Robertson, Ian: Gospel Message-Mark 6:

Now, that's all the announcements. I want to read some verses from my Bible to you tonight. Uh, they're found in Mark's gospel again in chapter number six. the gospel according to Mark in chapter six. Verse seven says, and he called, that is the Lord Jesus called unto himself the twelve. and began to send them forth by two and two, that is the twelve disciples, and he sent them forth by two and two, and gave them power over unclean spirits and commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey except for staff only, and no script and no bread and no money in their purse, but he shod, but be shod with sandals and not put on two coats. And he said unto them, in what place soever ye enter into a house, there abide until you depart from that place. And whosoever shall not receive you nor hear you, when you depart then, shake off the dust under your feet, for it tests me against them. Verily I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. And they went out and preached that men should repent, and they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them. Now that's all we're going to read, and we know again that God will add a blessing to his word tonight. Last evening, we looked at the opening verses of Mark's Gospel, chapter six, and we really considered the rejection of the Lord Jesus. That despite the fact that the Lord Jesus was the greatest man that men had ever seen, despite the fact that he went about doing good and that every word he spoke was true and every action was clothed with love and kindness, the Lord Jesus was rejected. People just didn't want anything to do with him. People said no to him. And that's very sad, isn't it? The pain of rejection is a pain that cuts so deep. And day after day in the course of the ministry of the Lord Jesus, he experienced the pain of rejection. And ultimately he heard the cry of a whole city, eh, away with him, away with him. We don't want this to reign over us. And the Lord Jesus Christ left the city of Jerusalem, bearing his cross, went to the place of execution with the cries of rejection in his ears and feeling deep within his heart the awful pain and agony of rejection, of rejection. I don't suppose any of us can ever imagine how he really felt. There was one occasion when the Lord Jesus looked over that great city of Jerusalem, and he says, oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered you as a hen, as a mother hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and ye would not, ye would not, ye would not. And the Lord Jesus felt keenly the pain of the James. The Lord Jesus still feels that pain tonight, because sadly the bulk of the people in New Cumnock and the bulk of the people in East Ayrshire just want nothing to do with Jesus. They want nothing to do with the Lord Jesus. They want nothing to do with Christ and his salvation, and they're constantly saying no to. The Lord Jesus is saying tonight, oh, you come not, you come not. How often would I have gathered you as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and ye would not, ye would not. He's saying that to you as an individual tonight. You that have heard the gospel so many times, you've heard the appeal of the Lord Jesus, you've experienced the promptings of the Holy Spirit deep down within your heart, and the Lord's saying to you tonight, how often, how often would I have gathered you? You would not. You would not. You would not. Can I ask you again tonight? Why? Why will you not receive Christ? Why are you still saying no to the Savior? Why are you still rejecting him? Why are you still keeping Christ at arm's length? Why are you still keeping your hearts door closed to the blessed Savior? Why, why, why? Is it pride? Is it the love of sin? Is it the love of, of the world? What is it? Is it the fear of man that keeps you back from receiving Christ? And the Lord Jesus Christ, he knew the pain of rejection, and he sends out his twelve disciples into all the regions round about, and he, and he gives them authority, and he commands them to, to go and to preach the gospel and to tell others and to, to appeal to them to repent. And the Lord Jesus reminds his disciples that it's not going to be easy. Oh, there'll be those that will receive the message, but the majority will reject it. The majority will say no. And the Lord Jesus reminds them that for those that say no, it will be even more tolerable for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for them. What the Lord Jesus Christ is really saying is this: there's a price to be paid for rejecting Christ. There's a price to be paid for saying no to the Savior. There's a tremendous price to be paid for keeping Christ out of your life. The Lord Jesus says it's going to be more tolerable for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, that day of judgment, than for those that have heard the sweet tones of the gospel of Christ and have rejected it, have rejected it. I want to speak about Sodom tonight. I want to talk about that city that was so wicked, that was so sinful, that was so depraved. And yet the Lord says concerning that city that in the day to come, in the day of judgment, it's judgment will be less than the judgment that will be meted out in individuals like you and I that have heard the gospel time and time again and rejected it. The city of Sodom was a very attractive city. It was a very attractive city. In fact, we read about it in the book of Genesis in chapter thirteen, and we read about a man called Lot, and he lifted up his eyes and he looked over the plain of Jordan, and he saw, he saw that it was well watered everywhere, just like the garden of the Lord. And he saw the attractiveness of that city, and he was enticed by it. It had an appeal to him, it appeals to his senses, and he was drawn into it, and he was drawn after it. That's just like the world tonight, isn't it? You see, I would be a fool to stand here tonight and say there's nothing attractive about the world. There's plenty attractive about the world. Because, you know, the old enemy, the devil, in whose hand, in whose arms, in whose lap the the world lies, he's he's the he's the best window dresser that there's ever been. And he's dressed up the window of the world to make it as look as appealing and attractive as possible. The world is attractive, isn't it? And you've been drawn into it. And you're still being drawn into it. All the pleasures, all the entertainment, all the leisure experiences of, of the world, and, and it's so attractive, and it's so appealing, and it seems to offer so much, doesn't it? But there's none of it really lasting, is there? And all that the world offers is really just a big sort of veneer. It's just a big front. It's only really skin deep, the attractiveness of the world, because once you penetrate that veneer, you discover that the world is really a very horrible place. A very lonely place. It's a place that's full of backstabbers. It's a place that's full of tremendous deception. You see, that's not surprising because if the whole world system lies in the lap of the wicked one, then the Bible tells us that the wicked one is a liar. The Bible tells us that Satan's the father of lies. He's a liar from the beginning. He's the father of lies. He's the great deceiver. And all you see in the world tonight, it's all just a big front. It's just a great big camouflage, and beyond all the attractiveness of the world and all the appealing things of the world, whether it's its prosperity or its power or its riches or its, or its, its entertainments or its drink or its drugs and all these things, you know, beyond it all, you know, it's just, it's just evil, it's just wicked, it's just corrupt, it's hurtful, it's lonely. Maybe you've discovered that. Maybe there was a time when you were younger and you thought the world was a great place. It offered you so much, so much to, to, to, to, to tantalize you and so much to appeal to all your senses, and it was great, it was wonderful. And then suddenly the bubble burst and and that exterior was pierced through, and you discovered that the world's a very lonely place, and that's where you are tonight. You're lonely. In the midst of all the pleasure of the world and all its entertainment and all its activity, you you're lonely, you're lonely. That's what the world's like, isn't it? I noticed as well, as far as Sodom and Gomorrah is concerned, it wasn't only a city that was attractive, but it was a city that was marked by activity. There was always something happening in Sodom. In fact, the Lord Jesus spoke about it in Luke chapter seventeen, and he says that they were eating and they were drinking and they were buying and they were selling and they were planting and they were building. There was plenty of activity. There was plenty of commerce and there was plenty of cultivation and there was plenty of construction. There was things happening, things happening, things happening to take up people's attention, things happening to keep people busy almost twenty four hours a day. That was, that was, that was the city of Sodom. It was attractive to look at. There was so much that appealed to the senses, and it was full of activity. There was so much to keep people occupied. That's not the world tonight, isn't it? A world of activity. It's just one great big round of activity, one round of busyness day after day after day. That's the world, isn't it? And you know, as we, as we race into the, into the twenty first century, life just seems to be getting busier and busier and busier. There's so much to do, and life makes so much demands, so much activity. And it's true that oftentimes these activities are just a great big distraction? You know what the enemy wants? Satan wants the minds of men and women just to be occupied with anything and everything apart from Christ and the gospel and God and salvation and eternity and heaven and hell. You see, the devil doesn't really want you to be here any. And I'm sure there's folks here in the meeting, and you didn't find it easy to get here because of the demands of activity. There was other things that were demanding your attention. There was other things that were appealing to you, and you found it difficult even to get the time to come here. And you see, how many times have I spoken to people and invited them to meetings like this, and they said, I'm too busy, I'm too busy. I've got this to do, I've got that to do. You know, I've got something to build, I've got something to plant, I've got something to buy, I've got something to sell, and life becomes so busy, and people just don't get time for the things that really matter. My friend, the things that you're listening tonight, I want to tell you, these are the things that really matter. All the buying and selling in the world doesn't really matter. And all the planting, all the sowing, and all the reaping, and and all the building, and all the pulling, none of that really matters. Because you see, everything about this world is just temporary, isn't it? It's all just passing away. You see, this this world is just here for a wee while. It's all going to get burned up one day. Incredible thought, isn't it? That we're living in a world that is that is hastening for a for a great big fire, a great big conflagration. God's going to burn up the whole thing. This world. Nothing lasting here. Everything here is just temporary. It's just passing away. You know, it's sad, isn't it? We spend so much time building and planting and sowing and getting involved in all the world's activity, and it's all passing, it's all passing away. I know this as well concerning the city of Gamo- of Gomorrah. Not only was it an attractive city, and not only was it a successful activity marked by so much activity, but I noticed it was a, I noticed it was a, it was a sinful city. That's the world tonight, isn't it? All its attractiveness, all its activity, but my friend, behind it all, there's all its wickedness and all its sin and all its depravity, and all its corruption, and all its deceit. You see, God looked down on Sodom, and God saw exactly what was happening. He saw what was happening in the streets. He saw what was happening in the public places, and he saw all that was happening in the homes, and he saw all that was happening in the hearts of the people, and all that God saw in Sodom was just wickedness and corruption and defilement and immorality, sin. That's what God sees tonight in New Commut, you know that? Oh, if we could just get a God's eye view of society today. Eh? If we could just see New Commut the way that God sees it. You see, we got up and down the streets in New Commut, and we see the boarded up houses, and we see a nice wee garden here, and we see some pleasant people there, and and we s- we see all these things, but but you know, God sees, God sees the moral state and condition of things. We look at the physical side of things, but God sees the moral state of things. Can you imagine what God sees when he looks down in Cumnock and New Cumnock and Nether Thib and Cragans and all these places today? Can you imagine what God sees? God sees what happens behind behind closed doors, away from the public eye, away from the public gaze. God sees what people sit down and watch in their, in their, in their, in their internet screens. God sees all that, all the pornography, all the filth that people feast their eyes on. God sees all the immorality, the fornication, the adultery that takes place in the sea. God sees all that. God's not unaware of it. God sees all the sodomy. Because one of the things that marked the days in the city of Sodom and Gomorrah was homosexuality. And that was the reason why God brought judgment upon it, and God sees the same things in the st- in the streets of New Cumnock and in Cumnock and Auchinleck and all round about it. God sees it all. God is not, God is not oblivious to what's happening. The wickedness, oh, the wickedness of our society. Oh yeah, the, yeah, there's, there's an attractive side to the world, and there's, there's that, there's that, there's that side of it that's all active and busy, whether it's commercially or cultivation or, or whether it's construction, there's all that side of it. But behind all that, behind all that, there's a society that is morally, utterly morally decayed and corrupt and sinful, and God sees it. I notice it was not only a city that was attractive and a city that was marked by activity and a city that was wicked and sinful, but it was a city that was doomed. God pronounced judgment upon it. God couldn't do anything else but that. God could never possibly be true to his character and not pronounce judgment in a city like Sodom. God had to pronounce judgment in order to be true to himself because God is holy. God is holy. You know, that's an expression that that's so easy just to trip off our tongue, but oh, if, oh, if we just grasp tonight what it really means, the holiness of God, the absolute righteousness and purity of God. God is so holy that he must judge sin. He must pronounce judgment on sin and sinful societies and sinful cities and a sinful world. And God pronounced the judgment in the city of Sodom. As God pronounced the judgment in our world? My friend, he has. We're living in a world that is righting for judgment. Every day that the men and women lived in Sodom, every day that they lived was taking them closer and closer to that day when God would open heaven and pour out judgment upon them because of sin. And every day that we live in this old corrupt world is taking us closer and closer to that day when God's going to open heaven again, and God's going to pour out judgment in this old world. My friend, if God doesn't move soon in judgment, then the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are due an apology. Because what's happening in our present society, my friend, is just exactly what was happening in Sodom society, and if God came down in judgment on Sodom, then God must come down in judgment on our society. And every tick of the clock is taking us closer to that day when the judgment that God has pronounced will be carried out. It's a fearful thing, isn't it, to fall into the hands of an angry God. Oh, I know the God that we have been preaching night by night is a loving God, a merciful God, and praise God, he is that, and he offers salvation to everyone that trusts in his son. He is a loving God, but he's an angry God. God that's angry with the wicked every day. The God that has pronounced judgment. As the early preachers preached the gospel, they warned about judgment. They warned about a day in the which God would judge the world. He had a day in which he'll judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he's ordained, the Lord Jesus. The one that men rejected and put on a cross is the one that's going to be the judge in a day to come. The one that the world said no to is the one that the world will be judged by. And the one that you're saying no to today is the one that you'll be judged by. An awesome thought, isn't it, to fall into the hands of an angry God, to be judged. For your sins, your unbelief, and your rejection of the Savior who died on the cross, that your sins may be cleansed and forgiven. Oh my friend, there's coming a day, there's coming a day of judgment, and the appeal, the warning note of the gospel is this, because there is wrath, beware. Flee from the wrath to come, flee, flee to Christ. He's the only savior, he's the only refuge. I noticed that this city was a city, although it was doomed, it was a city that was prayed for. There's a man outside the city of Gomorrah, a man called Abram, and he's lifting up holy hands in the presence of God, and he's praying for the city. He's praying for its preservation, he's praying for its salvation, he's praying that men would repent and turn, and turn to God. My friend, I want to tell you there's people praying for me, come on. There's people praying for you. There's folks here in the meeting tonight, and you've been here almost every night since the meeting started. I want to tell you there's people praying for you. There's people lifting up their hands in the presence of God, and they're pleading for you, and they're mentioning your name before God, and they're pleading that God would save you before it's too late. Just a wee word to the Christians. I noticed the man that was praying for Sodom was well out of Sodom. Do you know, fellow Christians, if our prayers are going to have any weight with God, we'll need to be well out the system of things altogether. It's the fervent prayer of a righteous man that avails much. And if you and I, as believers in the Lord Jesus, are involved in all the world's system and just living as the worldly, then our prayers are valued nothing in God's presence. It's men that are out of it, lifting up holy hands, praying righteous. It's them whose prayers are heard. My friend, it's a serious thing, isn't it? It's a very, it's a very, it's a very searching thing just to think that there's folks praying for you, there's folks praying for you coming up, praying that God would withhold, withhold his judgment. Praying that God would pour out his blessing of salvation on you and in the s- in the village as a whole. I noticed it was a city that was not only prayed for, it was a city that was visited. God actually sent angels into this city. God sent angelic visitors. He sent them right from the very courts of his throne, right from his presence. He sent angels right down to the filthy, corrupt, depraved Sodom to warn men to flee from wrath. That's how gracious God is. God didn't need to do that, you know. God would have been righteous just to open heavens and just to obliterate the whole place. God would have been within his rights to plunge every soul in Sodom into the depths of everlasting burning. God would have been within his rights to do that. But before one stroke of judgment would fall, he sent a messenger from heaven to warn men to flee, to escape for their lives. You see, God is a merciful God. Yes, God is a gracious God. That's what's holding back his judgment tonight. It's his mercy. Two thousand years ago, into this world, into this corrupt world, God didn't just send a mess, an angel. God sent his blessed son. Can you ever imagine what that really cost God, what that meant for God, what it meant for his son to come into this world? Think of this angel as he walked the streets of Sodom, coming from the realms of eternal holiness, and suddenly been plunged into the cesspool of iniquity that Sodom was, to be confronted with the filth of man's sins. And yet he came with a message of a war- message of warning. Think of what it meant for the blessed Son of God. The one who in himself is intrinsically pure and holy. That for all eternity has breathed the pure air of heaven. Yet he comes into, into this world in the form of a babe and lived here for thirty three years, breathing in the filth of man's sin and corruption everywhere he went. The Lord Jesus came to him into the world, not just to warn of judgment, but the Lord Jesus Christ came to bear the judgment. That's what he did at the cross at Calvary. The one that God had sent from his presence, his only son, went to the cross to bear the judgment that you and I deserve as poor guilty sinners. That's what Calvary is all about. Not just Jesus dying the death of a martyr, but dying on that cross to bear the judgment for your sins and mine. Prophet Isaiah says these words, it pleased the Lord to bruise him, to put him to grief, to make his soul an offering for our sins. What a wonder the Lord Jesus cried out of the darkness of Calvary, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why have you abandoned me? Why have you turned your back on me? There, in the hours of darkness on the cross, heaven opened, and God's wrath, God's judgment against sin was poured out on that lonely man on the center cross. He became the sin bearer. His whole body was exposed to the outpouring of God's. The Lord Jesus Christ bore on the cross all the punishment that I should have borne in hell for all eternity because of my sins. My friend God, yeah, God has pronounced judgment in the world. God has pronounced judgment in individual sinners. But God in his mercy and his grace has provided a way of escape. The prophet Isaiah tells us a man shall be a hiding place from the wind and a cover from the storm. There is a place of refuge from God's judgment, and that place of refuge is in Christ. Well, the message of the angels to the people of Sodom was to escape for their life, to look not behind them, to tarry not in the plain, to escape to the mountain, lest they be consumed. That was the warning. My friend, we're not appealing to you to run to a place tonight. We're appealing you to put your trust in a person because God's salvation is in Christ, his blessed son tonight. He's the man that is the hiding place. He's the man in whom we can find refuge from the storms of God's judgment that we deserve. We can find refuge in him tonight and in only him. But I wonder, the pro- the writer to the Hebrews says, how shall we escape? How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? My friend, the answer is simply, there is no escape if we neglect the salvation that God has provided in Christ. There's no escape. My friend, we appeal to you tonight. In the light of the impending judgment of God upon this world and the impending judgment of God and individual sinners, we appeal to you tonight to flee to Christ, to trust in him, the one that bore the judgment that you deserve upon the cross. My friend, he'll be your savior. The Bible speaks about, Paul speaks about the Lord Jesus as he writes to a group of Christians in Thessalonica. He says concerning the Lord Jesus, he's our deliverer from wrath to come. He's our savior, he's our rescuer from the wrath that's to come. Praise God tonight, I've found safety, I've found refuge in him. I wonder of you tonight. And I can say of assurance that the flames of hell, my eyes will never see, the judgment of this world I'll never experience because I'm safe, I'm safe in the arms of Jesus. I wonder, are you resting there tonight? Have you fled to the Lord Jesus for safety? Are you trusting in the Lord Jesus to deliver you from the wrath and judgment of God that you deserve? I noticed as far as the city was concerned that they heard the preaching of the angels, they just mocked it. People just laughed. In fact, they went deeper than that. They tried to corrupt the messenger. They tried to bring the messenger down to their own level and to bring them into their pit of sin. Such was the corruption of the sin. By and large, they just mock. That's just by and large what people are doing today, isn't it? They just mock the gospel, they just mock the Christians, they just mock the word of God, and they just go on in their sin. My friend, what about you today? What about you? Are you going to flee from the wrath to come? Are you going to flee to Christ? You're going to put your trust in him tonight, the great deliverer from wrath to come. I noticed when my time's gone, I noticed there was a woman in Sodom, and she heard the message of warning, and you know, the Bible tells us that she started to get out. She stopped. And she looked back. And the judgment fell. And she became a powder stone. She perished. Not that she didn't believe the judgment was coming. Not because she didn't believe the word of the angel. But because she didn't obey it. And she knew the judgment was coming, and she knew she needed to escape, and she wanted to escape, but she looked back. And she perished. You see, there was something in Sodom that just was holding on to her. There was something in Sodom that she didn't want to leave behind. A relationship, a partner, a friendship, a sin, a pleasure, something in Sodom that she, that she longed after, and she didn't want to leave it, and she looked back. The judgment fell, and it was too late. She perished. What about you, Pat? I would judge that most of the folks in the meeting tonight know that judgment's coming. I would think most in the meeting to know that there is, they know that there's only safety in Christ, and you long to be saved. But tonight you're still unsaved because you're looking back. And the world still has got some sort of attraction for you. There's still something holding you. My friend, I want to tell you, judgment's coming. Don't boast of tomorrow. Tomorrow might be too late. We don't know what another day will bring forth. My friend, if God's speaking to you tonight, and you know that you're a sinner, and you're lost, and you're in need of a savior, then trust him tonight. Forget about everything else. Forget about everyone else. My friend, make sure you're safe tonight. Make sure you're safe by putting your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus and resting on the one upon whom the judgment fell upon the cross at Calvary. My friend, the city of Sodom and Gomorrah came under the judgment of God. Dreadful judgment. The whole area was razed to the ground. The Lord Jesus says, listen, it's actually going to be more tolerable for these cities in the day of judgment than for the cities round about Nazareth and round about Capernaum and round about Galilee. It's going to be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than Newcomer. And if the wrath of God against Sodom and Gomorrah was intense and awful, how much more intense, how much more awful will it be against the village of you come that has been exalted up to heaven with privilege and with opportunity and with blessing and with praying men and praying women to be exalted right up to heaven, to be cast into the depths of hell? I tell you, I can't think of a more favored village in, in, in, in the whole of Ayrshire than you come. You think of the size of the place, and you think of the places where the gospel is faithfully preached and have been preached over the years. There's not a street when you come that hasn't heard the gospel. Whether it's been folks from the, the gospel hall or folks from the Baptists or folks from the, the evangelists, there's folks that have been round the doors, and there's folks that have been praying, and there's folks that have been preaching to the people of Yekumna, lifting it up to heaven with opportunity. The most, it'll be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for Yekumna. In the day of justice, my friend, there's still opportunity, it's still God's day of grace. There's still an opportunity for you tonight to flee from the wrath of God, and to flee and find safety and refuge in the glorious person of the Lord Jesus. You'll find him tonight if you've come to him. It's simple faith and trust. Let's pray. Our gracious God and Father, we just bow before thee at the end of this solemn meeting. We just pray, O God, that they would impress upon every soul the, the, the solemnity about these things, O God. So easy just to hear them and just to allow them just to, just to run off us. Uh, God, we just pray that the, the truth would penetrate hearts tonight, and individuals, oh God, would be awakened to their needs and awakened to the, to the reality of future judgment, not only for the world, but for themselves as individual sinners. And Father, we just pray that eyes would go open tonight just to see the fullness of the provision that has been made in the person of the Lord Jesus and through his death on the cross. We pray, oh God, tonight we would be individuals that would flee from the wrath to come, the wrath that is justly deserved, and we pray, O God, that they would flee to Christ and in Christ find that refuge, find that salvation, that deliverance that they desperately need. O God, we just pray they would take glory to thy own name tonight and a manifestation of thy grace and the salvation of sinners, as we ask it in the Savior's name. Amen.