The world's all mine. OK, good thing that not many
of us here tonight, but good thing. All right, go to the gospel
of Matthew chapter nine. Matthew's gospel chapter nine.
I want to look at the story of
a dumb man who was healed. And now you know why we read
Isaiah thirty five. Now let's read verses thirty
two through thirty five of Matthew chapter nine. Speaking of our
Lord and his disciples leaving this town as they went out. Behold
they brought to him to the Lord a dumb man. Possessed with a
devil. And when the devil was cast out
the dumb spake. And the multitudes marveled,
saying, It was never so seen in Israel. But the Pharisees
said, He casteth out devils through the prince of devils. And Jesus went about all the
cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching
the gospel of the kingdom and healing every sickness and every
disease among people. Gospel healing is the title of
this message and the subject. Gospel healing. Nearly every
time the Lord told the disciples to go out and preach, and whenever
it talks about them casting out devils, it says they were preaching
and casting out devils. They're synonymous, preaching the gospel and the
casting out of devils. How important is the preaching
of the gospel? Well, our Lord told his disciples,
go into all the world and preach the gospel. He that believeth,
preach the gospel unto every creature, and he that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved. Say. Say from what? Well, say from wrath. Say from the wrath of God. Say
from judgment. There is a judgment to be faced.
We don't hear much about it today because they are preaching the
gospel now. You've got to start with this. Say from condemnation. Save from
condemnation. Save from eternal death. Which is hell. Save from sin. Power of sin. Penalty of sin. How important is the preaching
of the gospel? The Lord said it pleased him by the foolishness
of preaching. Not that preaching is foolishness,
but it's what the world calls foolishness. The world, which
is wise in its own conceits, calls what I'm doing right now
foolishness and calls you a fool for listening to it. But unto
us which are being saved, it's the power of God. Preaching of
the cross is the power of God, amazingly, miraculously, when
the gospel is preached, God Almighty speaks to people. He really and
truly, those of you who felt this power, heard His voice through
the preaching of the gospel, it's real. It's true, God truly
calls people out of darkness into his marvelous light, calls
them from the dead, like no less than Lazarus, no less than Jairus'
daughter, awakens from the dead, gives spiritual life. God gives
a new heart. hearts that, like the psalmist
says, pants at the living God. It wasn't there before. God gives
a new heart through this thing of preaching the gospel. God
gives eyes to see, to the blind, ears to hear, a tongue to thank
God, speak His praises, and feet that never walked in the paths
of race, never walked with God, who walked the other way. feet to walk by faith and all
these stories through I told you when we started studying
the Gospel of Matthew that this is so full. As you've already
seen with the chapter Matthew chapter nine alone. We'll look at look back to Matthew
nine beginning with verse one it talks about verse two a man
sick of the palsy. The Lord healed a man sick with
a palsy. All of these stories, the Lord
went about healing every sickness it took, every disease among
the people. Well, that's not why the Lord
came. He did that while he was here.
But we read over there in Isaiah 35 of his spiritual healing. The greatest need of all is spiritual
healing. And you see, all of us are paralyzed. That's what palsy is, paralyzed. Men, women, and young people
are paralyzed by sin. They're in the grips of sin,
unable to do what they could or should. Now the only one who
can release someone from this paralysis of sin is the Lord
Jesus Christ. In here, in chapter 9, the Lord
raises this man's dead daughter, Jairus' daughter. And some of
you in here have children that are dead and trespassing sin.
And there's only one hope for them. Only one hope, that if the Lord
will quicken them by his word, this is how he does it too. I
know many of you have felt guilty, for lack of a better word, or
a little bit overbearing by making your children come to hear the
gospel when you had them under your roof. But you could never
do anything better for them. Because there's only one way
that the Lord is going to speak to them. He's not going to speak
to them on a mountain. He's not going to speak to them
through some kind of experience out there. He's going to speak
to them through the preaching of His Word. That's it. And only
when the Lord quickens them by His Word. That's what He did
to me. I mentioned Deborah's son. Well, that was me. I was
the prodigal son. That's my story. If God hadn't
spoken to me through the preaching of the word, I'd have died in
my sin. And so there's hope. While the gospel's still being
preached, there's a woman with an issue of blood here in chapter
9. In just one chapter alone, the Lord does all of it. A woman
with an issue of blood. Literally, her life's blood was
flowing out of her. That's what it meant for twelve
years she had an unceasing flow of blood. It left her weak and
anemic. She was literally dying as her
life's blood was flowing out of her. And that's an apt description
of us, all of us, by nature. We're born. We spent a week with
Abigail, a new life, precious child, just Boy, I tell you,
when babies add life, don't they? When you walk in a room and you
see this brand new life, it just brightens you up, doesn't it?
Especially one as beautiful as hers. Well, those babies quickly
grow old, don't they? How quickly? Until they get old
and old and then As. One hope. To keep this life from
the end from passing out of. The Lord infuses us with new
blood. Do you. Is renewed eternal life. And that life is in his son to
buy me. Your brother Chapman teach that
when he was here? The two blind men? That's all
of us is it? Unless the Lord gives us eyes
to see. We don't even know God exists. You look around us and
see this beautiful creation and everything. Scripture says a
fool has said no God. An utter blind fool can look
around and not see God. Only God gives us to say. So
we can't see ourselves unless God gives us. Again the prodigal
son was in a hole in eating. How low can you get. He didn't
know he didn't know how low he was until that scripture says
he came to himself. How did he come to say. We don't just come to a realization
of what we are. No, no, no, no. The Lord opens
up blind eyes to see. Look at me. I'm in the hole.
Look back there, yonder. My father's servants are happier
than I am. Look what I did. I sinned against
heaven, against my father. Here's what I'll do. Now, who
did all that? God did. We're blind to the truth,
blind to the truth. The gospel gives us that we're
here is this story of a dumb man. A dumb man look at verses
thirty two and thirty three again says behold they brought to him
a dumb man possessed with the devil and when the devil was
cast out the dumb faith. A dumb man dumb means unable
to speak. Unable to speak or if he spoke
at all you know some people who we call. Do try to speak you've
heard people. Try to speak to and it's really. They can't speak very clear it.
So if he could speak at all, it was his unintelligence, that's
the word. It says he was possessed with
a devil. That's why he was dumb. That's why he couldn't speak.
He was possessed with a devil. His inability to speak, or at
least speak clearly, was because a devil had control of him. A devil had control. He could
not speak clearly. Now, who made man's mouth? Would you turn with me to exodus
chapter four you remember this when when Moses when the Lord
was calling out Moses. And Moses said I can't speak
I'm not eloquent. I'm slow speech and of a slow
tongue you remember that look at exodus four verse eleven the
Lord said unto him who made who hath made man's mouth. the Lord. If anyone can speak intelligently
and intelligently the Lord gave that speak right or look at that
who make it the dumb. Who seizes the time it says a
devil possessed him or why the Lord gave him over to that Nothing outside of God's control,
no devil can do anything unless God gives. See that? Who maketh
the deaf? The hearing ear, there's another
scripture that says, the hearing ear and the seeing eye are of
the Lord. The answer of the tongue is of the Lord. Scripture says,
who maketh the deaf or the seeing or the blind have not I the Lord. So it says back there in our
text that a devil had possession of him, but the reason being
is the Lord gave him over to that devil. Now, God made man's
mouth. Why did God make man? Man is
the only creature on earth that holds conversation. Right? That speaks words. I know what
you think. I know what modern people think. I know you horse whisperers think
that you can understand their language, but they don't have a language.
They don't have a language. Dolphins, they're not highly
intelligent creatures. They may be able to understand
each other a little bit, but they don't speak a language. Man is the only one that does.
Man is the only one that does. Why did God make man? an upright
intelligent creature to speak words intelligent what. So we can impress one. So we
can communicate. When God created. Who else was
around. Yeah before he created even I
created out of right Adam was created first how long Adam existed
before he we don't know could have been a long time. Who else
was there. God didn't need him. God doesn't
listen to words that's on the heart. Why do you make man's mouth.
Why do you make these tongues. To sing his praises. The show
for his role. That's what this map. Whether
you eat drink whatever you do do all the glory of God everything
God made for you. Especially the man is an intelligent
creature man is able to put into word the glory of God. Man is
able to sing his praises man is able to thank God. Thank God
does he. No. No. We're born in sin. When God,
when man listened to the devil, God gave him over to the devil.
You see that? And then we're brought forth
from the womb. We're not speaking his praises. We're not thanking
God. We're done. We're done. If we do speak at all David said
we speak a lot. Of course on the world speaking. So this is nothing. Anyone who does not sing God's
praises anyone who does not thank God is possessed with a devil
it's called sale. It's called pride. It's called
flesh. It's called covetousness and
on and on. Devils don't necessarily make people act like lunatics. They just stop the tongue from
doing what it's supposed to do. You know, we have to force our
children to say thank you. We have to force them. And you parents, you need to
start at an early age Instilling in them respect for elders to
say yes sir yes ma'am. To say thank you to anyone for
the least thing that they do for you. And it is hard to do
it. It is hard. We've got to force. Why should we have to force our
children to say thank you when it's what they ought to do. They
ought to be thankful. Because they're possessed. Well,
who's going to really loosen the tongue to where it comes
natural, where it comes freely? Their loosened tongues employ
to do what? Thank God. When does that take
place? Only when the gospel lays hold
of them and casts a stronger than he, casts him out and sets
up residence in that person's heart. And then, buddy, it's
It just flows. Don't you find yourself, you
believe it, don't you find yourself the thing you say more than anything
else, at least to God and privately, is thank you. Thank you. Thank
you. Thank you. He makes you thank him. Respectful. Respectful. We say yes sir. Yes sir. I looked at the scriptures talking about the tongue of the
world, the speech of unbelievers and all that. It says things
like this, they speak vanity. If men and women by nature do
speak, it's not of what great things the Lord has done for
them, it's vanity. It's of what they have pride,
they speak proudly. There's a story over in Mark
chapter seven I believe it is of a man who is said was deaf. And generally the speech is connected
with a hearing is it not if you can't hear well you won't speak
plainly. And that's a good illustration
If you don't hear who God is and who Christ is and what you
are, if you don't hear that, you don't hear the truth, you
don't hear the gospel, you won't speak clearly. You won't speak
with understanding. You'll say things like, I did
this or I did that. That's the impediment that men
and women have. They can't hardly say anything
without saying, I, me, my. That's an impediment. And when
the gospel comes, when we hear the gospel, It changes that it
removes that impediment that we start saying he him he is
he. They speak proudly. Scripture
says they speak their mouths are fully cursing. That comes
natural. A man will damn God. Just without
it just comes natural. Their mouth is full of cursing.
That's so easy to say. But to get a man to say, praise
the Lord, it just doesn't come until the gospel comes. And on and on it goes. Look at
Psalm 119. Look at Psalm 119. Look at that. But when the Lord loosens the
tongue, as we said, First thing we do when the Lord. Delivers
that. First thing we do is we cry unto
the Lord not at him. Then say. You know. That they curse God. Curse with God's name but when
the gospel come. Then we don't. Curse at God but
we ask him Bless us. Psalm 119, look at this, verses
169 through 172. Let my cry come near before thee. This is a man whose tongue has
been loosened. O Lord, give me understanding
according to thy word. Let my supplication come before
thee. Deliver me according to thy word.
My lips shall utter praise. My lips. That's when they got
this dumb man. What do you suppose the first
words were out of his mouth? You'd like to make a guess? He
never spoke before. And now the Lord loosened his
tongue and it says he's fake. What do you suppose he said?
Thank you, Lord. He never said that before. Well, what is the gospel? I said gospel healing. Go to
Isaiah 40 with me. Isaiah chapter 40. What is the
gospel that heals us? The gospel that heals us. The
gospel that gives life to the dead, sight to the blind, hearing
to the deaf, and What is the gospel? Well, the
word means good news, doesn't it? Good news. And the gospel,
in a nutshell, is the good news of sins put away in and by and
through the Lord Jesus Christ. Your sins are put away. But that doesn't mean a thing
to someone who's not a sinner. That's not good news to a self-righteous
man. That's not good news to someone
who hasn't heard that. Here's here's there's no good
news unless we hear the bad. And the preaching of the gospel
begins this way the gospel must begin this way or it's not gospel
you understand there's no good news unless it begins this way
and I said chapter forty look down at verse verse. Six, it
says, the voice said, cry, that is, preach, declare, proclaim. Here's the Lord's command to his preacher. What
shall I cry, the preacher said? All flesh is grass, and the goodliness
thereof is the flower of the field, and the grass withereth,
and the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth
upon it. Surely the people is grass. Everything about man is
like grass. It's to be Burned up, shriveled
up, the goodliness thereof, there is none. Fade of the way. And
none that doeth good, no, not one. None righteous, no, not
one. We have to hear what we are,
don't we? No good. Over in chapter 41, you know,
three, here's good gospel preaching
here. In chapter 40, now look at verse 9, look at verse 9.
O Zion, thou that bringest good tidings, that is, you who preach
the gospel, get up into a high mountain, O Jerusalem, that bringest
good tidings, the gospel, lift up your voice with strength."
I guess this is where preachers started hollering because the
Lord told us to. Why? Have you ever talked to
your children and they wouldn't listen to you if you keep your
voice real low? My dad didn't. Lift it up. Be not afraid. Say unto the cities
of Judah, Behold your God. This is gospel preaching. Those
that bring the gospel tell people what they are. Grass. And who
God is. Behold your God. And here's good
gospel preaching. Chapter 40, it says, Behold your
God. Chapter 41, it says, Behold yourself. You're nothing. Chapter 42, it says, Behold my
servant. Behold, your God, well, who is
our God? Well, he's not like the God being
believed and preached today. Look at verse 9, I'm sorry, verse
12. He's the one who's measured the
waters in the hollow of his hand. Several of us were at the ocean
recently. That thing is, that ocean is amazing. It's vast.
Are you amazed by the ocean? We look at it and we say, wow,
it's so vast. We're not even, we're not seeing
a fraction of it. They say that the ocean is deeper
in places than the highest mountains on earth, in Everest, five miles. That's amazing. The life forms
it must be in, two-thirds of the world is water. And in that
is most life is underwater. All the creatures that God has
made. It's amazing, isn't it? It says He measured it right
here. He measured it in the hollow
of His hand, weighed the mountains in scales. How big is your God? In verse
15, the nations are as a drop of a bucket. Verse seventeen, our God is before
him, all nations are his nothing. They're nothing. They mean nothing
to him. Most powerful nation on earth, United States of America.
It's barely two hundred years old. It won't last. The greatest,
mightiest king goes on the earth. Greatest kings thought they were
invincible. The Lord set it up for them.
Raise it up, cast it down. Setteth up one kingdom, puts
it aside. Just like that. Nothing to him. Nothing to him.
This is our God. Our God. Look at verse 22. It is he that sitteth upon the
circle of the earth, the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers. Grasshoppers. Behold your God. Verse 28. Have you not known He's the creator of the ends
of the earth. He doesn't faint, neither is weary, no searching
of his understanding. My, my. Here's the preaching
of the gospel. Look over chapter 42. Let me
hurry. I'm determined to make this short.
Isaiah 42. Here's the preaching of the gospel
that heals us. He says, verse 1, Behold my servant,
whom I have told. Who's that? That's the Lord Jesus
Christ, the servant of God. Mine elect, he says, in whom
my soul delighted. God never said that about anybody
but Christ. He's his delight, his elect,
the one whom he hath chosen from among the people, and all else
are chosen in him. I have put my spirit upon him
without measure. He will bring forth judgment
that is dealing. to the Gentile. He shall not
cry or lift up his voice, cause his voice to be heard in the
street. A bruised reed shall he not break, smoking flax shall
he not quench. Who is it? There in Isaiah 35
it says strengthen the weak hands and the feeble knees. Who is
going to do that? The Lord Jesus Christ. Behold your God will
come. A bruised reed shall he not break.
Verse 4. He shall not fail nor be discouraged. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
this earth to save the people given to him by God in that covenant
for the world. Here's the good news. Christ
came in the fullness of time. God sent forth his son, made
of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under
the law, to do something for these nothings and nobody, these
no good sinners, by being made sin for them and giving them
his right. And he will not pay. He has not
paid. He did not pay. He wasn't even discouraged. He's
expecting his enemies to be made his footstool and all his children
to be presented to his father. And everything's waiting on him. So what is the gospel that heals? It's a gospel of who God is. Who God is. What we are. There's no good news without
bad news. What we are. Behold I am undone, Isaiah said. So God says, Behold my servant. Who Christ is and what he has
done. And this preaching of the gospel, and I'm done. This preaching
of the gospel is not For one thing, men aren't preaching that
message right there. But this preaching of the gospel
which God uses, it says Christ went about preaching the gospel
and healing every sickness, every disease among the people. This
preaching of the gospel is not begging and pleading for people
to do something for God. That's not the gospel at all.
God doesn't need to hear what men have done for him. He doesn't
need to hear that. The good news is for us to hear
about what he's done for us. And it's not begging and pleading
and bargaining with people and offering them this and that and
the other and so forth. It's declaring. Declaring. Declaring. Setting forth. And the amazing
thing Well, here it is. Paul said in
1 Corinthians 2, he said, we don't use persuasible words of
man's wisdom. What's persuasible words? Won't
you please accept it? Can I persuade you? Can I really?
Can I persuade you? He's knocking on your heart.
Won't you let him in? I'm trying to persuade him. We don't do
that. He said, not with persuasible words of man's wisdom. And they
use all sorts of tactics and gimmicks and tricks and clever
sayings. They use every clever saying
they can think of, but they don't use God's one. Bulletin board. That's what that
means. Persuasible words of man's wisdom
or cleverness. But Paul went on to say, we don't
use persuasible words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the spirit. In demonstration of the spirit,
this preaching of the gospel is simply standing up and declaring
who God is, not asking anybody anything, not begging, pleading,
trying to persuade, but declaring who God is and then standing
back and watch. Demonstration of the spirit.
Illustration. Who read from. Ezekiel thirty
seven. Reason back in the one you mean. I heard somebody read it the
other day did you know who was it that doesn't matter somebody
read from Ezekiel thirty seven on the drive on you know the
story. It's your favorite story. And the Lord asked Ezekiel, he
said, he took him to that valley of dry bone. He said, they were
very many and they were very dry. Are they dead? Are those
people dead? They're bones. And the Lord asked
Ezekiel, said, can these bones live? And Ezekiel thought to himself,
I can't make them live. And all he could say was, thou
knowest. I don't think they can. But thou knowest, I don't see
how. Well, the Lord said, preach, prophesy unto the bones. And then he said, and cry to
the wind. What's the wind? It's the Holy
Spirit. It's a demonstration of the Spirit.
Just preach, what did he say? Oh ye dry bones, hear the word
of the Lord. And he stood back. And every one of them stood up
a great honor, and they lived. That's what that verse means.
In demonstrations. That's the power of God. And that those of you who have
felt it, heard it, experienced that saving power, you know.
You know. That's how He spoke to you. No
begging, no pleading, no persuading, but just declaration. Who got
it? Who Christ did? what you are.
And God Almighty powerfully spoke to you. And you lived. And your eyes were
open. And your heart beat for Him. Your steps were quickened in
the way. And your tongue was clear the first time. All right, stand with me. Our Lord, thank you for the gospel
and the good news. And it is good news indeed that
our God reigns. And what good news it was, though
we didn't think so at the time, when you told us what great sinners
we were. And then we heard the really good news of Christ's
Savior of sinners. This man receiveth sinners and
eateth with them. Thank you, Lord, for preaching
the gospel to us. And we pray that you'd continue
to do it. We need it. We feel we have need
of healing every time we come in here. We need our eyes open
to fresh, our ears open, and our tongues loosened. And, Lord,
we pray for your glory, that you would speak to some of our
friends and loved ones Do not yet know that bring them to hear
the gospel Lord and speak to them in life giving work. And we'll give you all the honor
and glory for that is the power and the glory and the kingdom
forever. Okay.