Well, most of everything we have
tonight, except for our text in the book of Matthew, is in
our handout tonight. And I want to begin with, before
we read our text, I want to begin with Isaiah 53, verses 1 through
5. It says, who hath believed our
report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he
shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a
dry ground, He hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall
see him there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised
and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces
from him. He was despised, and we esteemed
him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him. stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgression. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. Matthew, Mark,
and Luke were inspired to record this healing of Peter's mother-in-law
yet Matthew was led to give us a little more, inserting this
quotation from Isaiah 53. Would you join me in our text
of Matthew chapter 8 and let's read three verses 14, 15, 16,
4 verses and 17, Matthew chapter 8 verse 14, and when Jesus was
come into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother laid and sick
and a fever. Now I want to point something
out here. I wish to, you know, when we
see Yesilla again, remind me to bring her to this. One of
the things that Gisela brings to the table for us quite often
is questions about the Catholics and their belief. One of the
beliefs that they have was that Peter was never married. He was
a celibate man. And we see right here that he
had a wife. He had a wife who had a mother. And the Lord was, he came into
the house and he saw his wife's mother laid and sick, a fever,
and he touched her hand. and the fever left her, and she
arose and ministered unto them. When the evening was come, they
brought unto him in her house still many that were possessed
with devils, and he cast out the spirits with his word, and
healed all that were sick, that it might be fulfilled. which was spoken by Isaiah the
prophet, saying, himself took our infirmities and bear our
sicknesses. Now that was verse four of what
we just read back there in Isaiah 53, 1, 5. So back in our handout
now, just under the read Matthew part, I believe this is why the
commentators addressed these three miracles together. You'll
recall that the three miracles we read about here in Matthew
8, the first one where Jesus cleaned a leper. Yeah, yeah,
he cleaned the leper. And then the next one, he went
to Capernaum, and there came unto us some sincere centurion
beseeching him. You'll recall that when we began
that, I said we were going to take those each one as we did,
and that most of the commentators dealt with them all three are
the same. And I think this third one and
this statement that we see here in Isaiah is why they take that
all those those three miracles as one. Himself took our infirmities. He was wounded for our transgressions. What is our infirmity? Some believe
it's merely a weakness of character, something that can be strengthened
by this or that. There are those who earn millions
from weak people who seek strength from within. They are called
self-help ministers. That's what most religious churches
are today. If you'll just come down to the
front, if you'll just do this, if you'll just make a decision,
it's all about self-help. They're motivational speakers.
I've made fun of them before, and I'll do it again, just as
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Martin Short did. They stood up and
pumped in these outfits that were all puffed up like they
were big muscle men. And they go, we're going to pump
you up. They're motivational speakers.
That's all they are. They're pumping people up, tickling
their ears with words that say, you can do this too. They say,
you can do it, page two. You just need to focus your efforts.
You need to make up your mind. You need to make a decision.
You can do better. This is why the world hates the
true and living God. Folks, the truth is this, Jeremiah
17, 9. The heart is deceitful above
all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Psalm 14 verses
2-3, the Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men
to see if there were any that did understand and seek God.
They are all gone aside. They are all together become
filthy. There is none that doeth good,
no not one. Romans 3 verses 9-20, what then?
Are we better than they? No, and no wise, for we have
before proved, both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under
sin. As it is written, there is none
righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth.
There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of
the way. They are together become unprofitable.
There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is
an open sepulcher. With their tongues they have
used deceit. The poison of ash is under their
lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their
feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in
their ways, and the way of peace have they not known. There is
no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that what things
soever the law saith, it saith unto them who are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become
guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by
the law is the knowledge of sin. This is the word of truth. This
is the word that God's people are brought to know, folks, we
grow in knowledge, in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. How
do you do that? He increases, I must decrease. I must become more aware of what
my sin truly is, the total depravity of my sin, that I might see the
wonders of His grace in shedding His mercy upon us. Listen to
Ephesians 2 verses 1 through 3. And you, hath he quickened
who were dead and trespassed in sin? Where in times past ye
walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience? Among whom also we all had our
conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature
the children of wrath, even as others." Page three. What is
our infirmity? Everything about us is an infirmity
against God. It's not what we have done or
do. It's what we are. We are convinced. We are conceived in sin. We come
from our mother's womb, speaking lies, living in the darkness
of deceit, and loving that darkness. That's what John 3, 19 through
20 is telling us. And this is the condemnation,
that light is coming to the world. And men loved darkness rather
than light. Because their deeds were evil.
For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh
to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved." That's why
we hated God. That's why religion hates God. Because God says there is nothing
good in us. A woman and her grandchild got
up and walked out of services one evening on a Wednesday evening. And she said these words as she
walked out right past Mike and Shirley Loveless. I'm not that
kind of a sinner. I'm thankful that I know I am. Because by knowing what I am,
I see the mercy of God like a diamond on a black satin sheet. A diamond that just shines with
the glory of Christ in it. We are conceived in sin. In our
unregenerate state, we walked, just back in our handout again,
third paragraph, we walked in the spiritual blindness. We could
not see, nor did we want to see the truth. Consequently, because
of that, we did not speak, nor did we walk in truth. We were
filled from head to toe with dead flesh. Leprosy. Folks, we
come into this world with the mark of the beast. You know what
that is? 666? That's coming up way short
of God's perfection. God's holiness. We come into
this world in need of redemption. a kinsman redeemer, one who is
bone of our bones and flesh of our flesh, one who redeems his
loved ones by the perfect obedience to his father's will and the
sacrificing of his own righteous blood to pay the eternal price
for our sin. Yet sin and the results of it
are still part of this world. We see in this passage a clear
demonstration of the fact that faith in Christ and faithfulness
to Christ do not prevent sicknesses and diseases. Our eternal salvation
does not alleviate us from the pain and sorrow or the bereavement
and death. These things are all the results
of sin, and the results of sin ran through Peter's house just
as it does any other's man. Our great Savior, our Sovereign
Lord, is in complete control of all things, including sicknesses
and diseases. He sends it, He controls it,
He removes it, He takes it no more than His word, it takes
no more than His word or His touch to relieve His suffering
child. Robert Hawker wrote this. He
wrote, what a beautiful presentation is here made of the lovely and
the all-loving Jesus. What a display this is of his
sovereignty. What a display of his grace.
Christ Jesus himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses. There was no possibility of him
ever becoming sick. Sickness is the result of sin,
and he knew no sin. Page four. Yet as he was made
sin for us and bore our sins in his body on the tree, so here
we see that by sympathy he bore our sicknesses. In this sense,
he knew and felt more what sin and the sorrows of sin and the
sicknesses are than we for whom he bore them. He who felt the
whole weight and the burden of our sins and the wrath of God
as our surety must have known more and felt more both of the
bitterness of sin itself and all the horrid consequences of
sin that we can never imagine, that we could ever imagine. If
righteous lot vexed his soul day by day with the filthy deeds
of the sodomites, as we read in 2 Peter 2.7, what must have
been the feelings of our blessed Lord Jesus as he beheld the sins
of his redeemed. Thus, throughout the days of
his earthly life, our dear Savior bore our sicknesses until at
last he gave himself a ransom for us. to redeem us from sin
and all its consequences. What could be more comforting
or more honoring to our blessed Lord than the statement that
is given to us in Matthew 8 17 that the Lord Jesus Christ himself
took our infirmities and bear our sicknesses. Our Savior so
completely identifies himself with us that he takes our infirmities
and sicknesses to be his own, just as surely as he bare our
sin in his body on the tree. This verse does not teach that
there is healing from sickness and disease in the atonement,
although there is, spiritually speaking. It's teaching us that
there is sympathy in the Savior. who sends sickness and death
or healing and life as he sees fit to the people he loves. For
we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling
of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we
are, yet without sin. That's in Hebrews 4.15. Why is
it so important to you and I Folks, as we go through this valley,
this time, this path that the sovereign has put us on, there
will be sicknesses. There will be times of trial
that test us. God does not test us for his
sake, as if to answer a question. He tests us that we might prove
ourselves. Listen to 2 Corinthians 13, 4
through 9. For though he was crucified through
weakness, Yet he liveth by the power of God. We also are weak
in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward
you. Examine yourselves, whether you
be in the faith. Prove your own selves. Know ye
not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except
ye be reprobates? But I trust that ye shall know
that we are not reprobates. Now I pray to God that you do
no evil, not that we should appear approved, but that ye should
do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates. For we can
do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. We are glad
when we are weak, and ye are strong, and this also we wish
even your perfection. Examine yourselves, it said,
whether ye be in the faith. Prove your own selves. Our Lord
knows the pain these trials bring to our hearts. My pastor tells
me over and over again and again, this world is not our home. God
is weaning us from its dominion in our hearts. The great psalmist
David puts it this way, he says, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall
not want. Because the Lord is his shepherd,
he has nothing to want for. Everything is provided that he
needs. He says, he maketh me to lie
down in green pastures. That's a picture of comfort and
everything that we need right there as sheep, as God's sheep,
laying down, resting in Christ, resting in His provision. He
leadeth me beside still waters, that peaceful river that runs
alongside the green valleys, the green pastures. He restoreth
my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of
righteousness for His namesake. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death." That's us. That's you and I. We still walk through this valley
of death to the world, but only a shadow to you and I. Why is
it a shadow to you and I? Because Christ has taken our
death upon Him. What you and I have deserved
by the curse of sin, our Lord has been made a curse for us.
Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. He hung on a tree
for you and I. We will fear no evil in this
valley, this shadow of death. I will fear no evil, for thou
art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. What is the rod? It's the Lord
Jesus Christ. What is the staff? It is Him
who is the Son of God. They comfort me. Thou preparest
a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Thou anointest
my head with oil, my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy
shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell
in the house of the Lord forever. What peace we have to know the
Lord of all glory doeth all things well, including sending me troubles. sicknesses, trials. What peace
comes to the sinner who knows there is no cure for the consequences
of sin to this world, yet there is a cure for sin to those that
are loved of God. Romans 8, verses 28 through 32,
and we know. I remember our brother Mike Loveless
bringing a poem, we know a few things. We know a few things,
don't we? We know We've been given the
knowledge of Jesus Christ, God Almighty in the flesh. We've
been given the knowledge of Jesus Christ, the righteous who walked
this earth. We've been given to know Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, who knew no sin, but was made to be sin
for his people. The sins of his people were laid
upon him. We were made to know that Jesus
Christ died for those sins and paid for them perfectly. We were
made to know that he took them into the grave to be buried away
forever, never to be seen. never to be remembered again
as far as the east is from the west. Is that not good news?
Is that not good news? Oh, we know a few things, all
right. We know that all things, including
trials, sicknesses, and troubles, work together for good to them
that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Page six. For whom he did foreknow,
he also did predestinate. To be conformed, that means fashioned
to, or fashioned like unto, to the image of his son. That he
might be the firstborn among many brethren, moreover whom
he did predestinate, them he also called. Not only did he
predestinate us before the world was created, He came in the time
of love and He called, them He also called, and whom He called,
them He also justified. How were we justified? Through
His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And whom He justified, them He
also glorified. With all that thought in mind,
what shall we say then to these things? If God be for us, who
can be against us? He that spared not His own Son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Another lesson we have here in
our text is about usefulness. Verse 16, when the evening was
come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils,
and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that
were sick. Throughout the four Gospels,
we see constant mention of the fact that men and women brought
other needy men and women to the Lord Jesus to be healed by
Him, and were always commended for doing so. Some may think
God does not need men, and I could not agree with you more. God does not need men, but I
rejoice in the fact that God has chosen and ordained the use
of saved sinners for the saving of other sinners. You know, my
brother Lee, he didn't know it, but he brought me to the Lord
Jesus. You know how? Just by coming to church on Sunday.
When I needed my brother to cry on his shoulder, where was he
on that Sunday? He was at church. And that drew me to come here.
And when I was here, he said, hey, why don't you come on in
and sit and listen? We'll talk after service. It's starting
here in a few minutes. Or you can wait out here in the
parking lot if you want. Oh, all right. I'll go inside
and listen. And I heard the gospel preached.
The highest, greatest, more useful service, most useful service
that we can perform to the souls of men is to bring them to Christ. I will leave for you to make
of it what you will, but it is a fact that no one in the New
Testament ever brought a needy sinner to the Savior who did
not obtain for their friend the mercy they sought." What a hopeful
thought. God honors that faith that brings
sinners to Christ. In fact, we are told in Luke
5, verse 20, that when our Savior saw the faith of those four men
who carried their friend to him, he said to that man, thy sins,
thy sins are forgiven thee. He was speaking to the man who
brought his friend. Now, with all that we just read
in mind, I want to go back to page one of your handout. And
I want you to look once again with me at Isaiah 53, 1, 5. And
we're going to make a couple of statements about what we read
there. It says, who hath believed our
report? Who hath believed our report?
Men and women, natural men and women, unregenerate men and women,
cannot hear the word of God if they're deaf. They cannot see
the glory of Christ if they're blind. Who hath believed our
report? I can tell you who has believed.
Only those for whom God chose from before the world was. His
elect. Those that He determined to have
mercy on before a star twinkled in the sky. And to whom is the
arm of the Lord revealed? It's revealed to babes. It's
hidden from those who are wise and prudent of the world and
revealed to babes. Well, how can a grown man become
a babe again? Only by the new birth. Only by
God Himself creating in us a new man. creating in us a new woman,
one that knows the truth of God and sees the truth about what
we are. Who is the arm of the Lord revealed? To those that
he loved before the world was ever created. For he shall grow
up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness,
nobody of this world. You and I did not want a God
who rules it all. We liked being our own little
gods in our own little mind. We loved the darkness that we
walked in. To know who the Lord Jesus Christ
is, is to turn the light on in a dark room and say, this is
the one. This is the one who rules all
that we have. And when we shall see him, there
is no beauty that we should desire him. Every child of God knows
that's exactly That's exactly what we were before the Lord
humbled us, before he brought us to a broken and contrite heart. We had no desire for him. He is despised. We know that
was us. He was rejected of men. We know
that was us. He is a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. He knows the sorrows that we
go through in the death of our loved ones. He knows the sorrows
that we go through in the things of this world that stress us
to the point of tears. The things that bring us to bang
our heads on walls. Our Lord knows. He was acquainted
with grief. He was acquainted with our grief.
And we hid it, as it were, our faces from Him. He was despised
and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God and afflicted. But, but, but he was wounded
for our transgression. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. Oh, how I pray the Lord has given
you a whole new understanding to this wonderful, beautiful
verse that we have known so well. It's not something new in our
minds. It's a refreshing new. It's like
mercy, like new mercies every morning. May God take these verses
that we've just read and renew our hearts once again with the
knowledge of our Savior, the knowledge and the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.