Good morning. Our sister Nancy
Parks fell and hurt her arm. Stephen and Mary are taking her
to Roanoke Memorial this morning. They're probably there now. We'll
remember her. Hope it's not too serious. I've
asked Joseph to lead us in prayer this morning. Thank you for giving us another
day to worship your name and give us a place to come, Lord,
and get away from this world. We pray for our loved ones, Lord,
for our sins and afflictions in terms
of one another. You have chosen yourselves to
be Lord, we ask that you have us be better examples for them. Forgive us for our sins, Lord. Luke chapter 10 and I also want you to turn to
Exodus 24. Luke chapter 10 and Exodus 24. Luke 10 and Exodus 24. Read Luke 10 verse 1, After these
things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two
and two in pairs before his face into every city and place whither
he himself would come. Therefore said he unto them,
The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few. Pray ye,
therefore, the Lord of harvest, that he would send forth laborers
into his harvest." This is the story of our Lord choosing and
calling out and sending 70 other men. They were all men. And 70
others. And it says in verse 1, He appointed
After these things, the Lord appointed these 70. This is the
Lord God, the Creator, the Ruler, Sovereign over all, who appoints
everything by His predeterminate counsel and foreknowledge. He
chose, He elected, He called, He appointed these men, all of
them, 70 of them. They all knew it, didn't they?
Just like His apostles, He knew. He called them. He chose them.
He sent them. He gave them whatever knowledge
they had of Him. whatever gifts they had. And
he sent these men out to preach the gospel. Seventy more preachers. Now, they were only sent to Israel. They were not to go outside of
the country of Israel. Right? Seventy. That means there
were 82 gospel preachers. Why so many? He said, the harvest
is great. Plus, everyone must hear the
gospel. And Romans 10, Paul plainly said,
how shall they hear without a preacher? Isn't that what he said? And
our Lord proves this right here, plainly, very clearly, without
a doubt, that everyone who's saved must hear the gospel preached. Why 70? Why 70? There's a significance in that
number. It's used throughout the Scripture. We're not going
to go into that now. We've got too many verses. It's significant. You'll find one in Exodus 24. Go back there. Exodus 24. This
is the greatest significance anyway. Exodus 24. Now, Scripture
says, to him, that is Christ, give all the prophets witness. Moses. is God's prophet in the
Old Testament, greatest prophet, isn't it? Moses, Christ said,
wrote of me, didn't he? Moses wrote of me. And Moses
said in Deuteronomy 18, a prophet will God raise up, like unto
me, but with a capital P. And him you shall hear. If you
don't, you'll be destroyed. Christ is that prophet. They came to John the Baptist
one time and said, are you that prophet? He said, oh no. No,
no, no, no, no, no. And he pointed and Christ came,
there he is. Behold the Lamb. He said, he
must enter. After the 5,000 were fed by Christ
himself, they all said, truly, this is that prophet of whom
Moses spoke. You may not know this, but Christ
is our prophet, priest, and king, right? These three offices, prophet,
priest, and king. No man anywhere except one, Moses,
held that office. Moses was prophet. Moses was
priest. He was a Levi. And he was not
by name, but he was the ruler, king, okay? That's Moses in the
Old Testament. There's only one man in the New
that did that. Jesus Christ He was His ruler, He was sovereign
over the people. The Lord gave the word through
Moses, wasn't He? He gave all of His orders, all
of His directions, all of His word to Moses, who gave that
word to the people and chosen men. Moses and three men went
up. Does that ring a bell? Our Lord
chose Simon, Peter, James, and John. Where? To do what? To go
up on the mountains, behold His glory. Behold His glory. And verse 2, Moses alone shall
come near the Lord. They shall not come nigh, neither
shall the people go up with him. Moses is coming into my presence,
God said. Nobody else. Moses is coming
in to receive the law from me. No one else. There were twelve
with the Lord, we call them. Three in the garden. But when
our Lord went to the cross, He was by Himself. Because he had,
by himself, purged our sin. And throughout these verses,
you'll notice with me, it seemed like Moses did everything. Moses
did it all. He did. Because he's such a type
of Christ. Verse 3, Moses came and told
the people all the words of the Lord. Did not our Lord say that
words that I speak, I speak not of myself, but of the Father
which sent me? In verse 3, the people answered with one voice,
all the words which the Lord hath said will we do. Well, our
Lord said, Jesus Christ said, he that hath my words and keepeth
them, he it is that loveth me. So Moses is such a picture of
Christ. Read on, verses 4 through 11.
This is one. Moses wrote all the words of
the Lord. Christ is the Word. It's his
book. He's the author and finisher.
rose up early in the morning. Oh, he was with the father from
the beginning. Built an altar under the hill, 12 pillars, according
to the 12 tribes of Israel. And he sent, Moses sent, young
men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings
and sacrifices, peace offerings of oxen unto the Lord. Our Lord
Jesus Christ not only chose the apostle, he chose the prophet.
Christ is the one who chose Moses. Christ is the one who came down
with Moses on that rock. Stood with him on the rock. Put
him in the cleft of the rock. Christ is the one who chose Gideon.
Christ is the one who chose Moab. Christ is the one. He's the image
of God. Any vision or any appearance
of God in the Old Testament was Jesus Christ. Proverbs 8 plainly says that.
His delights were with the sons of men dwelling in the habitable
parts of the earth. All right, verse 5, sent young
men with these burnt offerings, peace offerings. He chose these
young men to do one thing. Make these sacrifices. And when
Christ came and chose His apostles, He sent them out to do one thing.
To preach Him. To preach His gospel. Same today. Verse 7 and the same today. Verse
6, Moses took half of the blood, put it in basins. Half of the
blood he sprinkled on the altar. Moses took the book of the covenant
and read in the audience of the people. In other words, Moses
is going to fulfill all that God said to the people, for the
people. That's Christ. That's why He
came. To fulfill the law, to apply
the blood. All that the Lord has said, we
will do, they said, and He will be. And Moses took the blood,
sprinkled it on the people. Christ said, I lay down My lap
for My sheep, His people. Behold the blood of the covenant
which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these works.
Verse 9, and our Lord revealed the truth to His chosen one,
didn't He? Then went up Moses, Aaron, Nadab,
Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. And they saw God. They saw God. Who did James and Peter and John
see? God. Manifest in the flesh. What
about the 70? That's all God. Read on. And this is such a picture, this
is in the Revelation. As a paved work of sapphire stone,
as it were the body of heaven in his clearness. In other words,
at his feet, under his feet, is the whole world, the universe.
He's sitting on the circle of the earth. He's the Lord of the
heavens and the earth. Verse 11. Upon the nobles of
the children of Israel he laid not his hand. In other words,
a God who is a consuming fire did not consume these seven.
Why? They were with Moses. Our God is a consuming fire.
Why won't He consume us? Well, we're in Christ. We're
with Him. They saw God. It says it again. They saw God. Well, no man can
see God. No man has seen God or can see God. Well, they did.
Who did they see? Jesus Christ. The only begotten
Son. He had to declare it. And they
did eat and drink. They had a feast there. And Christ
said, except you eat my body and drink my blood, you have
no part in me. He feeds us with Himself. Alright,
back to Luke 10. Wasn't that wonderful? Seventy. That's, without a doubt, the
significance of these seventy men the Lord chose. He called
Himself the Lord of the Harvest. Verse 2, He said, The Harvest,
Luke 10, 2, The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are
few. Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of harvest. Pray to the
Lord of Harvest that He will send forth laborers into the
harbor. And He sent them out by two.
Let me show you this by two. Go with me to Ecclesiastes 4. I've chosen 70, but He sent them
out in pairs. Ecclesiastes 4. Why did He send
them out by two? Well, this is throughout the
Scripture, where two or three witnesses, didn't the Lord say
that in the law? A thing shall be established
by two or three witnesses. And our Lord said this, where
two or three are gathered in My name, for My glory, My honor,
in His name, to preach His glory, His person, His work, there am
I. That's where I'm at. God has
no maverick, no soul preachers per se. You say, what about John
the Baptist? He was right there with Christ the whole time, wasn't
he? Two men sat out together. Ecclesiastes
4, verse 9. Two are better than one because
they have a good reward for their labor. If they fall, if one of
them falls, the other one will lift up his fellow. Woe to him
that is alone, he falleth, if not another to help him up. Again,
if two lie together, they have heat. How can one be warm alone? Verse 12, in safety and defense,
if one prevail against it, two shall withstand it. A threefold
cord is not quickly broken. This is our Lord's mercy and
His truth, His wisdom. It is true, isn't it? Two is
better than one. When our Lord created man, he
said after he created him, man, what did he say? It's not good
that man be alone. So he made him a help me. And
everything's better when there are two. And I know the Lord
providentially some Men, some women don't have a mate. And
those that do eventually end up widows or widowers. I know
that. That's the Lord's providence. But they're not alone. They have
the Lord. And all the more reason for them
to have this family. But aren't
things better with someone else? Food and drink. Food and drink. One time I fixed me up. something,
a steak. I'm sorry, you vegetarian. It was a big one and I was really
looking forward to it. Okay. I fixed it for me. And I sat
down. Oh, I was looking so forward
to that. Fixed it just right. And I started eating it. Oh,
this is so good. I wish somebody was around to
enjoy this with me. Things are better with someone
else, aren't they? The view, Have you ever been
someplace and thought, look at that, would you look at that?
I wish somebody was here to look at that. Well, that's why the
Lord has chosen sheep as a type of His people. And the church,
two or three are gathered together. It's always better. Did you hear
that? Did you taste that? Wasn't that good? An experience, it's more enjoyable,
laughter. You laugh louder with somebody
else, don't you? Trials. Troubles. Like they say, if one falls,
another brother will pick him up. We help each other. We comfort each other. We console
each other. We care each other. We're told
to bear one another's burden. Two is better than one. When
the Lord brought Eve to Adam, Adam was happy. He was content
being with the Lord. When he brought Eve to Adam, he said, this is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh. I remember my wedding day. I
thought I was happy before. I'm really happy now. But a happier
day than that is when the Lord presented me to Christ. Alright, so it says in verse
1, He sent them two and two. before his face into every city
and place, whether he himself would come. Before his face.
Before men would see his face, they're going to hear these men
preach. See that? Before they see or hear from
Christ, they're going to hear through these men. Is that right? Sure is. Romans 10, 12 says,
it's no different. Jew, Greek, the Lord's rich,
and all then call upon him. But how shall they call on him
who hath not heard? How shall they hear without a
preacher? And that was it. The Ethiopian eunuch didn't argue
this. The Lord sent Philip walking
through the desert for miles. Was that necessary? Yes. The
Ethiopian eunuch was reading Isaiah 53. And Philip said, do you understand
what thou readeth? He said, how can I? Except some
man showed me. Would you come up here and show
me? Oh, he did. Oh, he went his way of rejoicing.
This is what the Lord has done. Pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching. The world calls it foolishness,
but to us which are saved, the power of God and the wisdom of
God. Now, we've given so many reasons
why the Lord chose preaching. And let me reiterate, there's
no power in the preacher, there's no power in the act of preaching.
The power is in the Word. Yet, this is the means that God
has chosen. The only reason anyone would
argue against it is they're trying to defend an old profession of
faith. Trying to defend an experience that they had without hearing
the gospel. You cannot be saved without hearing the gospel. He won't find one example in
the scripture. Hebrews 1 says it. Hebrews 1 says it. God who at sundry times in divers
manners spake unto the fathers, how? By the prophets. Nobody heard from God except
through prophets. Right? And then when Christ came, he
spoke. Then when he left, it says in
Ephesians 4, he gave some prophets, apostles, evangelists, pastors,
and teachers, and he sent them, and he chose his 70. It's very
plain that the Lord, this is the means the Lord chooses. If
anybody despises the mean, look at verse 16. Look at verse 16. Our Lord said, he that heareth
you, heareth me. He that despiseth you, despiseth
me. He that despises me despises
God. God. I'm glad. I still need preaching. I still need fellow preachers.
I still call on my brethren all the time. Would you help me out
here? I need some confirmation here that this is the truth.
Alright, verse 2, he said, The harvest is great, but the laborers
are few. Pray to the Lord of harvest.
Harvest is great. Now this was 2,000 years ago.
Okay? The harvest was great. It was great. The field was white with harvest. Wasn't it? The corn of wheat
was about to fall into the ground. That's crap. And bring forth
much fruit. Oh my, the harvest was great.
Shortly thereafter at Pentecost, 3,000, just men. A little while
later, and that meant women and children. A little while later,
5,000. And on it went. The harvest was great. Scripture
talks about a former and latter rain or harvest time. Just like
now. The harvest in early summer is
great, isn't it? When you plant, water, the Lord
gives the increase. That first harvest is just bountiful
if the Lord is pleased. Alright, later on in the fall,
slim pickings. Country people don't want slim
pickings. Slim pickings. Just a tomato here and there.
The latter day. The latter harvest. Same way
though, through the preaching. But the laborer, have you noticed
that when the harvest is ending, the Lord calls in laborers? from
the field. And a man like Cody Gruber, not
a more gifted, God-called preacher anywhere, you know of one. A
Christ-like man. The Lord was using him mightily.
Struck him down. We all wonder why. All right. Well, he's going to
race. Hmm. He's taking Walter now. But through Cody, other
men, other pastors are down there. But what's going on? What's happening? Scott, Henry, and Don calling
in the laborers. You see any real young men being
called? I know one. Cody Hinton. Houston, back when I was in my
20s, there were 15 of us in one church. 15 of us. Going out everywhere
preaching. Where are they now? What's happening? Last day. Latter harvest. Latter harvest. That's a fact.
Back then he said the harvest is great. Pray the Lord of the
harvest will send laborers. Oh, the Lord did. He called these
70. And he called so many afterward.
Psalm 68 says this. It says, The Lord gave the word,
and great was the company or the army of those that published
it. When Christ came and He called those 70, oh, how many has He
called since then? How many? Preachers go all over,
and His witnesses, His people, they're preaching gospel, they
witness. The Lord gave the word, and great was the company of
those that published it. A great cloud of witnesses of so great
a salvation. Sent by the Lord, all of them.
Pointed, sent by the Lord. Verse 3, He said, Go your ways,
I'm sending you forth as lambs among wolves. He said that false prophets,
they're wolves dressed up like lambs. But you'll know them. You'll know them. They're in
it for their name, in it for money, in it for their glory,
in it for big buildings, in it for whatever. God's men, you'll know them too,
they're in it by His glory. Like John, they're not interested
in you knowing their name. They want you to know Christ.
Lambs among wolves, they're wise as serpents, they're harmless
as death. Verse 4, You remember this? Carry neither purse, nor script,
nor shoes. Salute no man by the way. In
other words, don't stop. And Terry, you're on a mission. Don't socialize. You're not going
down there to socialize. Isn't that what he said? Don't stop.
You're there to do one thing. Preach the gospel. If they won't
hear it, get up and leave. I'm going to provide for you.
Did He tell them to bring a sword? Who's going to protect them? He's their shield. Verse 5, In whatever house you
enter, first say, Peace be to that house. Peace. We have a gospel of peace, don't
we? We're not saying peace, peace,
when there isn't a peace. God loves you and has a wonderful
family. We're preaching the gospel of peace, that is, we're preaching
Christ, God who's angry with the wicked every day, God who
will punish sin, God who's holy, holy, holy, God whom we cannot
make peace with ourselves, but peace with God is made one way.
Jesus Christ made that peace by the blood of His cross. That's
the gospel of peace we preach. We don't offer people peace.
We tell them about Christ who is peace. And it's up to God. It's totally up to God to break
down the enmity in their heart and show them that they need
Christ to be their peace. We can't make them do that. That's
what He said here. Let the Son of Peace be there.
You see that? If He's there, Christ said, I'm going to send
my spirit. He told Abraham's servant, you know, you go down
there and find a wife for my son. You're not going to bring
it down there. Just going to tell her about
it. And I'm going to, God's going to send his angel before you,
Abraham's servant. And he'll bring a woman to the
well to fall in love with Isaac. Mark my word on that. If not,
don't you. You come home. You've done your
job. What happened? Well, the Spirit
of God moved on to one woman, Rebecca. And she came, fell in
love with a man she'd never met through the word of an old preacher.
And I asked her, are you going to go? She said, right now. I'm
leaving. Father, mother, house, everyone,
I'm going to meet this man. The Son, I promise. Which is
a picture of Christ. That's the way God works. Look
at verse 7. Verse 6. Your peace shall rest
upon that. If the Son of Peace is there,
your peace will rest upon it. That is, the gospel of peace
that you preach will be there. If not, You have peace. You have peace. If no one believes
it, you do. You do. You have peace. And often,
the rejection that a preacher receives is confirmation that
he's preaching the truth. And it gives him some confirmation. Our Lord said this. Our Lord
said, blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you
and say all manner of evil falsely against you for my name's sake.
He said, that's what they did to the prophet. He said, rejoice. You must be telling the truth. We want people to believe. That's
why they're sent out. But if they don't believe, well,
I do. Don't you? Same with you that
tell people the truth. I want them to believe that if
they don't, look at this. Verse 7, in the same house remain
eating and drinking. The Lord provides for His preachers,
eating and drinking such things as they give. What a rebuke this
is about my mind. The notion of being so careful
of what you should eat and drink. Our Lord said, whatever they
put on that table, you put it in your mouth. Yeah, but man has destroyed our
milk. God's sovereign over man. He's
still sovereign. Our Lord knew every plant, every
herb, every medicinal plant. He never brought up one. He never
said, now you need to be eating it. You need not be eating it.
Never. Either one thing you said you
need to be eating is him. Right? What's wrong with us? We have no faith. None. None. I'm going to live long. I'm taking all these supplements.
You're going to die tomorrow. We can't add one cubit to our
stature, or one moment to our time. Right? I'm not saying we
should abuse our body, you know we're not, but I'm just saying,
I'm telling you what the Lord did. Whatever they serve you,
eat it. Look at this, verse 7. Don't
go from house to house. Do you see that? Go not from house
to house. God's not a beggar. He's going to bring people to
His house. You're going to come to His house, you're going to
be begging Him. God's not a beggar, neither is
His preacher. He doesn't go begging for an
audience. He said, I'll say unto my people, I'll say to the north,
give up! To the south, bring my people from afar. God's preachers aren't salesmen. We're not selling encyclopedias,
or vacuum cleaners, or Jesus. We're declaring a message. The
apostles went into towns, they stood and preached, and people
invited them into their house, like Walter and Cody did in Mexico. They'd go to the town square
and start preaching, and somebody believed, like a Cornelius, and,
could you come to my house? Or the jailer, would you come
to my house? The Lord saved the whole house, and that's how the
church was started. It's always been that way. Our Lord said,
don't go from house to house. You read that to these Jehovah's
Witnesses next time they come here. Verse 8, whatever city you enter,
they receive you. Eat such things as are sent before
you. He said it twice. Heal the sick. He sent them to
preach, and in preaching, healing the sick. What is it that heals
the sick? What healed you? Your blindness,
your deafness, your dumbness, your lameness, your leprosy.
What healed you? The gospel. It's the power of
God on this earth. Heal them. Tell them, when you
preach, tell them, the Kingdom of God has come. Oh, Jesus wants
to save you. He's standing outside your heart's
door. Won't you let Him in? He's out there. Oh, God wants
it. Tell them the King's here. Tell them to bow. Don't yell,
preacher. Now I'm going to yell louder.
Maybe some of these false preachers will hear it. Tell them the Kingdom
of God. God is King, reigning and ruling. This is a Bible study. It's just
supposed to teach. Boy, this deserves to be shouted
at, doesn't it? Tell them the Kingdom. It's God's Kingdom.
This Kingdom is not of this world. It isn't where He was back. He's
not trying to save this world. He's going to come to destroy
it. He came to save his people. He's the king. He's come to round
up his subject. He's putting his subject into
his kingdom. It's his choice. It's his will.
It's his power. It's his glory. It's his name.
It's his honor. It's his work. It's his person.
It's his life. He's the king of kings. Donald Trump is in
his hands. Diseases are in his hands. Boy,
this needs to be shouted out, doesn't it? Is anybody hearing
this? over Mixler. The kingdom of the
king is here. Where? Here. Right now. We're two or three again. Right? Jesus Christ, not some pathetic
failure, not some figurehead who some people call Lord, but
he doesn't want things to happen. He's doing all things. He's working
all things by the Word of His power. He's reigning and ruling.
And He's our Son and our Shield. He's God's Son. He's our Son
of Righteousness. He's our Shield. He's our Lord.
He's our Protector. He's our Provider. He's our Salvation. He's our everything. If you believe
that, Didn't go out there and not worry about a thing. How
about it? Huh? We're not preaching doctrine,
we're preaching the person. And he said, when you go into
that city, verse 10, they receive you. Verse 10, in whatsoever city
you enter, they receive you not. My people. John 1 verse 12, didn't
He say, as many as received Him? He gave His own, His own received
Him not. His own creatures, His own people,
they received Him not. John 1 verse 12 and 13 says,
as many as received Him, to them gave Him the right, the power,
the blessed privilege of being a son of God. Why did they receive
Him? It wasn't of the will of the flesh, it wasn't of the will
of man, it wasn't of blood and heritage. They were born of God. That was sin. You go preach to
other people. This is what the Armenians argue.
If you believe in election, why pray? Number one, God said so. And number two, he says, I have
an elect people. And this is how you're going to know. You're
going to preach the truth that man hates. And most people are
going to hate it. They're going to despise you. But my people
are going to hear my voice. And they're going to bow. They're
going to believe. They're going to love what most people hate.
And only God can do that. They're going to be my people. Just watch them come. Stand back.
Don't beg. Don't plead. Don't offer anything. Don't bribe them. Don't ask them
anything. Just declare who I am. Sit down. And you watch me work. I'm going
to bring these rebels to my feet. I'm going to bring them and sit
them down and close them in their right mind like the demoniac.
And they're going to say, I thank God he chose me or I would not
have done it. I thank God he broke down this
hatred in me of the gospel. I would not have come. There
was a time I thought, I will never believe this gospel, but
God said, yes, you will. And I do. Verse 12, he said that I say
unto you, be more tolerable the day for Sodom than for that city. Our Lord called Israel Sodom.
that Chorazin, Bethsaida, Tyre and Sidon, where Christ came,
Capernaum, where our Lord spent so much time. They called it
His city. He dwelled there so long. He
said, you're going to be thrust down to hell. Oh, what a different
God in Jesus Christ is in this Bible than what we're hearing
today. Completely opposite. That they're
going to be cast down to hell. They don't receive this gospel
of a sovereign king. I was going to have you turn
to Revelation, but you can read it for yourself some other time.
Revelation 11, where it says God sent two witnesses, ready
to be sent. Two witnesses. They went all
over the earth. They represent the law and the
prophets. They represent God's word. It was whoa, whoa, whoa. It was whoa, whoa, whoa. It said
first woe was past, second woe, third woe, and when the third
woe was over, everything was over. It says they took those
two prophets, two candlesticks, two olive trees, fruit, oil,
God's blessings, God's word, and killed them. The people killed
them. And they thought they were done
with them. Just like in this world, there's a long dark period
called the Dark Ages where there was no word of God. Oh, God had
a remnant. Oh yeah, He had some word here
and there. But then those prophets were resurrected. There was a
resurrection in the last until finally the Lord removed those
prophets up to glory. And that's when He wiped it all
out. Just like Rahab sent those two men. Jericho wouldn't hear
it. One Harlot did. In the end, sent
them in there, bring that Harlot out, brought the prophets back,
God wiped out Jericho. God hasn't changed. That's the
same today. Are we blessed? Oh, blessed are
our ears to hear, our eyes to see, our heart to receive. Thank the Lord. Thanks.