Let's look at Matthew chapter
10 verses five through six to start with, preaching the kingdom
of heaven. And as you know, it was last
week we talked about how Christ called forth and gathered his
disciples, his apostles. And all of them, except one,
were true disciples, true apostles. And I mentioned last week, I
think, that, you know, where a lot of people argue, well,
were there more than 12? I believe there are only 12,
and I believe Paul, the apostle, Paul was the 12th apostle, called
out of due time, that's what he said. And he said that by
inspiration of the Spirit. He wasn't just saying that of
his own opinion. The Spirit inspired Paul to do
that, and God revealed things to Paul. And that's one of the
qualifications of an apostle. They had direct revelations from
Christ concerning things that were going to happen and characterize
the new covenant age. There's nothing new under the
sun, you know, as the scripture says. And that's talking about
the plan and the purpose, the predestination of God. Nothing
that comes along is new. Because God had purposed and
planned this and predestinated it from the beginning. And he
declares the end from the beginning. So those things may be new to
us. You think about your own life,
our own life. I mean, when we first heard the gospel, the gospel
is an old, ageless, eternal message. But it was new to us, wasn't
it? Because I'd never heard it before. And then when the Lord
gave us ears to hear and eyes to see, he made us new creations,
new creatures in Christ. And so, but that was his plan
and purpose and he knew it all along. So we understand that. But here he gathered his apostles. Now here in verse five, he says,
these 12, Jesus sent forth and commanded them saying, go not
into the way of the Gentiles, and into the city of the Samaritans,
enter ye not." Don't go. Sending you out to preach a message,
but he says, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel. Now, you know, and I put this
in your lesson, you know, in the great commission, what did
the Lord command his disciples to do? He said, go ye into all
the world and preach the gospel to every creature, all nations. And the reason he said that is
because, number one, it was God's purpose and plan not only to
save those whom he chose before the foundation of the world,
whom he justified and for whom Christ died and redeemed. It's
not his plan just to save us or just, you might say it this
way, just to populate heaven, but it was his plan and purpose
to do it in a way that glorifies God in the hearts of his people. And therefore he provided the
means of the preaching of the gospel that would go out into
the world and call forth in the power of the spirit in the invincible,
irresistible calling of grace into the kingdom. And that's
why God uses these means. God's elect, the redeemed of
the Lord, they're found in every nation of the world. Book of
Revelation speaks of that often. Out of every tribe, kindred,
tongue, and nation, Jew and Gentile. And that was predicted when God
made that covenant with Abraham back in Genesis chapter 12. He
said, I've got this in your lesson, in Abraham, because it was through
Abraham that the Messiah would come according to the flesh,
all families of the earth would be blessed. So not just one nation,
not just the Jews, not just Gentiles, not just one race, not just one
gender, it was all of God's elect out of every tribe, kindred,
tongue, and nation. And so we see in other passages
where Christ, he sent the disciples out two by two. I think at one
point, I think Luke says he sent out 70 disciples, something like
that, two by two, on a special assignment. And this is what's
happening here. He says, go ye into the lost sheep of the house
of Israel. And so God, in other words, what
he's talking about is God's elect among the Jews. And that's what
Paul meant when he spoke by inspiration of the Spirit. He said, I'm not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto
salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, first in time,
and also to the Greek or to the Gentiles. And so he specifically
tells them, don't go to the Gentiles at this time. Don't go to the
Samaritans at this time. Now why is that? There's a lot
of speculation about that, but I think we can scripturally say
this. This is God's wisdom, and it's
God's purpose, and what is his wisdom and purpose? To show that
the salvation of sinners is not to those who men and women naturally
see as great, or influential, or powerful, or good. but to the weakest, the most
ignominious, the most hated people on earth. God, you remember in
1 Corinthians 1 where he talks about God hath chosen those who
are not many mighty, not many noble. It's recorded several
times in the scripture that let not the wise man glory in his
wisdom, the mighty man glory in his might, the rich man glory
in his, see, Man's way is always to pick out ones that he or she
thinks that can be influential among men to accomplish the purpose
of God. But that's not God's way. He
picks the worst of the worst, the weakest of the weakest. And
what is his purpose there? To show that salvation is all
of Grace. So who did he pick? What nation,
what group of people did he pick to bring the Messiah, the salvation
of all of his people through? And I've got written in your
lesson, you don't have to turn there if you don't want to, but
in Deuteronomy chapter seven, I've got that cited in your lesson. But he says this in verse six
of Deuteronomy chapter seven. Now this is God speaking to the
nation Israel through Moses. And he says, for thou art an
holy people unto the Lord thy God. Now what does that mean?
Well, it means you're a special people. It means you're a separated
people. It doesn't mean they were moral
or truthful or anything like that, because they weren't. They
were sinners, just like all of us. But they were separated out
for a time under the old covenant. God chose this nation and he
says, for thou art in holy people under the Lord. This is Deuteronomy
7 and verse six. The Lord thy God hath chosen
thee to be a special people unto himself. Listen to this. Above
all people that are upon the face of the earth. They were
blessed. ceremonially and physically in
that sense. Think of where they were when
God first called them out. They were slaves in Egypt. And
God took them out of Egypt by his power. And he chose this
nation above all people of the earth. Why didn't he choose Egypt? I mean, at that time, that was
the most powerful nation in the world. They were the richest,
the most powerful. They were innovative, inventive,
all of that. Why didn't he choose some great,
well-known empire to do his? No, he looked down in the land
of Goshen, where he put him, and chose this people who were
nothing. Nothing in the eyes of men. And
look at verse seven of Deuteronomy chapter seven. He says, the Lord
did not set his love upon you, nor choose you. Now that love
there is God's joining himself to them for a time. That's not
talking about redemptive love. This is not teaching, well, God
loves everybody. That redemptive love that ensures
the salvation of sinners. But he uses the word love here
because what he's saying, God joined himself to this nation
in a ceremonial, physical, temporal way for a time. And he says,
the Lord God did not set his love upon you nor choose you
because you were more in number than any people for you were
the fewest of all people. But because the Lord loved you
and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto
your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, hath the Lord brought
you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house
of Baman. This is the redemption with power, not redemption with
blood. Now, you can talk about the blood of the Passover, which
is a type of redemption by blood and redemption by Christ. But
he redeemed them out of the house of the Baman from the hand of
Pharaoh, King of Egypt. And so why did he do it this
way? Look at verse nine. Know therefore that the Lord
thy God, he is God. He's done whatsoever he pleased.
And the faithful God, he made a promise, he's gonna keep it,
which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep
his commandments to a thousand generations. And you could go
on with that. God purposed to do his business
of redeeming his people through a nation that had no qualities
that would draw anything, God or people, to them. Not at all. And that's why, salvation's by
grace. God said, I'll have mercy on
whom I'll have mercy, and I'll be gracious to whom I'll be gracious.
And they were, and you think about this, they also were a
rebellious people. But God showed that salvation
is not for those who are worthy in themselves. He used this to
show. In fact, I love that passage
in Romans chapter nine where he talks about the problem that
they had was they were intent in self-righteousness trying
to establish a righteousness of their home. They didn't find
it. But God still chose him and he
used him throughout that time to bring the Messiah through.
And then it's also important for us to remember that not all
individuals who were members of that physical nation were
also members of the spiritual nation of Israel. There was always
a remnant, but most of the physical descendants of Abraham perished
in unbelief, the scripture tells us. But there was a remnant. And that was God's elect. So
God's elect, both Jew and Gentile by nature, are all a sheep that
have gone astray. And Christ is going to find us.
The Lord said in Isaiah 53, he said, the Lord has laid upon
him the iniquity of us all, our sins, charged to Christ. And these lost sheep all over
the world in each generation, both Jew and Gentile, are going
to be saved. But now it came through the Jews
first. And this is why Christ is telling
them, at this time, this time, just go to the lost sheep of
the house of Israel. There's coming a time when the
gospel's going to be shot out all over the world in the new
covenant age. And that time's coming soon.
Well, look at verse seven of Matthew chapter 10. He said,
and as you go, preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Now, that's what I entitled the lesson. The kingdom of, preaching
the kingdom of heaven. What exactly did they preach?
Well, there's a lot of disagreement on this. A lot of argument. A
lot of ministers say, well, all they knew and all they were gonna
say at this time is that the Messiah has come. The Messiah
whose prophesied has come, and that's what they mean by the
preaching the kingdom of heaven is at hand, that means it's near,
it's going to be established. Really what it means is this,
the kingdom of heaven that God has promised before the foundation
of the world and prophesied in the Old Testament, it's going
to be established in our generation. It would be like if I could stand
before you and say, Christ is coming before we die. Now I'm
not saying that. Because I don't know that. He
may, he may not. Only he knows. But the kingdom
of heaven is at hand was a specific message saying that this kingdom's
gonna be established. But I believe if we keep in context
with the scriptures, especially what was taught in the Old Testament,
And you remember the Lord used the Old Testament to teach them
these things concerning the kingdom of heaven. You remember when
he went back to his hometown in Nazareth and he went into
the synagogue, what scripture were they reading? You remember
that, anybody know? Isaiah, specifically Isaiah 53,
wasn't it? And he stood up and he said,
now let me tell you that this scripture's fulfilled today before
your very eyes. and they got upset and they were
gonna throw him over a cliff. Preaching the kingdom of heaven,
and think about this, here's where I believe, if you stay
with the Old Testament, that's what he's teaching them now.
People argue about when did they actually come into saving faith
and all that, I'm not arguing that point at all. I'm just arguing
about what, they preached what he told them to say. That's what
they preached. Well, preaching the kingdom of
heaven first declares the truth about the king himself. If you
got a kingdom, what does that mean? It means you got a king.
Well, who is this king? Well, he's none other than Jesus
Christ, the Lord of glory, who is God man in one person. You remember what the angel told
Joseph to name the child? His name shall be called Jesus
for he shall save his people from their sins. And then in
verse 23, Matthew one, he said, his name shall be called Emmanuel. Well, that's from the old Testament.
And you remember how the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes,
they wanted to stone Christ for blasphemy because he claimed
to be God? This is who he is. This is the king of kings. This
is Christ the king who was made of the seed of David according
to the flesh, but declared to be the son of God with power.
So you preach, if you're gonna preach the kingdom of heaven,
you gotta preach who the king is. And who is he? He's God and man in one person. He's the word made flesh. This
is Old Testament. And then this king being both
God and man in one person as declared in the Old Testament.
How did this kingdom come about? What kind of kingdom is this?
It's not an earthly kingdom. Now you know the Jews were big
on that. And people today who don't understand the scriptures
when they talk about the future, when they talk about the millennium,
they talk about Christ established in an earthly kingdom, where
he'll reign from Jerusalem in the temple and control all things. And he made it clear to them,
even though they had, even the disciples had a hard time with
this message. It's not an earthly kingdom.
It's a spiritual kingdom. It's a heavenly kingdom. It's
an eternal kingdom. It's a kingdom that has no beginning
and no end. And you know, they had trouble with this even after
the resurrection. Because you remember in Acts
chapter one, remember the question they asked? They said, are you
going to establish your kingdom here at this time? They were
still thinking in terms of an earthly kingdom. Now what that
meant as far as their faith, I don't know. But I do know this,
he made it clear to them. He said the kingdom of heaven
is within you. The kingdom of heaven and the
kingdom on earth is his church. That's what we are, we're part
of the kingdom. It's a spiritual kingdom. And so this is one of
the messages that they had to preach if they're gonna talk
about the kingdom of heaven being established. And then the next
thing they had to show that the kingdoms, the subjects of the
kingdoms of the kingdom of heaven were sinners saved by grace. through the scepter of righteousness
that the king alone yields. Righteousness. That's all through
the Old Testament. That's not just a concept that
we're to deal with ever so often. He's the king of righteousness.
He's the Lord our righteousness. And what did he have to do to
establish that righteousness? He told his disciples this and
they They were not in favor of it for a lot of time. Remember,
Peter said, Lord, you're not going to die, and that's when
Christ said, get thee behind me, Satan. What did he have to
do to establish this kingdom? Well, he had to establish righteousness
by his obedience unto death as the surety, the substitute, the
redeemer of his people. Even Job knew that. I know my
redeemer liveth, and he'll stand at the latter day. So the way
by which sinners would be brought into this kingdom and preserved
within the kingdom was by the almighty, irresistible, conquering
grace of God. And that's what they preached.
They preached the gospel. The gospel of the kingdom. Now what
all their words were, we don't have any record of that other
than what we read in the Old and the New Testament. But he
sent them out. Preaching the kingdom of heaven
is at hand. The Messiah has come. Who is the Messiah? What's he
gonna do? Who are the subjects of this
kingdom? How do we become subjects of this kingdom? How do we get
into this kingdom? It's not by our works. It's by
the grace of God that reigns through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ the Lord. And then he said in verse eight,
he said, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast
out devils, freely you have received, freely give. He gave them those
gifts. What do you mean freely you receive
freely? Don't charge money for your gifts.
You say, well, where do you get that at? Think about false preachers
today who claim to have these gifts. Do they charge for their,
you bet they do. They may not put a price tag
on it, but they're charging for it. They're making, and you remember
back in the book of Acts, a man named Simon Magus, When he saw
Peter and the disciples doing these miracles, he said, give
me these miracles. He wanted to sell it. He wanted
to pay them for it. So that's natural to men. And certainly it applies to salvation. We can't hold back salvation. from certain people because they're
not like us or we don't like them or they're not our kind
or whatever. Preach the gospel freely because
it's free. That's what the Holy Spirit does
when he brings us to a saving knowledge of Christ. He shows
us the things that are freely given. And just like these spiritual
gifts, or these physical gifts of healing and raising the dead
and all of this, casting out death, it's free. The disciples
didn't earn it. And we don't earn our salvation.
And he says in verse nine, provide neither gold nor silver nor brass
for your purses He says, nor script, the script there was
a bag that they carried their stuff in. Script for your journey,
neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves, and for the workman
is worthy of his meat. You know what he's telling them
there? He says, you're to live by the gospel. You're not to
live by human means. Preachers of the gospel, you
know, the Lord's true servants, we're not to be greedy people.
Now we're sinners, I'm a sinner just like you, I've got my own
problems, my own greed and all that, you gotta fight it. But
we're not in the ministry for the money, that's what he's saying.
We're not hirelings. But preachers of the gospel are
to live by the offerings of the people of God wherever it's possible
for a congregation to support them in full-time ministry. And
the Bible says the workman is worthy of his hire. And I put
in here, if a congregation does not have the ability to support
a pastor full-time, then it's fine for him to work outside
the ministry to support himself. But the workman is worthy of
his meat. Those who are blessed to be in
full-time ministry, what are we to do? Give our time to the
full-time ministry, to study the word, to pray, to bring messages,
to witness, all of that. The first four years that I was
in the ministry, I had to do that. I was in a congregation
up in West Virginia that didn't have the means to support me
full time, so I had to work outside the ministry. And that was okay. I still preach to them, but I'm
not bragging on that or anything like that. I'm just showing you
that It's been a real blessing for me these past years to be
able to set my time to studying the Word and writing and preaching.
And I thank God for you all because the Lord has enabled you to do
that, to support me and my family in that way. And it's a real
blessing. I don't take it for granted.
Well, look at verse 11. He says, and into whatsoever
city or town you shall enter, inquire who in it is worthy and
there abide till you go thence. And when you come into a house,
salute it. And verse 13, if the house be
worthy, let your peace come upon it. Now stop there. Who in it
is, what is he talking about worthiness? Well, we know he's
not talking about worthiness for salvation. You can't preach
the kingdom of heaven. and tell men and women, well,
you gotta make yourselves worthy by your works or by your giving
or by whatever. Because salvation is for the
unworthy. And when you come to salvation,
where do we find worthiness in Christ? Worthy is the Lamb, and
that's it. So worthiness here doesn't mean
people who are worthy of grace or worthy of salvation. By definition,
That can't happen. But salve, but worthiness here,
I've got in your lesson, and they're basically, there's two
things that you can look at upon this worthiness. And they're
basically the same thing, but there's a little difference.
Number one, it refers to those who were providentially prepared
by God to receive these men, listen to their message, and
support them. May have been people who've never heard the gospel
before. But by God's sovereign providence, working all things
after the counsel of his own will, he prepared these particular
people to receive the disciples and listen to their message.
And I've got listed in your lesson Romans 6, 17, and 18, where it
talks about you have believed from the heart that form of doctrine
which was delivered you. And I've told you that literally
that means which you were delivered to. What it is, worthy God's
delivering them to the message. And he prepared them in that
way. And when he says, in verse 13, peace come on. He's not talking
about speaking peace where there is no peace, where sinners don't
believe. He's talking about a form of
greeting that when you enter into a house, it was a regular
form of greeting. They'd say, peace be upon this
house. And so they would enter in, and they would preach the
gospel, and they would be supported by these people. But look at
the second part of, well, the second thing, it refers to God
giving them a general disposition to be open to the message of
the disciples. And you know, that's what happens.
In some way, when God brings us under the preaching of the
gospel, at some point in time, he gets our attention. I've often
kidded around about that, what I call my to-before moment. You
know, you've heard the old saying that sometimes a farmer had to
get a to-before and hit the old mule in the head just to get
his attention. And that's what God did for me. At one point
in time, when I'm sitting under the gospel by his sovereign providence,
not by my will, because I was against it, at some point in
time, he got my attention. to the point I said, I need to
hear more about this. And at some point in time, he
revealed himself to me. So anyway, look at the second
part of verse 13. He says, but if it be not worthy,
let your peace return to you. If they don't wanna hear it.
I don't want any part of your message, that's what they're
saying. And whosoever shall not receive you nor hear your words,
when you depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of
your feet. Don't try to force them now.
You can't force people to hear and to believe. The only one
who can force them, as it were, is the Holy Spirit, and He doesn't
do it against their will, He changes their will, like He changed
ours. But look at the warning here,
verse 15. Verily I say unto you, it shall
be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the
day of judgment than for that city. Think about the immorality,
the immorality of Sodom and Gomorrah. Is there anything worse than
that? And that immorality of Sodom and Gomorrah, think about
the immorality of our day. what our government is doing, all this sinful gender mismanagements
and all of this. Is there anything worse than
that? Yes, there is. And that is refusing the glorious
gospel of God's grace in Christ, having heard it and refusing
it. And he said, it's going to be
more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment
than for you. Now, I'm not 100% certain of what all that involves. We're going to get to that more
when we get over into Matthew 11, because he mentions the cities
and that miracles were done and the gospel was preached. And
we'll get to that more later on. But one thing you can be
sure of, that those who've heard the gospel and rejected, I know
there's gonna be a lot of mental anguish in eternity, more for
a person who heard the truth and rejected it than for those
who've never heard it at all. So that may be degrees of punishment
in hell, I don't know, it may not, but we'll get to that more,
okay?