Thank you, Carol. Hi, everybody. I don't know how
much longer we'll be doing this, but hopefully not too much longer,
but I love you all, miss you all, and look forward to seeing
you. I'm going to be preaching from Mark chapter 6, and I've
entitled this message, More Tolerable for Sodom. more tolerable for Sodom. In verse 7 of Mark chapter 6,
the Lord is sending out the twelve to preach. And here's his instruction
to them. And he 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 or a leather bag to
carry things in. I guess we call it a suitcase.
No script, no bread, nothing to eat, 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 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." Let's
pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we come into your presence in Christ's name. And Lord, how
we thank you for the gospel of your grace, for the gospel of
your Son. How we thank you that you're
God and there's none that can be compared with thee. How we
thank you for your sovereign rule over all things. How we
thank you for your holiness. How we thank you for your justice.
How we thank you for your grace and your mercy. Lord, we're in
all of thy greatness, and we're so thankful that you've been
pleased to reveal yourself to us. Lord, we confess our sin. We can't come into your presence
without some awareness of our sin, how thankful we are for
the forgiveness of sin and the cleansing from sin. Lord, we
pray for grace to trust you more, to love you more, to love your
people more. Lord, we pray for the world at
this time. We pray that you would use what
you have done to bring many sinners to a knowledge of you to where
they can hear the gospel. Lord, we pray for your blessing
wherever your word is preached. Again, accept our thanksgiving.
We pray for our leaders that you would give them direction
and cause them to do your will as we know you will. In Christ's
name we pray, Amen. Now what is the place you think
of when you think of the place that's over the top for debauchery
and depravity and wickedness? Las Vegas? New York City? New Orleans? No. Sodom and Gomorrah. They would
make these places, or Sodom and Gomorrah would make these places
look tame. I want to read some scriptures beginning in Genesis
chapter 18 verse 16. And the men arose up from thence
and looked toward Sodom. And Abraham went with them to
bring them on the way. And the Lord said, Shall I hide
from Abraham that thing which I do. And he was talking about
the judgment upon Sodom. Look in verse 20, the Lord is
still speaking to Abraham and the Lord said, because the cry
of Sodom and Gomorrah is great and because their sin is very
grievous, I will go down now and see whether they've done
altogether according to the cry of it which is coming to me And
if not, I will know. And the men turned their faces
from them and went toward Sodom, but Abraham stood yet before
the Lord. And you will remember that Abraham
praised to the Lord. He says, Lord, if there's 50
righteous people there. Remember, he knew Lot was there
and he didn't want the destruction of Sodom because of Lot. He said,
if there's 50 righteous people there, will you spare the city?
The Lord said, I'll spare it for 50. He said, well, what if
there's just five short of that? What if there's just 45? I'll
spare it for 45. And he kept going down, 40, 30, 20, 10. And
the Lord said, I won't spare it if there are 10 righteous
people there. Chapter 19, verse 1. And there
came two angels to Sodom at even. And Lot sat in the gate of Sodom.
And Lot, seeing them, rose up to meet them. And he bowed himself
with his face toward the ground, and he said, Behold, now my lords,
turn in, I pray you, into your servants' house and tarry all
night, and wash your feet, and you shall rise up early and go
on your ways. And they said, Nay, but we will abide in the
street all night. They were there to see what was
going on. And he pressed upon them greatly,
and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house, and
he made them a feast. and did bake unleavened bread,
and they did eat. But before they lay down, the
men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house
round about, both old and young, all the people from every quarter,
all the men of Sodom, old and young, come for this purpose. Verse five. And they called unto
Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to
thee this night? Bring them out unto us, that
we may know them. And that doesn't simply mean
know who they were. And Lot went out at the door
unto them, and shut the door after him, and said, I pray you,
brethren, do not so wickedly. Behold, now I have two daughters,
which have not known man. Let me, I pray thee, bring them
out unto thee, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes. Only
unto these men do nothing, for therefore came they under the
shadow of my roof. And they said, stand back. And
they said, again, this one fellow came to sojourn, and he will
need to be a judge. Now we'll deal worse with thee
than with them. And they pressed sore upon the
man, even Lot, and came near to break the door. And the men,
the angels, put forth their hand and pulled Lot into the house
to them and shut the door. And they smote the men that were
at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great,
so that they wearied themselves to find the door. Now I don't think you could go
any lower on the spectrum of moral perversion. Everybody in
Sodom, old and young, wanted in on this perverted, warped,
and depraved behavior. That cry had come up to the Lord. Look in verse 23 of chapter 19. The sun was risen upon the earth
when Lot entered into Zoar. Then the Lord rained upon Sodom
and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities
and all the plain and all the inhabitants of the cities and
that which grew upon the ground." Now imagine this, fire, brimstone
coming down out of heaven and destroying this place. Now, with
that in mind, let me read Mark chapter 6. Once again, verse
11. And whosoever shall not receive
you. He's speaking of the 12 apostles
that he sent out to preach the gospel. Whosoever shall not receive
you nor hear you, when you depart thence, shake off the dust under
your feet for a testimony against them. Verily I say unto you,
it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day
of judgment than for that city. Now, what is he saying? We just
read the account of Sodom and Gomorrah and the horrible perversions
that were going on. The Lord tells us that Sodom
and Gomorrah will have it better on Judgment Day than that person
who fails to receive the Gospel. It's a dangerous thing to hear
the Gospel, and it's a more dangerous thing to fail to receive it. Those in Sodom and Gomorrah guilty
of these horrible crimes will have it easier on Judgment Day
than the men who do not believe the gospel. Now, there are degrees
of punishment because punishment is according to works. There
are degrees of punishment in hell. And we see who's going
to be punished the most severely. Not the men of Sodom and Gomorrah,
but the men who hear the gospel and fail to believe it. Verse
7, And he called unto him the twelve, And he began to send
them forth, two by two, and gave them power over unclean spirits. Now, the call of God. He called unto him the twelve.
The call of God. It's always sovereign. It's always
effectual. Mark 3, 13 says, He calleth unto
him whom he would. The Jews require a sign, the
Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, unto
the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness,
but unto them which are called. Both Jews and Greeks, Christ,
the power of God, and the wisdom of God. The call of invincible
grace to salvation, and there is also the call to preach. And
this is really what he's talking about at this time. He called
unto him the twelve and began to send them forth two by two. He sent them. Now how shall they
preach? Paul said in Romans 10 and 14,
except they be sent. There is such a thing as a man
being called by God and sent by God to preach the gospel. Now woe unto me If I try and
preach, if I haven't been sent, and woe unto you if I have been
sent and you fail to receive what I've said. It's not a rejection
of me. It's a rejection of God himself. And notice he called them two
and two to be an encouragement one to another. And the scripture
says he gave them power over unclean spirits. Now, in the
preaching of the gospel, I love what Paul said in Romans 1 and
16, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. For it is the power of God unto
salvation to everyone that believeth. In the preaching of the gospel,
the power of God is involved. And we read in Luke's account,
he says he sent them to preach the gospel of the kingdom. What
is the gospel of the kingdom? Well, the kingdom is the jurisdiction
over which the king reigns. Listen to this description of
his reign. In Daniel chapter 4, verse 34,
And at the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine
eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me. And I blessed
the Most High, and I praised and honored him that liveth forever,
whose dominion, this is the sphere of his reign, this is the jurisdiction
of the great king, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion. And his kingdom is from generation
to generation. And all the inhabitants of the
earth are reputed as nothing, and he doeth according to his
will. in the armies of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth. And none can stay his hand or
say unto him, what doest thou? He reigns in creation, in providence. Everything that happens is his
will being done in salvation. If a sinner is saved, it's because
he wills it. And look in verse eight of our
text. And he commanded them that they should take nothing for
their journey. Don't pack a bag. Don't bring
food. Don't bring money. You're to
look to me for all things. He commanded them that they should
take nothing for their journey, save a staff only, something
to lean on, but no suitcase, no food, and no money. The Lord would provide for them.
And then he says in verse 9, be shod with sandals and not
put on two coats. Now, the sandals are for the
walk. I think that this is a reference
to the shoes Paul spoke of in Ephesians 6 when he said, let
your shoes, let your feet be shod with the shoes of the preparation
of the gospel of peace. And notice how he says don't
put on two coats. Why would he say that? Don't put on two coats. Well, the first time two coats
are mentioned is in Genesis chapter 3. You remember the coat of fig
leaves that Adam and Eve sewed together in order to cover their
nakedness before God? There's one coat, and we read
of another coat, a coat that the Lord made when he slew an
animal and covered them with the skins of that animal. Now,
that represents the coat of human righteousness and the coat of
the righteousness of Christ that comes because of his life, death,
burial, and resurrection. You can't have two coats. You
can only have one or the other. You have your righteousness or
you have his. He says you can only be a person
of one coat, and he's speaking of his righteousness. Verse 10,
and he saith unto them, In what place soever you enter in, the
house, there abide till you depart from that place. You're not to
go wandering from house to house. You have one base of operation,
me. You're not to go from house to
house. And then he says in verse 11, and whosoever shall not receive
you as welcome messengers from God, loving the message you bring. Whosoever should not receive
you nor hear you, when you depart thence, shake off the dust upon
your feet for a testimony against them. It's going to be more tolerable
for them or it's going to be less tolerable for them on the
day of judgment than it was for Sodom and Gomorrah. And we just
read of the debauchery and moral depravity of Sodom and Gomorrah
and the Lord raining fire and heaven upon them. And he says,
when those people who hear you and fail to receive you stand
in judgment, they're going to be punished more severely than
those men and women of Sodom and Gomorrah. Now, there are
only two religions. The religion of Cain. Salvation
by works. Salvation by law. Salvation by
human will. And there's the religion of Abel.
The religion of the gospel. The religion of only approaching
God through a blood sacrifice. The religion of God's will. Two religions. And there's not
a third party. You and I, right now, are in
one of the two. The religion of Cain, which God
said, I have no respect for that. Or the religion of Abel, that
God had respect to Abel and to his offering. Now, he's sending
them forth to preach the gospel. Now, true preaching is a declaration
of the character of God, which is neither more nor less than
the preaching of the cross. What do I mean by that? When
I preach the cross, I preach the true character of God. The
cross is a revelation. It's a demonstration of the true
character of God. In Christ hanging on that cross,
I see how God's no respecter of persons. If sin's found on
his son, he kills him. I see that God is holy that He
hates sin. I see that God is just. He must
punish sin. I see God's sovereignty displayed.
This is what God determined before the foundation of the world to
be done. But I see how God really does love sinners. And there
really is the grace of God and the mercy of God to save sinners.
Oh, we see every attribute of God, His whole character revealed
in the preaching of the cross. If I hear and receive who He
is in His isness, it is impossible for me to adopt the religion
of Cain. It is impossible for me to believe
in salvation by works. It is impossible for me to believe
that man's will is the cause of salvation. Not if I see the
character of God, To believe in salvation by works in any
way, to believe in salvation by law, to believe in salvation
by the free will of man is to reject who he is and to make
a much smaller human-like God, a God that I can please with
my works. Now, to preach the gospel, not
only do I have to preach the true character of God, I have
to preach the true character of man. And what is more of a
demonstration of the true character of man than the cross? My soul,
don't look within yourself to find out how bad you are, the
bad things you've done. They're bad. I'm not in any way
excusing them, but they don't tell half the story. The real
skinny on you and I is seen in the cross when left to our own
will. We hate the Son of God and put
Him to death. Now, that's the true character
of man. that heart that's desperately wicked and deceitful above all
things. God saw the wickedness of man
was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts
of his heart is only evil continually, and that is demonstrated most
clearly by the cross. To preach the gospel, I have
to preach the true character of man, which is seen in the
preaching of the cross, and to preach the gospel, I have to
preach the true character of salvation. And that is only preached
in light of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. What He accomplished
on Calvary Street. He made a way for God to be just
and justify somebody as sinful as me or you. Thank God for the
cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if I don't believe that His
cross is all in salvation, all I show is that I don't love Him. And I don't really believe his
testimony concerning me. Now to preach the true character
of salvation is to preach that salvation is of the Lord. All
of the Lord. Now, if I fail to hear what God
is saying in this book, If I fail to receive and embrace this as
the gospel, salvation being of the Lord, the cross being everything
in salvation, and who God is, who I am, how He saves sinners
by His grace through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, If
I fail to embrace this, I'm rejecting God Himself. I'm rejecting His
character. I'm sitting in judgment on Him
and saying, I don't agree with the way He is. I don't like the
way He is. If I fail to hear what God says
in this book, if I fail to receive and embrace this as the very
gospel, the good news, I have willfully rejected God Himself. Now somebody says, are you saying
that that is a worse act than the acts of those men in Sodom
and Gomorrah? I'm not saying it. The Lord Jesus
Christ is saying it. To willfully reject the Lord
Jesus Christ, to willfully reject the Holy Spirit and have the
dust wiped off the feet against me, which says, if I do reject
the truth, the gospel, it's all my fault. I'm the one held responsible
for it, if I do. Oh my, that's what hatred of
God is. That's what becoming God's judge
and rejecting who he is. That is worse than the acts of
Sodom and Gomorrah. And when I stand before God in
judgment, the moral perverts of Sodom and Gomorrah will far
better than me. There's no greater crime than
to hear the gospel and reject it and not receive it. Now some reject as soon as they
hear, some it takes a little bit longer for them to reject
it. But woe to me if I do not hear and receive the gospel. Now let's go on reading after
he makes that statement, verse 12. And they went out. They went
out and preached. Here's a summary of their preaching.
They went out and preached that men should repent. Now it is absolutely necessary
for you and I to understand what this means. They went out and
preached. that men should repent. Now, this could be read, they
went out and preached in order to have this end, that men should
repent, or they preached this message, that men should repent. Now, what does repent mean? If you had asked the average
religious person, what does it mean to repent? They'd say, well,
it means to be sorry for your sins and confess them and not
commit them anymore. Because if you commit them again,
You prove you weren't really sincere in confessing them and
you weren't really nearly as sorry as you ought to be. That's not repentance. And someone
who preaches repentance in that manner has no understanding of
what repentance is in the first place. And they really have no
business trying to preach at all. They need to find something
else to do. The apostles said, repent, men should repent. Well, what does repent mean?
It's very simple. It means to change your mind.
You know what it is to change your mind. You feel strongly
about something and you change your mind. You feel completely
different about it. Now, if you dislike the character
of God, you dislike His sovereignty, You dislike His holiness. You
dislike His justice. You think He's too strict. You
think He's too severe. You dislike any of His attributes. You can't really say from your
heart, I love it that He's this way. If you are like that, repent. Change your mind. Ask God to
change your mind. Quit thinking that way about
the Lord. Think, aren't you glad He's sovereign? What if He wasn't?
That means the devil would have some kind of power. Aren't you
glad he can sovereignly choose to save sinners? Repent. Repent
of your bad thoughts about God. Think right thoughts. Change
your mind. All of his attributes are good. Now, if you disagree with what
is said about the character of man, his sinfulness, his wickedness,
how he can't bring anything to the table, that if he's left
to himself, he will not be saved. He has no love for God. He can't
believe. If you dislike that, if you dislike how the Bible describes man,
me, you, repent. Believe that what God says is
true. Believe the Bible is the Word of God and what the Word
of God says is true. Somebody says, well, I don't
even like the Bible being the Word of God. Repent of that.
Thank God for the Scripture. We've got a book where He tells
us who He is, who we are, and how He saved sinners by grace.
Be thankful for the Scriptures. If you fail to love the God of
election, repent. You need election. You won't
be saved without it. If you fail to love the God of
effectual atonement, Christ's perfect atonement for His elect,
repent of that. That's the only hope you have
is if Christ died for you. If you don't like the invincible
grace of the Holy Spirit, repent of that. You need the invincible
grace of the Holy Spirit. You won't be saved without it.
Oh, repent of all your wrong thoughts of God. Repent right
now and see that God is As he says he is, and there's hope
for a sinner like you because of the gospel. I like what Peter said after
the Lord had been preaching a message in John chapter 6, and he'd been
preaching about the things I'm speaking of. And some people
objected to what he said. They said, these are harsh sayings. These are hard sayings. We don't
like these sayings. These are hard sayings. Who can
be expected to listen to this? You know what Peter said with
regard to those same hard sayings? He said, Thou hast the words
of eternal life. These statements that these people
are complaining about, these are the words of eternal life.
And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son
of the living God. Do you believe in works and not
grace? Repent of that foolishness. You
can't be saved by anything you do. Do you believe in law over
gospel, that salvation is in some way conditioned upon what
you do? and you won't be saved until
you first do it. Repent of that foolishness and
believe the Gospel. Do you believe man's will is
what decides salvation over God's will? Repent of that foolishness. That's so foolish. Repent of
that foolishness. Know the only way you can be
saved is by God's will. Do you believe the Scriptures
and Repent. Look to the scriptures alone
as the only reason for what you believe what you believe. Repent
of the confessions and the creeds and that just muddies the water. You say, but they're accurate.
They're not the word of God. Repent of anything but the word
of God. Do you believe that Christ and
what you do is what's going to save you? Repent of that foolishness. It's Christ alone. Do you believe
salvation is by grace and what you do? Repent. It's grace alone. Do you believe it's faith and
your life? Repent. It's faith alone. Now, if I hear the gospel and
don't receive it, I'm in trouble. The men of Sodom and Gomorrah
We're going to have a better on judgment day than I will. And the thing to do, may the
Lord impress this on me right now, upon you right now, repent. Change your mind. You're thinking
the wrong way. There's nothing good about it.
This is the product of a heart that's desperately wicked and
deceitful above all things. Repent and believe the gospel. Now look at verse 13. Now these
men went out and preached that men should repent. Verse 13 says,
and they cast out many devils and they anointed with oil many
that were sick and healed them. I love the word many, not just
a few, but many. Not everybody, but many, many. That anointing of oil represents
the grace of the Holy Spirit that heals the soul and gives
somebody the grace to believe the gospel. Now, these men that
were sent out with the gospel, they were sent out with their
feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. They're
bound in their sandals. That's their message. And they
only have one coat. They preach the righteousness
of Christ only as everything in the sinner's salvation. Listen
to what they say. Believe the gospel. Receive the
gospel. And repent of anything contrary
to the gospel. Let's pray together. Lord, we ask in Christ's name
that you would grant us this true repentance that we might
be enabled to hear and to receive everything you say about your
character, the character of man, our character, and the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. How we thank you for your gospel. Bless this message for your glory
and for our good. In Christ's name we pray, amen.