Matthew 8, and we're looking
at verses 14 through 17 this evening. Matthew 8, verses 14
through 17, and the title of the message is, Jesus, a Sympathizing
Savior. Jesus, a Sympathizing Savior. Matthew chapter 8 and verse 14. And when Jesus was come into
Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother laid and sick of a fever. And he touched her hand, and
the fever left her. And she arose and ministered
unto them. Then when the 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." Here the Lord Jesus Christ has
come from that last week we studied the centurion and how he was
believing that Jesus was the Christ and his servant was healed.
And Jesus coming now to Capernaum comes into Peter's house. And
Peter's mother has a fever. She's sick. She's got a cold. She has got a fever. This is
not a life-threatening illness. This is not leprosy. This is
not the palsy. This is a fever. And the Lord
sees her, and He touches her by the hand, and immediately
the fever is gone, and she gets up, and she ministers to the
Lord and to Peter. And then after that, there came
multitude of people. Somebody found out about that.
The word got around in the neighborhood very quickly, and soon there
were many people at the door, and the Lord Jesus Christ, He
healed them all. That it might be fulfilled, He
bare our infirmities. He took our infirmities and bare
our sicknesses. Now, there are three things I
want us to see in this text tonight. I want us first to see, and I
can't pass this up, I have to talk on this because I believe
it's necessary. I believe this is why this scripture
was mentioned concerning Peter's wife. First, I want to talk about
a word against false religion. A word against false religion.
Second, I want to give a word of comfort to believers. And
third, I want a word about service. Three things. A word about false
religion, a word about the comfort of believers, and a word of service. First of all, a word against
false religion. Look at the text. And when Jesus
was come into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother laid
and sick of a fever." Now, I want us to see that this pops out
to me first, that we have in this Catholic pagan religion
another Scripture which dispels their wicked devilish doctrine
of abstinence from marriage for their priests. In the Catholic
Church, they believe that a priest must be unmarried because this
is how it was in succession of the apostles, and they believe
themselves to be more spiritual if they are unmarried. But we
know that this is a lie. This man Peter, whom they claim
to be the first pope, he himself had a wife. And yet, why then
do they continually denounce marriage as an evil thing for
their clergy? Well, they do so because they've
left the faith. That church has left the faith
many centuries ago. Flip over to 1 Timothy. Flip
over to 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy chapter 4. 1 Timothy
chapter 4 and verse 1. The Scripture says, Now the Spirit
speaketh expressly that in latter times some shall depart from
the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. speaking lies in hypocrisy, having
their conscience seared with a hot iron." Here it is. "...forbidding to marry, and
commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be
received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the
truth." And he goes on to tell them that they have given themselves
to old wives' fables. O wives' tales, rather than giving
themselves to godliness, can you not see the pagan heresy
of this Catholic Church? Can you not see it here in the
Scriptures? Don't they forbid to marry? Don't they try to tell
you to abstain from meats which God has given to all to enjoy? Of course they do. And Paul says
these are doctrines of devils. These are doctrines of devils.
And he tells Timothy, he said, you'll be a good minister if
you remember to remind the people of these things. You know, as
I was, Cheryl knows more of the people around the neighborhood
than I do. I began to realize exactly how many Catholics live
in my neighborhood. We have hundreds of them. And you ask them why they're
Catholic, they won't have any idea why they're Catholic. Their
mom was a Catholic. And if you even try to talk to
them about points of catharsis, they have no idea what you're
talking about. This religion is so wicked and
vain that it keeps from its people its own doctrine because it's
so against the Scriptures. They wouldn't want these things
to be exposed. These men tell them that there are more than
one mediator between God and man. To the Catholic Church,
there are many mediators. There are many mediators. But we know that there is only
one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. They
tell them that the Mass that Christ is offered every time
they have a Mass, do you realize that the Catholic Church believes
every time they eat that bread and drink that wine that they
are literally crucifying Christ again? That His blood is literally
being shed in that cup and they are literally eating His body
again. When the Scriptures are clear
that Christ had offered Himself once, once, it says that three
times in Hebrews, once Christ had offered Himself. Friends,
we've got to know how to defend the Gospel. You have to know
these passages of Scripture when they come. And you're able to
witness to them, you'll be able to point these people to these
passages. Christ alone is the mediator.
Jesus Christ and His blood alone merits God's forgiveness. They
believe the priests can merit God's forgiveness. They believe
they can give forgiveness. That they can absolve you of
sins. And friends, this is not true. We know that Jesus Christ
alone forgives sins. That He has suffered once and
has sat down on the right hand of God. And so we know that there's
no such thing as forbidding to marry either. Marriage is a good
thing. It's not an evil thing as they
would make it to be. It's good that a man find a good
wife. It is good. I have a good wife
and I can testify to that. It is a good thing. God said
this about Adam. He said it's not good for man
to be alone. And that was a perfect man. That was a perfect man. I understand it's not good for
man to be alone. Marriage is good. And for any
institution to defile it, what they've done is they're trying
to defile the type of Christ and His church. That's what marriage
does anyway. Marriage is just a picture of
Christ and His church. And anyone who speaks against
that, you shouldn't listen to them or have anything to do with
them. So that's the word against false religion. Now, I couldn't
help but see, I believe that's what the Spirit of God pointed
out that Peter had a wife for. I mean, there's no other reason
for it to be there other than he knew that the pagan religion
would come. And so we would be able to defend
it. Now, second of all, I want to give a word of comfort to
God's children. And the word of comfort is this,
Jesus Christ is a sympathizing Savior. I can see that from this
text. He is a sympathizing Savior. Jesus Christ here shows His great
compassion to heal this woman's common sickness. Now, as Jesus
visits Peter's house, we see that his wife's mother is sick
with a fever. Now, I'm sure that no one ever thought of asking
Jesus to heal the fever. Do you? I'm sure they walked
in and he saw that his mother, he knew his mother-in-law was
sick. I'm sure his wife knew his mother-in-law was sick. But
the Scriptures say nothing about them asking Christ to heal this
sickness. You see, the Lord saw it and
took it upon Himself to heal this sickness. He took it upon
Himself to heal this common fever. We notice in the Scripture that
the Lord heals lepers, the Lord heals paraplegics, the Lord healed
that man at Bethesda, the Lord healed the blind man, the deaf
man, He cast out demons out of people. Those are very great
illnesses, aren't they? But this woman had a cold. This
woman had a fever. Who here has not had a fever?
I mean, my son had a fever last week. We've all had this kind of sickness
before. And this sickness was not under
death. This sickness was a common ailment. How great care and thought of
the Lord Jesus Christ to notice this common thing. Believer in Christ, let us not
think that there is anything too small for Christ to notice. There is nothing too small for
our Lord to notice. Let us not think that He will
only care for the great ills of our life and leave the little
things up to us. Don't think that. He's not left
anything up to us. Praise God for that. He's not
left us alone in anything in our lives. Believer, His eye of great mercy
is upon us. He always sees our hurts and
our pains. He knows our small griefs and
our nagging burdens that we wouldn't even bother to tell another person. How many things bother you that
you've not told anybody? That you've kept even from your
friends or your spouse? There's a lot of things that
just nag me and I don't tell Cheryl everything. Why? I'm sure it would be a burden
to her if I did. If I told her every little thing
I had, then I'm sure it would be a great burden for her. So
some of those things we keep to ourselves, don't we? Some
of those things we keep to ourselves and we wouldn't bother anybody
with them. But friend, if we breathe them
to Jesus, we will not bother Him. You will not bother Him. Matter of fact, He is ready to
hear your complaints. He is ready to hear your hurts. He is ready to hear your griefs.
Peter says this, 1 Peter 5, 6, "...Humble yourselves therefore
unto the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due
time, casting only your big cares on
Him." Is that what it says? Is that what it says? That's
not what mine says. Mine says, casting all your care
on Him. Why? He careth for you. He careth for you. Believer in the Lord Jesus Christ,
He cares for you more than anything else. I love this. One person said
to me, he said, it's an amazing thought that Jesus, it is though
that I am the only person on earth that He has to care for. That's how much He cares for
us as though we were the only one He had to care for. That's
how much He cares for you. He cares for us greatly. The Lord cares for us more than
anyone else can. He has, by His all-knowing wisdom,
provided all things that are needful for life and faith and
practice. His love for us is so great that
He's even numbered our hairs. Now friends, I know this, we
love ourselves. There's one thing I know is that
by human nature, we all love ourselves. And if we're depressed,
it's because we're not getting what we want. We love ourselves,
but you know what? I have never taken the time to
count my hairs. I love myself, but I just don't
love myself that much to count my hairs. He does! He loves me so much that He would
count them and know the number of them. And if one were to fall,
He would subtract it. He would know. He would know. Cheryl's not counting my hair. But I know she loves me. I know
she cares. But she doesn't care like He
does. She can't. She can't. No one cares for me
like Jesus. No one. He knows all of my pains. He knows all of our hurts. He
knows all of our sicknesses. He knows all of our griefs. Because He loves us. I'll tell you, God has given
us doctors. God has given us medicine and
we should use them. Do you realize that there's no
cure for the common cold? This woman had something that
was really incurable. You couldn't cure it with medicine.
And we've got a lot of drugs and things that can mask the
pain. We can cover the pain, but we
can't get rid of the disease. He can. How do you think we're cured
from these things every time we get them? He does. He does it all the time. And how many times does it go
unnoticed by us? I know a lot of times these little
things go unnoticed. God says, I am God and there
is none else. I kill and I make alive, I wound
and I heal. None can deliver out of My hand.
He does it all. He recognizes these small things,
the common things that we overlook. Believers, let us not wait until
the matter becomes great before we call upon Christ. Let us not
suffer needlessly in pain because of our pride and self-reliance. And that's all it is. If we're
not calling, it is nothing more than, I can do it, I can do it
by myself and I don't need you. That's all it is. Let us not suffer needlessly
the pains and troubles that are common by nature, but come boldly,
come instantly, come reverently, but come. Come at any time with
any trouble. And friends, He is not burdened
with our griefs and our sorrows. He's not. Jesus, let us see that in our
text, how the Lord is able to sympathize with our troubles.
How is He able to bear with us? How is He able to sympathize
with our sickness and pain? Look at this in verse 16 and
17. And when even was come, they
brought unto him many that were possessed with the 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 of by Isaiah,
the prophet saying himself took our infirmities and bear our
sicknesses. Again, evidently, the whole town
found out Jesus was there, and they showed up at the door. I'm
sure they didn't call in advance, RSVP, and get into a line. I'm sure that there was a big
group of people there waiting to be healed, expecting to be
healed, without any prior notice. But do you realize that the Lord
did not come out, snarl at them, and slam the door on them? What did He do? He graciously
walked out the door and healed them all. He healed all of them. Was our Lord put out by the flood
of these people? No. Was His strength diminished
by healing all of these people? No. His strength was not diminished. Scripture says He healed them
all. And all that come to Him for healing, He will not cast
them out. Here once again is a great demonstration
of the compassion of Christ for men. Now I'm sure that not all
of these were believers. Matter of fact, Capernaum was
one of the cities that He pronounced the great woe upon. So many of
these people, no doubt, were unbelieving rebels and haters
of God. And yet, He still healed them. He was not put out by them. You
know, when I come home sometimes, I'm tired. And when I come home
and Andrew comes in, he's got a homework problem. And I'm really
tired, I put him out. I say, look, you have to go talk
to mom. I'm really tired right now. Sometimes
I'm put out. Sometimes I'm tired or I can't
bear another question. The Lord Jesus is never like
that. His arm is never shortened when we come to Him with all
of our problems. Friends, when you come to Christ
with all of your problems, He'll just say, is that it? You
sure? I'm sure there's probably more
problems that you've not shared with Him, that He knows of. If Christ was not put out by
the coming of these lost men, how much more is He not going
to be put out with you? Behold, what manner of love the Father
hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of
God. Believer in this life, we will
have trouble, we will have hurt, and we will have sicknesses,
infirmities, and grief. It'll rain on us just as it will
the unjust. The sun will shine on us just
as it does the unjust. What's the difference? We're
children. We're children. I'll tell you
this, I'll put up with my son more than I'll put up with the
neighborhood kids. I will, because He's my Son. I love Him. And friends, God has a greater
love for you than this world. Have I not given Ethiopia and
Seba for thee? Yes. Yes, you have. He's given everything for us.
We are the children of God and He loves us. And so therefore,
in verse 17, he tells us that Jesus Himself took our infirmities
and bare our sicknesses. This is a quote from Isaiah 53,
verse 4. And it's here fulfilled that
He took upon Himself the sickness and infirmities of His people. Friends, this is why Jesus must
become a man. God could not take on our sicknesses
and infirmities. But as the God-man, Jesus did. Now, this doesn't mean that Jesus
became sick. That's not what it's saying.
Our Lord Jesus was infallibly perfect. He was the impeccable
Christ. He was holy and righteous and
just. And so therefore, these sicknesses
could not come on Him. No, friends, he didn't get a
common cold. He got much worse than that. What is the cause of sickness? Sin. It was because of sin that
sickness came into this world. And sickness is just but a small
taste of what Sin really deserves. You women who have had children,
my wife tells me I've not experienced any real pain in my life. She
keeps reminding me of this every time I say I have some pain.
So, you women that have children, you know great pain. You know,
great pain. And the Lord mentions it in the
Scriptures as it is great pain. And when the labor pains come,
do they not come on a... all of a sudden they come, and
then they subside. And then they come again, and
they subside. And they come again, and they
subside. Is that not how life is? Is life
not like that? The pain comes, it swells, and
then it just dissipates. It comes and it swells and then
it just dissipates again. Until what? Until you bring forth. And then the pain is constant. It doesn't stop. Well, friend,
that's what hell is like. You see, the pains of life are
just a beginning of sorrows. They're just a precursor to what
is awaiting the soul if it has not Christ. There's sorrow and there's pain
in this life. It comes and it goes. Isaiah
13, verse 8 says, And they shall be afraid. Pains and sorrows
shall take hold of them, and they shall be in pain as a woman
travaileth. All of those troubles and pains
are the result of sin entered into the world, into our bodies.
But friends, Jesus had no sin. He had no sin and He deserved
no pain. And yet the Scriptures say He
was a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. His whole life was
a life of sorrow, of pain, of rejection. of misery. He came into His own, and His
own received Him not. You know what? I was thinking
of men who have gone to the stock and guilty of their crimes, and
as the whip hit their back, I know they felt the pain. But there
could be a greater pain than that if you had an innocent man
in the stocks. What if you were taken from your
home and you felt the pain and the lashing of the whip and you
were innocent? Would not your pain be greater?
Would not your sorrow be increased because you are innocent? How
much more the Son of God endured the pain of our sins that were
not His own. Our Lord Jesus Christ took more
than our physical sickness and our physical pain. Friends, He
took our sins upon Himself and He endured the wrath of God alone
by Himself. He endured God's wrath for our
sins. Believer, the Lord took our sins
upon Himself. He took all of our sicknesses,
all of our pains on Himself. This was His work to accomplish
that was given to Him of God. And all those that were chosen
of the Father, Jesus was come in the flesh to make an atonement
and to condemn sin in His own body on the tree. Peter says who? His own self. Bear our sins in His own body. on the tree. Being dead to sin
should live, that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness
by whose stripes we are healed. Do you not see that he's quoting
again this scripture from Isaiah? That He bear our sins, He bear
our infirmities, He bear our transgressions in His own body. He who deserved a mansion had
no place to lay his head. He who had all riches had to
get his tax from a fish's mouth. He who was deserving of all praise
was rejected and despised. He who should have been worshipped
was wounded and crucified. Why should he endure such contradiction
of sinners? against himself because God sent him to be our
Savior. God sent him to be our Savior. He was wounded for our transgressions,
not his own. He was bruised for our iniquity. and the chastisement of our peace
was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed." So then we may
see that Jesus is able now to sympathize with us in the smaller
things, is He not? If He has taken the greatest,
which is the wrath of God, how then can He not sympathize with
the smaller things? He can. He does. He's endured all of God's wrath. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that
He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
He did predestinate, them He also called. And whom He called,
He also justified. And whom He justified, them He
also glorified. What shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us?" You not see what Paul did? He argued from the
greater to the lesser. Should we not reason the same
way when we come to Christ with our pains? If Christ had not
taken the greatest things, should He not care for the smaller things
as well? Of course He will. That's what
Paul says in verse 32, He spared not His own Son, but delivered
Him up for us all. How shall He not freely with
Him give us all things? Why do you think God will withhold
all things? If He's given you Christ, why
would He not give you the smaller things? I love this illustration. Don Fortner's daughter got married. And when he did, he invited his
son-in-law to his house and he sat there at the table and he
had all these keys. And he said, here's the key to
my car, here's the key to my house, here's the key to the
church, here's the key to my safe deposit box, here's the
key to all I have. And he was questioning, he said,
why would you give me all of these things? He said, son, you've
taken my best thing, why would I not give you all these other
things? Of course. God has given us His Son. Why
would He not give us the best? The problem is sometimes we don't
see what the best is for us. We think suffering wouldn't be
good. And God says, yes, it is. That
suffering is good for you. I wouldn't give you anything
that's not good for you. And so when God gives it, we can
come to Him and say, Lord, help. Help. Help me. And friends, He is a sympathetic
Savior. Why? He's already taken our worst. How shall He not take these other
little things from us? He cares for you. He cares for
you. Scripture says, For we have not
an high priest who cannot be touched with the feelings of
our infirmities. Lastly, a word about service. Look at what she did when she
was healed. Verse 15, And he touched her hand, and the fever
left her, and she arose and ministered to them. I don't know about you,
but when I have a fever and the fever goes, I don't necessarily
feel like getting up and doing any work, do you? I usually need
a couple of days to recuperate from this. She didn't. She immediately
got up and she immediately started service. Is this not what is done to every
sinner who has experienced the grace of God in the healing of
our souls? Are we not immediately have enough
strength to serve? Now, we may not be able to do
what we want to. But friends, everyone that believes
has enough strength to do what God has commanded us to do. And we should be about service
in this world. We should be about service to
God and service to each other. This is what we're about. This
is what God has given us life for. He has quickened our souls.
He has saved us. He has made us whole. We don't
need time to recuperate. We need to go to work. Go to
work. We need to minister. Scripture says, neither by the
blood of bulls or calves, but by His own blood He entered into
the holy place and obtained eternal redemption. For the blood of
bulls and goats and ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean
sanctified to the peering of the buying of the flesh. How
much more shall the blood of Christ through the eternal spirit
offered himself without spot to God purge your conscience
from dead works to do what? To serve the living God. Let me ask you this, do not your
sins zap you of your strength in service? Mine do. I feel weighed down
with my sin. How then can we set off these
sins? How is it that we may purge our
conscience? from dead works. Jesus Christ hath obtained our
redemption. Friends, He didn't make salvation
for us possible, He obtained it. He obtained it by His blood. It is by looking to Christ, it
is by faith in Christ that we can purge our conscience so that
we might be able to serve the living God. Bob, do you realize
your worship is accepted before God? Then worship. Do you realize your prayers are
cleansed by the blood of Christ? Then pray. Friends, there's nothing in this
world we'll ever do without sin. God understands that. But we must understand that Jesus
Christ has cleansed us from all unrighteousness in the presence
of God. He has already made peace with
God. Why are we going about trying
to make peace with God when God has already made peace? Cast
that stuff off and look to Christ. And that's how we should have
strength to serve, to worship, to praise and honor our Lord. By looking to Him who by His
blood has obtained our redemption. What a friend we have in Jesus.
All our griefs and sins to bear. What a privilege to carry everything
to God in prayer. Oh, what peace we often forfeit. What needless pain we bear. All because we will not carry
everything to God in prayer. Friends, we have a sympathetic
Savior. And if we carry everything to Him, we'll be able to serve
Him and to worship Him as He has commanded us. I pray it will
be a blessing to you. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.