and hymn number 485. 485. We praise Thee, O God, for the
Son of Thy love, For Jesus who died and is now gone above. Alleluia, bind the glory Alleluia,
all hail Alleluia, bind the glory Revive us again We praise Thee,
O God For the Spirit of life He has shown us our Savior and
scattered our life. Alleluia, Thine the glory! Alleluia, Amen! Alleluia, Thine
the glory! Revive us again! All glory and praise to the Lamb
that was slain, Who has borne all our sins and has cleansed
every stain. Alleluia, by the glory, Alleluia,
Amen. Hallelujah, thy good Lord, revive
us again. Revive us again, fill each heart
with thy love. May each soul be rekindled with
fire from heaven. be seated we'll sing worship
him we have come into this house We have come into this house
and gathered in His name to worship Him. We have come into this house
and gathered in His name to worship Him. We have come into this house
and gathered in His name to worship Christ the Lord. ? Worshipping Christ the Lord
? So forget about yourself ? And concentrate on Him and worship
Him ? So forget about yourself ? And concentrate on Him So forget about yourself and
concentrate on Him and worship Christ the Lord. Worship Him, Christ the Lord. So let's lift up holy faith and
magnify His name and worship Him. So let's lift up holy faith
and magnify His name So let's lift up holy faith and
magnify His name and worship Christ the Lord. Worship Him, Christ the Lord. He is all my righteousness, I
stand in Him complete and worship Him. He is all my righteousness,
I stand in Him complete and worship Him. He is all my righteousness, I
stand in Him complete, and worship Christ the Lord. Worship Him, Christ the Lord. Matthew chapter 8. Matthew chapter
8. Read the first 13 verses, which
of course I'm going to deal with pretty much the whole chapter
if I can, if it's the Lord's will. But I'll read the first
13 verses. Matthew chapter 8. And when he was come down from
the mountain, great multitudes followed him. And behold, there
came a leper, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt,
thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand,
and touched him, saying, I will be thou clean. And immediately
his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus saith unto him, See
thou tell no man, but go thy way, show thyself to the priest,
and offer the gift that Moses commanded for a testimony unto
them. And when Jesus was entered into
Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him,
and saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home, sick of the palsy,
grievously tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I will
come and heal him. The centurion answered and said,
Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof,
but speak the word only, and my servants shall be healed.
For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And
I say to this man, go, and he goeth. And to another, come,
and he cometh. And to my servant, do this, and
he doeth it. And when Jesus heard it, he marveled
and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have
not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And I say unto
you, that many shall come from the east and west, and shall
sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.
But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer
darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And Jesus
said unto the centurion, Go thy way, and as thou hast believed,
so it be done unto thee. And his servant was healed in
the selfsame hour. Our God, our great, glorious,
blessed, eternal God of heaven and earth, Lord, we come into
your presence by the way you appointed us, by the way you
gave us access, by your Spirit into thy presence through your
blessed Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, our mediator, our go-between,
the one that can come and approach you on his own merit. And Lord,
we have to approach you on his merit too. And so, Lord, we come
in the precious name of our Lord. So thankful, so blessed, so grateful,
Lord, to be able together. I know, Lord, I thank you for
this so often, that we come to worship you, come to honor you,
come to adore you, come to learn of you, come to take your yoke
upon us and learn of you. And Lord, Your yoke is easy and
Your burden is so light. And Lord, we're so thankful,
so thankful that You called us to be Your own, that You called
us Your sheep. You laid down Your life for us,
gave Yourself for Your sheep. And Lord, You're the door that
goes in and out, for we can go in and out. And Lord, bless these
dear saints that's gathered out here this evening. God, meet
the needs of their hearts, meet the needs of their home, I know
some are tired, some are troubled, some have burdens, and we pray
for those who are not with us through your providence that
keeps them from coming. Lord, God bless them. Lord, strengthen
them. Lord, encourage them. Give sufficient
grace. Meet with us, please. Oh, God,
for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. Hymn number 187. 187. Bless be
the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love. His light to them above. Before our Father's throne, we
pour our hearts out. Our fears, our hopes, our aims,
our want, our comforts and our cares. We share our mutual goals. our mutual burdens bared. And often for each other flows
a sympathizing tear. When we asunder part, it gives
us inward pain. But we shall still be joined
in court and hope to meet again. Here in Matthew 8, I'm going
to deal with seven prayers in this chapter. Seven prayers. You know, a lot of people think
that prayers is kind of like a talisman, something magic that
opens the way into the presence of God. And it's a privilege to be able to
speak to God in another world You know, when God lives in eternity
and we live in time, then we can speak from time and enter
into eternity and talk to an eternal God. But a lot of folks
take prayer very lightly, take it for granted, and then there
s multitudes and multitudes of people who are very, very presumptuous
in their prayers, their conception of prayers. They think that God
owes them something, they've got a right, that they've got
a right, and that when they pray unto God, God's supposed to do
for them whatever they ask. And they go there, and most people
don't even pray until they get in trouble. That's when most
folks start calling on the Lord, when they get in trouble, get
in trouble. But their conception of God and
their conception of prayer, they go to God with their rights.
I've got a right. You know, and that's a horrible
thing. And some pray to change God's mind. They hope that they
can change God's mind instead of praying that God change their
mind. And that's what prayer does.
It ain't going to change God. We hopefully pray that it changes
us. And I'll tell you something else
about it. Some pray repetitiously. Let me give you several instances
of people, you know, they think they're going to be heard for
their much speaking. Our Lord even said that. The
Jews, they pray long prayers and say the same thing over and
over and over, and they rot back and forth. And then you've got
the Muslims, they say the same thing over and over and over
and over and over again. And they have three times a day,
just like the Jews, that they have to, if they don't make it
three times a day, they feel like they've really not done
anything. And then there's the Catholics. They got their beads,
that they count their beads, and they say, so many Hail Marys,
or so many Our Fathers. And so they think they're going
to be heard for their much speaking. You know the priestess said,
you say a hundred Hail Marys, and that'll take care of that
sin you committed. Wouldn't that be wonderful if that's how easy
it was? say so many Hail Marys, and then your sins be taken care
of. But there s people that really believe that, just saying the
same thing over and over and over that God s going to hear
them because they say the same thing over and over and over.
And then there s the people who think that the longer they pray
and the louder they pray, that God s sure going to hear them
because they think He s way, way off and hard of hearing. But in Matthew 8, We have seven
prayers from different people for different reasons with different
results. Now let me tell you what prayer
is. Prayer is when you have a want or a need. Prayer is when you
have a want or you have a need. You have a need. And then asking for that want,
asking for that need. It means to CALL on someone for
your aid, call someone to come to your aid. It s to have a DESIRE,
it s to make a REQUEST, and that s what prayer is. Now, I want
you to see the first prayer here in the first three verses here
of Matthew 8. Here s the first prayer, it s
a prayer of submission. When he was come down from the
mountain, great multitudes followed him. This is a prayer of submission.
And behold, there came a leper, and worshipped him, saying, Lord,
if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth
his hand, and touched him, saying, I will be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was
clean. Now a leper, according to the
law, was considered unclean. If he sat down, you couldn't
sit where he sat. and he had to stay without the
camp. He couldn t come in the camp, and if he did, he had to
come in with his hand over his mouth crying, Unclean! Unclean! So people would get out of his
way. And oh, his disease was incurable, uncurable. And oh,
and you ve heard so many times before, leprosy is typical of
sin. I mean it permeates the whole
body, and sin makes us so unclean. But this shows us the way that
we re to approach God. Anybody that wants to be saved
by the grace of God, wants to be saved, this shows us the way
a sinner is to approach God. First thing it says about a leper
came to him, a leper, unclean, uncurable, the law couldn t do
nothing for him, nobody could do anything for him. And the
first thing he comes and says he worshiped him, He worshipped
him. That's the first thing he did
when he came up with seeing Christ. He worshipped him. And you know
what? Worship means to adore Him. Very,
very few people know what worship really is. You know, every once
in a while God allows us to enter into worship where He comes into
our presence so much that we re so taken up with Him that
that s all we can think about is Him. But He worshipped Him,
He worshipped Him. Oh, my! And then the next thing
He said, He worshipped Him, adored Him, bowed down before Him. And
the second thing He said, Lord, You know what that Lord is? That
word there means the same word as Jehovah, the Old Testament,
Jehovah, and Jehovah, and He said, Lord, my Master, my God! And that first thing He worshiped,
then He cried out, Lord! And then look what He put Himself
in the hands of Christ, He put Himself in the hands of a sovereign
Lord, and look what He says, Lord, if You will, My life is
up to You, If you will, everything about me depends on your will.
If you do anything for me, it depends on your will. You're
the one with the power. You're the one with the ability.
You're the one with all the strength. You're the one that can do something
nobody else could do. And he said, if you will, you're
the Lord. It's your will that's to be done.
You've got the power. You've got the ability. And oh
my, and if you will, you know what you can do for me? You can
make me clean. I won't be a leper anymore. Oh my. And I tell you, this is
the way to approach Christ. Worship him. You're the Lord. And if it's your will, you can. And look what he said here now. Jesus put forth his hand. and
touched him, just touched him, just touched him. And look what
he says next. He said, I will. I will. And immediately, immediately,
immediately, immediately his leprosy was cleansed. Oh my! He said, Oh, you can make me
clean. You can make me acceptable. The
law shuts me out, but you can bring me in. You can cleanse
me and the law will acquit me. You see, that's what I'm telling
you. He had a need. He asked, he called on the Lord
for help and the Lord heard him and answered him immediately,
immediately. And that leper was cleansed.
Now, let me give you the second prayer. second prayer down here
in verse 5 and 6. Look at this, this is a prayer
of compassion, a prayer of compassion, a prayer for someone else. And when Jesus was entered into
Capernaum, there come unto him a centurion. This is like a almost
next to being a general, and there came unto him a centurion
beseeching him, saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick
of the palsy, grievously tormented. Now, this man had such compassion,
he come asking the Lord, not for himself, his prayer was totally
unselfish, It was over a servant, somebody in his house, one of
his slaves is really what it amounts to. And this man's prayer
was so unselfish, he had compassion. And look how he describes it.
He said, Lord, he said in verse six, Lord, and again, he started
out calling him Lord. Oh, you start out calling him
Lord, and he says, my servant. That's the first thing he says,
my servant. He's my servant. He's got no right in my home.
He has no power in my home. He has no anything in my home. He's just one of my servants.
And oh my, but he said, but he's lying. He's lying down. He can't get up. He's sick. He can't get out of bed. And
they said he's sick. And then look what else, he's
grievously. His body was hurting him so bad
that it grieved him. And it says he's in torment.
Oh my, he went into such detail concerning the condition of his
servant. He cared for the misery of somebody
else. He cared for the misery of somebody
else in the condition that they were in. His heart, his heart
went out to his sick servant. His heart went out and he saw
his servant lying there sick, tormented, couldn't do anything. Oh my! Oh, what a, talk about compassion. How wonderful it'd be, I do know
this much, when you get real down about something, you start
praying for somebody else, you start praying for somebody else,
in just a little while, the Lord will bless you. You start praying
for somebody, instead of praying for yourself, pray for somebody
else. And he says, the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel,
but the righteous consider their servant. And oh my, there's so
many people that look at everything as that will affect them, and
have no regard for anybody else. But this man here, he's a man
in power. He's a man that's got a servant
in his home, and his heart goes out to that servant, feels such
compassion for him. And oh my, and what did he do? He called on the Lord. Who has
compassion? Profanified in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Look what our Lord said in verse
six now. or verse 7, and Jesus says unto
him, I will come and heal him. I'll come and heal him. Well,
that is the prayer of compassion. But now look here at a prayer
of faith. Here's this man come concerned
about somebody else in the awful condition this servant of his
was in. And when the Lord said, I'm going
to come to your house and I'll heal him. Now look what faith,
a prayer of faith. The centurion answered and said,
Lord, I love this right here. I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy
that you should come into my house. I'm not worthy that you
should come into my house. You know how many people think
that they're worthy for Christ to come into their home, worthy
for Christ to do something for them? This man here said, I'm
not worthy that you should even come to my house. I'm not worthy. I got a sick servant, but I m
not worthy for you to come to my house. I m not worthy! I didn t, I didn t! And look
what he goes on to say, Oh, my! Oh, he was not a Jew, he was
a Roman centurion, slave was sick, servant sick, afflicted
in body and soul, and oh, my! And look what he goes on to say,
I m not worthy to come under you come unto my roof, but he
said, now listen, you talking about faith, just speak your
word only, stay right where you are, don't move, just speak your
word and my servant will be healed. That's all it takes is you said,
do it and it'll happen. That's all he said, just listen,
don't come to the house, just speak the word. SPEAK THE WORD! You talk about FAITH! Oh, my! No business asked, no signs asked
for. You know what? FAITH! FAITH is
satisfied with the promise of God alone. We re satisfied with
what God said, and that s what this Heurin s at. He said, Oh,
my! Just SPEAK YOUR WORD ONLY! You
don t have to come! You don t have to come! And then
look at the argument he used. He said, I'm a man and I've got
a lot of people under authority of me. I've got soldiers under
me, hundreds of them under me. And I say to that soldier, go
over yonder, and he goes. And I tell another one, come
over here, and he comes. And I tell my servant, and I
say, do this, and my servant does it. Oh my. And I tell you what, so if you
tell a disease or a demon to turn loose and be done, it'll
happen. You don't have to come to my
house. You don't have to lay hands on this man. All you've
got to do is say, I will. I will. And that's all it took. Oh, my. And I tell you, our Lord
Jesus Christ, He said, Go, so the demons will obey you, and
men will obey me. They'll obey you just like men
obey me. And oh, my. Now, Lord Jesus said,
when he heard it, marveled and said to them that followed, Truly,
truly, I have never, ever found so great faith, not on anybody
in all of Israel. I'm all over Israel, and here's
a Roman, here's a Gentile. All he said, just speak your
word and it'll be done. And that's exactly all it takes
for God to do anything for us. Just speak the word, speak the
word. And look what he says to him
down here in verse 13. Look what he says, oh, it's great, great
faith when you, prayer of faith, and a great, great faith when
you see what our Lord done with him. And Jesus said unto the
centurion, go on, go on back home, and have you believed,
you believe that all I gotta do is just say the word, have
you believed that, so be it done unto thee. And he started home,
and when he got home, you know what? His server was sittin'
up like nothin' ever been wrong with him. He got home, and you know
what? Palsy, he said he's sick. Palsy
means paralyzed. This man, I'm thinkin' about
it today, maybe he'd had a stroke and was paralyzed. Something
happened to him, he had been a healthy servant, then he got
real sick, and his master went to the only person to do anything
for him, and said, All you got to do is say your word. And he
got home, and that boy, that man was taken care of, taken
such care of. Oh my, oh what prayers. And then here's the fourth prayer,
let me show you this. This is a prayer of procrastination
now. That would be me. You're talking
about a procrastinator. If it can't get done today, it'll
keep till tomorrow. And if I don't feel like doing
something today, it'll keep till the day after. I'm really bad for that. Ain't
I, ain't I, sweetheart? I'm bad for it. But anyway, look
what he said here in verses 19 through 20. Here's the procrastinators. And you know, when Jesus saw
great multitudes about and gave command to depart to the other
side, and a certain scribe," now this is a prayer of procrastination,
"...a certain scribe said unto him, Master, I'll follow you
whithersoever you go." Now, oh my, now this is a prayer for
self, this is a selfish prayer. I'll follow you, he said, Lord,
wherever you go. You go up a mountain, I'll go
up a mountain with you. You get out on a ship, I'll go
out on a ship with you. You go through a great trial,
I'll go through it with you. Wherever you go, I'm gonna go. I'm gonna follow you, I'm gonna
be right behind you, following you everywhere you go. But look
what he said now. And I, Lord, oftentimes, you
know, And here s what he done, he put obstacles in this fellow
s way. He says, Now, you think you really want to follow me?
You think you really do? He said, These foxes that you
see running around here, they have holes that they can get
in. Crawl in there and have a nice place to stay. And look at all
the birds, they get in their nest. They get in their nest
at night, and they sit on their nest during the day. But he says,
me, I don't have no place even to lay my head. When I get to
the end of the day here, I got no place to lay down, no place
to lay down. So that old fella, and I, listen,
I has no telling how many people that I've met in my lifetime
that's been at this church here, at this congregation that comes
in here, I'm gonna follow the Lord, I'm gonna follow the Lord,
I wanna be baptized, I wanna confess, I'm gonna follow the
Lord. I want to be a Christian, I want to identify with Christ. Where are they? They found out that there were
some obstacles in the way. It's too far to drive, gets me out too late. You know, what hinders people? Why do people do that? God puts an obstacle in their
way, and all they've got to do is get in a car and get there.
And then all they've got to do is get out of the car and come
in, sit down on a padded pew, got good heat in the winter,
good air conditioning in the summer. Where are they at? Why aren't they following Christ?
Why aren't they following Christ? I'll tell you why they ain't
following Christ. Foxes has hole, birds has that, and all that
Christ's got to do is just try them two or three times, send
a little trouble in their life, and they throw up their hands
and they're done. It's like our Lord said, He said, He said,
What man plowing puts his hand to the plow, and looking back,
he's not fit for the kingdom of God. If you're plowing and
you take your eyes off that, your plow's gonna go this way
and that way and every other way. You can't go straight. And
our Lord said, If you're looking back, what you're thinking of,
I don't know if I wanna go on this way. I don't know if I wanna
plow this far or not. I don't know if I wanna work
this hard or not. And he's looking back, and I
might turn this plow loose. Oh, listen, I wouldn't give you
a nickel for something. Listen, I don't want to be self-righteous. I don't want to be a Pharisee
in this business. But I'll tell you what, if you can quit and
leave Christ, you will. I've seen too many do it. Too
many do it. And it troubles me. It's a very
troubling thing to me. But anyway, look what he goes
on to say. Look what happens to another
fellow here. These fellows got lots of talk, lots of talk. They
got a lot of intention. And then this other fellow said,
another of his disciples said unto me, Lord, allow me first
to go bury my father. That s the first thing he said. Now, you know, I got to think
about this today. His daddy might not have been dead. He said,
Just let me go home. My daddy s getting old. My daddy
s looking bad, and so I might ought to go home and stay with
him till he dies. and then after he dies, then
I'll find that willy-nilly, and I'll start following you. I'll
start following you. Oh, it seemed like a reasonable
thing. Let me go and bury my daddy. Our Lord said this, look
what he told him. But Jesus said unto him, follow
me. Forget your father, forget your
mother, forget your sisters, forget your brothers. FORGET
ANYTHING AND EVERYBODY THAT KEEPS YOU FROM ME, FORGET IT, he said. And look what he goes on to say,
Let the dead bury the dead. Now, what in the world is he
talking about here? He said, Let the natural man,
people that are dead in trespasses and sin, you let the natural
man, the man don t care anything about me, and don t care anything
about Christ, don t care a thing about eternity, YOU LET THEM
TAKE CARE OF THE DEAD OUT HERE IN THIS WORLD. WHAT YOU DO, I'LL
TAKE CARE OF YOUR DADDY, I'LL TAKE CARE OF YOUR FAMILY, I'LL
TAKE CARE OF EVERYTHING FOR YOU, YOU FOLLOW ME. BUT HE MADE AN
EXCUSE. OH, HE MADE AN EXCUSE. OH MY,
I'LL TELL YOU THIS, OH MY, YOU LET THE WORLD AND ITS CONCERN
TAKE CARE OF THEMSELVES, If you trust in Me, then you follow
Me. When you're called to do something, just do it. If the
sick need visiting, visit them. If the poor need help, help them.
If the missionaries need support, support them. If the lonely need comfort, comfort
them. If the hungry need feeding, feed
them. Don't advise others. Don't ever
say, Me first. This woman came to the Lord Jesus
Christ and anointed Him with that box of oxnard and put that
fragrance all over Him, and they said, Oh, this could have been
sold for so much money! And you know what our Lord said? She did what she could, and that
s all we can do. Do what He tells us to do, and
that s for no more. And that s why they listen. There's a difference in an excuse
and a difference in a reason. Now there's people not here tonight
because of a reason. They're sick. They've been to
doctors. They've got problems in their
life. I understand that. I have no problem with that.
But boy, these folks at just that side, you know, I'd rather
be at home. I'd rather be doing something
else as believing the gospel, following Christ. Oh my, that
s procrastination! Lots of folks talk, talk, talk,
talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. And then let me give
you another one here quick. Here s another one down here
in verse 23 and 24. And in verse 23 it says, When
he was entered into a ship with his disciples, his disciples
followed him. And behold, there arose a great
tempest in the sea, in so much that the ship was covered with
the waves. Waves was going over the boat,
but he was asleep. He was asleep. You know, God don t sleep, but
God don t calm storms either. I mean, man don t calm storms
either, so look what it says here. But he was asleep. He was
asleep. And his disciples came to him
and awoke him. WOKE THE LORD JESUS CHRIST UP,
THE MAN CHRIST JESUS, AND HE SAID, WHY ARE YOU SO FEARFUL,
O YOU OF LITTLE FAITH? THEN HE AROSE, REBUKED THE WIND
AND THE SEA, AND THERE WAS A GREAT CALM. The man sleeps, but only
God can control the sea, so there s God and man in this one person.
But O, A PRAYER OF FEAR AND LITTLE FAITH That's the first thing
they come to. They woke the Lord. You know,
little faith is better than no faith. And sometimes I think,
our Lord Himself said, if you had the faith of a grain of mustard
seed, mustard seed. And boy, listen, little faith
is better than no faith. But these fellows, they was afraid,
and they had a little bit of faith. And their faith had the
right object. The first thing they did is they
went to the Lord. they went to the right person. They was in trouble, a storm
was coming, and they went to the right person. And oh my, and listen to this,
and they requested the right thing. They said, Lord, save
us. Save us. We're going to perish
if you don't save us. This boat's going to sink if
you don't save us. And I tell you, that's the first
thing he said. Their faith had the right object. They went to
the Lord, requested the right thing, save us. Oh my. And they seen things the way
they really were. They said, we perish. There was
no danger of them perishing with Christ in the ship. Oh my. It ain't gonna happen. If they hadn't have woke him
up, they still would have got to the other side, because he
was with them. But oh my. But they said, Oh
Lord, we perish, we perish, and our Master always takes care
of His people in the storms. He always calms the winds, always
calms the sea, and He often puts us in these storms, and our faith
sometimes is fearful, and our faith sometimes just seems so
little, but just as sure as it looks like it s going to overwhelm
us. Master, master, master, save
me, save me. Or I will, I will. I will. You ever have a prayer of fear
and little faith? I've had lots of them in my lifetime.
I really, really have. Really have lots of them. And
then let me show you another one. Let me show you another
one. Down here in verse 28 and 29. After he rose and rebuked the
winds and the sea, and there was a great calm, the men marveled,
the men marveled, in verse 27, what manner of man is this? And
that's what they said, that even the winds and the sea obey him. I'll tell you what manner of
man he is, he's a God-man, God-man. And then it says here, here's
a prayer of opposition, people that oppose him. And when he
come to the other side, into the country of the Gergensides,
there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs,
exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way. And
behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee,
Jesus, thou Son of God? Art thou come here to torment
us before our time, or before the time for us to be tormented?
And that s the first thing they said, What have we got to do
with you? We don t have nothing to do with you! We ve got nothing
in you! We oppose you! We re darkness
in your light! We re demons, and you re holy,
and you re righteous, and you come to TORMENT us! And that
word TORMENT means that they re going to be put in HELL! you know, that you come to TORMENT
us, you come to BIND us and put us in HELL before even for our
time to come to go down there anyway. And oh, these men were
living in, these demons were living in men, living in men. What part has darkness with light? What fellowship hath light with
darkness? What concord hath God with Belial? Our Lord Jesus Christ said, When
Satan came, he said, He hath no part in me. They knew who
he was. Oh, they knew who he was. They
come to our Lord and they said, He know He was casting out demons. And they said, He casts out devils
by Beelzebub, by the prince of the devils. Our Lord said, well,
how in the world can that be? If Satan is divided against Satan,
if a house divided against itself, it'll fall. So how can Satan
cast out Satan? But if I cast them out by the
finger of God, who do you think you're casting them out by? Oh my, but oh listen, look what
they said. They knew His power. They knew
He could do what He would with them. And let me tell you this,
this is it, the devil and God are not equal. They're not equal. And they're not even in a fight.
They're not even in a fight. The devil don't do anything till
he asks God Almighty. You find that so many places
in the Bible. I tell you, he's on a chain,
and Revelation said he's on a chain. Bunyan said he's on a chain,
he can only go so far. God's got the chain. God's got
the collar on him. And I tell you what, these people
talk about how powerful the devil is. Listen, the devil can't do
nothing until God gives him the permission. The devils trembled, and they
believed. And these fellows here, they
said, Oh, Lord, why do you come to TORMENT us? Just being in His presence was
TORMENT to them. They were in darkness, and He?s
light, and that was TORMENT to them to be in the presence of
Christ. And that s the way it s going to be. Men that die without
Christ, if they brought them back out of Hell and didn t change
their nature and got into the presence of Christ, it d be TORMENT
to them! They wouldn t enjoy it! But oh, my, look what happens
now. Oh, boy, the devil and God are
not equal, and he said they knew he could do with him what he
wanted to, and I tell you what, and they were FIERCE, FIERCE!
No man could even come by that way. And oh, he said, you come
here to torment us. Oh, you're the son of God, you're
gonna torment us. And look what happens now. And
there was a good way off from them and a herd of many swine,
a whole bunch of hogs, and they was feeding. The devil said to
the Lord, said, Lord, you know, they didn't call him Lord, but
they said, the devil's besought him saying, if you're gonna cast
us out, you got the power. If you're gonna cast us out,
Allow us to go into this bunch of hogs. If you're going to cast
us out, you're going to torment us, put us in these hogs." And
he said unto them, Go! He told all them devils, Get
out of them! Go on in and get in them hogs. And when they were
come out, they entered into that herd of hogs. And behold, the
whole herd of swine went violently down a steep place into the sea,
and perished in the waters. And they that kept him fled,
and went their way, and told everything what was befallen
to those possessed with the devils. Now hear thy Lord, and he'll
tooth in. Those fellows, the devils are gone, they're in their
right mind, they're not fierce anymore. But you know, the only
place a devil is comfortable is in a man. Hogs can't even
stand him. But oh my! But they run down
through there, and I've said this before, you know that's
when the Camelot Church was formed, and they all come out on the
other side, and they start the Camelot Church, because that's
all that they want. I should have said that, but
that's where the Camelots come. Oh, my, that s awful. I couldn
t help it. I just couldn t help myself.
But look, let me give you the last one, the seventh prayer,
the seventh prayer. And look what it said in verse
34. It was a prayer of rejection, a prayer of rejection. These
fellows oppose, these demons oppose Christ. Oh, my, you want
to torment us, put us in eternal darkness? Oh, my, but look what
it says in verse 34, Prayer of Rejection. And behold, the whole
city came out to meet Jesus. That place of Jergensenes, this
place, and the whole city came out to meet Jesus. And when they
saw Him, they besought Him that He would depart out of their
coast. Oh, what condemnation for these
people! Why would they do this? Why would
they tell Christ to depart? Why would they tell Christ to
leave their city? They were curious. The whole
city came out to meet Him, to meet Him. I want to see this
person who could do this. I want to meet Him. They wanted
to meet Him who could do such things, but they didn't want
to follow Him, didn't want to follow Him. Oh, my! THEY PREFERRED THEIR SWINE BEFORE
THE SAVIOR. THE DEVILS DROWNED THEM, BUT
THEY BELIEVED CHRIST HAD DONE THIS. HERE HE WAS, HE SET TWO
MEN FREE. THEY WERE CLOTHED AND IN THEIR
RIGHT MIND. AND ALL THESE FOLKS HERE LOVED
THEIR DARKNESS WHEN THE LIGHT CAME AMONG THEM, AND THEY LOVED
THEIR PIGS AND MONEY MORE THAN THEY WANTED CHRIST. And you know
what they said? They said, they besought Him,
leave us, get out of our town, get out of our town. Henry Mahan
preached a message on depart from me. He went through several
things in the New Testament where people asked Christ to depart
from them. And this is one of those places. Can you imagine
a whole city coming out? And they see the Lord Jesus Christ.
They see those two men that were so fierce. They see them, they're
in their right mind. Everything's okay. And all the
hogs are drowned. And they said, oh my, what a
powerful person. What an unusual man this is. And then they said, But we sure
would like for you to leave town. You done caused us too much trouble.
You caused us too much money. You caused us enough trouble.
We just assume you leave. We just assume you leave. And
you know what our Lord did? Look what it said in verse 1
of chapter 9. And he entered into a ship and
passed over and came unto his own city. You don't want me? I'm gone. You don't want me?
I'm leaving. You don't want me in town? I'm
gone. Oh, boy, this idea that Jesus stands just biting his
fingernails waiting for somebody to ask him to do something. Oh,
no. No, no, no. Uh-uh. Boy, he said,
depart from me. And he did. Can you imagine a
whole city saying, depart from me? I can't imagine doing it
myself. But a whole city, depart from
me. Our Father, in the blessed name
of Christ our Lord, thank you for allowing us to speak again
tonight to show the things of Christ and His power and His
glory and His majesty, to show all these different people praying
and all the different results that came from it. Some resulted
in damnation, some resulted in people being made new, Some revealed
great faith. Some revealed great fear and
little faith. But, O Lord Jesus, You're the
One that answers prayer. You're the One we come to. You're
the One with the power. You're the One with the will.
You're the One with the ability. And Lord, we believe You. We
really, really, truly believe You. You just send Your Word
to us. Just send Your Word, like You
did tonight. Just send Your Word. And oh Lord, we'll be healed. Our souls will be fed. Our minds
will be clear. Our hearts will be encouraged.
Just speak the word. We bless you and praise you in
Christ's name. Amen. Let's turn to 327 in the hymn
book, and we'll sing this and you'll be at liberty to go. 327.
I think that's what I'm looking for. Yep. Okay. O for a faith that will not shrink,
though pressed by many a foe, that will not tremble on the
brink of any earthly woe, Of any earthly woe That will not
murmur nor complain Beneath the chastening rod But in the hour
of grief and pain, we'll lean upon its God. We'll lean upon its God. A faith that shines more bright
and clear when tempests rage without, that when in danger
knows no fear, in darkness feels no doubt, in darkness fears no
doubt. Lord, give me such a faith as
this, and then what e'er may come. I'll taste it now, the
hallowed bliss of an eternal home, of an eternal home. Good night and God bless you. See you Sunday, Lord willing.