The Sabbath, as a legalistic observance, has ended with Christ's finished work on the cross, ushering in a new era symbolized by the first day of the week, the Lord's Day. It contrasts the Pharisees' rigid adherence to Sabbath laws with Jesus' demonstration of doing good on the Sabbath, highlighting the shift from the Old Covenant's law to the New Covenant's grace. The message emphasizes that the first day of the week is now the day for believers to gather, break bread, and offer worship and financial support to God, reflecting Christ's desire for companionship and the mandate to preach the gospel. The sermon concludes by urging listeners to accept Jesus as their personal Savior, emphasizing that true salvation brings a new life and an immediate desire to share the gospel with others, contrasting this with the example of Judas Iscariot, who was among the twelve but never truly saved.
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and we'll refer later to earlier verses, but we'll read from verse thirteen. Verse thirteen. And he goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would. And they came unto him. And he ordained twelve that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach, and to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils. And Simon, he surnamed Peter, and James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James, and he surnamed them Boanurgis, which is the sons of thunder. And Andrew and Philip and Bartholomew, and Matthew and Thomas and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus and Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, which also betrayed him, and they went into an house.
And the multitude cometh together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread. And when his friends heard of it, they went out to lay hold on him, for they said, He is beside himself. And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of devils casteth he out devils. And he called them unto him, and said unto them in parables, How can Satan cast out Satan? And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan rise up against himself and be divided, he cannot stand, but has an end.
No man can enter into a strong man's house and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man, and then he will spoil his house. There I say unto you, all sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies, wherewithsoever they shall blaspheme. But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiven us, but is in danger of eternal damnation. Because they said he hath an unclean spirit, this is an important verse, because they said he hath an unclean spirit. There came then his brethren and his mother, and standing without, sent unto him, calling him, and the most youth sat about him, and they said unto him, Behold thy mother and thy brethren, without seek for thee.
And he answered them, saying, Who is my mother and my brethren? And he looked round about on them which sat about him, and said, Behold, my mother and my brethren, for whosoever should do the will of God, the same is my brother and my sister and my mother. May God bless the reading of his own precious word. Shall we seek his face? Blessed God, we bow in thy presence once more and praise thy name for another Lord's Day morning and for our Sunday morning service. And we ask thee, Lord, that we might hear thy voice speaking to us this morning. We look on people's faces. And the word of God says that man looketh on the outward appearance, but God looketh upon the heart.
And so, blessed God, thou art familiar with the thoughts and intents of all our hearts here this morning.Thou hast watched what we have been doing during the last seven days, where we have been, and what we have said, and what we have thought even. And this morning we are dealing with God. We pray that thou deal with us. Speak to every heart, we pray thee. Search us. Test us. Prove us. Magnify the name of the Lord Jesus in our midst. And may we this morning... have dealings with thee. We pray, Lord, we may not go out of this place just the same as we came in. May be, Lord, there is one here who has never yet been faced with the question of eternal salvation, the forgiveness of sins, and the assurance of an entrance into heaven.
Oh, God, do thy work in that heart, we pray thee. And we ask that this morning salvation might come to this house in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. For those of you that are here for the first time, and we welcome you, and by the way, we'd like you to sign our guest book in the foyer at the back before you go and give your full address so that we can keep in touch with you and send you particulars of our future meetings and conferences here at Park of the Palms. For those of you that are here for the first time, I would say that for a few weeks now when we have been speaking here, we have been studying in the book of Mark, Mark's Gospel.
There are four Gospels. Most of us know there are four Gospels. Maybe there's someone here who's not quite sure even about this. Because so few people read the Bible today, so few people even get to Sunday school in their young days today and don't know the divisions and the breakup of the Bible, the precious Word of God. There are four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. And each of these writers write about the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. But each of these men view him from a different angle, from a different viewpoint, which is reasonable. None of us think alike, none of us view things alike, and we have different associations with different people, and so we view them from our own viewpoint.
Matthew wrote about the Lord Jesus as the King of Israel. The Jews were expecting a king to come and reign and deliver them from the Roman Empire and set them free. And Matthew wrote about the king and traced his genealogy right back to David, the great king of Israel. Mark wrote about the Lord Jesus Christ as the servant of God. As the one who, to use the Old Testament terms, his ear was bored, you know, when a Hebrew servant He went to be a slave or a servant and sold himself to a man. He served in his house for a certain number of years, and when he came to the end of that period of years, he had to make up his mind whether he would forever serve that master or go out free him.
And if children were born in his home and he wanted to stay with his children, he would sometimes make the decision, I'll not go out free. I'll be a slave to you for the rest of my life. And when he did that, he went to the door and they took an all and bore through the lobe of his ear against the door and made the blood run there. And you know that's quoted in the sound, speaking of the Lord Jesus. Mine ears as thou did. Mine ears as thou bore. The Lord Jesus dedicated himself to be the servant of God. He came down from the glory of heaven, came down here to be God's humble servant and to do God's will in every detail. That's Mark's Gospel. Luke's Gospel, God created man in the Garden of Eden.
surrounded it with everything was good and man failed. And for four thousand years God tested man under different dispensations and different periods and different ways. And man failed, failed, failed all down the line. And the Lord Jesus came down into this world to be God's perfect man and to prove that he could be a man that never failed. And he never failed in one iota, in one detail. He ever did that which was pleasing to God. He never sinned. Which of you convinces me of sin? He called up to the Jews. And none could answer because he never sinned. He was the sinless, holy, spotless man, the perfect man.
And Luke presents him as the perfect man. John, he looks at it from a different angle altogether. John was the one who leaned upon the master's bosom. Years ago, I lived for some five years in the same city and went to the same meeting as a great servant of God called Walter Scott. He wrote a wonderful book called The Revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I had five years, the privilege of spending five years with this great servant of God. And he used to say this, John leaned upon the master's bosom and he listened to the throbbing of eternal love.
What a wonderful thing. He listened to the throbbing of eternal love. And John wrote about the eternal Son of God. He doesn't give us a genealogy. He goes right back beyond genealogy. goes right back into eternity and says, in the beginning was the Word. The Word was the eternal Son. In the beginning, far, far back beyond the worlds were made, in the beginning was the Word. And then he says, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And John gives us the eternal Son of God. Now they all wrote about the Son of God. And if you notice the way they begin their books, nearly all of them start by saying he was the Son of God.
Mark starts this way, the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He doesn't say the servant of God, the Son of God. But he's telling us about this wonderful servant of God, who was indeed the eternal Son of God, who laid aside his glory, emptied himself, as it says, in Philippians chapter two, and became a servant and did God's wisdom. As far as I understand the scripture, he was solely under the control of the Holy Spirit of God. He was the eternal Son. At any moment he could act as the eternal Son of God, but he didn't do that.
He became subject to the Father and was led by the Holy Spirit of God. We'll come back to that in a moment because it's important. Last time we were talking, we were mentioning the attacks that the Pharisees made upon him concerning the Sabbath day. If you look at the end of the second chapter, it was a question of sucking corn on the Sabbath day and eating it. And then in the third chapter, he went into the synagogue. There was a man there with a withered hand and the Pharisees and the scribes and those around. They looked and watched whether he would heal the man on the Sabbath day that they might accuse him of breaking the Sabbath. Now it is true, God said, Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work.
The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work. Thou know thy son, thy daughter, thy man's servant, thy maid's servant, thine ox. None should do any work on the seventh day, which was the Sabbath day. God made it holy. That wasn't only law, that wasn't only given on Mount Sinai, but that was God's rule from creation. God worked six days to make this wondrous universe in which we live and the seventh day he rested and set a pattern forever that there should be one day of rest. And the Lord Jesus went into the synagogue and this was a great question he asked them. Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days or do evil?
To save life? or to kill. He said, if one of you has got a sheep and it's fallen in the ditch, and it's Saturday, you're going to leave him to die in the ditch and wait till Sunday before you pull him out? No, he said, you're going to pull him out on the Sabbath. You're doing good. Is it lawful to do good or do evil? Then he said to the man with the withered hand, come out of the front here in front of everybody. That's how it's put in the other gospel. He came, come forth. And he came, stretch out your hand, and he was healed immediately. And listen to these awful words. Listen to them. The Pharisees went forth and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him how they might destroy him, how they might put him to death.
They were so bitter. They were so keen to keep this law. They had made rules and regulations beyond the rules of God. Beyond the demands of the Ten Commandments, they had added their own interpretation. And they said he should be put to death because he healed a man on the Sabbath day. And from then they sought to put him to death. Now just a word or two about the Sabbath. We don't have a Sabbath as such today. A seventh day Sabbath. We don't have it. Let me read you some what I'll call significant verses.
You know, the Bible was written by God. And the Bible, the wonder of the Bible is that since God wrote it, it's got tremendous meaning in every detail. And sometimes you can read it and you see a certain meaning. Then you might read it a few days or weeks after, and you see something altogether fresh and new in the same verse. You cannot limit the meaning of the Word of God. Now, I don't want to put into the Bible something that's not there, but I want to read you one or two verses. Matthew twenty-eighth, verse one. Matthew twenty-eighth, verse one. In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, now what does he mean?
Literally, actually, he means this, that the Sabbath, the Lord had been crucified the day before now. And the Lord's body had been taken down from the cross and laid in that new human tomb and the stone was placed at the door and sealed and the Lord's body was in the tomb. And during that sad, long Sabbath, you know, I lived in Greece for ten years. And the Greeks make a tremendous thing of Easter. And somebody brings it home to you. They have a funeral procession on Friday nights.
In every village, many times I've been out in the faraway villages in Greece. I lived there ten years. Many Easter's we've been away and watched them as they take their candles lit and make this funeral procession on the Friday night. And then on the Saturday night, They come together into the churches on the Saturday night about eleven o'clock. But all through the Saturday, all through the Saturday, all day long, you can hear the bell tolling, a kind of a death toll, all day long. Wherever you are, you can hear the bell ringing, the bell ringing, reminding the people that the Lord's body is in the grave, that he's died.
This is the Greek Orthodox Church, a long Sabbath day. And I think for those who love the Lord, that was a long Sabbath day. Now literally he says they came to the end of the Sabbath as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week. But I see something more in this than just the literal fact that the Sabbath was ending and a new day was coming the first day of the week. I see something in this. The Lord Jesus Christ came down here to fulfill the law, to meet the to really live the righteousness which is in the law. And he came down here to meet the claims of the law against sin. You and I have sinned.
Every man and woman in this meeting this morning, God declares of us, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And your sin and mine would land us in a lost eternity. We would perish in hell forever because of our sin. That's what the Bible teaches. But the Lord Jesus Christ... When he hung upon that cross, his shame died for us. And he bore our sins in his own body on the tree. The law says, In short, thou should love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and thy neighbor as thyself. And we've broken it, we haven't done it. And because we've broken the law, the punishment of God must fall upon us. But thank God upon that cross, the Lord Jesus, met the claims of the law against you and me.
He met the claims, the righteous claims of the throne of God. and all that the throne of God demanded for my sin. He paid the price upon the cross and he died. And as he died he cried with a loud voice, it is finished. And the veil of the temple which kept men out from God and God in from man was renting train from top to bottom and the way was open to get into God's presence so we can come to him this morning. Nothing hindering me go right into his presence. Ah, but more than that. when the Lord Jesus died upon the cross and said it is finished. A dispensation ended. A dispensation. The history of this world is divided into dispensation.
We are living in the dispensation of God's grace today, when God in grace is saving all men and women who will accept the Lord Jesus Christ in his sacrifice. A day of grace, free grace. The period before this, was called the dispensation of law when God for fifteen hundred years dealt with his people, Israel, under the law. And the Lord Jesus cried, it is finished. And one of the things he meant when he said it is finished, that the law as a means of getting to God is finished. It is finished. I would suggest very humbly when it says the end of the Sabbath, It meant that the Sabbath day with all its ritual was over.
That was the last Sabbath day in God's reckoning. Now the Jews keep the Sabbath today. Some Christians, somehow they got so mixed up that they call themselves Seventh-day Adventists and try and keep the Sabbath now. I don't know how they get it, where they get it from, but the end of the Sabbath. And as I see it, that was the last real Sabbath day. when the Lord Jesus lay in the grave. And it dawned toward another day, the first day of the week. There's a day coming in to take the place of the Sabbath. It's called the first day of the week. In other places in Scripture, particularly in Revelation, one is called the Lord's Day, the Lord's Day. The Sabbath has gone out. I don't believe that God's rule, six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work has gone out.
I believe for mankind and the good of mankind, for our health, for our family's sake, for our homes' sake, I think we should have a day of rest. I believe that's God's plan from the very beginning when he created the earth, and will be a day of rest. And today we have the Lord's Day, the first day of the week. In the end of the Sabbath, it dawned toward a new era, a new dispensation, the first day of the week. Let's go over to Mark sixteen, chapter one, and see what it says. Mark sixteen and verse one, and see what it says there. And when the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James and Salome had brought sweet spices, and they came to anoint him.
When the Sabbath was passed. Here, to my mind, is significant scriptural language. God is saying something, maybe veiled. He's talking literally about that Sabbath day being passed. But I see more in it than that. I see that the Sabbath was passed, when the Sabbath was passed. The Sabbath is a thing of the past. for every true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. And now we have the first day of the week, a new dispensation, a new ear. It says in II Corinthians chapter five, verse seventeen, if any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creation, all things have passed away. And for all those who've been Sabbath day keepers and talking about Sabbath days and so on, he is a new dispensation.
All things pass away. All things become new. And one of the new things is the Lord's day, the first day of the week. Now just one or two things, three things about the first day of the week. Look with me at Luke chapter twenty-four. Keep at this wonderful first day that when the Lord rose from the dead. Luke chapter four. I see things here which make a significant in my mind. They give a trend of thought, they give a pattern, shall I say, a pattern. Look what happened. Luke, twenty-four verse one, upon the first day of the week. And mind you, this was the first of all the first days.
Of course there was always the first day of the week, but this was the resurrection morning. This was the beginning of the new dispensation I'm talking about, which didn't actually start to the day of Pentecost, but this was the bringing in of a new dispensation. Upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came to the sepulcher, bringing spices which they have prepared. I think this sets a kind of pattern. That on the first day of the week, the disciples of the Lord in this age, this day of grace, two Christians, should come early in the morning and bring something to the Lord. They brought spices which they have prepared to anoint the Lord.
I don't think they ever used them, right? Because when they got there, he was raised from the dead. But he's a pattern. He's a kind of suggestion. On the first day of the week, early in the morning, we come and bring spices. I believe that sort of thing has gone on for two thousand years. We did it this morning. We came here this morning fairly early. At half past nine this morning, we met with the bread and the wine on the table. And what did we come for? We came to bring something to the Lord Jesus. We heard a lot this morning about worship. Worship is offering something to God. The sacrifice of our lips we heard about, the fruit of our lips.
Praise to God. You know, long ago, last week we had a tabernacle here. And long ago, the priest had to go into that holy place, the first section of the tabernacle. and he had to take with him sweet spices, and he took them and put them on the golden altar, and there they ascended as a sweet savor to God. That's what we do Sunday morning. We bring sweet spices. Oh, if you don't know the joy of sitting at the Lord's table, if you don't know the joy of getting up and praising Him, if you don't know the joy of sitting there in your heart overflowing in praise to Him, I'd advise you to come along if you're a real believer, and sit with us at the Lord's table. When on the first day of the week we bring sweet spices to go up to him.
That's a pattern of what they gave. Something to give character to the first day of the week. Now let's turn over. Acts chapter twenty. Acts chapter twenty. We're talking about the first day of the week. And verse seven. Now, I don't want to read something into the scripture more than is there, but I'm just giving you facts from this Bible, from this chapter. Acts twenty, verse seven. And upon the first day of the week, the disciples came together to break bread.
That's what we did this morning. On the first day of the week, the disciples came together to break bread. That's what they did in the first century. That's what we do in this chapel every Sunday morning. I know in many churches, they say, well, we have a communion service once a month. Some people say to me, well, we have a communion service on Easter Sunday. What does it matter? It matters a lot. The Lord Jesus said, Do this, and remember to me, as often as he eat this, as often as he drink this, he show forth his death. And I have learned this precious thing, that if I sit at the Lord's table on the Lord's day, I'll mind whose table I sit at on Monday. If I handle that precious symbol of his body broken on Sunday, I'll mind what I do with my hands on Tuesday.
If I sing his praise here, as I worship him on Sunday morning, I'll mind what kind of song I sing on Wednesday. And if I know next Lord's day morning I'm going to be at the Lord's table, I'll mind what I do on Thursday and Friday and Saturday. I find my life is sanctified and hallowed and cleansed by the very fact that I sit at his feet. And this is what he meant when he said, Do this in remembrance of me. In his infinite eternal wisdom, the Son of God had all this plan that we might be kept near to him. that we might remember his death and our hearts might well up in praise and thanks and be broken down in sorrow as we think that he died for us and it helped to keep us near to him. You go to communion once a year. I like to be at the Lord's table on the first day of the week.
It keeps me near to him. And I tell you what, I make it a rule of my life to never miss the Lord's table on the Lord's day. I just returned from England. I managed to get the Lord's table every Sunday. I was there. There were three weeks. different places, but we were there praising the Lord at his table. On the first day of the week they came together to break bread. Now one other thing, where the first day of the week is mentioned, and this is in First Corinthians chapter sixteen. First Corinthians chapter sixteen it says this, verse one, now concerning the collection. There's so much talked about collections today. Every letter you get from every mission is asking for money, and they come in letter after letter after letter.
Everybody's asking for money. So, I'm the Lord's word. Oh, that we might get down on our feet, on our knees, and cry to God to give us what we need. And he says, he'll supply all our needs if we come to him. If he shall ask anything in my name, I don't like asking people for money. I like asking the Lord for it, because he says, if he shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. But the saints of God, the work of God, has to go on. And Paul is a practical man, and this is what he says, concerning the collection. Well, what's the Bible say about the collection? Collection for the saints. As I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye, upon the first day of the week.
Upon the first day of the week. Let every one of you lay by him in store as God has prospered him. Did there be no collections, no gatherings when I come? Everybody lay by on the first day of the week. Every believer in the Lord Jesus should lay by on the first day of the week. That's what he tells us. This is one of the things that should be done on the first day of the week. Our money, for the Lord, should be laid aside for him. That's why we have that offering Sunday morning at the Lord's table. There are three things about this new era, about this new day. The Sabbath has passed away, and the new era came in, and it dawned toward the first day of the week. And just those few thoughts about the first day of the week. Now, very quickly, I would like to mention the next part of our chapter.
The Lord went up into a mountain, and he called unto him whom he would. Lots of people went up there. Lots of people have been following him. As he had worked amongst men, as God's perfect servant, we have noticed in our studies that he became closely acquainted with certain men. From John's Gospel, chapter one, we found out that there were two disciples of John that followed him. He turned, he saw them following, and he said, What seek ye? They said, Master, where dwellest thou? And they went and spent a night with him. This is in the thirty-fifth to about the forty-th verse of the first chapter of John's Gospel. And these two men, one was called Andrews.
The other? I'd make a good guess it was John who wrote the gospel, but I don't know. But I guess that. And they spent the night with the Lord Jesus. Now let me ask you a question. Some people here, I've never met before this morning. I've never been able to talk to you. I'll find out anything about you. Have you ever had a personal contact with the Lord Jesus? These men had a desire to find out about the Lord. They followed him. And the Lord revealed himself to them. On the day before, John the Baptist had been preaching, and looking, pointing with his hand, he saw Jesus coming, and he said, Behold, the Lamb of God, which bears away the sin of the world.
He looked on for the time when the Lord Jesus would hang upon the crowd. and bear our sin in His own body upon the tree. And God revealed to those men, when John pointed, He revealed to John, John says, I saw and believe that this is the Son of God. He revealed to John, He revealed to these people that the Lord Jesus was going to die for them. Now He did die for you at the cross. Two thousand years ago. Have you ever sat down, knelt down? Bowed your head and said, Lord Jesus, thank you for dying for me. Have you ever done that? Oh, the Bible is so explicit.
So clear. It says, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. What do we believe? We believe that He was our Savior. He died for it. And He says, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. As many as received him, to them gave him power to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name. If you bow in his presence this morning and receive the Lord Jesus as the one who died for you, God, that moment will make you his son. That moment God will give the authority that you might become his child. And you'll be saved and you'll have eternal life. It'll be a new life. This is what happened to these men.
There was Andrew. Now, why I know Andrew was saved, I knew it by this. Because as soon as God saves you, you'll have an immediate desire to go and win somebody else for him. You can't help it. You'll think of your brother that's not saved, your sister that's not saved, your mother and father or your children, and immediately you'll want to win them. And it says, Andrew went immediately to his own brother Simon, Simon Peter. He said, come quick, we found the Messiah, which is be interpreted as Christ. We found the Son of God. And he brought him to Jesus. Follow one of the things. As soon as he was saved, he brought his brother to Jesus. And the Lord looked upon Peter, and he made wonderful remarks about Peter.
He said, He brought him to Jesus, and when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon, the son of Jonah. Thou shalt be called Cephas, which is a stone. Peter was an awful failure. But then I can't throw stones at Peter because I'm a worse failure. Peter denied his Lord, but I can't point to him because I've been in positions when I've denied him. But the Lord loved Peter. And then the Lord went on and he found another man called Philip. And Philip found another man called Nathaniel. And they all found out this thing. They all said it. Rabbi, thou art the Son of God.
Thou art the Son of God. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. So they were saved. Now the Lord in this passage we're reading is up on a mountain. And a lot of people followed. And a lot of these who've been following him. But there were some among them whom he really said his love upon. He loves us all, of course. But listen, he called unto them whom he would, and he ordained twelve. And look at this fourfold purpose for which he chose twelve disciples. One, he ordained twelve that they should be with him. You think of this, the eternal Son of God, who created heaven and earth, in whom, in whose hand is all power, he desired to have men to be with him.
You like those words I do. It reminds me of something I've read in Proverbs chapter eight, a way, way back in the past eternity when the Son of God dwelt eternally in heaven with God the Father. And all the delights of heaven and all the glories of heaven were his, it says. He wasn't so much interested in all that glory, but it says his delights were with the sons of men. And I love the preposition with. His delights were with the sons of men. He chose twelve that they might be, you see the preposition, that they might be with him, with him. The Son of God, lonely on this earth.
Can you understand it? Lonely on this earth. Desiring companionship. All the heavens were his and all the glory of heaven. And he laid it all aside to become God's servant. And in his loneliness he asked that men might be with him. And he chose twelve. That they might be with him. And that they might go forth to preach. That they might go forth to preach. And that they might heal sicknesses. And that they might cast out devils. These four things are said about them. That they might be with him. Did you ever think of this, that the Lord Jesus chose you and me when he saved us, chose us, that we might be with him?
Listen, John, verse twenty-four, I think. Father, I will, that they also, and thou hast given me, be with me, where I am, that they may behold my glory. The glory which I had with thee before the foundation of the world. That they may be with him. And God has chosen you, and you have chosen him, and accepted the Lord Jesus. Why? He chose you that you might be with him for all eternity. He chose these men that they might be with him. And he chose them that they might go forth and preach the gospel. That's why he chose you. That's why he chose me, that we might go forth and preach the gospel. That's our business. Are you doing it? Am I doing it?
You say it's difficult at Parker the Palm, so it is. We live in a Christian community, not many unsafe people around us. But we can write letters. We can contact people. Our brother Specks getting out into the homes and doing a great job here, getting out to meet the people. Let's see what we can do to get out and meet them. Our business is to preach the gospel. Of course, you've got to live the right life. If you're going to preach the gospel, you've got to live the gospel. Most people say, I can't listen to you because you don't live it. Our business is to preach the gospel. Now, there are some young people here this morning. Holy God would speak to your heart. He chose you that you might be with him, with him for eternity, and that you might preach the gospel.
That's the purpose. Oh, may God bow our hearts before him. He chose Simon, and Simon Peter always comes first. In fact, I think it's in Matthew, it says, when he chose the disciples, the first Peter. That failing one, the first Peter. And in one of the gospels, it puts them together in groups, you know. It puts Peter and Andrew. John and James and so on in groups. Philip and Bartholomew. Bartholomew was really Nathaniel because Philip found Nathaniel and brought him to the Lord. And they come in twos and twos. He sent them out in twos. How wonderful the Lord was now.
You think. Andrew found Peter and when he made the disciples, he brought these two together to be his disciples. I think that's wonderful. And Philip went and found Nathaniel. and Philip and Nathaniel or Bartholomew became his disciple. How the Lord sort of approved what they had been doing. And these twelve, and one of those was a devil. One of those was Judas Iscariot that betrayed him. Let none of us... presume. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. John three thirty-six. He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. It's possible to pass muster.
It's possible to appear as a Christian. It's possible to let people think you are a disciple. It's possible to be denumbered amongst the elect. so-called elect then, and yet never to have been born again. Let me ask you the solemn question. Has there ever been a moment in your life when you have been born again? Receive the Lord Jesus as your personal Savior and pass from death to life. Judas never had that experience, and Judas perished forever and betrayed the eternal Son of God on that awful night before his suffering. Who may God speak to our heart? and search us out now in the closing moments of our meeting.
If we're not yet saved, let's bow at his feet and accept him as our personal Savior for his name's sake. Blessed God, our Father, we thank you for these solemn words which we have been reading this morning. Words about thy beloved Son here on earth, thine eternal servant, the spotless Holy One who always did thy will. Help us, Lord, we pray thee. that we might be sincere. We thank thee thou hast chosen us. We thank thee thou hast ordained us. No man has ordained us, but thou hast ordained us, that we should go and preach the gospel. Help us to do it, we pray thee.
And, Lord, search the heart of anyone here this morning, not yet saved. And grant that this might be the day of salvation. We ask it in the precious name of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.