If you care, open your Bibles
to Matthew chapter 8. Lord willing, we're going to
continue our study there in Matthew chapter 8 this morning. Before
we begin, let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, oh, how thankful
we are that this morning we could come before You into Your courts
with praise and thanksgiving. How we thank You such a savior. How we thank you for such a gospel
that you've given us to preach and to believe. Father, I pray
this morning if you've blessed us with another opportunity to
meet together and worship. Father, that you bless your word
this morning. Get much glory to your name through
the preaching of your word this morning. Save and edify and bless
the hearts of your people through the preaching of your word. Cause
us with eyes of faith to see our Lord Jesus Christ and to come to him either the
first time or to come to him again. Father, the Apostle Peter wrote
to whom coming. I pray you keep us coming, looking,
constantly looking to our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, bless your
word here in our class in this hour. Bless the words. Talk to
our children. Father, we thank you for our
children. Pray your mercy and grace be upon them. Bless them,
bless their teachers in this hour that this might be the time
that you'd use to plant the seeds of faith in their heart. Father,
we thank you for all the blessings of this life, how richly and
abundantly you blessed us. Everything we have has come from
your hand. We've not earned or deserved any of it. It's come
freely from your hand, and Father, we're thankful. Father, for the sick and the
afflicted, we pray for them, those who are hurting, those
who need you especially. In so many different situations,
Father, bless and heal and comfort according to the riches of your
goodness you have reserved for your people. Father, all these
things we ask and we give thanks in that name which is above every
name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. All right, Matthew. Chapter eight, I've titled our
lesson this morning. He bear our sicknesses. Our lesson
begins in verse 14. And when Jesus was come into
Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother laid and sick of a fever
and he touched her hand and the fever left her and she arose
and administered under them. And when the even was come, they
brought unto him many that were possessed with devils and he
cast out the spirits with his word and healed all that were
sick. There are several lessons I want
us to see from these verses this morning. Most of them relate
to sickness and healing. But the first lesson is this,
that God's preachers can be married. Matter of fact, there are many
people who think a pastor should be married. I can tell you it
is very helpful. It's good for every man to have
a helpmeet and a pastor certainly is no different. We know Peter
was married. He had a mother-in-law. Now the
Catholic Church, and somehow this thought has kind of permeated
all of society, they say that their priest cannot be married.
Somehow that makes them more pure, more dedicated somehow.
They also say Peter was the first pope. Now something's wrong in
there. They're wrong on both counts.
You see the inconsistency in their teaching here? The teaching
celibacy for those in the ministry is somehow good. And, you know,
that's what that's what it's supposed to be. Peter is the
first Pope. Peter was married. You know, God's preachers live
in this world just like everybody else. And not being married is
not going to make anybody more holy. So that's the first lesson. Our holiness, our sanctification
is in Christ, and we need to be dead set on this, that these
things which we believe which we hold to, which we claim don't
come from man's tradition, like a priest can't be married, that
it come from the word of God, the word of God only. Because
it's very dangerous if not. You see how that is. All right,
the second lesson is this. Faith in Christ does not prevent
sickness and pain. It doesn't prevent sorrow or
death. Peter's mother-in-law, was very sick. She was in considerable
pain. This was a very bad fever. Now
the Lord has saved his people from their sin. He saved us from
the penalty of sin by dying in our place as our substitute.
He saved us from the power of sin by giving us faith that can't
not believe Christ. Now the power of sin is the power
that keeps us in darkness and blindness and makes it so we
cannot believe Christ. Well, Christ has broken the power
of sin for his people, giving them faith that believes Christ.
Now they believe and they can't not believe Christ. He saved
us from sin, but the Lord has not yet saved his people from
the presence of sin in our bodies and their consequences for the
presence of sin, their consequences for a sin nature. Sickness and
disease, pain and sorrow and death are all the results of
sin. If we didn't have sin in our bodies, we'd suffer none
of those things. They're all the results of sin. And believers
suffer these things just as much as unbelievers do. Exactly the
same way, because we're equally sinful. Our flesh is equally
sinful. All right, the third lesson is
this. All healing is of the Lord. Peter's
mother-in-law was sick. The Lord came in and saw her
laying there with his fever. Nobody asked him to, he just
saw her. And in compassion, he reached
out and touched her and healed her. Instantly. She was instantly, 100% better. The Lord did that. Now today
we have medicines and treatments for all different kinds of diseases.
And if you've got one of those diseases, go to the doctor. Find out what treatment you ought
to be taking. Those things are tools that the
Lord uses, but they're just tools now. If anyone is ever sick and
then they're healed, the Lord did it. He did it by his power. He did it by his will. He did
it with his touch. He healed Peter's mother-in-law.
Then later in the day, people brought their friends and loved
ones and neighbors who were very sick. They brought them to the
Lord to be healed. Now, the kind of sickness that's
mentioned here is some sort of evil sickness. It's a sickness
that's brought on by some sort of evil, and there is no human
cure for this sickness. So people brought them to the
Lord. He's their only hope. Many that they brought to the
Lord were possessed with devils. Now, is that something that just
went on in that day? Could this being possessed by
a demon, could that happen today? I believe so. I believe so. Look
at Mark chapter five. When someone was possessed by
a demon, one of the marks of that was you couldn't tell when
this person spoke, you could not tell. Is that them speaking
or the demon speaking? You couldn't tell. Look here
at Matthew or Mark, excuse me, Mark five verse two. And when he was come out of the
ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs, a man with
an unclean spirit who had his dwellings among the tombs. and
no man could bind him, no, not with chains. Because that he
had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had
been plucked asunder by him and the fetters broken in pieces.
Neither could any man tame him. In all ways, night and day, he
was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying and cutting himself
with stones. But when he saw Jesus afar off,
he ran and worshiped him. And he cried with a loud voice
and said, what have I to do with thee? Jesus, thou son of the
most high God, I adjure thee by God that thou torment me not."
Now, who said that? Was it the man or was it the
demon? The people there couldn't tell, could they? For he had
said unto him, come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. And
he asked him, the Lord asked this man, what is thy name? And
he answered, saying, My name is Legion, for we are many. And
he besought him much that he would not send them away out
of that country. See, the people there watching,
they couldn't tell. Is it this man speaking or was it the demon
speaking? Now, we know it was the demon
now, but they didn't know that. They just by watching this man
speak to the Lord, they couldn't tell who was speaking. And the
same thing could be true today. People say the things that they
do. It could be that. I mean, I don't know. But this
is what I do know. Here's how somebody speaks after
the Lord cast that demon out. Verse 18. And when he, when the
Lord was coming to the ship, he that had been possessed with
the devil, prayed him that he might be with him. That's how
somebody speaks when the Lord's cast out that demon. Lord, I
want to be with you. Let me be. See, it was the demon
saying, get away from me. What have I to do with thee?
Get away from me. But once that demon was cast
out, this man says, Lord, I want to be with you. How be it, verse
19, Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, go home to thy
friends and tell them how great things the Lord has done for
thee and have had compassion on thee. And here's how somebody
speaks when the Lord's cast out that demon. He departed and began
to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him. And all men did marvel. See,
that's how somebody speaks. When the Lord's cast that demon
out, when the Lord's taken possession of his heart, he tells what great
things God's done for him. Now look back at Matthew chapter
16, right? This man, you know, when the
Lord met him was, was an unbeliever, did not know the Lord. Can this
possession of a, of a, of a demon, of a devil, can that happen to
believers? Yes, it can. Here's an example.
Matthew chapter 16 verse 21. And from that time forth began
Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go into Jerusalem
and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and
scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day. The
end, Peter took him and began to rebuke him. He took the Lord.
Apparently they took him aside and began to rebuke him saying,
be it far from the Lord. This should not be under thee.
Now who's speaking there? Is that Peter? The other apostles
thought that was Peter speaking. But the Lord turned to him and
said unto Peter, get thee behind me, Satan. He didn't say, get
thee behind me, Peter. Get thee behind me, Satan. For
thou art an offense unto me. For thou savest not the things
that be of God, but those that be of men. See, the other disciples
thought this was Peter speaking. He didn't want his master to
suffer and die. But the Lord tells us that was
Satan speaking. Satan speaking, trying to stop
the Lord from saving his people by his sacrifice for them. Now
all that is a very, very frightening subject, this thing of the demons
and the devil. They are real beings. Let's not pretend they're real
beings. It's very, very frightening. But here is a comfort on this
point right here. All healing is of the Lord. The
Lord Jesus healed all that were sick. All. Sean, there wasn't
one case to argue. Not one. He healed them all.
There was not one demon he could not cast out. Now he has all
authority. I've told you this many times.
I wouldn't go looking for demons. Don't go looking for them. That
would be very unwise. But just know this, the Lord
has power over them. There's not one of them he can't
cast out. And that's still true today.
We need to remember this. God, our God, is always on the
throne. Always. When sickness and sorrow
and pain comes our way, why'd it come our way? He sent it. It wasn't something that happened
that he couldn't stop. No, he sent it. The devil didn't
do it. God did it. I know what Satan
did to Job, but now who sent that trial to Job? It wasn't
the devil, was it? It was God. And when God delivers
and heals, he's the one that did it. He's the only one who
can. He heals, all healing is of the Lord. All right, here's
the fourth lesson. Objects of God's mercy should
be diligent in service. As soon as Peter's mother-in-law
was healed, you know what she did? She got up and ministered
to the Lord, and ministered to this ragtag bunch that followed
him into the house. I mean, can you imagine being
there in that house? You know the crowd that followed our Lord.
Here they all come into the house. What are we going to do with
them? She got up and fixed them something
to eat. She got them something to drink. She made sure they
were comfortable. She probably got something ready for them,
placed for them to sleep or something, you know. She immediately got
up and ministered in serving the Lord. And I know this is
what we tend to think. Well, that was people in that
day. I'm not like that. How can I
serve the Lord? I'm just a nobody from nowhere.
I can't do anything to serve the Lord. Oh, yes, you can, too. Yes, you can. You can. Acts of kindness to help one
another, you can open up your home, you open up your heart,
you just there's plenty of ways we can help one another. But
in helping one another, helping God's people, serving God's people,
his body, that's the way we serve the Lord. When Peter's mother-in-law
got up and she got Peter something to eat, it was just like she
was giving the Lord something to eat. Serving his body is serving
him. But the best way, the very best
way that you can serve the Lord, the very best way you can serve
anyone is by bringing them to the Lord, by bringing them to
hear the gospel. That's what the people did for
their friends and their family who were sick and demon-possessed.
What did they do for them? They brought them to the Lord.
The best service they could do for them was bring them to Christ,
the healer. We all have friends, loved ones,
neighbors, children who do not know the Lord. They're lost.
What's the best thing we can do for them? What's the best
thing we can do to serve the Lord? It's bring the lost to
hear about Christ the Savior. He's the only one who can help
him. He's the only one who can save him. The only way their
sin sickness can be healed, the only way, is by hearing of Christ
the Savior and believing on him. And how shall they believe on
him of whom they've not heard? That faith is going to come through
hearing the gospel priest. So bringing someone to hear the
gospel, you know that is the best thing we can do in the Lord's
service. The best thing we can do to help those that are lost. And it's God's grace that motivates
God's people to do this. It was the Lord's kindness, His
grace, His mercy in healing Peter's mother-in-law that made her get
up and minister unto them. It's God's grace that motivates
people to give of themselves, to give of their time, to give
of their effort. You know, today's world has modern
conveniences that people 100 years ago would have thought
was just outlandish. They would have thought this
is outlandish science fiction. And we are more crunched for
time, more pressed for time than ever. What may motivate you to
give it your time to serve the Lord? is goodness and grace to
you. That's what it is. It's not,
you don't need anybody threatening you. Just it's God's goodness
and God's grace. That's what motivates us to serve
the Lord by helping and serving others. All right, here's the
fifth lesson. The Lord cares. He cares when
his people are sick and he feels compassion for them. Now, this
is not like going to a doctor today. You go, and you wait,
and you wait, and you wait, and you wait, and you wait, and you
wait, and you wait, and you finally get in to see the doctor. In about
five minutes, he diagnoses you, writes your prescription, and
sends you on your way. And I understand why that happens. A doctor, every
day, has lots of patients to see. I don't care what time you
make an appointment. Show up at that waiting room.
It's full of sick people, full of people. And the doctor's got
bills to pay. And those bills, you know how
they get paid? By seeing patients. So I understand why they expedite
matters. But you can start to feel like
a number, can't you? I mean, you just start to feel like,
you know, one head in a large herd of cattle, you know, just
getting moved from here to there. You know, they get a blue heel
or nip at your heels. Move on, little doggie. You know,
we've got to get you out of here. That's not how the Lord heals
his people or treats his people. The Lord has compassion for his
people. He even feels the pain and suffering
that his people go through. That's right. We have a high
priest who's touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He
knows what it feels like. Whatever it is you're going through,
he went through it first. He knows what it feels like.
And the Lord always handles his people with kind and tender,
loving care. Now that brings me to verse 17
in our text, Matthew 8, verse 17. This verse is the key to
understanding this whole passage. And I tell you this often, that
in scripture, the point of physical healing, I don't care where it
is, Old Testament, New Testament, wherever you see it, the point
of physical healing is never physical healing. Every single
time, the Lord, the apostles, the prophets, when they healed
somebody, the point of that was never physical healing. It's
always a picture of spiritual healing. And that cannot be made
clearer than verse 17 makes it. Look here, verse 17. This is
why the Lord did this. He healed all that were sick,
that. Here's why he did it. It might
be fulfilled, which is spoken by Isaiah the prophet. saying himself took our infirmities
and bear our sicknesses. Now, have you ever wondered why
this verse from Isaiah chapter 53 has been put here, connected
to the Lord physically healing folks? Well, partly it is to
show us the Lord's compassion for his people. He knows what
that pain is. He knows and he sympathizes because
he feels it. And he's the one who heals it. All we can do is feel sorry for
one another. And we ought to, we ought to
express, I'm sorry. You know, you feel I'm going
through, I'm sorry. But the Lord knows what you're
feeling. And the example that came to my mind was earlier this
year, our daughter Savannah was in a very serious car wreck and
she was in more pain than I've ever seen anybody be. More pain
than I've ever felt, certainly. And I hated it. I hated seeing
her in that pain. I would have done anything to
take it away from her. I couldn't do it. I couldn't
take it away from her. And honestly, I can't tell you
what that kind of pain felt like. I can't tell you. But the Lord
did. He did both. He knows what that
pain is. See, he's experienced, he knows,
he feels the pain and the sorrow of his people. And not only does
he sympathize, but he's the one who can heal. You see the Lord,
how is it that the Lord of glory knows our sorrows and knows our
griefs? How is it that he knows that?
Because he was made sin for his people. That's how he knows it.
Not only was he made flesh, he appeared in the likeness of our
flesh without sin, But he was made sin for his people. And
when he was made sin for his people, he experienced all the
grief, all the sorrow that sin brings, experienced all. Now
he didn't sin, but he experienced all of sin's griefs and all of
sin's sorrows all the way to death because he was made sin
for his people. So that when his people suffer
these things, he knows and he can sympathize. But, all that
God just said is true, but that's not the primary meaning here.
The Holy Spirit meant something for us here far better when he
connected this quote from Isaiah 53 to the Lord healing, physically
healing these folks. The Spirit here is giving us
a picture of redemption in Christ Jesus. Now, you all know Isaiah
53. You could quote large portions
of it just off the top of your head without even looking, couldn't
you? So you know, Isaiah in Isaiah 53, the prophet is not talking
about physical healing at all, is he? Not at all. Not at all. Yet the spirit connected it to
these physical healing, but he's not talking about physical healing.
Isaiah is talking about how the Lord Jesus Christ will save his
people from their sin by being their substitute, by taking their
place and being the sacrifice for the sin of his people. When
Christ saved his people from their sin, he did more than pay
for their sin. Now he did that, he paid the
sin debt. But this is more than a legal transaction between the
father and the son. He did do that, he legally, he
paid for the sin of his people. But more than that, he healed
his people from all of their sin. He healed them from the
uncleanness and filth of their sin. He healed them from being
controlled by Satan, the prince of the power of the air. Christ
healed his people from their sin by taking their sin away
from them. And when he took their sin away
from them, he took all the effects of their sin away from them into
his own body upon the tree. All of their sin sicknesses,
all of their weaknesses were taken into his body, became his. He suffered it all and he cleansed
it all away by his precious pure blood. So now, That sin can't
make God's elect unclean anymore. Christ has cleansed it away.
It's gone. Now look back here in Isaiah 53. I think you'll
find this interesting. Isaiah 53. Here's what Matthew's
quoting. Isaiah 53. Verse 4. He hath borne our griefs and
carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. Now, when Matthew quoted this,
he said the Lord took our infirmities and he bare our sicknesses. Not
an exact quote, is it? Because Isaiah said the Lord
bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. Two different words.
Yet both mean the same thing. The Lord bore all the griefs
and all the sorrow that sin brings his people. He bore it all so
that all that's left for his people is gladness because the
Lord has healed them. Verse five says he was wounded
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes
were healed by his suffering for our sin. We're healed from
all of our sin sicknesses right now. Look at first Peter chapter
two. Peter quotes Isaiah two. First Peter chapter two, verse
24, who his own self bear our sins
and his own body on the tree that we being dead to sin should
live under righteousness by whose stripes you're healed. Now when
Peter quotes Isaiah, he talks about how the Lord bear our sins.
Well, he's saying the same thing that Isaiah Matthew said. Peter's
telling us that the cause of all of our infirmities and all
of our sickness, all of our grief and all of our sorrows, the cause
of all of that is our sin. And the Lord healed his people.
Not only did he pay for the sin of his people, He healed his
people from their sin by taking it away from them and putting
it away under his precious blood. See, the point of all this is
a picture of spiritual healing, isn't it? Now, believe me when
I tell you that I am all for physical healing, all for it,
all for it. But if the Lord does not heal
our souls of our sin sicknesses, Who really cares if he heals
our body? I mean, really, who really cares? Because shortly,
this body's gonna die anyway. I mean, shortly. Very shortly. It's gonna die anyway. But if
our soul is healed, we'll never die the second day. If our soul
has been healed, we can look forward to the death of this
body tomorrow. It's the Lord healing the souls of his people
that lets a dear, loving family sit in the waiting room and pray
that the Lord take their loved one. That's all that matters. And if the Lord heals us, if
he heals us of our sin, he's going to do it just like he healed
these people in our text. You and I are diseased, helpless. We have an evil disease. Our
disease is evil, been brought on by sin. And there's absolutely
nothing we can do about it. We just lay there helplessly.
But the Lord sees his people. Did you notice when the Lord
came into Peter's house, he saw Peter's mother-in-law. He saw
his wife's mother. He saw her and he healed her. He touched, he saw her there
helpless and suffering and he touched her to relieve her. That's
exactly what the Savior does for his people. He sees them
lost and suffering. He sees them suffering and evil
disease and their sin, he sees them. He sees them in mercy. He sees them in grace. He sees
them in eternal covenant mercies and he touches them and he heals
them by taking their sin away from them. And the only way you
and I will be healed, the only way anybody's going to be healed
is that we be brought by some means to hear the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ. We've got to hear and all All,
everybody, all who believe on Christ will be healed from all
of their sin. All of it. There is no sinner
that's so great Christ cannot save them. The blood of Jesus
Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from what? All, all sin. He heals. Now the Lord Jesus
Christ is our only hope Physical, certainly, and especially spiritual. He's our only hope. He's our
only comfort. Then let's go to Him. Let's go
to Him. Let's take our lost loved ones
to Him. Take them physically to hear
the gospel. If there's somebody, not your
children, there's somebody else you can't physically take, take them to the Lord in prayer.
Take them to the Lord in prayer. I got a minute, so let me tell
you this story. Encourage you parents. I know
I'm preaching to the choir here, so your children in their Bible
classes. But don't let them ever get to
the point when they live under your roof that they can decide
whether or not they're going to come to service with you.
Don't do that, ever. It's the biggest mistake a parent
can make. When I was growing up, this is
what I knew. I don't care what's happening.
I mean, I don't care what's happening. Sunday morning, Sunday night,
and Wednesday night, our family's going to worship service. I don't
care what's happening. When I was a little fellow, we
lived in Danville, the midweek service was on Tuesday. I had
Little League on Tuesday. Guess what? Little Frank never
one time played Tuesday Little League game. Not one time ever.
Well, a little while later, I got a little brother. And he got
to be a little bit older and it's just got to be, he didn't
want to go to church. And every Sunday and every Wednesday,
suddenly he was sick. I mean, it just, oh my goodness,
this went on and on. And I finally told him, he's
a little guy, you know, in all my 11 year old wisdom or 12,
however old I was, I told him, listen, quit it, quit it. I've been a child in this family
longer than you have. I'm telling you, you're not going to win
this battle. Your dad's going to physically
pick you up and take you. So just go, just go willingly.
Just quit. If you can physically take him,
do it. Let's all just take him to the
Lord. Peter said to whom coming as God's people are continually
coming. and continually looking to Christ.
Let's constantly take those under our control and have them come,
have them look. Now, we can't make them do it
in their heart, but I can make them sit there. I can make them
be still and sit there. Maybe God will penetrate. Maybe
he will. It did for me. It did for you. Maybe it did for somebody else,
you reckon? Well, if it's going to happen, the Lord's going to
do it, isn't he? All right. Oh, the Lord will bless that
too.