O'er the ramparts we watched,
were so gallantly streaming? the story tell. Because his love will be our
hope to all eternity. Yet he will not do that himself,
but Sigmunds again, the Lord's help.
I'd like you to turn with me to the chapter that we read together,
the Gospel according to Matthew chapter 8, and the text you'll
find in verses 16 and 17. And when even was come, they brought
unto him many that were possessed with devils, and he cast out
the spirits with his word, and he healed all that were sick. that it might be fulfilled which
was spoken by Isaiah the prophet saying, himself took our infirmities
and bare our sicknesses. You may remember that before
Easter we looked at the miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ, starting
with the miracle of the turning of the water into wine, and then
the differences of the Lord Jesus healing various ones, and then
his authority over the unclean spirits, the kingdom of darkness,
and the Miracles of Jesus continue to go through the whole of the
gospel. They are something which the
writers focused upon. They are something which are
of great importance to the believers in the Lord Jesus Christ to know
why it is that Jesus went about doing good, why it is that the
Lord Jesus specifically used these visual demonstrations of
his power, of his authority, to heal those that came to him
and to cast out the demons that were very prevalent at that time. It was to demonstrate the authority
of his message, to stamp the approval of God upon the message
that he was speaking. We read in this chapter of many
things that the Lord Jesus Christ There were multitudes that followed
him. There was a leper who came to
him seeking cleansing, and the Lord Jesus healed him. There
was the centurion who asked if his servant could be healed,
saying that he was not worthy that the Lord Jesus Christ should
come into his house, but acknowledged that the Lord Jesus had the ability
to speak the word. to speak the word only and my
servant would be healed. And Jesus marveled at the faith
of that man. He has never seen such great
faith, no not in all Israel. And at the end of the day he
comes to Simon Peter's house and they tell him of Simon Peter's
mother-in-law who lay sick. And we read in this chapter that
he takes her by the hand and immediately the fever left her
and she ministered unto them. And so throughout the day the
Lord Jesus Christ is casting out demons. He is healing various
ones. And then even the evening came. and the people came. Maybe after
they had finished their work they began to hear more and more
about the Lord Jesus Christ, hearing these various other people,
so they went home and they gathered all that they knew that were
sick, that were unwell, that were possessed with demons and
they came to the Lord Jesus Christ, many of them. came that were
possessed with devils and Jesus cast out spirits with his word
and he healed the sick that it might be fulfilled which was
spoken by Isaiah the prophet himself took our infirmities
and bear our sicknesses. But we know that the Lord Jesus
Christ it was not his the main reason for coming. His main reason
for coming was not to heal people of external sickness and to show
his power over the unclean spirits, his power and authority over
the kingdom of darkness, but he had a deeper meaning. a deeper reason for coming. It was to conquer sin and death
and to redeem his people from that spiritual sickness of soul
that is the root cause of all of the other sicknesses that
we see and witness around about us. Sin the curse that sin brought
into this world and when Adam and Eve sinned against God or
before they sinned against God there was no sickness, there
was no poverty, there was no depression, no anxiety, no sickness
of body, sickness of mind, there was no sickness of soul. Adam
and Eve were perfect, they lived in harmony with one another and
with God when they sinned, when they rebelled against God, God
cursed them and they were to die. By the sweat of Adam's face
he was to feed and provide for his family and his wife. In sorrow
she was going to bring forth children and she was going to
be subject to her husband. There was going to be difficulty
and pain and suffering as a result of sin. And as time goes on,
the manifestations of that are seen in the scripture. We see
that Cain killing Abel, that death comes. We see sickness
is introduced into the scripture. We see confusion at the Tower
of Babel. We see hostility and war and
hatred. And it runs through the whole
of the script and it runs through even to our time today. The curse brought in sickness
and suffering and death. I read yesterday that something
like 67 million people die every year through the whole world. of heart disease. The majority
is heart disease and lung disease. 10 million people die yearly
of cancer. Everybody knows that these things
take place. We are constantly reminded of
sickness and of suffering and of death. But we have the ability,
the sinful ability to place these things at the back of our minds
and to believe that none of these things are going to happen to
us, especially for a long, long time. But sometimes when we get
unwell, We are brought to face the consequences of sin in our
own body. We come to like a reality check. Our lives that were once going
quite smoothly are suddenly put on pause. the sickness enters
in and our lives are stopped and we have to pause for a moment
and we have to think to ourselves well I'm mortal I'm not really going
to continue on and on and on but my life must come to an end. I'm not as strong as I thought
I was. Tom's Jacob. Jacob was out yesterday
on his bike and crashed. And today I think they've taken
him to A&E this morning. Everything was going smoothly.
Then one accident on the bike bashed his shoulder and now he's
taken to hospital. And you think of the events in
Texas. that took place I think Friday
night. As the people of America are
about to celebrate the 4th of July, everybody is going on holiday,
everybody is in that excitable party spirit, wanting to spend
time with family, wanting to go away on different clubs and
different events to enjoy themselves, to celebrate. And then something
unexpected takes place, something which no human was prepared for. Yes, they believed that there
was to be rain, but nothing could compare with what actually took
place. Some 20 feet or 30 feet of water
swilling down a valley, destroying everything in its path. Think
how solemn and searching these things are. These things are
designed by God to have an effect upon us and if they don't have
an effect upon us then our hearts are truly, truly hard. That God in a moment can bring
about something that can remove hundreds of people from the earth
in a moment within a blink of an eye. They went to bed no doubt
full of plans for tomorrow but then they're gone. What a curse
has sin brought in. Sickness, sorrow, suffering and
pain. But the Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated
his power and authority over the curse. over the sin, over
the suffering, over the sickness, over the kingdom of darkness. And of course people brought many to him to
be healed. When we see people that are unwell
our hearts are touched and we see suffering And we see the
effects of the curse upon the human race. Our hearts are touched. We desire that people live healthy
and long lives. We don't like seeing people unwell. We don't like seeing people swept
off into eternity. We don't like seeing people in
poverty. Sometimes when you watch the
news, they show you the situation in Ukraine and people's houses
being destroyed. And it touches a chord. They
show you famine and pestilence in other areas of the world. And it touches a chord. We don't
like seeing it. We want to do something to alleviate
it. That is a natural thing. Maybe
it's because we've experienced the same things ourselves. We
know what it is to undergo an operation. We know what it is
to have a certain type of sickness. And so we are our touch. And
if we could hear of a man that could heal our friends in a moment,
surely there would be a great queue to meet him. And you can see why. There was
such a multitude of people gathering around the Lord Jesus Christ
when they heard that he was healing this one and healing that one
and he was a man of compassion. He didn't just send everybody
away. He was welcoming to them. We read that he healed them all. What an amazing thing it would
be to witness. Leprosy being healed in a moment. lame people being healed in a
moment, deaf people, dumb people, blind people, all at the word
of the Lord Jesus Christ healed in a moment. He was demonstrating that he
had the power to reverse the effects of the curse. and he had the power and authority
over the kingdom of darkness. We read that after he had healed
this multitude of people he saw that the great multitude ran
about him and so he commanded his disciples to go across to
the other side. We then read as he was going
across to the other side that there was a great storm. The Lord Jesus Christ being asleep
in the hinder part of the boat, his disciples were very afraid
and they cried saying, Lord, save us, we perish. You see how quickly things can
turn. How you can witness something
so amazing as the healing of multitudes of people. You can
see the demons being cast out. You can see the Lord Jesus Christ
teaching and doing all of these great things that in a moment
when the situation changes and those things come upon you, how
quickly our faith disappears. It's very easy isn't it to go
and to visit someone and you say to them you know just encourage
yourself in the Lord, pray the Lord is near, be blessed. When you're well everything's
going all right in your life but then when those same things
come upon you How quickly everything that we knew, everything that
we felt we knew about God and Christ suddenly vanishes out
of our minds and we have to then rely on other people who come
to us and seek to encourage us. Remember how you encouraged me
as you spoke to me when I was unwell. And now your friend comes
along and they come to encourage you in the Lord. And so it is
with the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ witnessing all that
Christ had done. No doubt saying, you know, come
to the Lord Jesus and he will heal you. Make a line and he
will heal you. And now it comes to them. They're in a boat. They're in
a storm. The Lord Jesus Christ seems to
be asleep. Little do they realise the God
of all the earth never sleeps. O why are ye fearful, O you of
little faith? And he arose and rebuked the
wind and the sea, and there was a great calm. But the men marvelled,
saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and
the sea obey him? In the other Gospels it says,
And they were even afraid of the Lord Jesus Christ. They feared
the storm and now they feared the power and authority of the
Lord Jesus Christ that even the wind and the waves that obeyed
him. And so Christ demonstrated his
power over the sickness, his power over the kingdom of darkness
and his power over the elements of this world. And so the Lord
Jesus Christ here demonstrates his compassion for those in need. Sometimes in life You get up
in the morning, you go to work, you labour or you've been with
the children all day. You come to the evening and you're
about to sit down and the doorbell goes and you think, oh, what
now? Our strength, our patience is
brought to its limits. At the end of the day, when you're
tired and you just want to go to bed, you don't want to be
interfered with, you just want to be relaxed. The last thing
you need is a multitude at your door needing your help. Something
that we experienced when we were in Kenya. There was that constant
flow of people. finish the day then there would
be that knock at the door or even in the night you get a phone
call saying so-and-so needs your help, so-and-so is unwell, so-and-so
has died, can you come and move a body? And there was that constant
pressure to be Christ-like not to become angry or impatient. the Lord Jesus Christ at the
end of the day, after he had healed, after he had cast out
demons, comes to an even greater multitude of people. We don't
see him sending them all away, but we see him healing them individually. He brought many to him that were
sick and that were possessed. You turn over to chapter 9. We have there the account of the man who had the palsy that
was carried by his friends. We read in the other Gospels
that he was born by four and they climbed up onto the roof
and they let him down through the roof to the feet of the Lord
Jesus Christ. They had a concern for their
friend and they knew that the Lord Jesus Christ was the one
that would be able to heal him. Coming to him they found a crowd
round about him and so they They designed a plan to be able to
let this man down to the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. What
was driving them was their human concern, their human love for
their afflicted friend. But as this man is laid down
at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ
does something which was unexpected. Instead of dealing with the evidential,
the affliction that could be seen, instead of dealing with
the thing that, the sickness that brought him to Jesus Christ,
the Lord Jesus Christ goes to the root of the matter. He goes
down deep into the man's soul, deep into his body and deals
with his sin. Son, be of good cheer, thy sins
be forgiven thee. It was human compassion that
this man was brought to the Lord Jesus Christ. But Jesus Christ
dealt with the sins of the person. Jesus goes to the root. You see, we all know that sickness
can bring death. Sickness, left unchecked, can
bring death. And that's why we get so concerned
when our friends are taken to hospital, when things go wrong,
because we don't naturally, we don't want people to die. We want people to have a life,
a long-lived, healthy life. So sickness brings people to
death. But Jesus dealt with a sickness
that brings about eternal death. Jesus goes to the root matter,
to the cause of the sickness, the curse. He goes down to the man's sin. and he deals with this man's
sin. Son, be of good cheer, thy sins
be forgiven thee. Christ showed that he had the
authority of God to forgive sin. The Pharisees complained, who
can forgive sin but God? The Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated
that he had the power to be able to cause the man to rise up from
his bed, authenticating the statement that he had just forgiven the
man's sin. So Christ had the ability to
raise the man from the dead and he had the authority as God to
forgive the sins of that young man. Matthew points us back to
the Old Testament. and tells us that this, the demonstrations
of Christ's power were a sign that was spoken of by the prophet
Isaiah. Isaiah had prophesied about the
suffering servant. He had prophesied that there
would be one that would come who would be the Lord's servant. and that that servant would suffer,
that he would bear the sins of his people, he would be despised
and rejected of men, he would be a man of sorrows acquainted
with grief, but also that he would bear our griefs and carry
our sorrows. And so when Matthew witnessed
all that the Lord Jesus Christ was doing his mind was cast back
to the prophecy of Isaiah that this prophet would come and bear
the infirmities of his people and bear their sicknesses. But Jesus bore the sicknesses of
his people to the truest extent of the world. He didn't bear the evidence,
the sicknesses that could be seen. He healed them. He didn't bear the leprosy. He
didn't bear the blindness or the deafness or the dumbness.
He didn't bear the demon possessed. He healed them with his word. He spoke or he touched and those
people were healed and cleansed. The Prophet is speaking of a
deeper sense of the word. He bore their sin. Peter tells us in 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 24. we can go to verse 21. For even
here unto were ye called because Christ also suffered for us,
leaving us an example that you should follow his steps. Who
did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. Who when
he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered he threatened
not, but committed himself unto him that judgeth righteously.
who his own self bear our sins in his body on the tree, that
we, being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness, by whose
stripes ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray,
but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop or overseer. of your souls. And so the Lord
Jesus Christ did not bear the sicknesses, the visual sicknesses
of his people but he bore the sins of his people. He took them to himself. Christ at the end of the Gospels
we see was crucified as a condemned man,
yet he was guiltless. He had committed no sin, neither
was any guile found in his mouth. He was treated as a criminal
by the justice system of this world, by the Jews and by the
Romans. He was treated as a criminal
yet he was innocent. There was no spot in him. He is the lamb of God, that perfect
lamb that we looked at on Wednesday, the perfect lamb of God that
takes away the sin of the world. Yet he was treated as a criminal
and crucified upon a cross. Remember the thief, he says,
we indeed justly receive our reward, but this man, This man,
the Lord Jesus Christ, has done nothing amiss. And he was treated
as a sinner by God the Father. The Lord Jesus had done no sin.
Neither was any sin found in his mouth. He was without sin. He was the spotless lamb of God.
He was punished upon the cross of Calvary. as a sinner. He was a substitute for the sins
of his people. If you go back into the Old Testament
on the Day of Atonement the high priest there was to place his
hand upon the head of the goat and confess the sins of the people
of Israel and that goat was to be sent out into the wilderness
and to run away and to be remembered no more. And upon the cross it's
as though the whole election of God come by faith and place
their hands upon the head of the Lord Jesus Christ and confess
their sin. And that Christ then is punished
for the sins of his people. He remains holy. He remains sinless. Yet he is made sin, made the
substitute, the scapegoat for sinners. Punished by the father. If you think of having a fine. Maybe you've parked somewhere
in the wrong place. Maybe you've broken the speed
limit and you've got a fine. You're unable to pay. They have
their ticket there. come to the judge and you say
look I've got this ticket I've got this fine I'm unable to pay
I don't have enough money and then someone else comes along.
You're guilty but you take that fine and you give it to somebody
else and they pay it on your behalf. They're innocent yet
they pay the cost The penalty for you on your behalf. Christ
is the innocent lamb of God yet he paid the penalty, the cost
for the sins of his people which was the suffering, the rejection
of God, the punishment, the pouring out of God's wrath upon the cross. A whole eternal weight of hell
poured out upon the Lord Jesus Christ paid the penalty for their
sin. You and I, we are guilty before
God. We have a fine, we've sinned every day, we add more and more
and more to that list. There is a consequence. That
fine must be paid. We will either pay it ourselves
in hell for all eternity or we take that fine and we come by
faith to the Lord Jesus Christ and he pays it on our behalf.
The scripture tells us if we confess our sin we come to the
Lord Jesus Christ and confess our sin. He is faithful and just
to forgive us of our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Do you feel yourself to be a
sinner? Have you realized that you have
broken God's law? Does it bother you? Does it upset
you? Are you concerned that your fine has not been paid? Are you
concerned that you are going to have to pay the fine yourself? What happens if a great torrent
of water comes and sweeps you away in the night? Like it did
in Texas. What will happen to you in that
moment? Does it cause you sleepless nights? Does it make you tremble? Are
you concerned that your fine still stands unpaid? Look what they did. They came
to the Lord Jesus Christ. They were sick. They acknowledged
their sickness and they came to the Lord Jesus Christ and
he healed them. How is it that we are so concerned
when loved ones are taken into hospital? It drives us to our
knees interceding on their behalf that the Lord would heal them
and have mercy upon their bodies. How often are we driven to our
knees when our loved ones have a good body? They are well, yet
their soul is sick. You see those people they brought
their friend to the Lord Jesus Christ because his body was sick.
But Jesus says deal with the soul. Fix the soul and if the soul
is fixed then it doesn't matter about the body. Jesus in his
mercy heals the body of the man so that he can go and testify
of the goodness of God. Don't think that the Lord Jesus
will turn you away. If you come to him because you
come to him because you know that you need him, that you know
that he is the one that's able to pay your fine, he is the one
that's able to place a stamp by his blood paid in full. There
were many that came to the Lord Jesus. Many that were sick and
possessed with devils and he healed them and he will heal
you. It will heal you of the sickness
of your sin if you bring it to him. Few if any come to Jesus,
we sing, till reduced to self-despair. May the Lord bring you to self-despair
and so that you see your need of the Lord Jesus Christ and
the urgency by which you stand before a holy God. You are sick. Although your body may be well,
you're sick in soul, and Jesus can forgive you of your sins. Son, be of good cheer, thy sins
be forgiven thee. and he healed all that were sick
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet
saying himself took our infirmities and bear our sicknesses he healed
with his word the external sicknesses of the people yet he took to
himself the sins of his people and paid the consequences of
their sin which is the wrath of almighty God which would be
experienced in hell itself. May the Lord bless these things.
Amen. Let us sing our final hymn from
Hymns for Worship 128 to the tune 268. 128. The Saviour calls
that every ear attend the heavenly sound. Ye doubting souls dismiss
your fear. Hope smiles reviving round. 128 from Hymns for Worship. A temple there we'd stand, without
its hall. His streams of bounty flow, And
life, and health, and blessed blood, To vanish mortal world. of sacred pleasure lies to heed
your every prayer. God's countenance, mercy's voice,
the gracious Lord obey. Mercy he finds to heavenly joys,
and can in the end delay. to thee let's see it burn, and
take the place thy love had given. Dear Lord and Almighty God, we
do thank Thee for the compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
thank Thee that He is the fulfilment of all the prophecies regarding
Himself and that He is able to take our infirmities and take
our sicknesses and to be and we are able to be healed of our
sickness of our sickness of sin and we pray lord that they'll
give us that faith to look to the lord jesus christ and to
be saved we pray that they'll be with us now as we depart from
each other to bless us lord in the interval of worship and to
be with us as we hope to meet together this afternoon and bless
us we pray as we sit around thy table. Now may the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father with the fellowship
and communion of the Holy Spirit to be with us each now and for
evermore. Amen. Amen.