because everybody else will be
too. That comes from Psalm 103, which
is one of my absolute poems. It says, Bless the Lord, O my
soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless
the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits. And does anyone know the first
blessing, the benefit to these mentions? Who forgiveth all thine
iniquities. Number one thing. That's what
we're going to be blessing him for. Returneth to sinners, that
is. Saved by grace. Go back to Matthew
10 that Brother John read. Matthew 10. I didn't realize until this morning,
looking at both messages back-to-back, how similar they are. The call
of Abraham, and here's the call of the disciples. The Lord in chapter 9, verse
37, And 38 said, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers
are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of
harvest that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. The Lord said the harvest is
great. There are many sheep out there.
who I'm going to call many lost sheep who must hear my voice,
shall hear my voice. There shall be one bold and one
shepherd, and they shall all be saved. All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. They must. They will. They shall. That was 2,000 years
ago when he said that. The harvest is plenteous. And
there have been many, many, many, many brought in. That was the
early harvest, and we believe and are sure that that is over. But there's always a latter harvest,
isn't there? Those of you who plant crops, a garden, you plant
things like beans. Isabella's here with us right
now, and she loves to work in the garden with me. We planted
beans, and Sophie helped too. We had to go back and, you know,
undo what she did. But she helped too. But we planted
those beans, half runners, and boy, the first crop, it was just,
there were just so many beans we couldn't pick them all. But
we did. Isabella helped harvest them
too. And we picked a boatload of them. Well, after that, and
those of you who know, after that, there aren't too many left
of it. Later on, the end of the season,
in the fall, early fall, you go out there and there's a little
here and a little there, a handful of beans. But you don't leave
them, do you? You pick them. Well, same thing
with the harvest of the Lord. The Lord of harvest is the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's His field. It's His seed. He plants it. He brings forth
the increase. He sends out laborers, and they
don't miss a one. They don't miss a one. He said, you pray that the Lord
of Harvest will send out laborers, and He did. He sent them out. And in this story, there are
twelve men, but really, If you look at it in Luke's account,
there are seventy more. Eighty-two preachers of the gospel
in Jerusalem. Eighty-two, I mean true gospel
preachers, not false, true gospel preachers. Matthew, Mark, John,
James, Philip, Stephen, great preachers in one location. 82.
Think about that. That really struck me. And because
there were so many, so many sheep, the Lord is so merciful. And
what happened at Pentecost? 3,000 people. Amazing, huh? And shortly afterward,
how many? 5,000 in Jerusalem again. 8,000 people. Eighty-two preachers. They needed
that many, didn't they? Well, I'm certain we're in the
last of the last days because the laborers are fewer. You don't need as many laborers
when the harvest is fewer. By laborers, I mean true gospel
preachers. They're hard to find. Those who
know the truth know it so. You listen and you listen, and
it's hard to find this message. The way you know these true preachers,
and we're going to see it in a moment, is by their message. They did one thing. Back there, our dear sister Janine's
father a missionary all over the world, Brother Bill Clark,
one of the greatest. Dad, we know a lot of missionaries. He's one of the greatest the
20th century has ever known. I say that without hesitation.
I say that as a fact. He went all over the world. He
spoke three or four languages or more and preached. And how you know he's a true
gospel preacher, how you know a man is this message. Brother
Bill Clark did one thing. He preached Christ's crucifixion.
He did one thing. He didn't go do humanitarian
efforts. He wasn't in the Peace Corps.
He had a message of peace all right. The gospel of peace. Our Lord sent these men out with
one thing to do. Preach. Because this is what
God uses. This is the power of God. But you know them by their message,
you know them by their manner, by their methods. They don't
resort to these gimmicks and tactics and tricks and underhanded
methods and business tactics and so forth, schemes and so
forth. They know what the power of God
is and that's all they do. Like the Lord said to Ezekiel,
He said, Ezekiel, can these dead bones live? He took Ezekiel out
before a graveyard of bones, just dead, dry bones. People
have been dead for years. Ezekiel is a preacher of the
prophet. And the Lord said to him, Ezekiel, can these dry bones
live? Not by any power of man. Not
by anything we try to do for them. They're dead. They're dead. Not the preacher's power, not
his oratorical abilities, not the gimmicks, not the programs. Where the Lord said, as he can
preach. Now, that sounds like foolishness,
doesn't it? That's what the world says. That's foolishness. Dead bones live just by preaching. Thus saith the Lord, O ye dry
bones, hear the Word of the Lord. You know that old song, the knee
bone connected to the thigh bone? You know where that came from?
From that story. That old spiritual. That's what
that was. Preach. He sent them out. That
was their method. Their message. We're going to see in a moment.
He called, verse 1, when he had called unto him his twelve disciples. Who called who? Here we go again. You're a broken record. That's
exactly right. The Lord said this is the record that God hath given unto us eternal
life. God hath given it. Salvation
of the Lord. He called. He did the calling
to Him. Over in Mark's account, it says
the Lord went up into a high mountain. It says, He called
to Him whom He would. He could have called anyone. It was whom He called. He called
to Him whom He would. And do you know what it says
after that? That they came. They came. He called to Him. When God calls people, He calls
them not to this organization or that organization or to join
this church or join that. He calls them to Him. Himself, to worship Him, true
worshipers. Paul wrote in Philippians 3,
worship God. That's why they come. They come
to the church house to worship God in spirit and in truth. What's
the truth? Christ is the truth. They rejoice
in Christ Jesus. He's their hope. I said something
about hope a while ago. clothing store yesterday. I saw
this garment, a woman's or a young person's garment. It said hope
in big letters. Hope. And it went on to talk
about you need to have more hope. Hope. Wake up every day with
hope. Hope in this and hope in that and hope in that. And if
you just have more hope, you'll have better hope or something.
Hope, hope, hope, hope, hope, hope. If you have hope in your
hope, you'll have more hope. And things will look up. He never
mentioned God, never mentioned Christ, never mentioned the Word
of God. If your hope is not in God, if your hope is not in Christ,
if your hope is not in His Word, David said, Remember thy word
unto me upon which thou hast caused me to hope. I'm hollering
again. These things thrill me. My hope. What God's Word says, that's
my hope. And I'm just human to try to
say it in such a way to get it through to people, but unless
God does. But Christ is our only hope of
anything. Our hope of eternal life. Our hope of anything. He called
them to Him. What did He call them to Himself
to do or to see or whatever? He called them to see His glory. The whole world was following
Him, but they really didn't know who He was. They wanted their
bellies filled. They followed Jesus, like now.
They had needs. They were poor people. down and
out and all that. And the Lord was so merciful
and He healed them and He fed them and all that. But when it
was all over, they all said, they all turned their thumbs
down on Him. Crucify Him. Why? He's just a man. He says
He's God. We don't need a God to reign
over us. We need a Jesus to fill our bellies. We need a Jesus
to heal our diseases. But we don't want this sovereign
Lord over us. Put Him on that cross and get
Him out of here. But there were a few, a few who saw that Him
being on that cross was His glory. That He came not to feed our
bellies, but to feed our soul. He came not to save us from leprosy,
but to save us from sin. He came to His own, but they
received Him not. But here's the marvel. To as
many as were born of God, they received Him. They wouldn't have
if He hadn't revealed Himself to them. He called them to Him
to see His glory. Whom do men say that I am? He
said. They said, well, some say you're this. Some say you're
a great man. Some say you do this. Who do you say that? And
they all, every one of them said, you're the Christ, you're the
Son of God, you're my mediator, you're my substitute, you're
my high priest, you're my intercessor, you're my righteousness, you're
my wisdom, you're my sanctification, you're my holiness, you're my
salvation, you're my all and end all, you're everything, you're
my salvation. That's what he thought. He said,
flesh and blood didn't reveal that to me. I did. My father did. He called to Him, he said. They
were called as now. All His people come, and if He
reveals Him, they see His glory. And once they see His glory,
they don't need to see anything else. They don't want to see
the choir. Get rid of that. We got rid of
that a long time ago. We don't want to see the choir. We're
not here to see the choir. We're only here to see little
Jimmy dress up like one of the wise men. We want to see Christ lifted
up. To see Him, see His glory, to hear Him. We need to hear
His voice. He said, where two or three are
gathered, that's where I am. And they will hear my voice through
the preaching of the Word. We need to hear Him. We need
to learn of Him. Peter said, grow in grace in
the knowledge of Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. We need
to look to Him. We need to believe Him more.
We need to trust Him more. We need to see Him more clearly
than when we came. We need to go out of this place
believing, trusting Jesus Christ more than when we came. The Lord called these men to
preach Christ. And that's what they did. That's
who they preached. And I love this. In verse 1 it says, He
gave them power against unclean spirits to cast them out, to
heal all manner of sickness, all manner of disease. What is
the power of God? What does the Scripture say is
the power of God? Romans 1.16 says the gospel is
the power of God and salvation. Scripture says the Word is the
Word of His power. He upholds all things by the
Word of His power. First Corinthians 1 says, Christ,
the wisdom of God and the power of God. The power of God is the
gospel. This is what they went out doing.
Now, the Lord did give these apostles extraordinary actual
power where they were able to heal blind men and lepers and
even raise the dead. Why? because there was no Word of
God written yet, to confirm who these men were. Nobody could do this unless God
was with them, to confirm who they were, to
show the people that everything that they did was of God and
everything they said was the Word of the Lord. So the people
sat up and listened to them. No one has those powers anymore.
No men have those powers or ability. All this stuff that goes on in
religion, The claim to do this and do that is bogus. It's unreal. It's false. The Word of God is complete.
We have a more sure word of prophecy, Peter said, unto which you do
well to take heed. And this is the power of God.
We go out preaching the gospel that is the power of God. And
this gospel casts out devils. Look at verse... Verse 1, gave
them power against unclean spirits. You know, we're all born with
an unclean spirit. We're all held captive by Satan
at his will. That's what the Scripture says. The only thing that will cast
out demons and devils is Satan is stronger than he. The preaching of the gospel.
Look up at verse 8. Heal the sick. Verse 7, I'm sorry.
Go preach the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick. We
have a disease called sin. We're born with it. And Isaiah
1 says the whole head is sick. Look at our society. It's sick,
isn't it? It's sick. There's only one thing that will
get rid of that sickness. The gospel. Heal the sick. Cleanse the lepers. We're all
born with this loathsome disease called sin that infects everything
we do and say. No. There's only one thing that
gets rid of this. The gospel. Raise the dead. We're all born dead in trespass
and sin. Meaning, dead to God. They have
no interest in God. Very much alive to the things
of this world. Dead thing. But dead to live
things. Dead. Only one thing raises the
dead. The gospel. Christ. Cast out devils. My, my. You know, the Lord sent them
to do one thing, and he sent 82 men to do this. And I'm going to say this and
let the chips fall where they may, but it's so. If we had more
gospel preachers, we would need less of these so-called counselors
today. If the gospel was being preached,
we wouldn't need these so-called worldly wise men, philosophers,
and so forth. See, the world is our problem.
We don't go to the world to solve it. The world is our problem. Lust
of the eye, lust of the flesh, pride of life. There's only one
thing to cure that. It's for the Lord to get the
world out of us. Tell me, when you come in here, do you ever feel more relieved from
this sickness of sin than when you hear the gospel? Those of you who feel that sin
has such a grip on you, do you ever feel more at liberty than
when you hear the gospel? Is this not the power of God? Cleansing, Barbara Ross used
to say, when I hear the word, the gospel, I feel clean. You
come in here feeling like what we are, sinful, wretched, miserable,
poor, blind, and naked. And if you hear the gospel, you
feel like the Lord's washed you with the water of His Word. Blind,
you know, the world blinds us. They come in here and it's like
we have our eyes open again, our ears open again. The gospel,
still the power of God. These apostles, they experienced
the same thing that we experienced, the power of God, the gospel.
They heard His voice. They heard His call. They heard
His draw. They experienced a change, a
new heart, a new mind. New love. New desires. They experienced
it too. They saw Christ. Saw who He was. Saw their need of Him. That He
was everything to them. And you know, that's what you
preach. Whatever the Lord used to save
you, that's what you'll tell others. And Peter said we can't
help but speak the things we've seen and heard. What, Peter? Him. Him. They knew what moved men. They
knew what moved people. What moved them? Him. They knew what saved men and
women from sin, from the clutches of sin, from the captivity of
Satan. They knew because they were in that captivity. It was
Him. They knew what brought them out
of the power of darkness and unbelief and sin. They were in it. It's Him. The Lord sent these twelve men
and He commanded them. Verse 5. And I like the fact
that there are so many different ones. They were all different. A couple of brothers, James and
John, were real similar, but the rest of them were very different.
The Lord uses different men and put them where he will. But they all had one message. Different
men, but one message. And look at this, verse 5. It says, These twelve the Lord
sent and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles,
or into any city of the Samaritans. Don't go there. But go rather
to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Go to the lost sheep
of the house of Israel. Go to a particular place. Don't
go over here. Don't go over there. That's what the Lord said. Don't
go there. Several times Paul had said, we are saved. We wanted
to go into Asia, but the Lord didn't allow us to do that, but
rather told us to go down to Macedonia. Paul wanted to go into Asia,
but the Lord didn't, but he had him let him, so he had him go
down to Macedonia, Philippi, because there was a woman there
from Asia who was out of town on business, Lydia. And the Lord
sent Paul because she's one of his lost sheep. She's not home.
Don't go there. And he said that the Lord could
do no works there because of their unbelief. It doesn't mean
that they didn't let him do works. It means that there weren't any
believers there. He did. The foundation of God's stand
is sure, having this seal. The Lord knoweth them that are
here. And he sends the gospel to whom he went. Where he went.
He sends the gospel. He sends the truth. The truth. And look at this. It says, Go
to the lost sheep. Lost. Lost sheep. You know, all of God's people
know this. They know this. They were lost. Now the Lord found them. They didn't
find Him. He found them. They all know
that. All these disciples knew. You ask Peter and Andrew out
there fishing in a boat. Did you choose Jesus? Oh, how foolish. No, we didn't
know who He was. We didn't care. He chose us.
He came and powerfully called us. And we had to go. We felt this irresistible call. And we went. Led us, taught us,
bought us, brought us, called us, kept us, fed us. Lost sheep. Lost. I once was lost. Amazing,
Greg. I once was lost. But now, found. Nothing could be clearer. If
you're lost, you can't find a way. If you're lost, you don't even
know there's a way. If you knew, you'd get in it.
If you're lost, that means you're plum lost. No country saying,
plum lost. That means we're lost. You're lost, okay? What could
be plainer? Brother Barnard asked a fellow
one time, and he said, How long have you been a believer? How long have you been saved?
He said, All my life. Barnard said, That's too long.
When were you lost? That's a good question to ask
people. How did the Lord find you? Were you lost? What happened? Well, I said, oh, that ain't
being lost. That ain't being lost. Lost sheep. Sheep. They're goats and they're
sheep. The elect, his people. My sheep,
hear my voice. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep, not goats, not everyone. Sheep. My sheep shall hear my
voice. Lost sheep of the house of Israel.
His chosen one. Chosen in Christ. Go there, and
he said, preach, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Preach,
the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Tell them the King is here. Tell
them that I am come to call out my subjects. Tell them the kingdom
of heaven is not of this world. Don't get excited. Don't worry
about all that you see. They say, oh, it's here. It's
over there. Don't listen to them. Don't listen to them. It doesn't
come with observation. If they start building a temple,
so what? The Lord's going to tear it down.
The Lord already built it. There is no temple in heaven.
There's no temple. But the Lord is on His throne.
The Son of David is on His throne. And I have come to call out my
people. I am the King. The God of this
world is not the King. Tell them that. I've come to
set them free. Deliver the captives. I am come
that they might have life and have it more abundantly. The
king's here. Tell them the good news. They
need righteousness. I'm here. Tell them they need
forgiveness. That's me. Tell them. The kingdom
is not of this world, but it is near and it's eternal. And I've come to take you home
with me. But don't go here and don't go
there. Don't argue with goats. Don't get in an argument. You
just preach. Just declare the Word. If they
want to argue, don't do it. You just tell them what I said
to tell them. If they hate you, he said, they
hate me. Verse 8, the Lord said, Heal
the sick, cleanse the leper, and raise the dead. Cast out
devils freely you have received, freely give. Don't provide gold
or silver or brass in your purses. And don't you sure don't have
some kind of fundraiser in order to get more money to build more
buildings. To get more money to build more
buildings. Come on now. That's so utterly
foolish. Utterly foolish. Provide nothing,
you will be provided for. A workman is worthy of his meat. I told you last week that my
pastor was on the TV for how long? 25 years? 30 years. And back when it started, it
was expensive then, it's expensive now. And the church there was
not, you know, thousands of members, but a couple hundred, three hundred
faithful members, committed members who loved the gospel. And the
TV program cost a lot of money, a lot of money. They never had
one fundraiser, never asked for one penny, never went on the
air and asked one person to contribute one dime so that this ministry
could stay on the air. That's not of God. God doesn't
need men. God's not a beggar and neither
is His preachers. God doesn't go begging for an audience. When
He calls them, they beg Him to hear it. And they begged like the people,
they begged the preacher, take this money, take it please. It's
going to rise up in a judgment against me. And the Lord provided for that
need. He will be provided for. They that preach the gospel will
live by it. Whatever city or town, verse 11, you enter. And
we'll close with it. Whatever city or town you shall
enter, inquire in it who is worthy. Inquire who in it is worthy,
and there abide until it is time to go. And when you come into that house,
verse 12, salute it. If the house be worthy, your
peace. It's going to be a point. What's that? What was their peace?
What was their peace? Christ was their peace. He gave
them peace. He said, My peace I give unto
you. My peace I leave with you. He made peace by the blood of
His crop. Peace with God. I was not angry with you. He
poured out His wrath on me, Christ said. Now He loves you because
of me. And now you have peace with God. That was their peace.
Christ was their peace. The Prince of Peace. The King
of Peace. Jehovah Shalom. The Lord our
peace. That was their peace. And they
came preaching Christ who is our peace. I said, who is worthy? Oh, man. You know, that's just why we
don't... Preachers have made a mockery
of the Word of God. Preachers have made a mockery
of God. Preachers have made a mockery of Jesus Christ, presenting Him
like He's somebody that can't get anybody
to accept Him. We're talking about the King
of Glory that this world doesn't deserve to
have. This message, this Gospel that nobody deserves to hear. And preachers are going around
begging people to do something. It's a mockery. And people are
trodding underfoot the blood of the Son of God. Like He's some ugly fellow that,
you know, you're such sweet people, won't you please accept? He's
out there in the rain. Poor Jesus. This message, Christ came into
this world, the King of Glory. Men saw no beauty of Him that
they should desire. God said, this is My altogether
lovely Son. God sent Christ, the altogether,
whom angels praise, whom the heavens adore, whom the world
is not worthy of. And He came down into this cesspool,
this pit of corruption. Nobody deserved for Him to come
here. with a glorious message. We don't deserve to hear it. Many presidents and popes have
visited cities and towns and they just drive through so people
will be amazed by them and impressed by them and get a little sight
of them. And those fellows don't stop and do anything for anybody.
They just add to their coffers their money. The King of Glory,
Jesus Christ, came to this earth. Who is worthy? This message I'm
preaching, it's hard to get a hearing. People
are just not interested in the Lord Jesus Christ. They're really
not. And if you have a healing service,
If you had some kind of gospel saying or bluegrass saying, you'd
pack the house. When you've got a man standing
up, all he's going to do is exalt and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. All he's going to do is stand
up and say, here's what the Word of God says, who's interested?
Nah, we don't want that. You're not worthy of it. You're
not worthy of it. Who's worthy? Who's worthy to
have the King of glory in His house? Who is worthy for Jesus
Christ to speak to? Who is worthy? John said, I am
not worthy to untie His shoes. What will you do with Jesus? Who is worthy? Inquire. He said, you go into that city
and inquire who is worthy. The Word of God is still inquiring. The Word of God, the Scripture
says, is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. The
Word of God inquires who is worthy. Preach the Word, and that Word
would reveal who is worthy. It will reveal who is worthy.
Who is worthy? Who does the Lord Jesus Christ
come to? I'll tell you who's worthy. Those
who know they're unworthy. That's how you know. That's who's
worthy. He said, I'm not come to call the righteous, which is about nine out of ten
people. I'm okay. I'm as good as the next man.
Yeah, you are. That's not good enough. Oh, I've got some problems, but
I'm a pretty good fellow. I didn't come to call you. You're not worthy. The well don't
need a physician, our Lord said, but those that are sick. The
righteous don't need mercy. This is what it means to be worthy.
The smart people don't need wisdom. The proud don't need grace, don't
need help. Is this your calling, brethren?
Do you see your calling? How not many wise men of the
flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God hath
called foolish things, base things, things that are not, people who
are nothings and nobodies from nowhere, know nothing, can do
nothing, poor, helpless, blind, halt, lame, lepers, sick, dead. How is that you? Worthy. That's who He came for. You know
why? Because those who are unworthy, they will see the infinite worth,
the infinite value. They will be eternally grateful
to the One who came for such an unworthy sinner as Alistair.
You know who will hear this Gospel? Those who just can't believe
that they're hearing it. You know who will love Christ?
Those who just can't believe that He would die for such a
sinner that they are. You know who loves this gospel
of God choosing a people? Those who just can't believe
that He would choose me of all people, pass by my brother and
choose me, less than the least, chief of sinners, unworthy. Who is worthy? The unworthy. He alone is worthy of all praise,
honor. To Him be the glory, the power,
the wisdom, the strength, blessing, honor, everything. Who's going
to give Him all that? Those that have none of those
things, the unworthy. He said, now you go with this
message, and if that house be worthy, your peace is going to
come upon it. He sounds such a sinner. Good! I've got a good message for you.
I've got good news for you. Peace be unto you. Christ came
for such as you. Peace. Peace will be a peace
of heart, peace of mind. And if you don't have it, you're
not looking to Christ. You're not hearing it. You must
not be availing yourself of this message of peace. Come thou with
us. We're all a bunch of helpless,
hopeless, lame, sick, blind, haught and
lame. Everybody in here trying to get some help. And the only
thing that will give it to us is this Gospel. I come here.
Why do I preach this same message over and over again? Because
this is what I need. I come dragging in here. I come
in here filthy. I come in here thinking the world
is going to overcome me. I'm overcome. Lord, help me.
Mike, I need the same message you need. So that's why I preach. And faith sends you to faith.
I see in your faith. Did I look like I believed this?
Did I look like this is giving me hope? That's what I see in
your faith. Why? Because we're a couple of unworthy
sinners that Christ came to save. Tell it to me again. Tell it
to me again. There is no hope anywhere else.
You won't find any peace. He said your peace will be upon
that ala. Peace. But if not, Leave. Don't argue with them. Leave. Leave. My, my. Is this house
worthy? I hope that there's a bunch of
unworthy sinners in here. I think there are. I know you. You're just like me. And the
Lord said, I'll abide there until it's time. So it's time. And this gospel is not going
to stay here. Evidently, he's still with us.
They've still got sheep. And I'm so hopeful, so hopeful
that he's going to call out some more and keep blessing us with
this gospel. So he's worthy. This message
is worthy of support. OK, John, let's stand and sing
in closing. 9, 459. Sing the first two verses. 459. He lifted me in loving kindness.
He came and lifted me. 459. First two verses.