I'd like for you to take your
Bibles and turn to Matthew chapter 10. Actually, the last three verses
of Matthew chapter 9 serve as an introduction into chapter
10 where He calls His disciples. I don't have a specific outline
this morning. I tend rather to just read the
verses and make some comments as we go. So let's look here
in Matthew 10, verse 1. And when He had called unto Him
His twelve disciples, He gave them power against unclean spirits
to cast them out and to heal all manner of sickness. and all
manner of disease. Now Matthew chapter 10 is about
the sending of the Lord's twelve disciples into the gospel ministry. And there's all kinds of confusion among religious theologians and
churches and denominations and things as to the difference between
these disciples and just common men who are called into the ministry
of Christ. There is a difference. There
is a vast difference. These men, some of these men
that the Lord called as His disciples were also apostles. And these
apostles were writing the New Testament. They would be inspired
of God like Peter and James and John and they are going to be
inspired of God to write the New Testament Scriptures and
finish out the complete canon of God in the Word of God. And
so he gifted them. Also, there is an ushering in
here of the gospel age. And so there's gifts and things
given to these men of this day that's not commonly given today.
I've got no power as these men were given power to cast out
demons. I can't go down here to the mental
institution and start commanding demons to come out of men. I
know I don't have that power. That power does not exist today. And there's no reason for it. He didn't give them these gifts
to impress men. He gave them these gifts to verify
that they were the writers of the New Testament and that their
message was the message of God. This message has been hidden
in the Old Testament figures and types and ceremonies. And
so that's what the giving of this power is all about. And
that's what this chapter is all about. Now, so that there be
no question, no question about these men in particular. God gives us their names. He
gives us their names. Simon Peter, and Andrew, and
James, and John the sons of Zebedee, Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas
and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus, and Simon
the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot. Now, there are some similarities
between these men who are called of God that he mentions here. and those in our day who are
called of God to preach the gospel. There are some similarities.
There are some things that still today remain the same. There
are other things that are gone now. And so when we, you're going
to constantly run into things, and I don't have time in 30 minutes
this morning to go into all of these things, But the controversies
that I mentioned earlier are like speaking in tongues and
things of this nature that were given to these men in that day.
These men were not formally trained to speak in German or Italian
or some other language. God just gave it to them on the
day of Pentecost. He gave them this ability to
do this. And they preached to that congregation who were gathered
there from all over the world and everybody heard them in their
tongue, in their right tongue. And so on. And so these gifts
of healing, he sends them out. They're going to actually raise
the dead when he gets into the calling of these 70. He gives
them gifts to raise the dead. Well, today, these men who claim
to have these gifts, they don't ever do these things that's unquestionable. They don't raise the dead. They
don't cleanse the lepers. They don't do things that you
would see right before your eyes and have absolutely no doubt
about. It's always something questionable that you can't see.
And they say, well, you're healed. And then if they're not healed,
they say, well, you didn't believe. Put it right back on you again.
And so on. But there are some similarities.
Now let's talk about both the specific things and the similarities
here as we go. The first thing I see is that
the Lord of the harvest, that's what He calls, He tells them,
the harvest is great, but the labors are few. What are we going
to do about that? We are going to build some seminaries
and manufacture some preachers. How are we going to take care
of this problem? He said, pray that the Lord of
the harvest send laborers into His field. He will put them in
there. He knows where they are needed.
And He knows what they need. And He knows how much they need.
And so on. And He puts these laborers into
their field. Turn with me to Luke chapter 9. The Lord of the
harvest gives to His labors power to accomplish their mission.
And this word power is an interesting term. That's why I'm having you
turn here to Luke chapter 9. It has a dual meaning. It means
both to have ability and authority. Now if you go in the name of
God, you must have the authority of God given you to go in that
name. You can't just run down the street
and say, well, I'm a God. And hundreds do. Hundreds do. But they don't minister
in His field. It has a dual meaning. It has
ability. I can't preach to you what I
don't know. If God don't give me the ability,
if He don't give me the gifts, if He don't give me the revelation,
if He don't give me that experience of grace, I can't talk to you
about it. And if I did, you wouldn't want to hear it. He has to give
me those things. That's that line of ability that
He gives. And then, He also must give me
the authority. I can't come in my own name.
Many do. That's what He said. He said,
if another comes in his own name, that's what the Lord said, you'll
hear him. But I've come in my Father's name and you won't hear
me. How many times did our Lord in just the book of John say,
He that sent me. He was sent of God over and over
and over. He emphasizes that. And so He
sends these men and He sends all of His preachers. In Luke
9, verse 1, it says, Then He called His twelve disciples together
and gave them power and authority, see it there, over all devils
and to cure diseases. There are two things required
of all those who go in the name of the Lord to preach to chosen
sinners, ability and authority, or the right and privilege. The
ministry of Christ, contrary to mainstream religion, is not
an open door to any man who has the desire to preach. I remember
a man talking to me back in the 70s about getting a big tent.
He wanted to get one of these big revival tents, like back
in the days of the big revival. And he wanted to just take several
of us men that was going to Brother Mahan's preacher school. And
we were going to go with him. And he was just going to set
these tents up. And we were going to go into
this city and that city and some other city. And we was going
to do just like the old evangelists did in the days of the religious
revival. And his reasoning was that God
had set before us an open door. That's what he told us. He said
there's a door, a wide open door set before us. Well, that door
is Christ. That's that door that he talks
about there in Revelation where John said he looked up into heaven
and saw an open door. That door is Christ. He's the
door. I'm the door to the sheepfold.
That's what he said. He's the door. That don't mean
I'm the door. And that don't mean that there's
a big open door for anybody to go through and preach. That's
not what he's talking about here. So the world, so to speak, was
free to any man who desired to work in the master's field. But
that's not how he presents it here in chapter 9. When he prefaces
this chapter, he said, there's a Lord of the harvest. Now there's
a lot of similarities here if you want to go back and read
the story back in the book of Ruth. of Boaz. Boaz was on the
threshing floor. He didn't leave that work to
his men. He was personally involved in it. And you find him sleeping
on the threshing floor. He was personally involved in
this work. All through this work. And those men were chosen men.
You know, he told his men. He didn't just tell them, well
y'all go out there and do the best you can. That ain't what
he said. He said, now you go out there, but he said, I have
one over here that I got my eye on. And while you are out there
laboring in the field, you leave some handfuls of purpose for
her. He gave them specific instruction to these men. These were chosen
men, men he trusted, men he equipped, men he gave authority to go into
his field. And he could leave handfuls of
purpose to one and not leave it to another. So God's messengers
are sent. And that's the problem I see
in this big giant open door, so to speak, is that the owner
of the field is not pleased to turn everybody loose in this
field. He's just not going to do it. He owns the field. It's not up to me to reason these
things out. It's up to him. God's messengers are sent, and
he calls them, and he separates them, and he equips them And
He sends them into whatever place in the field that He sees fit.
I'm strictly opposed to any kind of general notion or school or
intent to encourage all men into the ministry of Christ. It's
just not so. There's a right and a privilege
given and confirmed in those sent of God in His name. He confirmed
their ministry. How did He do it? How did He
confirm that ministry? Well, first of all, with miracles
and wonders and signs. You can read about it in Hebrews
chapter 2. That's what he said. It was first established by the
Lord, and then it was confirmed in them who preached after Him,
God also accompanying them with miracles and wonders and signs.
So it was confirmed that way. It was also confirmed in them
that heard Him. It was confirmed. He gave them
the hearts of His elect. What they said affected their
hearts. What those high priests and things said didn't affect
their heart. Their motivation was fear. They
had other kinds of motivation. But his motivation was the revelation
of Christ in the hearts of his elect. And that's what happened
when they preached. When they preached, men heard
them. And they were stirred in their hearts. And then the second
thing I see here is that this power and right to minister is
against unclean spirits. Now, in the apostolic sense,
they had a power over these demons to cast them out verbally and
heal, effectually, in a moment's time, all these diseases that
these men had. And the diseases were just many,
many, many kinds of diseases. leprosy, and palsy, and on and
on and on, issues of blood, and all these different kinds of
diseases. And these men were given power
to do that. Now, seems to me to be some correlation
between sickness and unclean spirits in the scriptures, when
you look at it. And I say the same thing about
death. Sin, when it's finished, bringeth forth death. If it wasn't
for sin, nobody would die, would they? By one man's sin entered
into the world, and death by sin. If there was no sin, there'd
be no death. And if there was no sin, there'd
be no sickness. Sickness is just part of dying. That's what it is. We're all
dying. And that sickness is just a part
of it. There's some correlation in the scriptures, and I don't
want to make a big deal out of this, except to say that sin
is the root cause of sickness, which sin, Satan's ministers
know how to exploit. They know how to exploit it.
You remember, I'll give you a perfect example of it in the book of
Job. Job was a wealthy man. A healthy
man. He had a large family. He had holdings. He had respect.
He had station. He had all him things. But Satan
came and said, yeah, but you've hedged him about. Take away the
hedge. Well, what happened when the
Lord took away the hedge? Satan smote him with bowls. Who
did? Satan did. Smote him with bowls. Head to toe. And did all those
things to him. And then you'll recall our lesson
at the beginning of chapter 9 where the Lord said to the man sick
of the palsy, and this boy, you talk about stir up some religious
folks. This did. The Lord didn't tell
him that he was healed. He said, thy sins be forgiven
to you. Ain't that what he told him? And they said, whoa, now
wait a minute, wait a minute. You can't forgive sins. Only
God can forgive sins. The Lord told him, he said, which
is easier to say? that ye healed, or thy sins be
forgiven." Which is easier to say. So there's some correlation
here. I won't make a big deal out of
it. But you cannot be partakers... And then look at this. Another
correlation along the same lines as the Lord's warning against
or concerning the Lord's table. You remember I brought you a
message on that a while back. He said, Paul said, you cannot
be partaker of the Lord's table and the table of devils. And
those who do, he says, for this cause many are weak and sickly
among you. You see the correlation there?
And you can go on and on and on in the scriptures with these
correlations. But that's enough on this subject.
The similarities of this in our day is the spiritual diseases
of the soul. Now that's what we deal with.
I don't deal with natural diseases. I've got no power over them.
If I did, I'd heal my wife. I have no power over those diseases.
No power over those things whatsoever. But these diseases of the soul
that are wrought upon men through the effects of these unclean
spirits of the world and religion. And I can't emphasize strongly
enough that in and of ourselves, we're no match for the rulers
of darkness. We're no match for them. I see these men on TV all the
time, thou demon out of hell and smack somebody on the head.
I command you to come out of him and all this kind of... Michael, the archangel, wouldn't
even contend with Satan. He wouldn't even contend. He
said the Lord would be accused. The Lord would rebuke you. He
wouldn't contend with it. And here's these little peanut
men up there smacking people on the head, commanded powers
that they have no power over whatsoever, commanding these
things. And if you want to know the truth about it, the demons
that they're trying to cast out are already in them, that are
trying to cast them out. They're possessed as the one
that they're trying to cast it out of. We no match for them. Those spies
who first went over into Canaan, they were right in their assessment
of the land. The Lord didn't rebuke them because
they wasn't right in their assessment. There was giants in the land.
They saw them. They recognized them. It was
true enough. When they come back with that
report, they said there's giants in the land. There's walled cities
in the land. They're fortified. They have
great armies. What was the evil report? that
God couldn't overcome. That's what their assessment
was right. And I tell you, when you look
around, and just what I've read in the scriptures about these
powers of the darkness, these rulers of the darkness, we're
no match for them. We're no match for them. They're
giants. There's giants in the land. And you just have to look
at them that way. But they're not bigger than our
God. And they're no match for Him. So if we have the authority
and power of God to go, it's against them. And we can deal
with those diseases of the soul and so on. And then these powers
and rulers of the darkness, there's just one problem we have. The
flesh is another. How will you unravel these mysteries
of God? If God don't call you to this
work, If God don't equip you to this work and reveal these
things to your heart, how are you going to unravel the mysteries
of God? You'll be just like this other nut over here, and you'll
come up with your conjectures, and you'll come up with your
ideas, and you'll come up with your philosophies, and you'll
start your new church. And if you don't believe this
is so, you just go down the road and look at the different names
on the signs on the churches all down the road. We must be given an ability,
which is the power of God's Spirit, and the right which is given
to us by the Lord, who's head of the church. He's the head
of the church. That's the Lord Himself. All
right, here's the next thing. These men were sent to a specific
people. They weren't sent to just go
out and preach anywhere. He said, don't you go to the
Gentiles. You go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Isn't that what they say in chapter 10? You go to the lost sheep
of the house of Israel. Don't you go out here, these
Gentiles. Don't you go out here, these Canaanites. They were strictly
forbidden to preach to the Gentiles, but to preach to the lost sheep
of the house of Israel. God already had an apostle in
mind for the Gentiles, the apostle Paul. And when His time was come,
God revealed Him, God called Him, God equipped Him, and sent
Him to the Gentiles. Brethren, salvation is not a
shot in the dark. If it was shot in the dark, if
that's what we were doing, the Lord said, here's the world,
you go find them. And away we go. Then anybody
could go. Everybody could go. You could
go anywhere. You could buy your tent. You
could set it up out on the corner. You could do all of these things.
But we're not sent there. We're sent to a specific people.
And I don't know where they are. Do you? I don't know. Somebody said, well, if I was
you and I believed in election, I'd just preach to the elect.
I would if I knew who they were. I wouldn't waste my time. But I don't know who they are.
So I have to wait on God to open the door. And that's the way
I see this ministry here. This is an open door of God.
He opened this door and I come here and I wait to preach to
His elect. How will they come in? I don't
know. I don't know how they'll come in. Some will come in invited. Some will come in having heard
from somebody. Some will come in having heard.
I got a letter here the other day. Y'all remember Joe Moore
that came down from Ozark, Missouri? Well, he's coming back and bringing
his brother with him and their family. Clear up that 10 hours
from here. How are they going to come in? I don't know. The Lord will bring
them in. I don't know. You invite somebody
to come and they come and they're here. I don't know how he does
it. I just know that he does it.
And I'll tell you, I can't do it. But he can. He can. It's not a shot in the dark.
Not some desperate attempt to save a dying multitude. God saves
men on purpose. Boy, I tell you, we just need
to record that and listen to it. Put it in some earphones
and just, God saves men on purpose. Just keep reminding me of that.
God saves men on purpose. Paul gives us the overview. The
eternal will of God in the redemption of His people. And he tells us
in Ephesians 1.10 that in the dispensation of the fullness
of time, that he'll gather together in one all things in Christ,
both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him.
Now listen. In whom also we have obtained
an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. That's how I found it. That's
how I obtained it, and that's how you'll obtain it if you get
it at all. Salvation is the calling out
of God's elect. He came to Matthew, and he said,
Matthew, follow me. And Matthew got up and followed
him. How many more did he come to? Zacchaeus come down. Zacchaeus
came down. I tell men to come to Christ.
Every one of God's elect will. Every one of them. They will.
It'll be amazing to you. Because week after week, we preach
to folks and talk to folks, and they just sit and look at you.
And all of a sudden, a man comes in, and he's no different than
they are. No different than they are. He's same flesh, same bones,
same everything as they are. He was raised in religion just
like they are. But God opens his ears and opens
his heart. And he said, come to me. And
he gets up and comes. I tell you when it does, you
see the glory of God in it, don't you? That's why God does it that
way. The means have been ordained
and set in place, and His providence ordered in every detail to gather
His elect to Himself. God has men and will continue
to have men, which He calls to the gospel ministry. And these
men, pastors and missionaries and evangelists, are sent out
as His ambassadors to His elect. And then the third thing that
struck me as I read this chapter is the free grace of God. He
tells them in verse 8, he said, freely you have received, freely
give. Freely give. There was nothing
in these men to qualify them for the ministry. Everything
that God required from them, He gave freely to them. You know, Paul spoke to the Corinthians
And he said, what have you gotten if you haven't received? And
if you received it, why are you bragging about it? You got it
from God. It wasn't of you. I tell you, he'd be the first
one to tell you this. Brother Mahan could I've seen
him preach one night an hour and 45 minutes. And when he quit,
everybody, all, I mean, there was a big noise. You could hear
it in the whole room. Everybody went, oh! He quit. We didn't want him to quit. And
he could hold your attention. When he began to preach, he'd
hold your attention from first to last. He'd just have you hanging
right on it. Was that Brother Mahan, or is
that some gift that God gave? Huh? God gave him that gift. He'd be the first one to tell
you. God gave him that gift. All these things were given to
you. This experience of grace that you had, I gave it to you. Now you go give it to them. Freely
you have received, you freely give. And as freely as God's
grace brought the gospel to them, so they preach it to those to
whom they're sent. There are two headings under
which all of the religions of the world are categorized, works
and grace. I don't care what the name is
on the door. I don't care which god they own as their god. There's
two types of religion in all this world, works and grace.
And those sent of God preach His free grace. Free grace, not
works, free grace. And these two things will not
mix. And we're either of the one or we're of the other. And
if it be of works, Paul said, then it's no longer of grace,
otherwise grace, no more grace. The minute works enters into
it, it becomes works. And then fourthly, they were
to go depending upon the Lord. They weren't to take a pocket
full of money and a big bank account. He said, don't even
take two coats, just take one coat. You don't take a wagon load of
food with you. When you get to that city, he said, those of
my elect are there. They'll feed you. They'll take
care of you. Don't worry about it. Don't take two parachutes. Just one parachute would be enough.
You go down there. They'll take care of you. They'll
take care of your needs. And if they don't, and they won't
receive you, and they won't have you, and they despise you, that
despising is of me that sent you. So when you get outside
the city, he said, shake the dust off your feet as a testimony. He said it'd be better on those
in Sodom and Gomorrah than it will be on him. He'll never send a man to do
a work and leave him to provide for himself. And then in verses
12 through 15, he tells them the difference between an unworthy
house and a worthy house. An unworthy house is a city or
a house where they refuse to acknowledge their message. That's
what makes it unworthy. They won't receive the message.
Those who receive the message will receive the man. You won't receive my message
and then hate me. That's not going to happen. If
God reveals the message to you, then you'll cry out, he said
in Romans chapter 10, where he said, how shall you hear without
a preacher? But he said, oh, he said, how should they preach
except they'd be sent, for it's written, how beautiful are the
feet of them that bring the gospel, these sweet tidings of peace
to you. I'll tell you, if he ever brings
those tidings to you, you'll love the man that brought them.
Yeah, you will. There'll be a union there. An unworthy house is a city or
a house where they refuse to acknowledge the gospel. These
were people who loved darkness, false religion, or preferred
the ways of the world. Their gospel was foolishness
to them in the wisdom of the world. And they despised it and
were indifferent to it. Well, I'm out of time, so we'll
stop there and take it up next week. Thank you.