Turn back to Mark, Chapter 6,
the title of the message, sending forth the Twelve, or Scent of
God. Scent of God to preach the gospel,
commissioned. These men were commissioned of
Almighty God to go forth and to preach the gospel. God calls
His sheep to Himself and He saves them. Then He teaches them. All thy children shall be taught
of God. He does not leave us alone or
untaught. The best education that you and
I will ever receive is the one that God gives us. That's the
best education. You'll learn something, and it'll
last for eternity. What I learned here, it'll last
for a little while. It'll serve its purpose for a
little while. But what I learned of God in Christ will last forever. That knowledge that we are given
in Christ and of Christ will only grow. We will never outgrow
it. My dad said one time some years
ago, he said, I have outlived my education. And I understand
now what he's talking about. I understand you can outlive
your education. You can do it. To set up a TV now and a VCR. I get Vicki to do it. It's gone
past me, she does it. But you will never outlive your
education, your knowledge in Christ. It'll grow, it'll grow,
and it'll grow forever and ever and ever. We will never ever,
I believe this, we will never ever reach the point where we
know all that we need to know about God. That knowledge cannot
be exhausted. at all. So he teaches them, and
it starts here in this life. And after that, he sends them
forth. You know, you don't take these children here and send
them out in the workforce, do you? Well, they'd be lost as
lost could be. They don't know anything. They
got to be taught. And before a man goes out and
preaches the gospel, before he stands in a pulpit, before he
handles God's chief glory, and before he talks to to people
who's headed for eternity. I know this. I want somebody
who knows what they're talking about. Not a novice. That's what Paul
said. Not a novice. You don't need
that. And here in Mark 6, he sends forth the twelve to preach
first, to preach the gospel. Their first mission, their first
purpose was to preach. And as they did that, they cast
out devils and they would heal the sick. And this power was
given to them to confirm their message. They didn't have the
word of God as we have it. It was given to them to confirm
their message. And their message was this, repent
and believe the gospel. As Frank was saying this morning,
repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Look to him. That's their message. That's
our message. It's the same message our Lord had. Our Lord said repent
and believe the gospel. The message our Lord preached
and the message we preach is no different. It's the exact
same message. He was commissioned. He's the
messenger of what? The covenant. He was commissioned
of God the Father to come into this world and reveal to us the
covenant of grace. And he did it through the preaching
of the gospel. And he's commissioned us to go out and preach the gospel.
And the message is repent, change your mind about who God is, who
Jesus Christ is, how God saves sinners, what sin is. If there's
anything that people misunderstand, it's sin. Well, I just won't
do this anymore. I just quit doing that. I'm straightened
up. I live a pretty good life. You're still wretched. Is that
so? It's still a wretch. Paul, after
the Lord saved him in Romans, he says, Oh, wretched man that
I am. We still have that nature. We still have that sinful nature.
I don't go around living like a wretch. You don't. Not if God
saved you. You don't go around living like
one, but you know you still have that nature of one. You know
that. Verse 7, And he called unto him the twelve, and began
to send them forth by two and two, and gave them power over
unclean spirits. The call is from him. It's not
from you. You know, the church does not
call us to preach. God does. The church recognizes it. Now,
the church will recognize the gifts and talents that God has
given a man to stand in a pulpit and to preach and communicate
the gospel. But the church doesn't call a man to preach. Now, we may call him as a pastor,
but God's the one that calls. He calls to Himself, that calls
to Himself. Remember this. When He first
called the disciples, He said to them, what? Follow Me. That's the first thing He said.
He called them to follow Him. It's first to Himself. Follow
me and I'll make you fishers of men." And after sitting at
his feet and learning of him and from him, he sent them out. They were his messengers. Turn
over to 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. It says
in verse 19, to wit, let me start up here in verse 18. And all
things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ.
and have given to us the ministry of reconciliation. Isn't that what we heard this
morning? Isn't that the ministry of reconciliation? If there's
any title that fit the Bible class this morning, it's reconciliation.
David said, you guys come back. I'm not mad at you. I'm not going
to shoot you. Just come back home. And that's the ministry
we are given. The ministry I have standing
in this pulpit is not standing up here shooting at people. It's
one of reconciliation. Be you reconciled with God. To
wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself,
not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed
to us the word of reconciliation. That's our ministry. The gospel
that we preach is the word of reconciliation. Be you reconciled
with God. Come to Him and bow down to Him.
Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ. That's exactly what
I am. You stand here in the pulpit,
Frank, Eric, Dale, you stand here in the pulpit and preach,
you're ambassadors for Christ. How serious is that? How glorious
is that? How much attention should we
give? Really? How much attention should I give
it in the study preparing for this? How much attention should
you give it listening to it? If an ambassador from another
country came and stood here, would we listen? I guarantee
you we'd listen. We'd listen to what he had to
say. Well, my soul, when men stand in this pulpit and preach
the gospel, they are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did
beseech you by us. Now, don't go out here looking
for a voice somewhere, or don't expect to have some kind of vision
or something. No, here's exactly how God calls
men, sinners, as though God did beseech you by us. God speaks
through his preachers. He speaks through his ministers
to the people. We pray you in Christ's stead, be you reconciled
to God. And here's the very foundation
of reconciliation. And this is I'm getting completely
off the message here, but for he has made him to be sin for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. That's how we are reconciled right there. That's
it. That's how God can be just. and
justify me, that's how I can be reconciled to God. That's
how a sinful man like me can be reconciled to such a holy
God, through the substitutionary work of Christ. Now, where was
I at? And he called unto him the twelve,
and began to send them forth by two and two, and gave them
power over unclean spirits. They went out and they preached. They were his messengers, and
the message they preached was him. He's the message. That's why they had to learn
of him. Go into all the world and preach the gospel. Well,
the gospel is not, the gospel is really not just a set of doctrines,
is it? It's not a system. The gospel
is the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel is the Son of God.
We go forth preaching him. That's what we do. And he sends
him out by two. First of all, for encouragement,
because I'm telling you. I can tell you from experience
that for seven and a half years or so standing here, You need
encouragement. There'll be times when you'll
be as low as locum, but there'll just be times that it gets that
way. Solomon said that when there's two in Ecclesiastes, when one
falls, the other will lift him up. And there's more reward for
their labor. So he sends them out by two.
And that way they encourage each other. Talk to each other. And this shows harmony in the
gospel. And as soon as harmony among gospel ministers, you know,
we're not in competition. If you want to kill a ministry,
let envy get involved. If you want to kill it, you just
let envy and jealousy get involved. That'll kill anything. That'll
kill any relationship. I don't care if it's in the workplace
or here. If you let envy get involved,
it's dead. It's over with. But he sends them here two by
two, which shows the harmony and they encourage one another.
And in the Old Testament it says, let everything be established
before two or three witnesses. Everything. And then He gave
them power over unclean spirits, which was to confirm their message.
They didn't have the Word of God as we have it. But wherein
lies our power over unclean spirits today? I thought about this as
I was putting this together. I'll tell you where in our power
lies right now over unclean spirits, spiritual sickness. It's in the
preaching of the gospel. In the preaching of the gospel,
the Holy Spirit cast out those unclean spirits. In the preaching
of the gospel, He heals spiritual diseases. Have you ever, I have
done this, I know this from my experience, have you ever been
kind of a little out of sorts and you sat and you heard a message
preached And it straightened you right up. It was like a good
dose of medicine. It just straightened you right
up. And you got over whatever was bothering you. You just got
over it. That's spiritual healing by the Holy Spirit. That's what
happened. And then notice here. They were
to trust God for their daily needs. And He commanded them
that they should take nothing. You go somewhere and try to take
nothing. He said, you don't take a dime. You don't take a penny.
You don't take a penny with you. He commanded them that they should
take nothing for their journey. And it was a journey. They didn't
just go down the block and back. They didn't go home and back.
He didn't say, well, you go home and get ready and kiss your wife
goodbye and tell her what you've got. You're gone now. Save the staff only. A walking
stick. You've got a journey. You're
going to need a walking stick. You're going to need a journey.
You're going on a journey. That journey doesn't end until we
die. It does not end until we die. Don't take any script. No script. No bread. No money. No money in your purse. I went off this morning. First
time I left, I never do that. I left my billboard home. I don't
have a jingle on me. I mean, he said, you're going
to do a journey like that. I only live three miles from
here. You're going to go on a journey,
and I don't want you to have a dime in your pocket. I don't want you
to carry bread. You're not even going to take
two coats. All you're going to put on is a sandal. The lightest
shoes you can put on. The lightest thing you can have
is your shoes. They were to be, starting out, they were to be
as their master. They had to learn to be dependent upon God. First, and I believe this is
because I'll show you something here in a minute. First, they
had to learn to trust God to provide for them. The Lord will
provide. I think that's one of the concerns
that in the ministry as far as going out and preaching, going
to taking a pastorate, that's one of the first concerns even
though we may not express it. I'm just going to be honest with
you. How are we going to make it? Can we make it? And he says here,
you're going to learn to trust me. You're going to learn to
trust me just like I trust God. And you're going to learn to
trust me just like you're going to learn trust. You've got to
learn to trust me. And they were to go out and just
trust him to provide. They were not to appear covetous. They were not to appear worldly.
They were not to appear well-to-do like these TV preachers and live
in mansions like they do. No, he said, you're going to
go out there and you're going to be among the poor. And the
poor people are not going to feel like they're being looked
down on by you. You're going to walk in and you're
going to be on the same level they are. He's going to put his
preachers on the same level as the people that they're going
to preach to. They were not to give the impression that following
Christ will make you rich. It'll make you rich in heavenly
things, but it may make you more poor in earthly things. It may
do that. That's not why we follow him.
We do not follow Christ for the benefits that we can get out
of him in worldly things. Better home, better this, better
that. No, I'll tell you why we follow him. First of all, he
commands us to. And we need him. We need his centers. We need
mercy. We need grace. We need his blood. We need his
righteousness. We need him. That's why we follow him. We
do not try to entice people to follow Christ for what they can
get out of him. And the preacher of the gospel is to trust the
Lord to provide. And the way that he does this,
the way the Lord provides is through the people, through his
people. That's how he does it. The generosity of his sheep.
And we'll see this here in a minute. I want you to turn over to Luke
22. In verse 35, Luke 22, and he
said unto them, when I sent you without purse and script and
shoes, lacked you anything? And they said, nothing. Lord, we lack nothing. Then said
he unto them, but now he that has a purse, let him take it.
And likewise, his script, and he that hath no sword, let him
sell his garment and buy one." I looked at that, and this is
what I see. The first thing that he's teaching
them is to trust him. We have to learn to trust him
to provide. The Lord will provide. And then
after that, you may have a better home. You may have this or that.
But the first thing we have to do is learn to trust Him. The
Lord will provide. He said, did you lack anything?
When I told you to go out without script and money and bread, were
you hungry? No. Did you lack anything? Absolutely not. Not a thing.
I took care of you, didn't I? I took care of you. We can live
on what He provides. We can do that. Then he says
here in verse 9, but be shod with sandals, and not put on
two coats. Sandals, they had, from what
I'm reading, they had shoes that they would wear, but then they
had these sandals that were the lightest thing you could wear.
I mean, it was just like a thin piece of leather on the bottom
of your feet. Travel lightly. Don't get yourself cumbered down. And don't wear two coats. Don't
weigh yourself down. The ministry alone, listen, the
ministry alone has enough to weigh one down. There's enough
in that to weigh you down. And don't baggage. I think that's the best word
for it. You know, if we go on vacation, my goodness, we take
half the closet. We can just go for a weekend. If I preach somewhere,
I've got one little bag, and she's got a luggage rack. That's
because we're so used to baggage. And he says, you just take one
coat. That's all you need. You don't
need to weigh yourself down. You don't need to be cumbered
down with all this stuff. You just be able to go. Be able to travel. Be able to
move. Be able to go here, then go there. And you're not having
to take care of so much. Unload these burdens that you
don't have to have, that you don't need. I'll provide." And
He said unto them, in what place soever you enter into a house,
there abide till you depart from that place. God's people will
take care of His ministers. I know that. I believe that.
And especially as they grow in grace and in the knowledge of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And if someone opens their home
to you, He says, stay with them. Don't say, no, I don't want to
put you out. No, I don't. No, he said, you stay with them. You partake of their generosity
and be thankful. Be thankful. And verse 11 teaches
us something real serious here on how we treat God's servants. He says, 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." Which to
me seems evident that there are degrees of punishment. Because
He's going to give men according to their deserts, according to
their works. And He's saying here, it's more
tolerable in the day of judgment for those sodomites, then it's
going to be for you, or for them, who sat under the gospel and
rejected it, and treated you like dirt. He says it's going
to be more tolerable for those homosexuals than for you, for
them, who mistreat God's messenger because of the message. That's
the reason they mistreat the messenger. They hate the message. That's why the messenger is mistreated.
They don't like the message. If God sends his man to preach
the gospel of peace, the gospel of redemption, the gospel of
God's glory to someone or a city, and they mistreat the messenger
because of that message, it gets real serious. It gets
real serious. You know, what's going on here
this morning, what I'm doing, what other men are doing in preaching
the gospel, this is the most serious thing that could ever,
ever happen in our whole lives. It's sitting under the gospel,
hearing of Christ preached. We were either embracing or rejecting. And if we're rejecting, we're
despising. He says it's more tolerable for
them than it's going to be for you. You know, we come here on
Sunday, and I know, I live in this flesh too. I live in this
flesh. It's easy to sit in that pew,
that chair, and your mind just wanders, and you have to try
to rest your attention and bring it back. You know, it's a fight,
isn't it? It's a fight. To prepare yourself
to worship, prepare yourself for this service, You know, we
wrestle not against flesh and blood, you know, we're constantly
wrestling with unseen evil. This is serious business. He
said, Verily I say unto you, ye shall be more tolerable for
Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city
who despised my messenger, my message. And I will take care
of them in that day. Now that city, that city may
prosper until the end. But there is an end. There is
an end. And in judgment, all things will
be saved. Everything will be saved. And
here's their message. And they went out and preached. I want you to notice one thing.
That is the first thing they did. They did not call for a
service where they said they did not advertise we are going
to cast out devils today and going to heal the sick. No, they
didn't do that. They went out and the first thing
they did was preach Christ and Him crucified. They preached
the gospel. You know, most of the time when
our Lord healed, when He cast out devils, He was in the synagogue
teaching or preaching or someplace else teaching or preaching when
it happened. And they went out and preached. That men should
repent. Change your mind about God. God's
not who you thought he was. We automatically, we automatically
start out in this life with wrong thoughts of God. I mean, it's
just automatic. We automatically start out with
wrong thoughts of God. Of who he is. We don't understand
his holiness. His hatred of sin. His nature,
His very nature, His eternal being. We start out with wrong
thoughts of God. And in the Gospel, God has revealed
Himself. If you want to know who God is,
just learn the Gospel. Sit and listen to the Gospel,
and you'll find out who He is. God Almighty has revealed Himself
in the pages of this book. From Genesis to Revelation, God
has revealed Himself in the Bible, the Word of God. We're not trying
to guess who He is. This is who He is. And He's sent
forth clearly, plainly in the gospel. Believe that. Believe Him. And forget it. The way you used to think of
Him, forget it. Forget it. And change your mind
about Jesus Christ. Well, you're the carpenter. Isn't
that what they said? You're the carpenter. No, He's the Son of
God. who worked as a carpenter, but he's the Son of God. He's
God in the flesh. That's who Jesus Christ is. He's not just
a man who went about doing good. Jesus Christ is God. Jesus Christ
is God. Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God.
Jesus Christ is the High Priest. Jesus Christ is the blood of
atonement. Jesus Christ is the sacrifice. He's everything. He's everything we need. Change your mind about him. He's
a judge. of the quick and the dead. He
is the last person that everyone here, everyone throughout this
world, everyone that's ever existed, everyone that ever will exist.
He's the last person everyone's going to stand in front of. Everyone
he's going to bow, every tongue's going to confess that he's Lord
to the glory of God the Father. He said, repent, change your
mind about him. Change your mind about who he
is. He's God. Change your mind about salvation,
how God saves sinners. My effort and His effort put
together? No. Nothing that I do adds anything
to salvation in any way, shape, or form. He is my salvation in
everything that He is. Everything that He did is my
salvation. Change your mind about Him. Repent. That's what repentance is. It's
a change of mind. We call it a change of heart.
Now it's a work of God. It's a work of God. Repentance,
faith and repentance is a work of God. It's a gift of God. But
now you are the one, and I'm the one that repents. I do repent. If God saved me, I do repent.
I do bow down before Him and beg for His mercy and forgiveness.
He said repent and believe the gospel. And they cast out many
devils and anointed with oil Many that were sick and healed
them. Right now, we have His Word to confirm the message that
we preach. I can tell you, say, turn over
to Mark chapter 6, or Luke chapter 22, or back to
Genesis, or Exodus, or Revelations. I have His Word to turn to. We have His Word to turn to and
believe. We believe and we take Him at
His Word. You open the Word of God and read it. You know, I
believe this world was flooded at one time. Now, why do I believe
that? That sounds absolutely absurd to this world, doesn't
it? That God flooded this whole world
at one time. And I believe that. And the reason
I believe it, first of all, it's the Word of God. But I believe
it because He said so. I have in His Word that He flooded
this earth one time. Now, if you don't believe that,
you don't believe the Gospel either. Because the same book speaks
of both. We cannot pick one part of the Word of God and believe
this and another part and don't believe that. It doesn't work
that way. We believe God from Genesis to
Revelations, every word in it. I don't understand a lot of it,
but when I read it, I believe it. They cast out many devils,
and anointed with oil many that were sick, and He healed them. And let me tell you, that still
happens today. Many devils are still being cast out when the
Gospel is preached. When the Word is preached, they're
cast out. And are many still being healed
today? Spiritually? How many times has He healed
us of our spiritual sickness? How many times? You know, I feel
healthy today, physically I feel healthy. But I may have the flu
tomorrow. One of you all may have given
me the flu. And I won't feel good tomorrow.
But after some medicine, after some time, I'll feel good again.
And that seems to be the way it is with us spiritually. We
feel good today. We rejoice over the gospel. Then
tomorrow we've got an attitude. And then we hear the gospel.
It corrects our attitude. And we're all right for a little
while. That's just the same as it would be the way it is. But
he says in closing, I'm going to close with the same thing
Frank was closing with. Repent and believe the gospel. Come to Christ. The true healing,
the true casting out devils, that what we need is Him to heal us of all our
diseases and all our sicknesses spiritually.