Good morning. All right, let's
go to Mark chapter 1. Mark 1, and our text is going
to be from verses 28-39. 28-39. And I'm not going to read
that passage just yet, just to save a little bit of time. Our
Lord's fame had really begun to grow now. cast out an unclean
spirit, being in the synagogue, no less, where he met that man,
and he cast that unclean spirit out, and the people realized,
they heard him speak, they saw him do the works that he was
able to do, and they realized something amazing, something
astounding is going on here in our midst, and they were getting
pretty excited, and they began to run around, and this buzz
was created, and they sought Christ, but It was for very carnal
reasons. We'll see the Lord didn't turn
himself over to their seeking Him. It was for very carnal reasons. Now Christ is eternal life to
His people, right? He is their very life and everything
that the believer has, they have because of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And they know that, they learn that, they're instructed of that,
and they're taught that. But to religious people, and
there's many, many, many religious people. You know many religious
people. And to religious people, Jesus
Christ is basically, he's a component of salvation. He's a component of salvation,
and he's not all of their salvation. He's not everything to them.
In Colossians 3.11, there's three words, and it says, is all. Christ is all. He is everything
to the believer. Don't miss Christ, because if
you miss Christ, it doesn't matter how religious you are, if you
miss Christ, you have missed everything. Everything, alright?
Our title is Christ Seeks Out a Lost Sheep. and we'll have
three divisions. Christ heals the sick, then we'll
see a missed opportunity, and then Christ seeks his own. So, after casting out that unclean
spirit, we read, not surprisingly, in verse 28, Mark 128, and immediately
his fame spread abroad throughout all the region round about Galilee.
Now, we see, though, that our Lord doesn't hang around and
mingle with these people who are now oogling and on over him
and all smitten with his charisma and what he's doing. They were
excited and interested, but the Lord wasn't looking for that.
He could tell that wasn't his spirit producing that in them.
That was just a carnal amazement and astonishment that they were
having for him. And instead of going with them,
he goes off with lowly Peter and James and John and Andrew
to Peter and Andrew's house. And it says in verse 29, forthwith
when they were come out of the synagogue, they entered into
the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John, but Simon's
wife's mother lay sick of a fever, and anon they tell him of her. So we see here Peter's mother-in-law
is laid up with, you know, sick with a fever and I'm thankful
that we're all gathered here today because every one of us,
by nature, is sick with a fever. Every one of us is sick and in
need of the Savior coming and the healing that He alone can
provide. If you turn over to Ezekiel 34
verse 2, we're We understand the Lord teaches
His people that they are corrupt, that they are polluted in sin
and iniquity, and that they can do nothing to heal themselves.
They must get their healing from the Savior. In Ezekiel 34-2,
the Lord asks at the end of verse 2, the very end of it, He says,
Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? Now the flocks are
the Lord's people, right? They are the sheep of the Lord,
they're the flock of the Lord, it's the people. And the shepherds
are those that are supposed to be feeding that flock, supposed
to be feeding the sheep of the Lord. And so the Lord is talking
to their pastors, and he's talking to the pastors, and he says,
you eat the fat, and you clothe yourselves with the wool, you
kill them that are fed, but you feed not the flock. So they're
happy to benefit from the substance of the flock, but they're not
doing what they're supposed to be doing, which is feeding the
flock, right? And so instead of feeding the
flock, they bound them up. They put them in pens, and they
fettered them with lies, and they kept them shut up to the
truth of God, and they just took advantage of them. And they fed
them dead letter religion, which gave them no nourishment, no
comfort, no healing, no salvation whatsoever. They kept them from
the truth. And if someone knew the truth,
they drove them from them. They smeared their character
or they killed them and they tried to destroy them because
they didn't want them around there causing trouble among the
flock. So, but now let's see, you know,
that's, that's the so-called shepherds that were in that time.
But let's look at the description of the flock of God, the church
of God, in verse four, and see if you're described here. He
says, the diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye
healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was
broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away,
neither have ye sought that which was lost, but with force and
with cruelty have ye ruled them. So the church here is described
as those that are diseased and sick, those that have been driven
away, those that have gotten lost and are broken. And the
pastor is sent to the Lord to heal the people, to gather them
together under Christ, under the sound and the preaching of
the faithful gospel which Christ delivers to his pastors. He's not to do it with exciting
sermons and whipping up the flesh and appealing to your flesh You
know, we're shaming the people of God because we're not doing
enough and telling them, you need to be doing more now, you
need to be doing these things to sanctify yourselves and get
yourselves right with the Lord. And he's not supposed to be doing
things like that because when we set your eyes on your flesh,
what you're not doing and what you need to be doing more of
or what you should be doing, when you do that, you take the
eyes of the people off of Christ who feeds his sheep gently Heals
His sheep and guides them and gathers them together to Himself.
Gives them a heart and a love for the Savior because of what
He does. When you show the people Christ, that's the healing balm. That's the gathering and being
joined to Him who is salvation and eternal life. But to do those
other things, just to put your eyes on what you need to be doing
a better job of, is to take your eyes off of Christ. We know what
we are. We are imperfect and we sin all the time. We have
the motive in love for Christ. We want to do better. We want
to serve and we want to be a help to our brethren, but we know
that we can't and the best help is to preach Christ because that's
where we're strengthened, right? That's where we're encouraged
to say, Lord, thank you so much. I've been looking at this world
and pursuing the things of this world and I've just been getting
weaker and weaker and dying, but And I hear of Christ and
what you've done and it strengthens me and it gives me encouragement
again for another day. It's that grace that I need to
hear of what he's done. So that's what we're to be doing. We're to lift up Christ and what
he's done for his people because that's where they're strengthened.
And instead of this, it says with force and with cruelty,
have you ruled them? And again, that force and that
cruelty, it's with It's to withhold the preciousness of Christ. It's
to withhold that and it's to whip them. It's to make good
little Pharisees of the people. To tell them what they can do
to save themselves and how to get themselves right with the
Lord. It's to tell them that unless
you do this, unless you make a decision for Jesus, you cannot
be saved. It's to put a work in the hand
of the people and that's just going to weigh them down like
a heavy stone and drop them down into hell. So, the flocks became
scattered, he says, in verse 5, because there is no shepherd,
and they became meat to all the beasts of the field when they
were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains and
upon every high hill. Yea, my flock was scattered upon
all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after
them. You know, many of us do know this from
experience because there's no You're not hearing what you're
supposed to be hearing. You're not hearing the gospel and the truth.
And so people get all these kinds of crazy ideas about how God
saves his people. You know, my neighbor said this,
and I thought that sounded pretty good. Or my aunt said it this
way, and that was pretty, worded pretty well. I think that's how
God saves people. And then, you know, everybody's
got an opinion about how God saves people. But the reality
is nobody cares what you or I think about how God saves people. care
about how God saves people. We want to know what the Lord
says in His Word about how He saves His people, and that's
through His Son, Jesus Christ, who provides all of salvation
from beginning to end. He's the author and the finisher
of our faith. He's the Alpha and the Omega,
the beginning and the end. Everything from beginning to
end and landing in between is all of the Lord He does that
work of salvation so we might know and be comforted and assured
that it's not me. Once you see the sickness, once
you see how weak we are and that our best efforts fall short all
the time, it's a comfort to know it doesn't matter. It's not based
on what you do. The Lord provides. He'll do everything
necessary for you. The reason why I went to that
passage is we see the Lord has to seek and save that which is
lost, and I have no doubt that the Lord knew Peter's wife's
mother. Peter's wife's mother, his mother-in-law,
was there, sick with a fever, and he went there specifically
to show mercy to her, to heal her, and to give her life in
himself. And just like our sister there
laid up on Peter's couch, we too lay sick with that deadly
fever, that fever that is unto death, except the Lord heal us
and give us deliverance from that. The scriptures teach us
that we are all natural-born enemies of God. We don't seek
out God. We don't love God. We don't want
to know Him. It says in Romans 5.8, but God commended his love
toward us in that while we were yet sinners. Sinners dead in
trespasses and in sins. Sinners walking according to
the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of
the air, where the children of disobedience are still walking.
We all had our walk among them. We did those things as well.
But while we were yet sinners, God commended his love toward
us that Christ Jesus died for the ungodly. It wasn't because
we got ourselves together, got our lives together, made ourselves
good and healthy and beautiful and then presented ourselves
to God and he said, good job. You know, that saying that God
helps those that help themselves, that's a lie. That's not in the
scriptures at all. It's the opposite of that. God
helps those who can't help themselves. He's looking for sinners. He's
looking for those that are lost and are helpless and have no
hope of salvation except God do a work for them. That's who
Christ came to save. If you're a sinner and you know
it and you're hurting and broken and weak, there's good news for
you because that's who Christ Jesus came to save. He said,
they that are whole need not a physician, but they that are
sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. He says, the Son of Man has come
to seek and to save that which was lost. He's looking for those
who were chosen out of God and given to Him before the foundations
of the world were laid, those are the ones that were lost.
Lost when they sinned in Adam along with all the rest of the
human race and fell and he's coming and gathering those sheep
back to himself because those are the people that he loves.
Those are, that's his bride. Those are his people that he's
done, that he's doing this for. So, because the scriptures declare
that he's not waiting for us because it's written. There's
none righteous, no not one. There's none that understand
it. There's none that seeketh after God. They're all gone out
of the way, right? Like sheep have all wandered
away. They are together become unprofitable. There's none that
doeth good, no not one. So it's normal, especially for
someone first time hearing this gospel to wonder, well then how
are the people of God saved? If they're not doing something,
if they're not making a decision for Jesus and seeking to know
him, how are the Lord's people saved? It's by the grace of God
that he shows to his people, that he's poured out upon his
people through the riches of his grace, through Christ his
son, that Christ Jesus did the work of salvation. He's the one
who gives salvation to his people by being their righteousness,
by bearing their sin in his own body, and he went to that cross
willingly to pay their debt, to bear their sin burden, and
to put their sin away forever, so that when we stand before
God, we stand before Him not in our sin, not in our works
of righteousness which we've done by the flesh, but we stand
in the very righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, which
He's worked out and brought for His people. and he's made us
righteous so that now God looks upon us and says, there's the
righteousness of my son whom I love. Well done, well done. Enter into your rest. My child
will enter into your rest, which I have prepared for you from
before the foundation of the earth. So it's a kindness and
we rejoice in that brethren. All right, now just hold your
place. If you're still in Ezekiel 34, hold your place there, Remembering
that we are sheep scattered, and go over to John 10. I just
want to hop over there briefly. In John 10 and verse 12, our Savior said this. He said,
He that is in hireling and not the shepherd, John 10, 12. He
that's an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep
are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth,
and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep." So what's
so concerning is that there's many churches out there. There's many churches on many
corners. I mean, the last thing that Missouri needs is another
preacher, right? Because there's a lot of preachers
here. It seems like everybody around
us, you know, is usually tied into some ministry and, you know,
they want to get you part of their ministry and they're all
wrapped up in it. But that warm and fuzzy Jesus
that can do nothing to save you unless you do something, unless
you allow him to save you, that Jesus is not a savior and he
cannot save you. We need a Christ that saves his
people completely and entirely because he's shown us what we
are by nature. Desperate, sick, and in need
of the physician, the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone saves his people. That smooth-talking preacher
in there who's trying to impress the people constantly and do
something new for them, he's doing it because he doesn't want
to offend anybody. He wants to make sure that he's
collecting his paycheck. He especially doesn't want to
offend a huge benefactor that is dropping big checks into the
plate. So he's careful not to say something that might offend,
but the reality is we need to hear this. We need to know that he's not a little Jesus. Men
don't want a sovereign Christ who are in their flesh. They
don't want a sovereign Jesus because they want somebody that
they can fold up and put in their pocket and bring out when they
please to bring them out. They want to have somebody like
that, a little puppet that they can control and determine when
or if he saves them or can have mercy on them because they allowed
it. So that they are the ones glorying
in what they've done to allow Jesus to save them. But that's
not the true and living Savior. Christ is the successful Savior. He saved his people from their
sins. And that's who we're to declare
and that's who we're to preach because the Lord does the work
of salvation for his people. And salvation is of the Lord.
It's not of man's hands. Man is just a happy, passive
recipient. And do you need faith? Absolutely. But he gives that faith. By grace
you are saved through faith, and that and out of yourselves,
it is the gift of God. Lest any man should boast. It's
not of worth, lest any man should boast. And Paul tells us, not
all men have faith. not all men have faith. God didn't
give all men faith. He gives it to his people. He
gives those gifts of salvation to his people in the seeking
and gathering of them that were lost and that are his. So it
does us no good to puff up the people and say things with itching
ears because the wolf is at the door. You know, we see it all
around us. We don't, it just seems like
that evil just keeps pushing pushing, pushing, and I don't
know which way it's going to break out against the people
of God, but we don't know when or where. It's interesting because
you think you're in a nice religious little spot here, but it could
break out here first, you know, and spread to the coast. It may
not necessarily be there on the left coast and the, you know,
in the liberal coasts there. It may actually break out right
here in the epicenter of religion and the belt. But when that wolf
comes, if we know Christ and we're settled in Him, being taught
of Him and comforted in Him, it doesn't matter how it breaks
out. The Lord's going to provide for His people. He's going to
keep His people and we'll be the more blessed to see the wonderful
power and the working of our Savior. We're not saying that
confidently in ourselves because we know that we're weak and none
of us wants to go through persecution, but our hope is in our Savior,
that he loves us and that he gathered us here for a reason
and that he's not going to leave us. The one who's a hireling,
He flees and leaves, but your Savior will never leave you,
and He'll feed us and provide for us and show us we're trusted
in His grace, that He did this, that He does these things for
a reason. He said, I'm, in John 10, 14 and 15, I am the good
shepherd and know my sheep and am known of mine as the Father
knoweth me, even so I know the Father, and I lay down my life
for the sheep. All right, hold your place there.
And John, because we'll come back, but just flip over there
to Ezekiel 34, and we'll finish up there. Ezekiel 34, 11 and
12. Thus saith the Lord God, behold,
I, even I, will both search my sheep and seek them out as a
shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his
sheep that are scattered. So will I seek out my sheep and
will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered
in the cloudy and dark day. Our Savior is a successful Savior
and He shall never lose one for whom He's died. He gave His life
and not one of them shall perish. But they shall come to hear the
gospel. He'll give them a heart when
it pleases Him. He'll give them a new spirit and they shall hear
it for the first time and receive that word into good ground because
it's all the work of the Savior. Not one of them shall be lost.
Back in John 10, John 10, verse 16. Here's what our Lord said
concerning those things. The other sheep I have, which
are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall
hear my voice. And there shall be one fold and
one shepherd. Right? He can't speak that. He
can't say that unless he knows it's true. He's not going to
lose one for whom he's died. Verse 17. Therefore doth my Father
love me because I lay down my life that I may take it again.
No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have
power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This
commandment have I received of my Father." And can't you just
see the truth of that, that it's not a man's decision to determine
whether Christ has died for him or not. Christ has power to lay
down his life and to take it again. Christ has power to give
life to whomsoever he is pleased to give it to. and no man can
stop him or refuse him or say, what doest thou? Because he's
sovereign God and he'll come in and save his people because
they would never allow it if left to themselves. They would
prevent it and fight it and resist it, like we do, until he comes
in by sovereign grace and power and gives us life and transforms
us out from this deadness, giving us life in the kingdom of our
God and our Savior, Jesus Christ, in his light and in his power.
And it says, verse 19, there was a division, therefore, again
among the Jews for these sayings, right? They didn't like what
they were hearing. He's speaking with some serious authority here,
and they didn't like what he was saying and how he was saying
it. But in verse 24, 10-24, then came the Jews round about him
and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou
be the Christ, tell us plainly. And Jesus answered them, I told
you, and ye believed not. Works that I do in my Father's
name, they bear witness of me. But here's why you don't believe.
Verse 26, but ye believe not, because you're not of my sheep,
as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them, and they follow me. So you see there, Christ isn't
begging anybody. He's not trying to get them to
believe in Him. He's just declaring the truth,
because by the truth, that's what the Spirit's going to use.
The Spirit's not going to use the words of of man, of carnal
man trying to reason and persuade you with carnal reasoning and
carnal wisdom, he's going to take the truth of God as spoken
by God, that God has the power and he sovereignly saves whom
he will. God does it. And so he's not
being mousy and wimpy and hiding behind cloaked words to be careful
not to offend anybody. He's telling us the truth. It's
good for us to see and know that God is God and that we're not
God. It's important for us to see that He is because that's
when men suddenly become terrified and afraid and not confident
in themselves and they see, wait a minute, you mean God is God
and I'm not God and I don't have control over these things but
that He does? Maybe I need to go to Him and beg for mercy and
grace and that He might save me and deliver me from the death
of my sin. So he says in verse 28, I give
unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall
any man pluck them out of my hand, because he shall not fail. So those churches that are trying
to Persuade people and scoot around it and try and make it
more palatable to the flesh by saying, it's your decision now
and you need to make a good decision, a right decision. Don't you see
what Jesus did for you? You're going to let his blood
go to waste? No, you're wasting your time and you're telling
people lies because that's not how he saves his people. He's
not asking for you if you want to be saved. He didn't go to
that woman on the couch and say, daughter, can I, is it okay if
I heal you? Would that be all right with
you? Would you please make a decision to let me heal you? No, he came
in sovereignty, took her by the hand and raised her up and gave
her health. And immediately she was made
profitable to the church. She got up and she served the
brethren right then and there. She was saved to the Lord. He
had done everything necessary for her and she became profitable
to the Lord and his people there because she got up and she ministered
to them. She was thankful. Lord just healed me. Gave me
strength. I didn't have strength. I'm just thankful. So he does
this work and we're thankful for it. We rejoice in it because
it's our salvation. It's our salvation to know that
even when we sin and fail miserably, like we do, don't be afraid. Yeah, we're sad and we're ashamed
for it, but you be confident in the Lord. Thank him for his
mercy. Ask him to restore you. and to heal you, and to comfort
you again, and to deliver you from that, because we don't want
to be in bondage to sin. We're the servants of Christ,
our Savior. That's who we want to serve, not sin, and not our
lust, not our flesh, because it's not profitable. It doesn't
do good for anybody, at least of all ourselves, even. And then
we see in Mark 1.30, at the end there, and Adon, they tell him
of her. And I don't want to just skip
over it, because that's what we do all the time with prayer,
isn't it? We just tend to skip over it and go about our way
and try to do things in our own strength. But here we see them,
they're supplicating the Lord on behalf of the mother-in-law. The Lord knew that she was there.
He's there for a reason, but we see the people there giving
supplication. It should be a comfort to us
to know that He hears us as clearly today as He heard them speaking
to Him then. And I know we tend to not think
about it like that, but He really does trust Him, believe Him.
He hears us. And lay your cares before Him,
and He'll do for His people what they have need of being done,
and it may not be the way we would like it to be done, but
he'll teach us through it, and he'll comfort us through it,
and he'll lead us to Christ more and more, and it'll be hard on
the flesh, the flesh doesn't like the way the Lord deals with
his people, because it's the flesh, and it's enmity against
God, but the spirit, the new man in us says, not my will be
done but thy will be done and we rest there in him and we take
comfort from him and it's enough it satisfies us because we know
that his grace is sufficient for us to heal us and to comfort
us and to to provide for us so trust in him and verse 31 and
he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up and immediately
the fever left her and she ministered unto them and I already spoke
to that where we saw her immediately made useful to the church. And
that's how it is when the Lord saves his people, just their
very presence and coming here is a comfort and a joy. You may
not be able to set up anything. That's okay. You know, the Lord
will show you where you can help and be a comfort to your brethren.
But honestly, just being here, it's a joy, it really is a comfort
to see the people of God willing to come out and to be here and
to hear the Lord's Word being preached. It's just a joy to
be gathered with the sheep. Sheep like to be among sheep
and they want to be together because it comforts us and it
strengthens us to see what the Lord's doing. And so we healed
her that it might be fulfilled, Matthew records this, not Mark,
but he says that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by
Isaiah the prophet saying himself took our infirmities and there
our sicknesses. So we see how the Lord does this
work. All right, now let's look at
this missed opportunity I was talking about. In Mark 1.32,
through 34, it says, And even when the sun did set, they brought
unto him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed
with devils. And all the city was gathered together at the
door, and he healed many that were sick of diverse diseases,
and cast out many devils, and suffered not the devils to speak,
because they knew him. So here, many now, with all that
fame and excitement going on, many come to the Lord bringing
their There are loved ones and friends that are sick with diverse
diseases and have devils and things like that. But did you
notice that they waited until evening? They waited until evening. It says there in verse 32, at
even, right, at even or evening when the sun did set. And do
you know why they waited till evening? It had been the Sabbath
day. Sabbath day is from Friday sunset
to Saturday sunset. So as soon as that sunset, Saturday,
they got out, they got everybody together and they went out to
the Lord to have him heal them. And you got to wonder how many
hours did they waste there before they brought their loved ones
that were sick and dying to the Lord to have mercy on them. You
know, it's just another fine example of how religion keeps
men from coming to Christ. They waited, and they waited,
and it's just another example of how religion gets in the way
of people just coming to the Lord. Get to the Lord Jesus Christ. It doesn't matter what your background
is, what you were doing yesterday, in the past, don't let anything
prevent you from coming to the Lord. He is salvation. He's the
healing. And the glory and the power of
God get to Christ. Don't let anything, especially
religion, prevent you from coming to God. We need the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is salvation, not our religion. Christ alone is
salvation. And so, you know, and here's
why it's important. Here's why I say it. Look at
verse 35 now. And in the morning, rising up a great while before
day, he went out and departed into a solitary place, and there
prayed." All right, we see the Lord, who is God himself, the
Son of God, with all the fullness of the Godhead dwelling bodily,
and He is looking to His Father for all things, to provide for
all things. And that should be an example
to us that we ought not to be so cocky and think so highly
of ourselves, but as Christ looked to the Father to provide all
things. We're to look to Christ to provide all things, and we
should, even though we know He knows it, and even though we
know He's forgiven us, there's nothing wrong. In fact, we should
be confessing our sins to Him. Don't worry about each other,
but, you know, except to confess. I like that what Darwin said,
you know, we're confessing our sins, meaning we're confessing
we're sinners and ye to the grace of God. We're not so good in
ourselves. We desperately need the grace
of God, You know, but we're to go to Him with everything, lift
everything up to the Lord in prayer, because He's teaching
us and keeping us and guiding us. Because again, we don't know
when that dark and cloudy day is going to come upon us when
suddenly light just pulls a rug out from under us and we realize,
where am I? Where have I gone? And how did
I get so far away from the Lord? You know, the Lord, He loves
His people. He's going to restore them nonetheless. but we don't want to get so far.
It hurts. It hurts to be that far away
from the Lord. It's, it's smart. And it, I,
you know, just from experience, I know that you find yourself
sometimes so, so far away from the Lord and we don't want to
be there, brethren. So pray to the Lord constantly,
constantly be looking at him. But, but here's what I was getting
at. This is why I say, don't let anything, let alone religion,
prevent you from coming to Christ. Because up on the hill here,
verse 36, and Simon and they that were with him followed after
him. And when they found him, they said, all men seek for thee.
They're excited. Oh, Lord, everybody's getting
excited. They're all looking for you here. And being unmoved
by that carnal fame, this is what Christ says. Let us go into
the next towns that I may preach there also. For therefore came
I forth. We see the sovereignty of our
Savior in this. Those people burned through who
knows how many hours waiting to come to Christ, and now our
Savior is moving on. They were excited, but he's moving
on to go preach the gospel. Those who seek the Lord in their
own strength and in their own works of merit, they shall never
find the Lord. You're never going to find the
Lord in your own strength and in your own merit. It's by the
grace of God. In Romans 10, 14, it says, how
shall they call on him in whom they've not believed? And how
shall they believe in him of whom they've not heard? And how
shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? As it's written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. But they have not all obeyed
the gospel. For Isaiah saith, the Lord who hath believed our
report, So then, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the
word of God. A sinner must hear the word of
God. They must hear the gospel, and
not just hear it audibly with this carnal ear, but they must
hear the voice of the Son of God, speaking to them, and teaching
them, and delivering them from their bondage, and healing them
of their diseases and their sicknesses. Remember, he said, my sheep hear
my voice, I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them
eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any
man pluck them out of my hand. But here is Christ, who can preach,
you know, is able, has the words of eternal life, has the gospel. Who knows it better than the
Lord himself? And here he is departing from them. He's taking
that gospel word away from them. And the Savior, you know, he's
leaving Capernaum now. He's going on to other cities
to preach this gospel. Turn over to Matthew 11. Matthew
11 and go to verse 20. Christ says in Matthew 11.20,
it says, Then began Christ to upbraid the cities where most
of his mighty works were done, because they repented not. Verse
23, Matthew 11.23, and he says, And thou, Capernaum, which art
exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell. For if
the mighty works which have been done in thee had been done in
Sodom, it would have remained unto this day. But I say unto
you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the
day of judgment than for thee." Well, that seems awfully harsh
to say to a bunch of people that were seeking after him and he
pulled out to, right, and didn't preach the gospel to them. But they sought him because they
saw the works and they wanted a friend like Jesus in their
corner. They just wanted a companion. like Jesus, who could do good
things for them, but their hearts were set on this world. Their
hearts were still set on the things of this world, and they
love this world, and the Word of God says, love not this world.
If any man loved this world, the love of the Father is not
in him, and it takes the Lord to teach us, and I'm so thankful
He does it patiently, kindly, but he teaches us, breaking us,
showing us just how empty and dead and lifeless this world
is so that we don't set our hope and our hearts on this world.
And he's feeding us the gospel and it's a blessing, brethren,
that you hear because he's breaking you from the love of this world
and the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh. And he's
saving us from that. And we constantly look to him
Because we know it's by Him and His power. Because, you know,
we leave this place and you go right back out to it and you
start pursuing again the things of this world all over again. You know, there's things we have
to do and we should do them and do them well. But, you know,
don't, the heart just wandered right off, just goes right back
into the things of this world and we begin to think, what's
the next thing I want? What's the next thing? What's
the next thing I want to do in this world? But the Lord saves us
from that. And he went on to say, verse
25, At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even
so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. Are we the
wise and the prudent? Or are we that helpless, defenseless,
little babe who needs the grace and the mercy of God? Because
those that are sinners, those that are lost, those that are
diseased and weak and broken and driven away, that's who He
came to save. He is merciful and tender to
those. He won't take His gospel from
them. He'll provide for them, He'll
bring His gospel, and He'll give us hearts and ears to hear it
and to believe it and to be fed by it and sit under it. He saith
unto Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and
I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then
it's not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. So we see it's not by our wills,
it's not by our hanging on to Christ, but God himself is the
one who shows mercy and compassion to his people. So look to him,
don't be afraid, seek him. Because you who are burdened
and weary and heavy laden and downtrodden, That's who he came
to save. They're the sheep of his pasture
whom he's gathering again. As he says in verse 28, come
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest
unto your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. All right, very briefly now,
back in our text. Verse 38 and 39, And he said
unto them, Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach
there also. For therefore came I forth, and
he preached in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and cast
out devils. Sinner, have you heard Christ
preach today? Have you heard His voice? Have
you heard that Christ saves sinners? You who are sinners, don't Don't
fear. Run to Christ. Flee to Him. Let
nothing prevent you. Let nothing stop you. Christ
alone saves His people. He gathers His sheep and He feeds
them. You can look to Him and trust
in Him. His sheep shall hear His voice and come to Him and
be gathered to Him. He laid down His life for the
sheep, bearing their sin and their iniquity, and He took it
there on the cross before Holy God, bearing all the shame curse
of our sin, that he might put it away forever, so that we may
stand confidently before God. Holy God in that day shall be
Christ on the throne, and we shall say to him, Lord, you did
it, you did the work, and I'm looking only to your work, to
your blood, what you've done in putting away my sin. I'm not
coming to you with any works of my own, trusting in anything
I've done. Lord, I'm looking to what you
alone did. And to that one, he'll receive. And he'll open the gates of heaven
and say, welcome. Enter into thy rest that I've
prepared for thee. So I pray the Lord will bless
it to our hearts and help us to hear it. Don't delay coming
to Christ. You need Christ. We're all sinners
in need of his grace. But only those who know they're
sinners will come to him. And I pray the Lord will help
you to hear that. All right, let's pray. Our gracious
Lord, we thank you for your mercy and your compassion. Lord, we
thank you that the gospel's here and that, Lord, you would help
your weak, wounded, and sick sheep to hear this and to be
encouraged in what the Lord has done and to run to him, Lord. Don't let us look to our sin
and our folly and the works, and let that keep us from coming
to you. But rather, as you say, let us bring our heavy burden
to you and cast it upon you, Lord, for you are kind and tender
and gentle and merciful to the sheep. We pray this in Jesus'
name, our Lord and Savior. Amen. I changed the last hymn. We were
going to sing out of the hardbacks, but we're going to sing out of
the soft one. Because of Brother Eric's message,
I'd rather sing another one out of here. I was a wandering sheep, I did
not love a foal. I did not love my shepherd's
voice, I would not be controlled. I was a wayward child, I did
not love my home. I did not love my father's voice,
I loved afar to roam. The shepherd sought his sheep,
the father sought his child. They followed me o'er vale and
hill, o'er deserts waste and wild. They found me nigh to death,
famished and faint and low. They bound me with the bands
of love, they saved the wandering one. Jesus my shepherd is, t'was
He that loved my soul. Was He that washed me in His
blood? Was He that made me whole? Was He that sought the lost? That found the wandering sheep? Was He that brought me to the
fold? Is He that still doth keep? I was a wandering sheep, I would
not be controlled, But now I love my shepherd's voice, I love,
I love the fold. I was a wayward child, I once
preferred to roam, Now I love my Father's voice, I love my
love this home. Thank you.