Tell you what, it's actually
verse seven, so it's Mark chapter six and verse seven. And he, that is the Lord Jesus
Christ, called unto him the twelve and began to send them forth
by two and two and gave them power over unclean spirits. and commanded them that they
should take nothing for their journey, save 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 what
place soever ye enter into an house, there abide till ye depart
from that place. And whosoever shall not receive
you, nor hear you, when ye 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 many that were sick, and healed them. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. The care with which the Lord
Jesus Christ prepared his disciples for gospel ministry is, to my
mind, very interesting. The great teacher purposefully
revealed to these men what he intentionally withheld from others. Now, I hope we realize from this
what Mark has been showing us here in these chapters. The Lord Jesus Christ's ministry
was not a free for all, but a targeted, particular revelation to certain
privileged individuals, chosen individuals. The disciples sat
at his feet, privately learning his doctrine, privately learning
his gospel. They had heard His doctrine,
they had seen His miracles, they had been trained by the Lord
Jesus for this public work that He was to send them out upon. And they learned heaven's truth
directly from the Saviour. And I repeat myself, it was the
purpose of the Lord to do it this way. He intentionally revealed
himself to these men and purposefully withheld what he was teaching
them from others. Those who have an Arminian or
a free will persuasion with respect to their Christian witness, they
tell us that the Lord deals equally with all men and women. Well,
they ought to be pressed to explain these passages from the Word
of God, where the Lord Jesus Christ expressly tells his disciples
that some people have these things hidden from them, while others
have them revealed to them. And these clearly discriminating
acts of the Lord Jesus Christ prove that the Lord blesses some
and passes others by with his gracious truth and his saving
purpose. It was true then and it is true
still. Now we come in these verses before
us to another stage in the disciples' education. And here was the beginning
of the Lord sending them out. The Lord gave them power by which
to prove their calling as his disciples, to demonstrate the
authority that he had given them, to honour the message which they
learned from him, and indeed to honour their master, whose
students and followers they were. This is the next stage in their
ministerial training. And let me say something about
this, if I may. We are often told that the purpose
of gospel preaching is the salvation of sinners. And certainly the
gospel preaching is the means by which sinners are called to
repentance and faith. But gospel preaching is first
and foremost about the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. It
is about telling forth what he has done. It is about declaring
the Lord Jesus Christ's divine identity. God's covenant purpose
and Christ's fulfilment of it. the redemptive accomplishments
of the God-Man who came to save His people from their sins. It
is the Lord Jesus Christ that is the focus of the speaking
forth and declaring of the Gospel. That is why it is called the
Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, for not only did it originate
with Him, but it is declarative of Him. It is telling people
about Jesus, about the Saviour. The Gospel's not an offer of
salvation to be accepted or rejected by men and women with an imaginary
ability to make eternal life and death decisions for themselves. That completely undermines the
biblical teaching of man's sin and man's enmity towards God. Nor is this a general provision
of salvation for everyone that is given effect by the free will
of a sinful creature. But as we have suggested, the
Gospel is the declaring of who Christ is and what he has done. It's that glorious announcement
of justification with God without works. It's the heavenly revelation
that the Lord Jesus Christ, by his suffering and by his death,
justly makes men and women righteous with God, acceptable to God,
reconciled to God, at peace with him, upon the grounds of his
substitutionary atonement. upon the grounds of him dying
in their place. And the whole counsel of God
has to be declared and preached in the gospel. Not simply a pared
down, simplistic formula by which individuals are confronted with
a do or don't decision. But the whole counsel of God,
says the Apostle Paul in Acts chapter 20, verse 27, is to be
declared and believed. And it was this task, the task
of preaching this gospel, that was here being committed by the
Lord into the hands of these men, these disciples. And his
disciples, or as they would become, his apostles, would convey that
message to the ends of the earth. Until every elect child of God
Every one of those that had been redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ
on the cross by the shedding of his blood had been called
by the Holy Spirit into an experience of that goodness and mercy and
grace that we were reading about earlier. And with today's verses
here in Mark chapter six, We document the first steps of the
Lord's disciples on that soul winning journey. Now it's generally
accepted that Matthew chapter 10 and Mark chapter 6 are parallel
passages that refer to the same activity. I didn't take the time
to read Matthew chapter 10. It's slightly longer and contains
a little bit more information. as I'll mention in a moment,
but do, if you have an opportunity, a moment, go back to Matthew
chapter 10 and read it in conjunction with these verses from Mark chapter
six. Mark, in truth, misses out quite
a lot of what is included in Matthew's account in Matthew
10. And I gather in my reading of
these two passages together, that Matthew's account records,
as it were, a broader timescale in which a number of things were
spoken to and conveyed to the Lord's disciples, in which he
specified the places that were to be visited by the disciples,
or indeed, rather, the places that were not to be visited,
Because the Lord tells them in Matthew, Go not into the way
of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter
ye not, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. So in Matthew, the Lord is specifying
where they go and where not to go. And also, he seems to speak
a little bit more of the content of what they are to say, the
subject matter of their preaching. So that he says, for example,
as ye go, preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And this also includes, of course,
that word repentance, because The Lord was directing these
disciples as to where they should go and what they should say when
they go there. Mark's account, on the other
hand, kinda is like the Lord's final words to them before they
leave. As if it were perhaps the night
before, he gives them a few final points with respect to how they
are to go about that ministry when they go to the places that
he's previously directed them to go and say what they've to
say. The disciples in Mark's account
are given practical instructions about what to wear and what to
carry, what to think about their lodging during their journeys. And it seems as if Mark is conveying
to us a general principle here that the disciples were being
taught by the Lord that provision would be made for them during
their journeys because their labour was worthy of it. He was telling his disciples,
don't make too much preparation for what is going to transpire
on this journey. Just go out with the basic needs
because you will be looked after, you will be provided for. Their
needs would be supplied. by those to whom they ministered. And I think there's a lesson
here, both for the hearer and for the preacher. The lesson
for the hearer is that the church is to value and provide for those
that are sent to them with the gospel. As the Lord puts it in Matthew
chapter 10 verse 10, the workman is worthy of his meat. And the lesson for the preacher
is that he is to minister and declare freely to all those things
that he has learned at Jesus' feet. And so with these two lessons,
the disciples are sent forth. And Mark then tells us, in the
last couple of verses of this little passage that we've read
together, three things about the disciples' ministry. The
first one is that he speaks of judgment on those who will not
hear and the Lord speaks about that in verse 11. There's a reference
in there to Sodom and Gomorrah and shaking off the dust from
their feet. Secondly, he tells us in verse
12 that the disciples came preaching repentance. And I want to just
touch upon that for a moment or two as we progress. And thirdly,
he says that many were converted by the disciples' ministry. And we're told that in verse
13. So let me just take these three points and then perhaps
we can draw our thoughts to a conclusion. The first one was this, that
the disciples were told about a judgment that would fall upon
those who did not receive their ministry. They were indeed to
shake the dust off their shoes when they left the cities where
they were not received. Now remember, the disciples are
still learning here. This journey is like practical
experience. They had heard the Lord's parables
and had them privately and personally explained to them. They had observed
the Lord's miracles and again, they had seen the spiritual significance
of these outward manifestations of the power of the Lord Jesus
Christ. But now they, in being sent out two by two, were being
given practical experience, almost like workplace training that
we would talk about today. And this lesson, this lesson
about judgment on those who will not hear, was also part of the
disciples' training. Now, let me just, let me just,
stress that point for a moment if I may, because the people
who would not hear the disciples, it meant nothing to them what
the Lord said with respect to their judgment. I don't know,
let me just draw a picture for you if I may. You can imagine
that if there are people in this little town, this little city,
this little village who say, we're not listening, we keep
our doors closed. These men are coming through,
let them pass through. They go to the end of the town,
they take their shoes off and they shake the dust from their
feet, shake the dust from their shoes. And somebody's looking
out the window and they say, well, what is he doing now? What
is he doing now? I don't know. Shaking his shoes for some reason.
They knew nothing about the significance of what it was that was happening
here. But the disciples knew. The disciples
knew that The Lord was saying by this action that it would
be more tolerable in the day of judgment for Sodom and Gomorrah
than it would be for the inhabitants of that town. That's what the
disciples were learning. The townspeople weren't learning
that, but the disciples were learning that. That as they shook
the dust off their feet, having been rejected, it was tantamount
to the Lord's declaration saying that it would be more tolerable
in a day of judgment for Sodom and Gomorrah. The lesson for
the disciples was this, that this gospel that they were preaching,
is precious, and all who despise it by ignoring it are self-condemning
and evidently unworthy of it." Now, do you realize what that
means? Still today, do you realize what
that means? All who reject and despise the
gospel that we preach all who ignore and disregard the ministers
of that gospel, and all who oppose or hinder the free spread of
the influence of that gospel, are condemned beyond the wickedness
of Sodom and Gomorrah. Now that's huge. You know the
sins that those cities were guilty of. And the Lord says that rejection
of the gospel and rejection of a gospel minister is worse than
that. The sin of these cities pales
in comparison to those who despise and reject the gospel, hinder
or oppose it. and disregard its ministers. That was being taught to the
disciples so that they would appreciate the significance of
this ministry upon which they were embarked, the significance
of the two-edged sword that they carried in the preaching of the
gospel, that it was at once life to some and death to others. It gave significance to the meaning
of their possessing the keys of the kingdom and the high calling
that fell upon them as being ambassadors of Jesus Christ,
bearers of his gospel message. And it emphasised that the careless
ignorance of these unbelievers is the greatest crime against
God. So the disciples were being taught
about the judgment that would fall upon those that rejected
the gospel. An important lesson. The second
thing that Mark tells us here is that the disciples preached
repentance. And that in itself shows us how
full and complete the disciples' ministry was even at this early
stage in their training. Because preaching repentance
is more than telling people how bad they are. In fact, telling
people how bad they are is really the convicting work of God the
Holy Spirit. But this preaching of repentance
was the heart of the message of John the Baptist. He came
preaching repentance. And indeed it was the way in
which the Lord Jesus Christ's own ministry was described in
the early verses of Mark, that the Lord Jesus Christ came preaching
repentance. And it's as well that we understand
what this means. And I'm going to give you a clue.
It's bigger than saying that we're sorry to God. You see,
natural men and women, the way we all are as sinners born into
this world, to an individual, we are righteous in our own eyes. And we don't believe that we
have any need to repent. Because we falsely imagine that
God, if there is a God, will accept us despite our mistakes,
despite our errors, despite even our sins. Because in the main,
we believe that we did the best with the hand that we were dealt.
We did our best. At heart, that is the doctrine
of justification by works. That's all that is. And of course
it gets smoothed out and honed a little bit when it takes on
a religious veneer and it gets systematised and it gets polished
and it can become a whole religious movement. But at its heart it
is simply justification by works. Men and women believing that
they have enough within themselves to please God and to be acceptable
to Him. Whereas what the disciples preached,
what John the Baptist preached, and what the Lord Jesus Christ
preached, repentance is declaring precisely the opposite. So that preaching repentance
simply says your works are inadequate. Your works are utterly inadequate. And you must confess that. You must confess that your works
are inadequate. Because except you repent and
believe the gospel, which is that righteousness comes by Christ
alone, you will most certainly perish. Preaching repentance is saying,
lay down your own imagined righteousness and take up Christ's. Peter,
in his epistle, says that Noah, way back then, before the flood,
Noah was a preacher of righteousness. A preacher of righteousness and
a preacher of repentance both bring the same message. They
both bring the message that you need to lay down your own righteousness
and take the Lord Jesus Christ, take God's righteousness. And
that's conversion. That is what it means when the
disciples preached righteousness. So here are these disciples being
sent out and they are preaching that the Lord Jesus Christ alone
is the only way of acceptance with God, for this divine righteousness,
this godly righteousness comes only through him. They were preachers
of repentance. And the third thing that we notice
from this is that many were converted. And I think this is a lovely
inclusion by Mark because it tells us that the disciples found
success and encouragement in this first flourish of gospel
ministry. And it was the Lord that gave
them this. The Lord gave them this success. The many who repented. You know, it's a little bit like
when you take a child fishing for the first time and you just
hope that they'll catch a fish because you know how important
that first catch is going to be to the child for all the other
times that they might never catch a fish. So this was important
to the disciples as well. And the Lord gave them converts. He gave them power. to cast out
devils. He gave them power to heal the
sick. And the power that he gave them
was real and the power that he gave them worked to the end that
it was given. The seed that they sowed was
good seed. They preached repentance. The
soil into which that seed fell was well prepared by the Holy
Spirit and it brought forth fruit. as the Lord Jesus Christ had
promised. To change the metaphor a little
bit, the Lord had promised to make these men fishers of men. And here he was doing exactly
that. Mark tells us, they cast out
many devils and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed
them. Which I understand to mean the
eviction of the devil from the hearts of men and women and the
repossession of their hearts and souls by God the Holy Spirit. Much, indeed, as the disciples
had seen in the miracle that the Lord performed upon the gathering
demoniac. They were doing what the Lord
had done. They were gathering the elect. In the reference there, in the
last verse of our passage to the oil. It may well be that
oil was involved, it was a practice that sometimes oil would be applied
in healings. But in truth, these were spiritual
healings, inspired by spiritual power, power given by the Saviour. And it's not because of any healing
properties in the oil. Rather, it describes the internal
as well as the external healing that was taking place. Healing
of the soul together with the healing of the body. Oil is often
linked or likened to the work of the Holy Spirit in the scriptures. So let's just round off our thoughts
today by drawing attention to a word that is used in these
final verses by Mark. And it's this word that seemed
significant to me. Many devils were cast out and
many were healed. That phrase using the word many
there, is reminiscent of the Lord's own ministry. We're told
in Mark chapter one, verse 34, that the Lord Jesus Christ came
and he healed many that were sick of divers' diseases and
cast out many devils. So the disciples were simply
following in their master's footsteps. The first steps, indeed, in what
was to become a worldwide commission and a worldwide in-gathering
of the Lord's people into the Kingdom of God. A work which
began then, of which we are a part today, continuing and maintaining
the same preaching of repentance, the same lifting up of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And maybe you think, with reference
to that word many, wouldn't it be wonderful if many were being
saved today? And I agree. But let us not think
that it is any less wonderful when one or only a few are saved. Last week, remember, we read
that the Lord himself healed a few sick folk. Now I'm sure that these disciples
were encouraged when they saw the many, but I'm sure they also
understood that this was particular grace and this was effectual
calling. They knew that the many was not
all. Power had been given to them
to cast out devils, to heal the sick, but many wasn't everyone. There was an effectual work of
God in the divine power that was being manifested through
the ministry of these disciples. Their ministry was to go forth
preaching the gospel and that's it, that's all. It was the power
of God that gathered the many and that gathered the few according
to his good pleasure and his good timing. Let attention, therefore,
be drawn not to the numbers, but to the means and the method
and the care that the Lord took in preparing these men for his
ministry. Preachers of repentance like
these disciples, or preachers of righteousness like Noah, are
simply preachers of Jesus Christ crucified. Because Jesus Christ
is the only way of salvation for sinners like you and like
me. This message, this message that
is committed to us is the good news by which sinners are saved. The means by which the Lord calls
and gathers his people. And this gospel of Jesus Christ
is God's final word to sinners. which is why our activity today
is so important. There isn't another way. This is the way. And perhaps
it is that the days of many are gone. Perhaps this is a day of
small things, when just a few sick folk are being called to
grace. Or perhaps not. The Lord chose and the Lord knows. Whether it is or whether it isn't,
we shall not despise the day of small things. And one thing
is sure, if men and women, boys and girls are to be saved, it
shall be through the preaching of the gospel. because that and
that alone is the power of God unto salvation. It is through
the preaching of repentance, through the preaching of the
righteousness that is found alone in Jesus Christ. May the Lord
continue to send forth his message with power into the hearts of
men and women, using ordinary means to extraordinary effect. until the last lost sheep is
gathered and the last wandering soul is brought home to Christ. Amen.