Good morning. Let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number 485. 485. We praise thee, O God, for the
Son of thy love, for Jesus who died and is now gone above. Alleluia, Thine the glory Alleluia,
Amen Alleluia, Thine the glory Revive us again ? We praise thee,
O God ? For thy spirit of light ? Who has shown us our Savior
? And scattered our night ? Hallelujah, thine the glory ? Hallelujah,
amen Alleluia, learn the glory, revive us again All glory and praise to the Lamb
that was slain Who has borne all our sins and has cleansed
every stain Alleluia, Thine the glory Alleluia, Amen Alleluia,
Thine the glory Revive us again Revive us again Fill each heart
with Thy love May each soul be rekindled with fire from above. Alleluia, Thine the glory, Alleluia,
Amen. Alleluia, Thine the glory, revive
us again. Be seated, we'll sing hymn number
125. 125. ? I hear the Savior say ? Thy strength indeed is small Child of weakness, watch and
pray Find in me thine all in all Jesus paid it all, all to
Him I owe Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as
snow. Lord, now indeed I find Thy power
and Thine alone. Can't change the leper's spots
And melt the heart of stone Jesus paid it all All to Him I owe
And left a crimson stain He washed it white as snow For nothing good have I Whereby
thy grace to claim I'll wash my garments white In the blood
of Calvary's Lamb Jesus paid it all All to Him I'll owe Sin
had left a crimson stain He washed it white as snow And when before the throne I
stand in Him complete Jesus died my soul to save My lips shall
still repeat Jesus paid it all All to Him I owe ? That left a crimson stain ? He
washed it white as snow Soften our Bibles if you will
to Mark chapter six. Mark chapter six. Continuing in Mark. This is first Sunday morning.
Well, I've been here in three weeks, I think. I'll start reading here in verse
seven, down through verse 13. And he called unto him the twelve
and began to send them forth by two by two. and gave them
power over unclean spirits and commanded them that they should
take nothing for their journey, a staff only, no script, no bread,
no money in their purse. but be shod with sandals, and
not put on two coats. And he said unto them, In whatsoever
place ye enter into an house, there abide till ye depart from
that place. And whosoever shall not receive
you, nor hear you when you depart thence, shake off the dust under
your feet, for a testimony against them. Verily I say unto you,
it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day
of judgment than for that city. And they went out and preached
that men should repent. And they cast out many devils
and anointed with oil they that were sick and healed them. our great and blessed and sovereign,
eternal, immutable God of heaven and earth. Lord, the heavens
is your throne and the heavens of heaven can't contain you.
And Lord, we are so thankful, we're so blessed that you've
revealed yourself, made yourself known, made yourself known through
your word, made yourself known through the Holy Spirit, made
yourself known through the preaching of the gospel. And Lord, you
describe yourself in your word. And Lord, we would never attribute
anything to you except a holy high and lifted up, glorious
in your power, august in your majesty. And Lord, even the angels
and the seraphims cover their mouth in your presence. And oh Lord, the heavens are
not pure in your sight, And oh Lord, we bless you and praise
you. And Lord, we've gathered here to worship today, to worship
the Lord Jesus Christ, hopefully by your grace to bring glory
to his name, by your grace to be a blessing to your dear saints
that's gathered out here. And we especially pray for those
who are sick and are frail and their bodies are weak. We ask
for your mercies and grace as sufficient and your strength
made perfect in weakness. And our blessed Savior, we pray
for the lost among us. Lord, the gospel is the power
of God. And so may the gospel be the
power of God today in a heart, in a mind, in a soul. May someone
be, eyes be open. May the revelation, may the light
of God shine in the heart, taking away the darkness, taking away
the Self-righteousness is self-confidence, O Lord, emptying souls and bringing
them to the Lord Jesus Christ. Bless our time together today.
And Lord Jesus, do it for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. Let's all stand together as we
sing the hymn of the day in the bulletin. O Lamb of God, still keep me
near to Thy wounded side, Tis only there in safety and peace
I can abide. What foes and snares surround
me, are thirst and fears within. The grace that sought and found
me alone can keep me clean. Tis only in thee, hiding, I know
my life secure. Only in thee, abiding, I steadfast
shall endure. Thine arm the victory gaineth,
For every hurtful foe, The love my heart sustaineth In all its
care and woe. Soon shall my eyes behold thee
With rapture face to face, have not been told me of all thy power
and grace. Thy beauty, Lord, and glory,
the wonders of thy love shall be Be seated. And then verse 7, we'll start
there. And He called unto him the twelve,
and began them forth by two and two, and gave them power over
unclean spirits. Now Lord Jesus Christ, He's one
been doing all the preaching, doing all the healing, doing
all the teaching, but now He's going to send His apostles to
preach. and he's going to give them the
ability to do what he is the only one that's been doing. He's
going to give them power, going to give them some authority.
He's going to use them, and they're going to go and preach. They're
going to go and heal the sick. They're going to go and do miracles. And so he sends these apostles.
He alone had been doing everything, and you remember the last time
he marveled at their unbelief. And unbelief is absolutely, it's
inexcusable. Unbelief's inexcusable. To not
believe God, even the heavens and the creation declare the
eternal power of God in His Godhead. You cannot look at this world
and say it just came into being. You know, you hear these fellas
talk about, you know, people's here 45,000 years ago and 170,000
years ago, and this was done and that was done. And I tell
you, men, everywhere you look, if
you can't see God, you're just blind as a bat, blind as a bat. But that's why men are going
to be without excuse. The creation itself declares
the glory of God. You can't look in the heavens
and not see that somebody made those stars. Somebody made those
galaxies. Somebody created this world and
put the light in it and put the stars in the heavens and put
the moon at night and the sun in the heavens. And men are going
to be without excuse on that reason. But anyway, He sent these
fellas to preach, and they wasn't preaching what I just said. No,
they wouldn't have said that. But anyway, He's going to send
what they do. And then He called unto Him,
and first let me show you this. He called unto Him the twelve. You know, and over in Luke it
says He called them together. The first thing I want us to
know about this call and this people is that it's a sovereign
call. He didn't call anybody but these
twelve. And when God calls a man, He
calls him to a business. He calls him to a reason, and
it's a sovereign call. God called whom He would. Look
over in Mark chapter three and verse 13 with me. Let me show
you something over here. He called them together. Look
what it says down in verse 13. And he goeth up into a mountain,
and called unto him whom he would. See, it calls by the, Paul said,
I'm an apostle by the will of God. These men were apostles
by the will of God. These men were called, got Christ
sent down, went up on a mountain, and he called whom he would.
And that's exactly the way he calls people today. He calls
whom he will. You know, God gave Him power
over all flesh that He should give eternal life to as many
as the Father's given Him. So when Christ saves a man, He
saves him by His power, saves him according to His will, and
He calls him. He has to be the one to call.
And I'll tell you, He told Jeremiah, before I formed you in the belly,
before you has ever come forth from your mama's womb. He said
you has ever formed in the belly. I knew thee and called thee and
ordained thee to be a prophet. So God, the first thing we see
about these preachers is God called them. It's a sovereign
call. And God's always done that. God, you know, when you go back
through the scriptures, Abraham, out of all the people on the
earth, Abraham was called. Abraham was called. And out of
all the people on the earth, Noah was the only one that God
chose and showed grace to. And then He chose Jacob, then
He chose Isaac, then He chose Jacob. Everywhere you look you
see God's sovereignty in His calling, in His calling. And I thank God that He is the
one who calls because I call on men and they don't do anything
unless God calls them to. If all you know, old Barnard
used to say, if all you hear is my voice, you'll be none the
better. But if you hear that voice, that
voice of Christ, hear that voice of God, then it'll do you some
good. And I tell you, He calls unto Him, and let me tell you
something else. When He sent forth these 12 apostles, one
of them was the devil. Did you know that? One of them
was the son of perdition. And as he sent them forth, this
son of perdition, Judas Iscariot, and every time they mention him,
Judas Iscariot, the one that betrayed him. And Judas Iscariot
was with these 12. I don't know which two he was
sitting with, which one he was with when he was sent out. But
that goes to show you that Christ a person don t know what they
are until Christ makes them understand what they are, then that shows
you that Christ Himself lets the tares grow into wheat, and
He s the only one that can separate them. He s the only one who can
tell the difference between a Judas and Simon Peter. He s the only one. We can t tell.
We can t tell who s a tare. We can t tell who s a goat. We
can't tell any, you know, but I do know this. I do not want
to be deceived. I don't want to be deceived.
I want to know that I'm called by Christ, that the power of
God's been manifested to me. I know that the human heart's
deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. And I do
know that if God didn't sovereign mercy, don't save me and call
me, there's no hope for me. And if God is sovereign mercy,
don't call you, there's no hope for you. So here's the thing
about it. If there's only one person that
God gives the authority to call and that's Christ, Christ. And I tell you what, he lets
the dross grow up with the gold. Judas was one of them, and this
shows us that he lets the tares grow with the wheat. And then
look what else it says he gave to them. He called unto him the
twelve, and then he began to send them forth. Send them forth. Now how can a preacher preach
except he be sent? He can't preach unless God sends
him. These dead fellas didn't get up and say, Lord, I think
it's time for us to start preaching. I think we ought to be the ones
doing some of the preaching around here. We know about as much as
anybody else does, so let us do some preaching. But oh no,
that's not what they said. He said he sent them forth two
by two, and oh my, he sends them forth, and look what it says,
and he gave them power, gave them power over unclean spirits. That word power means authority.
That's what it means, power. Not only power, but an irresistible
force. An irresistible force. He gave
them the might, he gave them the right to do what he called
them to do. He said, when you're confronted
with a devil, you got power over him. When you're confronted with
unclean spirit, you got the power over him. And he gave them power,
he gave them ability, he gave them the right and the authority
to do what he called them to do. Now I do know this, I couldn't
cast out, I have no power and authority at all except to preach
the gospel. That's all the power and authority
I've got. But I don't have any power over unclean spirits. I
don't have any power over devils and to cure diseases. And our
Lord Jesus is the only one that's got that power, and he's the
only one that can give that power. And you know, I've said this
over the years, that these fellas that are supposed to have all
this power to heal and raise the dead and all that kind of
stuff and make short legs grow and straight and crooked feet
and all that and open eyes and blind, deaf ears and all that
kind of stuff, why don't they go somewhere to a hospital and
do something for kids? Why don't they go to a children's
hospital and do something for these little kids? Why don't
they do that? If they've got this kind of power,
but when our Lord and when our Lord gave these fellas the power,
they had this power. They didn't have it until Christ
gave it to them. They didn't have any authority to Christ
gave it to them. They didn't have anything to
do. Our Lord said, without me, you can do nothing, nothing. Well, I can do, no, you can't
do nothing without Christ. And that's what He's telling
these fellows here. He's the only one, and I tell you what,
He's got the power, He's got the authority, and in the day
of His power, He makes His people willing. We're the sheep of His
pasture, He made us and not we ourselves. He's the only one
who's got the authority. And you know He's the one that
defeated the devil, and the only one that defeated the devil.
Oh, He's the only one that has power over the devil, and He's
the only one that gave these authorities, these preachers,
the power over the devil. And you remember they came back
and told Him, said, Lord, we, oh, the devils were subject unto
us, and they said it was rejoicing. He said, Rejoice not that the
power, that you have power over unclean spirits, but rejoice
that your names are written in heaven. And so He gave them power
and authority over unclean spirits, And oh, what a power, what an
authority. And you look at the apostles
after our Lord Jesus Christ descended back to glory. These fellows
had, they had such power and such authority that Christ gave
them that Peter could walk by and his shadow would heal people. That Paul could speak to a person
and the devil would come out, just speak to him and the devil
would come out. And so these fellas had an unusual power,
unusual authority, and nobody else has it. And when the apostles
died, this power and authority died with them. It certainly
did. And then over in Luke chapter
9 it says over there, He sent them forth to preach the Kingdom
of God. Now, I don't say it on here, but over in Luke chapter
9 in verse 6 I think it says, He sent them forth to preach
the Gospel, or the Kingdom of God. Now, what in the world does
the Kingdom of God mean? What is he talking about, the
Kingdom of God? You know, and our Lord commanded
them, commanded them. The preaching that they did was
not like the scribes and the Pharisees. No, no. Our Lord didn't, and He didn't
give these apostles the power and authority to preach like
the scribes and Pharisees. They didn't have any authority.
They didn't have any power. They had a bunch of laws. They
had a bunch of ceremonies. And oh my, they preached that
men could be saved by hair-splitting, the laws, that they had to have
laws and had to have ceremonies and had to have riches. They
strained a gnat and swallowed a camel. They had ceremonies. But oh my, but when you talk
about the Kingdom of God, they went forth preaching the Kingdom
of God. And you know what the Kingdom of God is? Is God Himself
entering into a man by His power, by His authority, breaking down
a man's heart, breaking down a man's soul, breaking down a
man's mind, and God Himself setting up His authority in a man's heart
and soul. That's what the Kingdom of God
is. And oh, the Kingdom of God! the kingship of God, the rule
of God, the sovereignty of God, recognized in all of God's people,
all of God's people. Oh my, there's no way in the
world that the Kingdom of God, and when we talk about the Kingdom
of God, we're talking about complete salvation, complete, perfect
salvation, all the spiritual blessings, ALL THE MATERIAL BLESSINGS
FOR OUR SOUL AND FOR OUR BODY IS GIVEN TO US IN THE KINGDOM
OF GOD. YOU KNOW OUR LORD SAID PRAY WHEN
HE SAID PRAY THY KINGDOM COME ON EARTH AS IT IS EVEN IN HEAVEN,
AND WHAT THAT MEANS IS WHEN YOUR KINGDOM COMES MAY WE OBEY IT
JUST LIKE THOSE IN HEAVEN DO, AND YOU CAN T BE IN A KINGDOM
WITHOUT HAVING A KING OVER YOU. AND I TELL YOU GOD LIVES IN US
And we recognize, we recognize His authority. You know how many
people don't recognize the authority of God? They recognize the authority
of Christ? Almost every preacher don't recognize
the authority of Christ. They don't recognize the Kingdom
of God. They don't recognize any authority of God, nobody
recognizes the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. If they recognized
His authority and His power, they wouldn't be begging people
to accept Him. They wouldn't be begging people
to do something for Jesus and all that. No, no! I tell you,
our Lord Jesus Christ, all power is given unto Him and His Kingdom. You know, in Bunyan's Pilgrim
Progress, you know, in the Holy War, in the Holy War, there was
a Satan set Mansoul, in the city of Mansoul, there was a, there
was a throne on the city of Mansoul in his heart. There's a throne
in his heart. And there was a, there was a man sitting on that
throne. That man was self-willed. That man was, that man was a,
understanding that man had had this great insight and had this
wonderful power in his heart and then and then Emmanuel came. Emanuel came into that city,
and you know how he got into that city? Through the preaching
of the gospel. He got into that city through
the ears, and when he got in through that ears, that person
understanding on the throne, and that man on the throne, he
started hearing something, and then he started seeing Emanuel,
and he heard Emanuel, and Emanuel comes marching down the street,
down the avenue of the city of Mansoul. He took that sold off
of that throne, and He Himself sat on that throne, and that
s exactly what happens to us. He comes into the city of Mansoul,
and He takes everything off the throne, He takes everything that
you run to, and He takes everything away from you, and He Himself
ascends the throne of the heart. And you know what? We re thrilled
to death that He s the one on the throne! What would we do? What would
we do if Christ didn't reign? What if we was left up to our
free will? What if we was left up to our
self right? What if we was left up to our own doings and our
own ways? What if God just left us to ourselves? And he didn't bring that power
and that authority. What if it was a cooperative?
Lord, I'll sit on the throne for a while and then y'all get
off and let you sit for a while. You run your own life and I'll
run part of it and you go when you want to and I'll go when
I want to. That would be a horrible state to be in. But oh my. And I tell you what, we obey.
By God's grace, we obey. And I tell you what, He translated
us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of
His love. Oh, the kingdom of God, as I said, is complete salvation. That's what it means. God sets
up, and He sets up that salvation, and it's a king. You know, when
they ask him, Pilate asked him, Art thou a king? And he asked
him, Who told you that? Where'd you hear that at? Why
do you think that? He said, Who told you? Are you
the king of Israel? Are you the king of the Jews?
Thou sayest? He said, For this reason was
I born. Oh, and I'll tell you something
else. Not only is the kingdom of God complete salvation, but
the church, the church, when I say the church, I'm talking
about people that's regenerated. I'm not talking about everybody
sitting in the building. Church is not a building, the
church is people that's in the church, people that God's regenerated
and give life to, and that's the church, the church of Jesus
Christ established by Him. He said, Upon this rock I'll
build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it. And in the church is where God's kingdoms also is set up.
I tell you, God sets His Kingdom up in a church, and that s one
thing that folks don t like to hear about, that I tell you,
He s got authority over every soul that was ever born, and
it s up to Him and His authority whether you were ever saved or
not saved, whether you ever know God or you don t know God, whether
you know Christ or you don t know Christ. And I tell you what,
if you want to be in the Kingdom of God, He brings salvation.
You'll unite yourself with a church of the followers of Jesus Christ. He sets up His Kingdom in the
church. And we recognize Him as a King.
We recognize Him as a King. I tell you, you know, when we talk about King, Over in England, they got a king,
just a ceremony, just a, just a, it's just a, he has no authority,
he has no power. But when you talk about Christ
being king, when you talk about his kingdom, he's got power,
he's got authority. And I tell you, he's got the
power and authority. Look over in Acts with me, chapter
20 and verse 25. Let me show you something if
I can. You know, when we're talking
about the Kingdom of God, there's a multitude, a multitude
of people that do not believe Christ is the King now. I mean,
a whole multitude of people that don't believe Christ is King
now. But look what Paul said, you know, when he was with the
Ephesians elders, and he was fixing to leave and go up to
Jerusalem, he said, look what he said in verse 25, And now, behold, I know that
ye all, among whom I have gone preaching, the kingdom of God,
that's what he said, I went preaching, the kingdom of God, shall see
my face no more. You see, the kingdom of God.
You know, the Pharisees said, we're Abraham's seed. The religious
Jews said, we're Abraham's seed. People say, well, I'm a Baptist.
I'm a Methodist, I'm a Presbyterian. The only thing that matters is
the king on his throne, and he has the power and authority to
do what he will with his own. He does. You know, what I'm saying
is this, that they said, we will not have this man to reign over
us. We will not have this man to
reign over us. And you know what we say? Even
so, come Lord Jesus, rain, rain. Oh Lord, rain. Rain over me. Oh, rain over me, rain over me. And
the new heaven and new earth, with all the glory of it, will
be the kingdom of God. Look over in Matthew 25. Now
go back to Luke, but then look in Matthew 25. Talking about
the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God and the kingdom
of heaven. You know, the Kingdom of Heaven. You know, why is it called the
Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God? Well, because it comes,
the message and the Kingdom itself comes from Heaven, and it takes
us to Heaven. Look what our Lord said here
in verse 34, Matthew 25. Then shall the king, see what
it said? Then said the king, Oh, all the
way through Matthew is the king. The king prepared his supper.
The king sent forth his son. The king, then shall the king
say unto them on his right hand, come, you blessed of my father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. The king said that, the king
said that. And oh my, it's called the kingdom
of heaven because it comes from heaven, it's gonna take us to
heaven, and it's a heavenly kingdom here on earth. We used to sing
that old song, heaven came down and glory filled my soul, glory
filled my soul. All right, let me hurry up, let
me hurry up. Go back over here in Matthew,
excuse me, Mark chapter six. And I want you to notice what
he said here in verse eight. And commanded them, I want you
to notice that, He commanded them. One thing about our Savior,
we just talked about His kingdom. One thing about our Lord, He
had never asked anybody to do anything. When He says, come
unto Me, that's a commandment. It's not an invitation, it's
a commandment. Come unto Me. Who else you gonna go to? And
anyway, our Lord Jesus Christ said, He commanded them. When
they were sent down to feed Him, He commanded them to sit down.
And He commanded them. this is what our Lord does, He
commands things, and He commanded them, listen to this now, that
they should take nothing, don't take nothing for your journey,
don't take anything for your journey, you're going on a journey,
you're going to go preaching, you're going to start and you're
going to finish, take nothing for your journey, those who preach
the gospel should live of the gospel, And the GREATEST reason
that He says take NOTHING for your journey is that you've got
to TRUST ME. I'm going to provide for you.
I'm going to meet your needs. I'm going to take care of you.
Oh my, don't trust anything else but Me. And then He said, look
what He said, take NOTHING for your journey, just take a staff.
Take a staff. A staff means a walking stick.
As a fellow walks around town all the time, he walks, you see
him walking everywhere, he got a walking stick, and he just
walks and walks and walks with his walking stick. And I tell
you, that's what it means. Well, you take your walking stick
with you. Take your staff with you. Take your walking stick
with you. And so they said, he said, take your staff with you.
Don't take no script. And you know what a script is?
It's a leather pouch that these fellows would carry, and in that
script they would carry food, they'd carry something to eat,
they'd carry bread or carry something to, and he said, don't take no
script, don't take no script. Oh, I'll be your provision, I'll
provide for you, I'll see that you'll not go hungry. And then
look what else he said, and no bread, don't you take no bread
with you. Why did He say, take no bread? He said, because I'm
the bread, I'm going to feed you, I'm going to take care of
you. That's the reason He says, take nothing. Take nothing. That's why the Lord said, take
no thought for tomorrow. I mean, tomorrow's got enough
problems. We've got enough problems today without making problems
for tomorrow. And our Lord here says, take
nothing, don't take no bread. Don't take any bread. I'll see
that you're fed. I'll see that you're fed. And
listen to this, what he said, and don't you take any money
with you. Don't you take any money with you. I won't hardly go anywhere without
taking some money. You know, a lot of people won't.
But our Lord said, don't take no money. Don't take no money. Why don't you take any money?"
He said, Listen, filthy lucre is something you ought not covet. He said, I'll provide for you.
I'll see that you've got everything you need, and I'll tell you what,
I'll be your wealth. You'll have this treasure and
earthen vessels, and I'll take care of you. I'll take care of
you. I read the other day, let me
tell you this, that Mr. Spurgeon, made up to 20,000,
30,000 pounds a year. That would be like a preacher
now making up $250,000 a year. Spurgeon made an enormous amount
of money. Of course, he pastored 6,000
people and preached all over the place, but they paid him
that kind of money. But you know how much he had
left, how his estate amounted to the day he died? He had 2,000
pounds left. He gave everything he had away.
As quick as he'd come in, he gave it away. He gave it away. I'll tell you another preacher's
that way. He'd say, boy, when somebody give him some extra
money, he'd give it away. Give it away. And that's why,
you know, there's nothing wrong with having money, but it's wrong
for money to have you. Now, that's what he's talking
about. No money, don't take no money with you. Why does he tell
all these preachers that? Why does he tell these preachers
that? Because, and you know, he asked them in one place, he
said, when I sent you out to preach, did you lack anything? They said, nothing. When it's
time to eat, somebody fed them. When it's time to buy something,
they had the money to do it. That's exactly what happened.
Then he goes on here to say this about it. He says, no money for
your purse, and then he also said, Be shod with sandals. Oh, he said, you know over in
Ephesians it says this, Be shod with the gospel of peace, with
the preparation of the gospel of peace. If you re going to
have your feet shod, be shod with the preparation of the gospel
of the peace. And then he says, Don t put on two coats. Why is
he talking about putting on two coats? Well, there s two COATS
THAT YOU CAN FIND IN THE SCRIPTURES. YOU KNOW WHERE THE FIRST COAT
WAS MADE? THE FIRST COAT WAS EVER MADE.
ADAM AND EVE MADE IT. THEY MADE A COAT, A COVERING
TO COVER THEIR NAKEDNESS. ITS FIG LEAVES. AND THEN GOD
SLEW IN ANIMALS AND THEN HE COVERED THEM WITH ANIMAL SKIN. And then
there's the covering of the righteousness of Christ. Now it's either Adam
or Christ. It's either Adam or God's covering. It's either the fig leaves or
that, and that's why it says you can't take two coats. And
you can't have two coats. You can't have the coat of fig
leaves and the coat of self-righteousness, and you can't have the coat that's
only Christ's righteousness. You can't have both of them.
It's one or the other, one or the other. And all He says, and
then look what He says, And He said unto them, In what place
soever ye enter into an house, there abide till ye depart for
sin. Why did He say when you go into a house, you stay right
there, you stay right there, don't depart till you leave that
place? Why did He say that? He says
you stay right there, they'll provide you hospitality, They'll
be a blessing to you and you'll be a blessing to them. They'll
be blessed to be able to take care of you and you'll be blessed
to be in their home. And I tell you what, and when
you go in somebody's home, he said, you stay right there. Stay
right there. Don't run all over. You stay
there until it's time for you to leave. Now, in a person's
house, there may be things that you dislike and things that you
do like. But I tell you what, he says,
you stay right there. Why did he say stay right there?
I'm going to tell you why. Because when people go from house
to house, everybody's got a tale to tell. Everybody's got a story
to tell. Why did so-and-so leave the church?
Did you know so-and-so left the church? Oh, why did he leave
the church? Well, he left because of this
or he left because of that. And everybody's going to, you
know, when you go to the house, they'll tell you one thing after
another. And you'll hear this gossip and that gossip and you'll
hear somebody say this. So he said, stay in one place. Don't go from house to house.
Don't go from house to house. And I'll tell you what, that'll
just gender strife. And when you leave that place,
leave their house, you stay there till you depart. And then look
what our Savior said in verse 11. And he says, listen, whoever
shall not receive you, they don't want you in their house. They
don't want you to come in. They don't want to hear what
you got to say. They don't want to hear what you got to say.
And I tell you what, that's an awful thing. That's an awful
thing, not to receive somebody preaching the gospel. And they
won't hear you. And if they don't hear you, when
you go into a house or go into a place and they won't hear you,
they won't receive you. They say, we don't want to hear
anything you got to say. We don't want you in our house.
I don't want to show you any hospitality nor hear you. He
said, then when you depart, when you leave, when you leave, Look
what he says, shake off the dust under your feet. What does that
mean? You know, in the book of Acts,
it says the same thing where they didn't receive them. I don't
know if it means that they raised up their feet and done like that.
I don't know what it means, but I do know that it means that
you figure them unclean, and so wherever you've been, you've
been unclean, your feet's been unclean by being around them,
shake off that dust as a TESTIMONY against them. Let them folks
know, listen, you shake off the dust as a TESTIMONY
against them. And when the Jews, when they
entered into somebody's house, they'd shake the dust off of
themselves when they left. shake the dust off, and all things
have to be, you know, if they touched anything, they was unclean.
And our Savior is saying, if they reject the gospel, consider
them unclean, treat them as unclean, treat them as somebody, if you
don't want the gospel, you don't want it. And I tell you, they
reject it. Let me look over in Acts 13 with
me for a moment. Acts 13. Here's something that
happened over here, same thing, same thing. You know, if you reject the gospel,
reject the good news, what else is there but judgment? Look here
in verse 50, Acts 13, 50. But the Jews stirred up the devout
and honorable women, and the chief men of that city, and raised
persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out
of their coasts. Leave us alone, is what they
said, leave us alone. But they shook off the dust of
their feet against them, and came to Icum, shook off the dust
of their feet against them. I don't know if they went like
that, I remember An old, old man, he'd been gone for years
and years, but I probably told you this before, but a bunch
of Jehovah's Witnesses come one time. He's sitting out in his
front yard, sitting in a chair, and they come up and wanted to
talk to him. He told them, said, I don't want
to hear anything you got to say. Leave, leave, leave, leave, leave. They
just wouldn't leave. He said, if you all don't leave, he said,
I'm going to go in the house and get a poker and I'm going
to beat your brains out. He said, I'm going to hit you
if you don't leave. I mean, he got upset. He said,
I'll hit you with this poker. And I tell you what, I don't
want to hit nobody with a poker, but I have shook the dust off
my feet before. I have done that. Oh my, they went through town
and they went healing everywhere they went. And I tell you what,
it's down in verse 12, it says this now. And they went out and
preached that men should repent. What does repentance mean? It
means a change of mind, a change of mind. That's exactly what
it means. It don't mean this idea, repent
of your sins and turn to Christ. That's unscriptural as it can
be. That's not what, whenever you find the word repentance
or repent, it always has to do with your mind being changed,
your mind being changed. And when God gives you repentance
and you repent, what happens is your mind is changed. Whenever
repentance comes, your mind is changed about God, who He is,
that's the first thing. Second thing is your mind is
changed about who you are. You used to think, Well, I'm
a pretty good fella. Well, when God saves you and He reveals
Himself to you, you'll say, Oh, woe is me, I'm undone. Oh, wretched
man that I am. And then He makes you and He
changes your mind about Christ being the only Savior, and that
the sanctification and everything else is all you need is the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's all and in all. And they
went through preaching repentance. And they cast out many devils,
verse 13, many devils, and anointed them with oil, many that were
sick, and healed them. But now I want you to go back
up to verse 11, and look what it says, And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, won't
hear what you have to say, When you depart thence, shake off
the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. Now
listen to what our Lord says here. Verily I say unto you,
it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day
of judgment for that city. Our Lord says that wherever you
go, preach the gospel. Wherever I send you and I command
you to go, He said wherever you preach and folks that won't hear
you won't receive you. And when you think of the most
debauched, vile, evil, awful thing that anywhere is, Sodom
is the first thing you think of. You know they got laws on
the book against sodomy. They got laws against sodomites. and sodomized, and you know in
Sodom he said the city that you go and they don t receive you,
he said it ll be better for Sodom and Gomorrah, it ll be better
for them in the judgment for them that wouldn t receive you
and wouldn t hear what you got to say. And you know what happened
to Sodom? I mean Sodom, listen, it was
such an awful place that when Abraham Y'all remember the story
of Abraham, when the Lord come and said, we're gonna tell Abraham
what we're gonna do. We're going down to Sodom to destroy Sodom.
Their evils come up. I mean, their evils come up before
us. And oh, Abraham said, listen,
if there's 50 righteous people down there, will you save that
city? He said, yes, I will. He said, if there's 45, yeah,
I'll do that. 40? Yeah. Let me one more time say, Will
there be 30? Would you save it? Would you
spare it? He said, I will. He got down
to 25. Then he got down to 20. He said,
will you spare the first 20 righteous souls in Sodom? And then he got
down to 10. The first 10 righteous souls,
will you spare Sodom? He said, I will. Let me just
one more time ask you one more thing. The first five righteous
down there, will you spare it? He said, I will. I will. But there wasn't but one righteous
man in that whole city. And you know what happened? That
when those angels come to get Lot, the men of that place tried
to break down the door to get those angels out of there to
abuse them. That's how awful that city was. That city was
so bad, that city was so awful that God said, I'm gonna burn
it up. And as it was in the days of
Sodom, days of Lot, that's the way it's gonna be when Christ
comes. And I tell you what, I don't wanna get in politics or anything
like that, but I tell you things are so accepted now. Men with
men, women with women. You can be a man and become a
woman, you can become a woman and become a man, and all that
stuff is accepted. And our government's forcing
it on people. Now a man was born a man, he'll
live a man, he'll die a man. And a woman will be a woman and
she'll live be a woman until she dies a woman. And I'm telling
you, that's why He said it, He said, Days of Sodom, that's the
way it's going to be, because everything that's absolutely
wrong and everything that's so against God Almighty right now
is recognized by everybody in the United States of America. If you refuse to hire somebody
that decides, I want to be called a woman, I don't want to be Joe
anymore, I want to be Judy, And if you don't hire Judy, the
government will come and get you. That's what I'm talking about
here, that's Sodom. You think it's bad now, that's
the way Sodom was. They recognized that they was
the awfulest, debauched, evil, cruel, and they delighted in
those things. And I tell you, you know what
had to happen? They had to come there and get a hold of Lot and
DRAG HIM out of that place! And you know what happened when
He dragged him out of that place? The scripture says, it said,
Don t you even look back, and I tell you, Lot, remember Lot
s wife? That s what He said, Remember
Lot s wife? She looked back. Why did she
look back? Because her heart was in Sodom.
Her heart was just like everybody else that's in Sodom, and she
has turned to a pillar of salt. And oh, they said, it'll be better
for Sodom. You reject the gospel, you reject
the gospel, you reject Christ, you reject hearing the person
receiving that, and everybody was perverted as abominable.
But oh my, one righteous man in that city, and I tell you,
that's what our Lord said, it'll be more tolerable. for Sodom
and Gomorrah and the Day of Judgment, then, for that city that rejected
you." Oh, my! People say, Well, it's not that
important. I'll tell you how important it
is. It's the difference between heaven and hell. That's what it is. And I'll tell
you, it's a, you know, I've got to hurry. In the days of Sodom it was so
awful, and it s so awful now, it s so awful now, but the Scripture
says in Romans chapter 1, and here s where they start at, professing
themselves to be wise, they change the GLORY of God, make it like
unto man. First thing they want to do is
make man to be God. make man to have all the power
and all the authority and all the glory. And then they changed
him like unto man, then they made him into a four-footed beast,
cows and things that people worship, and then they made him into snakes
and all kinds of different things. And then the Scripture says,
And they turned the natural use of the woman against one another,
and the man against, and the natural use of the woman, and
the natural use of the man, and then you know what it says? They
not only did such things, but they had such pleasure and enjoyed
seeing everybody doing that. Now that s how far we go, and
people delight in that stuff today. And you re the one that
s nuts if you say something against it. You re the one that s I tell you what, I was born wrong
and I'm gonna die wrong if that's right. Ain't you? If that's right,
then I'm wrong. But I'd much rather face God
for what I see and understand in the scriptures, and I'm not
gonna partake of this world and all this wickedness that's in
it. By God's grace, I'm not. I'm not going to do it. Our Father, Oh Lord, I pray that the gospel be heard,
be received, be heard here and sinners would be saved by your
blessed grace. Lord, I at a loss for words how to call
on you and look to you in light of this world and all that's
in it. But I do know that there's lost, I know there's people that
don't know Christ, never believed Christ, never trusted the gospel,
never touched His blood, not washed in His blood, and I pray
for them, Lord, that you do something for them. And I pray for our
families and our sons and daughters and brothers and sisters Husbands
and wives and grandchildren. Lord, have mercy on them. And
Lord, forgive me of everything that's so unlike you. Oh, so
unlike you. God bless these dear saints and
bless our time together when we come together to eat this
afternoon. Bless our time together and may
we stay in fellowship and enjoy one another's company and enjoy
this food. And thank you for ever hand that
prepared some food for us. And blessed be your holy name.
We thank you for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. Houston, you got
a song to dismiss us with. And then, them girls, if you
need to go, go back and do whatever you need to do. Before we sing, I've got a favor
to ask. I'm going to put somebody on the spot. Pull a Donnie Bell, as they say.
I normally haul the trash off after the lunches. I did not
bring my truck today, so if there's an able-bodied person with the
truck that would be willing and able to haul the garbage for
us after service, I'd appreciate it. Let's all stand together
and sing Amazing Grace. 236 if you need it. Amazing Grace. Amazing Grace, how sweet the
sound, that saved a wretch like me. My voice was lost, but now am
found Was blind, but now I see T'was grace that taught my heart
to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How precious did At grace appear
The hour I first believed Through many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come. Tis grace hath brought me be
safe thus far and grace will lead me home when we've been
there Ten thousand years Bright shining as the sun We've no less
days To sing God's praise And when will it first be done?