All right, let's take our Bibles
and turn to the book of Luke, chapter nine. Begin a new chapter in Luke.
Wanna look at the first six verses. And it's about their calling And God sending them out, Christ
sending them out to preach his gospel. So I titled the study,
A Look at Gospel Preachers. Let's read these verses together.
Luke chapter nine, verse one. Then he called his 12 disciples
together and gave them power and authority over all devils
and to cure diseases. And he sent them to preach the
kingdom of God and to heal the sick. And he said unto them,
take nothing for your journey. Neither staves, he's talking
about like a shepherd's staff or a cane or club or whatever
they use to defend themselves against dangerous animals. No staves, no script, neither
bread, neither money, neither have two coats apiece, just one
coat. And whatsoever house you enter
into, they invite you in, you go in. There abide, and thence
depart. Don't house hop. Wherever they
welcome you in, you stay there until you leave. And whosoever will not receive
you when you go out of that city, shake off the very dust from
your feet for a testimony against them. And they departed. And they went through the towns
preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. Now in both Matthew and Mark's
account, the 12 are identified by name, and Judas Iscariot is
among them. In another place where he's talking
about Judas, I think it's in the book of John, he said he
hath obtained part of this ministry. So if you can imagine, Judas
could cast out devils. Judas Iscariot, who betrayed
the Lord, was able to heal the sick. He gave all 12 these powers,
these evidences. And I call your attention to
this because these men were not only disciples, which means followers
of Christ, but they were apostles. That's the highest office in
the church. And because of their office,
and the ushering in of this new gospel age or economy or whatever
you want to call it, they were given special gifts and abilities
that God used to confirm their calling. In Hebrews 2.3, he tells
us this great salvation first began to be spoken by the Lord
and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him, Hebrews
2.4. God also bearing them witness
both with signs and wonders and diverse miracles and gifts of
the Holy Ghost according to his will. That's why these gifts
were given. They were given of God and they
were given to confirm the message that they brought and themselves
as his messengers. There's no need for such miracles
and gifts today. We have the complete canon of
scripture. There's no reason for me to have
these gifts that these men have. We've got the complete canon
of scripture and the gift of the Holy Ghost to enable us to
preach and for men and women to hear. But there are certain
things in these verses that every gospel preacher has in common
with those men and their ministries. If we have time this morning,
I want to give you four things that every God-called preacher
today has in common with these men, these twelve men, these
twelve apostles. And the first is their calling. Preaching is not a vocation.
You don't, you know, somebody will sit down and you'll talk
to a counselor at school, and he'll say, well, what do you
think you'd like to do? What do you think you'd like
to do, you know, later on? You're going to get married,
you're going to go out here, and you're going to do this, you're going to do
that. Well, I'm kind of interested in heating and air, or I'm kind
of interested in carpentry, or I want to be a policeman, or
a doctor, or whatever it is. And OK, well, you need to do
this, you need to do that, you need to do this. Preaching's
not a vocation. You don't sit down and say, well,
I think I'm gonna be a preacher, so here's what I need to do. I need to go down to the seminary
and get my degree, and that way I can go out, and if anybody
asks me my qualifications, I can just pull it out and say, here
it is, here it is. I graduated from Temple University,
and I'm qualified. Preaching is not a vocation.
Preaching is a calling. A calling. Luke chapter 9, verse 1. Then he called his 12 disciples
together. He called the 70 together. And again, another 70 he called. All of which he calls and gives
this same commission. Now notice where these men are
called from. He didn't go out in the highways
and the hedges and say, anybody out here want to be a preacher?
No, he called these men who were disciples. He called his followers,
those who believed, those who followed him, trusted in him,
believed in him. Among them, he called his preachers. I was in a meeting, oh, it's
been several years back, and there was a Reformed preacher
there, and I made some comments about preachers and preaching,
and boy, he was hot. He got up, he had nothing to
say about the gospel at all. He started talking about his
calling. He said, God saved me when I was 11 years old, and
he called me to preach when I was 13. I was just in my closet,
and praying and God called me to preach. Well, somebody called
him, but God didn't. God didn't. And then notice this, there was
multitudes of followers. All kinds, I mean, they at one
point were thronging him. Last week's message, I told you
they were thronging him. He could just shuttle his feet.
There were so many people around. These men didn't volunteer. They
wasn't even looking to be preachers. They were just following him.
They were fishermen, tax collectors, whatever. They had no vocation
concerning preaching. He called them together and he
said, I'm gonna send you out to preach. That's what you're gonna do.
You're gonna go preach. There was nothing special about
these men. to recommend them to the gospel
ministry. They were just men. They were
just men. And even Luke himself, who was
a doctor, a very learned man, had nothing to recommend him
for the ministry. Being educated, being smart,
being whatever word you want to use, is not a recommendation
to the ministry. Only God can teach you and reveal
to you the things that you need to say. And he controls all the
situations, everything involved in this thing of preaching, he
controls it. It's all arranged by him. The means are already set in
place. Everything required by our Lord
to preach his gospel is given to them either at or right after
their calling. Actually, they all had but two
things in common. They were all sinners, saved
by grace. And they were all believers in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And most so-called preachers
today are men who have made a decision to be a minister. They have meetings,
special meetings for that in the churches I used to attend.
They're trying to find missionaries. They're trying to find people
to fill slots out there. And they have special meetings
designed for that. They'll call men in to pressure
them into these things. And then they go and take whatever
steps they were told to achieve that office. But when God calls
a man to preach, he shut up to it. And sometimes, like Jonah,
they don't want to go. They just flat don't want to
go. But they're going to go. Because God called them. And
they've been shut up to it. And they're not going to get
out of it. They'll look at a situation, and the situation looks hopeless.
My soul, Jonah, was looking at Nineveh. There was not a more
rotten place on the face of the earth than Nineveh. Not a more
ungodly place in the world than Nineveh. It's filled full of
Gentiles. There's no Jews there. There was nobody there. No potential
in Nineveh. But God said, you're going to
Nineveh. He said, no I ain't. I'm going to get on a ship and
run. Well, he didn't run very far. He didn't run very far. And finally, a fish threw up. spilled out on the beach, and
he come up to Nineveh, and lo and behold, the door is open
to him. He walks in this great city. You remember when we studied
that book of Jonah? I told you how big that wall
was. Six chariots, side by side with the horses, could go around
on top of the wall. The bottom of the wall was even
thicker. No way to go into that city. But God put it in their
mind and heart just to open the door. They had an army there,
could have took him out long before he ever reached the gate,
but nobody raised a hand. And this old Jonah walked right
in, the door opened, walked right down the main street, and the
whole city, including the king, repented in sackcloth and ashes. You see what I'm saying? Preacher, how about you go down
to Arkansas? Arkansas? Well, that little group,
they wasn't but a handful 30 years ago. Arkansas? Arkansas. Okay. Okay. You shut up to it. You
don't sit back. I've talked to a lot of young
preachers and they say, well, when you went down there, did
you go in a few times and preach for them and talk to them and
see what they're able to pay you and see what the place looked
like? No, I just come and preached. Only thing I'm interested in
is do you love Christ? Do you love Christ? Is God in
this? And if God's in it, he'll put
the same thing in your heart that he put in mine. You see
what I'm saying? In another place, it says he
sent them out into the cities where he himself was going to
go. Boy, I don't want to go where
he ain't going to go. Do you? I want to be where he's
at, wherever that is. God calls a man to preach, he
shut up to it. There are no options for him.
And God called him to it, it's a calling. And then secondly,
let's look at their sufficiency. Are these men sufficient to preach?
They're fishermen, they know how to fish. But that's all they
know how to do. And I tell you, I've been around
a lot of fishermen, and fishermen are not, learned it. They're not intellectuals. They're
just fishermen. We like to fish, you know. The
only thing I want to know about is what size bait, and what's
the newest bait, and how to do this, what time of year to fish.
They're not preachers. Doctors aren't preachers. Tax
collectors are not preachers. Preaching is a calling, and then
what about their sufficiency? My friend, preaching's how God
saves sinners. It pleased God through the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. And gospel preaching
is the sowing of the seed of regeneration. That's what it
is. Turn with me to 1 Peter 1. Before any son of Adam will appear
in this world, Seed must be sown. It must be sown. Now watch this,
1 Peter 1, verse 23. Being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and
abideth forever. For all flesh is grass, and all
the glory of man is the flower of the grass. The grass withereth,
and the flower thereof falleth away, but the word of the Lord
endureth forever. Now listen to this. And this
is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. That's spiritual semen. That word seed is semen. Spiritual
semen is the gospel. It's not the word verbatim, but
it's the gospel message that's set forth in the word of God. No natural son of Adam, ever
gonna be born apart from seed being some. I told you that.
But once that seed of man is planted in the womb of a woman,
an irresistible miracle takes place. That seed begins to grow. And in somewhere around nine
months, a son is born, a daughter is born. And when it comes forth, it's
given its own name, it has its own personality, it has its own
image. Now watch this, Galatians 4 verse
19. These Judaizers that come into
Galatia and begin to tell these people, yes, yes, it's faith,
absolutely it's faith, it's by grace. But you still have to
be circumcised. We still have to honor this one
point of the law, you have to keep that. You have to do this. Everybody got a you have to do
thing. And he said, my little children,
of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you. By gospel preaching, the seed,
which is Christ, is planted. And by an irresistible miracle,
that seed grows until Christ is formed in you. That's what
takes place. And because of the work which
is beyond our ability, God himself must delegate such power to his
preachers. Paul said to the Corinthians
in 1 Corinthians 4.15, for though you have 10,000 instructors in
Christ, yet have you not many fathers For in Christ Jesus,
I have begotten you through the gospel. We're not sufficient of ourselves,
he says in the scriptures, we're not sufficient of ourselves,
2 Corinthians chapter three, somewhere in there, I don't have
the exact verse, but he said, we're not sufficient of ourselves
to think anything of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. That's our sufficiency. What
sufficiency did these men have? God. God. And that's why it's so foolish
for a man to sit down and say, I'm gonna be a preacher. And
then go down to the seminary and go through the seminary and
get all of his certifications and stuff and then go out and
begin to preach. How should they preach except
they'd be sent? Everything that they do has to
be arranged of God. He's already told us that. He
arranges these meetings. These meetings are not meetings
of chance. He's not out trying to save everybody
he can save. He has a people. He's going to
save them. And he's ordained the means to
do it. Luke 9, 1, he gave them power
and authority over all devils and to cure diseases, verse 2. And a continuation of that power
and authority to preach. This is over and above. He's
given them this power to cure. He's given them this power to
raise the dead and so on. You read all the accounts. But
he also gave them power to preach the kingdom of God. Does it require
power? Yes, it does. Paul said, I know
your election of God. Because my gospel came not in
word only, but how did it come? In power. Whose power? Mine? No. His. It came in power,
and it came in the Holy Ghost, and it came with much assurance. There is in every son of Adam
a strong man armed who keeps his soul and all of your mind
and faculties, he keeps it all in peace by lies and false refuge. And before anything effectual
comes to pass, one stronger than he must come upon him and conquer
him, take his weapons from him, strip him, and then spoiled his
goods. You know any preacher can do
that? I don't. I don't. I know Peter thought
he could. He told the Lord. He said, yeah,
they might all turn their back on you, but not me. I'm not going
to. Well, he's the one. Yeah, he said, you're going to do it. You're
going to do it. You and I are not sufficient
for this work, but God is. And what about the welfare of
God's preacher? He tells these men not to take
any money. Actually, he begins by telling
them, don't take anything. Don't take anything. Why not? Because he's in charge. We forget that God works in men's
minds and hearts. We think sometimes that whatever
it is that we know or whatever it is that makes us act, we think
that's of us. We think that's regional. It
began with, no, no, it was the gift of God. It's the gift of
God. And he works in men's hearts. And he causes them, he causes them
to come into my house. Yes, you can use my bed. I've
had several of these preachers come down here. I'm not even
here. I just let them go in the house and do whatever they want
to do. There's food in the freezer, food in the refrigerator. There's an iron in there, an
ironing board. There's a washer and dryer. Here's the beds. Make
yourself at home. And a lot of places I go, they
do the same thing. They just leave me a key under
the mat or wherever, and I'll get it and go in the house and
make myself at home. Who puts that on a man's heart
to do that? God does. I'm not sufficient
to work in your heart and work in your mind, but God is. God
is. And he tells his preacher, don't
take anything with you. I'll provide for you. Boy, we
don't have to believe that. We don't have it, but God will
provide for you. There is in every son of Adam
a strong man. And in the welfare of God's preacher,
he said, don't take anything. Take nothing for your journey. Everything you need will be provided
for my name's sake. And that man who showed up to
Christ, he won't calculate ministerial needs. He just won't do it. He'll
throw caution to the wind and he'll say, you know, the Lord
has shut me up to this. He called me to do this. And
if he hasn't, I got no business going to start with. And it's ridiculous to think
about preaching a sovereign savior and then refusing to go somewhere
because I'm worried they won't be able to support me. I'm going to tell you something.
I've been around a while. People get and do what they want to
do. They'll find a way to do it. I know people that don't make
any more money than I did when I was working. But they've got
two homes. They've got campers. They got
hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stuff. How in the world
did they do it? They wanted it, and they got it. People do what
they want to do. They'll make a way to do it.
And God's people understand why they're still here. They're here
for this gospel ministry. We're workers together with God,
and they're gonna find a way to do it. Preachers are called of God,
they're sufficiency of God. And then thirdly, let's look
at their message. Many of the old writers wanted to put distinctions
between preaching the kingdom of God and preaching the gospel of Christ.
Well, in verse two, if you look at it there in Luke chapter nine,
in verse two, it says, he sent them to preach the kingdom of
God. Now look down at verse six. He
says, and they departed and went through the towns, doing what?
Preaching the gospel. Well, he sent them to preach
the kingdom. Yeah, they did. They preached the gospel. There's
no kingdom apart from a king. Kingdom of God is talking about
the authority of God. Talking about the way of God.
And that way is in a person. That's the king. They preach
the person, the glorious person of the Son of God, and they preach
the Messiah or the Christ, the promised one whose coming had
been foretold from the garden. And this one God left his throne in glory, was made of a woman, made under
the law to redeem them that were under the law. And he was a virgin
born in a little town called Bethlehem. He's the root of Jesse, he's
the seed of David. Scripture said the scepter shall
not depart from Judah till Shiloh come. Judah's gonna have the
king. And it's gonna continue that
way till Shiloh come. He is the king of kings. and
Lord of Lords. He's the deliverer, he's the
king, he's the high priest of God. To him give all the prophets
witness that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall
receive remission of sins. And they preached a person too
wonderful to describe. You could never get, Paul, he
just, it's like he just, left his body and went off into eternity
trying to describe the glorious person of Jesus Christ. There's
not enough words to tell it. Everything falls short. Never a man spake like this man.
Even the winds and the waves obey his voice. The gospel commission is to preach
the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, let me ask you something.
And I'm talking to maybe would-be preachers. Are you enthralled
with facts? Get a library. Those books are
full of theological facts. But if you're a needy sinner,
Find a preacher who preaches Christ and sit down until that
glorious morning star, the sun, arise in your heart. Now if you're
enthralled, you want to be an intellectual, you want to be
able to sit and debate back and forth and argue back and forth
and say, get some books, get a library full of books, read
them. Some of them you have to read with a dictionary. But if you're a poor sinner and
you're seeking life, find yourself a gospel preacher and sit down
under him. Sit down under him. Maybe God will plant that glorious
seed and Christ will arise in your hearts. And then fourthly and lastly,
let's examine the consequences of a preacher sent from God.
Luke chapter nine, verse four. In whosoever's house you enter
into, there abide, and thence depart. And whosoever will not
receive you when you go out of that city, shake off the dust
from your feet for a testimony against them. In Matthew's account,
it says as they entered into a city or town, they were to
inquire who in that city was worthy. and
there to abide. They're looking for believers. If they can find a believer in
that town, that's the house they're going to go to. That's the one
who's going to say, come on in. Come on in. We'll take care of
you. We'll feed you. You need some
clothes? We got some extra clothes back
here. What do you need? What do you need? That's what it means to be worthy.
They were hungry to hear. They understood what this was,
why they were there and what they were doing. You come in,
you come in, we'll take care of you. And that's why here,
when we have a, sometimes pastors will just come through here and
spend the night and go on to wherever it is they're going.
And I always try to help them. Give them a place to stay, feed
them, give them a little money on their journey, and let them
continue on. And the same thing they do for
me when I travel across the country. But I've also experienced the
other side of this coin. Luke 9, 5, and whosoever will
not receive you, when you go out of that city, you shake off
the dust from your feet. I've been in houses where I could
sense that I wasn't wanted. Boy, you talk about hard. Try
to spend a night in a house where you know you're not wanted. For years, I wouldn't stay in
anybody's house. I had a couple bad experiences, and I just would
not always say, well, I'll just stay down at the motel, you know,
and make up some excuse and stay down there. Very cold attitude,
no affection. Whatever service they provided
was done out of duty and obedience to some church requirement. And not at all voluntary. And I've lived in communities
like this, outcasts, the whole time we were there. Wherever God sends his preacher,
he has a purpose in his being there. In some places, it's to
bless and prosper in the kingdom of God. And in others, it's to
expose their hatred for God. Gospel preaching will expose
hatred in men. The gospel's never a failure.
Second Corinthians 2.14, thanks be unto God which always, always
causes us to triumph in Christ and maketh manifest the savor
of his knowledge by us everywhere. For we are unto God a sweet savor
of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish. To the
one we're a savor of death unto death and to the other a savor
of life unto life. and who's sufficient for these
things. May the Lord be pleased to teach
us, everyone, this lesson that's contained in these verses, that
we all might do what the Lord's called us to do. All right, thank
you.