That was such a blessing. And I'll tell you, I've already
been greatly blessed in this service. I love singing the choruses that exalt the Savior. I love
singing these great old hymns, the reading of the Word of God.
It's just good to be here, isn't it? It's just a good place to
be. I just can't think of, there's
nowhere else I'd rather be on the face of God's earth than
right here in worship. Don't you feel that way? This
is just a, this is a good place to be, where Christ Jesus is
exalted and people love the Savior's blessed name, where we're worshiping,
where we love each other, Brothers and sisters in the Lord, only heaven will be better than
this. And we look forward to that day
when we see the Savior, and there won't be any more dark
valleys. I like singing that song. There'll
be no dark valleys when Jesus comes. There'll be no more weeping
when Jesus comes. We've done a lot of weeping in
this life. We got some more tears to be shed, don't we? We'll be
crying some more. But in that day of blessed reaping,
there won't be any more tears. And in that day, there'll be
songs of greeting when Jesus comes. when we see Him face to
face. Oh, what will it be like when
with rapture we behold Him, Jesus Christ who died for me. I tell
you, if we keep the gospel of our Savior in view, that just
makes this life bearable. But if you focus on the troubles,
if you focus on the trials, then you're going to be miserable.
I tell you, I like to be happy along the way, don't you? if
I can be. And when I'm thinking about the
Savior and viewing Him, thinking about His blood, and thinking
about His righteousness, and thinking about how He saved a
poor sinner like me, it makes me happy. Gets me through the
day. Gets me through the night. Oh,
blessed, blessed gospel of the Savior. Go back to Luke chapter
10 tonight. Luke chapter 10. Let me speak
to you on the subject, lambs among wolves. Let's talk about
lambs among wolves. Our Lord has sent forth 70 preachers
of the gospel. They went forth to preach the
kingdom of God. That spiritual kingdom. that
everlasting kingdom where there's just one king. He's been exalted
as Lord over all by virtue of his substitutionary death on
the cross. God made him Lord. God made him
to be the king. He was already king when he came
down here, but he joined his deity to humanity. And as the
God-man, he met every demand of divine justice for our salvation. He satisfied the law's every
demand. He paid our sin debt in full. And He brought in for the people
of God everlasting righteousness. He satisfied God. And therefore God took Him back
to glory after His resurrection After those 40 days before His
ascension, He went back to glory and the Father said, sit here
till I make all your enemies your footstool. He's the King
in this kingdom. In this kingdom of grace. In
this kingdom of salvation. Understand this, Jesus Christ
is all in all. He's all to be known. He's all
to be loved. He's all to be trusted. He's
all to be looked to. These men went forth. Our Savior
sent them. He sent them forth. Look at verse
1 again, Luke 10. After these things the Lord appointed
other seventy also. And He sent them. And the word
sent in the English language really doesn't convey the fullness
of what is being said here. He thrust them forth. This is
an effectual sending. Even as God effectually brings
us to knowledge of the gospel, He effectually sent these men
forth. They could do nothing else. God
put such a burden within their hearts. Gave them such a love
for the gospel. He sent them forth, two by two,
before His face. before His face. They were always
before His face. He always saw them. He always
was looking after them. Into every city, everywhere,
He Himself would come. He wouldn't go into a city to,
first of all, He sent preachers of the gospel to pave the way.
Just like John the Baptist. John the Baptist was sent into
this world. He's the forerunner of the Savior. And he went forth and he said,
Behold, he who's coming after me is preferred before me. He's the Messiah. He's the Savior. He's the one we've been looking
for. I'm nothing and He's everything. Our Lord sent these men forth
wherever He would go. And wherever our Lord Jesus Christ
is going to go today, you can mark this down, He will be preceded
by the preaching of the gospel. He sent forth His servants. They
are but vessels of clay. In themselves they are nothing. But sent forth by the Lord, they
are mighty to the pulling down of strongholds. Look at Romans
chapter 10. Let me show you how important
preaching is. And you know this. But it will
bear reading again. Romans chapter 10. Look at verse 11. Romans 10,
11. For the Scripture saith, whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there's no difference,
there's no distinction between the Jew and the Greek. For the
same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. What is
it to call upon the name of the Lord? Well, it's to worship the
Lord by means of that sacrifice he appointed. That expression
is first used in the last verse of Genesis chapter 4. Then began
men to call upon the name of the Lord. We call upon the name
of the Lord when we honor Him, when we worship Him, when we
proclaim His glories and His greatness. Now watch this. Verse 14. How then shall they
call on Him? How then shall they worship Him
and adore Him if they don't believe Him? If you don't believe Him,
you can't worship Him. If you've not been given the
gift of faith by the Spirit of grace, by the Spirit of supplication,
if God hasn't given you faith to believe Him, you can't worship
Him. You can go through the motions
of religion, but you can't worship Him. How then shall they call
upon Him in whom they've not believed? And how shall they
believe in Him of whom they've not heard? You've got to hear
about Him. You've got to find out who God is. God in His glory,
God in His holiness, God in His justice, God in His omnipotence,
God in His omniscience. You have to find out who God
is, that He's a just God, and that the only way He can be a
just God and a Savior is through the doing and the dying of the
Lord Jesus Christ. You can't worship Him if you
haven't believed on Him, and you can't believe on Him if you
haven't heard about Him. Somebody's got to tell you. And so it says, and how shall
they hear without a preacher? Without a preacher. The Ethiopian eunuch, he's reading
the Bible. He was reading from Isaiah chapter
53. That's a good thing. It's a wonderful thing to read
the Scriptures. But in God's eternal purpose,
the Lord said, He needs a preacher. He needs a preacher. And Philip
is over in Samaria. He is preaching. And there were
great results in Samaria. Many were being converted, saved
by God's free and sovereign grace. And the Lord said, Philip, I
need you over here. And He picked up Philip from
one location, put him over there out in the desert. And he started
jogging along beside this man's chariot. The Ethiopian unit said,
Whoa! And he pulled up the horses.
And Philip said, I see you're reading. Yes, sir. Do you understand
what you're reading? He said, how can I except some
man show me? I need a preacher. I need a preacher. I know this is a day when preaching
is taking a back seat. Today, churches are about drama. Churches are about entertainment. Maybe a little devotional, but
what we call preaching, the preaching of the gospel, it's almost non-existent
today in religion. Preaching is a thing of the past.
Oh, that's the old-fashioned way. And you know what we do
here? Our service, sorry to say a typical
service, but all of our services, we sing these great hymns, We
read the word of God, we seek God's face, we preach the gospel,
we sing, we go home. That's not near enough for today's
religion. Today's religion needs entertainment. They need things for people to
be busy about. In fact, churches today, they
don't even like to be called churches anymore. And they meet
every night of the week to keep people busy. They know nothing
about the preaching of the gospel, the preaching of Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. But that's all we're about. We
come to sing the old hymns, the scriptural hymns, the God-exalting
hymns, to read, thus saith the Lord, to seek God's face in prayer,
and then to hear the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. God says, how shall they hear
without a preacher? Without a preacher? And then
he says in verse 15, and how shall they preach except they
be, what's that next word? Sent. Thrust out by God Himself. As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace. That gospel
of peace that originated in God's counsel of peace. That gospel
of peace that exalts that one who is the prince of peace. Who
made our peace by the blood of the cross. Who is himself our
peace. We bring you good tidings or
glad tidings of good things. I've got good news for you tonight.
The good news of forgiveness of all of our sins. Isn't that
good news? Past, present, and future. They're
all under the blood. Sins of action, yes, but also
sins of thought. Sins of motive. Sins of the imagination. Sins in our dreams. Every sin,
every transgression, every iniquity of every child of God, listen
to the Word of God, they've been washed away, drowned in the blood
of Jesus Christ. My sins are gone. Did you hear
what Jesus said to me? They're all taken away. All of them? All of them. All of them. They're buried in
the depths of the deepest sea. God Himself has cast them behind
His back. Such is the awesome omnipotence
of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that divine justice has
been fully satisfied and there is therefore now no condemnation
to those who are in Christ Jesus. You who are the people of God,
you who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, oh, hear the Word of
God, there is no judgment for you. No vengeance of God for
you. God is not angry with you. Your sins, which are many, are
all forgiven. Washed away in the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And you're made the righteousness
of God in Him. Oh, thank God for gospel preaching. Gospel preaching. And so our
Lord sends forth these men back over here in Luke chapter 10.
He sends forth these 70, 70 preachers. And He says to them, look at
the second verse, Luke chapter 10. Therefore said He unto them,
the harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few. There is
a harvest. There is a harvest. We're sowing
the seed. God assures us there will be
a harvest. Who brings about the harvest?
He does. He does. And we ask Him to send
forth laborers. Notice He says, pray ye therefore
the Lord of the harvest, that He would do what? Send them forth. Send them forth into His harvest. It's always His harvest. He purposed
the salvation of His elect. Christ Jesus has purchased His
elect. And the Spirit of God will come
to His elect by His power. It's God's harvest. It's God's salvation. It's God's
work. It's God's vineyard. It's God's
church. He says to these men then in
verse 3, Go your ways. Behold, I send you. That is still the emphasis. I
thrust you out. I send you forth as lambs among
wolves. Notice these were his lambs,
his sheep. This is the shepherd who is speaking
to them. They belong to him. They are
his sheep. We know that the Lord's people
are likened unto sheep, unto lambs, and He's likened unto
the shepherd. He said, I am the good shepherd.
The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. Christ Jesus
came to save these lambs right here in Luke chapter 10. He said,
I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and have known of mine. He knows His sheep with an everlasting
love. They are dear to Him. They were
given to Him in covenant grace before the world began. Therefore,
He will seek out His lambs and He will find them. In Luke chapter
15, just a few chapters over, we find the parable of lost things. Lost sheep, lost coin, and lost
son. And in the parable of the lost
sheep, what man of you having a hundred sheep, and one is lost,
doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go
after the lost sheep? The sheep who are in the wilderness
in that particular passage of scripture, those in the wilderness
were the Pharisees. The Pharisees in their self-righteousness,
they dwelt in the wilderness. They loved the wilderness. They
dwelt in the wilderness. And when he left them, where
did he leave them? He left them in the wilderness.
He left them in the wilderness to go and seek his one lost sheep
that he came to save. He's the seeking shepherd. He
who bought us with His blood comes seeking us by the power
of His Spirit through gospel preaching. That's how He finds
His sheep. His sheep will be found through
the preaching of the gospel. And so He says in Ezekiel 34,
Therefore I will save My flock, and they shall no more be a prey. and I will judge between cattle
and cattle, and I will set up one shepherd over them, and he
shall feed them, even my servant David, that is the son of David
and David's Lord, he shall feed them and he shall be their shepherd."
Our Lord Jesus is the shepherd. He's the good shepherd in redemption. He's the great shepherd in his
resurrection. Hebrews chapter 13 and verse
20, Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our
Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood
of the everlasting covenant. And Peter says in 1 Peter 5 and
verse 4, He's the chief shepherd. He's good, He's great, He's the
chief. He's good in His redemption.
He's great in His resurrection. For in His resurrection He shows
He is greater than sin, He is greater than death, He is greater
than the devil, He is greater than the grave. And He is the
chief in His second coming. None is higher than our Lord
Jesus Christ. He is the shepherd and His people,
we are His lambs. We are His sheep. According to
the Word of God, the entire human race is divided into two categories,
sheep and goats. Sheep never become goats, and
goats never become sheep. Our Lord tells us in Matthew
chapter 25, look here, in Matthew chapter 25, our Lord Jesus, He tells us that
some men and women are His sheep. And some men and women are not
His sheep, they are goats. Matthew chapter 25 and verse
31. When the Son of Man shall come
in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He
sit upon the throne of His glory. And before Him shall be gathered
all nations, And He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd
divideth his sheep from the goats." There are sheep and there are
goats. Go over to John chapter 10 with
me. John chapter 10. Of course, this
is the chapter that is so full of Christ the Shepherd and His
people being His sheep. He says, and I've already quoted,
that He's the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth His
life for the sheep. Look at John chapter 10 and verse
16. And other sheep I have, which
are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall
hear My voice. And there shall be one fold and
one shepherd, them also I must bring. He must bring them for
so it was written in the covenant of grace before the world began. He must bring them because He
has redeemed them all by His precious blood. He must redeem
them because their debt has been fully retired. He must bring
them because this is the will and purpose of God. He must bring
them because they are God's gift to Him, and in the covenant of
grace, He stood as the surety of these, and He promised to
bear full responsibility for their salvation. Them also I
must bring, for so it is written in the book of God's decrees.
And they shall hear my voice. And His voice mysteriously and
miraculously is heard through the preaching of the gospel.
That's how His voice is heard. That's how He speaks to us. And
there shall be one fold and one shepherd. The Lord has His sheep. He has His lambs. And not everybody
is one of His sheep. There are lots of goats in the
world. Look, drop down to the 22nd verse. And it was at Jerusalem,
the feast of the dedication, and it was winter, and Jesus
walked in the temple in Solomon's porch. And then came the Jews. And generally, especially in
John's gospel, whenever you see the Jews, You should think about
that these are the Jewish leaders. These are the Pharisees. These
are the scribes. These are the Sadducees. These
are those who are in opposition to our Lord Jesus Christ who
are the authorities of Judaism. The Jews. Then came the Jews. And as you read through the Gospel
of John, and if memory bears me right, I may stand corrected
on this, but I think every single time in the Gospel of John when
you read of the Jews, it's in a negative connotation. These
are the enemies of our Lord. They're goats. You say, how do
you know that? Let's keep reading. Then came
the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost
thou make us to doubt, if thou be the Christ, the Messiah? You tell us plainly, tell us
openly. Jesus answered them, I told you. How many times did he have to
tell them? He told them over and over again. He said, I told
you. And you believe not. The works
that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. Now
watch verse 26. But you believe not, because
you are not of my sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep
hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. The reason
you men don't believe on me, he says, is because you're not
of my sheep. And if you're not sheep, what
are you? Anybody? Goats. Because that's all there are.
We just read over there in Matthew chapter 25, in the last day,
the Lord's going to separate all nations. There's all mankind
before Him. And the sheep are on the right
hand, and the goats are on the left. And our Lord Jesus says
to these goats, He says, you believe not because you're not
of My sheep. And in the last day, they're
going to be on the left side, the rejected side. They've always
been goats. They are vessels of wrath fitted
to destruction. That's what the Apostle Paul
says in Romans chapter 9. Be sure you understand this.
God has made a division among mankind. And this division of
the human race was made in old eternity. In God's sovereign
purpose of eternal election, God chose some unto salvation
and He purposefully passed by others. That's what the Word
of God says. This division of the human race
was made in eternity. But this division will be made
manifest in time. In time. Because those who are
His sheep will come to believe the gospel. When some preacher
of the gospel, whose name is unimportant, when he comes along
preaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified, if it's the time of
love, if that's the time when God says, Then the Lord takes
that Word of God, the Word of the Gospel, and make no mistake
about it, the power is not in the words of the preacher or
the comments of the preacher upon the Word of God, but the
power is in the Word itself. There is an awesome power in
the Word of God. As somebody once said, just turn
it loose. Just preach the Word of God.
It will do its job. It will find its goal. It will
find its, for lack of a better word, the gospel will find its
prey and slay them. And bring them down to nothing.
And bring them to Jesus Christ by sovereign effectual grace. The gospel will do that. Just
preach the word. Just preach. That's where the
power is. The sheep will be made manifest
in time. By this way, they'll believe
the gospel. And they'll keep on believing
the gospel. Because faith is not an isolated
act. True faith lasts. Believers continue
in the faith all the way to the end. And goats will be made manifest
as well. The goats will say, we will not
have this man to rule over us. The goats will say, that is too
much grace for me. I had somebody attend, a couple
attended our church for several weeks. They said they were going
to try out our church. I never liked that kind of language.
I think I'll give your church a try." But they tried us out. And after
about six or eight weeks, they said, we're going over to this
other church. You preach just a little bit
too much Christ for us. And I said, goodbye. Goodbye. Preach too much Christ
for you? Yeah, that's all you do is preach
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Would you put that on my grave
marker? That's all he preached was Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
I like that. That's an accusation I'm willing
to go to the grave with. Somebody told Scott Richardson
one time, you made an idol out of Jesus Christ. Made an idol
out of Jesus Christ. He is our God. We worship Him. You cannot exalt Him too much. The sheep love to hear Him exalted
and the goats say, don't you have something else to preach?
And the answer is no. We have nothing else to preach
save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This division was made in eternity. This division will be made manifest
in time. And this division is everlasting. It's absolutely permanent. Our Lord has His lambs. He has
His sheep. Simon Peter quit the ministry. led the other disciples away
from the Lord after our Savior's resurrection. The Savior sought
Him. The Lord brings His wayward saints
back to Him. How many times has He brought
you back? He's still bringing you back, isn't He? He wouldn't
let Peter go. I'm so thankful God doesn't let
us go. He comes after us. And he isolated
Simon Peter. He said, Simon, son of Jonas,
lovest thou me? Lord, thou knowest all things.
You know that I love you. Feed my lambs. Feed my lambs. A second time. Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou
me? Yea, Lord, thou knowest all things.
You know that I love you. Feed my sheep. Simon, son of
Jonas, lovest thou me? Simon Peter's heart was broken.
Lord, you know all things. You know I love you. Feed my
sheep. Feed my sheep. What does that
mean? Feed my sheep? Simon Peter, you quit preaching. It's time to go back to preaching.
That's how you feed the sheep. You preach the Word of God to
them. You preach Jesus Christ the Lord to them. And this man,
From chapter 21 of the Gospel of John, you jump over a couple
of chapters to Acts chapter 2, after the Spirit of God was given.
Listen to that man preach. Why, people are still talking
about that sermon today. The sermon on the day of Pentecost. Well, what's he doing? Feeding
the lambs. Feeding the sheep. And you know
what? Three thousand of the sheep were
out there as he preached and the other apostles preached.
And as the word of the gospel went forth, it was food for their
souls. And they were converted by the
grace of God. The Lord said, I'm sending you
forth as lambs among wolves. Wolves. Wolves. It's kind of ominous,
isn't it? Going forth among the wolves.
Who are the wolves? False prophets. Look over in
Matthew chapter 7. Those who preach any other message
than Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Any other message than salvation
by grace. Look at Matthew chapter 7. Matthew 7, verse 15. Matthew
7, verse 15. Beware of false prophets. They
come to you in sheep's clothing. They look like lambs. They look
like sheep. They may even be carrying the
Bible. Lots of them do. They may come in and say, smile,
God loves you. Jesus loves you and I love you
too. But if they don't have the gospel, they're wolves. They're devouring wolves. That's
what he says. They're greedy wolves inwardly. We're not talking about what
they act like. We're not talking about what they pretend to be.
But he who sees men as they really are, he says inwardly, they're
destructive. They would devour you like a
hungry wolf. The Apostle Paul gathered all
the Ephesian elders together. He told them, he said, preach
the Word of God now. Preach the Word of grace. I commend
you to the Word of God's grace. Because he said, after I leave,
I know grievous wolves, they shall arise from within you. From within the congregation.
Why? To devour the flock. Wolves. There are lots of them. Lots of them in the world. The
Apostle Paul spoke about them in 2 Corinthians. They transformed
themselves into apostles of light. Don't marvel. That's what Satan
does. They labor for him. They work
for Him with their message of free willism, their message of
good works, their message of live by the Ten Commandments,
their message of denying the gospel of God's free and sovereign
grace. They are wolves. Let's just call
them what the Bible calls them. They are wolves. They are greedy,
devourous wolves. They would devour everybody who
is in their path. And our Lord sends these men
forth. Look back here in Luke 10 again.
Watch it. Go your ways, behold, I send
you forth as lambs among wolves. Well, here's the question. Will they be alright? They're
out there among the wolves. Well, let's see. Look at verse
17. And the 70 returned. I like that. All 70 of them. A wolf didn't
get one of the lambs. Isn't that amazing? Not one lamb
was devoured by a wolf. And I'll tell you this. God's
got His sheep. God's got His lambs. And I'm
not just talking about preachers of the gospel now. I'm talking
about God's elect. And when the end comes, when
the dust settles and the smoke clears, and we've come to the
end of time, all of God's elect will come to Him. Not one sheep
will have been lost. He's not going to lose a one
of them. Of all that Thou hast given me, He prayed in His high
priestly prayer, I've not lost a one of them. He never has,
and He never will. We're safe in the Lord Jesus
Christ, our friend, our Savior, our Shepherd. Well, let's sing
a closing song. What's the number? Number 469. I found a friend, oh, such a
friend. He loved me ere I knew him. He drew me with the bands of
love. Something like that. I can't
remember all the words, but we'll open your song book and you can
see them for yourself. Let's stand and sing together. I found a friend, oh, such a
friend He loved me ere I knew him He drew me with the chords
of love And thus he bound me to him And round my heart still
closely twine Those ties which not can say For I am his and
he is mine forever.