[0:00] So in Luke chapter 9, we read at verse 1 and 2. Then he called his 12 disciples together and gave them power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases.
[0:12] And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. This is a passage of which we're probably reasonably familiar in the gospel accounts.
[0:23] We know how Jesus sent out, first of all, his 12 apostles. And then a little later on, as Luke makes clear at the beginning of chapter 10, after these things, the Lord appointed other 70 also and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whether he himself would come.
[0:40] Our Lord, we know, to have been constrained by the fact of his physical body. Although he is God the Son, who from all eternity has filled the heavens and the earth, when he becomes human flesh in the womb of the Virgin, he is constricted.
[0:56] That means that he can only be in one place at one time. And there's so much ground to cover. And he sends forth then his apostles by two and two.
[1:07] And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. So that six times, assuming he sends them out in these pairs, that six times as much ground can be covered as was by Jesus himself.
[1:22] And when he sends out the 70, then 35 times as much ground can be covered as was before. And yet still, of course, not everyone will receive and believe.
[1:34] But I want us to notice here at verse 1, he called his 12 apostles together and gave them power and he sent them to preach the kingdom. They don't have that power until and unless they are brought and called to him.
[1:50] There is no strength in and of themselves. Neither Thomas nor Peter nor Andrew, James, John or any of the others have any power in and of themselves. And although Jesus gives them power over devils and to cure diseases and so on, we must take it that this authority coming from him, either they only have it for a time or they're only able to trust in it whilst they're actually on this commission that he gives them.
[2:20] Because we read verse 10, the apostles, when they were returned, told them all that they had done and he took them and went aside privately into a desert place belonging to a city called Bethsaida.
[2:31] Now we know, of course, from the Mount of Transfiguration, how when Jesus is up there, when the disciples, when somebody brings to them a child who is possessed with a demon, they can't cast out that devil.
[2:46] And yet Jesus says that they probably should have been able to. They should have been able to because he's given them authority and they ought to have the faith sufficient in him. But what's missing?
[2:58] What's the reason of it? He says lack of faith or lack of faith and fasting. What do we take by that? I would suggest to you that we take it that they hadn't maintained the closeness of their drawing of strength from Jesus day by day.
[3:14] They believed enough in the power that he had given them when he sent them out. But either they then thought, well, that's it. You don't need to worry about it anymore. Well, you've got this power in ourselves, which of course they don't.
[3:25] It's only from Christ. Or they hadn't continually returned, as it were, to the fountain from whence that water of life is given. If you're going out into a desert, you fill your water bottle at a trickling stream of ice cold water.
[3:41] And it's lovely and you drink it and you fill your bottle and you go out into the heat. And over the course of time, you keep drinking a bit and drinking a bit. Eventually, your water bottle goes dry. And unless you keep going back to that fountain, unless you keep returning again to the source of water, it will not help you that there was a time when your bottle was full.
[4:00] That's great. Your bottle was full. But it's drunk now. You have to keep going back to the source. The disciples clearly had power over all the devils and diseases and so on that the Lord had given them.
[4:15] And we read that when he sent out the seventy other also, we read at verse 17 of chapter 10, the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.
[4:28] Now, it is likely that the disciples and perhaps the general population of Palestine at the time, and probably we ourselves nowadays make the same kind of mistake, insofar as we tend to focus on that which is what we might call the spectacular.
[4:51] We might call the signs and wonders sort of thing. Because he gave them power over all devils and to cure diseases. He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. And we think, oh, if only there was that kind of power today.
[5:03] If only we had power to cast out devils. If only we had power to heal the sick and do all these wondrous works. Then that would be great to cure diseases and so on. Well, in a sense, the Lord gives these powers where they are needed.
[5:18] He's not going to give them where they are not explicitly needed. Do we need the power to cure diseases or do we have a health service to build? Do we have doctors and nurses need at hand?
[5:30] Do we have medical care that we can turn to? Well, yes, we do. So we are not ourselves in need of that particular gift. Unlike the first century Palestine population, who didn't have any kind of medical care at all, really.
[5:45] Do we need the power to cast out devils? Well, the devil is very active everywhere we go. And we might think, of course, that in those days, well, change everywhere you turn. There's devils in every person.
[5:57] Every second person seemed to be possessed with devils. They're constantly around. Was this just how people viewed illness or disability in those days? I would suggest to you not.
[6:08] I would suggest that in those days, when the whole world, such population as covered the world in those days, was by and large heathen, except for the children of Israel, who alone had knowledge of the true God, at least in as much as he had revealed himself to them then, that they had knowledge of the true God and worshipped the true God, however imperfectly, that the rest of the world, the devil didn't need to worry too much about it.
[6:36] Because as long as people are worshipping false gods or the starry hosts of heaven or whatever, they're not going to be saved anyway. So he can sort of leave them to go their own pagan ways. But where the Lord is worshipped and where the truth of God is practiced, as it would be in the Holy Land amongst the people of the Jews, there the devil would be marshalling his forces.
[6:56] There the devil would be extremely active. And when the Son of God appears on earth, then the devil is going to draft in all his little demons and as many as he can muster to oppose him.
[7:09] I would suggest to you that this is probably one reason why there seems to be such an intensity of demon possession in first century Palestine.
[7:20] It's not simply that, you know, oh, this is what people believed in in those days. This is what you jolly well better believe in all ages, because the devil is real and powerful, and he can take possession of any soul that is unguarded and unprotected by a greater power than himself.
[7:40] Unless we have the protection of Christ, we are wide open to the devil just walking in and doing what he wants with our lives. He doesn't tend to do demon possession in a big way with those that he doesn't need to.
[7:53] Because if he can just let somebody mosey on their way to hell through quiet unbelief or just indifference, then he's quite happy for that. Yeah, just have a nice time. Eat, drink, be merry, and then one day you'll open your eyes and hell, that's fine, there's another soul in there.
[8:08] He's not going to do anything dramatic. He's not going to do anything that's going to attract attention or make the Lord come into a meal. No, he can send multitudes to hell just with indifference.
[8:19] That's what he's going to choose if he can. But where the Lord himself is active, you will find that the devil himself is far more involved directly.
[8:31] And I would suggest to you that in this comparatively small geographical area of first century Palestine, the reason the devil is so involved is because Christ himself is there.
[8:44] And where Christ is active, the devil will be active. And it's not that everybody in all the world believed in all this demon possession and so on. It's that the demon possession was happening in a big way in Palestine because the devil was active because Christ was present.
[9:01] You ever notice that? But where, for example, the gospel is just sort of liberal indifference kind of throughout the churches, you know, there's no hostility really amongst the unbelieving world.
[9:13] You know, there's this old empty church on the hill. We don't, nobody really goes. There's a few that do that. There's enough people we leave them to it and they leave us alone and we don't do anything. And what they do there, what they read there, what they believe there, well, it's all kind of liberal, easy, easy sort of stuff.
[9:29] It doesn't threaten anyone. So that's, it's left alone. But where there is a high proportion of believers in a place, where there is believing, Bible-believing, gospel Christianity, you will find that amongst the unbelieving population there will be a far higher significant proportion of those who aren't just indifferent but who are intensely anti-Christian.
[9:55] Where the gospel is active, there will be a higher proportion of those who loathe, and hate the gospel, the church, and all the things of God.
[10:06] Because where the Lord is active, the devil will be active. Now, it's in this context that we need, I think, to recognize Jesus arming and equipping his disciples as he sends them out.
[10:19] He gave them power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases, and he sent them to preach the kingdom of God. Now, there's a distinction here as well.
[10:30] He has given them power, by which they're not meant to just go using right, left, and say, oh, zap power, let's cast out the demon here, let's have some fun here, do something spectacular.
[10:41] No, they're harmed against that when it happens, but rather this is to be a means of dealing with obstacles and opposition that may come their way.
[10:52] He has not sent them to cast out demons and cure diseases. He has rather given them power and authority over all these things, should they require it.
[11:05] Notice the distinction between verses 1 and 2. He has given them power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases, but he sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.
[11:20] Now, this is not just one preacher saying, you say, oh, preaching is so much more important than these other things. No, the point is that the disciples' task is to make known the kingdom of God.
[11:32] By their preaching, they are effectively to say what Christ himself says at the beginning of his own gospel accounts. At the beginning, for example, if we go to the beginning of Mark's account of the gospel, we find that like John before him, he comes and he says, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
[11:53] This is when Jesus comes into Galilee, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The kingdom of God has come to you. The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel.
[12:06] Once John is in prison, that's what Jesus comes to do. And then when he, after he's cured people, after he's healed people, and he goes away privately to go and pray and so on, and they come and they seek him out.
[12:18] He departed into a solitary place. This is still Mark chapter 1. They are praying. Simon and they that were with him followed after him. When they had found him, they said to him, all men seek for thee. And he said unto thee, let us go into the next town that I may preach there also.
[12:31] For therefore came I forth. That's why I came. You know, yes, the casting out of demons or the healing of diseases, this is removing the obstacles in the way.
[12:42] It's rather like if someone were to, you know, at the time when the Stapley Bridge remained 20 years ago, if you'll say, oh, wow, look at these cranes, and all that concrete they're pouring down, and all these strong kind of pillars they're putting in, and all the wire crisscross work, but then they fill with the concrete.
[12:59] They go, look at all this work of engineering. It's fantastic. Isn't it amazing? And eventually the work he's done in the cranes and all the big machines go away, and here's your bridge.
[13:10] And everybody can go backwards and forwards across the bridge. They've been doing it for 20 years. But no, it's not spectacular now. It's just there. But by this means, people can travel backwards and forwards in a way that they couldn't do before.
[13:23] And this is the point that Jesus is here to make, to open, as it were, the road, to open the bridge between heaven and earth. And in order to remove the obstacles, all the equivalent of the spiritual machinery that comes along to remove the devils or cure the sick or whatever, so that people will be open to it, so they'll see why there really is power in this kind of message, in this gospel, in this kingdom.
[13:51] His purpose is to open the way between heaven and earth, that way for which people must be prepared, which has come amongst them. The kingdom of God has come unto you.
[14:03] He wants people clearly at this stage to know the kingdom of God is there and that he is one means of bringing it thus far. But clearly, from what he says to the disciples a little further on, verse 21 and 22, he straightly charged them, commanded them to tell no man that thing, that he was the Christ of God.
[14:22] He wants to know what people think of him. He's glad that they think positively of him, but he doesn't want them to know yet that he is the Christ of God, saying the Son of Man must, we might understand this, must yet suffer many things, be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be slain and be raised the third day.
[14:43] In other words, nothing is to interfere with this. He doesn't want the people to make a big crowd and carry him shoulder high and say, yeah, this is the Messiah, so that the entry into Jerusalem becomes a great big wave of public rebellion against the Romans and, oh, this is going to be our new kingdom.
[15:00] This is our king. Isn't it wonderful? No. First of all, he must be betrayed. He must be crucified. He must be killed. He must rise again the third day. All of these things have to come to pass, but all the good that he does and all the opening of the way of heaven to those who are lost sinners, all of this is laying the groundwork for that pivotal event so that when he rises from the dead, then people say, actually, yes, that all makes sense because remember what he said before, remember what he taught before, remember what he did before, before he was giving authority to his disciples to clear away the obstacles.
[15:41] If people were blind to open their eyes, if people were lepers to have them cleansed, if people had died to raise the dead, if people were demon-possessed to cast out the demons, to take away all the obstructions so that people would be able to focus upon the Lord and to be able to say, yes, the Lord has come to us.
[16:03] The kingdom of God has come to us. That's the purpose for which Jesus is sending out his disciples. Yes, he gave them power and authority over all devils and acute diseases, but that's not the main message.
[16:18] And that's not what Jesus claims is his main message. Let us go into the next times, he said, that I may preach there also for therefore came I forth to preach the kingdom of God, to make known the presence of God amongst people.
[16:33] You see, one of the instruments the devil seeks to use is not just demon possession or letting people go to hell in their own way, but also ignorance.
[16:45] As long as he can keep people in ignorance, then multitudes will depart this life without ever knowing about the presence of the Lord there to save them. They will drown without knowing there's a rescue rope just dangling down in front of you.
[16:59] If you just look the other way, here's the lifeboat coming to save you. If they don't know about it, they won't trust in it. So it is to make known the presence of the Lord, the work of the Lord, the activity of the Lord amongst them.
[17:14] That's his primary purpose because they cannot trust in one whom they do not know. They cannot know one of whom they have not heard.
[17:24] This is why he sends them out. This is the purpose for which he is sending forth the disciples as we hear. Whosoever, as Paul writes to the Romans, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
[17:38] How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent?
[17:48] Jesus is the one sending his disciples here. He sent them to preach the kingdom. He didn't send them to do all these other things. That is by the way.
[18:00] It is necessary. It is part of it. But it's like all the cranes and the concrete and the hard core and all the engineering necessary to build the Scalty Bridge. The purpose is to get the bridge there so that people can go backwards and forwards across it.
[18:14] So that there won't be any more of this gulf between our island and the mainland. And the purpose of all the spectacular casting out of demons and healing of disease and all that was done in the days of the apostles there is in order to clear the way, to open the way to heaven through Jesus Christ.
[18:32] They are not yet to know that it's him personally in case they try to season him and make him an earthly king. That's not his purpose. But when the time comes, then they are sent out to tell everyone that it is Jesus.
[18:48] The Son of God. But the time is not yet. Now, what does that say to us if the time is not yet? Well, the time is so for us now. Surely in this day and age now we're to trust in Jesus, yes.
[19:00] But perhaps all these years, all these days of your life thus far, the time has not been yet that you've been able to put your trust in him. That you've been able to believe and hope and commit yourself to him.
[19:14] Maybe for your own life, this is the equivalent of Jesus having said, don't tell them yet. The time will come because the Son of Man must suffer many things. Now we know what he suffered.
[19:26] Now we know about his crucifixion. Now we know about his death. Now we know about how he was rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes. Now we know how he died on the cross and how he rose again the third day.
[19:39] We know of his death and resurrection. We know now of how the forgiveness of sin is purchased by that sacrifice. But maybe it didn't sink into us before.
[19:52] But now the way is open for us to receive it. Now the way is open for us to receive and believe. How many days of our lives must pass without just laying hold upon this new way of life.
[20:08] Old ways of life of trying to do good and do my best and be a good person. That may be very nice at times of letting you get on with your neighbors. But it will not get you to heaven.
[20:19] It will not save you. The only thing that will save you is Christ. And he sent forth his disciples to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick so that people would know.
[20:32] So that the knowledge of Christ, the knowledge of the way to the kingdom of heaven would become known. The kingdom of heaven is amongst you. That's what Jesus himself preached.
[20:43] The Lord is here. It's to make him known. Ignorance is the tool of the devil. Knowledge is the instrument of God. As I've mentioned so many times in the past, why do you think the devil is so intent on removing Bibles from every public space?
[21:01] Why do you think he's so intent on shutting down every kind of serious religious broadcasting or input or religious input to school assemblies or whatever? Why do you think he's determined to pull down an iron curtain of darkness and ignorance on the population in general?
[21:19] Why do you think for all the long years of the Middle Ages people were forbidden to read the Bible? Because once they begin to read and once they begin to know and once they begin to see and to drink in the truths of God's word, that salvation is at the very least available to them.
[21:39] And the Lord desires to make his salvation available to his people. But if we are to receive of it, then we must do as the disciples did when he called them.
[21:53] And the Lord calls to sinners now. He calls to sinners one and all. Indiscriminately we are invited to come to him.
[22:04] He called his disciples and gave them power and authority and sent them. But they don't have any of themselves. And we don't have any such power of ourselves.
[22:16] We cannot convert ourselves. We cannot change ourselves. We do not have power to win battles against our own sins and our own evil habits and our own unbelief ourselves.
[22:30] We must go to the source. Before they are sent out to spread any kind of message, they must first come to Christ. And we might think, say, oh, but the disciples have already been mixing with Jesus for ages.
[22:44] You know, they already know him as nobody else knows him. Yeah, they know him better. But they don't yet know him perfectly. And if they are going to have this authority and power, they have to come to Christ.
[22:58] Only he can give it to them. This is the first thing. He called his 12 disciples together. He called them to himself. First, you must go to Christ. No amount of seeking to be good.
[23:11] No amount of seeking to fend off the devil by just trying to do good things or whatever is ever going to work. First, you must come to Christ. And it is he who invites.
[23:21] It is he who calls. He called his 12 disciples. He's got an awful lot more than 12 disciples nowadays. He's got millions throughout the world. And he called every single one of them.
[23:33] And he calls to sinners still. And we must come first to Christ if we would have even a fraction of the power that he desires to give.
[23:43] Power in his name. Why couldn't the disciples cast out that devil at the foot of the Mount of Transfiguration? They came to him afterwards.
[23:54] Matthew 17. And they said in verse 19, Why could not we cast him out? Jesus said, Because of your unbelief. For betterly I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say to this mountain, And move hence to yonder place, and it shall move, and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
[24:10] And if you have your faith, belief, it's not just faith as a sort of general virtue. It has to be faith in Christ. Because without that faith in Christ, nothing is going to happen.
[24:23] How be it, he said, This kind goeth not out, but by prayer and fasting. There are stronger devils and demons, and there are less powerful devils and demons. This is the same in absolutely every walk of life, and every sphere of existence, whether it be the spiritual realm, or the physical realm.
[24:42] You could be playing a game of sport, or you could be competing in some sporting event, and depending on the opposition, you can either do really, really well, or you might not do so well.
[24:52] If you are taking part in the World Cup, and you are playing against some little amateur team, then you think, yeah, we can win against these people. But then you take on Germany or Brazil, and suddenly, oh, you're not quite so good.
[25:03] Because the opposition is more stiff. And there is stronger opposition, and there is weaker opposition. And sometimes, if you come up against the strong opposition, then you have to be better spiritually prepared.
[25:17] Had the disciples been duly, prayerfully, fasting, and ready for that encounter, when they met with that demon-possessed boy, they would have been able to cast them out.
[25:27] They'd have been returning again and again to the source of that water of life. They'd have been closing with Jesus. They'd have been drawing strength with him. They'd have been in prayer. They'd have been in fasting.
[25:37] They'd have been ready. Theoretically, they could have done it. But of course, none of us knows when particularly violent opposition is going to come to us.
[25:48] Jesus said, you weren't ready for that one. You should have been, but you weren't ready for it. It was too strong, too powerful for you. But who is able to cast it out? Jesus is.
[25:59] Who is able to overcome the devil? Jesus is. Who is able to give us the power that we need? Jesus is. And because this is such an important message, not only is it that they are to come to him first and draw their strength, their power, their authority from him, but also, I would suggest to you in the succeeding verses, that nothing is to get in the way of this message.
[26:26] Take nothing for your journey, neither steaks nor script. That was a little bag in which you put necessities. Neither bread, neither money, neither two coats apiece. So that's nothing that they're going to go about without the necessary exhaustion.
[26:40] They've got clothing. They're just not to take extra, two coats. They're not to take a bag with necessities. Basically, wherever you go, the Lord will provide for you. That's what he's saying to them. You don't take an awful lot of baggage.
[26:51] You don't take extra food and money with you because then, what happens is, the supply of these things becomes your primary concern. If the disciples were taking food and money with them, then, oh, well, we've run out of money now, we've run out of food.
[27:05] I don't know what we're going to do now. Whereas, if they're going without it, on this particular mission, the Lord is effectively saying, you'll get what you need day by day. You might not get enough for a week, but you'll get enough for that day.
[27:17] And then, you take your message to a different time, you'll get enough for that day. You'll be housed somewhere. You'll be fed somewhere. You'll have what you need. Don't take lots of money with you. Then, you won't be a target for robbers.
[27:28] It doesn't matter if they're tied. There's nothing for them to take. It's not worth robbing you. It's not worth attacking you. You don't have to worry about baggage because you don't have any bags. You don't have to worry about food because you don't have any with you.
[27:40] You don't have to worry about extra clothing. You're not taking any extra clothing with you. You're going in the simplicity of your message. Nothing is to hinder it. And whatsoever has you entered into, thereby, and thence depart.
[27:54] And 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. How is that? A testimony against them?
[28:05] I would suggest to you, maybe, maybe a reference back to the Psalms. If you think about what it says about the Lord's people and Zion.
[28:16] Psalm 102, verse 14, For thy servants, take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof.
[28:26] If Zion is of the Lord, the Lord's people love it. And the Lord's people even love the very dust of Zion. But those who don't love the message of the Gospel, it's because they don't love the God who sends it.
[28:43] And the dust of Zion is indifferent, abhorrent to them. Shake it off. It's not worth clinging. Their dust is not worth clinging to you. If the dust of Zion means nothing to them, their dust will mean nothing to you.
[28:57] It will be a testimony against them. What we mean by this is that the Lord's people, wherever they are, when they encounter a fellow Christian, they will know.
[29:10] Because a believer, whether it's for a Baptist or a Congregationalist or Episcopalian or whatever it is, in every part and branch of all these parts of the church, there'll be those who, yeah, they belong to that.
[29:23] They're a kind of organisation, but, you know, they don't really know the Lord. They don't love the Lord. And there will be those who are devout, faithful, God-honouring, believing, loving saints who just happen to belong to this or that or the other branch of the church.
[29:39] And every branch of the church will have them. They will have their share of being different. This just happens to be the denomination I grew up in, and so that's where I go when I go, but I'm not really bothered.
[29:50] And there will be those who love the Lord with all their heart and soul and mind and strength. And yes, they love their church too, but it's not the be-all and the end-all. Christ is the be-all and the end-all.
[30:01] And if they encounter somebody who belongs to Christ from another continent or another country or another denominational background, they recognise a fellow believer.
[30:12] They love that fellow believer. They love the message that they bring because they speak of the one they love the most, who is Christ. And all these other things melt into the background.
[30:25] It's not that they're unimportant because they're part of who we are. They're part of our identity. But they're no more special than, say, if, let's say, somebody in your family or your husband or your wife or a friend or a cousin or whatever you meet and say, oh, hi, how are you doing?
[30:40] And you know that person. You don't say, oh, but you're not wearing their clothes. You haven't got the t-shirt on that you had last year. You're not wearing the same trainers. Why aren't you wearing the same clothes? Why aren't all these outward travelings the same as they once were?
[30:53] It doesn't matter. It's the person that matters. It doesn't really matter whether it happens to be Baptist or Episcopalian or Conmigationalist or Presbyterian or Free Church or whatever it happens to be.
[31:05] If somebody loves the Lord with all their heart and soul and mind and strength, they recognise fellow believers wherever they go or wherever they are. Their very dust to them is dear.
[31:19] And whosoever will not receive you is because they don't love the Lord. They don't love the message that you bring. It doesn't matter their background or their nationality or their denominational background or whatever.
[31:31] 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. They departed, went through the towns preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.
[31:45] The gospel, the good news, the forgiveness of sin. We do not have the power to forgive sin. Ministers, elders, church officials do not have the power to forgive sin.
[31:59] Only Christ has the power to forgive sin. It is faith in him that saves. It's not just faith in general. You can be a Buddhist and have great faith in the gods you worship.
[32:12] You can be a Muslim and have great faith in your prophet or in Allah or whatever it may be, but that won't save you. You can have all manner of faith in all manner of things, but it is faith alone in Christ which will save.
[32:27] And if we are to have power over every obstacle that will come our way, then like the disciples, when he calls us to himself, we must go back again and again and again.
[32:41] The water bottle will sustain you for a while in the desert, but you must go back and fill it. You must return to the fountain of the water of life. You must keep on filling.
[32:52] You must keep on drinking. You must keep on coming back. And you must be ready in a state of prayerful readiness whenever those attacks come against you.
[33:04] Whenever the devil tries by whatever means, and he may use soft, subtle means or he may use angry aggression or hostility. If we end, whether fasting or praying or whatever the case may be, when we are spiritually ready, you'll find us ready to meet him.
[33:21] Think of David and Goliath, all the armies of Israel trembling before that great giant, and yet they were well armed and they were well equipped and some of them were professional soldiers and like King Saul, they were men of war.
[33:35] They knew the business of battle, but they were afraid. And yet David goes out to face them with five stones in a bag and he only needs one of them for his sling.
[33:48] But what is David's great strength? He says, you know, you come against me with a sword and a shield, but you've insulted the armies of the God of Israel and the battle is the Lord's.
[33:59] It's not won by these outward military weapons. The battle is the Lord's. So we have to go back and back and back to the Lord.
[34:11] Then he called his twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases.
[34:23] So yes, they should have been able to cast out that other one at the foot of the Mount of Transfiguration. They should have been able to cast them all out because they had power and authority over all devils. Just as if we are in Christ, through Christ, we have power over all devils.
[34:37] Not in ourselves but in him because the name of Jesus is that which the devil is most afraid of. If in the name of Jesus we walk where he leads us, we go where he sends us, we work at that to which he calls us, we return again and again to the Lord Jesus Christ, the source of the water of life, then we will have the power that he gives us and we will go to where he sends us and whether we preach with words publicly or whether it happens to be conversation with a friend or an acquaintance or whether it just happens to be telling the story of our testimony, how we came to know the Lord by whatsoever means the Lord puts into our heart, we testify and witness for him.
[35:27] We spread the message of the kingdom because just as he sent them out by two and two and then 70 others also, how many 70s, how many pairs, how many lesser apostles, cover the face of the earth now, here the Lord has placed us but we have no power to do anything except we go back to the source, back to the fountain, he called his disciples together and the Lord calls to sinners tonight, there is nowhere to go except to him, he called his disciples together and gave them power over all devils and to cure diseases and he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, first, you must come to Christ, then, you must keep coming back all the days of your life until they become the days of eternity and you will never be parted from that.
[36:30] Let us know.