Turn in your Bibles, if you would,
to the book of Luke. We're going to pick up again
where we left off several weeks back. I don't even remember how
long back it was. The Lord wasn't leading me. He
wasn't leading me to preach from it anymore. It wasn't that I
had left Luke completely. I knew I'd come back eventually,
someday, and the Lord's opened that door today. Opened that
door for me to take this Scripture and do what all of God's preachers
do. Get you on the road to Christ.
Get you on the road that takes you out of this world, out of
self, out of pride, and puts you on to grace. What is grace? The Lord Jesus. What is mercy? The Lord Jesus. In Luke chapter
9, we begin at verse 1, And I'm gonna ask you to read down just
to verse three. We're gonna go all the way to
verse six eventually. I wanna just start with verse one through
three. Then he called his 12 disciples together and he gave
them power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases. And he sent them to preach, to
do what? Did you catch that? What did
he send them to do? To preach. the kingdom of God
and to heal the sick. What was first? To preach. To
preach the kingdom of God. What is the kingdom of God? Bill
and I, and I think I've shared this with most of you at one
time or another, we used, what is heaven like? I've shared with you how we thought,
well maybe heaven's a place where Harley-Davidson's don't leak
oil. I know, that's kind of a funny thing to say. Other times we
talked about this. There's places in scripture where
it talks about the worlds that will belong to God's people.
Could you imagine just all of a sudden like Christ? We just
think of it and there we are. We're on another world somewhere. What
is heaven like? I'll tell you. Heaven is Christ
Jesus the Lord. Wherever he is at, that's heaven. I don't care what it is, if it's
in his presence, if it's at the feet of Jesus, we will be in
heaven. That's what heaven is like. He was sent them to preach the
kingdom of God, to heal the sick. And verse three says this, and
he said unto them, take nothing for your journey. Neither staves
nor script, at staff or wallet, neither bread, neither money,
neither have two coats apiece. It was common for them to have
a couple of coats. It was common. You don't even need two coats. I've titled my message this morning, All I Have. All I Have. I come to you this morning with
everything I've got. I don't have coats. I'm not coming
to you with coats of righteousness that you can come up with on
your own, that you can cover up your sins with. I don't come
to you with food that will feed your belly or feed your soul.
I don't come to you with a stick that you can use to walk through
that valley of the shadow of death that we go through out
there. I don't come to you with a wallet
to help you pay for your roof over your head. But if you
do need that, let me know. I'll be happy to help. Are you getting the message?
Is it starting to come across? Are you sitting there? The subject's out. It's clear.
He's coming with what? There's only one thing to come
to God's people with, folks, and that's Christ. That's our
Savior. Isn't that what gets you through
this next week? After going through the world all week long, after
sitting on the highway with that guy in front of you who cuts
you off, after sitting there thinking of how foolish These
people who are in the White House over on the other side of the
country are thinking about all those people that are killing
others around the world in hate or whatever it is you may be
thinking of or dealing with in your sinful flesh. And you can
add all kinds of stuff into that. What do you need? I need forgiveness. Don't you? I need salvation. Don't you? Well, that's all I've got for
you. Like those disciples, I don't have anything of the world to
give you. I can't ask you to come down here to the front of
the church and pray a prayer with me because that doesn't
work. That's nothing worth offering you for. I can't tell you, get
in the waters of baptism and that'll save you. I don't come
to you with that. I come to you with Christ. That's
what God's preachers do. I said, I've got the easiest
job in the world. But the hardest job in the world. All I've got
to do is tell you what I've got. I've got nothing of this flesh.
I've never told you I'm anything but a poor sinner who deserves
God's wrath, but has received the grace and the mercy of my
Lord through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. who gave Himself
for me. That's all I got. I hope that's all you got. I
was railed on because I took chapter 6 and 7 of Matthew. If you want to go look at it
on your own time, what that is for you folks who can't join
us on Friday night, we've been looking at Matthew verse by verse,
or chapter by chapter, or whatever the Lord lays on our hearts to
look at it. And it just so happens, 5, 6, and 7 are the Sermon on
the Mount performed by Jesus Christ Himself, and it's all
about what you should be doing. How you should be walking in
this world. And the accusation against me
is that I'm lawless, I'm antinomian, because I took it all in one
section and said, look at Christ here. Christ fulfilled it all
for us. You go read that. I guarantee
you, if Christ is speaking to your hearts, he'll teach you.
I don't have to teach you how to live. I do have to teach you about the
Savior who has fulfilled it all because you can't. Isn't that
what we need? Isn't that why we come out of
the world once or twice a week and put the world aside so that
we can see the one who's done it for us? Let me ask you here. What did he say? And he said
unto them, take my laws with you. Did he say that? No. He says take nothing. Take nothing
of this world. They were to take nothing. They
were to take no clothing, no script. No food. No money. Folks, when
we consider these things, let us remember our Lord speaks in
spirit. Oh, how the world wants to grab
ahold of these verses here and say, see, this means this, this
word means this. Folks, if you take it as the
Spirit, it's really simple. It's really simple. There's only
one food for us, and that's the Lord Jesus. In John 6, verse 63, we read
these words. It is the spirit that quickeneth. That means it's the spirit that
must be made alive. The flesh profiteth nothing.
God's word doesn't come to you and profit your flesh. It profits
your spirit. We're going to look at that more
in Romans chapter 8, verses 1 through 10. But he goes on, he says,
the words that I speak unto you They are spirit, and they are
life. That's what the gospel does.
It gives life. It brings life. It feeds. It
feeds the children of God. It reminds us that it's not our
works. I'm not telling you to go out
there and live any way you want, and you know that. You know that. Folks, our Lord says in His Word
through the Apostle Paul, Be ye holy, for our God is holy. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life. Let's go over to Romans
chapter 8. Hold your place. Mark your place
there in Luke 9. We'll come back to it. Go over to Romans chapter
8. John, there's more to God's Word
than just Romans chapter 8. That's absolutely true. Absolutely true. But no place
in God's Word does it say it better than right here. There
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus
who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. What is
life? God's Word to the Spirit. Verse
2, for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath
made me free, free from the law of sin and death. That doesn't
mean that we're free to just go out and commit willy-nilly.
Now, I want to be clear about this. I would never tell somebody
that they can't come into this church. Whoever God brings through
those doors, He brings through those doors, not me. I would
never say you can't come here unless you come here to rile
things up and to cause disruption. You want to come here and sit
there and be quiet and hear the gospel preached? I invite anybody. That includes homosexuals. You'd let homosexuals come in
here? I'll let anybody come in here if they're willing to sit
and listen. Who are we to judge that God might not be saving
the soul of another? We're not free to sin as we want,
is what I would say to those people. But we are free from
the consequences of what we've done and what we do today. He
who bear our sins upon his body has paid the consequences for
our sin in full, not partially. There's not going to be somebody
coming a little bit later on in life and say, see here John,
remember you were walking good here, but over here you messed
up. You thought some pretty wrong thoughts over there. I'm going
to hold that against you. Every single sin that I have
ever committed and that I will commit and that you have committed
and that you will commit if you belong to Christ has been laid
upon Him. That's what freedom of the law means. For the law
of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from
the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in
the flesh. That the righteousness of the
law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh,
but what? The Spirit. That's what Paul
was talking about when he said, in my flesh, I see one member. In my spirit, I see another and
they war against each other. In my spirit, I walk the law
perfectly. But not in this flesh, in my
Savior, the Lord Jesus. Do you see how we're to look
to Him to get on that path to Christ and stay on Him in all
matters, in all senses? I've got nothing else. I have nothing else. I have only
one thing and that's my Lord. The Lord saved a leper as we
were reading in our Friday night Bible study. And he told the
leper to go to the chief priest and declare himself clean, wash
himself in the Jordan. And until that time, don't tell
anybody. Just go do that. That's what's first. The law
needs to be fulfilled. Go do that. And he did, willingly. Didn't say he did it perfectly.
But he willingly went and did what he could. And afterwards,
what did he do? He went out and spread the news.
Spread the news of what? He spread the only thing He had,
Jesus Christ, my Savior. That's all God's preachers have,
folks. I don't have the law for you. Christ does. I encourage you. Read His words.
See what He says in His words. To love your neighbor as yourself. I encourage you. But when you send us, we have
an advocate in heaven who's dealt with it for us. Why? Because he's loved us with an
everlasting love. Don't you like to hear that?
Doesn't that bless your heart to know that God has loved a
people? I'm one of those. Are you? I'm one of those. Are you? Verse
5, for they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the
flesh, but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the
Spirit. For to be carnally minded, that means worldly minded. To
be lawly minded is death. Do you know that's what the law
is? It's conviction. Why is the law there? If nobody
can do it, why is the law there? So you'll be guilty. you'll know
how guilty you are. It's to teach you what guilt
is. Paul didn't think he was guilty at all. He thought he
was righteous. I'm doing everything that my teachers, that I read
in the Old Testament, I'm doing it all according to God's Word.
I'm walking. He was just in what he was doing
according to the religion. But until God used that law to
convict him of what he was, he knew not the Lord. For they that
are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, they after
the spirit, the things of the spirit. For to be carnally minded
is of death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace, because
the carnal mind is enmity against God. For it is not subject to
the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are
in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh.
but in the Spirit. If so, be that the Spirit of
God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the
body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because
of righteousness." We walk and live by the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God that dwells
in us. And we take nothing of the old man with us. Do we still
clothe and feed this body of death? Of course we do. But we're
talking spiritually. We leave all the rituals, all
the religious ceremonies, all the works that we think we must
do for the gospel. For with the gospel we need none
of that. What do you take with you? What's
the Lord telling you to take with you? Nothing. The gospel, the good
news to a bona fide sinner, Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. Sin has left a crimson stain.
He washed me white as snow. Folks, that's all that God's
preachers have. We have no need of anything else.
Anything else would be nothing but a pollutant to the Lord's
gospel. The Gospel is Christ and Him
crucified. The Gospel comes in the power
of God, not in the wisdom of man. Listen to 1 Corinthians
2 verses 1-5. And I, brethren, when I came
to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom. Do you remember that? Do you remember the day I came
to you and I said, do you want me to be your preacher? I'm not
a learned man. I've got no wisdom, but I know
the One who is wise in all things. I've got no righteousness to
share with you, but I know Him who is all-righteous. Paul goes
on in verse 2, he says, For I am determined not to know anything
among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Notice it didn't say, save Jesus
Christ, him crucified, oh yeah, and his law. And I was with you in weakness,
and in fear, and in much trembling. You folks know how trembling
it is for me? I used to shake so bad. Some
of you remember when I first started leading the singing here.
I actually got up and went to the back of the room sick and
threw up one time. The responsibility that God has
given me here is almost unbearable. You've seen me. You've seen me
when I've been standing here in depression because I know how unworthy and
how inept I am to take on this responsibility. You know what?
Every single one of God's preachers are exactly that. Some think
Don Fortner is, ooh, they put him up on such a pedestal. Don Fortner has been in tears
over his ineptness, over his weaknesses. Paul says in verse four, in my
speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's
wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power. Why? Verse five, that your faith
should not stand I'm thankful that I'm weak. I'm thankful that
God didn't send you some wise man who thinks more of himself
and would have led you astray. But he sent you a man who is
weak, but strong in the Lord Jesus
and only in him. Just as strong as you are. Just as strong as you. that your
faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power
of God. Listen to 1 Thessalonians 1 verse
5. For our gospel came not unto
you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost,
and in much assurance. As ye know the manner of men,
we were among you for your sake. Folks, we are saved by grace
through faith. That means through belief. And
that belief, that faith is a gift of God, not of works which man
should boast. We read that in Ephesians. If
this is not good enough for those who hear it, if some will reject
and insist that there are works that must be included, that they
must grow in holiness, that they must increase in their walk before
God, they do not understand their sin. Aren't you thankful God
has given you an understanding of your sin? You know, when I
was growing up, there was a group of people called the holier than
thou. You ever heard of that? You know
what that is? That's the person who's gone
to church and says, I'm a better person now because I go to church
on Sunday. I'm a better person now because
I don't go down to the bar and drink with the guys anymore.
I go to church on Wednesday night. I'm a better person because I
devote my time to this or that or whatever you want to put into
it. That's the holier-than-thou. God's people know we aren't holy
at all outside of our Savior, the Lord Jesus. And in Him, we
have perfect holiness. Perfect holiness. For those that don't understand
their sin, they don't know the gospel. Look at verses 4 and
5 of Luke chapter 9. And whatsoever house ye enter
there, abide, and thence depart. And whosoever will not receive
you when ye go out of the city, shake off the very dust from
your feet for a testimony against them. Let me tell you what increases
to a saved child of God? Our sinfulness. What increases
to a child of God? His majesty. What increases to
a child of God? His righteousness becomes more
and more. What increases to a child of
God? His graciousness. As I see my
sin more and more, As I see what I am, deeper and deeper, His
grace becomes more precious. More precious than the world. More precious than the world.
Look over at Isaiah 43. Again, hold your place, we'll
come back to it in just a moment. But over in Isaiah 43, in Isaiah
43 we see in verse 10, are my witnesses. Folks, I don't have anything
but one thing to witness to you with, and that's Christ. Ye are my witnesses, saith the
Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen, that ye may know and
believe me and understand that I am he. Before me there was
no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the Lord, and beside
me there is no Savior. I have declared and have saved,
and I have showed when there was no strange God among you.
Ye are my witnesses, sayeth the Lord, that I am God. What is it we're a witness of?
Are we a witness of how to walk? Are we a witness of the law?
Paul says to the Corinthians, who, I may have that wrong. He says to one of the folks in
one of his letters, who hath bewitched you? That you should
follow another Jesus. Who hath bewitched you? What
are we witnesses of? That He's God! And there is no
other! That's our witness! Go back to Luke chapter 9. Luke chapter 9. Look at verse 6 with me. And
they departed and went through the towns doing what? Preaching. the gospel and healing everywhere. Acts chapter three, we're gonna
look at one example of what we just read there. They went through
the towns, they went through the towns preaching the gospel
and healing everywhere. The gospel is what heals. The
Gospel is what heals the poor sinner. It's the Word that God
uses to call His people out of darkness. It's the Word that
He uses to give us life. Did He not use the Gospel to
give you life when you first heard it? I see the head nod. I see the
head nod. Yeah, that's what I heard the
first time I heard the Gospel, the good news. Look here at verses
1-16 of Acts chapter 3. Now Peter and John went up together
into the temple at the hour of prayer, being in the ninth hour.
And a certain man, lame from his mother's womb, was carried,
whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple, which is called
beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple.
Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asking alms,
and Peter fastening his eyes upon him with John said, look,
look on us. And he gave heed unto them, expecting
to receive something of them. He thought he was going to get
some money. Listen to what Peter says in verse 6. Then Peter said,
Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee
in the name of Jesus Christ. What did he have? He gave all
that he had. I give you all that I've got.
In the name of Christ, look to Him. In the name of Christ, Jesus
of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And what happened in verse 7?
And He took him by the right hand, lifted him up, and immediately
his feet and his ankle bones received strength. Verse 8, and
he leaping up and stood and walked and entered with them into the
temple, walking and leaping and praising God. What is it we do?
That's what the singing is all about. That's what you sitting
here right now is doing. You're praising God for being
your Savior. You're worshiping. You're bowing
down before the Almighty. Verse 9, And all the people saw
him walking and praising God, and they knew that it was he
which sat for alms at the beautiful gate of the temple, and they
were filled with wonder and amazement. at that which had happened unto
him. And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John,
all the people ran together unto them in the porch, that is called
Solomon's, greatly wondering. And when Peter saw it, he answered
unto the people, ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? Or why look ye so earnestly on
us, as though by our own power or holiness I got nothing for you. But Christ,
and that's everything. You don't need anything from
me. You need it from Him. Why ye look so earnestly on us,
as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man
walk? The God of Abraham, verse 13, and of Isaac, and of Jacob,
the God of our fathers hath glorified His Son. whom ye delivered up
and denied him in the presence of Pilate when he was determined
to let him go. But ye denied the Holy One, the
just, and desired a murderer to be granted among you, and
killed the Prince of Life, whom God hath raised up from the dead.
Wherefore, we are witnesses. And his name, through faith in
his name, hath made this man strong. whom ye see and know,
yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness
and presence of you all. I come before you this morning
with nothing of this world. Folks, the world is death. There's
only one place for life, and that is the one who is the spirit
of life. One more, I'm gonna read one
more. I gotta read this one more. This is just, this goes so perfect. Let me close with these words.
Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son, that thy son
may also glorify thee. As thou hast given him power,
over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the
only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." Five years ago, I told you that's all I'm going
to have. And that's all I've had every
Sunday. And God still has you here. I
don't care what anybody else says. Only God's people could
put up with that and love that every Sunday, after Sunday, after
Sunday, after Sunday, after Sunday. Amen.