Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Luke chapter 4. The name of the message is, What
Power? Now today, I'm going to start a series of messages. I
don't know how long it's going to be. It might be 5, 10 messages. It might be longer, on encounters
with Christ. I want us to look through the
Gospels and see some of the encounters that our Lord had with different
people. I thought it would be very profitable for us as we
We haven't spent a lot of time in the gospels lately, and we've
been going through the smaller epistles and all that, so I thought
it'd be wonderful for us to start just a few weeks of, maybe a
couple months, of encounters that our Lord had with various
people. So we're gonna start in Luke
chapter four, and we're gonna look at an encounter that Jesus
had with Simon Peter's mother-in-law. with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
the fact that Simon Peter had a mother-in-law does away with
the popish Roman Catholic celibacy foolishness that they do. Peter was married. My oh my. And the meeting that we're going
to look at today Like all the meetings that Christ had and
that we will look at, came about by divine providence. Remember
that the lady at the well and the Lord said, I must needs go
to Samaria. Well, why? Because there's a
sheep there. And we find out there's not one,
but I've said this many times, there's many. But he had to go
there, didn't he? That was that lady's appointed
time of love, just like each one of us. When we heard the
gospel, that was our appointed time of love, to hear the gospel
preached and proclaimed. And the Lord gave us faith to
believe. We were born again first by his Holy Spirit, and then
we were given faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That
was our appointed time of love. So every time we see anything
that the Lord's doing, it is by divine appointment. Whether
he's talking to the Pharisees, whether he's performing a miracle.
All these are come to pass by the divine providence of God. There's no such thing as chance
or luck. Those are things that man have
invented. There's only providence. There's only providence. Even
the casting of a die, when you cast dies, you're playing a game
and you cast dies, do you know that casting of those dies is
by order of the Lord? The casting of the lots, it says
in Proverbs, is the Lord's doing. My oh my. So this meeting that
we're going to look at came about by the divine providence of God.
Again, there's nothing lucky, as the world would say. God had
purposed this encounter, and why? Well, to manifest the glory
of God, to manifest his great glory, to also manifest the power
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, the Lord said of the lady
at the well, I must needs go through Samaria. That's before
anyone even knew he was going to meet a lady at the well. He
said, I have to go. I have to. He had a divine appointment. It was all planned and purposed
by God, and it came to pass. That which God purposes and plans
will come to pass. Let's read Luke chapter 4, verses
31 to 41. Again, for the context of what
we're going to look at. Luke chapter 4, verse 31, the
scripture declares that Christ came down to Capernaum, a city
of Galilee, and taught them on the Sabbath day. Now, the Jews
at Nazareth threw him out of the synagogue. This is why he's
now come down to Capernaum. They tried to murder him for
preaching the gospel. And our Lord comes down to Capernaum,
which is another Galilean city. It's about 16 miles from Nazareth,
they say. And he walked there. 16 miles. That's a long way to
walk, isn't it? But he walked there. And the reason it says, come
down, one commentator brings forth that Nazareth was upon
a hill, so he came down into the lower plains, where Capernaum
was. And then it says, and they were
astonished at his doctrine, for his word was with power. So he comes down into Capernaum,
and he starts to teach. And the people are astonished
at the doctrine that he's proclaiming, because the word's with power.
See, the very one who's reading the scriptures here is the very
one who gave them. Is it no wonder he speaks with
power, isn't it? And he's God in the flesh. Could
you imagine God reading his own scriptures? We get to hear each
other read the scriptures, but could you imagine God reading
the scriptures? My, oh, my. My, oh, my. And they were astonished at his
doctrine, for his word was with power, the same power that he
spoke the universe into existence. Remember last week we saw that
that power rested upon him? It was intrinsic to who he was? And in the synagogue there was
a man which had an unclean spirit, or an unclean devil, and cried
out with a loud voice, saying, Let us alone! What have we to
do with thee? Look what he calls him. thou
Jesus of Nazareth. Art thou come to destroy us?
I know thee, who thou art." Now remember, the people that he's
been preaching to, they don't have any clue who he is. Did
we have any clue who Christ was before he saved us? No. We had a god of our imagination
called Jesus, or called God, who couldn't do anything. I did,
in my mind. And then you give an encounter
with the true and living God, and you're like, he's not at
all what I thought he was. But look who knows him. This
ties in with what we've been studying in James, but the devils
believe and tremble. They know. It's not a saving
belief, but they know who he is. He created them. Look what they say. Look what
this unclean devil says. He says, I know thee who thou
art, the Holy One of God. Look at the singular. Look at
how singular that title is. The Holy One of God. The only one who's holy. The
only one who's sinless. The Holy One of God. The Word
of God incarnates. That's who he is. They know who he is. Remember,
they knew who he was in heaven. Those angels fell from their
standing, didn't they? But what were they doing before?
Yeah, amen. They were worshiping him. And
they fell. They know who he is. They can
look at that man and go, that's no man. He's in a man's body,
but that's the Holy One of it. That's the Holy One of God right
there. Oh, my. And what does our Lord
do? And Jesus rebuked him, saying,
hold thy peace. He doesn't want his praise. He doesn't want his identification.
Only God's people praise him now. We're the ones who praise him.
We're the ones who identify who he is. He doesn't want this devil saying
nothing. He says, hold thy peace. And
what happens? He's muzzled. He can't say another word. Hold thy peace and come out of
him. And the devil had thrown him in the midst, and he came
out of him and heard him not. The man wasn't hurt at all. And
they were amazed and spake among themselves, saying, what a word
is this? With mere words. He didn't even
have to do anything. All he did was speak. Well, word is this, for with
authority and power he commanded the unclean spirits, and they
came out. See, he's God. He has all power. He's the creator. And what he
commands must, must come to pass. Again, like I mentioned in Sunday
School, see the foolishness of saying, God's done all He can
do, now the rest is up to you. That's not the God of the Bible,
is it? Our Savior, the God of the Bible,
the one who saved our souls, He told that demon to be quiet,
and it muzzled right away. And then he said, come out, just
with a word. He didn't put his hand on him or anything. He just
said, come out of it. And man, that thing had, it had
to obey. It had to come out. And they said, what power, just
with a word. That's our Savior, beloved. That's
the one who saved our souls. What a demonstration of power. He's God and yet he's a man.
And we see his great power here on full display, don't we? It's
on full display. None but God could do this. None
but God. And notice he didn't hide his
power, did he? He didn't want him saying his name, but he did
not hide his power, did he? His power was manifest right
in front of all them people. And the demons know who he is, saying, let us alone. What have
we to do with thee? They're trembling. What have
we to do with thee? Let us alone. Leave us alone. Thou, Jesus of Nazareth, art
thou come to destroy us? Now listen to that. We looked
in Sunday school that the Lord has the power to save and destroy. This devil knows that Christ
has the power to destroy him right there if he wills. And yet man shakes their fist
at God. Is it not merciful that he doesn't
destroy us? My oh my. I know thee who thou
art the Holy One of God. So the devils know, and they
tremble. But notice again, notice the
power, just the word of power he muzzles them. Quiet. He can't say another word,
can he? Hold thy peace. Silence. And he just did it by the word
of his power. And at that command, when he
says, then he says, then he says, and come out of him. Well, the
devil didn't say, well, you know, I think I want to hang out here
for a little while more. I kind of like it here. You know, I'm going to stay in
here for a little while. I'm just going to mess up this guy.
No, they can't, can they? Because the very one who commands
him to come out of him is the one who has all power and all
authority. And again, rejoice, beloved.
This is the one who saved us. This is the one who exercised
that power to save our souls. Because the same power that raised
up Jesus from the grave, right? God's power, which is on demonstration
here. is the same power that raised
us up when we were dead in trespasses and sins. Same power. Isn't that incredible? So we see here a demonstration
of his deity, don't we? We see here a demonstration of
his almighty power. Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold
thy peace, and come out of him. And when the devil had thrown
him in the midst, he came out of him, and heard him not. And
then the people were amazed, it says in verse 47, and the
fame of him went out into every place of the country round about. So the people were amazed at
the power that he, just by the word of his command, the power
that came, the authority that came with that word. They were
amazed. They'd never seen anything like
this. And the fame there just means
that what he did went around. People started talking about
it. How could you not? Could you imagine seeing that?
How could you not talk about it and tell other people about
it? Again, they'd never seen anything like it. They were astonished. They were astonished at this
exercise of power. That with a word. And they said,
what word is this? That he commands the unclean
spirits with authority and power. And they come out. They can't
say, no, I'm going to stay here. They come out. They have to come
out. They must. Just like when he
raised us from that dead spiritual state. Just like Lazarus. We
come out, don't we? We're wrapped up in our stuff.
We come out, didn't we, though? When he said, Lazarus, come forth,
that's a picture of us in regeneration. You have to come forth. You can't
resist him. No one can resist his command.
None. So the report concerning him
was spreading all around the region. This is what the scripture
says. It was spreading all over the place. All the places in
the surrounding area, and in every city, town, and village
in Galilee, and even in the places all around Galilee. And then
the next four verses, let's read those. These are our texts for
today. We see that Jesus heals Simon Peter's mother-in-law and
many others. Luke chapter 4, verses 38 to
41. And he arose out of the synagogue and entered into Simon's house.
So it must have been near where Simon Peter lived. And Simon's
wife, look at that, he's married. He's married. I'm glad it says
that. I love my bride. People say you
have to be in a priesthood and not be married. That's nothing
but, I'm going to say something I'm going to regret. That's just
wrong. That's just absolutely wrong. That's just man's traditions. That's all that is. I came out
of that system. I know what it's like. It's awful.
It's awful. And Simon's wife, wife's mother,
was taken with a great fever and they besought her for him,
or for her. And he stood over her and rebuked
the fever. And it left her. And immediately
she arose and ministered unto them. Now when the sun was setting,
all they that had any sick with diver's diseases brought them
unto him. So the sun's setting, and people
are bringing him, people who are sick, people who have all
kinds of diseases. And he laid his hands on every
one of them and healed them. Did he put his hand upon you?
Yeah, he's put his hand upon us, hasn't he? He's healed us
of all our sickness, our sin sickness, isn't He? Oh, isn't
it wonderful? Oh, it's wonderful. Just with
a touch of the Master's hands. And look at this, and devils
came out of many crying out, Thou art Christ, the Son of God.
Look at that. They're crying out. And what
did He do? And He rebuking them, suffered
them not to speak. Well, they were muzzled too.
He did not want them giving Him praise. Not that they were, but some
may have thought that. No, they're not. These are ones
that have fallen. He doesn't want them saying his
name. He suffered them not to speak,
for they knew that he was Christ. They knew. They knew he was the
Messiah. That's what that means, Christ
there. That's the anointed one. They knew he was the Messiah.
The people around him did not know, but the devils knew. They
know he's the holy one of God. They know he's the sinless one.
Scripture says later on that Satan comes to Christ, he has
nothing in him. That means he's got no foothold,
because he's sinless. He's spotless. Lots of us, doesn't he? But nothing
in Christ, and we're in him, aren't we? And when God looks upon us, he
sees Christ. He sees the head, or just the
body. Oh, it's wonderful. Oh, it's wonderful. Now, in this
first portion here in verse 41, first portion and here in verse
41, we see a knowledge of who Christ is. But this is not a
saving knowledge, again. The demons are forever lost.
They're like religious people. They're like religious people.
They perish. Religious people have a knowledge.
Some religious people have a knowledge of who God is. Some religious
people do. But it's not a saving knowledge.
And note in verse 41, Thou art Christ, the Son of God. And he rebuking them suffered
them not to speak, for they knew that he was Christ. They knew
that he was the Messiah. And we clearly see the knowledge
possessed by the devils, and by the devil and his agents.
Twice in these verses we have proof of this, that they knew
who he was. They knew who he was. I know thee who thou art,
the Holy One of God, was the language of an unclean devil,
in one case, and in the language of many devils, in verse 41,
is thou art Christ, the Son of God. They know he's the Messiah. And this knowledge was a knowledge
unaccompanied by faith, or hope, or love, because the ones who
possessed it were fallen, miserable, beings full of bitter hatred,
both toward God and man. So let us be aware of the fact
that there are many in Matthew 7.22 who say, Lord, Lord, have
we not done all these things for you? And he says, depart
from me. I never knew you, you workers
of iniquity. So one may know the Bible intellectually. One
may even know the truths of the Bible intellectually. They may
memorize Bible verses and able to talk about great doctrines
and scriptures. And yet the Bible may have no influence over their
hearts and their wills. I've told you before that I was
in that situation. I was a Calvinist, but did not
know Christ. I had no grace with people. I
was a mean Calvinist. Just like I was a mean Armenian
before, too. I went from being a mean Armenian
to being a mean Calvinist. And now I'm just a sinner saved
by grace. Still got a lot of rough edges, though. I'll tell
you why. But I try to give grace now to people. I'll tell you. Oh, my. So you can know things
and not know Christ. One commentator said, in that
state, one may, in reality, be nothing better than the devils,
having the head knowledge but no heart knowledge. And many
go on in their lives saying, well, I know this and I know
that. And they sink into hell. Some people say, I fixed it up
years ago. Got it all taken care of. Wow. How? You pray some more? How'd you
do that? Well, I prayed a prayer. I walked an aisle. You know,
God couldn't save me till I did that. No, you're not saved. Because God, when he does something,
He does it on purpose, according to His will, and it will come
to pass. And notice He says, right? We
love the Lord, don't we? We love Him. We love Him for
what He's done for us. So many go into hell with a head
knowledge, but no heart knowledge. Not being born again. The Lord
said you must be born again, right? That was his words. He
didn't say you must pray a prayer, you must do this act. Some churches
out there believe you have to be baptized to be saved. He didn't
say that. The scripture declares, look
to him and live. Look to Christ and live. There's
nothing that we can do as sinners to save ourselves. We're like the man possessed
with the devil. He couldn't do anything to get that devil out
of him, could he? But at the command, he was gone. Command
of the Lord, he was gone. Oh, the Lord, just like that,
can turn a rebel into one who praises him. By the same power we're seeing
on display here. Oh, it's wonderful. It's wonderful. May God give us a deeper understanding
of who Christ is and what he's done for us. Now here's some
questions for us. I can give us some questions
to ponder this week. Does our knowledge of sin make
us hate it? Does our knowledge of sin make us hate sin? And
make us hate sin in us? Don't be looking at everybody
else. Does it make us hate our own sin? Right? Number two, does our knowledge
of Christ make us trust him and love him more? Does it spur us
to lean on him more, to rest in him more, to just trust him? And does our knowledge of God
make us desire to glorify him in our lives? It does, doesn't
it? Yes is the answer to all those
questions, isn't it, for the believer? It does. You don't,
you don't, you don't. Religion puts all these rules
and regulations, they just lay them down, right? You got to
do, do, do, do, do, do, do. Right? We grace preachers get up, we
preach, it's done. And I'm going to tell you something.
The hardest thing for you and for me to do is just rest in Christ. But that's what we're to do.
Just trust him. And his love for us and what
he's done for us, the knowledge that he gives us of himself,
makes us desire to trust him more and more. It spurs that
in us. So these questions will be profitable
for us, that I just asked. They're profitable for us to
examine ourselves. One might ask, well, Why is it profitable? Well, profitable
to us because it keeps us looking to Christ. Looking away from
ourselves. There's a lot going on in the
world I don't even want to think about right now. Right? Now, I'm aware of it. I'm not
saying not to be aware of it. But if I get too aware of it,
then I'm going to get worked up. I've got to keep my eyes
on Christ. Keep my eyes on him. And you know that a mere head
knowledge, a mere head knowledge of who God is and who Christ
is will just increase our condemnation at the great white judgment throne. And note in our text, which we've
read, the almighty power of God. Look at verse 39 of Luke chapter
4. Look at this. He rebukes a fever, it says here. That's just with a word. It doesn't say he laid hands
on her. It says he laid hands on the others in verse 40, but
on Simon's Peter's mother-in-law, look at this, and he stood over
her and rebuked the fever and it left her. And immediately
she arose and ministered unto them. And look in verse 40, then
he lays hands on sick people, and at once their diseases depart
and the sick are healed. says, Now when the sun was setting,
all they that had any sick with diverse diseases brought them
unto him, and he laid his hands on them, every one of them, and
healed them. Then he rebukes the unclean spirits, and they
come forth from the tormented people whom they had possessed.
Look at verse 41. And the devils came out of many,
crying out and saying, Thou art Christ, the Son of God. And he,
rebuking them, suffered them not to speak, for they knew that
he was Christ. They knew he was Messiah. And all through the four Gospels,
which I hope we're going to journey through as we do this study here,
it's made evident of our Lord's power. Our Lord's power is very,
very evident, very clear of the fact that He is God. And the
demons know who He is. He's the Son of God, beloved,
come with power. And think of this. Why did He
come here? to save his, put your name in
there, people from their sins. My, oh my. And here's something
incredible that as I was studying for this, that one commentator
brought out, and this was amazing. I've pondered this before when
you see the Lord working miracles and stuff. Look at this. And
he stood over her and rebuked the fever. Simon Peter's mother-in-law,
right? Verse 39, Luke chapter four, verse 39. And he stood
over her and rebuked the fever and it left her. And immediately
she arose and ministered unto them. Now notice that. Immediately
she arose and ministered. She had a fever unto death probably. You ever get really sick? If
any of us here have had that coronavirus, Vicky and I thought
we had it, it about took us out. But have you ever had a really
bad flu, even, that you felt like you were going to die from
it? It's just horrible. You're laying there. You're laying
there. But think of this. Once that
starts to leave, do you just get up and start doing things?
No, it's days later, isn't it? Right? It's days later that we're
up doing things. Right here, right here, beloved,
think of this, too. I want us to really ponder this.
Right here in this verse, we look at that verse and go, well,
there's not a whole lot there. Right here in this verse, we see the
completeness of the Lord's healing. When He heals a sinner, we're
healed. When He heals someone, they're
healed. Because look at this. There was no recovery for her
two, three days later, right? Which there would be for us.
If we had a fever unto death, we'd be laying in bed for the
next four days. But notice this healing. It's
complete. It's a complete healing. What
an incredible display of power here. What an incredible display
of power set right forth before us. for we who are the born again
people of God, we can shout, this is the one who saved me,
this is him, praise his mighty name, this is him, look at his
power. Immediately she arose and ministered.
So she got up and she was cooking away, doing things, preparing
stuff, just like that. Immediately after. See, the Lord's healings are
complete healing. Heaven forgiven you all trespasses. Washed in the precious blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And ye are what? Complete in
Him. Complete in Christ. Incomplete
in ourselves, but complete in Christ. So it usually takes us
days before we're 100% again. And she was 100% just like that.
Out of danger, healed. Immediately healed. A complete
healing. And again, think of the great
work of redemption. When Christ heals us, when he wrought out
our salvation, it's a complete forgiveness. And there's not
one sheep left behind. Not one. Not one at all. It's a complete forgiveness of
all our sins. And what great comfort we can
find here. looking at these miracles. Look at verse 39 to 41 again. And he stood over her and rebuked
the fever, and it left her. And immediately she rose and
ministered unto them. Now when the sun was setting,
all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them
unto him, and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed
them. Devils came out of many, crying out and saying, Thou art
Christ, the Son of God. And he rebuking them, suffered
them not to speak, for they knew that he was Christ. You know,
our Lord, what this also shows us here is that our Lord is the
only appointed great physician. He's the great physician. He's
the great healer. And he's the appointed healer
of all things. Think of what sin has brought
into this world, all the pain and the sorrow and the sickness,
death. He's conquered death, beloved.
He's conquered all our enemies. And here we see the great physician
at work. None but Christ can raise the dead. None but God
can raise the dead. Christ raises the dead. None but Christ could rebuke
a sickness with a word. None but Him. Christ is the only
true physician. He's the only one who can cure
sin sick sinners like us. He's the only one. We all fell
in Adam and everyone in this world. I'll tell you what, there's
been a pandemic in this world for 4,000 years that people have
absolutely just ignored. And it's a pandemic of sin. And
there's only one way. There's only one remedy. Only
one cure. for that great pandemic that
has a 100% kill rate. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ
and him alone. I'm telling you, every one of
us is going to die. Oh, my. But Christ is the only
one, the only one, who can heal those who are plagued by the
pandemic of sin. You know what it is that washes
us clean? the precious blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And he gave his life for us,
beloved. He gave his life for us, willingly. And you know that
his blood is able to cleanse the sins of all his people. All
of them. Everyone. He's able to save to
the uttermost, right? Those who come to God by him.
Oh my. Have you come to him? Oh I pray
you will. Pray by God's mercy and grace
he draws you to him. We need to be saved from our
sins. So God the Father sent the Son into this world to save
us from our sins. And he did it. We need to be
justified before God. Christ alone is our righteousness.
He's our sanctification. Christ is in a word what Paul
said. He's all. He's all. He's everything to
us. Oh my. I ask you this. You who are God's people, you
who are born again by his spirit, we face many things in this world,
don't we? Things expected and things unexpected,
right? Here's a question for you. Is
anything too hard for the Lord? Nothing. Nothing too hard for
him, is there? No situation that we're going
through that's too hard to bring before him. Nothing too small,
nothing too great, and nothing in between. Everything we can
bring to him. Every trouble of our heart, every distress of
our minds, every ailment of our body, we can bring to him. We
can bring to him. our spiritual situation? Oh Lord, I sinned. Oh Lord, I'm
such a sinner. Do you know the more you grow
in grace, the more you're gonna find out you're a sinner? You will. The more you grow in grace, the
more you go, oh my, I'm such a sinner. My, oh my. The more you see a
need for Christ, And then look at verses 42 to 44. We see our
Lord's closing statement in this section here, revealing that
he was sent to preach the gospel. He was sent to preach the kingdom,
to preach the good news of salvation in and through himself. Look
at this, verses 42 to 44. And when it was day, so he healed
those folks at night, didn't he? And then the next day, he
departed and went into the desert place, and the people saw him
and came unto him and stayed him. that he should not depart
from them. They didn't want him to go. Remember
the Gadarene demoniac? He wanted to go with them. The
Lord said, no, you go and tell the great things the Lord has
done for you. Similar situation here. These people, they want
him to stay. They don't want him to go. And he says, no, I have to go.
I have to go. Why? And he said to them, look at
this. Look at this. I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities. For therefore am I sent. So now we see another reason
why he was sent by God. He was sent to save his people
from their sins. And here we see he's sent to
preach the gospel of the kingdom, the good news of salvation for
sinners in and through Christ and him alone. That's good news
for sinners, isn't it? He's sent to preach that. And
then it says, and he preached in the synagogue of Galilee.
So let us take note here, too, of our Lord's practice. He went
and departed into a place. in a solitary place. And he had
healed many, and he casted out many devils, and then he departed
into a desert place. Well, why did he do this? Well,
he set aside from his work a season to hold communion with his father
in heaven, to pray. Now, he's an example for all
of us, right? To set aside a time. You know,
I used to pray When I was in the cleaning business and stuff,
man, I had all kinds of time to pray. It was awesome, because
I was by myself. I had lots of time to pray, lots
of time to listen to sermons, lots of time. It was like going
to Bible school. It was incredible. I had all
kinds of time, because I'm busy cleaning away, and I got headphones
in my ears, and I'm listening to a sermon or listening to something.
It was a wonderful time. But some of my best times in
talking with the Lord, just driving a car down the road. Nobody else
in the car. I'm just talking away to the
Lord. Isn't it true? Just that solitary
time with the Lord? Well, we need that, don't we?
Oh, we do. We need that. We may be gardening. Sometimes out in the garden is
a nice time, too, when you're hearing the birds chirp, and
you're just talking to the Lord. See, prayer is not this, I'm
going to pray now, and shutting your door, and going into your
room, Vicki's laughing because I used to do that. I'd be sitting
there, and we'd be sitting there doing something, and I'd go,
I'm going to pray now. Shut my door. I was such a Pharisee. I did that, though. I did that.
Yeah, you're laughing because you know it's true. But see,
then I learned when the Lord saved me, I could talk to the
Lord anytime I want to. Praise be His name. I could talk
to Him when I'm driving a car. I could talk to Him when I'm
out gardening. I could talk to him when I was on the job. I
could talk to him anytime. My oh my. And I didn't have to
announce it. Right? My oh my. Look at verse 43 here. Our Lord
Jesus Christ tells those who are with him that he must depart. He must depart. He's on a mission,
right? You've heard me say that many
times. Christ was on a mission. When he came to this world, he's
on a mission. It's on a mission to save his people from their
sins. He's sent on that mission by God. And we see here that
he's also sent to preach the gospel of the kingdom. Could you imagine hearing the
very one who the message is about preaching about himself? Could
you imagine? We preachers, we have the privilege
of standing up and preaching about Christ, what he's done
for us, right? Because I can't tell you about
something I don't know or someone I don't know, right? I couldn't
tell you about my hometown in Bolton where I grew up, right?
If I didn't grow up there and if I hadn't experienced life
there, I couldn't tell you about it. So a preacher who gets up
and doesn't know Christ has no, he's not a preacher, he has no
right to even be in the pulpit. But I'm gonna tell you about
where I found bread. the bread alive. I'm going to
tell you about the one who found me. Well, I was lost in a big
old pit of sin. And he saved me. He did it all. My, but look at
this. He says, and he said unto them,
I must preach the kingdom of God. He must. What? To other
cities, for therefore am I sent. He's got sheep out there. And
he preached in the synagogues of Galilee. He says, I must preach
the kingdom of God. Our Lord, again, declares another
reason for him coming into this world. He says, I must preach
the kingdom of God. Therefore was I sent. So this
comment by the Lord ought to forever silence the foolish remarks
that are sometimes made against preaching. The mere fact that the eternal
Son of God undertook the office of a preacher should satisfy
us that preaching is one of the most valuable things in this
world. One of the most valuable things on this earth. The preaching
of the gospel of salvation in and through Christ alone, plus
nothing by man. The true gospel that exalts Christ
in the basis we men. Nothing should supersede the
preaching of the gospel. I've heard of some places where
they play music for 45 minutes, have a 15-minute message, and
then sing songs for 30 more minutes. What's most important there?
Singing songs. The gospel should never be superseded
by anything within the church. It is paramount. Because it's
by the preaching of the word that God saves sinners. See, that's why Paul, and think
of this, Paul was a genius. I think Paul was a genius. I
personally do. I think he was a man of intellect. But yet he
said, I'm not going to speak in words of wisdom. And what
did he say? I'm determined not to preach
anything but Christ and him crucified. That's it. I don't get caught
up in all these things. You know, we never read of our
Lord baptizing anyone, but we hear or do read of him preaching. So nothing should ever supersede
the preaching of the gospel. It's what's most important within
the body. We're here for the furtherance of the gospel, right?
That's why we're here. That's why we're here. That's
why we gather together, for the furtherance of the gospel. And this is why we must preach.
the gospel of salvation in and through Christ alone. And so
let us beware of despising the preaching of the gospel, because it's God's instrument
in awakening lost sinners. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
antidote, the only antidote, for the old serpent's poison.
He alone is our remedy. for the ruin that we were plunged
in by Adam. He's the great physician. And
you know, he's able to save them to the uttermost that come unto
God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make an intercession for them.
So praise be to God. Praise be to God, our blessed
Savior. He still enters the strongman's
house. He still does. He's still saving souls. He still
enters the strongman's house. He still binds him. He still
casts him out. And he still takes possession of that house, which
is a picture of you and I as believers. And it's true that all whom he
lays hands on, all to whom he speaks in saving power, we're
healed by him immediately. Oh, my. Also, we who are healed
by the Lord Jesus Christ, we gladly serve him, don't we? serving
and his people just as we see Simon Peter's mother-in-law look
at look what she does in verse 39 and he stood over her and
rebuked the fever and it left her and immediately she rose
and ministered unto them she just starts ministering to the
Lord Oh beloved when the day of grace
dawns upon redeemed sinners all who have known his saving power
all who have tasted his grace all who have experienced his
mercy all who lay hold of him, all
would plead with him, so one day be with him forever. Lord,
depart from this old world and see our Savior face to face. And when it was day, he departed
and went into a desert place, and people sought him. They sought
him, didn't they? They sought him. Came unto him
and stayed him that he should not depart from them verse 42. Oh Spirit of God cause us to
stay upon the Lord Cause us to stay. Oh Lord, please cause us
to stay upon thee We are your people cause us to look away
from this world In the trials and troubles in this world and
cause us just to look to thee Lord Jesus. That's our cry isn't
it?