Good morning. It is good to be
back If you would you can be turning
to Matthew chapter 11 and verse 5 I'm only going to read one
verse but Matthew 11 verse 5 And I'll read that here in just
a minute, but I But Christ, in the passage that I'm going to
read, is telling these men sent from John the Baptist to tell
John these things. He asked if Christ was the Messiah
that was that one to come, or should they look for another?
And Christ sends these men back to John with this message that
we'll read in our text. The background here with John
is, John had been put in prison, and it
was because he had told Herod that he was wrong for marrying
Herodias, his brother's wife. So Herodias' daughter had danced
for him, and when she did this, it pleased Herod, so he was gonna
give her whatever she wanted. So when she asked her mother,
her mother told her, I want John the Baptist's head. Although,
you know, Herod was quite fond of John the Badness. He didn't
really want to do this, but he had made the oath, so he had
to keep his oath. So John ended up having his head
taken and put in a charger, and it was given to Herodias from
her daughter. I don't know if John at this
time knew he was going to have his head taken off or not. I
kind of figure it was pretty quick, done pretty quick, so
I don't know if he knew it or not, but he was in prison. The
chapter that we're in tells us that he was. So whether John
was doubting Christ or not, I'm not going to talk about that
this morning. I know I have doubts, and when I do it's because I'm
looking at myself and not at Christ, or my circumstances and
not at Christ. I kind of figure it may have
been something like this for John. But whatever it was, the
answer from Christ is what I want to know. What does He say? What is His will? What is His way? What are His
thoughts about it? So then we come to Matthew 11
and verse 5. And here is what Christ tells
them to go back and tell John. The blind received their sight,
and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear,
the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached
to them. I want to look at this passage
and what it says here of the things mentioned here. Christ
was comforting one of his own with the words he sent back through
these men. Just what was he saying? Was
Christ actually talking about physically healing people and
physically preaching to people? Or was he talking about spiritually
healing people and preaching to people? Yes, both. The great physician is Jesus
Christ, both physical and spiritual. We certainly do not heal people
of their physical ailments of our own power. We cannot heal
them of their spiritual ailments either. We cannot make the blind
see. We cannot make the deaf ear hear.
We cannot make a lame body to walk. We cannot make ourselves
clean of leprosy. We cannot bring ourselves to
life. Nor can any other man. That goes for physical and spiritual. We do preach to people physically,
and God's word says it pleased God through the foolishness of
preaching to save them that believe. This is absolutely true, but
I will come back to this. We do not spiritually preach
to men and women. In other words, we are not preaching
the spirit of God into someone. We can and do say words and may
say words being led by the Holy Spirit. But if it is going to
a person in word only, then they are just hearing words and hearing
only man. But if that message which is
spoken is attended by the Holy Spirit and it goes to them in
power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance, then they
are hearing Jesus Christ the Lord preach the gospel to them. Now this power of the Holy Ghost
is not a big workup of fervor, or how much sorrow you can work
up, or how emotionally charged a message is, or how emotionally
charged you might get hearing a message. We are talking about
the power of God through the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. Much assurance of what? That
Jesus is the Christ, and that Jesus accomplished what he was
sent to do. 1 Thessalonians 1 and verse 6
reads, and ye became followers of us and of the Lord, having
received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost. You
do not receive the Holy Ghost because you work up a great fervor. It is not some happy time where
you come blowing your bubbles with your bubble gum. It is not
raising your hands in praise to God in some action you think
is worthy of God. This word affliction means pressure,
affliction, anguish, burden, persecution, tribulation, trouble. Hearing the gospel this way will
cause you great fear to God, knowing he can do as he wills. But at the same time, it causes
great joy, knowing he has done everything needed for salvation. This word joy here means cheerfulness. And this one I like right here,
calm delight, gladness and joy, not necessarily happy because
it is affliction of the soul. This kind of hearing may be emotional
in one way or the other. But the absence of outward emotion
does not mean that you have not heard the word in much affliction.
We all have different outward appearances and reactions to
things. I am a very emotional person
and show that emotion outwardly. But that does not mean you have
to do this, nor does it mean that every time this happens
to me that it is of God. But when you receive this word,
it will be in much affliction, because that is what God tells
us in his word. That affliction will never end
until we see Jesus Christ the Lord as he is. So let's look
at some of the miracles that Jesus Christ performed that are
mentioned in our text. Not necessarily done at this
time, but miracles in scripture where he performed miracles just
like the ones he mentioned. So going in order, we have healing
the blind. So those who cannot see Jesus
Christ, Jesus Christ heals them. Two blind men, when Jesus Christ
healed in Matthew 9, he healed them according to the faith he
had given them. That's what it says. Matthew
9.29 says, then touched he their eyes, saying, according to your
faith, be it unto you. I know it says here, according
to your faith. But we know scripture says that
faith is of Jesus Christ, and that faith is given as a gift
by God. Nothing of ourselves. In Mark,
we know about blind Bartimaeus, how those around him tried to
shut him up to make him stop crying out for Christ. But just
as it is with any man being called of God, They could not shut him
up. It only made him cry the more
and louder. What happened? Christ healed
him. Mark 10 and 52 reads, And Jesus
said unto him, Go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his
sight and followed Jesus in the way. Then we have the account
of the man born blind in John 9. Christ said that this man
was born blind so that the works of God might be made manifest
in him. So the healing of the blind is
the work of Jesus Christ our Lord. This man, once he was given
sight, was questioned by the religious folks, the Pharisees,
about who had done this to him. They wanted this man to agree
with them that Jesus was a sinner. He responds to them this way.
Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not. One thing I know,
that whereas I was blind, now I see. He knew that Jesus caused
him to see. He also knew some truth though.
Not only did he know a man named Jesus had healed him, but he
also began to preach to the Pharisees to tell them the truth. and they
did not like it. God will not leave you in your
ignorance, though, of who He is. You will always meet Jesus
Christ as your master every time He does a work like this to you
in His good time. If He heals you physically and
or spiritually, you will always end up praising and worshiping
Him for He, for who He is, and that is Lord. John 9 verses 35
through 38 reads this way. Jesus heard that they had cast
him out, and when he had found him, he said unto him, dost thou
believe on the Son of God? And he answered and said, who
is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said unto him,
thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him. Amen. Next we have the lame walk. We
know of the account of the sick of the palsy who was let down
by some men through the roof. Here Jesus Christ healed someone
who could not walk to him on his own. He had to have others
bring him to Christ. Those bringing him to Christ
did not heal him, but they did bring him to Christ. But it does
say that Christ seen their faith. Mark two and five says, when
Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, son,
thy sins be forgiven thee. It is okay for us to believe
Jesus Christ can heal someone we know. We know from Scripture
that He can do anything if only He wills to do so. It is okay
to bring someone to Jesus Christ. How do you do that? Tell them
of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Tell them what He has done for
you. We all have to be healed by Jesus
Christ. But when Christ sees the faith
which he has given, he will be moved to heal a sinner. It is
not that he does not know about it until the sinner shows faith,
but he forces you into a place where you are willing to do anything
to get to Christ to be healed. Next we have lepers are cleansed.
who were not supposed to even get close to other people, came
up to Christ, and Christ healed him of leprosy. Matthew 8 and
2 says, And behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying,
Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. In this case,
Christ was willing, and he made him clean. but we do not presume on God. We also have the account where
there were 10 lepers cleansed, but were they really cleansed?
Luke 17 through 19 reads, and Jesus answering said, were there
not 10 cleansed, but where are the nine? There are not found
that return to give glory to God save this stranger. And he
said unto him, Arise, go thy way, thy faith hath made thee
whole. We have the deaf who hear. Here
in this account we have someone that could not hear Christ and
could not even speak to Christ plainly to call out to him. Jesus
Christ touched him and healed him. Here we have another account
where others brought someone else to Christ. They did not
do any of the healing, but they brought this man to Christ. In
Mark 7, verses 33 through 37, we read this. And he took him
aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears,
and he spit, and touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven,
he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, be opened. And straightway, His ears were
opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake
plain. And he charged them that they
should tell no man. But the more he charged them,
so much the more, a great deal, they published it. And were beyond
measure astonished, saying, he hath done all things well, he
maketh both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak. Once someone
experiences the healing of Jesus Christ for a poor alien sinner,
they will not be able to keep quiet. You have to tell others
what he has done. Next, we have the dead are raised. We have an account of a city
of name where a woman's son died. It was her only son and she was
a widow. Christ had compassion on this
widow woman. This was a son who was in a coffin
or on a coffin, whatever they had in those days. But he was
being taken to be buried, is my assumption here. They were
having the funeral procession, I guess it was. But in Luke 7,
verses 14 through 16, we read this. And he came and touched
the bier, that is the coffin or whatever it was. And they
that bear him stood still. And he said, young man, I say
unto thee, arise. And he that was dead sat up,
and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother.
And there came fear on all, and they glorified God, saying, that
a great prophet is risen up among us, and that God hath visited
his people. Then we have the raising of Lazarus,
Martha and Mary's brother. He was dead four days. Christ,
before he even got to where he was, said he was dead. He knew
he was dead. He purposed for it to be that
way so that they would believe. That's what Christ said. But
he was at the point of stinking in the grave. Four days being
dead, no life whatsoever. but we read in John 11, verses
39 through 44. Jesus said, take ye away the
stone. Martha, the sister of him that
was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh, for
he hath been dead four days. Jesus saith unto her, said I
not unto thee that thou, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest
see the glory of God? Then they took away the stone
from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up
his eyes and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest
me always. But because of the people which
stand by, I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent
me. And when he had thus spoken,
he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead
came forth, bound hand and foot with rave clothes, and his face
was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose
him, and let him go. Until Jesus Christ speaks to
you life, you will not come forth, because you are dead, and you
stink, and you can take that any way you want. Christ will
give life to whom he will. Once he does this, you will come
forth. Even when someone rolls away
the stone, you do not have the ability to come forth unless
Jesus Christ speaks to you. Once you are given life, then
Jesus Christ tells us to then take the grave clothes off and
loose them and let them go. Until Christ does this, all we
will do spiritually speaking is lay there and rot and stink. And last we have the poor have
the gospel preached unto them. Who are the poor? These are beggars. Those who are in the act of begging.
Those who have nothing. Those who need something but
have nothing to pay for it. So what does Christ say he does
to those? He preaches the good news to
them. They cannot purchase for themselves
the righteousness required to be acceptable of God. But there
is good news for them, and Jesus Christ the Lord has fulfilled
all. Not everyone is poor like these
whom this passage is referring to. These for whom this good
news is proclaimed were blind, deaf, dumb, lame, unclean, dead. They had no ability to work for
their salvation. This being the case, then they
are poor, so poor they have to beg for everything. They begin
to see deliverance in another. There was another that stood
in their place. There was another that paid the price for them.
And in doing so, they now are made to see the riches they have
been bestowed to them by Jesus Christ the Lord. They begin to
see that they have all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Jesus Christ the Lord. Now why did I go through all
of these? What is my point? Let me start
that by saying, God always requires people to do things they cannot
do. He requires them to look to Christ
when they are blind. He requires them to come to him
when they are lame and cannot walk. He requires them to be
clean, but from our heads to our feet, we are full of wounds
and bruises and putrefying souls. He requires us to hear and we
are completely deaf. He requires us to live before
him when we are D-E-A-D, dead. Totally absent of life. Here
in the passage I'm going to read, Jesus Christ goes to the scripture
and reads God's word. He reads this passage and then
says some things knowing that those who are listening to him
at that time would get mad at him and want to kill him. And
the passage I'm referring to is Luke 4. Luke 4 verses 18 through
21. And he reads this. It reads this
way. The spirit of the Lord is upon
me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.
he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the
captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty
them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he
gave it again to the minister, and sat down, and the eyes of
all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he
began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled
in your ears. These were gracious words, words
that they were all amazed at hearing Jesus proclaim to them.
But what made them mad? When he said it is in God's sovereign
control to do these things. And he does it to whom and when
he is pleased to do so. This is what men do not want.
They do not like it when they have nothing to do with salvation.
Salvation is all of Jesus Christ the Lord. Nowhere does any man
step into the picture as having any part in the salvation of
sinners. This passage from Luke, you can
go back and read Isaiah 61, 1 through 3 sometime. That's where Christ
was reading, that's where that was from. But Christ heals spiritually
and physically. I cannot tell you when and if
he will do either of these to an individual. But if they are
done, they will be done by Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone. There may not be any physical
ailments that you're healed of. This is all up to him just as
it is up to him to spiritually give you life and or give you
the increase. 1 Corinthians 1 and 21 reads,
It says it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save
them that believe. Paul was speaking to brethren
at Corinth because they were quarreling about who they were
saved by. They were bragging on men. Christ
is one and his body is one. The preacher did not die for
you and your confession and identification with God's people was not unto
men but unto God. The man whom you heard when God
opened your eyes, or the man that baptized you if you were
baptized, makes no difference at all. God did send certain
men to you, and they did preach. Why do we preach? As it's been
said before, because God said so. But also, Paul says, woe
is to me if I preach not the gospel. I'm asking for God to
deal with me if I do not preach the gospel, and that is Christ
and him crucified. It is not with wisdom of words.
Some men can present the gospel better than others, but it is
not the wisdom of their words that does anything. Christ has
already spoken the words needed to hear as we have already read.
So how do men think they can say it better than Jesus Christ?
To call someone to be saved. The answer is they cannot. All
they can do is preach Jesus Christ and him crucified, and it is
up to God to give the increase. No matter what happens, if God
sends a man and the truth of God is proclaimed, it will accomplish
that which it was sent to do. If that means it damns the person
hearing it even further, then it accomplishes what he sent
it to do. If it means that someone comes
to know Christ or grows in the grace and in the knowledge of
our Savior and Jesus Christ, then he has to do it. And it will accomplish that.
Why does it say the foolishness of preaching? Not foolish preaching,
but the foolishness of preaching. Because you have sinners proclaiming
the truth of which they were begat as well. a truth that involved
the God of all glory giving the increase. Men do not preach the
Spirit of God into another man. Scripture says in John 1 verse
13, which were born, not of blood, you weren't born into it with
your family, nor of the will of flesh, you didn't will it
to be so, nor of the will of man, No other man willed it into
you either, but of God. I know some may think that what
I'm saying is, I may sound like I'm against preachers. And that
would be partly correct. I am against preachers who tell
lies on God. But God does use men to proclaim
his gospel. But God does not need me. I can
assure you of that. I know most people hearing me
can attest to the fact that God does not need me. The stones
will cry out if no one else speaks the truth of God. And I'm not
exaggerating. That's what God says in his words. The stones on the ground will
cry out the truth of God if no one else will proclaim his word. The scripture tells us in 1 Corinthians
that those who water and plant are nothing. But it is God that
gives the increase. So you can preach until you're
blue in the face. And if God does not give the
increase, there will be no increase. Just like the rest of God's servants,
they must say once they have done that which was their duty
to do, that they are unprofitable servants. All glory goes to God
Almighty. We should none of us glory in
men, no matter how great they might seem to be. I assure you
they are as fallen as any other man in this world by nature.
Preaching is vital, and that is what God was pleased to use
to save them that believe. But God is the one that does
the saving and not man. But then we have the text. Our
text kind of sounds like what we read in those religious folks
here in Luke 4, where he was in the synagogue in Nazareth.
But in our text, in Matthew 11, I believe he says this here to
comfort one of his people. He was telling him, yes, John,
I am him. I am the Messiah. I am the one
who has come to heal and to save that which was lost. I also think
he is letting John know that he was a part of this, that he
preached the gospel. Christ has judicially done all
these things for his people. He has taken the wrath of God
on himself. God knows he has done it because
God is the one that did it. but he has been pleased to let
us know about it in time. He is the one that does this
as well. No man has now been given any
special authority or right to do what Jesus Christ came to
do. We do have things to do and things that we should do, but
we are to say when we have done all that we have done that we
are but unprofitable servants. We have done that which is our
duty to do. Being healed and being cleansed
and hearing the gospel is not for God's benefit. It is to his
honor and glory. This is all for us, for his people. Without this, it would be a pretty
miserable life on this earth. But he has been pleased to both
heal us and cleanse us, and also to preach the gospel to us. He
sends us those messengers who proclaim the truth of God, and
if he is pleased to do so, he attends that message in an individual,
letting them know that what they are hearing is the truth of Jesus
Christ and him crucified. We merely sow seed. Some of the
seed falls on the wayside, some on stony ground, some on thorny
ground, but God be thanked, some of it falls on good ground. We
are to watch that we preach the truth. Woe is unto me if I preach
not the gospel, as I already said. But we are also to be careful
for what we hear, and also for how we hear the scripture. That
is what God's word says. Everything that Christ does to
us is all because of his work on that tree being made sin for
us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
What does this tell God's people? Jesus Christ, the Lord, will
do all these things. He does use men to preach His
word. I know I'm going over this and over this again, but He does
use men to preach His word, and we are to do that. God does not
use lies, but He will use the message of Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. But if you just hear words from
the preacher, then you have words only. But if you hear Jesus Christ
speaking to you, that speaking that tells you that what you're
hearing is of Jesus Christ, it will then cause you to fear Him,
but at the same time causes you to have joy unspeakable and full
of glory. When Paul and I were in Colorado,
there was a night where there were tornado sirens going off
for, I guess it was about two hours. So there was a threat
of a tornado. And it looked pretty bad outside
around us. I thought one was actually going
to hit. But I tell you this, there must
have been something that touched down, must have been something
real they had reported for him to set off the sirens. We are to warn men and women
of the pending judgment of God. But we are also to tell them
the place of safety, which is Jesus Christ the Lord. I am a
feeble, weak in faith individual. I feel like I am. But I have
the faith that God was pleased to impart to me. God giveth men
the faith he would have them have. I'm going to announce the
pending doom of not repenting towards the sovereign God of
this word. But I'm also going to proclaim
the utter salvation that is in the face of Jesus Christ. I am
weak and nothing. We here at Crow, West Virginia,
at Sovereign Grace Chapel are a pitiful little bunch and are
weak with no strength of our own. But I will stand by his
sovereign grace and mercy to proclaim his utter ability to
save until he takes me to be with him. We do not stand on
our strength, but on his strength. We are weak, but he is strong. We will proclaim how great thou
art to the world that God enables us to do so. We are not standing
by our strength, but his. It's just like Gideon. He had
300 men in Judges 7. He had 300 men against an army
that the scripture says could not be numbered. There were a
lot of people that were against them. What weapons did they have? A clay pot, a lamp, and a trumpet. What did they do? They break
the clay pots. We do this every time we stand
up to proclaim the utter ruin of man, the total depravity of
man, which then leaves the light of the lamp, the word of God,
to shine, and blowing the trumpet, we cause attention to the light
that we hold. Are you a captive of Jesus Christ? He can set you free. And if he
does, you will be free indeed. Salvation is of the Lord and
of the Lord alone. Oh God, revive us again. Give us boldness to proclaim
your word, the ability to proclaim your word, the means to proclaim
your word. Amen. Dear Lord God, thank you for
allowing us safe travel back here, me and Paula, safe travel
back here to be here to hear the gospel. We thank you for
the means that we've been given that we can hear the gospel even
when we're not here. Dear Lord, comfort your people
wherever they might be. If they don't have a place to
go, dear Lord, help them, dear Lord, Be able to hear your word
either online or somehow, dear Lord. Bring the gospel to them. Be with those who are with us,
among us, sick. Heal them, dear Lord, in the
way you see fit. Comfort us. Comfort Walter as
he comes here to speak. May he speak boldly, boldly your
name. All these things we ask in Christ's
name, amen.