Turn with me, if you would, back
to Matthew 14. I have something tonight that
I pray the Lord will really impress upon us. Peter told God's people to grow in grace. That's what he said. Grow in grace and in the knowledge
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Grow in the knowledge. Grow in the grace. Paul told
the Ephesians that his desire was that we would all grow and
be edified in the body of Christ. Edified. built up, lifted up
in the body of Christ till we all come unto the unity of the
faith. The apostles begged the Lord,
increase our faith. Increase our faith. Grow us,
increase us, teach us, more so conform us. Isn't that what we
want? Really? As we go through our
days on this earth, grow us as your people. Lord, let us become
less taken up with this world and more taken up with Christ.
Isn't that what we want? Do we understand how difficult
that is because this flesh is so taken up with the world? It's just so easy to be taken
up with the world and it's so dipped with man, it's impossible
to be taken up with Christ. Everybody's begging. The apostles
are begging. We're all begging, Lord, this
is in your hands. Grow us, increase us, conform
us, teach us. Teach us what it is to be the
people of God. Just see if you can enter into
this with me. I tell you this all the time,
but I do have the benefit of dwelling on this and dwelling
on this and really thinking about what I feel burdened and led
to say to you. But see if the Lord will let
you enter in right now. Lord, teach us what it is to
be the people of God. He said, you are not of this
world. Lord, teach us what it is to
be the people of God. Teach us what it is to be followers
of you, learners of you. Instruct us
in your Word. Instruct us, teach us. Isn't
that what we want? Well, Romans 10 verse 17 says, comes by hearing, really hearing the Word of God. Faith comes by hearing. And I
pray the Lord will cause us to do that tonight. I pray the Lord
will prepare us right now for the instruction of His Word. And I pray He'll cause us to
receive it and understand it and grow in it and put it into
practice. That's my prayer. I strongly believe if the Lord
will let me give me the ability to convey this, I strongly believe
that if the Lord will teach us something of this right here,
he will bless it. I am persuaded as the Apostle
Paul said, I'm persuaded. I'm convinced. I honestly strongly
believe that if he teaches us this, he will be teaching us this for
the purpose of blessing it. What we're gonna look at tonight. And if we do receive this and
get a hold of this, we need to approach this with the expectation
of Him blessing it. It's called faith. Believing that He'll bless this. I'm asking the Lord to teach
me this, and I would encourage you to ask the Lord to teach
you this, all right? Let's read the verses that will
be the text. Verses 34 to 36. And when they were gone over,
we just read it, the Lord got in the ship with Peter and the
disciples. And when they were gone over
to the other side of the sea, they came into the land of Gennesaret. And when the men of that place
had knowledge of him, they sent out into all that country roundabout
and brought unto him all that were diseased, and besought him
that they might only touch the hem of his garment. And as many
as touched were made perfectly whole. The men of Gennesaret had knowledge
of him because they heard about him. That's how you have knowledge
of anything. And that's how men have knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. They heard about him. Someone
told them about this glorious man who came to heal men and
women who were sick. Obviously they were told that. They heard this man came for
sick people. They heard any miserable soul who has a
need of any kind can come to him. any miserable soul. They heard, and I've been putting
myself in the shoes of these men of Gennesaret, and I'm quite
sure women too. This is what they heard, okay?
The word came to them, and this is what they heard about this
glorious man. They heard, every soul who comes to him, he will
in no wise cast that soul away. Isn't this what we've heard about
this man? They heard there has never been
a sickness that he couldn't cure. No matter how great, no matter
how impossible, the men and the women of Gennesaret heard. And through that hearing, they
believed. They believed that He was able. They believed He was able to
accomplish everything that they had heard about Him. And that
belief in them, that faith in them, that confidence in Him caused them to send out. Verse 35, the middle of it says,
they sent out into all that country roundabout and brought unto him
all that were diseased." That's how you know they believed. That's
how you know they heard. That's how you know they believed.
They were convinced. They went out searching for men
and women who needed this man. They went out asking people.
They went into the whole country roundabout. They went out asking
people. Do you have any infirmities? Do you know anybody who has any
infirmities? These men, and again, I do believe
women, have really endeared themselves to me. Does anybody have any
infirmities? They sent out into all that country
roundabout and they laid hold of them and they brought them. I envisioned them organizing
horses and camels and wagons. And they brought them. Mark's
account says they carried them in beds. They just, where can
we get some beds? Let's line up beds. They'd go
into town and there'd be a lame man sitting there. And I thought about this. I can
see it taking some persuasion on their part. Is there anybody
here who's sick? Yeah, I know a sick person. I'm
a sick person. I can see it taking some persuasion,
them having to persuade men. Come on, come on, come with me. You come with me. Didn't the
apostle Paul say, we persuade men. How do we do that? We do that
by telling them about this man. Simply by repeating everything
that we've heard about this man. Can't you see these men of Gennesaret
going out and saying, there is a man that we have heard about. And this man heals the sickness
of your disease. He heals every person who comes
to Him. He will not cast you away. You come with us. You come with
us. They heard the glorious news
of this man, and they believed it. This is what I want to convey.
You know, we need to beg God for this. Everything is of the
Lord. Everything is of the Lord. But I want this, I'm just telling
you on my own behalf, this has really impacted me and I personally
want this. They believed it. I want to believe
what I preach. A dear, dear man who was a dear,
dear preacher said, if you're going to preach to people, expect
them to believe it. Expect them to believe it. And
if you're going to preach to people, you preach as though
you believe it. I believe it was George Whitefield
who used to come through the states preaching the gospel.
And every time he would come, Benjamin Franklin would go hear
him preach. And one of the men asked Ben Franklin, why did you
go hear him? You don't believe what he says. He said, no, but
he does. He believes what he's preaching.
And I want that. They believed this. They heard
it, they believed it, so much so they sent out, they searched
out poor souls who desperately needed this man. And they brought
all of them to him. Verse 36 says, and they besought
him. That means they begged him. They
were at His mercy and they knew it. They were at His mercy. They
came to the Lord and begged Him. They knew they were at His mercy.
Verse 36, they besought Him that they might only touch the hem
of His garment. Only the hem of His garment.
This is how much faith they had in Him. This is how strongly they believed
in his ability. They didn't believe that he had
to perform some big ceremony or do some difficult thing that
would be hard for the Lord, hard for him to barely just hopefully
possibly accomplish. They had such great faith in
his ability. They knew if they could just
touch the hem of his garment, If they could just humble themselves
down, you think about where the hem of the garment is. They came low, low. They knew if they could just
humble themselves way down and get all the way down to the place
where even a lame man could get to him. You picture a lame man
laying there on the ground, the hem of his garment. Verse 36, they besought Him that
if they might only touch the hem of His garment. And as many
as touched were made perfectly whole. As many as were given
faith enough to believe that healing truly was in Him. Every one of them were made perfectly
whole. Now let me just talk to us about
something for a minute. I can't tell you how much I just
desperately want to convey this. I want us to get a hold of this.
I want us to grow. I don't want us to live the rest
of our days on this earth stale in the word, stale in the gospel,
stale in worship. I don't want that. I want us to believe this. I
want us to act on this. I want us to press toward the
mark. Not every person that our Lord
healed physically was healed spiritually. You see Him going
through healing great multitudes of people. The accounts clearly
show that some followed Him to get their bellies full and for
whatever reasons. Not every person that He healed
physically was healed spiritually. But every physical healing always
is a representation. It's always an illustration of
His spiritual healing. And our Lord is telling us something
so wonderful in these words right here concerning eternal salvation. Our Lord recorded this in His
Word on purpose. And this is wonderful and I want
us to get ahold of this. He is willing to save. He is willing to save. He is
mighty to save. And he is ready to save. He is so willing to be merciful. I have heard about a man and
you all have heard about a man. And this man is so willing to
be merciful. He delights in showing mercy
so much. It's so much more than we realize.
We think we have an understanding of his mercy. We don't. We don't. He is so much more
merciful than we realize. When it comes to people being
saved on this earth in the process of time, you know, through the
process of hearing the truth and being called out of darkness
and blindness and false religion and all of that, being quickened
to Christ, when it comes to what we call salvation on this earth,
that salvation has already been accomplished All right. You understand what I'm saying?
People are born and they grow up and then the Lord crosses
their path with the truth and they hear it and they believe
it and they confess it. And that's how every salvation that
is revealed has already been accomplished. It is finished. It's finished. Salvation is finished. The Lord
knows them that are His, exactly who they are. The Lord knows who He redeemed. There is not one soul outside
of the election of the Father and the redeeming blood of the
Son. There's not one soul outside of that who is going to be saved. And there is not one soul inside
the election of the Father and inside the redeeming blood of
the Son who is going to be lost. Not one soul. The salvation of
God's people is ordered and sure. It's set in stone. It's set in
stone. And there's no buts about it. And this is what I want us to
get a hold of. Our Lord and our God has chosen to use a particular
means. He just has. He has chosen to
use a particular way of revealing who those set in stone, finished,
redeemed, saved people are. And I'll just state fact here,
but He has given us those means. He has supplied His means right
here. I believe this. Humbly, by the
grace of God, lowly, I believe this. I believe with all of my
heart He has not supplied His means everywhere. But He has supplied it here.
I believe that I know of other places where he has supplied
his means, and I believe I don't know of other places where he
has supplied his means. I don't believe I have my thumb
on exactly where God has sent his gospel. Only God knows that.
But I can tell you that there are many, many places where God
has not kindly given his means. And he has given it to us here. And if we desire the salvation
of our loved ones. And if we have a deep hope for
the salvation of our loved ones, we can act on that hope. We can act on it by bringing
them to his means. What is his means? It is the
preaching of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ crucified. Now, as I get into this, somebody's
gonna say, I don't really believe that our works play any part
in man's salvation. And to that, I say, amen. That's
why we need his means. That's the whole reason we need
his means. Turn with me to a few places here. Go with me to Romans
1. Romans 1 verse 16, it says, for
I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first
and also to the Greek. If the preaching of the gospel
was not vitally necessary, Why was Jesus Christ a preacher? This is God come in the flesh.
Speak the word only. Think it and it's done. Will
it and it happens. Why did he come and preach? Why
did he raise up preachers? Why do we do this? Turn over to Romans 10. Verse 13, Romans 10 verse 13. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call
on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they
believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. God's spirit wrote that. Whoever
calls, how are they going to call in whom they have not believed? How are they going to believe
if they don't hear? How are they going to hear if somebody doesn't
preach? How is he going to preach if God doesn't send him and put
a message in him? Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
1, just a few more pages over, 1 Corinthians 1. Verse 21, 1 Corinthians 1, 21. For after
that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God,
it pleased God. Why are we saying this? Why are
we even looking at this? Because it pleased God. By the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews
require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach
Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the
Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called, both Jews
and Greeks. Christ is the power of God and
the wisdom of God. God has a means and God has called
us to be laborers in his means. if we do not have a heart to
labor much in His means. And the Lord quickens us, the
Lord stirs us. Paul said, I want to stir your
remembrance by calling these things to your mind. The Lord
uses His Word and the preaching of His Word to stir up these
things. But I just want to point out
that if We do not have a heart to labor much in his means. The preaching, the calling, the
searching, the bringing. We don't save anybody. We're
not soul winners. Christ is the only soul winner
that ever was. And if we don't have a heart
to labor in his means, it must mean that he does not have many
people to save in a given place. If there's no heart for labor
and effort and work there, then it must mean there's not much
fruit to harvest. But if He greatly burdens us
in and for His means, then that ought to bring an incredible
amount of hope to us because His Word is not going to return
void. That ought to bring an incredible
amount of hope that He has purposed to use the means that He has
given. If we have means, He gave it. Does that make sense? And if
he gives it, then it means he has purposed to use it or else
he wouldn't give it. There are many places he hasn't
given it. Where his means is, hope is. And what this all means is where
the gospel is, hope is. Hope is there. Hope for the healing
and saving of souls. If God has burdened you to have
your children under the gospel, there's hope there. If God has burdened you to have
your children under the gospel, there's hope there. I do not
know who the elect are. I don't know who the elect are.
But I do know how the elect are going to be revealed and called
out. It's going to be by way of hearing the gospel, hearing
the word of Christ preach, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves
together. but gathering where two or three
meet in the place where the Lord has chosen to put his name there.
We can't save our children. We can't save our loved ones,
but we can bring them to the one who can. We can bring them to the one
who can. Let's understand what our Lord
is telling us right here. He's saying, bring them to the
gospel. Bring them to the preaching of
the truth. I'm going to say it again because
I need to. We don't help God save anybody. Salvation is up the Lord alone. But we do bow to the means that
He has purposed and declared to us. And if He gives us a great burden
for His means, that ought to give us great hope. for the healing
of sinful souls. I want to learn from the men
in Gennesaret, back in our text. I want to learn from them. Our
Lord recorded this account in His holy word on purpose, and
I want to learn from it. I want to search out. I want
to search out. I want to lay hold of. I want
to bring our families to the gospel. I have family who they
don't want to hear it just like you do. I have the same thing. But this is life eternal. We
have friends, all of us have friends. I want to bring them
to the gospel. Lord, give me the strength and
the courage and the words and the opportunity to invite them
to come hear the gospel. So let's start begging the Lord
to open a door. What a thing to start asking
you'll receive. Lord, open a door for me to witness
and bring someone to hear the message of the truth. Let's bring
our friends to the gospel. Let's bring our children to the
gospel. Let's teach them the importance
of God's means. Let's teach them that nothing
comes before worshiping God, nothing. Worship takes a backseat
to nothing. Part-time worship is just not
good enough. God knows whether or not he's
gonna save Our children, our loved ones,
our families, he knows. He knows if he's going to, and
if he does, he knows when he is going to. But I don't know
that. I don't know that. As a father,
I don't know if this particular message might be the one that
God is pleased to use to open their eyes. Open anybody's eyes. And if it is, I want us to be
here. I want them to be here. So, Gabe, you're ultimately saying
salvation is in our hands. No, I'm saying God has a means.
God has declared a means. That's what I'm saying. God has
a means. If we want hope for our children and our husbands
and wives and families and friends, let's bring them to the only
one who can heal them. Let's bring them. Let's bring
them. Let's do it every time we have
the opportunity and the privilege to bring them. You know that you know me and
you know I'm not talking about vacation and I'm not talking
about something comes up at work and I'm not talking about sickness.
You know me. I'm not talking about that. What I'm talking
about is let's let's teach them. Let's teach everyone we can that
nothing is more important than worshiping Christ. Nothing, nothing,
nothing is more important than this life. Work is not that important. A marriage relationship is very
important, but it's not that important. We need the healing of the master. If God gives us a heart for this,
if God truly gives us a burden for this, I firmly believe it
will be because he intends on healing some centers. I firmly
believe that. You say, well, what if they won't
come with us? What if we try to persuade and
seek out and search out and try to bring? What if they won't
come with us? Keep trying. Keep trying until the great physician
says that's it, no more healing. As long as he is still healing,
there is hope. There's hope if he intends to
heal them. In his time, he'll make him willing
to come. Keep asking. Just keep asking. Keep trying. If you have company
come to your house and. Sunday morning they say no, we
don't want to go say we'll see in a couple hours. Either the Lord will make him
willing to come right there, or maybe he'll make him willing
to come next time or It's just that important. It's
just that important. May He create an unbending burden
in us for His means. This is life, it's salvation,
it's eternity. And I pray the Lord will create
a door. for us like the men of Gennesaret. I just thank the Lord for those
men. I thank the Lord for what he
did in them. And I pray that he'll put that same great concern
and desire in all of us. All right, Brother Eddie.