of full health. We ask this for Jesus' sake. Amen. All right, Luke chapter 10. We'll begin reading at verse 1, but we especially want to concentrate on verses 12 through 16. Let's hear God's Word. After these things, the Lord appointed seventy others also and sent them two by two before his face into every city and place where he himself was about to go. Then he said to them, The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go your way. Behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves. Carry neither money bag, knapsack, nor sandals, and greet no one along the road. But whatever house you enter, first say, peace to this house. And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on it. If not, it will return to you and remain in the same house, eating and drinking such things as they give. for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not go from house to house. Whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you and heal the sick there and say to them, the kingdom of God has come near to you. But whatever city you enter and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, the very dust of your city which clings to us, we wipe off against you. Nevertheless, know this, that the kingdom of God has come near you, and now our preaching text. But I say to you that it will be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city. Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades. He who hears you, hears me. He who rejects you, rejects me. And he who rejects me, rejects him who sent me. And now the rest of our chapter. Then the 70 returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. And he said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven. In that hour, Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in your sight. All things have been delivered to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal him. Then he turned to his disciples and said privately, blessed are the eyes which see the things you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see and have not seen it and to hear what you hear and have not heard it. And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested him saying, teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said to him, what is written in the law? What is your reading of it? So he answered and said, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus said to him, you have answered rightly. Do this and you will live. But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, and who is my neighbor? Then Jesus answered and said, a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now, by chance, a certain priest came down that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise, a Levite, when he arrived at that place, at the place, came and looked and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine, and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn and took care of him. On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, take care of him, and whatever more you spend when I come again, I will repay you. So, which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves? And the man said, he who showed mercy on him. Then Jesus said to him, go and do likewise. Now, it happened as they went that he entered a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore, tell her to help me. And Jesus answered and said to her, Martha, Martha, you were worried and troubled about many things, but one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her. May God bless us, the reading, hearing, and preaching of his word today. Right, we're looking at these verses, verses 12 through 16, with warnings, really. for the towns that the Seventy went to that rejected his word, and to places where Jesus had done a lot of preaching and healing and miracles. Particularly I mentioned Chorazin, which was a few miles away from the other town Bethsaida and Capernaum. All, well, two of these towns we've heard of. Corozine was up a few miles back from the lake shore, just kind of physically above, on heights, above Bethsaida. So it was kind of like in the neighborhood. It's like, for those of you around here in Bell Center, it would be having the same relationship, perhaps, as Northwood. You go a couple miles to the south, and up on the hilltop there, there is Northwood. So Jesus pronounces really a curse, a woe to those who hear his word, hear about him, and they reject him. And that's in verse 12 there. So that's at the end of Jesus' commission to the 70. And there it is, after he's told them all that he wants them to do, he pronounces a very solemn curse upon the communities that they go to that reject him. And this is why he has them wipe off the dust, even from their sandals against them. It's a picture of that curse. They want nothing to do with Jesus. Jesus subsequently will have nothing to do with them. The gospel had come to them in word and in power. We remember from last week how the 70 were sent forth with the ability and with the commission to preach about Jesus and his work and his salvation. And to back that up, they were commissioned and empowered to heal. So they had the ability to do these things. Now that the people had seen and heard and rejected, they couldn't anymore say, well, we didn't know. We didn't understand. They can't plead ignorance. They can't plead that they are neutral. They got the greatest news possible. And because they wouldn't receive it, and they wouldn't believe it, they rejected the message, they rejected the messengers, and they rejected the one who sent them. All right, we have the squad here now. So as you think of it, be praying for them. Does anyone, yeah thank you. Does anyone know right off hand what Tony's concerned with? Okay. Okay. All right. Well, continue as you think of it. Pay attention to the preaching, but be praying for the squad, for BMRT squad. For emergency room, I don't know if he'll be taken up to Kenton or down to Mary Rickan and for Tony too. All right. Now then, Jesus says there, I say to you that it will be more tolerable in that day, that is the day of judgment, the day ending all things, for Sodom than for that city. Now, I don't know how many of you children know what's so important about the town of Sodom. We read about it in the very first book of the Bible, in Genesis. And it was a wicked, wicked city. It was one of five very wicked, wicked cities. They did not care for strangers. In fact, they mistreated them. And for you little kids, I won't get into how badly they mistreated them. But even now, there are certain kinds of sin that we call sodomy, which relates to this town of Sodom. They were extremely wicked people. In fact, so wicked that when Abraham's nephew, Lot, and his family were living there, Some angels came to visit them and they were treated shamefully by the people of Sodom. And the angel said, it's time to pull you, Lot, and your wife and your daughters out of here because God is about to destroy this town and the other four wicked towns. And they had to, the angels had to grab Lot and his wife and his daughters and pull them out. And after they were gone and they were told don't even look back, don't have anything to do with it, don't even look back. Mrs. Lot looked back and she was turned into a big column of salt. God judged her. And right afterward, Fire and burning sulfur fell out of the sky on these towns and destroyed them because God was so angry at them because these people would not turn from their sin. Now, as wicked as they were, and they were truly wicked, they never got the gospel given to them. these towns to which the 70 went that rejected it, they got the gospel, they got the good news that Jesus was saving sinners, and they still said, nope, don't want that, get out of here, clear out, don't wanna hear it. And so Jesus said, as wicked, as nasty, as filthy as the people of Sodom and Gomorrah and the other three towns were, they're gonna have an easier time at the day of judgment than you will. Why? Because the people to whom the 70 went had the privilege of hearing of Jesus and they rejected it. With the blessing of hearing about Jesus came responsibility to believe it. and rejecting it brought judgment. Now, there are some people who seem to think that all sins are the same thing. There are none that are more wicked or less wicked than others. All sin, if not repented of, all sin, if not covered by the blood of Jesus, will send one to judgment and to hell. That is true. but there are degrees of punishment and degrees of wickedness. If you look forward a few chapters into chapter 12, in verses 35 through 48, we read, therefore take, am I in the right chapter? No, I'm in chapter 11, sorry. So chapter 12 verses 35 through 48, let your waist be girded and your lamps burning and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master when he will return from the wedding that when he comes and knocks, they may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the master when he comes will find watching. Assuredly I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat and will come and serve them. And if he should come in the second watch or come in the third watch and find them so, bless to those servants. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore, you also be ready for the son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Then Peter said to him, Lord, do you speak this parable only to us or to all people? And the Lord said, who then is that faithful and wise steward whom his master will make ruler over his household to give them their portion of food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you that he will make him ruler over all that he has, but If that servant says in his heart, my master is delaying his coming, and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two, and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant who knew his master's will and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required. And to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more." And you see, these people, they knew more and so will be punished far greater than the people of Sodom. So there is woe to rejecters, those who hear the gospel and say, I don't need that, I don't want that. But what about those who do not outwardly reject but they don't really commit to Christ either? They are what James calls, in James 1 verse 22, those who are only hearers of the word, not doers. And we look at them in verses 13 through 16. Do not just hear God's word, do it. It's not merely enough to hear the truth. Now these cities in verse 11, they wouldn't even listen. It's not enough merely to listen. In fact, it's not even enough to believe that which you have learned is actually true. No, these things aren't enough to save. In the book of James, we see in James 2, verse 19, that even demons have this sort of knowledge, and it frightens them. They know the truth of God's word and they believe it's true, yet they will not yield to it from their wickedness. They do not receive the truth, they do not act upon the truth in faith and trust. That's what really is meant by belief, trusting in what is said. Now, Jesus has said here, For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Siton, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes." What had Jesus done in these places? Well, in Bethsaida, and that was the home of Andrew and Peter, and perhaps also Philip, the apostle, there Jesus had done some mighty works. Among other things, in the hills up above, perhaps even around Chorazin, Jesus had fed the 5,000. And he had preached in these places too, not through 70 or through the 12, but he himself had directly preached there. In Capernaum, he'd lived there and he had done mighty miracles as well. He'd been right there in the midst of the people living there. And as a matter of fact, Jesus had already warned the towns of Chorazin and Bethsaida and Capernaum in almost the exact same words at an earlier time, in Matthew 11, verses 16 through 24, and they apparently hadn't paid any attention. Now, in these communities where the 70 went, there was apparently active opposition to Christ and his claims. You don't find that, as far as we know, in Chorazin and Bethsaida and Capernaum. They weren't telling him to get lost. As a matter of fact, getting to watch the miracles and hear the preaching, well, this was entertaining. It was a delight to watch. Isn't that amazing? People surely said one to another, but there wasn't any heart change. There wasn't any repentance. There was no trust in Christ's person and work for being right with God, as far as we can tell. Now, what are Tyre and Sidon? They're apparently other towns, and so they are. They had been rich cities to the northwest on the Mediterranean coast. And they were settled by people called Phoenicians. They were what's left of the Canaanites, the wicked Canaanites, who were so wicked that God had said in the time of Moses and later on in the time of Joshua, kill them all. They all deserve death because of their wickedness. These had survived and they had quite a rich civilization. They went out sailing out into the Mediterranean and in all kinds of other places. They had learned how to make very expensive purple dye from certain kinds of snails. And they would trade that for gold and silver and jewels and all kinds of riches. They were well off. They were wicked. They were Canaanites. And Jesus said here, Jesus says here, if what I spoke in Chorazin and Bethsaida and Capernaum and what I did in these places had been said and done in these wicked Canaanite cities, these people would have turned. These people would have repented. But you haven't. You haven't. Even in such a depraved and idolatrous society, there would have been belief if only they'd heard the Gospels preached by the Seventy. But the communities where Jesus himself had taught and worked rejected him. Now finally here in verse 16, he who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him that is the father who sent me. Jesus makes it clear that those who faithfully preach him and the good news of his salvation must be saved. Heeded, not merely heard, but heeded, paid attention to, yielded to. You must believe that Jesus is the Christ. You must trust in Him, His person and work alone to make you right with God. Rejecting him, rejecting his gospel, or neglecting him, is a rejection not only of the preacher and the teacher, but of Jesus himself and, in a manner of speaking, beyond him, the Father in heaven. Now then, what about you? You've heard the gospel preached, not just today, but many other times. Even you little kids have. So you have that blessing of, and the privilege of, hearing about Jesus, who he is and what he has done. As I say here, what about you? Now in some places that call themselves churches, they don't understand. In fact, they reject the teachings of scripture. By God's grace, we're not that kind of church. And there are many churches who are faithful also. They might not agree with our understanding of what the scriptures teach, but they are doing their best to understand what the scriptures teach. But there can be a temptation in the RP church and in other faithful denominations to depend upon the fact that children, that our parents are Christian so we must be ourselves. We're okay because dad and mom are believers. We're okay because we got baptized. We're okay because we know the catechism. we're okay because we not only have memorized the catechism, but we believe every word in it that we memorized is true. And so because I am a good kid, because I'm obedient to dad and mom, and I've not had any trouble with the law, because I know all this stuff and I go to the Reformed Presbyterian Church, I'm a covenanter, I must be okay. Actually, I attend church every week. I go to Sabbath school. I've been baptized, or maybe some of you older kids, I take communion. I hear God's word and I don't object to it. I believe it's telling the truth and I pray and so on. In fact, maybe you have professed to be a believer and you've answered yes to the questions in the covenant of church membership. But the question is, do you know Christ? Are you depending upon Jesus to save you from your sin? All this other stuff is privilege, but you need to take Jesus to yourself. Now, just yesterday, I don't remember if this were on TV or somewhere on the internet, I was watching a little clip, a video clip, preaching by the Reverend Alistair Begg. Some of you know that name. He's, I guess, a particular Baptist, I think, up in Cleveland. And he was saying that someday in heaven, he wants to talk to the thief on the cross, the one who said to Jesus, Remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus said to him, believe me, today you will be with me in paradise. He wants to talk to him in heaven and say, what did you think when you came here? And did angels talk to you saying, what are you doing here? And maybe the man said, well, I don't know. Well, how did you get here? What do you understand about justification by faith? And surely the man said, well, I've never heard of that. Well, what do you think about the inspiration and the nature of scripture? Well, I don't know. It got read in our synagogue and all of it. What got you here? What do you know? You've not even been baptized or anything of the sort. And Reverend Begg said, surely the man said, well, I don't know. All I know is that other man crucified in the middle. He said I could come, and that is enough. He trusted in Jesus, not in what he knew, because he didn't know much. He knew how to be a thief. He maybe, as a little boy, had learned some stuff in his synagogue, but that had been rejected. He'd lived a life of sin, bad enough that the Romans crucified him. What did he know? He knew Jesus. He knew Jesus had told him he could come. And so he trusted in Jesus and that's what got him into heaven. And God willing, all of us will get to meet him too. But you must trust Christ alone to be right with God. Because if you don't, if you're trusting only in your knowledge, if you're trusting in only what you do, if you are not trusting in Christ, all these things that I've mentioned, all these means of grace, all the blessing you have makes you privileged, but not necessarily saved. All these privileges will not only do you no good, they will become great against you. You've had the privilege of receiving all this blessing, but have you received Christ as your end of the law for righteousness? If you haven't, if you haven't asked Jesus to save you from your sin, do so now, because he is the only one who can get you there. That's what the thief on the cross did. He asked Jesus to save him. Remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus not only said to him, you may come, he said, you will. This day, you will be with me in paradise. So believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Do not depend on the privileges you've received. Depend upon Jesus. The privileges that you are given are to lead you to Jesus, not to be rested in all by themselves. Children, just the other day I had the blessing of getting to eat supper 80 miles away from here with my sister and my two brothers. I haven't been with just them in a long, long time. Now, if I knew the way and I started out but stopped at some point, did that do me any good? Did I get to see my sister? Did I get to see my brothers? No, I've got to go there. It's not enough just to know the way. I've got to take the way and go. So it is here. You may, because you've been taught by your parents, and you've been taught by your minister, you may know the way, but you must take the way. You must take to yourself Jesus Christ, who is himself, the way, the truth, and the life. He said, no man comes to the Father but by me. Not catechism, not sacraments, not church attendance, but by me. Go to Jesus then and depend upon him. You have that privilege. You have that responsibility. Take it, or more to the point, take Jesus to yourself. Amen. Let's turn in our psalm books now to Psalm 95b. people of Israel, sadly, were those who had the privileges of knowing God. They heard him speak in their ears at Sinai, and still they rejected him. And we sing about that in Psalm 95b.