In those two scriptures that
I just read, he that is not against us, who's not opposed to us,
is with us. There is a wideness in that,
isn't there? I like that. He that's not opposed
to us, against us, is with us. And then the other scripture
I read, he that is not with me is against me. There is a narrowness
to that, a very narrowness. I've entitled this message wide
and narrow. wide and narrow. I do not want to be wider than
the word of God. And I do not want to be more
narrow than the word of God. Turn with me to Mark chapter
nine and let's look at Mark's account of this same thing. Verse 38. And John answered him, saying,
Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followed
not us. And we forbade him because he
followed not us. He wasn't with us. He was doing
it independently of us. But Jesus said, forbid him not. For there is no man which shall
do a miracle in my name that can lightly speak evil of me. For he that's not against us
is on our part, is on our side. Now here is somebody with a more
narrow view than the word of God. John looked at this man
casting out demons in the name of Christ. He wasn't doing it
independently of the gospel. He was casting out demons. in
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And John said, we forbade him
because he didn't follow us. He wasn't with us. He wasn't
in our group. So we decided to tell him he
should not be doing that. Now there is a great danger in
that kind of thinking. It comes from insecurity, with
regard to the truth. That's why someone would respond
that way. It comes with insecurity with
regard to the truth. It comes from our security being
us being in the right group of people. And if somebody outside
of our group is casting out demons in the Lord's name, We don't
feel comfortable. It's a thing of insecurity. If
somebody is saved outside of our group, then maybe we're not
saved after all. So we forbade him because he
followed not after us. Now, what's behind this kind
of thinking is self-righteousness. I've been guilty of it. You've
been guilty of it. Somebody that doesn't do things
exactly as us, we forbid them to do what they're doing. Now
there's another danger being wider than the word of God. We
see this danger of being more narrow. John was more narrow
here. He, uh, he did. There were other script people
in the scriptures that did this. Elijah. Remember when Elijah said, I'm
left alone and they seek my life. And the Lord said, no, I've reserved
to myself 7,000 men that you don't know anything about that
have not bowed their knee to the image of Baal, nor taken
in the kisses of his mouth. Now, there's another danger of
being whiter than the word of God. And what do I mean by that?
It means including people as God's children that God wouldn't. That's a very serious charge,
to include people as God's children that the Bible would never include
as his children. And the first example I thought
about was David. You know, when David numbered
the children of God without taking the atonement money, and he viewed
people as the children of God simply because of a census he
took, and there was no reference to the atonement and the half
shekel that you had to pay for the atonement money. These people
were viewed without the atonement. Well, they're just because they're
Israelites. They're the children of God. God killed 70,000 people
because of that. He put a horrible judgment on
David and David said, I've sinned a great sin. I mean, that was
his own confession of it. I've sinned a great sin. Now, when we try to make people
God's children who perhaps had never heard the gospel. Never
heard the gospel of God's grace or people who believe differently
than what the Bible says. There's somebody who believes
free will or works or something like that. And we think, well,
they're children of God. They make some kind of profession.
That's making things wider than the Bible does. You know, the
Lord said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes
to the Father but by me. Now, the reason people make things
wider than the word of God is either because they're trying
to protect their own false profession. I've seen this so many times.
They're either trying to protect their own false profession or
they're afraid of what it will cost them to take such a strong
stand regarding the truth of the gospel. And it's compromise
is what it is. It's compromise. I don't want
to be more narrow than the word of God. And I don't want to be
wider than the word of God. And it's very easy to fall into
any, either of these errors. You see so many examples in the
scripture where it happened. John did right here. You go on
down reading. I'm looking forward to preaching
on this where the Lord said to John, you don't know what spirit
you have when when some people didn't receive them. He said,
well, that's what we call down fire from heaven like Elijah
didn't consume them and destroy them. And the Lord said, you
know, not what spirit you're of. You don't even know what
you're saying. You know, Paul. did the other
thing in Acts chapter 21 when he was willing to offer up a
blood sacrifice. After the death of the Lord,
he was willing to offer up a blood sacrifice and he did so. But
he was getting ready to do so and the Lord had him arrested
before he had a chance to do it. Thank the Lord for that because
he might have brought severe a trial on himself for doing
such a horrible thing. I mean, after the Lord had already
died and was raised again, he was going to offer the vow of
the Nazarite, which included a blood sacrifice in Acts chapter
21, because he got tired of the conflict. He just got tired of
that. And I can understand that. Conflict
is tiring. And he was willing to do something. And there was a compromise with
the gospel when he did that. And the Lord mercifully had him
arrested before he could do that. He was making things wider. Now, I want to be as wide as
God's word, and I want to be as narrow as God's word. Now
stay here in Mark chapter 9. And John answered him saying,
Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followed
not us. We forbade him because he followed
not us. But Jesus said, forbid him not. For there is no man
Which shall do a miracle in my name that can lightly speak evil
of me. Now, that's the key. What does
a man do in his name? And to do something in the name
of Christ, look back at verse 37 of the same chapter. Whosoever
shall receive one of such children in my name. receives me. Verse 38, John answered him saying,
Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followed
not us. But Jesus said, forbid him not,
for there's no man which should do a miracle in my name that
can lightly speak evil of me. Now, to do something in the name
of Christ doesn't simply mean to use his name audibly. We use
His name audibly. You know, I've heard sermons
where I didn't even hear the name of the Lord mentioned. And there's no way
that sermon is any good if the name of the Lord's not mentioned.
I want to say His name a lot. I love His name. I love the Lord
Jesus Christ. I love His name. I want to say
it. He's my Lord. He's the Savior. He's God's Christ. He's God's prophet. He's God's
priest. He's God's king. This fellow was casting out these
demons. He was doing these miracles or whatever works of power in
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we want to use his name,
but it doesn't simply mean speaking his name. audibly. You know,
the sons of Sceva did that. I think of that passage of scripture
in Acts chapter 19, where the sons of Sceva, they decided they
were going to get rid of some demons. And they said, I command
you to get out of him in the Jesus and Paul priest. And that
demon said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you?
And he fled on them and whipped them, and they had to run Naked
and wounded, the scripture says, out of the place where they tried
that. You know, they used the name, but they didn't know the
one behind the name. No man can use my name and lightly
speak evil of me. If we really know his name, oh,
we're very careful with his name. I think of the names of the Lord.
Turn with me to Acts chapter three. Acts chapter three. Verse 12. And when Peter saw it, this is
after that lame man had been healed through Peter. And when
Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, ye men of Israel,
why marvel ye at this? Or why look ye so earnestly on
us? As though by our own power or holiness, we made this man
to walk. The God of April. and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the
God of our fathers, hath glorified his son Jesus, whom you delivered
up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate when he was determined
to let him go. But you denied the Holy One and the just, and
desired a murderer to be granted unto you, and killed the Prince
of life, whom God hath raised from the dead, whereof we are
all witnesses, and his name. Through faith in his name hath
made this man strong. It didn't have anything to do
with me. It was faith in his name that made this man strong.
Whom you see and know, yea, the faith which is by him hath given
him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. It wasn't
me that did this. It was the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now I want you to think for a
few moments about the preciousness of his name. Now no man can speak
lightly in my name. His name is Jehovah. God our Savior. His name is Jehovah-Jireh. God will provide. All that God requires of me,
He provides for me. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't His
name glorious? Everything He requires of me,
He provides for me. He doesn't look for a thing out
of me. He provides it all. His name
is Jehovah Rapha, Exodus 15, 26. I am the Lord that healeth
thee. Now sin, in some respects, You don't look
at sin as a disease because that would make it not your fault.
My sin is all my fault. But it's also true, sin is a
disease, isn't it? It's a disease. You know, David
said, my loins are filled with a loathsome disease and there's
no soundness in my flesh. And sin is a disease to a believer. It's a disease he wants delivered
from. And thank God, God promises,
I am the Lord that healeth thee. Now, I've been healed physically.
Every time I've been sick and I'm healed, it's the Lord who
heals me. I've had cancer twice and the Lord healed me. But the
kind of healing I'm really interested in is by whose stripes you were
healed. There's healing in the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ for every disease of sin. I am the Lord that healeth thee. He's called Jehovah Nissi in
Exodus 17, 15, the Lord, our banner. You see, he is our message. He, oh I wish I could say this
the way I ought to say it, we don't preach a doctrine, we preach
a person. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit, He is our message. And what we believe
is determined by who we believe. This isn't just trying to get
people indoctrinated and get them straightened out so that
they're more accurate in doctrine. No. We preach Him. We preach Christ crucified, Paul
said. We preach. Christ crucified. His person and His work. He is
our message. And you know, I preach as an
ambassador of Christ. I know Him. I know Him. And I'm
bearing witness to His person. I know His gospel. I'm preaching
as a witness of a person. Thou shalt be His witness. That's what every believer is.
We're testifying of a person. And then there's Jehovah Shalom
in Judges 624, the Lord our peace. I have peace. You know, it's
one thing to say it though, but if you ever, if you ask pretty
much any religious person, do you have peace? They'd say, yes,
it's one thing to say it. And it's another thing to possess
it. I have peace. Peace is a feeling. It's a wonderful
feeling. I have peace. Now why do I have
peace? Colossians 1.20 says, for he
hath made peace through the blood of his cross. Now here's why
I have peace. I have peace because Christ completely made my peace
before God. As a matter of fact, Ephesians
2.14 says, he is our peace. He himself is our peace. Jehovah shalom, the Lord our
peace. And there's Jehovah-Raha, Psalm
23, verse 1. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want because the
Lord's my shepherd. What a shepherd he is. And I
shall not want anything because my shepherd is the Lord. And then there's Jeremiah 23,
verse six, Jehovah said, can you, the Lord, our righteousness. Now this is who he is the Lord,
our righteousness. I have a righteousness before
God that God is pleased with. It's the righteousness of the
Lord, Jesus Christ. I love saying this. My righteousness
is not based upon the righteousness of Christ. My righteousness is
the very righteousness of Jesus Christ. That's my righteousness
before God. Now, no one can preach His name.
If somebody's preaching Him, the Lord our righteousness, we're
for Him, aren't we? Whether we know Him or not, we're
for Him. And then there's Jehovah Shammah. Exodus 48, or Ezekiel
48, 35, the Lord is present. If I thought I would never have
the presence of the Lord, I'd rather just, all I want is his
presence. I want to be in His presence.
I want to spend eternity in His presence. And I want His presence
right now. I want to hear Him say to me,
I am by salvation. But here's the glorious part. Whether I feel His presence or
not, I've got it. Because the Lord is present. And here's one you may have not
heard before. I gave the seven, but there's
one other in Scripture. It's called, it's the 8th, Jehovah
Im-Kedesh. Ezekiel 20 verse 12, I am the
Lord that sanctifies thee. Sanctification is that beautiful,
glorious word that describes God's salvation. Sanctification
of the Father, God chose us. Sanctification of the Son, He
declared us to be holy through what the Lord did. Sanctification
of the Spirit, that's the work of regeneration. It's all God's
work. I am he that sanctified thee. That shows us how completely
salvation is of the Lord. This is the name that we call
on, Romans 10, 13. We're calling on that name and
all that name represents. And doing a miracle in his name
is a complete reliance upon all his name, all that it sets forth. The name of the Lord, I love
this proverb, the name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run into it and
they're safe. I'm running into his name right
now, that strong tower of the Lord. Now, the person who loves
Christ cannot flippantly say something evil regarding Christ.
Now, we judge a man by what he thinks of Christ. That's the
only issue. What think ye of Christ? I don't
care what you think about anything else. What think ye of Christ? If he loves Christ, the Christ
of Scripture, he's my brother. Go on, keep casting them out
in his name. Forbid him not. And then verse
40 of Mark, chapter nine. The Lord says. For he that's not against us,
he that's not opposed to us. He is on our part. He is on our
side. Now, I don't want to be too guilty.
I don't want to be guilty of being too narrow. You know, one
of the things I got to think about, you know, we don't need
to worry in the preaching of the gospel about one of the non-elect
getting in. Don't need to worry about that.
All of God's elect will come in and we want to preach the
gospel in a clear manner. And remember this, the gospel
in its very nature and the preaching of the gospel, the gospel in
its very nature is inclusive. It brings men in. It doesn't
keep men out. Men are already excluded. It
brings men in. And I want to preach the gospel
just like that. I want to be just like Moses
was when he said to his father-in-law, come with us. will do thee good. The Lord has spoken good concerning
Israel. I turn to Matthew chapter 12. The Lord says, he that is not
with me, he that is not with me actively with me is against
me. And he that gathers not with
me scatters abroad. If I'm not with Christ, I'm against
him. There is no neutral ground. There is no non-affiliation. Christ is either all to me or
he is nothing to me. There's no in-between. There's
no middle ground. You know, regarding the gospel.
The truth, I remember back on Grace Chapel, when we first started
this church back 30 some years ago, and I remember Brother Mahan
coming and preaching a message, and he preached over two hours
in this one message. And everybody, nobody wanted
him to stop. But I remember in this message,
he preached for two hours. Now, I don't suggest generally
people preaching two hours. I'd like to see what happens
if I do it. Everybody would walk out, I'm sure. But he was preaching
this message, and he entitled it Six Stubborn Statements. And it was an outline from Barnard,
and you've all heard it before. God is either absolutely sovereign
or man is in control. There's no in-between. Second statement, men are either
dead in sins, unable to do anything to save themselves, totally dependent
upon God, or men can save themselves. There's no in-between. The third
statement was God either unconditionally, and I like that word unconditional,
unconditionally elected a people without any reference to any
goodness or foreseen merit in them. He did it simply as an
act of his will or election as according to men's works. There's
no in between. When Christ died, he either saved
men Save the elect or he made salvation
available to all and actually saved none and man is his own
savior. There's no in between. Christ
either accomplished salvation for the elect or he didn't. Now
if someone tries to blend these things together, they're compromising
the gospel. They're not preaching the gospel.
They're not telling the truth. God's grace is either irresistible,
conquers, or it can be resisted, but there's no in-between. And
God's people either persevere all the way to the end, or they
can fall away, but there's no in-between. Now, in my preaching
the gospel, I want to be as narrow as God is. Someone who doesn't
preach what I just preached does not preach the gospel. Now, it's
the double-minded man that makes it wider than God does. He's
divided in his interests. Therefore, he takes both sides
to cover all of his bases. He's like those folks that halt
between two opinions that Elijah warned us about. Now, what does
it mean to be on the Lord's side? He said, he that's not against
us, he's on our side, he's on our part. Now, what does it mean
to be on the Lord's side? Am I on the Lord's side? That's
the question I want to deal with. Am I? Are you actually, positively,
consciously on the Lord's side? You know, people take sides,
Republicans and Democrats and conservatives and liberals and
so on. You know, somebody called me just this week and they asked
me, can you have the church come out to Frankfurt to take part
in. in protesting what happened in
that case with the young black man and what the security guard
did to him. And I said, well, I've got an
opinion about that, that I believe, but that's not what the church,
I'm not gonna take sides about something like that. That's what the church
is for. We're not trying to make political sides or make statements
about things that happen in society. I won't do that. And I said,
it's wrong for you to do it. And she said, okay, blah. You know,
so that didn't last long. But that's just not what the
church is called upon to do. You know, I want to be turning
to Joshua chapter five. This is a true, a true story. Someone actually said to Lincoln
when they were trying to abolish slavery, which was a very noble
thing, they said to Lincoln, they said, do you reckon the
Lord's on our side? He said, I don't know about that, but
I sure hope we're on his side. And that's what I want. I want
to be on his side. I'm not so much. Am I on his
side? Now look here in Joshua chapter
five, verse 13. And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho,
that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, there stood
a man over against him with a sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua
went unto him, and he said, Are you for us or for our adversaries? Are you on our side or are you
on the side of our enemies? And he said, Neither. But as
the captain of the host of the Lord am I now come. The Lord
doesn't take sides. He's not on one side. He doesn't
do that. He's the Lord. He's the captain
of the Lord of hosts. And Joshua fell on his face to
the earth and did worship and said unto him, what saith my
Lord unto his servant? And the captain of the Lord's
host said unto Joshua, loose thy shoe from off thy foot for
the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so. Would you turn with me to Exodus
32? Exodus 32. Am I on the Lord's side? Now,
this is right after the golden calf incident. Verse 25. And when Moses saw
that the people were naked, for Aaron had made them naked under
their shame among their enemies, then Moses stood in the gate
of the camp and he said, who is on the Lord's side? Let him come to me. And all the
sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. And he said
unto them, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, put every man
his sword by side and go in and out from gate to gate throughout
the camp and slay every man his brother and every man his companion
and every man his neighbor. And the children of Levi did
according to the word of Moses. And there fell of the people
that day about 3000 men. Now, I'm either on the Lord's side
or I'm on the devil's side. I'm either a child of God or
I'm a child of the devil. Being on the devil's side is
expressed in being on man's side. Now when you think of all the
objections to the gospel we hear, how could it be How can it be
fair for God to not elect everybody and just elect a particular people?
How can it be fair for Christ to only die for the elect? How
can it be fair? You know what that is? That's
being on man's side. That's all it is. When I make
an objection like that, all I prove is I'm not on the Lord's side.
I'm on man's side. The Lord does have a place called
his side and it's identifiable. You know, People on his side,
they're very concerned about this one issue. Who gets the
glory? Who gets the glory? When we're on the Lord's side,
not only are we concerned about who gets the glory, when we're
on the Lord's side, we take his side against ourself. Have you ever done that? Have
you ever taken sides with God against yourself? That's what
you do when you're on the Lord's side. You're not on your side.
You're on his side and you take his side against yourself. When we're on his side, we are
opposed to all that is opposed to him. We certainly don't object
to his way of saving sinners. Let me give you some scriptures.
David said this. He said, do not I hate them that
hate thee. Let me make sure you read this
in the scripture. Turn to Psalm 139. Verse 19, he says, Surely thou
wilt slay the wicked, O God. Depart from me therefore, ye
bloody men, for they speak evil against thee, wickedly, and thine
enemies take thy name in vain. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that
hate thee? And am I not grieved with those
that rise up against thee? I hate them with a perfect hatred.
I count them mine enemies. Now that kind of hatred isn't
human hatred, you know that. This has something to do with
his hatred against the Lord's enemies. Now, was David wrong
when he said that? Obviously he wasn't. He was inspired
by God the Holy Spirit. Was Paul being harsh when he
said, if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be
anathema, maranatha, may he be damned. Let me ask you this.
If somebody dies hating Christ and having no love to the Lord
Jesus Christ, if they die in that condition, where should
they be? In heaven? No. No. Somebody that doesn't love
him who is altogether lovely ought to be damned. Now is that
a wrong thought? No. It's a scriptural thought.
What about when Paul said, if any man preach any other gospel
than that which we preached unto you, let him be accursed. That's
because he's on the Lord's side. That's why he spoke in that kind
of language. There's man's side and there
is the Lord's side. Now, we love men. This is not
talking about us hating men. We want men to come. Everybody
I preach to, everybody in this room, I want you to come to know
the Lord. I want you to be saved by His
grace. I want you to walk with Him. This is not talking about
having a rotten attitude toward men. But still, we're on the
Lord's side. We're not going to change the
truth of God in order to keep people happy. We're not going
to change. Lord, you know, Paul put it this way. He said, if
I please men, I wouldn't be the servant of Christ. That's what
he said. This is not about pleasing men.
This is about pleasing Him. Being on His side. Now, if I'm on His side, you
know what? He's for me. If God be for us,
who can be against us? Now, I want to leave you with
this unalterable law. Turn to 1 Samuel chapter 2. This is true with regard to believers,
with unbelievers. This is just a law. This is the
way it is. 1 Samuel 2, verse 30. Wherefore the Lord God of Israel
saith, I said indeed that thy house and the house of thy father
should walk before me forever. He's talking to Eli. But now
the Lord saith, be it far from me, for them that honor me, I
will honor. And they that despise me shall
be lightly esteemed. Now here is a law. Those that
honor God, he will honor. Now that's his promise. And those
who despise him shall be lightly esteemed of him. And there's
so many examples of this in the scripture. What about Cain and
Abel? Abel honored the Lord. You know
how he honored him? He didn't come any other way
but through the blood of the lamb. That's the only way he
would dare come. And God had respect to him and
God honored him. Cain, he had no respect for God. He came bringing his own works.
Surely God would accept these. I would. He lightly esteemed
and despised God and God despised him. There's so many other examples. What about Moses and Pharaoh?
You know, the Lord spake. face to face with Moses as a
man speaks with his friend. And then Pharaoh said, who is
the Lord that I should obey him? Well, God, he honored Moses. And Pharaoh, he said, even for
this same purpose have I raised thee up that I might show my
power in thee and that my name might be declared throughout
all the earth. And you look even in believers
lives. Abraham and Lot were both believers. There's no question
about that. Abraham and Lot were both believers.
And Lot despised the Lord when he pitched his tent toward Sodom.
He didn't really care. He just went ahead and went his
way. He said, I'm going to have my way. And he did it. And you
look at his life compared to Abraham's. What about David? When David, the Lord said to
David, wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord to
do evil in his sight? And because of that, The sword
never departed from his house and to despise him and his commandment
is to disesteem and to disrespect him. The question, the issue
is how can two walk together except they be agreed? Can't
be done, can it? How can two walk together except
they be agreed? Now here's, to be on the Lord's
side is to be in agreement with all he says. What's a man got
to believe to be saved? Everything that God says. I want to be on the Lord's side.
I want to, first of all, be found in Christ, and I want to be on
His side. Because the Lord said, he that's
not with us, he's against us. I don't want to be one of those
people, do you? One of those people who are opposed to God.
But the Lord also said, he that's with us, that's where I want
to be. He that's with us, he's not against us, he's on our side.
Let's pray together.