just to show you how the Lord
works things out. You know, those of you who have
been coming here for a long time, you've heard me say this so many
times, and it's so true, you know, Kathy chooses the songs.
Kathy chooses the songs. We're talking this morning, this
message is titled, Go Tell It On A Mountain. And I know, I
look at the bulletins, I go through them, I make sure the articles
are proper, and she goes through and makes sure the songs haven't
been sung in last Friday or last Sunday or something. So I really
don't pay a lot of attention to the songs. I just ask you,
did you check it? Oh yeah, I did. Okay, fine. This song, higher
than the mount, sparkling like a fountain, all sufficient grace
for even me. What wonderful words that we
sing out. These are the new words, these
are the new song that we sing in our hearts when God has come
to us and called us out of that darkness we all once walked in.
And I say this for our Visitors, we are titled First Baptist Church
of Rescue. And as you know, there's many
different kinds of Baptist churches. We kind of fall under a group
of folks that we call Sovereign Grace Baptist Churches. We preach
the sovereign grace of Christ Jesus every Sunday, every Friday
night. Every time the Lord gives me
an opportunity to speak, it's about our Savior. what He's done
for us, and where He is right now. And that's what today's
message is about. It's titled, Go Tell it on a
Mountain. Turn to the book of Luke, chapter
8, if you would. Actually, you know what? We'll
turn to Luke in a moment. Turn to Isaiah 42 first. Turn
over to Isaiah 42. And I want to read two verses,
three verses there, if you would. Verse 10, 11, and 12. Sing unto
the Lord a new song. Ye that go down to the sea and
all that is therein, the isles and the inhabitants thereof,
let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice,
and the villages that Kedar doth inhabit, let the inhabitants
of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains,
let them give glory. unto the Lord and declare His
praise in the islands. Let them give glory unto the
Lord and declare His praise in the islands. That's what God's
people do right there. Let them give glory. How many
times have our religious family, those that say, oh, I go to church
on Sundays, and oh, I give tithings, and oh, I made a decision one
day. I decided I'd come down to the
front and I'd turn my soul over to God. It was all about what
they did, isn't it? Did you hear anything in there
about what Christ had done for them? That's what the purpose
of us meeting together is, is to refresh ourselves in the grace
of God's Word and to shout out, to sing the new song. Sing the
new song that my Savior saved me. John didn't do anything. If it was left to John, you know
me, and those of you who knew me before know I'd be right there
doing what I was doing before. Exact same thing. And so would
every one of you. God's purpose overrules what
we call our will. We sing unto the Lord a new song.
When I was a young man, I remember, as a child going to church, they
sang this song, Go tell it on a mountain, that Christ the Lord
has come. Well, that's exactly what we
read in Luke chapter 8. We were in a series of studies
brought from the book of Luke. And I finally got through the
parable of the sower. And I struggled with that for
quite some time, but we got through that last week. And today we're
going to pick up again in verses 16-21. And I'm going to read
it through once and then we'll go back take it a couple of verses
at a time. So read with me if you would,
beginning at verse 16. It says, No man, when he hath lighted
a candle, covereth it with a vessel. Do you see where I got this shot?
Shot it from a mountain thing? Do you see where that comes from?
Right there. No man, when he hath a light, hath lighted a
candle, covereth it with a vessel, or putteth it under a bed, but
setteth it on a candlestick, set it out in front, let people
see it. they may which enter in may see the light. Verse 17,
for nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest, neither
anything hid that shall not be known and come abroad. Take heed,
therefore, how you hear. For whosoever hath to him shall
be given, and whosoever hath not from him shall be taken,
even that which he seemeth to have. Verse 19, then came he
to him his mother, Then came he to his mother and his brethren,
and could not come to him for the press. And it was told him,
verse 20, by certain which said, Thy mother and thy brethren stand
without, desiring to see thee. And he answered, he said unto
them, My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word
of God and do it. I think about what it says over
in Hebrews. We've been studying the book
of Hebrews. Wherefore, holy brethren, that's all of those that were
right in front of the Lord Jesus at that time. There were so many
people in the house that his own mother, brothers and sisters
of blood could not come in. And he says, this, the house
of God, is my family. I have a large family myself.
I come from a children of five, two stepsisters and five brothers
and sisters of the blood. You're my family. You're my family. Gene Harmon pastored this church
for 38 years, and he, to this day, after being gone for five
years, says, my family is there in rescue. You be sure to tell
them how much I love them. I don't do that enough. He loves
you. He loves you as much, if not
more, than his own six children. You're my family. Our Lord has
just given and explained the parable of the sower. The seed
that was spread on the wayside, that landed on the ground on
the wayside, the seed that landed in the rocks, the seed that landed
in the ground with the thorns and in the good seed. And we
looked at that last week, how that points to us and the narrow
way that is to God. There are not hundreds of ways
that people come to God. There's only one. And that's
through His Son, the Lord Jesus. Through the blood of God that
was shed on that cross for all of those for whom the Father
gave with Him before the world was. That's the only way. I know many Christians who, oh,
there's all kinds of... He saves in all kinds of different
churches. It's not just your way there
and back in rescue. No, you're right. It's not just
our way here in Rescue. It's the way of those folks who
preach the gospel over there in Yuba City. It's the way of
those who preach the gospel down there in San Diego. Several churches
we know of personally back in Tennessee and Kentucky. And there
may be some churches down in Sacramento that I don't know
about. So you're right. It's not just in Rescue. But
there's still only one way. And that's per His Word. Our
Lord says, I am the way. He doesn't say, I am many ways,
or there are many ways to me. He says, I am the way. So the Lord taught in the parable
there was only one way. And now he's going to give us
an example of this. That which God teaches us by
his grace, that which he has given to you and I, That which he has taught us through
his word, that we are saved by grace, through faith, which is
a gift of God, not of works, lest man should boast. He says
this, he says, go out and proclaim. Tell it on a mountain. So let
your light shine, is what he's saying. Look with me again, if
you would, at verses 16 and 17. No man, when he hath lit the
candle, covereth it with a vessel, or putteth it under the bed,
but setteth it on a candlestick, that they which enter may see
the light. For nothing is secret that shall
not be made manifest, neither anything hid that shall not be
known, and come abroad. No one lights a candle and hides
it. I've got a light. I want to close all the curtains.
I don't want anybody to see inside my house. Well, some of us may
do that. What do we turn the light on
for? We turn the light on so whoever comes into the house
can see what's going on. You don't stub your toe on the
table or something. Or step on the dog, who will
bite you, by the way, if you do that. I know. No one lights
a candle so they can hide it from everything. It's there to
put light where there was darkness. The reason for lighting the candle
is that it may be held forth and shine the light into the
darkness. Whenever we read or hear these words from the lips
of our Savior, we ought to first stop and think of ourselves.
Think about it. Ourselves. You remember the day
you first heard the Gospel preached here at Rescue? Or any other
church you may have come from? If they preached the truth, we
must think of ourselves. If somebody had taken the light
of the Gospel, and we know what the light of the Gospel is, the
Lord says, I'm the light. Just like he's the way, he's
the light. Light had come into the world and men would not have
it, would they? No, they ran from the light.
Why? Because the light exposes what we are. Folks, you're not
a sinner because of what you've done. You've done what you've
done because you're a sinner. We're all sinners. These beautiful
children, they're sinners too. They need saving as much as all
the adults. We're sinners. And Christ came
to save sinners. That's what we're singing on
the mountain. We're not out here teaching and singing that, hey,
God loves everybody if you'll just let Him. No. We're teaching God came and saved
those He loves. That's what the Bible says. Jacob
have I loved, Esau have I hated. I came to save sinners. That's
what He says. Was it not God? that revealed
that light to you in preaching of His gospel? Thinking of yourself. If you have a light of the gospel
in you, do you not have a desire for those to come to the gospel?
I was excited. I can't tell you. We don't get
a lot of visitors here. To see you folks come in through
the door and introduce yourselves and say, we're just here to check
you out. That excites me. Why? Because it's God's light
that's going out. It excites me as much as it does
to see you folks who come every Sunday. Gisela, when she can
get off of work to be here. You know, she gets off work late
on Sunday mornings sometimes. It's very difficult for her to
make it. Diane comes all the way down out of Georgetown. It's
very difficult for her to be here. I'm excited to see you
because God has brought you here to hear His Word. just as He's
brought the rest of us. It's exciting! I want you to
see the Light of God, the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.
I want you to see Him. I don't want to hide it under
some, this is only for you who show up at such and such dates.
No! I've said this before to you.
Do not the people around you know who your God is? Who is
your God, James? He's the Sovereign Lord of all
things, is He not? And everybody who you work with
knows absolutely You don't go around beating Him over the head
with a Bible saying, see this? No. His walk in this life. You cannot know who God is without
expressing the fact that He rules everything about you. How come
you're not all upset about what's going on over in the Middle East?
Because my Lord's controlling that as much as He is anything
else. How come you're not all upset about what's going on in
our schools? And the Lord, He's in control of that as well as
anything else. Does He not tell us in His Word, Romans 8, 28,
that all things? Does He not say that? All things?
All things are for our good? To them who are called? Do you
want to hide that underneath your cot? Oh, I hope and pray
not. We ought to rejoice and thank
Him for it. But He's also given us the Gospel
to trust, to go out and give. He's put the light of divine
truth into our hands so that we might carry it forth into
the world of darkness for the salvation of others who were
chosen in Christ before the world began, redeemed sinners. Folks,
God did not give us the knowledge of His Son. the knowledge of
His grace, the knowledge of His salvation so that we might simply
profess it within ourselves, admire it, we're saved, we're
saved by His grace, maybe discuss it with those here and there,
but that we might proclaim it to the world. The Gospel is a
treasure. It's committed unto our hands
with which we have been entrusted with it. Listen to the words
of 2 Corinthians 4, verse 7. this treasure, the treasure of
the gospel, the treasure of God Almighty, the treasure of His
love for His people, the treasure of grace in earthen vessels. That's what we are. It's in us. It's in us to go out and proclaim
to the world that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. You'll never hear me say what
I have done to be saved because I have done nothing. You'll never
hear one of God's children say what He has done to be saved
because they have done nothing. Our salvation is of the Lord
and of the Lord alone. That trust that the Lord has
given us comes with a great weight of responsibility. It is the
responsibility of every believer, every local church, and every
gospel preacher to do one thing, and that is proclaim the gospel
of Christ. You heard me say when I came
into this pulpit, I am not going to be your counselor. I am not
here to tell you how to live. God's Word does a great job of
that. That's what I'm here to do, is to preach about Christ.
To tell you what He's done for me in my life. to express to
you what He's done for all of His people. Not the whole world,
but for those that He laid down His life for, for those that
He shed His blood for. One of our dear brothers struggles
with tearing up when he tries to pray. Why? Because the grace
of God dwells in him, and he knows what he is before God. And he knows that when he's speaking
to the Lord, his face should be in the dirt where it belongs
and praising the Lord for His grace to him. And that's why
I remember when the Lord first called me out of darkness, I
was sitting here and I would sing that song, Amazing Grace.
And it was a long time, folks. I don't know what happened to
me. Something happened. got all teary-eyed and stuff
all of a sudden. I didn't cry over anything before.
I'm not trying to say I was a tough guy. I'm not. I was never a tough
guy. But very few things made me cry. I couldn't sing the song Amazing
Grace without tearing up for a long time. It's still there
in my heart. I just don't tear up. But I understand
what it is. Experience. to experience God
saving a sinner like me. And if you're a child of God,
you've experienced it too. You know what it is. You know
what the grace of God is in coming to that cold, dead heart that
would not have Him rule over you and cutting it away and giving
you a heart that now says, He is Lord. Even when I didn't know
it, He's Lord. Even when I didn't want Him,
He was Lord. And I'm so thankful that He was and that He is. This
is what we shout from the mountaintops. This is the new song. It's the
song of grace for His people. It is our responsibility to go
into the world and proclaim the Gospel of Christ to make Christ
known in the generation that we live in. Turn over to Matthew
chapter 28 if you would. We're talking about the responsibility.
The responsibility that God has given us. And over in Matthew
28, the last chapter of Matthew, we read in verse 18, And Jesus
came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto Me in
heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore. Go ye therefore. And teach all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son,
and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even unto
the ends of the earth, ends of the world. Amen. Listen to 1
Corinthians. Go back to your text there in
Luke, and I'll read for you a couple of verses. One from 1 Corinthians
9-16, For though I preach the gospel, writes Paul, I have nothing
to glory of, for necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe is unto
me if I preach not the gospel. Woe is unto me if I don't preach
the gospel. Ephesians 3, Paul writing again, he says, Unto
me whom have left than the least of all saints, Did you get that?
Did you catch that? Paul's written more books than
any of the other saints in the Bible. God has used him in great
and mighty ways. And he calls himself the least.
I say the same thing about me, but it's true about me. I am
the least. The bottom of that chain way down below. All the
other ministers way above me. I am the least, he says, of all
saints. Is this grace given? that I should
preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ."
When we hear these words, or when we read these words that
we read in Luke chapter 8 verse 16 that's spoken from the lips
of our dear Savior, we ought to also think of others. What
about our guests who are here for the first time? Maybe this
is the first time they've heard this gospel. Remember when it was
your first time? I remember it like it was yesterday.
That was 20 some odd years ago. Yeah. I remember it well. We must also think of others.
Folks, we live in a world of darkness. A darkness that we've
all walked in at one time. The multitudes around us in our
homes or in our communities, around the nation, around the
world, they're all in that same path that you and I were on.
The path that leads to destruction. Behold the peoples of the world. Allow us to preach the gospel
that the Lord may fix their hearts. Not fix them, but remove them
and give them a new heart. Teach them and tell them that
they are without God, they are without Christ, without hope.
Is there nothing that we can do for them? Indeed there is. Indeed there is. We can and must
hold forth in this dark world the light of the gospel with
an earnestness and a zeal that God has given us for Himself.
Turn over to Romans chapter 9. In Romans 9, we read the first
three verses. I say the truth in Christ, I
lie not. My conscience also bearing me
witness in the Holy Ghost that I have a great heaviness and
a continual sorrow in my heart, for I could wish that myself
were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according
to the flesh. You say, what does that mean?
I'll tell you what that means. That means that I would give
up if there was possible for me to stop and say right now,
for my son and my daughter, grown adults, if I could give myself
that they might know the Lord, I would do so. And I'll bet all
of you would do the same for yours as well. That's what that's
saying. Paul's talking about his kinsmen, his brethren, according
to the flesh. Look at another one, if you would,
over at Romans 2. Romans 10, verse 1, Brethren, my heart's
desire and my prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. Is that not your prayer for your
loved ones? I know, 99% of our prayers are
for ourselves, right? They are with me. That other
1% though, is for my family. For my wife. I know she's already
saved, but for my children. My heart's desire and prayer
to God is for Israel, that they might be saved. Look at one more.
2 Corinthians 5. We begin reading in verse 10.
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,
that everyone may receive the things done in his body according
to that which he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore
the terror of the Lord, we persuade men That's what we're doing.
Singing from the mountaintop, crying out to the Lord has come.
We persuade men. We do the best we can with our
lips, but it takes God to do it. But we are made manifest
unto God, and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.
For we command not ourselves again unto you, but give you
occasion to glory on your behalf, that ye may have someone to answer
them which glory in appearance, and not in heart. For whether
we be beside ourselves that it's to God, or whether we be sober,
it is for you to cause, for your cause. For the love of Christ
constraineth us, because we thus judge that if one die for all,
then all are dead. J.C. Ryle wrote these words. He said, the highest form of
selfishness is that of a man who is content to go to heaven
alone. The truest charity is to endeavor to share with others
every spark of religious gospel light that we possess. And so
hold forth our own candle, that it may give light to everyone
around us. God never lights a candle that it may burn alone. Back
in our text in Luke, verse 17, our Lord is declaring that the
gospel must and shall be preached in all the world. Remember the
context of what we're reading. Though in the day of judgment
all things shall be brought to light in the sense that God will
cause all men to see clearly what He has done, this is not
what it's declaring here. It's not that God is going to
show the world all of our innermost secrets and thoughts. Our Lord
here is telling us that the things then hidden and spoken in parables. Remember, what's He doing? He's
preaching in parables. Taking into context what we read
here in verse 17 with the parable of the sower. Remember? Not everybody understood what
that parable was, did they? That's what he's talking about.
Those who have been given the understanding. Openly proclaim
in this gospel day to them by his church and by faithful gospel
preachers in the years to come. Listen to Matthew 24-14. I won't
be much longer. And this gospel of the kingdom
shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all
nations and then shall the end come. Secondly, what we see here
is in Luke 8 verse 18. Take heed therefore how you hear
for whosoever hath to him shall be given and whosoever hath not
from him shall be taken even that which seems to have. This
is teaching us that we must take heed how we hear the Gospel.
And we've spent a couple of weeks talking about that. Examine yourselves. Are you in the faith? Is the
preacher standing before you preaching the truth? Or is it
like that sign out there? That sign where we walk in the
door. If your butt is trying, then
your preacher is lying. That's what that's talking about.
Take heed. You're to put me to the test,
folks. If I say something wrong that
is contrary to the truth of God's grace and gospel, you're to come
to me afterwards and say, I don't understand what you said. That
wasn't correct. I know because I'm looking at
the Bible, John. That's what the Brians did. They looked at
their Bible. In today's world, where they
got this big screen TV going on, and they got one or two verses
that go up there. You need a Bible, folks. If you
don't have one, come to me, I'll give you one. Research the Scriptures. We're diligent as the Bereans,
we're making sure the man standing before you is saying what he's
supposed to. It says, take heed therefore
how you hear, for whosoever hath to him shall be given, whosoever
hath not from him shall be taken, even that which he seemeth to
have. The degree to which we will benefit from the ministry
of the Word of God depends greatly upon the way we hear it. If all
you're hearing is a little bit each time you come to church,
and the rest of the time you're wandering off thinking about
that, or the game is right after church today. Or in my case,
there's a golf tournament Going to church and hearing sermons
will do us no good, folks, unless we hear it right. Unless we hear
it right. If we would hear the Word of
God right, we must lay to heart four simple rules for hearing
it. First off, be sure that you hear
what you hear is the Gospel. Many churches, many folks like
to say, John, there's way more to the Bible than what you're
preaching. You're just missing out on so
much. No, I'm not. The Bible says, go forth and
preach the Gospel. Go forth and preach the Gospel.
Be sure what you hear is the Gospel. Hear the Word of God
as the Word of God. When we read these words, this
is from God Himself. How important is this Word to
you? How important is this whole Bible to you? This is the only
truth that I know of in this whole world. I don't know what
this means to you, but this means truth to me. I know it's the
truth to God's people. Hear the Word as the Word of
God with reverence. Be sure you hear the Gospel with
faith. Not as the word of man, but as
the word of God. Listen to Hebrews 4, verses 1-2. We were looking
at this in today's Bible study. Let us therefore fear, it says.
Why would God inspire somebody for you and I to fear? Let us
therefore fear, it says. Lest a promise being left us
of entering into His rest. If any of you should seem to
come short of it, For unto us was the gospel preached as well
as unto them, speaking of those that were in the wilderness after
God delivered them out of Egypt. But the word preached did not
profit them, not being mixed with faith, and then I've heard
it. Be sure that what you're listening to from whoever stands
in the pulpit, you're hearing it with the faith of who God
is. And then lastly, hearing the
word with prayer. praying for God to bless it to your own soul.
The third thing I want to consider here is verses 19 and 21, and
I'll make this real quick. This will go fast. Then came
Him to His mother and His brethren, and could not come unto Him at
Him for the press. And it was told Him by certain
which said, Thy mother and thy brethren stand without desiring
to see thee. And He answered and said unto
them, My mother and my brethren are these. which hear the word
of God and do it. We are taught by these verses
that those and those only who hear and obey the gospel are
the family of God. What blessed privileges are ours
in Christ? Do you consider it a privilege
to share the gospel? Do you consider it a privilege?
I've come short of that. I've come short of that. I wish I'd consider it more.
But I am so weak. You folks may be strong in your
faith, and I pray that you are. But if you're like me, weak,
weak in every way, every way. Lord, help me to see the privilege
that you have given me to be one who is loved by you. The person who hears the Word
of God and does it is the sinner who hearing the Gospel calls
and comes to Christ. Did you catch that? That's as
simple as it is, folks. Calling and coming to God Almighty. They hear who He is, and they
come. Why do you go to that church
all the way up there in Rescue California, John? There's thousands
of churches right here by you in North Highlands. Because that's
where I hear about God in His true form. Ask Kathy. For the first five years that
the Lord called me out of darkness, I spent many a days, Bill would
be able to tell you if he was here today, I kept going to him
saying, Just look at it. I see the advertisement for this
church over here. Let's go over and check it out. Maybe they
preach the gospel. Ah, no way, John. Forget it. Rescue's where
they preach the gospel. And sure enough, I'd go to the
church and I'd hear something about free will. It's up to you,
John. Okay. Therefore my salvation
is up to me. That's not what scripture says.
Doing doing what the Lord has told us to do. We come to Christ. We come to hear the Gospel. We
come to Christ that we may hear what He has done and come. What has He done? He has completely
purged His people of their sins. He hasn't done some of it. Shed
His blood and now it's up to you to do some more. He's done
it all. He's done everything that's needed.
Everything that He's required, He provides. And as God, what
He provides is perfect. Does that make sense? Is that
not true? Is that not what the Lord says?
Everything the Son did pleased the Father, therefore it was
perfect, right? They come and they hear where
He is right now. He's on His throne, ruling, interceding
for all of His people. That one's mine! No, devil, you
can't charge Him because I've already been charged for what
He did. That one's mine. You can't condemn Him for it.
I was condemned in His place. That's the Lord speaking for
His people right now on His throne. The Master says, believe on Me,
and guess what? Just like the disciples that
He was walking by the seashore and said, Come, follow me, and
I shall make you fishers of men." And what did they do? They got
up and followed him. I sat right there in that chair,
right where you're sitting, and my sister poked me in the side,
just like that. I said, what? What did you do
that for? She goes, look at you, you're sitting on the edge of
your seat. I went home, and the next Sunday Kathy goes, where
are you going this week? I'm speaking to you. I couldn't
live without it. You know, James was sick really
bad. He was very sick two weeks ago,
folks. He showed up last Friday. Not this Friday. Was it Friday
before that? I didn't think he was going to be here. I thought
he was going to take that weekend off too and stay home and get well.
He shows up and he goes, no, I couldn't stay home anymore.
I needed to be here. You're here today because you
need to be here. Because God has brought you here
today. Oh, that's what the Gospel does.
He says, follow me and we follow. Without question, to obey the
gospel will bring a man or a woman great trouble. To believe on
the Lord Jesus is to take up our cross and follow him. It
is to enlist in an army, to engage in combat with the world and
the flesh and the devil. The privileges infinitely outweigh
the cost. Let us make it our business to
do what we can in this day for the furtherance of the gospel.
and the salvation of God's elect. Let us take heed how we hear
the word of God, and let us always hold before our hearts and our
minds the great privileges that are ours. These privileges that
are ours are privileges that are given to us in Christ Jesus
our Lord, who has loved us from the foundation of the world,
who gave himself as a sacrifice for our sins, and is now on his
throne in heaven, intercession for his people. Amen. Praise the Lord. Sing it from
a mountain. Don't be bashful, folks. We live
in the woods, in the mountains. Sing it from a mountain.