# 78 Lu. 9:49-50  QUESTIONING ONE'S OWN ACTIONS

Introduction:

    In our previous text Jesus taught His disciples the secret to true
greatness.  He set a little child before them and told them that if
they would receive that little child and render service for that little
child for Jesus sake that He would count it as though they had received
Him and rendered the service to Him.  Furthermore He told them that if
they would receive that little child and render service to that little
child that God the Father would count it as though they had rendered
that service for God the Father.  Then He went on to explain that He
was not talking about that little child only.  Actually He was using
the child to show them that they ought to receive all men kindly and
that they ought to seek to render service to all men for Jesus's sake.
    It is in view of that teaching that the apostle John begins to
question his own past treatment of a particular man.  In our text he
relates the matter to the Lord and seeks a clarification of how that
matter should have been handled.

I.  The man that John had encountered

    V. 49, "And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out
devils in thy name..." Actually John was not alone in his treatment of
the man.  The other apostles had also been involved.  What had happened
was that they had witnessed a man who was casting demons out of one who
was demon possessed.  They had stood and watched and listened as the
man commanded the demons in the name of Jesus to come out.  I think
they must have felt rather smug when they saw what that man was about
to try to do.  I can imagine the conversation that went on among
themselves.  I can imagine that one of them said to the others, "Let's
watch this.  This is going to be good.  This fellow thinks that he is
going to cast the demon out of this person."  They stood by watching
just waiting for him to fail.  After all, Jesus had given this power to
them to cast out demons and so far as they were concerned they had
exclusive rights to this power.  Other than Jesus, they were the only
persons in the world who could do such a thing.  That is, they thought
they were the only ones.
    Can you imagine their surprise when, in the name of Jesus, that man
commanded the demons to come out and the demons came out?  The demons
came out and the persons afflictions were all gone.  He was healed.
They were shocked.  They were flabbergasted.  They just couldn't
believe their eyes.  They were astounded.
    But while they stood there trying to make some sense out of this
and figure out just how that man had done such a thing another demon
possessed person was brought to the man and he also cast the demons out
of the second person and perhaps a third person or maybe more.

II.  The way that John and the other apostles dealt with the man

    (V. 49), "...and we forbade him, because he followed not with us."
By this time the apostles realized that this man was really able to
cast out demons.  They did not know how.  They still were not convinced
that the Lord had given him this power.  So far as they were concerned
he had no business casting out demons.  So they forbid him to cast out
any more demons.  They commanded him not to cast out any more demons.
John gave as a reason for this command the fact that this man was not
one of the regular followers of Jesus.  The apostles thought the only
ones who were authorized to cast out demons were those who were regular
followers of Jesus.  So they forbid him to cast out any more demons.
    Luke does not say so, but he seems to imply that the man obeyed
their command.  It seems that he honored them as disciples of Jesus and
he accepted their command as being an expression of the will of Jesus.
So if this is the will of Jesus, he will honor His wishes and not cast
out any more demons.
    However, now that Jesus had taught them that they should graciously
receive other people and render aid to them, John has his doubts that
he and the other apostles did the right thing.  He wonders if it was
right for them to forbid the man to cast out demons.  He is honest
enough to bring this matter right out into the open and present the
case to Jesus to see what He will say about the matter.

III.  The judgment of Jesus in the matter

    V. 50, "And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not..."  The idea is,
"You should not have forbidden the man."  The idea is, "Try and get in
touch with that man and let him know that he now released from the
order that he should stop."  The idea is, "If you run across anyone
else casting out demons in my name then don't you stop him."
    Jesus then gives a reason for His own command.  (V. 50), "...for he
that is not against us is for us."  In other words, Jesus is saying
that this man may not have been one of the regular followers of Jesus,
but he had come to believe in the same Christ that the apostles
believed in, the Christ that John the Baptist had preached.  Like the
apostles, he had heard the gospel message and been saved.  Like
themselves, he had received power from God on high to cast out demon
spirits.  It is true that He had not received it directly from Jesus as
they had done, but he received the power from God, never-the-less.
Also, like the apostles, he was casting the demons out in the name of
Jesus.
    This man was not working against Jesus as were the scribes and
Pharisees.  Actually, he was working for Jesus.  He was not one of the
called out group of followers.  That is, he was not a member of the
church.  He was saved by the same Lord Jesus Christ and he was
empowered by the same Lord Jesus Christ even though He had not received
it directly from the person of Jesus as the apostles had done.
    He was not a church member.  But not being a church member did not
keep him from believing in Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior.  Not
being a church member did not keep him from being saved.  Nor did it
keep him from loving the Lord, being devoted to the Lord and serving
the Lord.
    The one big handicap that this man had was that he had not been
trained under Jesus as were the apostles.  He did not have the
experience of hearing Jesus teach as the apostles had done and as the
other church members had done.  He was saved and he loved the Lord but
he was ignorant of the many teaching of the Lord.  What John and the
other apostles should have done was to receive that man kindly and to
teach him and train him in the will and ways of the Lord.

IV.  Some lessons which we ought to learn

    There are some lessons which we ought to learn from this experience
of the apostles.  First of all, let us learn tone does not have to be a
member of a Baptist church in order to be saved.  One does not have to
be a member of any church in order to be saved.  Salvation does not
come by joining a church, but it comes to anyone who repents of their
sin and trusts in Jesus for salvation.  Romans 10:13 says, "For
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."  That
is true whether one ever becomes a church member or not.  John 3:18
says, "He that believeth on him is not condemned..."
    Secondly, we should learn that Missionary Baptists are not the only
ones who love the Lord and serve the Lord.  There are many saved people
outside of Missionary Baptist ranks and there are many people who love
the Lord and serve the Lord who are not members of one of the Lord's
churches.  They ought to be.  They ought to be Missionary Baptists.
Missionary Baptist churches are closer in what they believe and preach
and practice to what apostolic churches believed and preached and
practiced than any other group of churches.  They stick closer to the
Bible than another group of churches.  But that does not mean that they
are the only people who love the Lord and serve the Lord.  There are
churches outside our ranks that are true New Testament churches.  If
that were not so we should not be exchanging church letter with them.
     Every Christian ought to be in one of the Lord's true New
Testament churches.  But the fact of the matter is that many are saved
and who love the Lord who are in some kind of erroneous church.  Yet
they love the Lord and are serving the Lord even in those erroneous
churches.
    Not all so-called churches of our day are true New Testament
churches.  Some of the modern churches have so much rank heresy that
they do not even qualify as New Testament churches.  The world
considers them to be churches, but God doesn't.  Some of them have
practices which are totally unknown to the Bible.  But, never-the-less,
some of the people who are in those churches are genuine Christians and
some of them are doing a lot of work for the Lord Jesus Christ.  Some
of their preachers are very godly men.  They are just in the wrong kind
of church.  They are wrong in the doctrines.  They have not been taught
the truths that Missionary Baptist churches have been taught.
    Let us learn that the Lord does want us to preach and teach the
truth, as He did those apostles, and He wants us to earnestly contend
for the faith that was once delivered to the saints, (Jude 3).  It
would be a mistake for us to compromise the truth of God just in order
to try to fellowship with good brethren who are outside our ranks.  The
Lord Jesus Christ does not want us to compromise truth under any
circumstances.
    Let us learn that the Lord does not want us to wage war against the
people who are in other denominations.  Some of those people are good
Christians who are doing the best they can to serve the Lord as best
they know how.  They simply not been taught the great doctrines of the
Bible.
    It is not our place, as Missionary Baptists,  to go around fighting
all other religious denominations.  It is our place to preach and teach
the truth of God without fear and without compromise.  But we are not
to try to fight other groups of Christians tooth and toenail and try to
put them out of existence.  We must not condone their error.  We do not
have compromise with error, but we can love and appreciate good
Christian brethren wherever we may find them.  If we preach the truth
and teach the truth there just might be some of our Christian brethren
in error who would come out of and join with us in the truth of God.
    The chief question that each one of us must face today is:  Am I
saved?  Have I repented of my sins and trusted Jesus Christ as my own
personal Savior?  If not, then now is the time to trust Jesus.
    Another question is:  Am I in a true New Testament church?  Am I in
a church that preaches and practices the truths of God as set forth in
the New Testament.  Let me say that I believe that Missionary Baptist
Churches of the American Baptist Association stick closer to the Bible
in their preaching and in their practice than any group of churches I
know of anywhere.  I highly recommend our churches to Christians
anywhere.  I most certainly recommend the Pleasant Hill Missionary
Baptist Church to any Christian who is in need of a church home.  If
you are not sure that you are in a church that is Scriptural in its
faith and practice then just settle down right here at Pleasant Hill
and attend services here long enough to be sure what kind of church we
are.  Then when you are satisfied that this is a good Biblically sound
church you can place your membership here.
    There is at least one question that we who are members of Pleasant
Hill should ask ourselves:  Are we active doing the work of the Lord as
He would have to do or are we leaving the work for somebody else to do?
It is not enough to know the truth and be sound in the faith
doctrinally.  We must serve the Lord and we must serve Him in a way
that is acceptable to Him.  Please do not sit idly by and let others do
all the work for the Lord.  Get busy and do what you can for the Lord.
Get in and get busy for the Lord.

Conclusion:

    Perhaps there is someone here this morning who is already aware
that he is unsaved and who truly wants to be saved.  If so, we are
going to ask that you place your faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior
this morning and get saved.  I am going to also ask you to come forward
in this invitation hymn to give public acknowledgment of your faith and
trust in Jesus Christ.  In other words, you come forward so that Jesus
will get the praise that He deserves for saving your soul.
    Perhaps there is someone here who is already saved who is in need
of a church home and you have decided that this the church where you
want to be.  We invite you to come and unite with us on promise of a
letter or by statement or in any way that we can Scripturally receive
you.
    Perhaps there is some Christian here who, for some reason or other,
is in need of Scriptural baptism.  Perhaps you joined the church at one
time or other and were baptized, but you have been truly saved since
you were baptized.  That means, of course, that your baptism is not
valid and you are in need of baptism.  We invite you to come and
present yourself to this church as a candidate for baptism.