I want to read a passage of Scripture
from Matthew chapter 11. If you would please turn there
with me. I was talking with Brother David
and Pastor John Reeves while he was out from this passage
of Scripture. It's just a special blessing
to all of God's people to know that Jesus Christ is our divine
healer. The power He did show when He
healed those that we read about in the Holy Scriptures is the
same power that He manifests in the healing of His chosen
blood-bought children spiritually. Every physical healing that our
Lord performed points to a spiritual healing of those that He calls
out of darkness into His marvelous light. Our Lord raised the dead. He opened the eyes of the blind.
He unstopped the ears of the deaf. He gave legs to people
who had never walked, who were lame from their mother's womb.
He healed lepers. All of those healings came by
His divine power for His honor and for His glory and for the
good of His people. They all had this in common. All of those that our Lord Jesus
healed had this in common. They all had a need. And all unregenerate men and
women have this in common. We all need Jesus Christ. We all need Him. He is our righteousness. He is our redemption. He regenerates
us. He reveals Himself to us. He
preserves us. And He gives us persevering grace
for His glory. And we need Him every second
of every minute of every hour of the day. And only God can
reveal that need. And here in Matthew chapter 11,
starting at verse 2, we read, and the lame walk, the lepers
are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the
poor have the gospel preached to them, and blessed is he whosoever
shall not be offended in me." Now that passage of scripture
is special to me, I trust it is to you as well. And Jesus
Christ himself is the divine healer and we read about his
power over and over and over again. and that same power has
opened our blind eyes to see the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ, has raised us from a state of spiritual deadness,
has given us ears to hear the voice of the Christ of God, has
given us a desire to walk pleasing in His sight. This is all by
the grace of God for the glory of Christ our Savior, and we
need to lay this to heart. Salvation is not by chance. Salvation is of the Lord. Jonah learned that in the fish's
belly, but he learned it well. I don't know if you're aware
of this or not, but Jonah was dead in that fish's belly. I've
heard of preachers who portray Jonah as a man sitting down at
a table in the fish's belly with a lantern preparing his message. Our Lord said this, as Jonah
was three days and three nights in the fish's belly, so must
the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth. Now let me ask
you this, did our Lord die? Yes, he did. He laid down his
life for his sheep. that we might live forever in
his presence. And Jonah died in the fish's
belly, and he had a message when the Lord delivered him and put
him on that shore, telling him to go to the Ninevites. He had
a message. Christ Jesus raises the dead
by his sovereign power. Let me say that again. Christ
Jesus raises the dead by His sovereign power. We were dead
in trespasses and sins, and our Lord Jesus quickened us, came
to us when we were unable to come to Him, would not come to
Him, had enmity in our heart against Him, hated Him with vicious
hatred and would have done the same thing to Him as those unbelieving
Jews did to Him, when they crucified Him. That's the hatred in every
unregenerate man and woman. And God raises us from that state
of spiritual deadness, puts His Spirit in our heart, gives us
a desire to come to Him, and we love Jesus because He first
loved us. Now I want to take you over to
Luke chapter 12, if you will please. Luke chapter 12. A very precious family member
recently told me that I get angry when I preach. And I didn't respond that it's
true. We call it righteous indignation. If someone spoke evil of my grandparents
Now God does. God tells us all men and women
are liars. But I don't want anybody else
calling my grandpa and grandma a liar, or my mom or my dad,
or my wife, or my children. Those are fighting words. I grew
up to defend those who would speak evil against our loved
ones. Well, how much more against those who speak evil
against our Lord Jesus Christ. False preachers and those who
agree with them, who believe in universal redemption and that
God loves everybody, are calling our great triune majestic God
a liar and attempting to rob him of his glory. And so, Righteous
indignation, I believe, pleases our Lord Jesus. Years ago, about 35 years ago to be exact, about 13 men rose up against me there at rescue. And by God's grace, he allowed
me to continue as a pastor. We lost 13 families because those
men believed that the law was God's instrument to bring about
progressive sanctification, and they didn't like the truth that
I preached in respect to that. Brethren, we're sanctified in
Christ. A believer can't get any more
sanctified than what we already are. And the Word of God plainly
teaches that Jesus Christ came to do His Father's will, by the
which will we are sanctified to the offering of the body of
Christ once and for all. And He, the Lord Jesus, tells
us in His Word that He, by that same offering, perfected forever
those that are sanctified. That's just a word that means
God made us holy. God set us apart for His glory. And when Brother Milton Howard
heard about those men that turned against me, he called me. Now, Milton is no little guy.
He has to stoop to get through the door. And 35 years ago, he
was pretty capable of handling anybody that went up against
him. And he told me that he would really like to see those men
face to face and give them what for. And I kind of chuckled,
and I appreciate the fact that he was ready to defend me, but
I mentioned to him that there's nothing wrong with a little righteous
indignation. He said there wasn't anything
righteous about it, I wanted to bust him right in the mouth.
And of course he knows that We bow before our Lord Jesus and
acknowledge his word that the weapons of our warfare are not
carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.
And he knows that. And we talked about that, but
he said, that doesn't change my feelings. I still like to
bust them in the mouth. And I appreciated his love for
me and his desire to defend me. And that family member, who said,
you get angry when you preach. I thought about the words of
David when he went down to check on his brethren and heard Goliath
speaking evil against the God of Israel. And he spoke out against
Goliath and his older brother rebuked him. David said, is there
not a cause? I asked us this morning, is there
not a cause for us to get angry? at those who speak out against
the one who loved us and gave himself for us? Yes, there is
a cause. And brethren, we, God's enlightened
children, are to be set for the defense
of the gospel, and I'm not encouraging anybody to use physical force. The gospel, and we heard it in
Sunday school this morning, the gospel is the power of God unto
salvation to everyone who believes. And I was just like those people
who are filled with enmity against Christ. I hated him without a
cause. I ran from him. I drank iniquity
like water. I'm not saying that to draw attention
to myself, except for this. God gave me a new heart. He revealed
to me my need of Jesus Christ. I saw myself as an ill-deserving,
hell-deserving, undeserving sinner who deserved nothing but God's
wrath. And he lifted me out of that
state of spiritual deadness put a new song in my heart, yea,
even praise unto His name, giving me a new heart to love Him and
to worship Him and to praise Him. That's God's grace and God's
sovereign mercy. Now here in Luke chapter 12, look at verse
51. Our Lord said, Suppose ye that
I am come to give peace on earth, I tell you nay, but rather division,
for from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided
against three, five in one house divided three against two and
two against three. So the gospel, the gospel brings
division. And someone might say, well,
didn't the angels at the birth of Christ sing peace on earth
and goodwill toward men? Yes, they did. and there was
peace on earth. Christ is our peace. He's every
believer's peace. But it was, the word says goodwill
toward men, not man as far as all men in general, but men,
men and women, particular people who were chosen in Christ by
God the Father before the foundation of the world. men and women whose
names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life before a star ever
twinkled in the sky, men and women whom God set his love upon,
an everlasting love, Men and women and our Lord because of
his love for us sent his son to die in our room in our stead. Men and women who are drawn to
Christ by the eternal love of God for the glory of Jesus Christ,
our risen, exalted King. Yes, the gospel divides. The gospel sets us free. from that awful stated enmity
against our God. Now, the poor have the gospel
preached unto them. I just read that over in Matthew
chapter 11. And that word, or those two words,
the poor, has reference to those who are spiritually poor. You
can be as poor as a church mouse as far as this world's goods
are concerned, and still go to eternal torment. But God must
make us see our need of Christ. And this is His doings. And He
brings us under the preaching of His gospel, and He convicts
us. He convicts us of our need of
Christ. He makes us see that we deserve
nothing but His eternal wrath. And while we're in that state
of conviction that only the Holy Spirit can bring upon us, our
Lord sweetly woos us into the waiting arms of our Christ so
that we can see Him as our only hope. See Him as the one who
took care of our sin debt. See Him as the one who by Himself
purged our sins. See Him as a one who by his own
sacrifice took care of our sin debt forever. Does that bless you? That blesses
me from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet. This hell-deserving
sinner stands before God right at this very moment. as pure
and as holy as Jesus Christ Himself. You all believe that? The Word
of God teaches that. He took care of our sin debt.
He took our sins and purged them from God's sight forever. I delight in the very fact that
God himself sees no sin in his chosen people. Brother Henry
Mahan was the instrument that God used to get conferences started
at Rescue Baptist Church out in a little place called Rescue
California. And he told this story, I chuckled when he told it, about
a young boy in his congregation. I don't know how old he was.
I just got the impression in my mind that he was somewhere
around 10, but I don't know that for sure. But Henry said that
he told others, this young boy told others, I like Brother Mahan's
preaching. He'll preach for a little while
and he'll tell you something. Then he'll preach for a little
while more, and then he'll tell you something else. I know what
he was saying. Brother Mahan experienced so
many things in his ministry that he had a story that he could
tell for every blessed gospel truth that he was stressing.
And he made it interesting. Not everybody is gifted that
way. Not all of God's preachers have that gift. But Henry Mahan
could keep you captivated by his preaching in that manner. Now, I might add this. It wasn't
the stories that God used, although those were very interesting and
drew our attention to the gospel truths, but it's the gospel that
God uses to enlighten the mind to the perfect redeeming work
of Christ our Savior. The gospel. is the power of God
unto salvation to everyone who believes. But I believe events
can be helpful. So let me share a couple of events
to you that are very special to me. Years ago, back in 1975
to be exact, My wife and I had four children
at the time. Our oldest son's name is Mike.
Our second son is Scotty. And I believe Shelly and Judeen
were with us during that time. And I was preaching on this glorious
subject of our need of Christ. We had a small congregation,
maybe 10 families, 20 adults and some children. And I labored
on the fact that God must punish sin. He must. He's holy. God's holy nature
demands that he punish sin. And all of us have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. And I labored on that, telling
the congregation we have no hope apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. Brought before them the fact
that Jesus Christ himself took care of our sin debt. And after
closing prayer, I walked away from the pulpit and I was visiting
with some of the people, and I looked over and our son, Scotty,
who was 10 years old at the time, was sitting on the floor with
his back against the wall, his knees raised up, his hands were
on his knees, and his face was in his hands, and he was sobbing
convulsively. Oh, what in the world? I walked
over and stooped down beside him. I said, Scotty, what's wrong? And with those tear-stained eyes,
he looked up in my face and he said, I'm a sinner, daddy. I have to choke back the tears
when I think about that. But I grabbed him by his shoulder
and said, I am too. I'm a sinner too, Scotty. But
our Lord Jesus came to save sinners. He didn't come to call the righteous
to repentance. He came to save sinners. And
once again, I had the honor of preaching the glorious gospel
truth of substitution, telling our 10-year-old son that God
took care of our sin debt by the supreme sacrifice of himself. He received that. There's no
age limit. to our God if he's pleased to
enlighten the mind of one of those he suffered and bled and
died for. And our son Scotty gave clear
evidence afterwards of his love for the Lord Jesus Christ. Our
oldest son, Mike, was almost 15 at the time. And the Lord, by His appointed
time of death, took Scotty from us when he was 11 years old. He died in my arms. I cannot
begin to express the pain that filled my heart, but God's grace
is sufficient. He gave me and my wife the grace
to endure that, knowing where Scotty was, knowing that he had
gone to glory. But our oldest son rebelled against
the gospel, left home when he was 18, saying words like this,
I will never, if I have any children, raise them like my dad raised
me. If they want to go to church,
that's fine. If they don't want to go, I will not force them. Now that was 47 years, almost
48 years ago. Mike is 61 years old now, and
about four months ago, he called me. He said, Dad, I need help. I know I've sinned against God. I know I deserve his wrath, and
that keeps going through my mind. Every day, I need help. I don't want to die not being
a Christian. What do I do? Now isn't that
what the 3,000 under Peter's preaching on the day of Pentecost
cried out, what must I do to be saved? Isn't that what the
Philippian jailer cried out when he fell down before Paul and
Silas, what must I do to be saved? And I shared with our oldest
son the same thing that I had shared with Scotty, the same
thing he had heard over and over and over again under some of
the best preachers that God has given to that generation. But
it wasn't his appointed time of love until about four months
ago. And as I encouraged him, has
an internet, he can get on the internet, and he can call, and
he can get messages by good preachers loaded down so he can listen
to them, and he started doing that. He started listening to
Henry Mahan. Oh, what a wonderful world we're
living in in this day and age when we have all of that modern
technology at our fingertips. About two or three weeks later,
I talked with him again, and I asked him, are you still listening
to Brother Henry Mahan? He said, yes. Yes, I'm being
helped quite a bit. I talked with him again about
a month later. I said, are you still listening
to Brother Henry Mahan? He said, no. I'm listening to
Pastor Don Fortner now. Well, you can't go much wrong
listening to Don Fortner. But he said, I have a question. He said, I'm a little puzzled.
He talked about people who have a false repentance and I'm not
sure I understand what he meant. I said, well, knowing Don Fortner,
I believe he was speaking out against those who believe that
their faith and their repentance are the sinner's gift to God.
And we, as sinners, have nothing to offer God. God grants repentance
unto life. Faith is His gift to the sinner.
Jesus Christ is the author and the finisher of our faith. He
takes that old dead sinner, puts his spirit within us, which we
heard in Sunday school this morning, enlightens the mind to the precious
gospel truths, and gives us a desire to give our God all the glory. And I asked somebody just the
other day, what's wrong with giving God all the glory? There's
something wrong if we don't give God all the glory. And as I was
ministering to our son, these wonderful truths went through
my mind. God alone can deal with the heart. And salvation is a heart matter.
At His appointed time of love, He gives us a new heart. He puts
His Spirit within us. And His Spirit guides us into
all truth. The poor have the gospel preached
unto them, and it's God who makes the word effectual. Well, you
might ask me, what then is the gospel? I'm so glad you asked
me that. That just thrills my heart. What
then is the gospel? Jesus Christ is the gospel. The gospel is Jesus Christ. We must, as God's preachers,
declare who Jesus Christ is. Listen, Jesus Christ is Jehovah
God, our creator, who just spoke worlds into existence. I was
dealing with a man years ago, and he seemed so sincere, so
sincere. We had prayer together. He wept
when he prayed. After we had spent some time
together, maybe two or three months, he told me, I believe
that God, when he said, let there be light, that that light was
Jesus Christ. I said, oh, no, Jim. No, Jesus
Christ is the one who said, let there be light. By him, all things
were created. Without him wasn't anything made
that was made. He is the one who is the eternal
son of God. He has always been. He wasn't
created. He never agreed with me. He was a self-taught religionist. Didn't have any use for pastors. I don't believe he ever came
to our worship services. and we parted company. But Jesus
Christ is my sovereign God, who just by the word of His mouth
said, let it be, and there it was. The same God who came to
me when I was dead in trespasses and sins and said, live, one
word, live. And I came alive to the things
of Christ because He put His Spirit within me. Jesus Christ
is the gospel. We must tell people who He is.
We must tell people what He has done. He became a man. He humbled himself and he lay
for nine months in the womb of a woman that he created. And
he came forth from his mother's womb, pure and spotless, without
any sin. We can't see that. The Word of
God tells us that we come from our mother's womb going astray
and speaking lies. So we need a Savior from our
mother's womb all the way till the Lord takes us out of this
world and brings us into His presence. We need Him. We need
Him every step of the way. He, Jesus Christ, by the supreme
sacrifice of Himself, paid the redemption price in full for
all of our sins. He reconciled us to God by His
death. We live because He lives. And
we must tell our hearers where He is now. He has come out of
the grave. And this is interesting. I thought
about this and it's worth mentioning. Our Lord Jesus told that thief
on the cross, the one whose mind was enlightened by God the Holy
Spirit, he said, today thou shalt be with me in paradise. Now our Lord went to the grave
after they crucified him, was there for three days. But he
still told that thief, today thou shalt be with me in paradise. While he lay in that grave, that
rich man's grave, his lifeless body being dead, he was still
on his sovereign throne of power in glory, ruling over this whole
universe. He said, I have the power to
lay down my life. I have the power to take it up
again. He never ceased being God. And I can't explain that
and you can't either. How the God man could die and
still be on his throne in glory. But that's what the word of God
teaches. We must tell our hearers that God has highly exalted His
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, has given Him a name which is above
every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow
of things in heaven and things in earth, and every tongue should
confess that He is Lord to the glory of God the Father. We serve
a risen Savior who has all power in heaven and earth. He said
that. All power in heaven and earth
has been given unto me. Well, if he has all power, will
there ever be a day when he'll have more power? Folks, listen,
he has it now. He's on his throne right now.
He's working all things after the counsel of his own will right
now. We just heard in the scriptures this morning read by one of our
brothers that Jesus Christ is the one who brings the storms
into this world. That hurricane that just went
through Florida and is going up the East Coast, our Lord Jesus
Christ brought that. Now people don't want to hear
that. Don't you tell me God did that. Well, God tells us that
he did that. Shall evil be done in the city?
And you'll say, I haven't done it. That includes hurricanes,
tornadoes, earthquakes, fires. All of that is controlled by
our sovereign Lord who has promised that he'll never leave us nor
forsake us. We must tell people that he has
come out of the grave. and He's Lord over all. If Jesus
Christ is my Lord and my Savior, what do I have to fear? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. He has promised
me when He delivers me from this body of death, I'll be ushered
into His presence and absolutely nothing. can separate me from
His love until that day, and that's when I'll be separated
from a body that hates Him, from a body that's filled with sin,
and He has taken care of that sin debt, and I'll be ushered,
and Jude put it this way, unto Him that is able to keep you
from falling and to present you faultless before the presence
of His glory, to the only wise God our Savior be glory and majesty
and dominion and power both now and ever. Can you imagine being
presented before the thrice holy God? Faultless? Me? Faultless? I'm so full of sin. If you knew what went through
my mind, you would just absolutely refuse to let me stand before
you and preach. but I'll be presented faultless
one day because of the supreme sacrifice of Jesus Christ, my
Lord. Not one thing can be laid to
the charge of God's elect. This is salvation, Christ in
me, the hope of glory. The poor have the gospel preached
unto them. When God makes us poor, we see
our need of Christ like our son Scottie did, like our son Michael
has just recently. We bow before him with joy in
our hearts, saying, thank you, Lord, for saving my soul. I thought about this while I
was preparing this message, that our Lord Jesus stood at the grave
of Lazarus And he said, roll the stone away. Martha said,
Lord, he's been dead for four days. By now he stinks. And the
Lord said this, Lazarus, come forth. Well, when they rolled
the stone away, light went into that dark grave. Lazarus saw
that light, which came first. life or the light? Well, a dead
man can't see. He heard the voice of Jesus Christ,
which came first? Hearing the voice or life? Well,
a dead man can't hear. Lazarus got up and he went toward
the voice that spoke to him, came out of that grave, walking
on two good legs, which came first, life or the ability to
get up and come to Christ? Well, we know the answer. Life
had to come first. And that's what our Lord does
for us. He sends His Spirit into our
heart. He raises us from a state of
spiritual deadness. We see Christ. We see Him because
God commands the light to shine in our heart to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
But life came first. We've heard the voice of Jesus
Christ. Life came first. We've got up. spiritually speaking,
with faith in our hearts, and we come to Christ and we follow
Him. Which came first? Life. Life has to come first. Praise
the Lord Jesus that He lives in the hearts of His people.