As you know, in these passages
here, the Lord has commissioned his disciples to go out and preach
the gospel, preach the kingdom of heaven is at hand to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel. We dealt with that last week,
how it was God's purpose and will to come through Israel. That tiny, weak, insignificant
nation because the Lord is determined that in this issue of salvation,
in the providence of it, in the workings of it, in the application
of it, that He alone is going to get the glory. So when He
chose a nation to bring the Messiah through, He didn't choose a great
powerful, conquering nation. He chose a weak, sinful, insignificant
people. And you can look at it this way. You think about them being in
Egypt, being slaves in Egypt and how he brought them out.
There was nothing in that nation to recommend them unto God. And
that's the way it is with salvation. God saves weak, pitiful sinners
like us. And there's nothing in us or
nothing that we do that will recommend us unto God. I mean,
it is totally sovereign, free grace. And we can't attribute
it to anything that we do or anything we think or anything
we decide. We don't make the difference,
God does. So he's sending them out to preach
the gospel. to the lost sheep of the house
of Israel, and look at verse 16. He says, behold, I send you
forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Boy, that's a profound
statement, isn't it? I'm sending you out to preach
to enemies. Sheep in the midst of wolves.
What do wolves do to sheep? They eat them, they kill them,
they eat them. They devour them. I've often used the illustration,
you know, when people want to talk about free will and all
of that. So why do, why will not sinners
believe the gospel? Because it's not in their nature
to do so. And that's why we have to be born again. That's why
we have to be given a new heart, new mind, new knowledge before
we'll choose Christ. And of course we won't choose
him until, except that he's chosen us. And I've often used the illustration,
if you built a pen and you put a wolf in it and a sheep in it,
what's the sheep going to eat? Well, the sheep's gonna eat grass. Why would the sheep eat grass?
Because of his own free will, he chooses to do so? No, because
he's a sheep. And that's what sheep do, that's
their nature. But now what's the wolf gonna eat? He's gonna
eat the sheep. Why? Because he chooses of his
own free will to do so? No, because he's a wolf. And
that's what wolves do, they eat sheep. Why won't sinners believe
the gospel? Because we're sinners. And that's
the grand token of our depravity, is that how we react to the gospel
naturally. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. Neither can he know them. They're
spiritually discerned. And so we pray, Lord, give us
a new heart. Give us a new mind, give us new
knowledge. That's when we choose him, but
only after he's chosen us. But he said, I'm sending you
out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Christ is the shepherd
of the sheep. I've got in your lesson here,
there's three titles given to him as the shepherd. He's the
good shepherd. And what does the good shepherd
do? John chapter 10, he gives his life for the sheep. And that's
what Christ did. He laid down his life for his
sheep. Having our sins charged to his
account, he went to the cross and obeyed unto death to put
away our sins and to establish that everlasting perfect righteousness
whereby we stand before God justified. And from which we get life from
the dead, spiritual life. So he's the good shepherd. John
10, 11. He's the great shepherd. who
died and arose again, accomplishing the complete salvation and accomplishing
the preservation of all for whom he died and for whom he stands
advocate. You can read about that in Hebrews
13, 20 through 21. The great shepherd. He's good,
he's great, and then he's the chief shepherd who shall bring
all for whom he died and arose unto glory forever and ever.
1 Peter 5 and verse 4. So when he says that I'm sending
you forth in the midst of sheep and midst of wolves, he's not
saying I'm sending you to be killed or to be slaughtered.
Now some of them were killed, but that wasn't the ultimate
purpose of what he was doing. Look back at verse 16. Behold,
I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves, Be you therefore
wise as serpents and harmless as doves. That word harmless
sometimes is translated simple. Harmless as doves. Simple. You know, a lot of times we read
in the scripture, well, there was one time in Matthew chapter
seven, I believe it's verse 15, talks about wolves in sheep's
clothing. And those are wolves who are
trying to disguise themselves as sheep. That's false preachers,
false Christianity. And we go out into the world
with the gospel. He says, be wise as serpents
and be harmless or simple as dust. To me, that's one of the
most difficult things for a believer as a witness of Christ. Well,
what does he mean be harmless, In verse 16 when he says, be
wise as serpents, be harmless as dust. Well the only way that
we can be wise as serpents, and of course that was an analogy,
talking about the wisdom of a snake, that was kind of like an analogy
in the known world at that time. But how can we be wise? Well
the only way that we can really assure ourselves of being wise
in our approach unto people in preaching the gospel is to stay
with God's word. Don't go with our opinions, our
own personal ideas. Somebody says, well, I wanna
know what's your opinion of this script. We don't want opinions. We want the word of God. So go
forth with the word of God. And that's the single message
of Christ crucified, risen from the dead. That's the single message
of the gospel. And when he says, be harmless
as doves, I believe what he's telling us there is to make sure
that if we offend, and we will offend, there is the offense
of the cross, make sure that if we offend, that it's not with
our personalities or our mannerisms or our opinions, but it's the
word of God, period. If the word of God offends, let
it offend. Speak the truth. Paul called
it the offense of the cross. And he said, the only way that
I could remove the offense of the cross is to compromise the
gospel. And so we're to be peacemakers, the scripture says. Be at peace
with everybody, he says. but and holiness, that is without
compromising that which separates us and distinguishes us from
the world. And what is it that separates
us and distinguishes us from the world? The gospel. So we're
to strive to be at peace with everybody without compromising
the gospel. Do you understand that? Now if
the gospel offends, let it go. But don't let us be offensive
in our character and our personalities and our approach. And so sometimes
I know it's difficult. And another thing that we need
to be careful of is that a lot of times when the gospel itself
offends, the people who are offended by it, they will attack us. And
they'll blame us, and don't worry about that. But be at peace,
be peaceful. Don't be confrontational in the
sense of our personalities and our manner is. I had a man leave
the church up at Ashland, Kentucky one time. He said because my
preaching was too confrontational. And I'm not trying to be mean
or anything like that, but the gospel is confrontational. because
it goes against the grain of what sinners by nature think.
I know that because when I first heard it, it was confrontational
to me. And I can remember telling my
mother one time going home from church, this is before I was
converted, and listening to Brother Mayhem preach, I said, Mom, if
what he said this morning is true, then I'm lost. And she
looked at me and she said, well, if you don't believe this gospel,
you are lost. That was confrontational to me.
So understand that. Be wise as serpents, but harmless
as doves. Well, look at verse 17. He said,
but beware of men, for they will deliver you up to the councils,
they will scourge you in the synagogues. He says in verse
18, you shall be brought before governors, kings, for my sake,
for testimony against them and the Gentiles. These councils,
they're synagogues, that's religion. What he's saying is this, government,
ungodly governments, and ungodly religions will be opposed to
you. We're gonna see that in the book
of Revelation as we go down through when he talks about the beast
that come out and the dragon who's Satan and all that. Ungodly
government and ungodly religion. You remember back over in John
chapter 15, or John chapter 16, Christ told his disciples, they'll
throw you out of the synagogue. You'll go into their church services
and you preach the gospel and they'll want to kill you. Why
is that? It's because the gospel, when
it's preached or right, demands that sinners repent of the very
things they think recommend them unto God. The very things they think are
pleasing to God, their works, their decisions. their experiences. You remember in John 3, 19, this
is the condemnation. Light has come into the world
and men love darkness and hate the light because their deeds
are evil. Those deeds are things which men and women are proud
of and think prove that they're saved. And when you preach the
gospel of Jesus Christ and God's grace based on his righteousness
alone and tell sinners that you're in need of a righteousness you
cannot produce, the perfection of the law that can only be found
in Christ and all of your works and efforts to be righteous and
to save yourselves and to be accepted with God is nothing
but dead works, evil deeds, even dumb. He said, they'll bring
you up before the councils. Well, we know they did. You know,
false gospels always leave men and women with room to glory
in themselves. It may be one inch of glory,
but there's always some glory. But the true gospel leaves man
no place to glory but in Christ. God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross, Paul wrote. Look at verse 19. But when they
deliver you up, take no thought how or what you shall speak,
for it shall be given you in the same hour what you shall
speak. For it is not you that speak, but the spirit of your
father which speaketh in you. Now, this is not saying, this
is not promoting mysticism here. Excuse me, I'm getting over this
cold and everything. This is not promoting mysticism. There are people who call themselves
Christian who think that it's sinful to use notes, for example. It's not sinful to use notes. But they think, well, God's gonna
give you what to say when you get up there. Well, and I've
heard some of them preach, too, and what they preach didn't come
from God, I can tell you that. But we preach the scriptures.
But what, the reason he says this to them is this, when he
tells them that I'm sending you out in sheep amidst wolves, for
human beings like us, and that's who those disciples were, human
beings like us, sinners saved by grace, that's cause for anxious
care, isn't it? Now think about it. If I knew
that Sunday morning that I was gonna stand before a hostile
crowd, and if I knew that we didn't have a constitution that
kept them from putting me in jail or hurting me, I gotta tell
you, I'd be a little nervous. I'd be wondering, what am I gonna
say? How am I gonna say it? And I'm not above because of
my sinful flesh and my desire to preserve myself. I'm not above
trying to finagle it around a little bit. And I believe that's the
essence of what he's saying here. Don't think about how you're
going to defend yourself, what you're going to say. God's going
to give you the boldness and the words to say in defense when
they accuse you. And I believe these apostles
had a special revelation from God in that way. I know they
had the grace of God. You know, for any person to die,
to suffer for the faith of Christ, it takes the grace of God for
any of us to do that. You know that. Look at the apostle Peter when
he was first confronted. about his association with Jesus
of Nazareth. Remember what he did? He denied
Christ three times. Remember when the cock crowed
three times? And then he came away ashamed.
But later on he didn't. God gave him the grace, you know,
to be a martyr. Think about that. But he's telling
them, don't be anxious in the sense, but he's not telling them,
don't prepare. Prepare what you're going to
say and things like that, but don't be anxious about it. Don't
be fearful about it. Because standing firm in the
gospel in the face of death, in the face of suffering, it
takes a mighty power from the grace of God. That's not in us
by nature. And if you think it is, you're
just lying to yourself. Well, look at verse 21. He says,
and the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and
the father, the child, and the children shall rise up against
their parents and cause them to be put to death. Think about
this. Somebody says, how can that be?
Well, now think back. In the book of Genesis chapter
four, two brothers, the first two men that were born, Cain
and Abel, Cain killed Abel, why? Was it, say, over in 1 John?
Why did, you know, a lot of people go awry on this because they
speculate instead of just going to the scriptures. Exactly why
did Cain hate and kill his brother Abel? Well, look at 1 John chapter
three. Look at verse 10. John writes, in this, this is
1 John 3 and verse 10, in this the children of God are manifest,
made known, and the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth
not righteousness is not of God. Now what is it to do not righteousness?
It's to not believe in Christ. Neither he that loveth not his
brother. We who believe in Christ, we're
together in the fellowship of faith. And so he says in verse
11, for this is the message that you heard from the beginning,
that we should love one another, not as Cain, who was of that
wicked one, and slew his brother, the first murder. Over what? And wherefore or why slew he
him? Why did Cain slay Abel? Because
his own works were evil and his brother's righteous. Now, is that saying that Abel
was a better fellow than Cain? No. Abel was a sinner saved by
grace who knew he had no righteousness, but in the Lamb, who represented
Christ, the Messiah to come. But Cain was proud of his efforts,
the sweat of his brow, the work of his hands. And God showed
him, can't accept it, Cain. It doesn't meet the requirement.
Well, what is the requirement, Lord? He said, Cain, you know
what the requirement is. If you do well, what is it to
do well? Look to Christ, rest in him.
And so back here in Matthew chapter 10, verse 21, he said, even natural
family ties will be broken over the gospel. That's the way it
is. I've got in your lesson, where I think it's in the book
of Luke. And he says, you know, when Christ
says, if you love father, mother more than me, you cannot be my
disciple. Luke actually, I don't know where
I referenced it here. I may have spelled it out. But
in Luke, he says that if you don't hate mother and father,
he uses the word hate, And somebody said, wait a minute, are we supposed
to hate our mothers and our fathers and our brothers and our sisters?
He's not talking about the sinful hatred that comes from our selfishness. That hatred there comes from
righteous judgment where we reject them as being part of our spiritual
family. I love my father, but if he doesn't
believe the gospel, I have to reject him in the fellowship
of faith. That's what that hatred is. It's
not a sinful hatred, do you understand that? Just like God hating the
wicked. That's God's justice against
the wicked. That's not sinful hatred. So
I can say I love my father, I love my mother, I love my brother,
and they're part of my physical family and I'll do everything
I can. I'll pray for them, I'll help them, I'll do everything
I can for them. But if they don't believe the gospel, I cannot
receive them as a fellow believer in the fellowship of faith. If
they come not bearing this gospel, bringing this gospel, I cannot
have fellowship, spiritual fellowship. They're part of my earthly family
and I love them, but they're not part of my spiritual family. And I cannot speak peace to them.
Well, look at verse 22 of Matthew 10. He says, and you shall be
hated of all men for my namesake, but he that endureth to the end
shall be saved. That endurance is that perseverance
that comes by the grace and power of God that causes us to persevere
in the faith. God will not let us go. He will not let us apostatize
from the faith. He that began the good work will
finish it. He'll complete it. Paul said,
I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that he's able
to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. And
what have I committed unto him? My whole salvation. All of it
is committed to Christ. And he says, but when they persecute
you in this city, flee you into another. For verily I say unto
you, you shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till
the Son of Man be come. They're going out through the
cities of Israel, What I believe this is talking about is Christ
coming in judgment to destroy Israel, to destroy Jerusalem. He says, you won't have covered
the whole place before he comes to actually destroy it. And it
happened in AD 70. Coming in judgment. And the disciple,
verse 24, is not above his master nor the servant above his Lord.
Verse 25, it is enough for the disciple that he be as his master
and the servant as his Lord. If they've called the master
of the house Beelzebub, servant of Satan, how much more shall
they call them of his household? You know, when Peter, I think,
and James and John were brought before the council in Jerusalem,
the Sanhedrin, and they were questioned, based upon their
answers, the judges on the Sanhedrin, they looked at these guys and
they said, you've been with this Jesus. You speak like him. You're followers of him. And
that's the way it is. If we follow Christ, we're gonna
speak like him. We're gonna preach his message.
We're not above him. We don't have a better way than
he had. I think some preachers think they do. They think they
have a better way. But it's not so. He is our master, and we're
his servants. He is the savior, and we're his
disciples. Okay, quit there.