep. That's the only thing we're never
to let go of. That's the only thing we're never
to compromise or let this world take from us, is the gospel.
Everything else, let it go. Let it go. We must continually
declare the gospel of God's free grace, and not only with our
lips, but with our actions. Let us have reverence for God
rather than taking vengeance on men. And when you deliver
that message to them, Jesus said, you're going to get this message
in the darkness. In other words, we get that in
the darkness of our heart. We get it in the privacy of our
heart, in the closet, in the study, in the prayer. What do
we get? We get the Word from God. And
what are we to do to the men that abuse us and to take advantage
of us? What are we to do to them? Preach
the gospel. Declare the gospel to them. Preach
to them and tell them of Christ. And declare that to everyone
and everywhere, without exception, and don't worry about their ridicule.
God will take care of them. Do you realize that you will
be judged by my gospel? Every one of you. You will be
judged by the gospel I preach unto you. And you know what? When you witness
to them, they'll be judged by the gospel you witness to them. Number five, expect God's care. I like this one. Expect God's
care. Verse 29, he said, "...Are not
two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall
to the ground without your father. But the very hairs of your head
are numbered. Fear ye not, therefore, ye are
of more value than many sparrows." Jesus is warning us of the hatred
of the world. He says, count on it. He gives
us words of wisdom to live by, be wise as serpents, harmless
as doves. He tells us to expect to be treated
as He was, and yet not to take vengeance, but rather to preach
the gospel to them. And here He says, in spite of
all of that, I love you. I love you. In spite of all those things
around you, I still love you and care for you. Friend, God cares for the birds
of the air. How shall He not care for His
own children? I love my dog, little weenie
dog, very nice. He's been with us longer than
I've had Andrew. He's older than Andrew. Been
with Cheryl and I longer than Andrew. But I'll tell you what,
I'd kill that dog for one of my children. That's how much
I love that dog compared to my children. I love them more. And God says, compared to the
birds, I love you so much more. Not one of them falls to the
ground, but yet not one of your hairs will ever fall to the ground
without my knowledge. Not one. Can you tell me of what
infinite value Christ is to God? Can you begin to understand how
much He's worth to God? And yet He offered Him freely
for you. He spared not His own Son, but
delivered Him up for us all. How shall He not with Him freely
give us all things? Friends, don't distrust the providence
of God. Don't distrust His providence.
How much more useful are we who declare the gospel? We who are
the salt of the earth, how much more value are we than sparrows? And yet a sparrow, it won't even
feed my children. I could take a sparrow and cook
it up, it'd just be a little bit of meat. It wouldn't be worth
anything. How much more value are you to God than that? If God cares so much for them,
will He not care for us in the midst of wolves? Go to Mark 6. In Mark 6, verse 46, "...And Jesus sent them away,
and He departed into a mountain to pray. And when evening was
come, the ship was in the midst of the sea, and He was alone
on the land. And when He saw them..." Now
notice that. He saw them. From where? The
mountain. He was on the mountain. He saw
them toiling and rowing, for the wind was contrary to them.
And about the fourth watch of the night, He cometh unto them
walking on the sea, and He would have passed by them." Now, friends, we may be in the storm. But know
this, Christ sent us into the sea. He sent the storm and He
never, never will take His eye off of us. He knows what you're
going through. He put you there. Trust His providence. Trust Him. He has your best interest at heart
always, always. Never distrust Him and His providence
for you. He always cares for you and He'll
never fail to come to you in your time of need. Never. Number
seven, expect and anticipate the coming of Christ. Verse 32,
For whosoever shall confess Me before men, him will I confess
also before My Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall
deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father
which is in heaven. Living like sheep in the midst
of wolves, isn't that foolish to the world? Doesn't that sound
foolish? For us to freely give love to
Christ and freely give our lives for the Christ, you know, it's
going to cost us the frown of this world. But I'll tell you
this, listen to me very carefully, if any of you refuse to believe
on Christ, He will not confess you before His Father. If any of us deny Christ, He
will deny us. Very serious thing, isn't it? Friends, the confession of Christ
will not only be with our lips. How many people say they love
Jesus? How many? I haven't found one
yet that doesn't. I haven't found one in Louisville.
I've tried. I had to go all the way to Cincinnati
to meet my friend that confesses he doesn't love Christ. I can't
find anybody here in Louisville that doesn't love Jesus. Friends, it's easy to say, but
he's not saying just confess Him with your lips. We must confess
Him with every action of our lives. In our relationships, in our
work, in our play, and even in our times alone, we must confess
Christ, or He will not confess us. We must always confess Him to
be our Lord and Savior. You know, I'll tell you what,
there's a lot of people who want Jesus to be their Savior, but
who have no interest in Him being their Lord. But I'll tell you,
if Jesus Christ is not your Lord, He will not be your Savior. If you do not bow to Him, if
you do not confess Him, if you do not serve Him, if you do not
worship Him, then friends, I feel for you, you're living
a lie. We believed on Christ, we were
baptized, did we not confess Him? Didn't we confess and identify
with Him in baptism? Yes. But baptism, we don't stop
there, do we? We don't stop with baptism and
church membership. We must confess Him in every
aspect of our life. And when men refuse to worship
Him, aren't they refusing to confess Him? Aren't they saying
with their actions, there's something of more value than Christ? You
see, I come here to worship Christ tonight. I come here to be identified
with the Lord Jesus Christ. I come here to confess Him. I love Him. I serve Him. And when I go out that door,
I do the same thing. We must confess Him at every
opportunity. Numbers 8, expect to be separated
from the world, verse 34. Think not I am come to send peace
on the earth. I come not to send peace, but
a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his
father, and his daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall be those
of his own household. Christ did not come to unify
the world. He came to separate it. Isn't
that different from the Jesus of today? Isn't that different? Of course it is. Because their
Jesus is not Jesus. He separated us from the world. That's what He come to do, is
to separate the goats from the sheep. He come to separate the
wheat from the tares. That's what He's come to do. And even sadly so, friends, those
that should love us the most are going to cause us the most
hurt. They that are be of their own household, they are our worst
enemies. My children, they don't even
know what they do half the time to try to move me from the gospel. They don't know. They just do
it. They do it. And I'll tell you, if we're so
deceived by our own children and by our own family, they will
move us. If you're not aware of it, they'll
move you. They'll move you. We ought to be aware of this,
that Jesus Christ came to divide us. Divide us from the lost. Separate us. And when we're separated,
I promise you this, there'll be no peace. I hope that they
come to Christ. I hope my children come to Christ.
Then there'll be peace. Why? We'll be on the same side.
Right now we're at variance. We're on two different sides. The gospel will always divide
us. Peace that is purchased at the
expense of the gospel should never be paid. Peace that is
purchased at the expense of the gospel should never be paid. Number eight, expect to take
up your cross and follow Christ. He that loveth father and mother
more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he that loveth son and
daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he that taketh
not his cross and followeth after Me is not worthy of Me. And he
that findeth his life shall lose it. And he that loseth his life
for My sake shall find it." To take up our cross is to completely,
absolutely, utterly surrender to Christ in every aspect of
our life. Everything. We must daily offer
our bodies, our souls, our goods, our talents, our homes, our children,
and even our lives into the hands of Christ if it pleases Him. And friends, if you're not willing
to do that, you're not worthy of Him. I didn't say it, He did. We must daily crucify this flesh
and its lusts. We must daily give everything
freely to Christ or we cannot be His disciple. Friends, this
is not talking about super-Christians. This is not talking about very
mature Christians or apostles. This is talking and speaking
to every babe in Christ. If you are not willing to give
up everything and to take up your cross daily and follow Christ,
He says you're not worthy of Me and you cannot be My disciple. For me, it's a no-brainer. For
me, it's no-brainer. I take Christ. I love my children, but they're in His hands. He does with them as He pleases.
I love Him more than I love them. Number nine, expect the reward
of Christ. Look at the last verse 40. He
says, "...he that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth
me receiveth him that sent me. And he that receiveth a prophet
in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward. And
he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous
man shall receive a righteous man's reward." And whosoever
shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of
cold water only, in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto
you, he shall in no wise lose his reward." What is Christ saying
here? He's telling us that we can never sacrifice anything
in this life that God will not give us more. You cannot outgive God. That's what he's saying. We sacrifice
our family and God gives us His family. We leave the riches of
this world and God gives us the riches of Christ. We give up
the pleasures of the flesh and we receive the paradise of heaven.
We give up our own lives for the gospel and He gives us eternal
life. We forgive others their debts
and sin to us, and He forgives our sin against Him. Now, is
that not a wonderful trade? That's a wonderful trade. And friends, it's not because
of our sacrifice. It's because of Christ's. Do
you realize, Gil, when you gave me that water, God noticed it? And He'll never let it go. He'll
give you the reward of that as though Christ Himself was the
object of your giving. You gave that to me, but I know
this, He reckons it as though you gave it to Christ. Is that
not great? Is that not worth being sheep
in the midst of wolves? Is that not worth giving up everything
in this life to follow Christ and serve Him? You bet it is. You bet it is. Friends, our God
is faithful. Expect it. Expect it. Let's stand and we'll be dismissed
in prayer.