Let's turn to Acts chapter 28. Let's begin reading in verse
7. It says, "...in the same quarters..."
Now, we're at Melita, modern-day Malta, and Paul and Luke Aristarchus
had been shipwrecked there along with the Roman centurion and
Roman soldiers and many prisoners. And they're on their way to Rome,
and they've been shipwrecked there. And you know the barbarous
people on this island had shown them great kindness. And when
they saw this viper bite Paul and no harm came to Paul, they
said, this man's a god. Well, in the same quarters, in
the same neighborhood, right there where
they were, there was a man or possessions at a state of the
chief man of the island. Some say he was the governor,
maybe a Roman governor. His name implies that. His name
is a Roman name, Publius. He received us and he lodged
us three days courteously. And it came to pass that the
father of Publius lay sick of a fever and of a bloody flux,
to whom Paul entered in and prayed, and laid his hands on him and
healed him. So when this was done, others
also which had diseases in the island came and were healed,
who also honored us with many honors. And when we departed,
they laded us with such things as were necessary. And after
three months we departed in a ship of Alexandria, who had entered
in the isle, whose sign was Castor and Pollux, and landing at Syracuse
we tarried there three days, and from thence we fetched a compass and came to a regium
and after one day the south wind blew and we came the next day
to Putele where we found brethren and were desired these brethren
desired them to tarry with them seven days and so we went toward
Rome and from thence when the brethren heard of us brethren
at Rome they came to meet us as far as Apiae Forum and the
three taverns. These were two places. One was
a little closer and one was, they had to travel further. But
they came there to meet Paul and Luke and Aristarchus, these
brethren of theirs, and whom when Paul saw, he thanked God
and took courage. Now, when God heals a sinner, He gives a new spirit. And the
Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we're children
of God, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ. God is love. And the very indwelling
of the Spirit of God is love. There's life, there's love. Where
there's life, there's love. When a sinner is born of God,
he loves God and he loves those that are begotten of God. It's
the same spirit in each of us that are born of God. That's
so. And so, this love of God is just
that. It's a love for God. It's a love
of God our Savior, of Christ Jesus our Redeemer. It's a desire
for others our brethren and for other sinners to hear of our
God and to hear of His mighty works, it's a desire and a longing
that other sinners might be healed by this same great physician
that healed us. That they might know the same
peace that we have. This is the love of God. This is the love of God in our
hearts and this is how it's manifest. We love God and we love our brethren
and we have a longing, a desire for... We know there's others
whom our God has chosen and put in Christ and they'll hear and
they're going to hear through this same word of the gospel
that we heard it through and we long for them to hear. Well,
that was the case with Paul. Now these folks at Malta had
just got through saying and started to think when they saw this viper
bite Paul and no harm come to him, they began to think he's
a God. Now I read that scripture to you in Acts 14 where this
had happened before. And Paul, in that case, he preached
the gospel to them. Now Luke doesn't tell us here
that Paul preached the gospel to them. But brethren, Paul preached the Gospel to them.
There's just no doubt about that. And here's the other thing that
we know is that the way that Paul healed this man, Publius'
father, he didn't do it like he did before. Before, you remember,
he was preaching and he beheld that the impotent man had faith
to believe God had begun a work in his heart and he perceived
that. And he said, right there in front of them all, he said,
stand up and walk. And that man stood up and walked.
And when he did that, everybody there, being idolaters and superstitious,
they bowed down and started worshiping Paul and Barnabas. Well, here,
they've already started thinking Paul's a god. And so the way
that Paul does this is he bowed himself to God. Look there. It says, It came to pass that
the father of Publius lay sick of a fever, and of a bloody flux,
to whom Paul entered in, and prayed, and laid his hands on
him, and healed him. Now Paul is praying, he's manifesting,
just what he always preached, that he didn't have the power
to save anybody. He cast himself, he cast this
man, upon the mercy of God, into the hands of Christ the Great
Physician, to do with him as he would, asking God to heal
this man. And he did this in doing so,
not only in the Gospel that Paul preached, but in what he was
doing here. He was showing these people, I don't have any power
to save anybody. I'm not a God. I'm not a God. My God is the God. Christ is
the physician. And when God heals somebody,
this is what we want others to know. We don't want them to be
looking at us. We want them to hear Him and
know this. To the praise of the glory of
His grace, He's made us accepted in the blood. That's what we
want others to know. It's not my will. It's God's will. It's
not my works. It's God's works I want you to
behold. It's not my prayer. It's God
to whom I pray. Christ to whom I pray that I
want you to behold. That He's the one doing the work.
It's not my glory. It's God's glory. It's not my
praise. It's God. I want to see you praise. And that's the same with everyone
born of the Spirit of God. That's what we want. That's what
we want for you, our children, to behold, to know. Here's why. We want this. And here's what
God was bearing witness of, the power of God. Because the problem
is sickness of sin. That's the problem. And we see
a good example of our sin sickness in this man. This man lay sick. That means he was disabled. It
means by this sickness he was unable to do anything. He was
unable to help himself. He was unable to do a thing.
This man was laying sick. And the emphasis here that is
given is to show just how dire this sickness was. It says he
lay sick of a fever. He had multiple symptoms. He
had a fever, a fiery heat. And that's the problem with the
nature of all of God's children that he saved. The problem by
nature is they have a fiery heat, an anger, an enmity against God. That's what the heart is by nature. And this man had a bloody flux. That's a dysentery. It's in the bowels. And the bowels
throughout scripture are used to describe the inner man, the
innermost man, the innermost part of a man. And that's what
this man had. He had a bacteria. He had a parasite. He had dysentery. And it caused
him this horrible, horrible problem. From the sole of the foot, the
Lord said, to the crown of the head, there's no soundness in
it. There's no soundness in us. There's wounds. There's bruises. There's putrefying sores. They
haven't been bound up. And there's none that can bind
them up. They haven't been mollified with ointment, and there's none
that can apply an ointment to heal these things. And when I
was thinking of this, and quite literally, this is similar to
what you have, Sarah. This was like a Crohn's disease. And you think how sick Sarah
was. who were here when she was sick. And Scott and Christine
can tell you about this. I've heard the story. Sarah,
you couldn't do anything to help yourself. Sick unto death. And that's the case with this
man right here. And that's the case with every
sinner. Just that sick all the time by
nature. That's what we are. But the healer
This is the second thing. The healer is Jesus Christ. He is the Great Physician. Look
here at verse 8. We see how the Lord heals through
Paul. As we look at Paul, we see an
example. As we look here, at the work
of the triune God in healing His children through Christ,
the Great Physician. Look at what Paul did. To whom
Paul entered in and prayed and laid his hands on Him and healed
him. You know how God saves? You know
how the triune God of glory saves in Christ? You know how Christ
is the Great Physician? He saves by entering in. That's
how He saves. He entered into an everlasting
covenant. Paul prayed. That means he interceded
on this man's behalf. He stood between God and this
helpless man. That's what he did. That's what
we see him doing here. And that's what Christ has been
and has done since the Father entrusted His children to Him
before He ever made time. That's what Christ has been and
that's what He's done ever since. He's made a high priest not by
carnal commandment, but by the power of an endless life. He ever liveth to make intercession. You know, the scripture says,
it says, by so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament. Everything we know about a mediator
and an intercessor, somebody who, about one who stands between
God and the sinner, and who intercedes, who represents that sinner to
God. That's what intercession is.
Representing that helpless one who can't represent himself,
bringing him to God. Christ is that by His presence
with God. And from the time, speaking of eternity, we just
can speak in time, we say from the time that He entity and assurity. His very presence has been the
intercessor. He is that intercessor. All we
know about this is the law of Moses because God gave us a priest,
a high priest, and he showed us through that and he gave us
an example of that. But you know that Christ is not
patterned after that high priest. That high priest was patterned
after Christ. The Lord said, when Moses came
up into the mount, He said, be sure Moses, you make everything
after the pattern, the pattern you've seen in the mount. A tree,
the law was a shadow of good things to come. But an object,
a tree, makes a shadow. Well that law was the shadow,
but that shadow came from the object, from Christ, from God
our Savior, Christ our God Himself. And it was saying what He was
going to do when He came in time, and what He has done, and where
He is now, what He's doing now. This is the mystery. God's purpose
is in Himself. God hadn't trusted anything to
the sinner. He's done all in Himself. And God entered into a promise
with God, and God can't lie. That's the whole, that's the
whole glorious good news of this healing. And His children have
been accepted in the Beloved ever since God put them in Him,
in the Beloved. They've been holy and without
blame before Him in love ever since He put them in Christ.
And even when sin entered in, He beheld Christ. And there's
the intercession. There's the mediation. God being pleased with His Son. Even before His Son came and
did, He's the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
That's what Ephesians 1, 3 through 6 is telling us. He blessed us
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, in Christ,
according as He chose us in Him before the world began. That
we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. And
right then, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ Himself. Wasn't a possibility it wasn't
going to happen. He had done it then. And so we're
in. In all of that blessing then,
He made us accepted in the Beloved. In the fullness of time, God
the Son entered this world. He entered in. He did what He
said He'd do. God who can't lie did what He
said He'd do. He entered in. He entered in
the world. And he entered into flesh that his children were.
He entered in under the law. Now listen, not under the curse. Not at first. He entered in under
the law without sin. Completely without sin. He didn't
enter under the curse at first. He entered in under the law without
sin. Not under the curse. And he lived
his life from the womb from conception manifesting He is the faithful
one. The faithful one. And then Christ
entered in. He became the sin of His children. Paul entered in. That's how this
one was saved. He prayed. He interceded. That's
how this sin sick, sin dead, picture of a sin dead sinner
there, that's how he was healed. Christ entered in. He was then
made a curse willingly for His children. After He'd manifest,
He is the faithful one. He willingly was made a curse,
made the curse of sin for His people. He was willingly made
sin for us who knew no sin. And God entered into judgment
with Him. With Him. God satisfying God. Christ doing a work on behalf
of a people who lay sick who couldn't do anything for themselves.
And he did the work. God satisfied God. That's our
gospel. This is the work of God. This
is the salvation we're declaring. Christ entered into death, the
death of his people. He entered into the grave. This
is how he's the great physician. He entered into death. He died
the death his children owe. Let me say, one transgression,
for one transgression, for one transgression, justice demanded
one death. When you were conceived in sin,
justice, when you were given physical life and in that physical
life were made sin, conceived in sin, justice right then demanded,
you die. Just once, that's all, just once.
Just once. One transgression, one death.
That's all. That's all. Look over at Romans
6. Christ died that death. Christ
died that death for his children. And now, justice says the death
that they owed is Satisfied. It's happened eternally. They died. They don't know it
anymore. Look at what the Lord says. Paul
says through the Spirit of God. Romans 6 verse 8. Now if we be
dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with
Him. Knowing that Christ being dead, being raised from the dead,
dieth no more. Death hath no more dominion over
Him. For in that He died, He died
unto sin. And so it just requires one death. But that's something me and you
can't outpay. For was he died once, but in that he liveth,
he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin. You believe God? You believe
Christ died your death? And reckon yourself to have died
that death. It's done. but alive unto God
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in
your mortal body that you should obey it in the lust thereof."
He entered into that death. And then the Redeemer, turn over
to Hebrews 9, the Redeemer entered into resurrection glory with
His Father. It just said He died one death. It said now He lives. And that
life He lives is forever. He entered in. See Paul entering
in. See how we see Christ. Everything
Christ did. Our God, our Great Physician. Christ our Physician. He did
it by entering in. Look here at Hebrews 9, 12. Neither
by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered
in, one time into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption
for us. Look over at verse 24. For Christ
is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which
are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to
appear in the presence of God for us. Nor yet that he should
offer himself often as the high priest enters into the holy place
every year with the blood of others. For then he must have
often suffered since the foundation of the world. But now once in
the end of the world has he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. And as it is appointed unto men
once to die, but after this the judgment, so Christ was once
offered to bear the sins of many. And unto them that look for Him
shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation."
He entered in. Now, God our Savior, Christ Jesus,
when He heals a sinner, He does what Paul did here. He enters
into that sinner through the Holy Spirit. And He heals them. He lays hold of them with His
hand of omnipotent grace, of all power, of irresistible grace. Just as Paul laid his hands on
this man, He enters in and He heals. And this is what He makes
manifest. Look at Romans 8.1. To your right
there. Romans 8. Look at verse 1. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. How do I walk after the Spirit?
When the Spirit enters in, you are led of the Spirit. You have
life now. And you walk after the Spirit.
You can't help it. You are alive. You are alive.
Now look here, that's what he says, For the law of the Spirit
of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of
sin and death. Free from it. For what the law
could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh. In other
words, I couldn't do anything. I could not do what God demanded.
My flesh. I was like this Publius' father. I lay sick and couldn't do anything. God sending His own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh. Because He entered in. Because
He entered in. To a covenant, He entered into
this world. And for sin, He entered into
the sin we are. And then He entered into the
death we are. And look here, He condemned sin
in the flesh. He died the death. He put an
end to death for His people. That the righteousness of the
law might be fulfilled in us. in whom He's entered by His Spirit. Who walked not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. See that? You know what's interesting
to me? Dysentery. I looked this up today
because I wanted to see what I could find out about this disease,
dysentery. You know how this dysentery,
one of the ways how it's treated is rehydration. Water. Water. You know how God heals
His people? Through the Spirit of God and
the water of the Word. That's how He heals us from this
disease. And then doctors, earthly physicians,
healed this disease one symptom at a time. Christ healed this
man all at one time. Healed him. When Christ enters
in and He's worked this work of grace in the heart, He makes
us to behold, we're healed. We're healed. I see sin in me,
and I see that there is still a lot yet to be done. But I behold
Him, and in Him I am healed. Every widow. Every widow. James said, The prayer of faith
shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up. And
if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. You see
what Paul is doing here? He loves God. He wants God to
receive all the glory. And he loves his brethren. And he wants God's children,
those who are yet laying sick, he wants them to behold Christ.
And he enters in here. He enters in here and he's saying,
this power is not of me. It's not of my prayer. It's not
of me. It's of Him who heals. It's of Him who forgives sickness. And this is the prayer of faith. The prayer of faith is laying
everything, just laying down and saying, Lord, if you will,
make them all. Make them all. That is the prayer
of faith. That's what you prayed, wasn't it, when Sarah was sick? Because you were brought to the
end of yourself and you knew, we can't do this. Well, that's
where we are as believers with every dead sinner, with our children
as they suffer from a disease far worse than any bodily infirmity. We just pray, Lord. And this
is where we are with one another. When something with one another,
this is where we are. We do the same. We don't stop
doing this. We're always here. We're always
at Christ's feet, trying to bear witness to one another, and we're
always praying to God for one another, And we're always trusting
Him to do it, because He's the only one that can heal and forgive
sin. Well, here's the third thing.
The first thing we saw was the sickness, the sin. The second
thing we saw was Christ is the Great Physician. Here's the third
thing. The effectual result of His healing is love. It is love. Love for God. This healing. Because
Paul had experienced this healing himself by the great physician,
that's what made Paul bear witness of Christ. That's what made him
lift up Christ in his preaching. That's what God did here in healing
this man. He bore witness of Christ whom
Paul declared. That's what he lifted up Christ
on the cross he lifted up Christ to glory because he's satisfied
with his son he lifts him up in the gospel we preach through
the spirit of God through the preaching of his gospel and Christ
said I if I be lifted up I'll draw all all my redeemed unto
me that's what happened here and look what was the result
verse 9 so when this was done Others also which had diseases
in the island came and were healed. When He makes us to know that
He's the Physician, and He makes us to know we're sick, that's
when we'll come. When we behold Christ on the
cross, we behold how bad our disease is. I don't mean just
have a historical belief, faith in Christ. I mean when we behold
Christ on the cross, we behold how bad our own sickness is. And that's when we'll come to
Him. When we behold Him on the throne, we'll behold how great
the cure He is. That's when we'll come to Him.
And as long as we don't think we're sick, we don't think we're
diseased, we think we're righteous, we won't come to Him. Look at
Mark chapter 2. Turn to your left there. Mark chapter 2. That's what the
Lord said. The Pharisees weren't sick. Matthew, Mark, Luke. Matthew,
Mark. Look there, Mark 2, verse 16. When the scribes and the Pharisees
saw him eat with publicans and with sinners, they said unto
his disciples, How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans
and sinners? Look what he said. When Jesus
heard, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of
the physician. but they that are sick. I came
not to call the righteous. I didn't come to call people
who think they're whole, but sinners to repentance. That's
who He came to call. That's who He heals. Sinners. And those who come to
Him, they're healed. Everybody that comes to Him,
He heals them. When they beheld Him, and they
beheld their disease, They came to Him and they were healed.
That's the picture we have here. And this He gives us love. When He gives us this love, then
brethren, then we do like Paul did. We won't say when people
give us gifts that these barbarous people did. And then they turn
around and say, Oh, you're as a God. We don't swell up with
pride and have our our thoughts polluted by some gift and swell
up with pride and say, oh, yes, you see God in me. That's to
say we're a God. Paul said, no, no, no. He laid down and said, Lord,
heal this man. I can't heal him. Show this people,
Lord. Bear witness of Christ whom I
preached that it's Christ that heals. It's God who heals. Bear witness that you're the
only one that can heal. That's what God did. That's the
love of God in the heart. That's what the love of Christ
constrains a man to do. He don't want folks anymore looking
at Him. He wants them looking at Christ. And here's something
else He does. It says, verse 10, Who also honored
us with many honors, and when we departed, they laded us with
such things as were necessary. Paul laden them. Everywhere he went, Paul laden.
He loaded up those that heard him with everything that was
necessary. He didn't hold back anything.
He loaded them up with the unsearchable riches of Christ, with the balm
of Gilead, with the ointment of Christ the Great Physician.
He loaded them up with it. He honored God because He saw
Christ. He saw He's the only one to be
honored. He honored Him. And He wanted Him to have all
the glory and all the praise. And He loaded up everybody He
preached to with those things that were necessary. And when
God uses that Gospel and heals somebody, you know what He makes
that, just as He creates love for Him, He creates love for
our brethren, those that are forgotten of Him. And He causes
us to honor those whom God used to bring honor to Himself. And
He causes us to give honor to where honor is due and to thank
Him and be thankful for Him because God used Him. We're thankful
for the God they preach. We're thankful for the Christ
they proclaim. We honor Him because of the witness they bore to us. They are the only ones that ever
would tell us the truth. They loaded us up with things
necessary. And that love of Christ that
is in the heart of the believer causes that believer then to
want to load them up with everything that's necessary. That's right. That's what we
see here. Do you see that? Do you see that? Well, the Lord says, Them that
honor Me, I will honor. And they that despise Me shall
be lightly stinged. Paul honored Him. Paul honored him. God honored
Paul. I think He saved some people
here on this island. I think they honored Paul because
Paul honored Christ. They had to love God in their
heart. He said, He that receiveth a
prophet in the name of a prophet, the name of Christ who sent him. That's what it means. That's
what Publius did here. He received him and treated him
courteously. And it says he'll receive a prophet's
reward. He that receiveth a righteous
man in the name of a righteous man will receive a righteous
man's reward. When his father was sick, God
healed him. You know what that's basically
saying just in a nutshell? The Lord said, when you come
into a man's house with this gospel, when he sent the disciples
to preach, he said, when you come into a man's house, if he
receives you, contend you with him. And the Lord would use that
gospel to heal some. He said, if he won't receive
you, shake the dust off your feet and leave him alone. And
the Lord said, better for you if you receive my prophets and
hear their gospel and rejoice in them, because it's through
them, through my gospel, I'm going to heal some sinners. That's
what he's saying. And them that honor me, I'm going
to honor. I'm going to honor. We won't do it unless He gives
us grace, but He does if we will. And then it causes the love of
Christ to want to be with the brethren. I'll just hit this
and we're done. Verse 14, they got to those brethren
there at that place, Petuli, and they found brethren. and
were desired. Those brethren said, stay here
with us. Stay here with us seven days. They stayed there. They
stayed there with them. They wanted them to. And then
look at those brethren down there in verse 15. They came to those two places
from Rome as soon as they heard Paul had landed because they
wanted to see him. They couldn't wait for him to
get to them. They went out there to help him
get to them. And you know what this love does?
It says, When Paul saw, he thanked God and he took courage. God
uses this to encourage his brethren, encourage one another. Isn't
that a great physician? Isn't that great healing that
he does? The Lord said this in Jeremiah,
is there no balm in Gilead? He said, is there no physician
there? Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people
recovered? In other words, there is balm in Gilead. There is a
great physician there. Why then are you still sick?
Why then are you still suffering, sick? Do you know you have a
disease? You need him. You need the physician.
He said, come to me and I'll heal you. I'll make you ever
withhold. If you come to Him, He's come to you. He's entered
in. He's already made you all. And He'll make you all. He'll
make you to behold how whole you are. That's what I pray He'll
do. Amen.