Luke chapter 8. Luke the 8th chapter. And it came to pass afterward,
that is, after our Lord had healed the centurion's servant at Capernaum,
after he had raised the widow's son at Nain from the dead, After
John the Baptist had sent his disciples to him and the Lord
Jesus had shown them who he is and vindicated John before them
and before those who heard him. And then he sent them back to
John. After he had gone into the house of Simon the Pharisee
and there was honored, greatly honored by the faith of a woman. whose sins had been forgiven.
Because she had been forgiven much, she loved much, and she
came and stood at the Master's feet and washed them with her
tears, kissed them and wiped them with the hairs of her head.
And the Lord Jesus promised her that she would be honored for
the exercise of her faith wherever the gospel is preached. Then
we read, it came to pass afterward, Our Savior went through every
city and village preaching and showing the glad tidings of the
kingdom of God. I just told you Bible's open
here. The title of my message tonight is the glad tidings of
the kingdom. In these three verses the Holy
Spirit calls our attention to three things. First to our master,
then to his disciples, and then to certain women. In the first
verse, I want us to observe some things about our master. We're
told in verse one that our Lord Jesus went through every city
and village, that is every city and village in Galilee, must
be understood in its context, preaching and showing the glad
tidings of the kingdom of God. First, our Lord sets before us
a tremendous example of diligence and faithfulness as Jehovah's
servant in this world. We rejoice to declare that our
Lord Jesus Christ is our vicarious, sin-atoning substitute. He died
as our substitute under the wrath of God to put away our sins.
Our hearts never tire of thinking of it, hearing it, or proclaiming
it. We rejoice to declare that Christ
is our righteous representative. He is that man by whom we have
been made the righteousness of God by God's free grace. We rejoice to declare that Jesus
Christ is our advocate on high, ever making intercession for
us according to the will of God. We rejoice to know and to declare
that Christ is the King of Glory. He sits on the throne. He rules
everywhere at all times and all things by absolute right because
He's God our Savior. But let us never forget that
our Lord Jesus Christ is also preeminently our example in all
things. Not only did He redeem us with
His blood, our Lord Jesus showed us by example how we ought to
live in this world by faith in God, how we ought to live in
this world with faithfulness toward God, and how we ought
to serve one another as we live here as God's servants. Turn
with me, if you will, to John chapter 13 for a moment. You're familiar with the passage,
our Lord has taken a basin of water and a towel and girded
himself and he goes from his disciples one to another. And
he kneels before them and in humility washes their feet. Peter was aghast. He said, don't
just wash my feet, wash me all over. But our Lord Jesus was
teaching us something. He was doing for his disciples
that which opportunity afforded for him to do just for their
comfort and their refreshment. He humbled himself to do something
for men who ought gladly to serve him and did gladly serve him.
But he was doing something for men. He who is infinitely higher
than any of them stoops to serve just the pleasure and comfort
of his disciples. He washed their feet. They'd
been walking a dusty, dirty road in that hot climate, and he knelt
and washed their feet. How comforting, how refreshing,
how delightful. You can't really say needful.
You can't really say it was something that these fellows really needed
done to them. It was just something that delighted
them, that comforted them, that refreshed them. Now look what
our master says about it in verse 13. You call me master and Lord
and you say well, for so I am. Verse 14. If I then your Lord
and Master have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's
feet. For I have given you an example
that you should do as I have done unto you. Now turn to 1
Peter 2. 1 Peter chapter 2. Even in the things which he suffered,
our Lord Jesus left us an example. Not only did he by his death
expiate our sins, he gave us an example of life in this world
by faith in God. In verse 21, the apostle writes
by inspiration and says, for even here unto where you called,
that is to suffer as believers for his namesake. Because Christ
also suffered for us, Leaving us an example that you should
follow his steps. Follow him, follow him, follow
him. Now back here in Luke 8.1, he
gives us an example. It came to pass afterward that
he went throughout every city and village preaching and showing. It's the same thing. By preaching,
he showed the glad tidings of the kingdom of God. Our Lord
Jesus Christ was tireless in his labors, unwearied in doing
good, and constant in redeeming his time, the time that he had
in this world as God's servant. Man's unbelief didn't stop him. He went everywhere preaching
knowing that men would ridicule and mock and laugh, but their
unbelief did nothing to hinder him. The slanders of his enemies,
the reproaches heaped upon him, the scorn of the religious world,
the laughter of his deriders, even the unbelief of his own
family did not in any way affect his faithfulness or his labor
or his service for our God and his God. But rather our Lord
Jesus always knew who he was. He always knew exactly why he
was here. He always knew what it was that
he was to do. He was always about his father's
business as he stated in his earliest days as a youth speaking
to his own parents. His earthly ministry lasted just
three short years, three and a half years perhaps. Yet in
those three years You stop and think about it. Read the four
gospels again. In those three years, our Lord
Jesus Christ did more for men and to men for their good than
any man who ever lived before or since him. In those three
years, he constantly served the good of men's souls as well as
the good of their lives. Let us follow his example. Without
question, we will miss the mark. Without question, we will constantly
be aware of the fact that we're missing the mark. I cannot walk
in His steps without making a mess of things. I know that. I cannot
live as He lived in this world. I know that. I cannot walk before
God with the constant faithfulness, dedication, love, zeal, and commitment
that the Son of God did. But that's the path I must follow.
Let us walk in His steps. Without question, The scripture
says, he that abideth in him ought himself also to walk even
as he walked. We ought to try. We ought to
try. It ought to be an earnest matter
of care in our hearts that we leave the corner of the world
where we are, that little corner of the world in which our brief
existence is in this world. We ought to leave it better than
we found it. We ought to make it our business,
the business of our lives, to do good to men and for them. May God give me grace. May God give me grace to lay
aside my own desires, my own pleasures, my own needs, my own
self-interest, to lay aside my own feelings, to lay aside my
own cares, and spend my life caring for other people. Just
caring. Just caring. doing for others
what I have opportunity to do. May God give us grace to live
for the good of those we touch. I'm aware of somewhat the sphere
of influence God's given me as a man, as a husband, as a father,
as a citizen in this town, as a preacher of the gospel, as
your pastor. I'm aware that I touch your lives in a lot of ways and
I want to do you good and never harm. I want to minister
to your soul's needs and ministering to your soul's needs to minister
to your needs. We have a terrible tendency to
serve ourselves when we could seize the opportunity to serve
somebody else. Next time you have a notion that
you just got to give somebody peace of your mind, why don't
you give them a little grace instead? Next time you have a
notion you just got to tell somebody off, why don't you tell them
about God's goodness instead? Next time you just say, well,
I've got to assert my rights, why don't you forget your rights
instead and give way? Just give way. Oh, that's not
very reasonable. Oh, isn't it? What did our master
do? Follow His example. Do good to
men. Seek to serve them, not to harm
them. Seek to minister to them, not
to take care of your own passions and your own cares and your own
ambitions. Time is short. Oh, how short. That word in 1 Corinthians 7,
29, time is short. It means it's constricted. It's
pressed together. It's just a little piece. But
how much can be done in the short time we have? Let us arrange
our affairs wisely and we will be amazed what we can do. Few, few I'm sure in this day
when everybody seems to live for recreation, men and women
seem to work only so they can get money so they can go somewhere
and spend time loafing. Few have any idea how much can
be accomplished in 8, 10, or 12 hours if they just set aside
frivolity and idleness and stay at it. Just stay at it. Just
stay at it. The other day, Shelby and I were
over here. We had one of those days when
things seemed to go well. And other than her fetching me
coffee and going to get me something to eat, we hardly spoke to one
another. But at the end of the day, walked home tired and weary,
but just delighted. Because we got so much done,
got so much done. Let us arrange our lives to get
done what we can in our lives for the glory of God and the
good of men. Yes, time is short, but this
is the only time we have to do the work we can do for men in
this world. Our Lord said the hour comes
when no man can work. It is true we will serve him
perfectly in the world to come. It is true we will spend eternity
serving our master without toil, without labor, but not as we
do now. We will serve one another in
eternity, but not as we do now. In that world, there will be
no feet to wash. There'll be no ignorance that
needs instruction. There'll be none who are hungry
and need us to feed them. There'll be none who are sick
and need us to visit them. None who are mourning and need
us to comfort them. There'll be none who are alone
and just need a friend to sit by their side. There'll be none
in spiritual darkness who need enlightening. There'll be none
who are fearful and need assurance. None who are in distress and
need relief. But here, Everywhere I go, everywhere I
go, every day, every day, I come in contact with people everywhere
who are ignorant and need instruction. I come in contact with people
everywhere hungry and need feeding, sick and need visiting, mourning
and need comforting, alone who need a friend, in darkness and
need enlightening, fearful and need assurance and comfort and
peace, in distress and just need some relief. I run across people frequently
and I see their eyes. Someone as well said eyes are
the windows of the soul and they are pretty much that. And you
look in a man's eyes, you look in a woman's eyes. I look in
the eyes of a lot of children. They're just distressed. Distressed. Let's take care to minister to
men's needs. J.C. Ryle put it this way. Whatever
work we do of this kind must be done this side of the grave.
Let us awake to a sense of our responsibility. Souls are perishing
and time is flying. Let us resolve by God's grace
to do something for God's glory before we die. I put it another way. God give
me grace day by day as I awake. to seek grace that I may today
do something for God's glory and someone's good. Do something
for God's glory and someone's good. Now that, Rex, is a day
well spent. That's a life well spent, regardless
of what it may cost. I was talking to Brother Cody
Groover one night. He and I were alone. He was telling me he and
Wynna had been in Mexico with their children now for five years.
And about six and a half years ago, I was preaching kind of
Houston, Texas, actually at New Canyon, where Brother Jack Shanks
is pastor at Laird Street Church. And Cody and his family came
over, and Cody hung around, visited a while, several nights. He hung
around, we just chatted. And we were standing one night
out in a little breezeway talking. I can remember it like it was
yesterday. And I mention this because you never, you really
never know, you just never know what may seem so insignificant
becomes so influential with so many. Cody told me, he said,
I, do you remember the conversation we had over at Jack's? And I
said, uh, he mentioned some of the circumstances. I said, oh
yes, I remember. He said, I told you, I felt like the Lord had
called me to come down here and to serve him here. And he said,
you remember what you said to me? And I didn't remember exactly,
but I was pretty sure what I said. I said, no, what did I say? He
said, you said, then do it. And God spoke to me clearly.
This is what I must do. Give us grace, our God, to seek
opportunity, to speak a word in season to those around us
and minister to them. Luke tells us that our Lord Jesus
went throughout every city and village preaching and showing
the glad tidings of the kingdom of God. Now there are many, many
good, noble works to be done for men. And we must never, I
can't emphasize this enough and the reason I spent the time I
have leading up to this is because it needs to be emphasized. We
must never seek some way to hypocritically excuse ourselves for ministering
to the physical, mental, and emotional needs of many women
saying, well, we have a higher calling. Rather, let us minister
to the physical, mental, and emotional needs of those around
us while we pursue ministering to them in a far higher way.
We do have a higher calling. We do have a higher business.
We don't spend our money building hospitals and schools and sending
nurses and doctors to mission fields and teachers and such
nonsense as that. Now, I said nonsense. It's not
nonsense. Those things need to be done.
But there are scads of folks doing that all over the world.
We have something better and nobler and higher to do. Let
us never forget that we have this business of ministering
to the souls of men. Like our master, our primary
business in life must be ministering to men's souls. Our function,
Our only function as a local church is that we go through
the cities and towns of this generation in which we live and
show all men everywhere the glad tidings of the kingdom. It is
our business and our responsibility, our privilege and our high honor
as individuals, as families, as a gospel church to proclaim
the glad tidings, the good news of the gospel of the grace of
our God. We have done many women, now
listen carefully. We've done them no good, but
positive harm. If we teach them how to live,
but do not show them the way of life. We have done men and
women no good but positive harm. We do not serve the interest
of their souls but the destruction of their souls if we just comfort
them. without directing them to the
consolation that's in Christ Jesus. We do not minister to
our neighbors if we just feed them, but we do not urge them
to feed upon the bread which came down from heaven, the bread
of life, and drink from that fountain of the water of life,
which is Christ Jesus the Lord. We don't have to guess what it
was our Lord preached when he preached the glad tidings of
the kingdom. We will be looking at it in the next several weeks,
but in this chapter, in the context, we know exactly what it was he
did as he went through all the cities, teaching, preaching,
and showing the glad tidings of the kingdom. In the parable
of the sower in verses 5 through 18, our Lord shows us that faith
is the gift of God's grace. He shows us that salvation comes
by divine revelation and that the sinner who receives the word
must first be given a new heart, a heart made good by the grace
of God. In the calming of the storm,
in verses 19 through 25, our Lord Jesus shows us plainly that
he is Lord of all. That even the winds and the waves
obey his voice. And that he who gives us faith
is the only one who can sustain our faith. The disciples were
without faith. Our Lord said, where is your
faith? Where is your faith? Another of the apostles records
it this way. How is it that you have no faith?
And our Lord, by His act of grace and providence, sustains them
in faith. And so it is with us. We believe
God. And we continue to believe God.
Because God's given us faith. And He sustains us in faith.
And that's all. That's all. Shelby was chatting today, she'd
been teaching the children about Elijah. She said he was a remarkable
man. And I responded, and she almost
said the same time I did, that when God was with him. And we see enough of Elijah to
know he wasn't much of a man, except for what God did for him
and in him. And you're not either. And I'm
not either. He gives us faith. He sustains
us in faith. And the only reason we're still
hanging around Him is because He holds us by His grace. In
the healing of the Gadarene, in verses 26 through 40, our
Savior marvelously displays the experience of salvation in the
life of a man unfit for human society. That man who dwelt among
the tombs, totally depraved. was the object of His unconditional
electing love, who experienced the power of His irresistible
grace. And when He got done, He sat before the Master, clothed
and in His right mind, having the righteousness of Christ imputed
to Him, and the grace of God imparted to Him. In the healing
of the woman with the issue of blood, in verses 44 through 48,
our Lord Jesus graciously shows us what an example this is. of the desperation and confidence
of faith. I chose the words deliberately,
Merle. Faith is born out of desperation. You'll never call on God till
he brings you to your wits end. And it is sad to say Because
of our flesh in this world, because of our horrible unbelief, our
faith still depends greatly upon desperate need. We call on him
when he causes us to know our need of him. And yet, faith born
out of desperation is confident faith. This poor woman who had
wasted all her substance on physicians of no value and was no better
but only worse after they got done with her, when she heard
of Jesus, she said within herself, if I could just touch the hem
of his garment, I'd be made whole. And with confidence, she touched
it and was made whole. Our Lord shows us there the power,
the power of God-given faith. Faith is that by which our Savior
said to the woman, the very last verse of chapter 7, He said,
Thy faith has saved thee. That's powerful. And then in
raising Jairus' daughter from the dead, In verses 49 through
56, our Lord displayed the wonder of regenerating grace. He comes
to one who's dead, and he speaks a word. He says, honey, time
to get up. And she that was dead arose from
the dead. How is it the sinners are born
of God? By the omnipotent power of his sovereign word. He comes
and says live, and sinners live. Now that's how Luke describes
our master by inspiration. Now look at the last line of
verse 1 and learn something about his disciples. And the twelve were with him. The twelve were with him. For
three and a half years, these men were with him. They had forsaken
all and followed him. In fact, on one occasion Peter
said, Lord, we've forsaken all and followed you. And the Lord
turned and looked at him and said, have you been hungry because
of that? Lacked you anything? Nothing,
Lord. They followed him. They walked
with him. They were with him. They attended
him constantly. They watched him. They walked
with him. Why? Why? The twelve were with
him. How come? I'll tell you why. Because they saw him to be everything they needed
and wanted. So they just stayed with him. They loved him. They had seen who he is. They
had experienced his grace. They'd been called by power and
they loved him. And they wanted to see him work. I try to come to the house of
God here and wherever I go and worship with God's saints expecting
to see him work. I try to preach the gospel expecting
to see him work. I try to put myself every time
I have opportunity where I think he might make himself known.
Oh, I want to see him work one more time. They had seen him
multiply loaves and fishes, and they were happy to see it again.
They had seen him heal the sick. They wanted to see it again.
They had seen him cast out devils, and they wanted to see it again.
And they were with him because they wanted to learn of him.
It wasn't a matter of saying the right thing. They wanted
to know Him. They wanted to know His word,
His doctrine, His way, His grace, His goodness, His power. Oh,
that I might know Him, each of them said. All right, now then,
look at verses 2 and 3 for just a couple of minutes and see what
the Spirit of God tells us about certain women. and certain women
which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary
called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils, and Joanna,
the wife of Cuzza, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others,
which ministered unto him of their substance. Who were these
women? They were women who had experienced
his grace. They had been healed of great
infirmities. The Lord had cast out evil spirits
from them. They were women like the one
mentioned at the end of chapter seven, perhaps she is the Mary
mentioned here, I don't know. But they were full of gratitude
and love for Christ. And there were many of them,
many of them. Three are named, but the scripture
says here there were many of them. Now, can you imagine what
peculiar hardships these women had following the master in that
day? You just think you have a tough
time with your family and friends? You just think you suffer some
ridicule and scorn? In those days, women stayed at
home unless their husbands told them they could go out. They
weren't seen unless their husbands told them they could be seen.
They didn't speak unless their husbands told them they could
speak. Women who were seen in the company of another man in
public, let alone in private, were not just looked upon with
suspicion. They were looked upon with utter
disdain as women contemptible without character. They were
looked upon as common harlots. Everybody, don't you see her?
What's she doing with you? That was the attitude everybody
had toward them. But grateful for mercy, grateful
for grace, mercy and grace experienced and received and known by the
power of God in their souls, these many women gladly suffered
whatever God's providence called for them to suffer, whatever
was heaped upon them by others so that they might follow the
Savior. Strengthened by the power of His grace, they claimed to
Him to the end. And of all the Lord's disciples,
it appears the women were always the strongest. Do you ever notice
that? It was not a woman's kiss that
betrayed Him. It was not one of these women
who forsook Him in the garden. It was not one of these women
who denied Him in the judgment hall. These women stayed with
the Savior weeping as He was led forth to be crucified. It
was a few women, not men, who stood by the suffering Lamb of
God until at last he cried, it is finished, and gave up the
ghost. These women were the first to the tomb on the resurrection
morning, and they were the first to see the Son of God raised
from the dead. Who were these women? Just three
of them are named, but there are some lessons to be learned
in this. The first one is Mary Magdalene,
Mary of Magdala, out of whom the Lord had cast seven devils. I can identify with Mary pretty
good. Doesn't surprise me at all that she's there. She knew the clutches she was
in when the master came to her. It astounds me that I don't find
the same faithfulness in me constantly. The second one is Joanna, the
wife of Cuzza, Herod's steward. Now when I read that, I thought,
I reckon why the Holy Spirit inspired Luke to tell us that
little bit of information about Joanna. Her husband's name was
Cuzza. He was Herod's steward. Well,
the word steward that's used here doesn't mean that he was
Herod's lackey. Doesn't mean he was Herod's messenger
boy. This man, Cusa, was no ordinary Jew. He was one of the most powerful,
influential, wealthy men in the area. This man was the man to
whom Herod entrusted the care of his entire house. He was the
banker in Herod's court. He was the fellow who took care
of the raising, discipline, and education of Herod's children.
This man was Herod's right-hand man, Herod the Tetrarch. And
then this has stolen us, I think, for a couple of reasons. First,
to let us know that while not many of the Lord's disciples
are called from the noble, the wealthy, the mighty, bless God,
some are. Not all of our Lord's followers
were ragtag mob of fishermen. This Joanna was a woman of society,
of reputation, of honor, of influence, because she was married to a
man of reputation, honor, influence, and wealth. And perhaps, just
maybe, I couldn't help but to think along this line, thinking
as I do about God's overruling providence and prevenient grace.
Perhaps this dear sister, Joanna, is the one for whose soul's sake
John the Baptist was cast into prison by Herod. Perhaps it was
from the lips of John that she had heard the gospel of God's
grace. And so God in his providence arranged for John the Baptist
to be there at the appointed time of mercy for her. And the
third of these sisters in grace is a woman named Susanna. I did
a little research and you know I can't find anything else about
her anywhere in this book. I can't find any record of any
mention of this Susanna anywhere in history. None of the writers,
none of the early writers, none of the writers in the early ages
of the church mention her at all, not that I'm aware of, not
one of them. We don't know anything at all about her except this.
Her name was Susanna and she walked with Christ. What a biography! What a biography! But what did these women do?
They ministered to Him of their substance. How condescending! How marvelous! How gracious! Here is God who owns cattle on
a thousand hills. He doesn't need anybody to feed
him, but he lets these women feed him. Here is that one who
holds the world in the hollow of his hand. He multiplied loaves
and fishes easily. He doesn't need anyone to do
anything for him, but he condescends. to honor these dear women by
letting them do for him what they could. And thus he afforded
these women an opportunity to prove to themselves the sincerity
of their love. They ministered to the Lord out
of their substance. They served him. They didn't
take everything they had and just spend it heedlessly and
spend it thoughtlessly. But according to that which God
had given them in providence, out of their substance, they
ministered to the master, ministered to him. That every one of you,
according as God has prospered him, give with a willing heart
out of your substance, according to your substance. Sometimes
people have the idea, it'd be good, you know, we're wanting
to put this expansion on the back of the building, we have
missionaries to support, we have ministries to maintain, so well,
you know, old James now, he's a sharp fella, he could raise
some money. Go out and raise us some money. That's not doing
God's work. That's not ministering to Him.
Rather, that's calling upon men, as groveling beggars, to do for
our God that which God needs them to do, as though somehow
God Almighty stands in need of what men might do for Him, and
thus they are honored, and honored by the fact that they've done
something for the Lord. Don't ever do it. I recall 20-some
years ago, 21 years ago, Going through town, we were trying
to build this building. Craig's gone now. He won't mind me telling
you this. We went into a place in town and Craig said, now we're building
a church up there. I said, you ought to give us
this stuff. I said, we'll be back after a while. And Craig
and I went outside and I said, don't ever do that. Don't ever
do that. We don't need anything from anybody
who doesn't worship our God. Nothing. Nothing. We don't gather
before anybody. We minister to him of our substance. What we have. David said, I'll
not give God that which cost me nothing. Not only did they
minister to the master, This line might be translated more
properly, they ministered to them of their substance. Like Phoebe, whom Paul commended
to the church at Rome, these were men counted in a service
done for Christ to take of their substance and make provision
for his disciples as they preached the gospel in every city and
village. Now here's my final thoughts.
I hope they're similar to yours. God give me grace to follow my
master's example of tireless devotion and service to the souls
of men for the glory of God. The older I get, the more I'm
inspired and invigorated to give myself to this blessed work. And I say, well, you're going
to slow down one of these days. I'm sure of that. I'm sure of that. But
I pray God will give me grace to give myself tirelessly to
the business of doing his business. May God the Holy Spirit grant
that I may, like the Lord's disciples, ever be found with Him. In His house, with His people,
in His company. And I pray that God will graciously
teach me to honor Him with my substance. That He will give me the will
to do what these women did with their substance for His glory,
just because I love Him. Just because I'm constrained
by His love. Amen. All right, let's sing a
hymn and the deacons will serve the Lord's table. Sammy, if you
and Ron will assist them, please.