Crystal sea, Revelation 4, verse
6 says, before the throne was a sea of glass like crystal,
and around about the throne were many, many around about the throne. So that's where that came from. Alright, go with me to Matthew
4. Matthew 4. Let's read verses 23 through
25. Matthew 4. When Jesus went about all Galilee
teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the
kingdom and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of
disease among the people. And his pain went throughout
all Syria. And they brought unto him all
sick people that were taken with diverse diseases and torments,
those which were possessed with devils, and those which were
lunatic, and those that had the palsy. And he healed them. And there followed him great
multitudes of people from Galilee and from Decapolis, from Jerusalem
and from Judea and from beyond Jordan." This is the account
of our Lord going about preaching all over, preaching and teaching
and healing the people. The title and the subject of
this message is The Great Teacher, Preacher, and Healer. I was struck
as I went back and read through the Gospel of Matthew when we
began, and it began, if you remember, the book, the book of the generation
of Jesus Christ, how that life begins with the Lord Jesus Christ.
It goes on to give the account of His birth. Now, the birth
of Jesus Christ was on this wife. It tells about His birth. and
the prophecy of that, and how that he came and dwelt in the
city of Nazareth, which was prophesied according to Scripture. Then
he comes preaching in Galilee, comes to Jordan, you remember,
like Joshua of old. He was baptized, led up of the
Spirit into the wilderness. He began to preach. And here
it says, then he went about all Galilee teaching in their synagogues
and preaching. And I was struck with the thought
that this book, from start to finish, is all about the person,
the work, the words of the blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The teacher, the preacher, the
healer. Luke, in describing the gospel
that he wrote, the Gospel of Luke, as you know,
and in the book of Acts also. He wrote that down. But he said
this in describing the Gospel he wrote. He said, I took in
hand to put down all that the Lord began to do and to teach
to the day he was taken up. That's what the Gospel is about.
That's what this book is about. John said this. John's gospel
ends this way. He said, if there's so many things
that the Lord did that are not recorded, so many things he said
that are not recorded, if they were, he said, if they were written,
the world, he said, I suppose, could not contain the books that
should be written. So this is all about the Lord
Jesus Christ. They are they which testify of
me, he said, of the Old Testament Scripture. And the Gospels and
the epistles tell us of Him who came, who He was, what He did,
what He said. And so here in our text it says,
He went about all Galilee teaching in their synagogues. The great
teacher. He went about teaching. Now,
there's a difference between teaching and preaching. Although,
any preacher is a teacher. He must be so. But teaching means
to instruct. Teaching means to impart some
knowledge. Teaching means you give something
out that people learn. Okay? A good teacher will teach
you something you didn't know before. That's what a teacher
is for. And our Lord was called a teacher. Preaching now means to declare. The word preach means to declare,
to pronounce something, and do it boldly and emphatically and
with authority. It was said to one of the young
preachers, if any man speak or rather preach, let him do it
as the oracles of God. Thus saith the Lord. Preaching
is declaring the Word of God. Thus saith the Lord. In no uncertain
term. But boldly and emphatically. Without controversy and without
argument. Preaching. Declaring. The Lord
Jesus Christ is both. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
great teacher. A great teacher. Now, some people
know some things. Some people think they know all
things. But our Lord did. I've always
been struck with that thought, amazed by it, that He knew everything. He knew everything. I've always
liked this old Arabic Proverb, listen to it, for what it's worth.
He who knows not and knows not that he knows not, he's a fool. Avoid him. He who knows not and
knows that he knows not, he's simple. Teach him. He who knows
and knows not that he knows, He's asleep, waking. But he who knows, and knows that
he knows, he's wise. Follow him. That's our Lord. He who knows, and knows that
he knows, he's wise. Follow him. What he said, everything
he said. Can you imagine being one of
the apostles living with the Lord three and a half years,
everything he said was a revelation. Everything that came out of his
mouth, they were astounded. I didn't know that. Just like
little children. They were grown men. Some of
them may have been older in earthly years than our Lord Himself.
And yet everything that this 30-year-old man said to them
was a complete, absolute revelation. Like little children. That's the way we need to hear
the Word, he said. A great teacher. In the next
chapter is the Sermon on the Mount. It begins this way. He says, he went up into a mountain,
a multitude followed him, went up into the mountain, and when
he sat down, his disciples came unto him, and he opened his mouth
and taught them saying, what did he say? Oh my, grace. Oh my, what he taught. what he teaches. And when he
ended, the last line of the Sermon on the Mount says, and when he
had ended the sage, the people were astonished at his doctrine. Or it says, he taught them as
one having authority. Like he wrote the book, he did. And they said, he doesn't sound
like the scribes. My, my, no man spake like this
man. What did he teach? What did he
teach? Oh, he taught us who God is.
No man knoweth the Father but the Son, and He to whom the Son
will reveal Him. You know that? We can't know
God except through Christ. The apostles kept asking Him.
One of them said, Show us the Father. He said, He that hath
seen me hath seen the Father. And he taught us who God is,
what God is like. What is God like? Study the Son,
you'll know. He taught us what man is. He
taught us what man is. Sinful, helpless, dependent,
totally dependent. He taught us what sin is. What
sin is. He shocked the people by saying,
it's not what goes into the mouth that defiles a man. He shocked
all the so-called moral people of his day who thought that if
you could keep from doing this or doing that, then you'd be
holy. He said, no. Sin is not in a bottle or a box
or a thing. There's nothing, no thing sinful
of itself. Sin comes from the heart, he
said. The heart. He taught us what
the law is. There were many who thought they
kept the law. In this next chapter, He magnifies the law. He opens
up the law to tell us what it really is. We wouldn't know if
He hadn't taught us. We wouldn't know that the law
is spiritual. God requires His absolute perfection
in thought, word, and deed. He taught us. But you know, everything
that He taught could be summed up in these three things. All
of his earthly teaching, all of his preaching could be summed
up in these three things. When he said in John's Gospel,
chapter 14, verse 6, when he said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. That's it. We're going to look
at the fall of man next time we're if we're together again
to look at that. But those three things were lost
in the garden. And the Lord came, the second
Adam came to restore these three things. The way to God. We can't
get to God. We can't know God. The way to
be accepted by God. Christ said, I am. The way to
be loved by God. Love me. The way to to be loved
by God, a way to get to God? The truth. He taught us the truth
of who God is. Who is God? Christ said, I am. He taught us the truth, as we
said, of what man is. What is man? What should man
be? What is a holy man? Who is a
man that God is pleased with, that God will let in His heaven? What kind of man Will God allow
into his heaven? Christ said, I am the man. I'm the man. What life is. What life is. He told us the
truth of what life is. That life is not in things. He didn't have any. Life is not
in meat and drink. He said, he that hath the Son
hath life. So all of his teaching can be
summed up in those three things. And he said, I am. That I am. He's the great teacher. He's
the great preacher. The great preacher. Preaching
is declaring God's Word. Preaching is declaring the gospel. Peter said, This is the Word
which by the Gospel we declare unto you. Paul said, Woe is unto
me if I preach not the Gospel. We declare the Gospel. Well,
Christ declared the Gospel, the Gospel of the Kingdom. He preached,
went about preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, boldly, emphatically,
dogmatically declaring that God is King, that He is King. We
saw that, didn't we? What he said was, and that first
day he stood up to read in his hometown of Nazareth and read
Isaiah 61. The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me, hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, to set
at liberty the captives and so on and so forth. He said, this
day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. And what he was
saying was, the King is here. Good news to all the captives.
Captives to the God of this world. Good news to all those under
a tariff. Good news to all those who are
under the law. I'm the lawgiver. I'll set you
free. The King is here. The gospel,
the good news of the Kingdom. He went about declaring the gospel
of the Kingdom. He preached. He preached. That's what man calls foolishness.
Preaching, isn't it? Foolishness. Pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching. And I always get encouraged when
thinking that our Lord was a preacher. Our Lord was a preacher. So it
doesn't matter what men think about preaching or preachers,
does it? If the Lord Jesus Christ was a preacher, what a high office
this is. What a good and vital thing to
see. God had one Son, and He was a
preacher. Oh, he was a worker, all right,
a carpenter, a gardener, but he was a preacher. Because this
is the one thing needful. He went about doing good, yes. He was a hard worker. He went
about doing humanitarian things and so forth. But he said, I've
come to preach, didn't he? I've come to preach. He said,
let us go into another city. But thereunto am I called. I've come to preach. This is
the one thing needful. What all men and women and young
people need to hear is the gospel. The gospel is the power of God
and the salvation to everyone that believes it. The Jew first,
and also to the Gentile. The old and young. Male and female. The gospel. True and effective
preaching. What is it? What is true and
effective preaching? Well, I'll tell you this. I know
this much now. That true preaching, effectual
preaching, preaching that actually accomplishes something, that
people actually hear and it does something for them. People actually
hear the gospel and it actually gives life, gives faith, gives
repentance and so forth. I know this, it depends completely
on the Holy Spirit of God. I know that now more than ever.
It is not by might. It is not by the man's ability.
It is not by his strength of intellect, his ability to put
things into words. It is not by the power of the
voice. God one time spoke to the prophet. It was a loud voice and then
he spoke to him in a still, small voice. It's not by the power
of the voice. It's not by power of reasoning. Paul said, when I came to you,
I didn't come with persuasible words of man's wisdom. Not at
all. It's not by a man's power to
persuade or convince anyone or move people emotionally. That's not it. I'll just be honest with you,
I wish I could convince people, I wish I could persuade people,
but we can't. It's completely up to the Holy
Spirit. It's not by might, not by power,
but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. Well, we men who stand up to
preach, and this is why Spurgeon said prayer is the greater part
of study. We call upon the Lord. Lord,
bless the preaching. Lord, bless the preaching. Lord,
if you don't speak, they won't hear anything. If all they hear
is me, they won't hear anything. If you don't do something for
them, if you don't convince them, if you don't pierce the heart,
I can't. We call upon the Lord to send
His Holy Spirit. And all we do in preaching, all
we can do is repeat what the Lord has said. Okay? In preaching, that's all a good
preacher can do, is tell what the Lord has already said. Thus
saith the Lord. Not what he thinks, but what
the Lord said. Make a few comments. Okay? And we're just hoping and praying
that the Lord Himself will speak through that Word. That it's
His Word, it's His power, and if He's pleased, and He blows
where He lists them, He moves when He is pleased upon whom
He will. And we are hoping and praying
that He will speak to someone, anyone, to us. Open the ear that's been dead. Open the eyes that are blind
to see who God is. See Himself. Open the heart.
I preach and look at young people and people that don't know the
Lord yet. It's got to be a burden. But
we can't do anything. We can't do anything. Not Christ. Oh, my. Here's what dispels all
this notion about God trying to tell people something, or
God and Christ coming and wanting to save and can't and so forth.
That is not the Christ of the Scripture. The fact of the matter
is, he could have saved every single person he came into contact
with. He could have called. Over there
in Mark's Gospel it says he went up into a mountain and he called
whom he would and they came. If he calls, they're coming.
Like old Lazarus. Someone said if he hadn't called
Lazarus' name, everybody in the grave would have come for him. He calls and they come. See,
this dispels that notion that he's trying to save. No, he's
not. That's why he didn't preach on the street corners. He wasn't
trying to get anybody to believe him. He's on the trail of his
sheep. He said, my sheep will hear my
voice. I know them. I'm going to call them and they're
going to come. Our Lord in preaching. Oh, my. No man preached like
he did. Take, for instance, We stand
up and declare scriptures like this, Ho! Isaiah 55. Every time I quote that, I think
of Violet Byrd. There was one time we were dealing
with that, and she was sitting there and had her head down,
and I went, Ho! She jumped about six feet out of her chair. Scared
her. Ho, everyone that thirsteth,
come to the water. Ye that hath no money, come ye,
buy and eat. Yea, come, buy wine and milk
without money and without pride. Why do you spend money for that
which is not bread, your labor for that which satisfies not?
Hearken diligently unto me." And I'm just quoting. I'm just
repeating. Eat that which is good. Let your
soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear and come unto
me. Here your souls shall live, and I'll make an everlasting
covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David." We just repeat
that, hoping that the Lord will speak through that. When Christ
came at that last day, that great day of the Feast, He stood up
and said, if any man thirsts, come to Me. He's actually talking
about Himself. Come! And they did. They did. Preaching. It's time we quit
calling Charles Spurgeon the Prince of Preachers. He's not. Jesus Christ is. However, I wouldn't say anything
derogatory about Charles Spurgeon. I love him. I'm thankful for
his preaching. The Lord used him greatly. I
just read something by him. Gave it to Gabe, and he and I
were rejoicing in it. Spurgeon was encouraging, and
he was about 22 years old when he wrote that, when he said that.
Gifted young man, but he said, when a preacher stands up to
preach, he should believe that God will bless the Word. Though
we don't have the ability to tell men like Peter, rise up
and walk. We don't have that ability. We
have the same Word that has that ability. So he said, preach it,
expecting God to use it. Preach it, declare it. Rise up
and walk. Come. And God will. He said, maybe our Part of our
problem is we just don't believe God enough. We don't believe
Him enough. That was good. Christ is the
prince of preachers. No man spake, no man taught,
no man preached like this man. Look at our text again. It says,
He went about all Galilee teaching in their synagogues and preaching.
He was a tireless teacher. Do you reckon how many times
He spoke? I have read accounts of various
men that I greatly love who traveled, itinerant preachers, men who
rode like David Brainerd, rode horseback and so forth, thousands
of miles all over the land preaching the gospel. And I'm so thankful
for them. But nobody taught and preached
and went as far as our Lord did. And He did it on foot. If not
on foot, on a mule, or in a ship, an old wooden ship. You ever
been in a wooden ship? I don't mean for an hour. I mean for
five or six hours. I have. No seats. No cushions. I have. And our
Lord spent many a day in a wooden ship and walking on foot. Oh
my! That's why Scripture said, how
beautiful are the feet of him that bringeth glad tidings. His
feet were probably more calloused than any man's feet, more often
dirty than any man's feet, but they were the most beautiful
feet ever to walk this planet because they brought the glad
tidings. He walked all over, all over Galilee, teaching and
preaching. An itinerant preacher, meaning
preaching everywhere. All Galilee. All Galilee. He went about teaching and preaching
the gospel. Now notice where. Notice where
he taught and preached principally. It says he taught in their synagogue. And this is important. Scriptures
are very, very plain, aren't they? He taught and he preached
in their synagogues. Those were the houses of worship.
Every town had a Jewish synagogue. The temple was in Jerusalem,
okay? But every little town had a Jewish
synagogue. They were houses of worship. They were places set aside for
worship. That's what they were for. They
were houses of prayer. Remember, our Lord said that.
My house shall be called a house of prayer." You've made it a
den of thieves to those money changers. They were places set
aside for one purpose. Prayer, worship, and hearing
the Word. Worship. Worship. The synagogue. God still has
places. They're local churches. That's
what they're for. Nothing else. Okay? Reckon he'll be here? I thought about this. You know,
there were large synagogues in maybe a town like Tyre, little
small synagogues in a little bitty country village. You reckon
the folks in those little country villages thought, well, he won't
come here, surely. And he showed up. And he showed
up. And there was just maybe two
or three. Well, that's just like he said. Oh, yeah. People, our Lord doesn't exaggerate.
And that's just not a figure of speech when He says, where
two or three are gathered in my name. I'm right there in the
midst of it. Whoever is gathered in the Lord Jesus Christ's name,
if there's two or three, He's going to bless you. Whoever wants
to worship the Lord will. Whoever opens their mouth, He'll
fill it. Whoever comes hungry and thirsty, He'll send them
away filled. You'll see, well, that's a promise
from the Lord. Whoever is gathered in His name, He'll be right there. He'll speak to them. That makes
these assemblies special, doesn't it? Every time. Every time. So He preached in synagogues. He taught in their synagogues
places that were set up at cost. It cost something to build a
synagogue. Down in Mexico, some of you have been there. Oh my,
for those poor, dirt poor people to build a little building for
the median, it takes years of sacrifice, hard work, doesn't
it? It's impressive, isn't it? And
they take great pride, so to speak, in those buildings because
they've got They counted the cost, they need the gospel, and
they paid the price and built these buildings, and buddy, they're
there. They come in the back of pickup
trucks, don't they? From other towns when you're
going to meet, somebody's going to preach the gospel. We're coming.
We show up, we're going to sing the praises, and they come. It's
a place set up at great cost. It's sacrifice. It's a place,
a synagogue. And all of this is the church,
local churches. It's a place that one must go
to in order to hear the gospel. The gospel is not everywhere.
And like when you go someplace, you have to leave something to
go there, don't you? So this involves leaving, coming
apart from the world for a little bit. We're in it all the time. We're in it all the time. Casting
nets. Casting nets. And there comes a time we drop
that net like the disciples. Drop it. Well, Dad wants me to
drop him too. And we go where the people of
God are meeting in Christ's name. He said, I'll be there and I'll
bless you. And he does. He does. So you've got to leave other
places, people and things to worship. to worship. So this is significant, that
the Lord taught and preached in synagogues, didn't He? Mostly. There were times for the sake
of numbers, because there were multitudes of people and no building
could hold them, where He'd get out in a ship or in the next
chapter up on a mountain, right? For the sake of numbers. But
principally, you'll find it reading through the Scriptures, He was
in the temple or in the synagogue teaching and preaching. Yes,
He was. People came to Him there. They came to Him. God's not a
beggar, you see. God is not a beggar. Neither
is His preacher and His church is not a beggar. God doesn't
go begging for an audience. We don't beg and plead and bribe
people. We don't try to entice rebels to come do God a favor. This is the highest privilege
known to man right here. The highest privilege. This is
the greatest honor that can be conferred upon a human being.
To God to grace us with His presence and to speak to us His gospel.
The heavenly calling. My, my. We don't try to beg sinners
to come do what they ought to do. You know that? We're not trying to get people
to come do what they ought to do. Isn't it a reasonable service
for people to come and worship God, to thank God? Isn't that
a reasonable service? Huh? God's people consider it
a great privilege. Now, the Lord, as I said on a
few occasions, spoke openly. And we go to prisons. Men go
to prison. Brother Milton Howard goes and
preaches to the prisoners. Well, they can't come to church,
can they? They can't come to the church
yet. So we take the gospel then. We go to nursing homes. We talk
about the sick and the shut-ins. We do. We take the gospel to
people over the airwaves through Internet or radio or TV or whatever,
okay? But there's a place set aside,
and everybody knows it, where God's Word is declared, where
people are meeting together to worship God, to give thanks to
God, to sing praises to God. To look into God's Word. And
it's the reasonable service of people, is it not? To come. And so we say, come thou with
us. We'll do you good. This will do you good. You ought
to. Come thank God with us. Come
praise God. They say, no, not interested.
Then God's not interested in you. That's what we need to say. Not
interested. Like that woman told you, God
does nothing for me. Huh. Well, then God's got nothing
for you. We've got great reason to be here, don't we? Yes, we
do. Yes, we do. I thought that was
significant. He met in the synagogue. A man
called me the other day. He wants to move here. He doesn't
have a place to hear the gospel in person. He's been listening
on Sermon Audio and he wants to move here. What he said to
me was, I'd love to move to the state of Virginia and be a part
of that church if you'll have me. But that's the attitude, you
see, of God's people. They consider it a high honor,
an unworthy privilege. Would you let me come? I'd like
to come. Will you let me? One person called
me one time and said, what do you think about divorced people? Divorced people? Do I live? You mean sinner? You mean sinner,
don't you? Yes, come. That's what this place
is for. That's all it's for. That's why it's not full, our
ministry. Oh, sinners got to. You know
the story of old Naaman? Naaman, you know, was a great
man. He thought, everybody thought,
that he was a leper. He was dying. He was dying. And he thought, he said, I thought
that that prophet would come out to me. Does he know who I
am? I thought he'd be so pleased
to have me You know, to see me and know me. That's not the way
it is. You come. You're going to come. You're going to come begging.
God's not the beggar. You're going to come begging.
You're going to come down off your high horse. You're going
to strip yourself of all your medals and all your attainments
and all your religion. You're going to consider all
that done. You're going to come down and you're going to dip
in that muddy river of joy. You're going to see, you're going
to come naked before the eyes of God and everybody's going
to see you for what you really are. And you're going to cry unto God
to heal you of this deadly disease that you've got. And he will
heal you. That's the only way. But he had
to come, didn't he? He had to come down. He had to
listen. He had to sit and listen like
a little child. a great teacher and preacher.
And look at this, he's a great healer. The Lord Jesus Christ
taught, preached in their synagogue. The Gospel of the Kingdom. He healed them. There's another
scripture that says, he healed everyone that had need of healing. Everyone that had need of healing. He said this in another place.
He said, the well need not a physician, but the sick. He said, I've not
come to call the righteous, but sinners. The church, we've often
heard it said, is a hospital for sinners. You know why I come
here? I know it's my job. I know that. But I need this balm of Gilead
just like you. I need a great physician just
like you. We come here because we need
healing. And there's only one balm in
Gilead. There's only one thing. There's
only one physician that will heal us. Notice what healing followed. He said he went about teaching
and preaching and healing. Healing follows preaching. Over
in Matthew 10, where he called out his disciples, he said this
to them. He said, Go preach, saying, The
kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick. Cleanse the leper. Raise the dead. Cast out devils. You've clearly received, clearly
give. What? The gospel. What heals? What heals us? The gospel. The preaching of the gospel.
What the world calls foolishness is our life. What the world doesn't
need, we need desperately. What the world has no taste for
is sweeter than honey. That's why we come. The Lord
Jesus Christ went about healing. What does this mean to us? This
story of Christ. Well, does not Hebrews 13, verse
8 say that? Jesus Christ. The same. Yesterday, today, and forever. He doesn't change. He said, I
am the Lord. I change not. He's still teaching. If we cease
to learn anything, we're not little children. We're not His
disciples. He's still teaching. He's still preaching. If we do
not hear His voice, hmm, I know. But His sheep do. They continue
to hear it. Come. Come. Come. Follow Me. Stop that. Come on. Follow Me. Look to Me. Look.
Look. Look. Peace. Be still. I'm with you. Fear not. A great shepherd and healer. He's still healing. Now, what's
the name of our Lord that healed us? Jehovah-Rapha. Jehovah-Rapha
in Exodus 15. The Lord, our healer. If anyone
is healed of any physical disease, earthly disease, the Lord did
it. The Lord did it. That's right. Though he uses
means, the Lord often uses strong delusions to make men believe
lies that don't give him the credit. He said, I am the Lord
that healeth thee. Didn't he not say, I wound and
I heal? If anyone's healed, the Lord
did it. Right? You say, well, the doctor, they
have this knowledge. You know, we go to doctors. We
do. We want to go to specialists and all that. And we go to specialists.
And they come up with this new procedure. And it's an amazing
procedure. And it shows great results. And
we go to them. And oftentimes, it is effectual. And we're thankful for that.
Who gave that man that knowledge? Huh? Who made that brain? Who allowed them to discover
that? Who? I am the Lord. Give Him the glory. Give Him
the glory where it's due. I am the Lord. He's a great healer.
If anyone's healed Matthew Henry, brother Gay, buddy, I've been
reading him a lot and I'm going to go ahead and tell you. You
want some good outlines, Matthew, they're right there. There right
there, Matthew Henry. Outline after outline after outline. So that's where I get my... When
Matthew Henry talked about the miracle, the miracle of his healing. Our Lord healed... These things
that he spoke of were incurable. Every one of them. They were incurable. Man couldn't
cure them. That's what he healed. Every
time. The things that man could not do, he did it. To show who
he was. The miracle of it. And the mercy
of it. Matthew Henry said, the mercy
of it. He healed everybody. Everybody. Come one, come all. Do you know how busy he was?
You know how pressing people were upon Him. You know how many
people were groping at Him and grappling at Him. Help me, help
me, help me. And He received them all. The
Lord is full of mercy. Come! Thousands, literally. Come! Anybody else? Yes! The mercy of it. He didn't have
to come here at all. But when He came, He healed them
all. The mercy of it. The mercy of our Lord. Somebody
touched me. Who touched me? Oh, that old
woman, that old beggar woman. You don't need her. Oh, no. That's
why I came. Call her. The mercy of it. And Matthew Henry talked about
the mystery of it. That all of this was to show
something much deeper. That the reason the Lord healed,
and what He healed men and women of, was to show us the mystery
of the Gospel. It talks about all manner of
sickness, doesn't it? Isaiah 1 says the whole head
is sick. Our society is sick, isn't it? Sick! Isn't it? Look around you. Genesis 6 says the Lord looked
down upon the children of men. It says the whole earth had corrupted
His way. Corrupt! Filthy! Sick! Don't have any judgment
whatsoever. Look at what you're doing. No,
it's sick! It says our imaginations and
our thoughts are only evil continually. Sick! Sin sick. Diseases. Disease is something that comes
upon you and you have no control over it until it renders you
sick. David said this about us, our
old man. He said, My loins are filled
with the loathsome disease. There's only one that can heal
this, this sin sickness. Only one that can do that. And
that's why He came. Oh my, torments. Did you notice
that? Different diseases and torments.
Men and women and young people are tormented by Satan, sin. Torment is torture. That's what
the word means. Torture. It won't leave you alone.
It won't leave me alone. It won't let up. Quit. No, it won't let up. That's what
torments are. Turn with me. 1 John 4. 1 John
chapter 4. This is wonderful. My pastor said, taught us, don't
ever say, this is my last point. Because they'll start shutting
down. No, no, not yet. Hold on. This is too good. 1 John chapter 4. Torments. Torments. Torture. 1 John chapter
4. And you know, religion talks
about God is love, God is love. It's not doing anybody any good. It's not doing anybody any good.
I'll show you why. If they really knew, if the love
of God was shed abroad in their heart, look at this, 1 John 4,
verse 18. There is no fear in love. Perfect
love casts without fear, because fear hath torment. Oh no, have I done enough? Oh
no, have I lived good enough? Oh no, have I kept the law? Oh
no, have I, oh no, oh no, Christ said, look to me. I have loved thee with an everlasting
love." Perfect love. That's not your
love. That's His love. Here in His love, not that we
love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sin. Read on. Fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect
in love, or that is, does not understand the love of God perfectly.
We love Him because He first loved us. All right? Does God
love me? Does God love you? Ask yourself
that question. Does God love me? How do you
know? How do you know? Let me ask you this. Do you love
Him? Do you? Do you love God as God? Most
people don't. I mean something, totally, just
doing as He will, free will. God has the free will, not us.
You love that? That's so. That's God. Do you
love that God will have mercy on whom He will? Sovereign? Chooses
whom He will? Answers to no man? That does
not explain Himself? Give no account of His matters
to anyone? Do you love that God? Have one lump make one vessel
of honor and another of dishonor? That's the God of the Bible.
Do you love that God? Yes. You love Him because He
first loved you. Did you get that? I don't know
if God loves me. If you love God, do you love
His Son? Do you love God's Son? Do you
see Christ as all? Do you see your need of Christ?
Do you see that He's all in all? He's all my hope, all my righteousness,
all my salvation. Do you? I believe you do. Why
do you see that? Christ said, flesh and blood
doesn't reveal that to you, but my Father which is in heaven.
Smile! God loves you. And perfect love
casteth out fear. Oh no, I fear that I'm going
to fall away. Can't. Can't. Not if God loves you. If it was in my power to keep
these children from harm, I would do it. But it's not. It is in
God's power. And He said, I give unto them
eternal life, and they shall never perish. You have His Word,
my Lord. The Word of His power. Trust
Him. Look to Him. Did that heal a
little bit of your fear? Oh my, I've got to quit now.
Last point. Promise. It says in our text,
they were lunatics. Possessed with devils. Lunatics. Demon possessed. They didn't
give them fancy names back then like bipolar. Stuff like that. Men haven't changed. Things haven't
changed. You know what? It's demon possession. And there's
only one answer. I know religion says that, but
it's true. It's true. The Lord did that
more than anything else. He cast out more devils than
any other miracle He performed. Why? to show us that men and
women and young people are possessed until He leads captivity, until
a stronger than the possessor takes possession of what He is.
That's why we call unto the Lord. That's why we don't beg people.
That's why we beg the Lord. Lord, come, would You please
lay hold like that centurion. Just speak the Word and He'll
be here. No. Just speak the Word. Parents
do that. Lord, speak the Word and my child
will hear you. And lunacy. What's lunacy? It
comes from the word lunar. Moon. When a full moon, you howl
at it. Like a lunatic. It's crazy. Act like a crazy man. Anybody
in here act like a crazy man? David did. Read the story. David acted like a crazy man.
And they looked at him and thought, he can't be a child of God. Look
at him. He's acting crazy. Anybody? Only one that will sit you down
and clothe you in your right mind. The world is crazy. The world is full of lunatics.
When the moon comes out, they act like werewolves. And palsy. Palsy means you can't move. Can't
move. Our Lord said, you will not come
unto Me, and no man can come unto Me. That was Me. That was Me. I would not come. I ain't going. I ain't going to church. I'm
through with that. I had to go for, you know, 17 years, and
now I'm out on my own, and I ain't going, buddy. I will not go. I'm through with that. I'm enlightened
now. I'm a child of the sixties. I've
got the enlightenment. I ain't going." He said, no man can come but the
Father God. Guess what? I came. I came. I came. Palsy. Couldn't come, wouldn't
come. If it could. Palsy. That's what that is. Paralyzed. He said one day to
this same preacher, I'll never forget it. I'll never forget
it. That preacher looked at me and
looked right through me. Guess what? I came. I came. Who did that? Him? No. They tried for years. No, no,
no. In the Lord's time. In the fullness
of time. And he went on to say that great multitudes followed
him. I went to Syria. I heard about him all the way
to Syria, Spain. Why did it mention Syria? I have
to mention Syria, because there is a woman over there, a Syro-Phoenician
woman, a Gentile dog, who came. A great multitude has followed
him. And people, I want to follow
him, too. I am following him, too. And
there has been a great cloud of witnesses. Great cloud of
witnesses that have followed this wonderful Lord for thousands
of years, and He's never led one astray. He's led every single
one all the way to the right hand of the Majesty and I. Follow Him. Follow Him. Okay,
stand with me. Our Lord, thank You, thank You,
thank You for Your Word. Bless the Lord, O my soul, all
that is within me. Bless His holy name. Forget not all Thy benefits,
who forgiveth all Thine iniquities. O Lord, You've made known Your
ways unto Moses and to us, Your people. You've made known Your
ways. You've hid Yourselves from the
wise and the prudent. Not many wise, not many mighty,
not many noble are called. O Lord, we see our calling. Nothings and nobodies from nowhere.
Poor have the gospel preached unto them. How we thank you for
this greatest of gifts, this unspeakable gift. Lord, may it
ever be in our minds and our hearts a great gift. And never
let us take it for granted, but always be grateful for it. We
know there will be a day when it will not be here, and you'll
remove it. Oh, Lord, while the gospel is
still being preached, while the door of the ark is still open,
show mercy, we pray, to us and our children. We are like Jehoshaphat
of old. We are here before Thee. We are
at our wits' end, Lord. Speak. Help us speak, we pray,
for Christ's sake. Amen.