Let's go back to Luke chapter
10. The book of Luke chapter 10.
I'm so grateful for these who read the Word of God to us. We have scripture reading back
in the office. You men who don't come back there,
you're welcome to join us. I made mention to the fellows
that were back there this evening of two things. Number one, if
you're a reader, if you love the word of God and you're comfortable
reading in front of a group of people, but you're not comfortable
leading in public prayer, you read. I'll lead in prayer. I'll tell you this, one of the
most difficult things for me And I believe for anybody is
to stand and lead other people to the throne of grace. That's
a great responsibility. Some people don't feel comfortable
doing that. And I understand that. And if
you're comfortable reading, but you say, you know, I just don't,
I have difficult time with public prayer. That's okay. That's okay. you read the Word of God to us.
And I also shared with them this. I just, I love the Word of God
read without any comment. And I'm thankful that we have
a time set aside for the scriptures to be read. And I've asked some
men just to read the scriptures without any additional comments. There's such a beauty about the
Word of God, such a power about the Word of God that we need
to have a portion of our service dedicated to just reading what
God says. and then ask Him to bless it.
Don't you agree? Just read His Word. I'm so grateful for you men who
read. You do an excellent job. You show respect for the Scriptures. And I just want you to know how
much I appreciate you and how much I appreciate all of you
in this congregation. And thank you, brother, for your
prayer for us as we go forth this week, I heard from one of
the ladies in the group in Hawaii. She sent me a text after the
message this morning. There are a few of them who get
up and watch. But you've got to remember, it's
five hours earlier, and so that's quarter past five, that they
get up to watch the service this morning. And one of the ladies
who watched, she just She wrote, and actually I read it to the
men back there, and I was telling Pat back in the
office a little bit ago, I read that, and then I left my phone
turned on there on my desk, and I got to thinking, I sure hope
it doesn't ring, because it rings Dixie. But I don't know how I got sidetracked
on that. But anyway, she texted me just
to say how much the service was a blessing to her this morning,
and how much she appreciated the message, and how much she
enjoyed Susanna singing, and Austin's piano playing, and the
musicians here, and your singing as a congregation. And I really
appreciated her. sending that, and she said, we'll
see you Thursday, the Lord willing. So, I look forward to seeing
her and the other saints of God over there, and I appreciate
you sending us forth with your prayers. Oh, how we need the power of
the Spirit of Grace when we set forth the Gospel. Man can do
nothing unless the Lord is with him. That's what Christ said
in John 15, without me you can do nothing. John chapter 3, unless
it's given from above, man can receive nothing. You won't receive
anything unless God gives us something tonight. So we petition
Him for that, don't we? We say, Lord, would You bless,
would You first of all magnify Your great name? And then would
You bless us poor sinners? And I'll tell you this, if we
magnify His name, if we really worship the Lord tonight, if
we adore Him, if we exalt Him, we will be blessed. We will be
blessed. Now I want you to go back to
Luke chapter 10. And I'm going to read the 3 verses
or 4 verses before what Bill read. I want to read verses 17
through 20. and speak to you on this subject, rejoice in this,
not that." This morning we talked about the joy of the disciples. Well, this evening I want to
talk to you on this subject. Our Lord is speaking to these
men. He said, rejoice in this, not that. Now look at verse 17,
Luke 10. And the 70 returned again with
joy. They were saying, Lord, even
the devils are subject unto us through thy name. And he said
unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. And
literally, that word beheld is literally, I was watching. I
was watching Satan as lightning fall from
heaven. He says, behold. I give unto
you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the
power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding in this, rejoice
not, that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather rejoice
because your names are written in heaven. Rejoice in this, not
that." These 70 missionaries, these 70 evangelists were sent
out by our Lord into dangerous situations. We read this morning
again, He said, I send you forth as lambs among wolves. These
men were sent to invade the kingdom of darkness with the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ. The kingdom of darkness is a
vast kingdom. And all men and women and young
people are held captive in that kingdom unless and until the
Lord is pleased to rescue them from that kingdom and from the
power of darkness. This is not child's play tonight. Whenever we gather together to
preach this gospel, and those of us who are prayerful for this
gospel, who love this gospel, who support this gospel, we need
to understand we're invading the kingdom of darkness. We've
got the only message that will do sinners good. And I'll tell
you, before that, we've got the only message that glorifies God.
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Salvation by grace. We've got
the only message that will do sinners any good. It's not going
to help you for me to get up here and tell you to clean up
your life. You need to start doing better. My subject and my responsibility,
and every preacher's responsibility, is to set forth Christ Jesus
in all of His glory, in His great work of redemption, for that's
the only message God will use to gather sinners into the kingdom
of grace. It's the only message that will
result in sinners being rescued from the kingdom of darkness.
We go forth with this message. And we must be bold. And we absolutely
have to have the power of God. Because we venture forth into
the darkness of the kingdom of Satan. He despises this Gospel. He despises God's people. He despises God Himself. And He despises this message
that's all of grace. He doesn't mind if you preach
on people being religious. He doesn't mind if you preach
that people ought to be moral. He doesn't mind if you preach
to people, keep the Ten Commandments. He hates the name of Jesus Christ. He hates the gospel of God's
free grace. He hates the redeeming blood
of the Savior. He hates the imputed righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we go forth with this
message, we go forth right into His kingdom. This is not child's
play. This is not for the faint of
heart. And this is not for us to do, nor can we do it on our
own. Oh God the Spirit be with us. Oh God the Spirit empower your
word as we go forth. The enemy of our souls is powerful. We are no match for him. Listen,
Eve, before she fell into sin, she was no match for him. She
didn't have what we would call a sinful nature. But I tell you,
she was like putty in his hands. We're taking on the forces of
evil. I dare say that there's really
none of us who fully understand or fully estimate the greatness
of the power of the kingdom of darkness or the hosts that are
against us. the authority that Satan has
according to God's will, or the number of the demonic hosts that
surround us. We have no idea of the forces
that are against us, but thankfully greater is He that is in us than
he that's in the world. So we go forth with boldness.
Don't you be shy. Don't hold back. We've got the
truth. And those who are in the kingdom
of darkness, this is the message they've got to hear of Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. We are attacking the powers of
darkness. And the only weapon that we have
is the sword of the Spirit. We go forth with the word of
the gospel. Satan, by our Lord, is called
the prince of this world. He goes about to destroy souls,
to destroy the church, to destroy the kingdom of God. After Adam
and Eve were created, it wasn't long before he tried to defile
God's perfect creation. But little did he understand
or recognize that all that happened in the fall of Adam was according
to God's eternal purpose. Because it was against the black
background of Adam's fall, his transgression, and man's sin,
and man's depravity, that God would bring himself his greatest
glory in the salvation of sinners through the substitutionary death
and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's a deceiver. The Word of God calls him a roaring
lion who goes about seeking whom he may devour. He's called the
dragon. He's called the devil. He's called
Satan. We read this morning he's referred
to as the strong man armed. And you're no match for him. Neither am I. He's armed with
a multitude of weapons. Look with me in 2 Corinthians
chapter 4. Let me begin reading in verse
1. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse
1. Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, This is a ministry God has given
us here. We have this ministry. And it's
an awesome ministry. You go back into the second chapter,
the Apostle Paul said that when he preached the gospel, he said,
we're always successful. He said, we're a saver of life
unto life for some and death unto death for others. Then he
said, who is sufficient for these things? He says, we have this
ministry as we have received mercy, mercy from God, everlasting
mercy. We faint not. We faint not. We may not see the results that
we want, but let's not faint. We may become from time to time
a little discouraged, but let's not be that way. Don't faint. God's kingdom is advancing according
to His will. His gospel is always successful
to whomever he sends it. It will never return to him void.
So let's don't faint, Paul says. We've received this ministry.
And we've received mercy. So let's don't faint. Let's don't
get discouraged. Say, well, I see empty pews around
me. Don't be discouraged. The cause
of God is being successful. God's calling His people into
the kingdom of grace. As we invade the kingdom of darkness,
our Lord is rescuing sinners. Those whom He chose unto salvation
and redeemed by His blood, they shall not perish. And they must
hear the gospel. So let's don't faint. Don't faint. You Sunday school teachers, don't
faint. Don't grow weary in well-doing. Just keep on teaching the Word
of God. God will bless His Word. He promised
to. Look at verse 2. But have renounced
the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor
handling the Word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth,
commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight
of God. When we preach the Word of God,
it's with absolute honesty. We're not deceiving anybody.
We're not trying to sneak up on you with the truth. What we
do, if I could put it this way, we lay all the cards on the table.
We're not holding anything back. We're telling it to you just
like it is in the Word of God. When it says God reigns, we preach
God reigns. When it says God chose a people
unto salvation, we say God chose a people unto salvation. When
it says Christ Jesus redeemed His church, purchased His church,
we say He purchased His church. When it says you must be born
again and it's by the power of the Spirit of God, that's exactly
what we preach. We're absolutely honest with
the Scriptures. You see, the sharp edge of the
Scriptures does the cutting. Don't dull the blade. Don't try
to water it down. We describe God, we set forth
God as He is to sinners as they are. We pray for God to show
mercy through Christ Jesus the Lord. We just tell the truth.
We're not being dishonest. No dishonesty here. We're not
dishonest. We have no pretense. We're honest
in doctrine, in our actions, and in our motives. That's what
the Apostle Paul says. We're not handling the Word of
God deceitfully. Look what he says in verse 3.
But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.
in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them
which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ,
who is the image of God, should shine unto them." Satan is always
at work blinding people's minds. Lest they should believe the
gospel. That's why we need the power of God. I can't overcome
that blindness. I couldn't overcome it in myself.
Much less can I overcome it in somebody else. All we can do
is tell people the truth to the ears. God alone must make application
of the truth to the heart. We're so dependent upon Him.
That's why we seek His face. That's why we cry out to Him. That's the reason when our brother
read the Scriptures, he followed it up by petitioning God to bless
His Word. The God of this world has blinded
the minds of people, lest they should see the glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ, lest they should believe this gospel.
We're preaching the gospel to those who are in the kingdom
of darkness, and there's only one power that can rescue them. That's the power of God Himself.
The same kind of power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead, according
to Ephesians chapter 1, has to raise poor sinners. And we pray,
O God, make bare Your mighty arm of grace and go to work in
somebody's heart. And if He does, they'll believe
on Christ Jesus then. Because God is always successful
in what He does. Look at verse 5, For we preach
not ourselves, because we can't overcome the powers of darkness. But we preach Christ Jesus the
Lord. And ourselves, well, we're just
your servants for Jesus' sake. For God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ, but we have this treasure in earthen vessels. that the excellency of the power
may be of God and not of us. Oh God, shine your light on some
sinner's darkened heart. And if he does, the light of
the gospel, the light of his grace, all of a sudden that sinner
will, as it were, come to his senses. come to her senses and
say, oh, this is the Christ I must have. This is the gospel for
this poor needy soul. Oh, it's good news for me that
the work has been done by God's Son Himself. Turn to 1 John chapter
3. 1 John chapter 3. And here we find the two-fold
reason why Christ Jesus was manifested. First of all, look in 1 John
chapter 3 and verse 5. 1 John, the first epistle of John,
chapter 3 and verse 5. And ye know that He was manifested,
number one, to take away our sins. And in Him is no sin. He was manifested. He who was
not seen suddenly was seen. He was manifested. He appeared
in this world. Well, why did He appear? To take
away our sins. To lift them off of us and bear
them away. And those whose sins He bore
away, listen, they have no sin. That's the reason He says this,
and in Him is no sin. Those who are in the Lord Jesus
Christ, we have no sin. Because our sins were charged
to Him, imputed to Him, and He bore them away like that scapegoat
bore the sins of Israel into a land uninhabited. And our Lord
Jesus has borne them away. They are gone forever. Buried
in the depths of the deepest sea. Put behind God's back. Put in the book of His non-remembrance. He doesn't bear them. And if
He doesn't bear them, since He bore our sins, you know what
that means? We don't bear them either. And God Almighty looks
at us in the Lord Jesus Christ and He says, you are a perfect
people. You are a perfect people. First
reason He was manifested was to take away our sins. And watch
this. Look down at verse 8. Here's
the second reason. He that committed sin is of the
devil. For the devil sinneth from the
beginning. For this purpose the Son of God
was manifested. Here's the second reason. That
He might destroy the works of the devil. Our Lord Jesus, He
came to restore that which He took not away. That is, He came
to undo what Satan had done. He came to make things right.
He came to set things straight. He came to destroy Satan and
his dominion and his power. And by our Lord's death on the
cross, in the accomplishment of our redemption, And by His
resurrection from the dead, our Lord bound Satan. He broke His
power of usurped authority over the nations. And then in regeneration,
Christ the Spirit breaks the power of darkness over us in
our hearts and brings us into the light of the kingdom of grace.
He puts it this way. Look at the Apostle Paul, how
he puts it in the book of Colossians chapter 1. The book of Colossians
chapter 1. There is a kingdom of darkness
and there is a kingdom of light or the kingdom of grace. Look
how Paul talks about it here in Colossians chapter 1. Look
at verse 9. For this cause we also, since
the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire
that you be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and
spiritual understanding, that you might walk worthy of the
Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work,
and increasing in the knowledge of God. strengthened with all
might, according to His glorious power, and all patience in long-suffering
with joyfulness, giving thanks unto the Father which hath made
us meet. He's qualified us, that is, to
be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. What
is our qualification for glory? What is our fitness, our meekness
for this inheritance? Is not Jesus Christ Himself our
fitness? Is He not our meekness? He's
all we need. He's all God demands. He makes
us worthy of the kingdom of light. He makes us worthy of the inheritance. In Him, we're fit. In Him we
are meet for this. Look at verse 13. Who hath delivered
us from the power of darkness, from the strength of darkness,
from the authority of darkness. And that word delivered means
rescued. He has rescued us from the power
of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear
Son in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness
of sins. That is the very basis of our
being brought out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom
of light is the redemption of Christ Jesus. through His blood. Who is this Savior? Look at verse
15. Who is the image of the invisible
God, the firstborn of every creature, and by Him were all things created
that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether it be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.
All things were created by Him and for Him, and He is before
all things, and by Him all things consist, and He is the head of
the body, the church. who is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. He's the one who delivers sinners
from the power of darkness into the kingdom of light. So these
disciples over here in Luke chapter 10, They had healed the sick,
they had preached the gospel, went forth preaching the gospel
of the kingdom, and they cast out devils in the name of the
Lord. In our text again in Luke chapter
10 verse 17, they return again with joy saying, Lord, even the
devils are subject unto us through Thy name. Through Thy name. It's the only name of power.
Nothing's going to be done in your name. Nothing's going to
be done in my name. But all what is done in His name,
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, neither is there salvation in
any name other than the name of Jesus Christ. His name. his name. Peter and John went
to the temple to pray, and there was a man begging there. He was
laying from his mother's womb, held out his little tin cup,
and Peter said, look on us! And the man said, well, I'm going
to get a hand out now. And Peter said, silver and gold
have I none, but such as I have given unto thee in the name of
Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he did. And
the people said, by what power did you do that? They said, in
that name. The power of that name. That
name. The name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Over in the book of Acts chapter
19, Paul was Look over in Acts 19. Let me just take time to
look at this with you. The Apostle Paul preaching in
Ephesus. He found about a dozen men there
who believed the Gospel. And of course, they had a lot
of opposition, but the Apostle Paul continued to preach. And
after more than two years, a large, significant congregation was
established in the Gospel in Ephesus. And some of those who
opposed the Apostle Paul were Jewish vagabonds. They were traveling gypsies.
They pretended to be magicians and soothsayers and fortune tellers
and that sort of thing. Look at Acts chapter 19 verse
13. I'll tell you, let me just back
up and just show you that in verse 11, God wrought special
miracles by the hands of Paul, Acts 19, 11. So that from his
body were brought unto the sick, handkerchiefs or aprons, and
the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out
of them, the evil spirits. Verse 13, Then certain of the
vagabond Jews, exorcists, they did this for profit, They traveled
around, a group of them. And if they did have any power,
his demonic power, well, they took upon them to call over them
which had evil spirits in the name of the Lord Jesus saying,
we adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preached. Verse 14, there were
seven sons of one Siva. a Jew and some of the priests
which did so. And the evil spirit answered
and said, Jesus I know, I know that name. And Paul I know who
preaches Jesus. But who in the world are you?
Who are you? And the man in whom the evil
spirit was leaped on them and overcame them and prevailed against
them so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. We know who Jesus is and we know
who His servant is, but we don't know who you are. The power is
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the disciples came
back to the Savior rejoicing. They said, in thy name we cast
out devils. And the Lord said, go back to
our text real quick now. And the Lord said to them in
verse 18, while I was watching, I saw Satan as lightning fall
out of heaven. In other words, one by one I
saw these people who were demon possessed and the demons came
out by my power. and by my name." And he said, Behold, I do give
you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the
power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you,
notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject
unto you. I don't blame these men for rejoicing
in the victories. You see people converted. You're
happy. You're thrilled. The demons are
being cast out. And they said, wow, we've got
this power. We're doing it in thy name. But
there must have been a little pride in this. Otherwise, the
Lord wouldn't have corrected them. He said to them, notwithstanding
in this, rejoice not. Let's don't rejoice in what we
perceive to be our victories. It's easy to do that. Let's don't rejoice because it's
the Lord's power that effected this. It was the greatness of
His name and His grace. He said, but rather rejoice because
your names are written in heaven. There is such a thing as the
Lamb's Book of Life. I'm interested in that book.
I know this about the Book of Life. There are names written
in it, and if my name is not written in the book, I'm going
to perish forever. I know that. So the issue that
concerns me is this. Is my name written in the book? I know the book exists. And I
know that book has the names in it of all that God has marked
out to be His own. And the only way you can know
your names in that book is if you love the Lord Jesus Christ
and you believe Him as He's revealed in the Word of God. It's the
only way you can know your names in the book. A hymn writer said, Lord, I care
not for riches. neither silver nor gold. I would
make sure for heaven I would enter the fold. In the book of
thy kingdom with its pages so fair, tell me Jesus my Savior. Is my name written there? Is my name written there on the
page white and fair? In the book of thy kingdom is
my name written there? I know this, there are no new
names written down in glory. We used to sing that song when
I was a kid. There's a new name written down
in glory. It's amazing how I can remember a song. There's a new
name written down in glory, and it's mine. Yes. Did y'all ever
sing that? No new names written down in
glory. No charge for that solo either, by the way. No new names written down in
glory. Whosever names are written there were written from before
the foundation of the world. It's the Lamb's book of life. Go with me to the book of Revelation.
A couple of passages. Rejoice in this. Rejoice, men,
that your names are written in the book of life. And the evidence
of that is, you love me. You trust me. You rely on me. You look to me for everything.
You look to me for forgiveness. You look to me for righteousness.
You look to me for acceptance. That's the evidence of your name
being in the book. Revelation chapter 20. Here's
the final judgment. Revelation 20 verse 11. Revelation
20 verse 11. Here's the end. Verse 11, And I saw a great white
throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and
the heaven fled away. There was found no place for
them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God.
And the books were opened. And another book. Another book
was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged
out of those things which were written in the books according
to their works. And the sea gave up the dead
which were in it. Death and hell delivered up the
dead which were in them. And they were judged every man
according to their works. And death and hell were cast
into the lake of fire. This is the second death and
whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast
into the lake of fire. There is a book. Somebody's names
are written in it. Look at Revelation chapter 13.
Revelation chapter 13. You see the names in the book
were written there with the ink pen of indelible grace. Several years ago I got... I
love ink pens. I'll just tell you. I'm kind
of an ink pen collector. And I got this ink pen, and it
was indelible ink. And it was a real fine point.
I could write in my Bible. I could write notes in my Bible.
I just, I thought the world of it. I was preaching in Rocky
Mountain, and I went to get that ink pen out, and I opened the
jacket like I'd pull it out of my pocket. And that ink pen had
leaked. That indelible ink. That shirt
was ruined. Let me tell you something. The
names of God's elect were written in the Lamb's Book of Life with
indelible ink. They're there forever. They're
there forever. Written with the hand of God
Himself. This is divine election is what
this is. This is election unto salvation. Revelation chapter 13 verse 8. and all that dwell upon the earth
shall worship Him, whose names are not written in the book of
life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." It's
the Lamb's book, and it talks about the Lamb who is slain. It's His book. He had the right
to put anybody's names He wanted to in that book. He chose whom
He would under salvation. I have no argument with him,
do you? It's his sovereign right. He said, I'll show mercy on whom
I'll show mercy. I'll be gracious to whom I'll
be gracious. I'll harden whom I'll harden. That's God's business. Here are these seven men. Our
Lord sends them out and they come back and they're rejoicing.
Even the demons are subject unto us. He said, well, I saw them
one by one. I saw like lightning fall from
the sky. I saw these demons coming out. But in this rejoice not, that
they are subject to you. Rejoice in this. And you who
believe tonight, you who love this gospel, rejoice in this. The reason you love the Lord
Jesus Christ as He's revealed in the Word of God, the reason
is because your names were written down in the Lamb's Book of Life
from before the foundation of the world. Thank God for His
grace to you. Thank God for His grace to me.
He could have passed me by. You say, well, why did He choose
me? The only answer that can be given
is what the Lord Jesus said, Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight. So if you believe this gospel
tonight, you know why you believe? You know why you believe. Because
God ordained for you to believe. He loved you from before the
world, before the world was ever fashioned or formed. In fact,
He created the world. as that place where He would
bring about your redemption and reconciliation. This earth upon
which you'd hear the gospel. Because Satan held you captive
at his will. But somebody preached the gospel.
Somebody, as it were, ventured into the kingdom of darkness
with the gospel of life. And God said, now's the time
I'm going to rescue another sinner. And He rescued you by His almighty
grace. Rejoice in this, not that. Rejoice in this. Alright, we're
going to have baptismal service.