Turn with me, if you would, to
Matthew chapter 10. Matthew chapter 10, we're going
through this book. And we are going to begin looking
at chapter 10, but I'd like to back up a little bit and read
what our Lord said at the end of chapter nine. Let's read from
chapter nine, verse 36, down to chapter 10, verse seven. But when he saw the multitudes,
when our Lord saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion
on them, because they fainted and were scattered abroad as
sheep having no shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples,
the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray
ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth
laborers into his harvest. And when he had called unto him
his 12 disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits
to cast them out and to heal all manner of sickness and all
manner of disease. Now the names of the 12 apostles
are these. The first, Simon, who is called
Peter, and Andrew, his brother, James the son of Zebedee and
John his brother, Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew
the publican, James the son of Alphaeus and Labaius whose surname
was Thaddeus, Simon the Canaanite and Judas Iscariot who also betrayed
him, These 12, Jesus sent forth and commanded them saying, go
not into the way of the Gentiles and into any city of the Samaritans
enter you not, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house
of Israel. And as you go, preach saying
the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Now, our Lord declared right
here that he has chosen to use the means of sending laborers
to gather his people to himself. He said, pray that the Lord will
send forth laborers. And just to give you a little
clue of where we're headed in our message, we need to pray
that the Lord will send forth true laborers. Here's the one
thing I want to point out from the start. There is no shortage
of preachers in this world. especially in Kingsport. When
I moved here, I found out everybody's a preacher. Never known a place
like this. But our Lord said to us, pray
that the Lord of the harvest will send laborers into his harvest,
send preachers. And we need to beg God. This
is what we honestly need to beg God that he will send forth true
laborers. I pray that God will raise up
men to preach the truth concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. We need
true laborers. That's what we, that's what this
world needs. True laborers. Our Lord has chosen
to use the means of calling his people to himself through laborers,
preaching his message. He could have chosen any means
he wanted to. That's just the means that he declared that he's
chosen to use to call his people. He calls it his harvest. to call
his people to himself. He said that at the end of chapter
nine. And then in chapter 10, he appointed 12 laborers. And it's pointed out that one
of them was Judas. And our Lord declared later the
purpose in that, but He called right here, 12 laborers, and
he gave them this commission. He said, go and preach. Let me tell you what religion
needs. It needs the preaching of the truth. We don't need pageants. We don't need plays. We don't
need. any of this mess that's going
on. We don't need any of this mess. He said, go and preach. Go and preach. That's the labor
that I've called you to. Go and preach. Paul told the
Corinthians, it has pleased the Lord by the foolishness of preaching. That means what men see as being
foolishness. What are y'all doing? You see
this? Why do y'all do this? It has
pleased the Lord by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. So I've titled this message.
Why and what we preach. Why and what we preach. Before we get into that, though,
I want us to understand something that's very important. This is
so important. Every now and then, I always
feel burdened about the message that I'm called on to deliver,
but every now and then I have a special burden for a message,
and this is one of them. This is just so important. Men
all over this world stand up in pulpits and they call themselves
preachers. And I want to say that if a man's
preaching the truth, I'm for him. I'm for him, but men stand
up all over this world and they, they take this title to themselves
of being a preacher. They just decide I'm a preacher. And people listen to them because
they call themselves preachers. People sit down and listen to
them, but this is what we must understand. And this is God's
word. The majority of them are not,
they call themselves preachers, but the majority of them are
not. They may be public speakers and
they may be very good at it. But the majority of them are
not God called preachers. And one of the greatest warnings
that our Lord gave while he was on this earth was, beware of
false prophets. I asked our brother to read that
portion of scripture just a moment ago. And the last two words that
he read were false prophets. False preachers. The apostle
John wrote, try the preachers to know whether they are up God
or not. That is what you need to do with
me. Now I'm telling you this because
I believe in my heart that I love you and care about your eternal
souls. If you are going to listen to
me, if you are going to come back, and you're going to listen
to me, then you need to make sure that I'm a true laborer.
Because if I'm not, and you listen to me, and you believe what I'm
telling you, I'm going to be eternally damned,
and so are you. Now I'm telling you that so we
can understand this is serious. This is serious. We're not just
playing games here. What I just quoted to you is
what Paul told the Galatians. He said, if any man comes and
he doesn't preach this right here, let him be cursed. And those who hear him are going
to be cursed right with him. This is so, so serious. A man
has no idea the condemnation that he's bringing on himself
and the people that he preaches to by flippantly taking on the
role of a false preacher. I just want to warn before we
jump into the pulpits, we need to count the cost. We need to make sure we're dealing,
we just listened to a wonderful Bible study on an eternal, holy,
sovereign God. And we're gonna answer to Him. And we're gonna stand before
Him. And this is so, so serious. Now, there is a fine line. That
determines whether or not a man is a true preacher or a false
preacher. And that fine line comes so close
to the truth. The fine line of error and faults
comes so close to the truth. This is what our Lord said. He
said, if it were possible, the very elect would even be deceived. You ever ask yourself, how critical
is this? Really? How rigid should we be? Really? Are we being a little
too harsh here? We've been, this is what our
Lord said. He said that line is so close to the truth. If
it were possible, even the very elect would be deceived. Thank
God. He says it's not possible. God's people are gonna be kept.
He will not allow his people to fall for lies. He will expose
even the tiniest bit of what the scripture calls leaven. That means lies, that means man,
that means self. He'll expose even the tiniest
bit of leaven that will ruin the whole thing. He said a little
leaven will leaven the whole lump. And he will cause his people
to hear, and they will take note of even the tiniest lie that
will send men and women into eternal destruction. There is
an eternity coming. There's an eternity coming. That lie, those lies are so far
reaching in the world and they're so great. Our Lord said, and
if you want to read this for yourself sometime, this is just
a few chapters back, Matthew seven. He said, the road of lies
that leads men and women into eternal destruction is so wide. He said, it's so broad. Masses
of people are going to go down it. And he said, the road of truth
that leads men and women into eternal life is so narrow. When he said, straight is the
gate, that word straight means narrow. Straight is the gate
and narrow is the way that leads unto life. And the Lord Jesus
Christ said, few there be that find it. Now he said, the harvest
is plenteous, but the laborers are few. I thought there were
preachers everywhere. Not true preachers, they're not
everywhere. I thank God when I hear a man
stand up and preach the truth, don't you? Oh, I thank God for
that. Now, have I gotten the point
across that this is serious? This is so serious. This is why
I want us to consider what we preach. It will determine whether
or not God has called a man to be one of his true laborers or
not. How can I know if I'm hearing
a true laborer? What determines whether a man
is a true God-called laborer or not? Our Lord plainly spelled
it out for us in Jeremiah 23. Turn with me, if you would, to
Jeremiah chapter 23. Jeremiah 23, this chapter begins with our Lord saying in verse
one, woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the
sheep of my pasture, saith the Lord. I take that verse very
seriously. The apostle Paul said, woe be
unto me. if I'm not a true laborer. Our
Lord, in this chapter right here, He is condemning false preachers. If your heading may be the same
as mine, it says against false prophets. Our Lord warned and
warned and warned and warned. This is one of the things He
warned of the most. And our Lord doesn't sugarcoat
anything in this. He has zero tolerance for false
preachers. So he said, we'll be under the
pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pastor. Say it,
the Lord look with me at verse 16, Jeremiah 23, verse 16. Thus say it, the Lord of host. Hearken not unto the words of
the prophets that prophesy unto you. They make you vain. And they do. The result of a
false message. Here's the evidence of it. The
result of a false message from a false prophet is people become
vain. And what that means, you know
what it means if somebody's vain. It's all about them. Right? It's all about them. And that's
what happens. All the focus gets turned to
them. This is the result of a false
message. They become puffed up. Religion puffs people up. They become high on themselves. They, they start to, you know,
walk this walk that they think they ought to be walking. And,
um, it makes a man and a woman self righteous. They're doing
better. They're obeying. They think the
law. It makes men and women proud. Let me tell you what the truth
does. The truth tears all of that down. It just does. It brings men and women low. Our Lord is constantly saying
this. It puts men and women in the dust. But a lie will just
make men and women vain. And our Lord said in verse 16,
hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto
you. They make you vain. They speak
a vision of their own heart and not out of the mouth of the Lord. They've made up their own message
out of their own words. And the Lord said, they're trying
to put those words into my mouth. He said, they speak a vision
of their own heart and not out of the mouth of the Lord. Verse
17, they say still unto them that despise me, the Lord hath
said, and, and this is what people say.
Well, now, you know, God says, now, you know, the Bible says
next time somebody says that, just say, show me. Where does
it say that? Well, now, you know, the Bible
says, well, show me. Verse 17, they say still unto
them that despise me, the Lord hath said, you shall have peace. And they say unto everyone that
walketh after the imagination of his own heart, no evil shall
come upon you. Verse 18, for who hath stood
in the counsel of the Lord? And have perceived and heard
his word who have marked his word and heard it. What he's
saying is when did they hear me say that? Look at verse 21. I have not
sent these prophets yet. They ran. I have not spoken to
them yet. They prophesied. Our text, don't
turn back, but our text said, pray to the Lord of harvest that
he will send forth laborers. Pray to the Lord that he will
call and send forth laborers. He said, they're running, but
I didn't send them. If a man is going to be a true
laborer, he's going to have to be sent of God. specifically
called and sent. Romans 10 verse 15 says, how
shall they preach except they be sent? Verse 25 right here, he said,
I have heard what the prophet said that prophesy lies in my
name saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. You hear men
say all kinds of things. Don't you want to know who's
telling the truth? Verse 26, how long shall this
be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? Yay. They are prophets of the deceit
of their own heart, which think to cause my people to forget
my name by their dreams, which they tell every man to his neighbor
as their fathers have forgotten my name for bail. And what he's
saying is through their lies, they are erasing the truth of
who I really am in the hearts and the minds of men and women. After people hear things, you
grow up hearing things. And after you hear things enough,
you start to believe it. And men have been telling other
people, this is who God is. All right? This is what people
have heard all their lives. Men, false prophets stand up
and say, this is who God is. He's not God. And he can't do anything unless
you let him. And he wants to so badly, but
this is in your hands. And you're the one who's going
to have to make the decision to do it. You're the one who's
going to actually have to do it. His hands are tied because
he actually doesn't have any hands, but your hands. And men and women grow up and
they think, this is what'll make men and women vain. I'm the one
who's gonna have to, I will. That's what Lucifer said. I will,
and God said, no, you won't. Cast out as a bolt of lightning.
And God doesn't change. He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. God is not different. The God we're reading about,
yeah, that's the Old Testament. Why don't you get on up to the
New Testament? I'm not going to take the time to do that because
I'm going to hold you long enough, but it says the same thing. He
hadn't changed. We desperately, desperately need
to bow to the God of scripture. And he said, men and women have
lost sight of me because they're not being told the truth about
me. Verse 28, the prophet that hath
a dream, let him tell a dream and he that hath my word, let
him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat,
saith the Lord is not my word like as a fire, saith the Lord,
and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces. Therefore,
behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord that steal my
words, everyone from his neighbor. Behold, I am against the prophets
saith the Lord that use their tongues and say, he saith. Behold, I'm against them that
prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord, and do tell them and
cause my people to err by their lies and by their lightness,
yet I sent them not, nor commanded them, therefore they shall not
profit this people at all, saith the Lord. And then if you want
to take the time, you can finish reading that chapter sometime.
The Lord was very direct with them, just very direct. So this
is serious. With this command to go and preach,
every man who preaches and every soul who hears a preacher, we
would all be wise to ask this question. If we're preaching,
we need to ask, what shall I cry? And if we're hearing, we need
to ask, what shall I listen to? The Lord told Isaiah, Isaiah
said, what shall I cry? The Lord told him, this is what
you cry. All flesh is grass, behold your God. How do we know
he told Isaiah that? He wrote it in his word. What do we preach? Verse 28 right
here, the prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream and he that
hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. Paul told Timothy, preach the
Word, preach the Word, preach the Word. To clearly understand
what he meant by that, the Apostle John said, in the beginning was
the Word. We just heard this quoted to
us twice. Here's the third time. In the
beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, the Word
was God, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Who are you talking about, John?
The Lord Jesus Christ. When we talk about this almighty,
holy God who rules all and controls all, who are we talking about?
The Lord Jesus Christ. We preach Christ, the word. We preach the Word, we preach
Christ, and if you go with me back to Matthew, it states it
this way, and all of these are the same thing. Matthew 9, verse
35 says, And Jesus went about all the
cities and villages teaching in their synagogues and preaching
the gospel of the kingdom, the gospel of the kingdom. We preach
the word. We preach Christ. We preach the
gospel. It's all the same thing. Christ
is the word. Christ is the gospel to preach
the word truly. To labor in the word, if we're
going to labor in the word and preach this word, we are going
to have to preach the person and the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. To preach the gospel, to honestly,
sincerely preach the gospel is to preach the person and the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. If it's not the person and the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ is not the gospel. If we preach the person and the
work of man. And how do we know if we're doing
that? Well, here's how we'll know when we leave this place,
either we're going to be dwelling on the person and the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ, or we're going to be dwelling
on the person and the work that still needs to be done of man.
And that's how we know. But if we're preaching the person
of man and the work of man, we're not preaching the gospel. That's
the false message. The message that has us look
into man, the work of man, what man needs to do with the gospel.
What man needs to do with Christ and do with his word. Can you
imagine people stand up and say, what are you gonna do with Jesus
Christ? What's he gonna do with me? What
is he gonna do with me? The gospel. is the person and
the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me just say
this, okay? I'm gonna very much speed up. Salvation is finished. Salvation is finished. The Lord
God of heaven chose a people to save And Christ came and saved
them. And there's nothing left for
you to do because it's already done. And
the job of a laborer is to go tell men and women, this is what
Christ has already done for you. Rest. And when you hear men come
and say, you got to go to work, don't listen to him. He'll make
you vain. Now if you don't give your money,
you can't go to heaven, don't listen to him. Now if you don't
give your heart, you can't, don't listen to him. Now if you don't,
you have to, don't listen to him. If the man comes and says,
Jesus Christ paid it all, all the debt you owed, sin ruined
you. He washed it all white as snow.
Listen to him. That's preaching the person and
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel is in the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel means good news. You
say, well, Gabe, everything you've told me is pretty been pretty
bad news. I know that's called the truth. That's called the
truth. Now here's the gospel. The blood
of Christ has paid it all. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise. That's the whole point of everything
that's been said so far. The blood of Christ has paid
it all. And don't let anybody tell you
otherwise. Don't let anyone say, well, he
put a down payment, but now you're gonna have to pick up the payments
every month from here on out. Don't let anybody say, well,
he took the first step, but now all the rest of them are up to
you. The blood of Jesus Christ paid it all. He paid it all. The good news of the gospel is
not in the life that I have to live, but in the life he lived.
That's the good news. If you want to look at my life,
all you're going to see is a life of sin and ruin. That's the truth. And I could try to, you know,
lie to you, put on a front and make you think I'm better than
I really am, but I'm not. But the gospel's not in my life,
it's in His life. It's not in how I'm gonna die,
it's in how He died. It's not in the sin that I need
to put away, it's in the sin that He put away. It's in His rising victory of
that accomplishment. It's in the fact that He's seated
on the throne right now. If I could say it this way, The
gospel has nothing to do with me other than the fact that I'm
just a free recipient of it. The gospel has nothing to
do with my life, my death, my walk, my anything. It has everything
to do with the Lord Jesus Christ. everything to do with Him. It's
all about Him. What do we preach? The Apostle Paul said, you know,
they had all these questions for John the Baptist and all
these questions for all these guys, and Paul finally told them,
listen, Paul was a very well-educated man, went to seminary and all
that kind of stuff. He said, I have determined from
this point on not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. We preach Christ. We preach him. We preach him. Now I made the decision to combine
these two. I was going to make two messages
out of it and clearly I should have. But I felt like they went better
together. So I'm going to give you the cliff notes. to why we
preach, and I hope this will be a blessing and we'll end with
this. What do we preach when you get
down to it? We preach Jesus Christ, who he
is, why he came, what he did, what that means for us. We preach
Christ and his finished work. Why do we preach? Here's just a few reasons. The
first one is in Matthew 9 verse 36. But when he saw the multitudes,
he was moved with compassion on them. Why do we preach the
compassion of the Lord? If you want to get to the number
one reason why I'm standing here right now with good news for
us, it's the compassion of the Lord. It's the love of God towards
sinners. For God so loved, He gave. God
commended His love toward us while we were yet sinners. Herein
is love, not that we love God, that He loved. We only loved
Him because He first loved us. Psalm 103 tells us of the pity
He had for His people. Lamentations 3 tells us of the
fact that His compassion fails not. It's new every morning.
All right, here's the second reason. Chapter 10, verse 1 says,
when He had called unto Him His 12 disciples, He gave them power. Their power was in the Word. It was in the name of the One
who they spoke on behalf. They said, there's no other name
given among men whereby we must be saved. Why do we preach? It's the power of God unto salvation. I'll tell you what will happen.
When the Word of God goes out, men and women will hear it and
they will first be shocked because they've never heard anything
like it. It does not match mainstream religion. And then the Spirit
of God will cause them to realize that's the truth. They will believe
it. They will see their utter ruin
in themselves and that the only hope they have before God is
the blood of Jesus Christ. And they'll beg God to give it
to them. That's the draw. That's the call.
Preaching this word is the power of God unto salvation. That's
why we preach. Number three. Verse five says, chapter 10,
verse five, these 12, Jesus sent forth and commanded them saying,
go not in the way of the Gentiles and into any city of the Samaritans,
enter ye not, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel. Why do we preach? It's because
God has a particular people. He has chosen sheep and he said,
go to them and feed them. Peter, do you love me? Feed my
sheep. What do we feed on? Christ. Preach Christ to them.
Number four, verse six, but go rather to the lost sheep of the
house of Israel. Why do we preach? Because in
our natural condition, we're lost. We need to be found. We're in
darkness. We need Christ our light. Back up in chapter nine,
verse 36, when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion
on them because they fainted and were scattered abroad, a
sheep having no shepherd. We need Christ. He said, I'm
the good shepherd. I give my life for the sheep,
other sheep I have, and I must bring them into the fold. Here's
the last reason, verse seven. As you go, preach saying, the
kingdom of heaven is at hand. Why do we preach? It's because
this is urgent. The kingdom of heaven is at hand
right now. Our Lord is plucking his ripe
fruit, calling his people, taking them home right now. The harvest
is right now. The things concerning Christ
and salvation, they cannot be put off. We're not promised tomorrow.
Today is the day of salvation. He's coming quickly. He's truly
coming quickly. Through the message of the Word,
all who have been ordained to believe will. All who have been
given ears to hear will. All who have been called to come
will, and that's why we preach the gospel of the finished work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray, honestly, I pray God
will call men to preach his truth, and I pray for that harvest.
Oh, may God call many, many people to himself. All right, Brother
Eddie, you come.