In the times that we've been
with you, we have been looking at some of the miracles that
the Lord has performed during his earthly ministry and trying
to look at them from a spiritual context, too, because every miracle
that the Lord did, he's sharing with us what he must do for us
spiritually. We looked at a man that was raised
from the dead. Jesus Christ, the Godhead, must
raise us from the spiritual dead. He must heal us. All the spiritual
healing that we get, we can't do it ourselves. So he's the
only one that we find can do that. And today we're going to
be in the book of Luke, chapter 4. The book of Luke chapter 4,
we're just going to read a few verses and make a few comments
here about the ministry of the Lord Jesus, his great work of
grace in dealing with people during his personal ministry. Now, we find so often that the
Lord never took one step unless it was on purpose. He
never went anywhere that he said, I wonder why I'm here. He never
did anything wondering why I did that. And he never said a word
and afterwards says, I wonder why I said that. He spoke the
truth. He did everything according to
his own purpose, his own purpose of grace. Every person he visited
with was on purpose. It was not by mistake. And we
find that the Lord's life and the life of other people intersected
because that's what God intended to do. The scriptures tell us
in the book of Ephesians that he worketh all things after the
counsel of his own will. So when we watch Jesus Christ
doing his ministry, he's performing it exactly like he had determined
it before the foundation of the world, and he is going to visit
exactly who he intended to visit before the foundation of the
world. He is a God from everlasting to everlasting, the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit. God from everlasting to everlasting,
and we cannot explain the Godhead, but the scriptures teach us enough
about it, we believe it. That's what we must believe.
All right, in the book of Luke chapter 4, and in verse 31, the
scriptures tell us, and came down to Capernaum, a city of
Galilee, and taught them on the Sabbath days." Now, the Lord
Jesus was raised in a Jewish household, and he knew the Jewish
rules and regulations, the Jewish law. He knew the Jewish Bible.
Why? Because he had it written. The
holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
So all the Old Testament was given by inspiration of God.
And He being God, gave it. The Holy Spirit gave it. Father
gave it. Gave us the Word as we have it.
And He came down and He taught in the Sabbath days. Now that's
when they met. the Jews met on the Sabbath. Now we call it Saturday, but
it was on the Sabbath day and there he was. And then in verse
32, he did something that the scribes and Pharisees were unable
to do. Most of their ministry, most
of their preaching was just rote preaching. They memorized something.
They just read it verbatim. It didn't mean anything to them.
It hadn't got their heart. You know, in order to say something
effectually, it has to be in your heart. And the Lord Jesus
was speaking from the heart. And the Pharisees and the scribes
very seldom spoke anything other than just rote memory work. Well, it tells us here that when
He spoke, they were astonished. at his teaching. They were astonished
at his doctrine. They were astonished at his preaching.
They were astonished. This was so different than they
were used to hearing. This was just not a normal preacher
preaching. This was someone very special.
This is someone that had a heart in the ministry. He had a heart
of belief. He knew what he was teaching
about and preaching about. And so they said there, for his
word was with power. That is such a wonderful statement
to read in the Bible, that the word of God has power behind
it. You know, our ministry is to
preach the gospel, and then the power of that word in the Holy
Spirit, God works a work of grace. We cannot produce birth. It must
come from God. We can't do it physically, not
alone spiritually. So he must do that, but the seed
is the word, and it is a powerful word. You know, by the word of
God, he created the heavens and the earth. That's astonishing. I can't create anything. I can't
speak anything into existence, but the God of heaven created
the heavens and the earth, and the God of heaven made our first
parents. The God of heaven gave us the word, and his word is
powerful. quick and powerful, living and
powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. So he says here, they
noticed that. This is different than they had
had in their Sunday school class the Sunday before or the Saturday
before. This is someone who speaks with power and with authority.
You know why? He believed it. He believed his
word. And the Pharisees didn't believe
the word. They said, we are of our father Abraham and that is
sufficient. And Jesus told them, if you were
of your father Abraham, you would hear me for Abraham saw my day
and was glad. And they got around and says,
how in the world can this happen? Because Abraham lived so long
ago and he's only 32 or three years old. How can that happen?
They didn't know that this is the eternal God in their presence,
the eternal son of God. So he spoke with power for his
word was with power. And in the synagogue there was
a man which had a spirit of an unclean devil and he cried out
with a loud voice saying, let us alone that have we to do with
thee thou Jesus of Nazareth. Isn't that interesting that the
demons even knew who he was? They knew more about him than
most people did. Most people didn't even know Jesus and Jesus,
but these demons knew who he was. He was Jesus of Nazareth.
Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee that thou art the
Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked him saying,
hold thy peace, come out of him. And when the devil had thrown
him and missed and came out of him and heard him not. And they
were all amazed and spake among themselves, and what a word is
this! For with authority and power
he commandeth the unclean spirits, They came out and the fame of
him went out into every place of the country roundabout and
he arose out of the synagogue Now this is the part we would
like to use today's Lesson and message verses 38 and 39. He's
done so much already. They've heard him preach with
power with authority He took an unclean spirit that identified
him as Jesus of Nazareth And he commanded him to come out
and he came out now I don't understand all I know about that, but I
know this Jesus did it well Bye. He performed that well. He cast
out that demon well. It was not, I hope I can do this,
or maybe I can do this, but he commanded him and it happened.
That's God. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He, by command, does his work. He, by command, performs his
ministry. Now he enters into one of his
disciples' homes. And in that home is a lady that
has a fever. And this lady is related by marriage
to Peter, it tells us there, he arose out of the synagogue
and entered into Simon's house, into Simon Peter's house. Somewhere
close there, this is the house of Simon Peter, and Simon's wife's
mother was taken with a fever. Now, in my translation, it says
great fever. This is not just one of those
run of the mills, we're going to have it seven days or five
days or two days and it's going to be over with. This is a great
fever. That means it's a high fever. That means she is incapacitated
by this fever. She is in her bed incapacitated. She is unable to take care of
herself. She's unable. And I can just
see in my mind's eye, at least, that they call for a doctor to
come in and take a look at her. And he said, you know, there's
just not much I can do about it. Cause she has a fever that
I just cannot break. I'm sure they put cold rags on
her forehead. I'm sure they had her everything
that they knew how to do, but the fever was there. It was a
high fever and she was very sick as a result of this. And she
could not get out of the mess. She was where she got this fever. It doesn't tell us. I know where
I inherited my sin nature from Adam. That's who I inherited
my sin nature from. In Adam, all died. That's what we read in the book
of Romans. In Adam, all died. So I know where I got that. I
got that bad fever from Adam. He passed it on to me. And I
passed it on to my children. And it's something I can't get
out of the mess I'm in by myself. I can't pray out of it. I can't
get baptized out of it. I cannot go to church. I can't
do anything to get out of this mess. It takes an act of God
to get me out of this mess I'm in. Just like it did here. He
wasn't there by mistake. He was there on purpose. He was
there in this room with Peter's mother-in-law on purpose. He was going to demonstrate another
activity that Almighty God can do. You know, the scriptures
tell us in John chapter 1, in the beginning was the word and
the Word was God, and the Word was with God, and then it tells
us that that Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld
His glory as the glory of the only begotten Son of God. Here
is God in the flesh. Now, He's not part God and part
man. He's 100% God and 100% man, and I can't explain it. God doesn't
have to go into that. You know, when we have the word
of God given in Genesis 1, it says, in the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. He doesn't go through 10 chapters
explaining who he is and how he did it. He just does it. That's
the wonderful thing about God, all powerful, all powerful. Well, he's going to demonstrate
that right here. He's going to deal with the health of a woman
who has a great fever. And it tells us there, and they
besought him for her. You know, her family was concerned. Her family was concerned about
her. If this continued, we know the end. If this continued, she
would pass. Now, every one of us has an appointed
day to do that. It is appointed unto man once
to die, and after that, the judgment. That's it. That's what the Bible
has to say about the whole issue. Now we're gonna prolong it as
long as we can, but there is a day. We must be prepared for
that day. And only one can prepare us for
that day, and that is God. All right, it tells us here,
they were concerned, they besought him. How merciful he is at this
point, because he heard them. And then it tells us in verse
39, and he stood over her. Well, he went over to the problem. You know, most of us today, if
we're in that situation is, oh, don't get close. Don't get close. You'll get that fever. You know,
I have a friend that got COVID and we were being warned not
to get too close. We didn't want COVID. You know,
that's just what happens. Don't get too close. We have
ICUs in the hospitals for people that are really sick and they
don't want other people around us. Well, the Lord Jesus is not
going to be affected by this. Did you know what? Lord Jesus
never had a cold in his life. Never had a pimple. He was the
perfect son of God. He was an example of what man
was. And he came over there and it
says there, He stood over her and he did something that everybody
else wished they could have done, but they couldn't. Rebuked the
fever. You know what that means? Gone. Leave. That's the power of God, to deal
with that. And you know, only God can do
that. Only God can perform a miracle like that. And only God can do
that for us spiritually. be healed, raised from the dead. That's only God can do that.
So it says here that it was there, he stood over her, rebuked the
fever, and it left her. You know, a lot of times I've
had fevers, I've known people who've had fevers, and it's up,
oh, 100, 102, and the next day, as it starts to drop, it's 100,
and the next day it's down to 99, and, you know, it goes off
slowly. It's wonderful when we read about
the Lord God Almighty doing His work instantly. Gone. As if it had never been there.
And the next thing she does, she doesn't linger in bed for
a long time trying to recover from this sickness, from this
fever. It says, it left her and immediately
she arose and ministered unto them. What a delight. She knew that somebody with great
power had done something for her because the next thing she's
doing, she's showing thanksgiving by ministering unto them. What's
that mean? Can I get you a cup of cold water?
Can I get you a meal? Whatever it was, but instantly,
immediately the fever had left her and she was in a state that
she hadn't been in for some time. And she was up and Adam, she
arose and ministered unto them. You know what we can see here?
The same things that we just read about him and his word with
power. He spoke. With authority, He
spoke. And right now, He demonstrates
that power and that authority. He comes up to a person that
is maybe on death's bed, and with authority, with power, this
God speaks, and instantly, immediately, the fever is gone, and she is
able to get up and minister. She doesn't have to go through
a long period of recuperation. That's what the Lord does for
his people. Now, he may not do that for us today in a physical
sense, but he is great at doing that in a spiritual sense. He
is great in raising his people from spiritual sickness, spiritual
death, spiritual problems. He's the only one that can deal
with it. He's the only one that can lift us up. I like what David
said, I was in a horrible pit. And the Bible tells us that's
a pretty horrible place. He lifted me out of a horrible
pit and set my feet on a solid rock and established my goings. What is that rock? He puts us
in Christ. He established our goings. We
are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which he hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
And then he said, he put a new song in our heart, a song to
rejoice in the grace of almighty God. What a blessing God gives
his people when he brings them out of the spiritual condition
that we are in through Adam. He stood over her, thank the
Lord. rebuked the fever, it left her,
and immediately she arose and ministered unto them. I was 35
years old before I heard the message that Jesus delivers people
from sin. 35. I was a preacher at the same
time, didn't know the first thing about the gospel. I'm so thankful
that God intersected me with somebody who knew something about
the Bible and preached to me the gospel. And by that, God
raised me from the spiritual dead. And I saw him like I had
never ever seen him before. I knew something about him. I
knew he's a historical figure, but now I know him. I know him. So what a joy. He stood over
her, rebuked the fever, it left her, and immediately she arose
and ministered unto them. That's God doing his business. And we thank him for it. Mike,
would you come and lead us in a closing hymn and we'll have
prayer?