in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter
10, is our text this morning. Matthew 10, let me read, beginning
with verse 11. The Lord is speaking to his disciples
and says unto them, Into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter,
inquire who in it is worthy, and there abide till ye go thence. And when ye come into an house,
salute And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it.
But if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you." So
what does that mean, if the house be worthy? Well, we'll look at
that in a moment, but the Lord sent his disciples, the apostles,
out to preach. In verse 7, he says, Go preach,
saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Preach. The word preach means declare.
Thus saith the Lord about the kingdom. Go preach. Declare. Go sound forth the kingdom. The kingdom. He didn't say, Go
plead. Go beg. Go ask people to do something
for Jesus. No, sir. Go declare. He didn't say offer people. No, sir. He doesn't say that
in the scriptures. He said go preach. Go declare
the kingdom. Go declare it. Kingdom of heaven. Now, God chose in 1 Corinthians
1, verse 21, it says, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching
to save them which believe. Those who eventually believe
through the means of preaching God's word. It's not preaching
of foolishness which God is pleased to use, not the preaching of
foolishness. Much of that goes on today, always
has gone on and continues to do so today. And it's not the
preaching of fools. God's true preachers are not
fools. The prophets of old, men like
Elijah, Samuel, were bold, courageous, wise men. Men respected. And so it is with
his true preachers today. They are not fools. They are
not considered to be so. But respected men, men of honesty
and integrity and bold and courageous, not beggars, not pleaders, not
socializers and programmers. It has pleased God by the means
of preaching to save those that believe. The power is not in
the preacher himself. No, sir. Scripture says, Romans
1.16, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
which believes it. The gospel is the power unto
salvation. Power is in the word of God.
It is the word of His power, Scripture says. Not in the preacher,
the power is not in the preacher, or even in the preaching, the
act of preaching. Or is it in the power of the
hearer to do something with it? No, the power is in God's Word
when used by the Holy Spirit of God. The first thing, the
primary task of the apostles, he said here, was to preach.
Christ himself was a preacher. He said, let us go into another
town, and preach. For therefore came I forth."
To preach the gospel of the kingdom, he said. Go preach the kingdom
of heaven is at hand. Kingdom. What does that mean?
It means the dominion of the king. Dominion of the king. Several books of God's word are
called the books of the kings. The kings. 1 Samuel is actually called the
first book of the Kings, 2 Samuel, the second book. 1 and 2 Kings,
3 and 4 book. Kings, scriptures full of stories
about kings, men whom God raised up to reign and rule, powerful
men, men who were sovereign. That means they did as they would
with whom they would. They reigned and ruled over a
kingdom. Well, Jesus Christ is called the King of Kings. and
Lord of Lords. Scripture says the King's heart
is in the hands of the Lord. The King of Kings, the Lord Jesus
Christ, has the hearts, the heart mind you, the heart, the King's
heart is in the hands of the Lord. As the rivers of water
he turneth it whithersoever he will. Now that's the sovereign
Lord Jesus Christ who has men's hearts in His hands. Have you
ever heard that passage? He said in Psalm 2, I have set
my King upon my holy hill of Zion. God's King is Jesus Christ. This is called the gospel of
the kingdom. And that's good news. The gospel
means good news. That's good news to the meek
and the lowly, to subjects, to those who need someone to reign
and rule over. That's good news. Grace is good
news to the helpless. Grace is good news to those who
have nothing, can do nothing, know nothing, who need a handout.
Grace means gift. Mercy is good news to the guilty,
to the unworthy. Preach the gospel of the kingdom,
he said. There is a kingdom, a spiritual
kingdom. It comes not with observation, our Lord said. It is not of this
world. It is not of this world. Jesus Christ is not coming back
to this world to set up an earthly kingdom and sit on the throne
of David. That is foolishness. Scripture says he will destroy
this place with the brightness of his coming. His kingdom is
already established. He sits on the throne, right
hand of the majesty on high. His throne is in the heavens.
His kingdom is spiritual. It is not of this world, the
Lord Jesus Christ said. It is not of this world. If it
were, my servants would fight. We don't fight for this. We're
not polishing the brass on a sinking ship. This world is damned and
doomed. But the kingdom of God is a spiritual
one, and it's forever. And he's calling out his subjects
now, his servants. He's calling them out. The way
in which they are called is, the way in which they are known,
is by this gospel call. Peter said, Give diligence to
make thy calling and election sure. Find out whether or not
you are one of the elect. How may you know? Well, Paul
said that to the Thessalonians. He said, We are bound to give
thanks, brethren, beloved of the Lord. Thanks to God for you,
brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning
chosen you. to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit, setting apart of the Spirit, and belief of
the truth, they believe, whereunto this salvation he called you
by our gospel." Our gospel, not just any gospel. The gospel.
Our gospel. And God's people, they hear.
Yes, the hearing ears of the Lord. Many have ears to hear,
but don't hear. Well, God gives ears to hear.
Just like the deaf people he healed, God must give hearing
ears to those who hear the gospel. Do God's people believe? Yes,
they do believe. No one believes for them. They
believe. Well, where does that come from?
Ephesians 2, 8 plainly says, Faith is the gift of God. It's
not of yourself. It's the gift of God. And they
call on the Lord. Yes, whosoever shall call on
the name of the Lord shall be saved. Where did Paul get that? He quoted that in Romans 10,
13. Where did he get that? He found it in Joel 2, 32, which
goes on to say, As many as the Lord our God shall call. They call. Yes, they do. They
won't call until he calls. And it's not an offer. Nowhere
in Scripture does it say God offers you salvation. That's
a lie. David said, thou hast given commandment
to save me. The word of a king is there's
power. Kings don't ask their subjects
to do things. They tell them. He says, come,
you come. He says, call. When he calls
you and tells you, call. Seek ye the Lord. When thou saidst,
Seek my face, thy face I will seek." And they call on the Lord. Yes, they do. They repent. It's
not of themselves, though. The goodness of God leads to
repentance. And they commit. They come to cry. Christ said,
No man cometh unto me, except the Father which hath sent me
draw them. And he that cometh to me. He
said, I will in no wise cast out. He can't. He can't deny
himself. He can't deny or cast out those
he gives life to. He said, I give unto them eternal
life. They shall never perish. So he
says, go preach this gospel of a sovereign reigning king. Go
preach. Go preach. And he said in verse
11, inquire into When the town you go into, inquire who in it
is worthy. If you come to a house, salute
it. If the house be worthy, let your
peace come upon it. If it be not worthy, let your
peace return to you. Inquire who is worthy. Stay there
a while. Preach, teach, fellowship, eat
and drink with. Paul went to Corinth for a while. ready to leave. He didn't think
there were any believers there. He was ready to leave, and the
Lord said, you stay there, Paul, stay there. I have much people
in this city. Though Paul didn't know it, though
Paul didn't think so, God told him to stay there. Why? Because
he said, I have much people in this city. My sheep, they will
hear my voice. The foundation of God standeth
sure, having this sea of the Lord knoweth them. that are his,
and they will hear his voice, and they will believe. Eventually,
they will, through the means of preaching. So he told them
to go preach, teach, and whoever is worthy to receive this wonderful
gift. Yea, it is worthy of all acceptation,
but all don't do that. God's people will eventually
receive the truth. And this message of the king,
saluted, he says, salute the house where you come. If the
house be worthy, if the house be worthy, then let your peace come upon
it. David sent young men to a house, the house of Nabal in 1 Samuel
25. Young men, he told them to salute
that house. He said, say to that house, peace
be both to thee, peace be to thine house, peace be unto all
that thou hast, peace be unto you. Peace. Well, God, Christ says,
if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it. Peace. If
the house be worthy, it will be peace with God. God who is
angry with the wicked every day. God who hateth all workers of
iniquity. Scripture says. A God of holiness,
a God of wrath, a God who will someday destroy this world which
is worthless to Him. Peace with God, peace within,
peace of mind, peace of heart, peace among themselves. If worthy,
they'll have this peace. What does that mean? To be worthy. If not worthy, Christ said, if
it's not worthy, leave. There will be no peace with God,
no peace of mind and heart, no peace with others, no peace.
No matter what anybody says, there will be no peace. Are you
worthy? I want to know if I am. If my
house is worthy, the church I attend, is God's house worthy? Well,
Genesis 32, Jacob, who represents all of God's people, he's called
the God of Jacob more than anything else. Jacob, have I love? Jacob says, Genesis 32, 10, I
am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the
truth you have showed unto thy servant. That is what Jacob said,
and that is what all the sons of Jacob say. They say, I am
not worthy of your mercy. To be worthy, then, is to think
yourself unworthy. All in heaven do not think they
belong there. But they say Christ is worthy. To be worthy of mercy is to think
yourself guilty. To be worthy of grace is to be
helpless and hopeless in need of a handout. To be worthy of
love is to feel yourself unworthy, unlovely. So being worthy is
all about receiving the gospel, and this gospel is for the This
gospel is for the hell-deserving. This gospel is good news of mercy
to the guilty, grace to the helpless, forgiveness for sinners. Not
for the righteous, but for the sinners and for the unworthy.
Are you worthy? That means you are unworthy.
Until next Sunday, may the Lord reveal this truth to you. Amen.