Okay. Let's take our Bible again,
then turn to Matthew chapter 4. I'm taking the title for the
message from what is said in verse 23. Our Lord Jesus Christ,
our Savior, God Almighty in the flesh, went about went about
all Galilee, went about on God's purpose, doing God's business,
completing God's will, teaching in their synagogues and preaching
the gospel of the kingdom. Teaching in the synagogue of
the Jews and preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, the kingdom
of God, and healing all manner of sicknesses. Also notice, if
you will, down in verse 17, from that time, The Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ, began to preach and to say, repent, for the kingdom
of heaven is at hand. Now, in Mark chapter 1, verse
14, let me read these words to you. Now, after that John was
put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel
of the kingdom of God. The time is fulfilled. The kingdom
of God is at hand, he said, repent, and it's recorded there, repent
and believe the gospel. So repent and believe the gospel. Now when Paul preached to those
elders at Ephesus, his last gospel message that's recorded in Acts
20, we read testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks,
repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
You cannot separate the two, repentance toward God and faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's like a sheet of paper. A
sheet of paper has two sides, right? When you find a repentant
heart, you find a believing heart. When you find a believing heart,
you find a repentant heart. Repentance toward God, that's
a change of mind toward God and then faith looking to Christ
for all of salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ was the
prophet, that prophet sent from God, and the preacher of the
gospel of the kingdom of God, that's the power of God unto
salvation. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
fulfillment of that promise and that prophecy given to Moses,
you remember, in Deuteronomy 18. God said, I'll raise up a
prophet from among the brethren, like unto thee, Moses, I'll put
my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that
I shall command him, and it shall come to pass that whosoever will
not hearken unto my words which he shall speak, I'll require
it of him. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
prophet sent of God. He's a prophet, priest, and king,
isn't he? The Lord's message was simple. singular and straightforward,
it was a command, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
It wasn't a suggestion, it wasn't an invitation, it was a command
of Almighty God. And did you notice in chapter
3 of Matthew chapter 3, it was the same message as John. In
those days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness saying,
repent For the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The kingdom of heaven
is at hand. Now, again, I want you to turn
and read this with me. Can you find the book of Acts
chapter 17? Acts 17. The Lord Jesus Christ
didn't invite sinners to repent. It was commandment of God. In
Acts 17 verse 28. This is Paul preaching on Mars
Hill to a bunch of educated idolaters. And he said in Acts 17, 28, for
in him we live and move and have our being as certain also of
your own poets have said, for we are his offspring, we are
his creation. For as much then as we are the
offspring of God, the creation of God, we ought not think that
the Godhead is like on the gold, silver, and stone, the graven
art by man's devices. And at the times of this ignorance,
God overlooked, he winked at, but now, verse 30, look at it
carefully. But now commandeth all men everywhere
to repent, because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge
the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained,
that is the Lord Jesus Christ, whereof he hath given assurance
unto all men that he raised him from the dead. So when God speaks
a command, when God says repent and believe, that's a command
of God. an invitation. I pray that the
Lord would grant to every one of us here this precious gift
of faith. For by grace are you saved through
faith and that not yourself, but the gift of God, and that
God would grant unto us repentance. It also is a gift of God that
we might receive and believe and love the truth of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, my pastor gave this years
ago, and I think it will help us, Pastor Mahan. What's the
difference between faith and repentance? They come at the
same time. They're both the sovereign gifts
of God. But he said this, repentance
is the hand releasing my idols and faith is the empty hand that
reaches out to Christ for the gift of his grace. And that's
what it is. You remember in 1 Thessalonians
chapter 1 where it said, you turn to God from your idols to
serve the living and true God. So repentance is a hand releasing
and letting go of my idols, and then faith is an empty hand that
reaches out and lays hold of the Lord Jesus Christ. Secondly,
repentance is godly sorrow over sin. Repentance is conviction
over sin. Faith receives full pardon from
sin through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom we
have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sin, according
to the riches of his grace. Thirdly, repentance cries out,
God be merciful to me, the sinner. Faith embraces the Lord Jesus
Christ as the only savior of sinners. Paul said, this is a
faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ came
to save sinners. Fourthly, repentance is a genuine
hatred for the corruption and pollution and guilt of sin. Faith
is seeking cleansing only in Christ. His blood cleanses us
from all our sin. Repentance, here's the last one.
Repentance is a leper covering his mouth and crying, Unclean,
unclean. Faith is a leper coming to the
Lord Jesus Christ and saying, Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean. Turn just a couple of pages.
Matthew chapter 8. Turn over there. And here's what
we read. Matthew 8. The leper cried, unclean, unclean. That's what I felt like when
I had that COVID. I'd cover my mouth. I'd cover my mouth up
and say, unclean. Don't come near me. Look at Matthew
8 verse 1. When he was come down from the
mountain, great multitudes followed him. And behold, there came a
leper and worshipped him. Now that's repentance and faith.
Saying, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. And Jesus
put forth his hand and touched him, saying, I will be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was
cleansed. So repentance is a leper covering
his mouth, crying unclean. Faith is a leper coming to the
Lord Jesus Christ saying, Lord, if you will, you can make me
clean. Now, how important is faith and
repentance? Faith, how important is faith?
Hebrews 11, six, without faith, it is impossible to please God.
A man without faith is a man without Christ. He that cometh
to God must believe that he is, and there's rewarder of them
that diligently seek him. Well, how important is repentance?
You remember our study from Luke 13? Our Lord said, except you
repent, you'll perish. You'll perish. You'll perish.
So, verse 18, the Lord Jesus, verse 17, rather, the Lord Jesus
began to preach and to say, boy, repent. And true repentance,
true repentance in faith, both repentance acknowledges the truth
of the gospel. Repentance is taking God's side
against me. When he says guilty, guilty.
And faith also, we read in Titus 1.1, the faith of God the elect
loves the truth. Loves the truth. Doesn't buck
against it. Now here's the second thing I
want us to see in verse 18 down through verse 22. And the Lord
Jesus walking by the sea of Galilee. Now the steps of a righteous
man are what? Ordered of God. He just didn't
bump into these guys. He just didn't bump into Peter
and Simon, his brother. I mean, Andrew, his brother. Simon, Peter, Andrew, his brother.
The Lord on purpose went there to meet them, to call them out,
and to put them in the ministry. And the Lord Jesus, walking by
the Sea of Galilee, saw these two brothers. And this is not
the first time he saw them. If you see the reference there
of John 1, Verse 14, 42, you can go back and read that. This
is not the first time they met the Lord Jesus. They knew who
he was. But the Lord calling them into
the ministry, Peter and Andrew, his brother, and they went back
to their trade. After they had seen the Lord
and believed the gospel, they went back to their trade, fishing,
where they were fishermen. And he saith unto them, now you
follow me, you follow me. and I'll make you fishers of
men, fishers of men. And straightway, verse 20, and
they straightway, that means immediately, they left their
nets, they left their livelihood, and they followed the Lord. Verse
21, and going on from thence, he saw two other brethren, James,
the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother. They were in the
ship with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets. And he called
them. He called them into the ministry.
And immediately, they left the ship and their father and followed
him. Now, the Lord also called out
and ordained sinful men to go with him to make them apostles
to preach the gospel to others. We can't minimize the importance
of preaching. Our Lord, risen Lord, said to
those same men, go into all the world and preach the gospel to
every creature, every man. So we can't overemphasize, we
can't overdo the preaching of the gospel. Preaching the gospel
is the means the Lord has ordained to call out His people. His sheep
will hear Him, His voice, and they will follow Him. just as
these men did. Preaching the gospel of Christ
is the ordained means to arrive at a predestinated end. Now,
I've had people accuse me of all kind of wicked things and
preaching wicked things, but one of the things that the unbelievers
hate about the gospel of God is God's predestinating grace. They say things like this and
they argue about the grace of God. Well, if God's predestinated
all things, and he predestinated the people to be just like Christ,
why go preach the gospel? Why do sinners, why they are
encouraged to believe and repent? Why all these things? Because
the Lord ordained the means to arrive at his end. You see what
I'm saying? He has predestinated the end,
right? But He's also ordained the means
to get to that end. And the means He has ordained,
it pleased God through the preaching of the Gospel to believe. It
pleased God through the preaching of the Gospel to call out those
who are given faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul,
as he sits on death row and writes back to young Timothy, said,
I charge thee before God. This is how important it is.
I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ to preach
the Word. be instant in season, out of
season, reproved, rebuked with all longsuffering and doctrine.
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. The Word
of God is quick, powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. So
we must at all times, at all places, when we have opportunity
and an open door to go minister the gospel, we must preach the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We also see in the calling of
these men into the ministry, we also see the effectual, powerful
call of God in calling sinners out of darkness into his marvelous
light. You remember from last week,
verse 16, the people were set in darkness, and that's us, dark,
ignorant, loving darkness, hating light. They saw a great light,
and to them it said in the region in the shadow of death. That's
us by nature, ignorant and in death. Light is sprung up. God turns on the light switch.
God turns the light on. He controls it. God who commands
the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our heart. He translates
us out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear
son, and it's by his purpose, by his grace. So we see in the
calling out of these ministers, these apostles, we also see the
effectual calling of God, calling sinners out of darkness into
his marvelous light. The Lord Jesus Christ sought
out these men and crossed their path and called them personally
and powerfully, and he does the same thing today. He crosses
the path of God's elect with the gospel. It's no accident
you bumped into the gospel. He crossed your path on purpose,
sent you a gospel preacher to tell you the truth, and through
that preaching of the truth, God granted you faith. The sheep,
they hear his voice, he knows them by name, and he called them
out. Notice it was a personal call
to Peter and Andrew, James and John. He called them personally
by their name and said, you follow me. Now, how long has the Lord
known his people? How long has he known his people
by name? I thought of this scripture found
in Jeremiah 1. Before the Lord says to Jeremiah,
he says this, before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee.
Before you came forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee and
I ordained thee to be a prophet unto the nation. God has always
known His people from everlasting to everlasting. The foundation
of God's Sanhedrin, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that
are His. How long has He known His people,
His sheep? Personally, from eternity, because
He chose a number of sinners unto salvation and gave them
to the Lord Jesus Christ. For whom He did foreknow, He
also did predestinate to become to be conformed to the image
of the Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He called, and whom He called,
them He justified, and whom He justified, them He also glorified. What shall we say to these things?
Will of God be for us? Who could be against us? So we
see in the calling out of these men here, the Lord calling out
his people. The Lord has always loved his
people with an everlasting love and calls them powerfully and
affectionately with the gospel that cannot be resisted. Cannot
be resisted. Another example of that is in
the example of Matthew. Turn to Matthew chapter 9. Matthew
was an apostle. Matthew was called out of darkness
into God's marvelous light, but Matthew was also called into
the ministry. In Matthew chapter 9, look at
verse 9. As Jesus passed from thence,
he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the receipt of customs, and
he said unto him, follow me, follow me. It says in Luke chapter
5, when Luke writes about this, he said, and thou shalt catch
men They were fishers, fishermen, catching men. Follow me and I'll
make you fishers of men. The sheep, they do hear His voice,
He knows them, and they do what? They follow the Lord. That's
what saving faith does. Follows, they follow, follow
the Lord. Now, here's the third thing I
want us to see in verse 23. And the Lord Jesus Christ went
about all Galilee. He went about doing the Father's
business, doing the Father's will, teaching in their synagogue. The synagogue there is the assembly
of the Jews. That's what we call today a church
congregation. But in that day in Judea, there
were many of these Jewish synagogues. They met on the Jewish Sabbath
day on Saturday, and he went right into the heart and the
camp of the enemy, teaching in their synagogue, preaching the
gospel of the kingdom, healing all manner of sicknesses, all
manner of diseases among the people. The Lord Jesus Christ
confirms his ministry by these mighty, many, mighty miracles,
works, and deeds. You remember, hold your place
there and turn over here to John 11. When John was cast into prison,
John the Baptist, Matthew 11 verse 2, when John had heard
in prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples
and said unto them, and he said unto him, art thou he that should
come or do we look for another? And the Lord Jesus answered and
said, go show John again those things which you do here and
see. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers
are cleansed, The deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the
poor have the gospel preached to them. Blessed is he whosoever
shall not be offended. Offended in me. Offended in me. Now turn back to Matthew 8. Look
at this scripture here. Matthew 8. Look at verse 16. When evening
was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with
devils. Matthew 8, 16. And he cast out the spirits with
his word and healed all the sick, that it might be fulfilled which
was spoken by the prophet Isaiah, saying himself, took our firmities
and bear our sicknesses. You remember Isaiah 53? Wounded
for our transgression, bruised for our iniquity. With his stripes,
we are healed. The Lord Jesus Christ took the
gospel of God right to the heart and camp of the enemies of the
gospel, the synagogue of the Jews. Now remember what happened
when he was in Nazareth not many days before this, his hometown
where he grew up. He went to the synagogue on that
Sabbath day in his hometown of Nazareth, and he stood up for
to read the word of the Lord, and they handed him the book
of Isaiah, and he turned to Isaiah 61, just where we did this morning,
and he read that scripture to them, in Luke chapter 4 it says,
and he said, these words are now fulfilled in your ears. Well, you remember what happened
in the synagogue of the Jews? They were filled with wrath.
They were filled with anger against him when he declared that God
will have mercy on whom he will. And they took him physically,
drew him out of the building, out of the city, and went to
cast him down the hillside, off the cliff, to end his life. And he passed through them. Now,
that happened in the synagogue. Look where he's going right now,
teaching in their synagogue. He was not intimidated, was he?
He was not afraid of them. He was a bold servant of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He wasn't intimidated or frightened
by their wicked, wicked actions. He always went about preaching,
teaching, preaching. Now watch it, the gospel. You know, it's the first time
in the New Testament that we read that word, the gospel. The
first time we read about the gospel. The gospel of God, we
read about in Romans chapter 1, it's called the gospel of
God. It's called that seven times,
the gospel of God. Eleven times, it's called the
gospel of Christ. As Paul said, I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ. It's the power of God unto salvation. Two times in the New Testament
we read about the gospel of peace. How beautiful are them that preach
the gospel of peace, that bring good tidings of good things,
that saith, Behold, God reigneth. And then Paul said in Acts chapter
20, we read about the gospel of His grace. the gospel of his
grace. He said, I received of the Lord
Jesus Christ to testify of the gospel, the gospel of the grace
of God. It's the gospel of God, the gospel
of Christ, the gospel of peace, and the gospel of the grace of
God. Paul said this again in 1 Corinthians 9, 16. Though I
preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of, for necessity is
laid upon me. Yea, woe is unto me if I preach
not the gospel. I take that personally. Woe is
unto me if I preach not the gospel. Now, what is it then, let me
ask you this question, what is it then to preach the gospel?
Notice this definite article, the gospel. What is involved
in preaching the gospel? Is everybody in every church
everywhere who calls himself a preacher, is he preaching the
gospel? I wish it were so, but sadly
it's not. Because what they preach, they
preach salvation that's conditioned upon you, instead of salvation
conditioned totally upon Christ. And that's another gospel. That
one that's conditioned upon you, Paul said, cursed is that man
that believes that gospel. So what's involved in preaching
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ? Four things. It's telling
the truth about God, who God is. It's telling the truth about
God, the God of the Bible, that He is holy in all His ways, that
He is eternal in His existence, that He is the sovereign Lord
over all things. You remember the heathens said,
David, where is your God? They knew where their God was.
He's right over there in the temple of Dagon. David said,
our God's in the heavens and he's done whatsoever he pleased. Our God is on the throne of absolute
sovereignty, doing all things, working all things after the
counsel of his own will. So preaching the gospel of God
is telling the truth about who God is. He's not who we think
he is. He's who he is as revealed in
the word of God. Secondly, preaching the gospel
involves telling the truth about us, who we are. Three things are true about all
of us. We are who we think we are. We
are who others say that we are. And we are those who God says
that we are. who we think we are, who others
say we are, and who God says that we are. Telling the truth
about men, mankind, who we are. Sinful and guilty through and
through in Adam all died, all have sinned and come short of
the glory of God. That's how I became a sinner,
and Adam all died, and Adam all sinned. That's the truth of who
we are before God, guilty, sinful, wicked, ungodly. Thirdly, telling your truth about
the Lord Jesus Christ. What is it to preach the gospel
of God? Telling your truth about the Lord Jesus Christ. They say,
well, Jesus wants to save you, but you won't let him. That's
another Jesus. That's not the Christ of God.
They say that Jesus died for all the sins of all men everywhere.
That's another Jesus. That's not the Christ of God.
Call his name Jesus. He shall save his people from
their sin. So what's involved in preaching
the gospel of God, telling the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is God and man in one blessed person. God was manifest in the
flesh and then telling truth about what he has done for his
people. Did He come and try to redeem us? Did He come and try
to work out a righteousness for His people? Did He come to try
to put away sin? What has the Lord Jesus Christ
done for His people? He successfully accomplished
the sovereign will and eternal purpose of God in finishing the
work of redemption for us, for His elect, and establishing a
perfect righteousness for them and giving that freely, imputing
that unto them. I must have these two things
at hand before God. I must have a perfect, justifying
righteousness, and that's only in Christ. He's my righteousness,
and I must have redemption, remission from all my sin. Where is that
found? Only in Christ. So, telling the
truth about who the Lord Jesus Christ is and what He has done,
and where is He now? He's on the throne. He ever lived
to intercede for us. Fourthly, what is it to preach
the truth, to preach the gospel? It's to tell the truth about
how God saves sinners by His grace alone. By His grace alone. For by grace are you saved, through
faith that not even self is the gift of God. By his mercy alone,
not by work of righteousness, which we have done, but according
to his mercy. He saves us by Christ alone.
The Lord said, I am the way, the life, the truth. And he saved
sinners to his glory. God forbid I should glory save
in the cross of Christ. The apostle Paul warned those
Galatians who were deceived by those Judaizers that said, you
know, Christ is okay, but you gotta have more. You gotta be
circumcised, you gotta keep the law, you gotta do this, you gotta
do that. And Paul writes this, that we are an angel from heaven,
preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached,
let him be damned. Let him be damned. Now that's
not hard, that's just telling the truth. To say God wants to
and can't, you've made Him a failure. To say that Christ died for all
the sins of all men, yet some of those men wind up in hell
anyway, that makes Him a failure, and He can't fail because He's
God. Now, in closing, let me give you this. Verse 24 and 25,
the Lord Jesus Christ preached the gospel of the kingdom of
God, healing all manner of sicknesses, and this is what the gospel does.
It heals us who are sick. And his fame went out to all
Syria, not only in Judea, but Syria. And they brought unto
him all sick people. How many did they bring? Well,
a lot of them. It says a great multitude followed
him, verse 25, and there followed him great multitudes. They brought unto him, verse
24, all sick people that were taken with different diseases,
torments, those possessed with devils, those who were lunatic,
crazy, those who were paralyzed. And what did He do? He healed
every one of them, completely healed every one of them. These mighty works of the Lord
Jesus Christ performed upon those who were sick demonstrate to
us the Lord Jesus Christ is the one Son of God. He could heal
the sick with a touch, cast out demons with a word, raise the
dead at His command. There is no sinner beyond His
power to heal, is there? He's able to save to the uttermost
all that come to God by him. The Lord healed all those that
were brought to him, all manner of sickness, all manner of disease.
And we have all these diseases by nature, spiritual diseases. We are paralyzed. We are sick. We are possessed. We are crazy. A fool has said in his heart,
there is no God. He's crazy. That man's crazy
who said there is no God. The Lord healed all those that
were brought to him, all manner of sicknesses. It says in Luke
9 verse 11, many followed him and he received them and he spake
unto them of the kingdom of God and healed them that had need
of healing. Bring your need to the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's able to meet all our need
according to His riches and glory. I've never read one time in the
Word of God, not one time, and I've been looking at this thing,
I've been reading and studying this Word more than 40 years. I wish He'd teach me something.
I've never read one time when a needy, guilty, vile sinner
came to the Lord Jesus Christ and he didn't act in mercy toward
them. Go through and read. We're going
to see in the book of Matthew. Everyone who came to him as a
mercy beggar never went away empty. He met their need. And
we are just like these poor wretched sinners. Our only hope of salvation
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's our only hope of salvation,
is it not? our only hope of salvation, with
his righteousness we are healed. Wounded for our sin, bruised
for our iniquity, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and
with his stripes I'm healed. I'm healed. Now this body is
going to die, it's going to get sick, it's going to go back to
the dust, but that new man My soul and spirit has been healed
by his blood and righteousness. And one day he's gonna give us
a new body. He redeemed us body, soul, and
spirit. One day we're gonna have a new
body just like his glorious body, never to sin again. Worship him
perfectly, love him perfectly like we should, like we will
one day by his grace.