That's a good hymn. Good choice, John. Thank you. Go back to Matthew 10 with me. And I've got some good news. I've got some real good news. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive our sin and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Good news. Or would you have rather heard
me say, I won the lottery? That would be the worst news.
That would be the worst thing that could happen to you. And if none of this was good
news to someone in here, if you've not heard this good news, a joyful
sound, I pray right now the Spirit of
God will move on your heart and mind, convict you of your sin,
convince you of your need of the Lord Jesus Christ and His
blood and apply this gospel to your sin-sick soul and save you
and cleanse you from all sin and unrighteousness. And I know
this for a fact. This gospel I'm about to preach
has that power to do just that. Chapter 9, verse 35, it says,
Jesus went about all the cities and villages teaching in their
synagogues. We devoted a message to that
verse one time. And what a blessing it is to
think about our Lord, the gospel, the truth, going into every little
village, every little village like Rocky Mount. You know, the
Gospel, the Word of God, the Scripture says, has gone everywhere.
Have they not all heard? Yea, barely. The sound has gone
throughout the world. That's what Paul said. But it
doesn't stay everywhere. The church is not raised up in
every city. But he does raise up churches where the gospel
is preached, where little folds, little flocks of sheep where
Christ is and his gospel is preached. And what a blessing. And often,
most times, it's in little villages. Little villages that the world
scoffs at and mocks. He went into all these villages
teaching in their synagogue and preaching. Preaching verse 35,
the gospel of the kingdom and healing every sickness and every
disease among the people. Preaching and healing every single
sickness. Preaching. Go over to Mark chapter
1 with me. The Lord Jesus Christ was a preacher. That in itself should make me
unashamed of what I'm doing. The Lord God in heaven had one
son, and he was a preacher. Look at it. Mark chapter 1, verse
38. He said unto his disciples, he
said unto them, let us go into the next towns that I may preach
there also, for therefore came I forth. And he preached in their
synagogues throughout all Galilee and cast out devils. And the
next fellow was a leper, and he claimed. The Lord Jesus Christ
was a preacher, and oh, what a preacher. But he said, I came
to preach. And though the world calls it
foolishness, I mean, the world does think
that preaching and preachers are about the most foolish occupation
and thing on earth, that only ignorant, uneducated people could
sit and listen to that. Well, the Lord Jesus Christ was
a preacher. Granted, there are many fools
doing this, preaching foolishness, but there are some. The Lord
has not left Himself without a witness. There are some that
aren't fools. They're wise men. And they're
not preaching foolishness. They're preaching Jesus Christ,
who is the wisdom and the power of God. To those that are saved,
they know it. They know this is not foolishness,
but this is the very wisdom of God. And back in Mark 1, it says he
healed every sickness and every disease. Jesus Christ is the
same yesterday, today, and forever. He said, I'm with you always,
even to the end of the earth. And he is still in every village
and town, and his gospel goes through, and he is still healing
every person that needs it. Everyone is sickened with this
disease called sin. Isaiah chapter 1. Now this is
something that the world doesn't know and doesn't believe, but
all of God's people do. The great physician reveals to
every one of his people their deep, inward problem called sin. And again, the world thinks this
is just old-fashioned mountain preaching, sin. No, this is the
Word of God. Isaiah 1, he says in verse 2,
"'Hear, O heavens, give ear, O earth, The Lord has spoken,
I have nourished, brought up children that have rebelled against
me. The ox knows his owner, the ass his master's crib, but Israel
doth not know, my people doth not even consider. Sinful nation,
a people laden with iniquity, seed of evildoers, children that
are corruptors, forsaken the Lord, provoked the Holy One of
Israel in anger, gone way backward. Verse 5, he says, why should
you be stricken anymore? You will revolt more and more.
The whole head is sick. The whole heart is faint. From the sole of the foot, that's
the walk. Even to the head, that's the
thoughts. No soundness in it. Nothing but sin. Wounds and bruises
and putrefying sores, that's leprosy of sin. Have not been
clothed or bound up, mollified with ointment. Verse 14, and
he says, but they're religious. They're religious. But he says,
your new moons, your appointed feasts, my soul hateth. They
are trouble unto me. I am weary to bear them. You
spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you. Your
many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.
Now listen. Wash you. Make you clean. Put away the evil of your doing
from before mine eye. Cease to do evil. How? I don't understand, Preacher.
How? He just sang it. You just sang it. There's power
in the blood. Would you over evil a victory
win? There's wonderful power in the
blood. You don't have the ability. Wash
you. There is a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Immanuel's veins. And do you know what? Sinners
that plunge themselves beneath that blood lose all their guilt
this day. Good news. There it is. Watch
it. Learn to do well. Verse 18, Come
now, let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins
be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they
be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. But if you be willing and obedient,
You notice it's both, don't you? He shall eat the good of the
Lamb. But if you refuse and rebel, you'll be devoured with the sword,
the sword of his mouth. The mouth of the Lord has spoken.
I'll go back to Matthew 9. But our Lord came to save sinners. And it says He went into these
villages and towns, and the first thing He did was preach. And
then it follows that He healed Every sickness and every disease.
And verse 36, it says, he was moved with compassion. Matthew
9, verse 36, he was moved with compassion. People were lying
around on the ground. They were scattered as sheep
having no shepherd. Well, this is the great shepherd
who has come for his sheep. And he had compassion on them.
And he told his disciples, pray that the Lord have harvest. He
said, the harvest is white. There's plenty of laborers. If
you pray the Lord of Harvest, He'll send forth laborers into
Harvard. Send forth with the Gospel. The Lord had compassion. So what did He do? How did He
show compassion on these people? Look at verse 1. He called twelve
disciples. He raised up twelve men. and
gave them a power to go out and cleanse sinners and raise the
dead and heal the blind and the deaf and the lame. The power
of the gospel. He called them. Verse 10, He
called them. They didn't apply for the job.
They were out fishing or building houses or counting their money.
They didn't even know Him, but He knew them and came and called
every one of them. You know, this is the compassion
of God. This is the gift of God. The gift of God. When our Lord
ascended on high, Paul wrote, he said, he ascended on high
and led captivity captive, and he gave gifts unto men. It says
he gave some prophets, some apostles, some evangelists, some pastors
and teachers. to go out with this gospel. He
said, go into all the world and preach the gospel. And this gospel
has the power to save, the power to heal, the power to cast out
unclean spirits, the power to heal all manner of sickness according
to the Word of God. Look at verse 2. Now the names of the twelve apostles
are these, Simon, Peter, Andrew, James, John, Thomas. That sound familiar? We've got
some of those in our midst, don't we? Were these extraordinarily
amazing, gifted, talented men that the Lord was looking all
over the earth for some really gifted fellows that could do
His work for Him? No, they were just ordinary.
Andrew, John. We had three or four. We had
four. Now we're down to three. But
Andrew, we had a couple of those. Thomas. We've got a couple in
here. Here's a Thomas. Ordinary. Nobodies. And this is how you
know. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels that to excellency of the power might be known that
it's of God and not of man. God raised these ordinary common
fishermen up like Simon. How do you picture Simon? I picture
Simon Peter as a big old rough, tough, longshoreman, don't you,
Stephen? Big, tough, rough fisherman that
will knock you down if you look across at him. I can just see
Peter like this. Rather fight you than talk to
you. He probably didn't talk much.
Well, no, he probably got talked a lot. But, you know, just a
rough, gruff fellow. Fishing was his life. Nobody
could convince him of anything. He knew it all. Well, along came
this Jewish man, this rabbi, this teacher from Nazareth. And completely took control of
that fellow. Brought him down. Broke the enmity
in his heart. Changed his mind, his heart,
his walk, his talk, his everything. Reduced him to being a child. Said, I'll follow you wherever
you go. That's the power of God. And this fellow who, you know,
been in boats all his life. If he's talking to anybody, he's
talking to fish. And Andrew sent them out to preach.
He said, go preach. I hadn't been to school. I don't
know the first thing about this. I'll be with you. And they went
out preaching, and lo and behold, thousands of people sat at their
feet and heard their word, and were changed just like them.
Where did the power come from? The men? No sir. Had nothing
to do with them. It was in the gospel they prayed.
It was in the Lord that sent them. This is how you know. This
is how you know it's Him. Gospel is the power of God. One
of the most eloquent men to ever stand in a pulpit was an old
coal miner from West Virginia, eighth grade education, Scott
Richardson. Profound wisdom. And no man like Stephen could
stand before his wisdom and the spirit in which he preached.
And God slew many people through that old coal miner's preaching.
That's the power of God. It's not in the man, it's not
in the vessel, it's just an android. just to John, just to Thomas,
that they have a great Lord that gifted them. Go, he said in verse
6, go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Well, who are
they, Lord? You don't know them. You don't
know them. But I do. I know them all. I foreknew them before the world
began. You just go preach. Don't beg. Don't plead. Don't ask. Preach. Declare who I am. Preach the Word. Do it in love. Do it in compassion. But do it
with authority. That no man despise you. Fear
not their faces. Just declare the truth of who
God is, what man is, who Christ is. Declare the truth. Don't
beg anybody. I'm not a beggar. Neither are
you. And you stop and you stand back and you watch me bring them. You watch. The Word of God is
His power. Go to the lost sheep. I have
lost sheep. And how they're known is by this power, like old Simon
Peter. And they'll hear my voice and
they'll follow me. Go preach, he said. Preach what, Lord? Verse
7. Preach the kingdom of heaven
is at hand. The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Now, we see the kingdom of China, don't we? We see the kingdom
of North Korea, Russia, the United Kingdom. USA. We see these kingdoms of men,
don't we? We see them. And if we haven't
seen China, we believe the news that there is a China. We believe
the pictures that we see. This is a good illustration,
actually. We believe men, what they say, that there is a kingdom
called China, and we see the pictures of it. There is an unseen kingdom. It's
called the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom
of His dear Son. Have you seen it? Say, no, I
haven't seen it. There's some pictures of it. And somebody's told us, gave
us the good news. You know what? I believe Him.
I believe the news. I believe the report. It's been
revealed unto me. There is a kingdom. I've seen
the pictures. I've seen picture after picture.
And a Jew of this unseen kingdom. And the world scoffs and mocks.
We don't believe that. We don't believe in God. We can't
see Him. No, you never will. You never will until He reveals
Himself to you. What man knoweth the Spirit of
God, or the Spirit of a man that's in him, save the Spirit of that
man reveal Him to? Huh? You don't know what I'm
thinking. I have a brother some of you
have never met. You may not believe he exists.
And you won't until he reveals himself to you, until he shows
up. So, you know, I say this to you
when you're talking to people. Don't argue. We're not trying
to convince people that God is and Christ is. No. When he reveals
himself, the argument is over. We just declare Him and hope
and pray and ask Him to reveal Himself to them like He did us.
I thought this was a bunch of foolishness. I don't believe
that. But one day, a common ordinary
preacher named Henry of all – that's not a noble name. Well, there
was a king named that, and he was a pagan, wasn't he? The eighth. But God raised up a preacher
named Henry, And this young rebel sat one day, and lo and behold,
the power of God in my heart. When I said, I won't believe,
I don't believe any of that. I do believe this with all my
heart. It's the kingdom of God. It's
an unseen spiritual eternal kingdom wherein dwelleth righteousness
and holiness. And God is the King and Christ
is the King. And right now He's reigning and
ruling among the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth.
And none can stay His hand or say unto Him, You can't do that.
He's doing it. I'm reigning. I'm ruling. He that sitteth on
the circle of the earth. If I can't see Him, He sees you. He that sitteth on the circle
of the earth and the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing."
Grasshoppers! Like those worms I told you,
maybe some of you haven't heard this. I bought some worms and
made a little house for them for my gardener. And put those
worms in that house. And you know, worms are blind.
They're creatures of the earth. They eat dead things. They don't
like living things. They don't like light. You shine
a light, they'll run for darkness. This is man. They don't believe
me. I fed them. I bought them. I fed them. I water them. I house
them. I protect them. And none of them
have ever, not one of them have ever, when I go down there to
feed them, ever looked up and said, thank you. Not one. That's what Psalm 14 says, the
Lord looked down from heaven on the sons of men to see if
there were any that didn't understand. What? Creator! Any that did seek
God, any that did call on God, any that did say thank you, they
won't do it by nature. They're blind, they're dead,
they're dumb, they can't see God, they can't know God, but
God. For His great love, wherewith
He loved not all, but some of these worms. Now isn't that amazing?
Wow, He would love any worms at all. And it's only foolish,
blind worms that think he ought to love us all. But some worms. And how does
he do this? How does he reveal himself? I've
thought of this many times. You know, I go down there every
now and then, just because I can, and I get that big tub and I
just shake the fire out of it. The wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness of sin, Romans 1. Earthquakes,
tornadoes, hurricanes, droughts, famines, diseases, pestilence,
and all the wars and rumors of war, do they call it on God?
No. And I thought, if I could just,
they just don't see me, they don't know me, if I could just
become aware. Not a man. No man. But become
a worm. And get down there and tell them,
listen, you don't know it, but there's a God up there. There's
one that owns you. There's one that is feeding you
right now, though you don't know Him. And you know what? I'm Him. Did I oversimplify that? That's
exactly what Jesus Christ did. Psalm 22 says that very thing,
I am a worm and no man. Jesus Christ, God was manifest
in that. He came into the world, the world
was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. Light shone in
darkness, but men loved darkness rather than light. They're worms,
they're dead and trespassing, but God. Manifest in the flesh
the Son of God, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who sat on
the circle of the earth, became in the likeness of sinful flesh,
took upon Him the form of a man, became a worm. To what? Do what? Reveal God. Listen, he says, you worms, you
sinners, under the wrath and judgment of God, you're not thanking
Him, you're not acknowledging Him, you're not conscious of
Him. I've come to make you conscious
of Him. There's a kingdom I'm going to destroy. One of these
days I'm going to be tired of fooling with worms. You know
what? I'm going to be tired of it.
I don't need them. I'm just going to cast them away
one of these days. That's what the Lord is going
to do with this earth. But God, to some of thee, reveals Himself.
Christ the King, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, became
a man and walked among us. And He said, I'm here. And nobody
knew Him. Nobody could see Him, but to
those with whom He revealed Himself. And those He did, they bowed
the knee. They confessed with the tongue. Like Thomas, you're
not just a man. You're Christ. You're the Son
of God. You're God. You're my Lord and
you're my God that made me. And he had to tell them why he's
here. I'm here not to show you how to live necessarily, To make
you rich? Oh no, I'm going to destroy this
blood. I'm here to put you in My Kingdom. I'm here to die for
you. I'm here because God is angry. And I'm going to take your sin.
I'm going to take your judgment. I'm going to take the wrath of
God for you. I'm going to be made a sacrifice for your sin.
I'm going to be made an offering to God for you. God is pleased
with me, my righteousness. Not with anybody else, but my
righteousness. And I'm going to give this to
you. I'm going to make a worm into a butterfly while He kills
me on your behalf. I'm going to do this. I'm going
to go to the cross. I'm going to become a curse for you. You're
going to return to the earth. But if I do this for you, you'll
go to God. You fly into the face of God.
And Christ came, went to the cross, shed his precious blood,
the Lamb of God. God satisfied. The justice of
God is satisfied. Sin is remitted. Christ died,
was buried, rose again, seated at the right hand of God, sends
his Holy Spirit with the gospel through preachers. They preach
this gospel. They call sinners. And the power
of God moves on them, opens blind eyes, deaf ears, loosens tongues. Lame feet walk the dead rise. They come to Christ. They know
God now. They know there is a kingdom
and they are in it. And it is a mystery. And I have tried to
explain it, but I can't. Verse 8, he says, Go out there,
preach the kingdom of heaven. There is an unseen kingdom. And
Christ has come, the King, to make up His subjects. Heal the sick. Cleanse the lepers. Raise the dead. Cast out devils. Freely you have received. Freely
give." Now people, these men actually, the Lord
actually gave them power to heal the sick. Cleanse lepers. Actual,
literal lepers were cleansed. And some of them actually raised
the dead. Simon Peter, Paul. Cast out devils. That's a fact. And that power doesn't exist
in men today. The reason God gave these twelve
men that power back then was because the Word of God wasn't
complete. The Word of God was not finished.
And this verified, confirmed that God sent them. These miracles that no man could
do with them verified that God sent these men. No man can do
this except God be with him. Alright? But now that the Word
of God is complete, you don't need those signs and wonders
and miracles. We have the Word of God. And
the Word of God is His power now. This is what He used. It was then too. But what I'm
saying is, I have the same, the Lord has given me the same power
not to heal the physically sick, Not to cleanse physical lepers. Not to raise the actual literal
dead. But spiritually speaking, the
gospel is the power of God to heal sick minds. It's not me,
it's the gospel. It's this truth. And how you know it's of God
is it's not explained in it. It's just declaring it. It's
just administering it. Standing up and declaring who
God is and who Christ is, and the Holy Spirit of God takes
this gospel, the power of God, the Word of God, and operates
on the minds and the hearts of His people. Like I said, those
who before didn't give God any thought, all of a sudden they
hear this. Those whose affection, whose
hearts set on things of this earth, he smites their heart. Oh, I want to be in that kingdom.
Oh, I need Christ. The power of God to cleanse filthy
lepers. The gospel actually changes people's
lives. They didn't have life. He has
to give them life first. But it actually changes their
behavior. It's not saved because of a change
of behavior, but there will be a change of behavior. The lepers
were clean. He said, I will save them. Quicken the dead. People that
never could and would hear a gospel message preached. All of a sudden,
boy, it's the best thing they ever heard. You can't get enough
of it. That's what God does. It takes a young man who couldn't
wait to get out of church, couldn't wait to get out from under that,
and makes him a preacher. That's God. That's the power
of God. He said, freely you have received,
freely give. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15,
he said, I preach unto you the gospel which I also receive. I heard the gospel and I rejected,
he said, but then one day Christ came to me on my road to Damascus
and said, Saul, Saul, you can't kick any more, can you? Preach, freely receive. Verses
9 and 10, he said to these preachers, go out, provide neither gold
nor silver nor brass in your purses. But Lord, how are we
going to live? How have you been living thus far? You think you've been providing
for yourself, Simon Peter? You think you're a good fisherman?
You think all these years you've provided that fish. They found
that out, didn't they? That's how the Lord first revealed
Himself to Simon Peter and these fellows. Went out in his boat
and said, cast your net on the right side. I said, preacher,
we've been fishing all our lives. We know these waters like the
back of our hand. Well, what have you caught? Well, nothing. Well, just do what I say. And
they cast that net, and they couldn't contain the fish. And
Simon Peter hit his knees and said, You're the God over fish. And you're my God, and I didn't
know you. And now I bow to you, and I confess you, and I believe
you. Don't provide gold or silver
or brass. I've provided for you all these
years. I'll provide for you to the end of your days. Not script
for your journey, money, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor
yet staves. The workman is worthy of his
meat. If I send you out, if I sent you, you will be provided. You don't have to beg for an
audience, and you will not beg for money. They will support
you. They will love you and they will
think you're a gift from God because He is. Those men never thought anything
of themselves. Ever. Ever. Not one time they
started getting like that. Didn't they stand? They started
thinking, hey, we are pretty special. The Lord got angry with
them. He said, you're nothing. I found you. Nobody. Don't ever
rise above that. Read on. It says, verse 11, and
I'll close with these verses. Whatever city or town you enter,
inquire who in it is worthy, and there abide till you go with
it. Whoever is worthy, stay there. I've sent you to that house.
And he said, whatever city or town, and you go into it and
salute it, verse 13, if the house is worthy, let your peace come
upon it. What's their peace? They can't
give peace. What's their peace? It's the
gospel of peace. It's Christ and His gospel of
peace. Read on. And he said, let your peace come
upon it, but if it be not worthy, Let your peace return unto you.
Don't fret. Don't worry. Well, I need to
hear this. Lack of response? It's alright. Shake the dust off. I have some
people. They're hearing me. They're hearing
me through you. And he said it would be more
tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah, for that town that
rejected you. And he said this to them, he
said, if the house be worthy. You find out, you go to a city
and you find some worthy people and you tell them the good news.
And if the house be worthy, peace is going to be on that house.
Now, what does that mean? It means find some good people.
That means you find some really noble people, some good people,
some fine, moral, upstanding people. No, they don't need the
gospel. Christ said, I didn't come for
the righteous. I didn't come for Pharisees and scribes, not
many. They don't need my righteousness. They're not sinners as other
men. They don't need a physician.
They're okay. I didn't come to call them. I
came to call sinners. Well, preacher, what does it
mean by being worthy? To be worthy of this great salvation. Talking about mercy. Talking
about grace. Talking about the blood of God's
Son shed for the remission of sin. To be worthy, here's what
you have to be. Wretched, miserable, poor, blind,
naked, a leper, a worm. Unworthy. To be worthy, you've
got to be unworthy. You've got to know, I don't deserve
this. You find somebody like that,
he said to these preachers, you find somebody like that and tell
them, you're just the one I came for. And you stay there. Stay there. As long as there's
somebody like that, you stay there. Let me close with this
illustration. It's a good one. We had a family doctor, P.J. Winn, Philip Winn. Do you remember
him, Tammy? Dr. Winn, an old-fashioned doctor
who made house calls. He had a little black bag. He
came to see me. Delivered all of us except Robbie.
And delivered all of us. A little black bag and he'd come
to the house. Anyway, he was a wise old fellow. And he'd seen every disease coming
and going, you know. And one time he was in his office
and he peeped out into the waiting room and there were people gathered
there for hangnails and headaches and, you know, a little bit of
arthritis and all this and that and the other. He'd been seeing
people and hearing people with all these little tiny ailments,
you know. And you remember, he finally
had it fit up. He went out into that waiting
room and he said, is there anybody out here really sick? Is there
anybody out here who really needs help? If so, come in right now. If not, get out of here. Our Lord said, ho everyone that
thirsteth, come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy
laden, I'll give you rest. Come to call sinners, not the
righteous, not moral people, not good people, not religious
people. People that need forgiveness
of sin. People that need a God, not a
pilot. Worms that need mercy, not just
a fire escape from hell. Anybody? Power to save. OK, Brother John,
you come up. All right, let's all stand and
turn to number 166.