Luke chapter 9. I want to bring
a message to you this morning from verse 1 down through verse
6 of Luke chapter 9. And I'm taking the title for
the message from the words found in the first part of verse 3.
Take nothing for your journey. Now think about that. Take nothing
for your journey. Now oftentimes when we plan to
take a trip and then we are getting ready and when we get ready to
go on that trip, it always involves doing some packing, doesn't it? You wouldn't dare go on a trip
without packing, would you? You pack up whatever you're going
to pack up. supplies maybe, some food, and certainly you would
take some extra clothes, wouldn't you? The longer you go on that
trip, the more you have to take, right? My dear wife packs up
everything she thinks we'll need for any trip we go on, even some
things we maybe don't need, but just in case. She plans out everything. She
packs everything up. plans everything out. But notice
here the Lord, our Lord is sending out his Apostle on the most important
journey of their life. A missionary journey preaching
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and he instructs them
to take nothing. What? Nothing. take nothing for
your journey, not a staff in your hand, not a backpack, not
a suitcase, not a script, take no bread, no money, and no extra
clothes." Wow! Isn't that something? That's
amazing, isn't it? He instructs them to take absolutely
nothing. The Lord is teaching them and
us that he will supply everything necessary for our journey right
here. The believer's journey in this
life is a journey of faith. He's sending them out by faith. You believe me and I'll supply
everything you need. The believer's journey here is
a journey and a life of faith. We read four times in the Word
of God where it says, the just shall live by faith. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 7, we walk
by faith, not by sight. The Lord said in Matthew 6, seek
ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these
other things I will supply for you. You see, everything we need
As believers, to sustain us in this life, and especially in
our spiritual life, the Lord has abundantly and freely supplied
for us in Christ everything. Not one thing lacking. He has
supplied everything we need. And He has done it through the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is the storehouse of mercy.
God who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all,
how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? The Lord Jesus Christ has made
to the believer wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. that according as it is written,
he that would glory, let him glory only in the Lord who provides
all our need according to his riches in glory through Christ
Jesus. Now I want us to consider these
verses and learn here the importance the Lord places upon preaching
the gospel of the kingdom of God, or the gospel of God concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ. He sent them out, it says in
verse 2, He sent them out to preach the kingdom of God, and
then it says in verse 6, and they departed and went out to
the town preaching the kingdom of God. Now listen carefully. He did not send the disciples
out to be social workers, and God's preachers are not social
workers. He did not send them out to be
counselors. We point sinners to the Lord
Jesus Christ, who is the mighty counselor. He didn't send them
out to be financial planners, or He didn't send them out to
get involved in politics or to be a politician. He sent them
out on one specific mission, and that is to preach the gospel,
to lift up Christ. He sent them out to be preachers
of the gospel. This alone is the preacher's
business. Preaching Christ. Preaching Christ
and Him crucified. The Apostle Paul put it this
way, I'm determined not to know anything among you, but Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. The Apostle Paul said this again,
woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel, necessity is laid
upon me to preach the gospel of God. And as we read in our
study this morning from Romans chapter 1, Paul says, for as
much as in me is, I'm ready to preach the gospel of God to you
who are at Rome and to the barbarian or the Scythian, wise, bond or
free. For the gospel of God, the gospel
is the power of God, the gospel of Christ is the power of God
and the salvation to everyone that believes it. He sent them
out preaching and healing And that is exactly what the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ is designed to do right now. He has sent us out to preach
the gospel, and then with that gospel, blessed to the heart,
the power of God and the Holy Spirit, you know what happens?
Healing. Healing! That's right. Healing! To make sinners who were dead,
whole. To make sinners who were dead
in sin, Alive and complete in Christ Jesus, and he does it
through the means that he is ordained What does it mean that
he is ordained exactly what I'm doing right now? It pleased God
through preaching to call out his people And his sheep will
hear him now take a look at verse 1 and verse 2 Luke 9 and he called
the twelve disciples together and he gave them, now first of
all he called them and then he gave them power and authority
over all devils to cure diseases and he sent them to preach the
kingdom of God or to set forth his lordship. When you talk about
the kingdom of God, doesn't the kingdom of God have to have a
king? The Lord Jesus Christ is King of Kings and He is Lord
of Lords. He called them, gave them everything
they needed, He equipped them, supplied them for the task He
called them unto, and He gave them gifts, ability, and desire
to carry out that task or that calling. We also see In this, the blessing of the
gospel to every believer. Now, don't overlook this. This
is also the blessing not only to those who are called to preach
the gospel, but also to those who are believers in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, how does it start? Verse
1 said, He called them. He called them. That's exactly
what God has done to all of His elect that He has called by the
gospel. He calls them. That is the effectual
and irresistible call of God with the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. You remember He walked in front
of a tomb of a man named Lazarus and He said, Lazarus come forth
and he that was dead came forth. You see, the gospel of God comes
with that irresistible call of God. Listen to this scripture
in 1 Corinthians, don't turn, let me just read it to you. But
we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews, a stumbling block,
unto the Greeks, it's foolishness, unto them which are called, called
of God. Both Jews or Greeks, Christ is
the power of God, and Christ is the wisdom of God. If God
has ever called you by the gospel, you know that the Lord Jesus
Christ is all the wisdom of God, and He's made unto you wisdom,
and He is all the power of God unto salvation. He calls us forth
with that irresistible call of God. Lazarus! come forth, and
Lazarus came forth. Zacchaeus, make haste and come
down. What's going to happen? There's
the call of God to a sinner up a tree. Zacchaeus, make haste,
come down. And he made haste, and he came
down. And then we also studied in Luke
chapter 5, the call of Matthew, where the Lord walked in front
of the table of Matthew the publican, he calls himself. Matthew, follow
me. And he did, he dropped all and
followed the Lord Jesus Christ. The point being is this, the
Lord will in due time cross the path of his elect with the gospel
and call them out of darkness into his marvelous light. His
sheep will hear it, will receive it, and will fall in love with
the Lord Jesus Christ, submit unto his lordship and believe
him. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of God's power." It's a call out of darkness to light,
out of death to life, out of bondage to liberty. He said,
my sheep, they will hear my voice. I know them and they will follow
me. There is also a special call
of God to the gospel ministry that is effectual, sent to those
who are called to preach the gospel of God's grace. So every
believer has been called to the Lord Jesus Christ. Secondly,
he says, and he gave them something. He gave them power. Do you see
that? He gave them power. Now, what
do we see in this? No man naturally has any spiritual
ability to come to Christ because we're dead in sin. We have no
power, no ability to believe the gospel, no ability to come
to Christ. We know that from John 6, verse
44, where it said, No man can come unto Me except the Father
which sent Me, draw him. You see, we only believe the
Gospel according to the working of His mighty power. You see, believing the Gospel,
is a miracle of God's grace. We only believe the gospel because
God has ordained us to eternal life, and because we are ordained
to eternal life, we believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And certainly it is also true
concerning the call of God to preach the gospel. No man can
preach the gospel unless God enables him to do so and sends
him with that message that glorifies Christ. So he called them, he
gave them power, and that's what he does for every believer. He
calls them with the gospel, gives them power, and then it says,
secondly, he gave them authority. Authority. He says here, he gave
them authority over devils and to cure diseases. And this is
what the gospel is designed to do, to heal the sick. You remember from Isaiah chapter
53 where it says, He was wounded for our transgression, He was
bruised for our iniquity, and with His stripes, through the
substitutionary sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, through
the shedding of His blood, we are, what's the word? The word
is, we are healed. You see, there is healing in
the atonement for lepers, He cleanses them. Turn back just
a few pages. Remember in Luke chapter 4, verse
18, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed
me to preach the gospel to the poor. Luke 4, 18. He has sent
me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliberate to the captive,
recovering of sight to the blind. He has sent me to preach the
gospel to the poor. to set at liberty. They will
do the bruise to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. You see, it's
the gospel of Christ itself that's the power of God and the salvation
that heals sinners who are sick and dead in sin. He has given us authority. He
has said, so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. He
will not forsake us. He will not leave us. Now, look
at verse 3 in Luke 9, verse 3. And he said unto them, take nothing
for your journey, not a staff, not a purse, not a bag, no bread,
no money, no extra clothes. Take nothing for your journey.
Our journey here as believers is a journey of faith. We read
in Matthew 10, freely have ye received. freely give. You see, He shall supply all
our need according to His riches in glory through the Lord Jesus
Christ. Genesis 22, you remember the
story of Abraham and Isaac going to the Mount Moriah to worship
God and Isaac said to his father, here is the knife, here is the
fire, where is the sacrifice? to worship God. He cannot worship
God without a blood sacrifice. You remember what Abraham said?
My son God will provide for himself a lamb. The Lord provides everything
that we need. He is Jehovah Jireh. Abraham in his journey. If you
want to turn, you can read with me. In Hebrews chapter 11, He
shall supply all our need. as we travel this life of faith
and sojourn here. In Hebrews chapter 11, it says
of Abraham verse 8, By faith Abraham when he was called to
go out, there's that call, which he should after receive for an
inheritance, he went out to a place which he after received for an
inheritance, he obeyed and he went out not knowing whether
he went By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in
a strange country dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac Jacob,
the heirs with him of the same promise, for he looked for a
city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."
That's the journey we're on. We're looking unto the Lord Jesus
Christ as we are journeying through, traveling through this life,
looking for that glorious city which hath foundation, which
is Christ. Now, he mentions five things
here that we're not to take in verse 3. He says, take nothing
for your journey, take no staff, no staff, no staff to lean upon. You see, we lean upon the everlasting
arms of Christ, Deuteronomy 33. The eternal God is our refuge,
underneath are the everlasting arms. So we take no staff because
we're leaning upon Christ. He says, take no script, no bag
to put provisions in. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ,
He is our portion. Psalm 16, the Lord is the portion
of my inheritance and my cup, thou maintainest my lot. To the
believer, the Lord Jesus Christ is all of our inheritance, incorruptible,
undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved for heaven in Him. We are made heirs of God and
joint heirs with Christ. Take no staff, we lean upon Christ. Take no baggage, Christ is our
portion, our inheritance. Take no bread, You see, Christ
is our bread. We feed upon the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I'm the bread of life.
He that cometh to me shall never hunger, shall never thirst. And
then he says, take no money. Now, can you imagine leaving
your home on a trip, taking no money? Now, I don't carry any
money, but I have one of those cards. Debit cards. But he says here, take no money.
Take no money. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ
paid the total debt of our sin, and He paid it with His own blood. You are bought with a price.
Therefore, honor and glorify Him. He bought us with His own
blood. We are redeemed with the precious
blood of Christ. Take no money. And then he says
here, take no extra coat. You see that? Why would he say
that? Well, to the believer, Christ
is our covering. Christ is our robe of righteousness. Christ is the garment of our
salvation. You see, that's the journey we're
on. We're in the journey, traveling, looking to Christ, resting in
Him, and we are clothed with His righteousness. Look at verse
4 and verse 5. And whatsoever house you enter
in, there abide. Abide in that house. And then
depart. Whosoever will not receive you
when you go out of that city, shake off the very dust from
your feet for a testimony against them. Whatever house you enter
in, abide in that house. But those who will not receive
you will not hear the message, will not receive the gospel message
of the kingdom, His lordship. He said, leave them, leave them
alone, and shake the dust off your feet. We read in Matthew
10, 40, He that receiveth you receiveth me. He that receiveth
me receiveth him that sent me. Here's another scripture to help
us understand that. Turn to Luke chapter 10. Luke
chapter 10, verse 16. Luke 10, verse 16. He that heareth
you... Now, this is what's involved
in preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a serious
matter to hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and to
reject it. He that heareth you, heareth
me. He that despises you, despises
me. He that despises me despises
him that sent me." It's a serious thing to hear the gospel and
to reject it. He said it would be better for
those in that day of judgment, it would be better for those
in Sodom and Gomorrah. than it would be for those who
reject the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in that day of judgment. But notice this word here in
Luke 9 verse 5, Whosoever will not receive you, or receive the
message. Now whatever is involved in receiving
Christ, I want to do that. I want to receive Him. Don't
you? Turn over here to John chapter
1. I want to receive the Lord Jesus
Christ in all that He is. I want to receive the whole Christ. The Christ of God and everything
about the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to receive Him as He's
revealed in the Word. John chapter 1, look at verse
11. He came unto His own, His own
people, His own nation, His own received Him not, verse 12, as
many as received Him, to them gave He right power to become
privileged, to become sons of God, even to them that believe
on His name, which were born, verse 13, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of God." Those who hear and receive
the gospel are those who have been born of God. And we receive,
saving faith receives the whole Christ. Everything about the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is deity, We receive Him as
God our Savior. We receive His true humanity.
The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. He is the God-Man Mediator. We receive His Lordship. Every knee is going to bow. Every
tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory
of God the Father. We receive Christ as all of our
righteousness before God. He is the Lord our righteousness. We count all else lost that we
might win Christ and be found in Him who is our righteousness. And we receive His atonement
for all our pardon, His blood atonement, His blood sacrifice.
We receive it all, don't we? We receive the whole Christ,
the whole Gospel. The gospel of God concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who will not receive the
gospel, he said in verse 5, shake off the very dust from your feet
for testimony against them. Now, that's strong, isn't it?
That is strong. Now, our authority in preaching
the gospel is the Word of God. God's ministers preach God's
truth. We declare God's gospel of the
free grace of God as it's revealed in the Word of God. We have no
time for debate. There was a preacher over in
town several years ago who came over here came in my front door
and wanted to debate with me. He wanted to have a public forum
and a public debate. He said, we can debate in the
newspaper, we can debate on the radio, we'll rent a hall over
here in town and we'll debate the issues. I said, the gospel
is not up for debate. I don't debate the issues, I
preach the gospel of God. We have no time to debate or
dispute with the worms of the dust concerning their thoughts,
their feelings about eternal redemption. We're sent to declare
the gospel. As it says in verse 6, they departed
and went through the town preaching the gospel. We're not social
workers, we're not politicians. If men hear you, they'll hear
him. If men hear you, they will hear Him who sent you. But if
they despise you, it's not you they despise, but the Christ
of God and His Word. If they reject you, shake the
dust off your feet as a witness against them and go somewhere
else and preach the gospel. Christ did not dispute with men. He preached the gospel to them. And I just read that article
that's in your bulletin this morning, and that's an article
by Pastor Mahan. That's our authority to preach,
is preaching Christ. And they departed and went out
and preached the gospel. Now, in what time I've got left,
I've got about 10 minutes left, so don't get anxious. Try to
preach about 35-40 minutes. They departed and went out through
the town preaching the gospel. Now they just didn't go out preaching.
Woods are full of preachers, did you know that? Everybody
and their brother is a preacher. That guy's a preacher, that guy's
a preacher. Sadly, there's not many gospel preachers. They went
out and preached the gospel. So preacher, tell me, what is
it then to preach the gospel? What is it then to preach the
gospel? Now, I'm going to give you the
outline that's on the back of your bulletin, and you can follow
along if you want to, or you can just listen to me. What is
it then? They went out preaching the gospel.
What is it then to preach the gospel? Is everybody that calls
himself a preacher preaching the gospel? No, they're not. The Apostle Paul said, "...though
I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of, for necessity is
laid upon me, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel."
Now I can say this too, if I do preach the gospel, and I do,
if you won't hear it, woe is unto you. Now I must preach the
gospel. I'm going to do that as long
as God gives me breath to do it. But what is it to preach
the gospel? And I ask this question, is everybody
preaching the gospel? Regrettably, no. It would be
great if all churches everywhere did preach the gospel, but this
is certainly not the case. Preaching the gospel involves,
the gospel of God, involves telling the truth as it's revealed from
Holy Scripture. Telling the truth about four
things. Telling the truth about God, who God is. Telling the
truth about man, who we are. Telling the truth about the Lord
Jesus Christ, who He is. And then telling the truth about
salvation. Salvation. Salvation is dependent
totally upon Salvation, you know, people say, well, salvation depends
upon you. That's a lie. That's a lie. Salvation depends upon Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ accomplished salvation. He said, when He died
at Calvary and bowed His head, He said, it's finished. He doesn't
say, oh, Joe paid a part and I paid a part. We put it together
and now it's done. No, it's finished. Who finished
it? He did. You see, salvation is His doing.
So, when we preach the gospel, the first thing we have to do
is to tell the truth about God, who God is. God is not who we think He is. All of our thoughts about God
are wrong. God is who He is as He's revealed in this book. So,
anything I know about God that's contrary to this book, Don't
believe it. We declare the truth about God
as he's revealed in the book. All men by nature have incorrect,
false notions about the true and living God. They say in religion
today, God loves everybody. That's not what this book says.
Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. God is love, but not
at the expense of His holiness. But God does not love all men
everywhere without exception. That is not taught in the Word
of God. The God that is revealed in Holy
Scripture is absolutely holy. Holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. We read this scripture, Revelation
15, verse 4, "...who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify
Thy name, for Thou only art holy." God is not only holy, holy, holy,
holy, Lord God Almighty, but God is also sovereign in all
things. What does that mean? What does
divine sovereignty mean? It simply means that God is God. Now if He's God, He's Almighty.
He's God in creation, God in providence, and He's God in salvation. He will have mercy on whom He
will. God is immutable, there's none else. He said, I am God,
there's none beside me. God is holy, sovereign, immutable
in all of His attributes and actions. He does not change. All that He is today, He has
ever been and will ever be. He is the eternal I am. Point number one. Number two.
And we could go on and on and on about God, our God, as He's
revealed in this book. And that's what we preach. We
preach the truth about the character of God, the attributes of God.
Secondly, we tell the truth about man, about us. Men, left to themselves, don't
like to hear the truth about God, nor about themselves. But we must be faithful to God
and to His Word. Man and men are the exact opposite
of everything that God is. God is holy. We are what? What's the opposite of holy?
Unholy. God is omnipotent. That means
he has all power. We are impotent. We are fallen
and frail. He is unchanging. We set the
clock ahead one hour. That didn't affect God. God never
changed. His timetable never changes. He never changes. We change all
the time. He said, I am the Lord, I change
not. Therefore, ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. The truth is,
man is fallen, totally depraved, and sinful in all of our actions,
deeds, and words. We are sinners through and through. Does that describe you? The man
who doesn't preach the total depravity of sinner is a man
who does not preach the gospel of God. The man who does not
preach the total absolute sovereignty of God in all things is a man
who does not preach the gospel of God. Now, here's the third
point. We tell the truth when we preach
the gospel of God. We tell the truth about the Lord
Jesus Christ, who He is. Who is the Lord Jesus Christ?
Well, He's not my buddy and my co-pilot. He's not just my friend. Who is the Lord Jesus Christ?
Fully and totally almighty God. He is God, our Savior, and when
He took humanity unto Himself, a real man. The Word was made
flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory
as of the own begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God
was manifest in the flesh. We tell the truth about who the
Lord Jesus Christ is. He's God, our Savior. When He
declared that He is God Almighty, you remember what those religious
Jews did? He said, I and my Father are one. What's He saying? He's declaring that He is the
Eternal God. What did they do? They picked up stones to stone
Him, to kill Him. Men don't like to hear the truth
about themselves, the truth about God, nor the truth about the
Lord Jesus Christ, His real person and what He did. What did the
Lord Jesus Christ accomplish at Calvary? Think about it. What did He do? Well, He died
for our sin, the sin of God's people, according to the Scriptures. He was buried and raised again
the third day according to the Scriptures, according to the
book. He accomplished salvation for us, put away all the sin
of God's elect, put away all the sin of God's people. It is
not true that the Lord Jesus Christ died for all of the sins
of all men. That's not taught in this book.
What's taught in this book is that He laid down His life for
the sheep. What's taught in this book, call His name Jesus, He
shall save His people from their sin. The man who says that Christ
died for all the sins of all men, he is not a gospel preacher
and he is not sin of God. That's just so. That's just so. You see, when you preach the
Gospel, you declare the effectual, redeeming work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He did redeem His people with
His blood. That's our whole hope, is it
not? When He died, He put away our sin so perfectly, so completely
that God said their sin and their iniquity will I remember no more. He cannot fail. And all that
he did. Here's the fourth thing. We tell
the truth about salvation. About salvation. Salvation is
of the Lord. That is, He planned it. He purposed
it, He executed it, He applies it, He accomplishes it, and He
keeps us by His power, by His grace. Every aspect of salvation,
from the beginning in election, where God had chosen the people
unto salvation, to the end of their glorification, salvation
is of the Lord. In its beginning and its ultimate
perfection is all of the Lord. Salvation is by His grace alone. Salvation is by grace. Did you
know that? What does that mean? That means
you had nothing to do with it. That's what that means. For by
grace are you saved. God saved us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to His own purpose
and grace given us in Christ before the foundation of the
world. God purposed the salvation of
His people by His grace before they were born into this life.
That's the God of the Scripture. Salvation is of the Lord. So
when we go and preach the gospel, that's what these men did. They
departed, they went through the town preaching the gospel and
healing. There's been a lot of folks that's
been healed with the gospel. Did you know that? Their sins have been put away,
and they've been made new creatures in Christ. By nature, they're
lepers. By nature, they're diseased and vile and wretched. But in
Christ, in Him dwells all the fullness of a Godhead bodily,
and we stand complete in Christ. In Christ, we stand complete.
You've got that outline on the back of your bulletin. Now you
take that outline, and next time someone asks you, what is the
gospel of God? Right here. We tell the truth
about God. About man, God is holy, men are
sinful. We tell the truth about the Lord
Jesus Christ. He is the effectual Redeemer
that really redeems His people from their sin. And salvation
is all of God, all of grace. Oh, may the Lord be pleased to
enable us to continue to preach this Gospel. This Gospel. The Gospel of God. And may God
enable us to believe it in our heart to the saving of our soul. Well, I can say with the Apostle,
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It's the power of
God unto salvation to everyone that believes it. Can you believe
it? By His grace, I do. Amen.