Chapter 12. Matthew chapter 12. Title of the message is God's
perfect servant. God's perfect servant. God has
one perfect servant. One who served him perfectly. heart, in his deeds, in his words,
he served God perfectly. Now, last week, we looked at
this chapter and the first part of it, and the Pharisees charged
our Lord with breaking the Sabbath, and they were trying to condemn
him for it. He made it very clear to them
that He is Lord of the Sabbath. He has the right to set aside
that law that says they are not to do anything on the Sabbath
in order to show mercy. Mercy is to be shown at the expense
of any ceremony. And it made them mad. It made the religious leaders
of that day mad that he did this. Then he went into the synagogue,
and there was a man there with a withered hand, and they gathered
in there like a mob. They gathered in there to watch
him. They heard verse 10, and they
asked him, saying, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day? That's
sad to ask that question. to even ask that question. Is
it lawful for me to keep this day or to heal this man, to feed
a hungry man, to save a lost man? Is it right? Is it lawful? Well, it is because
he's the law. He's the law. God is the law
and he's God. But it says there in verse 10,
They ask him this for one purpose, one purpose and one purpose only,
that they might accuse him, that they might find something against
him legally that they could sink their teeth into, that they could
finally say, we gotcha, checkmate, gotcha. But our Lord is the wisdom of
God. and foolishness is never going to entrap wisdom. It's
just not going to happen. But to show you how this deteriorated,
after he healed this man, they watched this. Now, think about
this. They watched a man with a withered hand, and they watched
his withered up hand, which I'm sure it was shriveled up, you
know, a lot smaller than the other hand, and it was totally
unusable. And they watched this, and they
watched this man's hand just open up. And it had no effect
on him at all for good. It made him mad. It made them
mad that he did this. So it really deteriorates from
that point on. Because it says, then the Pharisees
went out and held a council against him, how they might not now accuse
him, but destroy him. How can we legally put this man
to death? How can we put an end to this
man? So that time they sought how they might destroy the God
of all grace, the God of all comfort. Here is a man. that is written of him, that
said of him, and everybody in town knew it, went about doing
good. He went about doing good, healing, taking care of people. But they wanted to destroy him
because, I'll tell you why. Because they were of the same
spirit as their father, which is sacred. Now, who would have
thought? Who would have even thought that these men, who were the
most moral men in town, these are the men that you feel
like you're going to trust anything to. You believe that if there's
anybody going to go to heaven, it's these Pharisees. If there's
anybody that's right, it's the Pharisees. And these men are
the children of Satan. They are the offspring of Satan. He said that to them one time.
He said, you, you are of your father, the devil and the works
of your father, you will do. This shows the natural enmity
of man against God. We naturally now listen, all
of us naturally are born at enmity with God, at war with God. We have a natural hatred of God. Our Lord said this, he that is
not for me is against me. Just like the man, I told you
this before, but I told a man one time years ago, I said, you
hate God. I made him mad, made him mad. And this guy was, he was just,
rotten revenue. But it made him mad that I told
him he hated God. I don't hate God. Christ said,
He that's not for me is against me. There is no middle ground. There is literally no middle
ground. It's not God on the right side,
Satan on the left side, and you and I are in the middle, and
sometime before we die, we better make a choice. No, you're already
under condemnation. Adam made the choice. You and
I are the offspring of Adam. Unless the Lord does something
for us, we're in trouble. You know that. Being religious does not mean
that a man does not hate God. It doesn't mean that. Let me
tell you something. Not to bow is to rebel. You write
that down. Not to bow to the Lord Jesus
Christ is to rebel against him. Not to come to Christ is to rebel
against him. Not to believe. The scripture
says he has commanded all men everywhere, that is all men and
women, everywhere to believe the gospel. Not to do that is
just rank rebellion. To do it is the grace of God.
It's the grace of God. Man does not even know how much
he hates God until he's confronted with the truth and the person
of Jesus Christ. He doesn't know how much he hates
God until he's confronted with that man, Jesus Christ, until
he's confronted with the very sovereignty of God, that God
does as he will, with whom he will, when he will. God loving
everybody, everybody likes that. Everybody likes that. But God
being God, no one likes that. Unless God gives you a new heart
and a new nature. Unless he gives you the heart
of a child. Unless he gives you the heart of one of his children.
You love that. You love that. But until then
you didn't, and I didn't. None of us did. None of us. But in verse 15, it said when
Jesus knew it, see he knows all things, he's God. He knew their
thoughts. He knew the purpose for them
being there. He knew they came there not to
worship God, not to hear the scriptures read. They came there
to accuse, not worship. And when Jesus knew it, he withdrew
himself. He withdrew himself from there
because his hour had not yet come. They couldn't touch him. They tried to throw him off a
hill one time. You know what it says he did? It says he walked
through their midst. They were going to throw him
off a hill. And here he just turns around and he walks right
through their midst. And it's like they didn't recognize
him all of a sudden. It's like they're saying, where
did he go? And yet he's right there. They
couldn't recognize him. He walked right through their
midst. They couldn't touch him. Couldn't touch him. And it says multitudes followed
him. He left that place. He left that
place of Phariseeism. He left that place of hypocrisy.
And when he left that place, great multitudes followed him.
And it wasn't a great multitude of Pharisees that followed him,
it was a great multitude of broken people. People that needed help. People that were sick. Jesus
Christ is the Savior of sinners. You know our Lord has never saved
a good person yet? He can't. You can't find one.
You can't find one. And if you can find one, he doesn't
need saving. If he's good, to what God calls
good. That's why he said there's nothing
good. But a bunch of broken people
followed him and he healed them all. Now that doesn't mean he
saved them all. It doesn't mean he saved them
all. But he did heal them all because I tell you why. They
needed it first of all. But all healing whether people believe
or not, whether a person believes the gospel or not. Now listen,
all healings of God. You know, you and I take medicine.
We take medicine and, you know, we, the medical, the medical
field has about wiped out certain diseases, you know, polio. Well, where'd they get that medicine
from? They didn't just speak it into existence. They took,
God gave them wisdom that they don't even understand that God
gave them. God gave them wisdom to bring all this together to
fight this disease. And we will take some doctor
that put it together and give him the credit for it and not
give God any credit for it. But I'm telling you all healings
of God and God is a God of means. He used medicine. Those, was it 10 lepers that
he healed one time? It was 10 lepers our Lord healed. Only one, only one turned back
and gave him praise and thanks. And he says, I healed 10, where's
the other nine? Where are they at? I tell you
where they at, they're going back to their home, back to their
business, going back, they're just going back to whatever,
back to their old life. But now who healed them? Christ
healed them, all healings of God. And now the believer recognizes
that. Now he healed them all, that doesn't mean he saved them
all. That is spiritual, but he did heal them. The reason this world has been
wiped out by germs and diseases and that kind of stuff and plagues
is because he puts a stop to it. He puts a stop to it. Luck never healed anybody. I
was lucky. No, you're stupid. You're stupid. God did that. God did that. Now, verses 17 through 21, we
had the fulfilling of Scripture. You know, everything our Lord
did had a purpose. It had a purpose. I mean, everything
had a purpose. He never wasted a word. Our Lord
never wasted a thought. He never had a thought that didn't
have a purpose to it. He's God. And here he's gonna
fulfill the scripture out of Isaiah 42, one through three. And he says, you know, let me
say this. Our Lord fulfilled every scripture
that's written of Him. And all the scriptures are written
of Him. Because God has magnified His word above His name. There's no one scripture in the
Bible that's not important. There's no one scripture that,
you know, we can go around this one. Christ fulfilled everything that
spoke of him, everything. And it says in verse 18, now
behold, give your utmost attention to this, don't miss this, because
if you miss God's servant, you miss salvation. You miss salvation,
just like those Pharisees. I can only imagine, I can only
imagine that when they died, And they died. And they looked
into the face of that man who healed that withered hand, who
fed the disciples, who raised the dead, gave sight to the blind. There he stands. This is the
man we rejected. This is the man we despised.
This is the man we turned our back on. And he's our judge. He's our judge. So he says, behold, give attention
to this. Don't miss this. My servant,
Jesus Christ is not only God's son, but he's God's servant.
He's his servant. He came to serve. He said, I
came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give my
life a ransom for many. He took a towel one time, wrapped
it about him, stooped down, and washed his disciples' feet. He was among us as one who served. He's God's servant. He's God's
perfect servant. He served God willingly. Willingly. You know, Doug mentioned to me
about, I don't know, two hours. Several times about coming down
here as a pastor. Three times I said no. I said I'm not interested
in pastoring. I won't be a pastor. I'm just...
Our Lord never said that. He never said that. You see God, listen, God makes
us willing in the day of his power. And there are some things
you and I, you know, he told Peter, he said, you're going
to die a death. He said, if some others are going to take you
by the hand, because you're going to die a death that you don't really
want to die. Jesus Christ died a death and
he willingly died that death. He willingly died. He willingly
gave up his life on the cross. He did it willingly. He willingly.
was made to be sinned. I can't imagine that. One who's
holy, undefiled, separate from sinner, willing to be made sin,
willing to drink that cup and everything in it, everything
in it. I heard a man the other day talking. He said he was invited to this
lady's house to put tea. This is over in England. She's
poor. He said she was very poor. And
I tried to make an excuse that it was offending her. So he said,
I saw I was offending her. So I said, OK, I'll be there
at a certain time. You know how they like their
tea there. And he says, I showed up. And then he said, she pulls.
He said, there was enough mold in that room to make penicillin.
That's how poor she was. And she pulls out this tin cup. And he said, I looked at that
cup, and it was nasty. He said, that cup was nasty.
He said, I looked inside, I could see inside that cup, and she's
going about making her tea, and she pours it in it, and she's
asking if he likes anything in it, and then she gives it to
him. She gives him that dirty cup to drink that tea out of.
He said, I thought of that cup that our Lord drank in Gethsemane,
that dirty cup. He said in that cup was every
known sin of man, all the sins of all his elect in that cup. Not only was the wrath of God
in that cup, he drank the wrath of God, but in that cup was everything
I am. and he drank it. He did this willingly, lovingly,
lovingly. When he bent down to wash his
disciples' feet, he was washing the feet of his children. You mothers, you mothers, you
had your children. And you fathers, if you did it,
most of you probably did. I know you mothers did. I know you mothers did. Did it
bother you to wash your little baby's feet? Did it bother you
to do that? You never even thought about
it. He would stoop down to wash his
little baby's feet. He did it lovingly and eagerly,
eagerly. He was ready to do it. It says
there in Isaiah 42, thou hast opened my ear and I didn't turn
my back. I didn't turn away. I was eager to do it. Eager to
redeem you, you who believe, you. All he's left, eager to
redeem you. And he did it with passion, passion. Sometimes I think this is missing
in our preaching today. We've lost that passion of Christ,
that real passion for Him and His glory. He redeemed us with
passion and He did it faithfully. He never missed a stamp, never
missed a scripture. He did it sacrificially. He gave
Himself and He did it perfectly. He did it perfectly. He's our
pattern for service. Here's our pattern for service,
the Lord Jesus Christ. I suggest to you to read the
Gospels, the four Gospels, in your readings. Read them often.
Read them often and watch Him. Watch Him. Study Him. It's a study of God. Whoever
thought one of the attributes of God was meek and lowly. I've
never heard any man standing in a pulpit preaching on the
attributes of God and ever speak of him being meek and lowly. You say, well, that was the man
part. No, that's the God man. We can't
separate him. He's one person. He's one person. And he says here, behold my servant
whom I've chosen. Now if God's chosen, you think
we ought to pay attention? Huh? You reckon we ought to pay
attention? Mine elect. That's what he calls
him in Isaiah 42, mine elect. The man Christ Jesus is the elect. If you and I were going to talk
about election, let's start with Jesus Christ first. And then
we can talk about those whom the Father chose in him. But
he's the first elect. Let's not start with the doctrine
of God choosing us. How about God choosing him? He's
my elect. He's the first. God chose his
son to suffer, to die, to be the mediator, to come into this
world and stand as a substitute for a multitude of sinners no
man could know. You know, Christ died for us.
He's going to save sinners. Christ's gonna die safer, safe centers. And he says this, in whom my
soul is well pleased. At his baptism, God said, spoke
from heaven, spoke from heaven. This is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased. He never did one thing that displeased
his father and our father, not one. Men and women try to please
God, but only one did, the Lord Jesus Christ. He pleased God
the Father in his thoughts. That's just the wind. He pleased God the Father in
his thoughts, his deeds, and his death. Now, if God the Father
is pleased with him, you reckon we ought to go to the one he's
pleased with? Huh? You reckon we ought to bow
to the one he's pleased with? God said, I'll put my spirit
upon him and he'll show judgment to the Gentiles. He's well qualified
for the work of redeeming. God said, I'll put my spirit,
he had a spirit without measure, without measure. He'll show judgment. In the Hebrew,
that means law. Our Lord came to this world and
he preached the gospel. He preached the gospel to us. He preached the gospel to the
poor. He revealed the true way of salvation
to us Gentiles, as well as he did the Jews. He cast out Gentile superstition. You see it over in Acts 17, 22. And he set up truth, he established
truth. We have the truth, you know that?
We could be, we could be worshiping just about anything right now.
But he has given us the truth. And through the truth, which
is Christ, we worship God. And we worship God with understanding.
We worship him with intelligence. We worship him in spirit. And we have Jesus Christ to thank
for that. We have him to thank for that. And here's the character. Here's
the character here in verse 19. The character of God's servant.
He shall not strive nor cry. Now boy, we're always ready to
fight. Somebody differs with us, we're ready to slap them
silly. Really. If somebody doesn't think like
I think, you know, if the only opinion in here is not mine,
we are ready to fight. We are ready to fight. We ought
to be first, we really ought to be first, be ready to listen.
Be ready to listen. God's servant, he says, he shall
not strive nor cry. Now he's an example for me. But this speaks of his humility
and his tenderness. You see, as the multitudes followed
him and he healed them all, he could have just ran them off.
The disciples wanted to do that one time. They said, Lord, and
one time they got mad and they said, you want us to call fire
down out of heaven and burn these guys up? Sounded like some of the old
preaching I listened to when I was a boy. It was going to
burn everybody up. It would scare you into doing
something. It would scare you into perfection.
It would. By the time you leave there, you're scared to death.
You know the scripture says it's the goodness of God that leads
to repentance. It's not scaring somebody to
death. It's not turning the heater up and then preaching hell. It's the goodness of God that
leads men to repentance. He shall not strive, no cry. He's not a mean dictator. He
is our God. God of all grace and God of all
God. And notice his willingness here to receive sinners. A bruised
reed and a smoking flax shall not quench. You couldn't find
anything weaker than a bruised reed growing in the water about
ready to fall over, broke. Something's hit it. bruised it
and it's ready to just fall it says bruised read he'll not he'll
not break it there's nothing more precious
to him than a broken heart there's nothing a broken heart and a
contrite spirit God will not despise a proud heart you know
there in the Proverbs there are seven things that God hates seven
things do you know what the first one is a proud Look, who do you
think you are? Who do you think you are? And a smoking flax, a little
bit of fire. You know, if it's smoking, it
had to be a little bit of fire there, but it's about gone out.
There can be nothing weaker than a smoking flax. Yeah, flax. But it says he'll not quench
it. He'll not quench little faith. Because little faith is still
faith. And if it's faith, it's of God. You didn't come up with
it, God gave it to you. You just didn't exercise it. That's how faith increases, is
through exercise. When you read through the scriptures,
notice how he receives the blind, the leper, the possessed. You
know the leper, when a leper came by, People would walk to
the other side of the street. A leopard, when he was walking,
he had to cover his mouth crying, unclean, unclean. How would you
like to go down the street like that? No one could touch him. Anybody that touched him was
considered unclean. His mother, his father, if he
had a wife or children, they couldn't touch him. They could
never. You don't know the power of a human touch. And he couldn't
be touched. You know when that leper came
to our Lord and he said, if you will, you can make me clean,
you know what the Lord did? He touched him. He touched him. He received the blind, the leper,
the possessed, the lame, the deaf, the dumb. Well, that just,
he just read my pedigree. That's my pedigree, that's me.
And that's you. It says there he healed them
all. The bruised reed is an emblem of poor, broken sinners. He will
not oppress them. The law does that. The law will
oppress you. And it has a right to. It's a
just law. He will not be like a conquering
warrior who oppresses the poor. No, he receives the poor. He
comforts the poor. He feeds them. He clothes them. Wraps him up in his armor. Thank God if he makes you poor
in spirit. There's people who are poor in
purse, but not in spirit. They can be living in a one room
shack and be proud as can be. And God can save a man in a mansion
and make him poor in spirit, though he has everything. The poor he's talking about is
poverty of spirit. I'm nobody. In Christ, I'm somebody. Outside of Christ, I'm nobody. He'll not be hardy and unforgiving,
but forgiving. He'll not put out the least interest
in him. The least interest, he'll not
put it out. Like the disciple said concerning
the woman who cried after him, he said, They said to him, Lord,
shall we send her away? I mean, you can imagine that. Wouldn't that be a terrible pastor?
They send these people away. They're sinners. No, he said, let her come to
me. They're Matthew 15. No, let her come to me. Here's what Barnes said, as Guy
read this week. He will cherish the feeble flame,
minister the oil of grace and kindle it into a blaze. That's
what he would do. And listen, it says, till he
send forth judgment to victory in the land or in the heart.
Our God is victorious. Our God is victorious. The judgment
of truth here or truth here is the truth of God is the gospel
and it shall be victorious and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against him. Sinners are going to hear the
gospel and be saved. You weren't looking for God when
he found you. You weren't looking for him.
Oh, you think you were? No, he's the shepherd. He went
out and found the lost sheep. He found the lost sheep. You know, I was lost one time
when I was teenager, went hunting with my father up in West Virginia,
a place we'd never been. And when I walked out that morning,
I thought I knew where I was going. And it started snowing,
and it kept snowing. It ended up snowing two foot.
But it snowed, and it snowed, and then I started, I thought,
I better go back. I started going back, but I didn't
know where back was. Back was anywhere, it was every
direction I turned. And I, for the first time, I
thought, and I realized, I'm lost. I am lost. I don't know where I am. And
I can remember the fear, the feeling I had. I was out there
in the woods, way out there. I had no clue where I was at.
No clue. Until I heard my dad blowing
a horn. When he started blowing the horn,
I had a direction. That's what the gospel is. I'm
blowing the horn. This is the trumpet. The gospel is the trumpet.
And anybody's lost the directions to Christ. To Christ. And he'll send truth throughout
the world. It will accomplish his purpose.
I know the world, when we look at it on 24-7 news, You see nothing good. I mean,
it just looks like crazy out there. But God's purpose is being accomplished
every day. And one day, one day, that one
lost sheep is going to be found and brought into the fold. And
it's time to wind this thing up. And it's going to be a multitude
of sinners. The scripture says, no man can
number. Don't ever think of heaven as a little place. It's not. It has no boundaries. That's
one place has no boundaries. And in his name, shall the Gentiles,
us, trust in his person, who he is. We trust Jesus Christ
as our God, our Redeemer, our Savior, our Sacrifice, our Atonement,
our High Priest, our Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification,
Redemption. We trust Him. We trust Him. Back in Isaiah 42, that's written
a few thousand years ago, He's prophesied that there's going
to be some people in Spring Lake, North Carolina, that's gonna
trust in Jesus Christ. You reckon God knows everything?
He sure does. This is God's perfect servant.
Jesus Christ is God's perfect servant.