Mark chapter 1, as Mike was singing, I thought how much the Lord has
blessed this church. We have men that can stand in
this pulpit other than just me to preach the gospel. You don't
know how many places out there that don't have that. We have
musicians, people can sing and play, and just the rest of the
gifts that are here. The rest of the gifts that are
here, I thought, that makes me want to walk softly. Softly. The Lord has blessed
us so much. In Mark chapter 1, We will look
at verses 29 through 39. I titled the message Healing,
Praying and Preaching. Healing, Praying and Preaching. Our Lord never wasted time or
words, did he? Not one second. of his life here on this earth,
his ministry, his life, not one second was ever wasted. Everything was done according
to God's purpose, and it was done immediately, now, straightway,
forthwith. That's the way it was done. Everything he did, everywhere
he went, Every word he spoke was full of purpose and meaning,
full of it. And if there is one thing that
describes his daily routine, it would be healing, praying,
and preaching. That would describe pretty much
his daily routine. Now the Lord, here in this chapter,
After he had preached in the synagogue and he had cast out
that unclean spirit, he goes to stay with Peter and Andrew. Andrew being Peter's brother,
they all lived in the same house. They used to do that, you know.
The family used to live together. The family wasn't so split up
like it now is. But he went there to live, to
spend the night sometimes. Remember this, he had no place
to lay his head of his own. He did not own his own house. He grew up in a carpenter shop
and never built one thing for himself. Not one thing. He didn't own
his own house, did not build his own house to live in. Though
he created all things. The creator of all things came
into this world and had no place to lay his head. How lost are
we? How lost is this world? That
when its creator comes into it, it wants nothing to do with him. In verse 29, and forthwith, when
they were come out of the synagogue, they entered into the house of
Simon and Andrew with James and John. Peter opened his home to his Lord and the other disciples. I thought of Lydia in this, and
then Dale touched on it this morning. God opened her heart. And you know what happened? Lydia
opened her home. That will happen if God saves
me or you. What's mine is yours and yours
is mine. He not only opens the heart,
but he opens up everything we've got. We know this. It all belongs to Him, doesn't
it? It all belongs to Him. So Peter opens his home, to his
Lord, and he brings in the other disciples, a welcome, welcome
into his home. And when they get there, Simon's
wife's mother, his mother-in-law, lay sick of a fever. And the
noun immediately, when he enters into the house, they tell him
of her. She's very sick. She's lying in bed with a bad
fever. It says over in one of the other
Gospels, a great fever. She has a great fever. She just
doesn't have a hundred degree temperature. It says she has
a great fever. I've had one a few times. I had
one one time that made me just convulse, shake all over. I couldn't
even stop shaking. I want you to notice what they
did. when he came into the house, they tell him of her. Don't let
that pass you by. Don't let that go over our heads.
This is how you handle trouble. They tell him of her, of her
sickness, of her fever. And that's the first thing they
do. This is the first thing. This is the proper way to handle
trouble. Look over in Psalm 55. Psalm 55, remember this verse. In Psalm 55, verse 22, remember
this. You'll need it. Cast thy burden
upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee. He shall never suffer the
righteous to be moved. Cast your burden. It says, Peter
says, cast your cares upon him for he careth for you. It's not a burden to him for
me to cast my burdens on him. It's not, it's not like I'm burdening
him. He's the only one who can truly,
truly now lift it off. He's the only one who can enable
me to bear it. By His grace, He can enable me
to bear it. But we are told, and it's not
like He doesn't know, but what we are doing, we are acknowledging
and recognizing our dependence on Him. We need to recognize
it. And we are told to do that in
Scripture. Turn to Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4, look in verse 14. Seeing then that we have a great
high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of
God, let us hold fast our profession. But we have not a high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. but was in all points tempted
like as we are, yet without sin. Now, let us therefore come boldly."
Because of this, because we have such a high priest, and we have
such a high priest who can be touched with the feeling of our
infirmities, we have a high priest who was tempted in all points
as we are, yet without sin. Now listen, therefore come boldly. Come boldly unto the throne of
grace. It's the throne of grace. It's
where grace reigns. That we may obtain mercy and
find grace to help in time of need. We see by what they do
what we should do. How we are to handle trouble.
A noun. Immediately. You have troubles? You have troubles? Immediately,
tell Him. Tell Him. And leave it there. Take your
burden to the Lord and leave it there. It's not as hard taking
it there. The hardest part is leaving it
there. Of course, I know we sing far
past our experience, because most of the time we don't leave
it there. We bring it back with us and keep it with us. But that's
who we are, isn't it? That's who we are. Listen to James chapter 5, verse
14. I'll read these. I've got it
written down. Is any sick among you? Let him call forth the elders
of the church. Let them pray. Pray over him, anointing him
with oil in the name of the Lord. James 5, 15. And the prayer of
faith. shall save the sick, and the
Lord shall raise him up. And if he's committed any sin,
they shall be forgiven him. I don't know all that that means,
but I do know this. It means exactly what it says. It means exactly what it says.
The prayer of faith calling upon him, the importance of prayer,
and we're going to see this here in a minute. Our Lord pray. He's God. He's God. And no one, no one has ever walked
on this earth and prayed more than he did. None. Prayer is recognizing God. It's
recognizing who he is. It's recognizing our need of
him. Our need of him. And often in prayer, though,
we can also just praise him. Sometimes it's good just to praise
him. for who he is. And look in verse 31, and he
came and he took her by the hand and lifted her up and immediately
the fever left her and she ministered unto them. In Matthew 8, 15 it
says, and he touched her hand. He touched her hand and the fever
left her. Another place it said, He took
our sicknesses and our diseases. He touched her hand and the fever
left her and she arose and ministered unto them. I'm working on a message
or I'm hoping the message is working on me. I pray that's
the way it's actually working. But I started looking at this
yesterday and there are two messages here. And the one that I hope
Lord willing will bring next week is the touch of the Master's
hand. He touches this leper. He touches Peter's mother-in-law. He touches everyone whom He heals
here of these infirmities and casts out these devils. Over
in Luke it says He laid His hands on them. He touched every one
of them. I thought the power of His touch. But I didn't want
to leave these nuggets here alone. We have some nuggets here to
deal with first, and then we'll look at that hopefully maybe
next week. But he touched her here, and
the fever left her. And she arose and ministered
unto them. What a tender scene this is.
A great physician standing by the bedside of one who is sick,
one who is helpless, Ready, ready to show his tender
mercies. Ready to heal her. This is how
our Lord finds everyone of his sheep. Sick with the fever of sin. Unable,
unable to do anything for themselves. Unable to even get up. Spiritually
now, spiritually unable. Unable to, unable spiritually
to go to him. She didn't ask for him. They
told him of her. He came to her. She's laying
there just sick as can be. You know, when you're that sick,
you don't even want anybody around, do you? It's like, leave me alone. You're so sick, it doesn't matter
whether you live or die. That sick, a great fever. And here he stands, ready to
show mercy. That's the way he finds us. Unable
to take care of ourselves. At His mercy. And there's no better place to
be than at His mercy. His mercies are tender. Tender mercies. And He heals
her, and He does it by touching her hand. Or took her by the
hand. And when He did that, the fever
left her immediately. That's the way salvation is.
That's the way our Lord heals. You know, I go to the doctor.
I'm sick. He gives me some kind of antibiotics,
and I've got to take that thing for ten days, and usually it
really works on me, and it's a gradual process. But I'm telling
you, when the Lord heals, He heals. He heals. It's immediate. And note how
complete it was. He lifted her up. Took her by the hand, and it
says over in another gospel, he rebuked the fever. Made it leave. Takes her by the
hand, she arose. And what did she do? What do
you feel like doing? I'm going to show you how complete,
how powerful His healing is. When you've been sick and you've
had a real fever, And finally you'd get over it. It leaves
you weak, doesn't it? You don't feel like doing anything
for another week. For days you don't feel like
doing anything. You don't feel like doing anything. It leaves
you weak. And it takes you a while to get
your strength back. You know what she did? She got
up and immediately went to the kitchen and started serving just
as healthy as could be. But our Lord heals. When He heals
spiritually, He heals. He heals. Now we're going to
see Him demonstrate His power, not only over this fever, this
sickness that she has, and His mercy toward her. We're going
now to see Him demonstrate His power over all things, all diseases. You know, there are some diseases
now that we have control over, don't we? We have medicines,
and there's some diseases we've just about eradicated. You really
don't hear much of them anymore. But there are some that we have
now that we don't even want to do it. It's like, man, if we
have an outbreak of this or that, we can't control it. There was no disease, there was
no devil that was too powerful for him. There's no spiritual
sickness that's too powerful for our Lord to heal. None. And that evening, and that is
the end of the Sabbath day, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that
were diseased and them that were possessed with devils. They heard
about that one in the synagogue that he had saved. He cast out
that unclean spirit. They heard about that. That went
throughout all the town. And they brought unto Him the
worst, the worst people in town, those possessed with devils,
those who had diseases that no one could take care of. Remember
that woman who had the issue of blood, spent all her living
on physicians and was none the better, but rather grew worse?
Those are the ones they brought, people like them. And all the city was gathered
together at the door of Peter's house. Could you imagine this
whole city of Ashen being at the door of this house? Wouldn't
that be a sight? And he healed many that were
sick of diverse diseases and he cast out many devils and suffered
not the devil to speak because they knew him. Those devils,
they were not allowed to speak a word. Not a word. This is not a show. This is not
a show. It's not like these TV evangelists
they put on television trying to make a show out of it and
get a crowd. This is not a show. This is the Lord showing mercy
to a multitude of sinners. And that's not a show. That's
not entertainment. It's not for entertainment. So He didn't allow
them to speak. And it says here, because they
knew Him. Because they knew Him. I thought about this when I was
writing this out. Christ will not have devils to
be his witnesses. No. Only those redeemed by his
blood are his true witnesses. The devils can state a fact.
We know who you are. You're the son of God. They can
state a fact. But believers proclaim a person
whom they love. There's a difference. Religion states facts. False
religion, they state facts. They'll take the Bible and they'll
state facts. But believers don't state facts.
They preach a person. They proclaim their Lord whom
they love. And they proclaim His name from
their heart. There's a difference in that.
There's a difference. God's not going to use the witness
of devils to call sinners to Himself. He's going to use the
witness of His redeemed. He told those devils to shut
your mouth. And you know what? They couldn't
say a word. Now that's power, isn't it? That's
power. Tell someone to shut up and usually
they talk more, don't they? Tell them to be quiet and it's
just like they got, it's like you're not going to tell me to
be quiet. I got something to say about this. He told them
to shut up. Be still. And it was this quiet. of desperate
devils. They couldn't say a word. That's
power. That's power. And He puts His hands on His
people. It says in Luke 4.40 concerning this same incident.
And when the Son was saying to all they that had any sick with
diverse diseases, brought them unto Him and He laid His hands
on every one of them and He healed them. But He laid His hands on
every one of them like that leper. If you and I were able to see
that leper, what he looked like, you and I would not touch him.
We wouldn't do it. We have a hard time sometimes
shaking hands anymore without putting that stuff on to make
sure we don't get anything. Doctor told me to do it. He said,
you shake hands a lot. That's when I kept getting this
bronchitis. I said, yes, I do. He said, well,
you need to keep Keep that stuff around, keep putting, you know,
cleansing your hands. Why? I'm afraid you're going
to get something. Do you realize how many diseases,
different diseases these people had? And he just reached out
and touched them. He was not afraid to take our
sins to himself and put them away. That's what he did. He took our sicknesses and our
diseases. And He put them away. He put
them away. Christ touched everyone whom
He healed. And He still touches everyone
whom He heals. I pray. I pray He'd touch us
this morning. I pray we would have the touch
of the Master's hand this morning. He was not afraid to touch any
of them. He was not beneath. It was not beneath Him to touch
them. What kind of a physician would
he be if he did not want to touch his
patients? He received all who came for
healing. He didn't turn any of them away.
No case was too hard. These are the simple things.
These to me are the golden nuggets. that we can grab hold onto, that
I grab hold onto them, and I know you do too. Just these simple
thoughts. No disease was too hard. Nothing
was beyond His power. No one was so messed up, He just
turned them away. He never turned anyone away that
ever came to Him for healing. All that needed healing, the
Scripture says, He what? Healed. He healed. He says in Matthew 11, Come unto
me, all you that labor and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. I'll give it to you. Come to
me. Now, after such a service, after such a service, the place
was filled. This whole city came out. And
the Lord healed men. The idea of the excitement that
was going on, the buzz that was going on at that time when the
Lord was healing people that were sick of diseases that could
not be cured and had been that way for years and people possessed.
You know how many homes quieted down over that? You know how
many families were relieved when they cast out those devils? Remember
that one man who brought his son? And he said, your disciples
can't do anything with him. And he said, how long has it
had it? And he said, since a child. And he cast that devil out and
put that child in its right mind. I said, well, they went on. They
had a good day that day, didn't they? They had a good day that
day. So what does he do? He gets up
early. Here's a pattern now. Here's
a pattern for us. He gets up early, before daylight, and he
goes to a solitary place to pray. To pray. Though he was God, yet
he prays. Why is that? Because he's a real
man. He's a real man that needs God. He needs his Father. What he says on the cross, my
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping
me? Every child of God needs to pray. Every child of God needs to pray
as much as they need to breathe. It's a part of their making.
But our Lord was a man of prayer. You know, in one place it says
he prayed all night. He's the great high priest. He's the great high priest. How
would you like to have a high priest that would not pray for you? That
wouldn't be much of a high priest, would it? We have a high priest
who intercedes for us. He ever lives, the scripture
says, He ever lives to intercede for us. I desire your prayers. And I know you desire mine. We
desire each other's prayers. But I know that our greater desire
is His. His intercession. Because I'll
tell you what, apart from His intercessions, our prayers go
nowhere. They're useless. They're no more
than a barking dog. If you take away His intercession,
my praying means nothing. It goes nowhere. It wouldn't
go past this ceiling. That's why we pray. When do we
pray? In His name. We pray in the name of our great
High Priest who prays for us. And all those times He prayed
and He'd go out early and He'd pray, Those all-nighters he prayed,
he ceased not to pray. We were included in those prayers.
Somewhere in there, we were included in those prayers. And here's a lesson, I think,
also for us who preach. If the Lord's pleased to bless
us, If He was pleased to bless and just fill this congregation,
this place full, you know what the best thing I could do? Get up early and go pray. Get up early and go pray. Lord,
keep us from pride lest we think we have something to do with
this. We're just clay pots in His hand. When you've done all that you
can do, all that you're supposed to do, He said, then just say
you're unprofitable servant. Don't brag about loving somebody
you ought to. Don't brag about giving. You ought to give. I
ought to give. I ought to love. These are things
we ought to be doing. We ought to be doing. And then He gives us an example
here of how to start today. Now, this is how to start the
day. It's not with a callow's breakfast. They say the best way to start
the day is with a good breakfast. No, the best way to start the
day is with the Lord. Now, that's so. It's the best way to start. We
ought always to seek Him first, to bless, to guide, to forgive, To give us wisdom? To give us wisdom to walk by.
Like you said, Dale, the world's watching. And Satan goes, remember,
I've been reading in Job, to and fro. To and fro. Seeking whom he may devour is
what he's doing. Lord, give us wisdom to walk by. Give us grace. Well, that's the
way to start the day. And that's the way to end the
day. That's the way to end it. Our Lord shows us that no matter
how well things are going, we need to still away by ourselves
and pray. Here's what we're doing. Here's
what He's doing. we're doing if we follow His
pattern. We're spending time with our
Father. Spending time with our Father.
Spending time with our God. We need to get off to ourselves
and pray. Spend much time at the throne of grace. And in the morning, rising up
a great vow before day, He went out. and departed into a solitary
place and there, free. Free. And Simon and they that were
with him followed after him. That means they hunted him out.
I have no doubt that early that morning, early that morning,
probably about the time the sun was rising, People started showing
up at the door. Showing up at the door. They
remember what happened the day before. He got out before this
next service. Before this next service, he
got up early, went out and he prayed. Then he comes back and
he's going to deal with this crowd. But they hunted him out. And
when they found him, they said to him, all men are seeking.
The whole town is looking for you. They were excited. He knew
why they were looking. It's like those that he fed. He said, you're just seeking
me because you got fed. You're not seeking me because
you saw a miracle. You're seeking me because you got your belly
full. He knew why they were seeking him. Because over in Matthew
11, In verse 23, he upbraids this
city. Look over in Matthew chapter
11. He knows why. Look over here. This is the city
where many of his mighty works were done. Matthew 11. It says, verse 20, were done in you, had been done
in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented a long time, a
long go with sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, it shall
be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment
than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven,"
it was the king's headquarters, "'shall be brought down to hell. For if the mighty works which
have been done in thee had been done in Sodom, it would have
remained unto this day.'" They were excited, but the Lord
knows the heart. He knows the heart. He's not
fooled by the crowd. Not at all. And now we're going to close
with Christ the preacher. He healed, he prayed, and he
preached. And that pretty much sums up
what he did. He honored God's law. He kept the law. We know
that by his obedience perfectly. It says in verse 38, And he said
unto them, Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach
there also. For therefore came I forth. You
notice, here's the wisdom of God. Does he not know how to
draw a crowd? Could he not say to the disciples,
let's put on a sing fest? Let's just have a big hoodoo
going on and singing and all that. And we'll get this big
crowd and we'll preach to them. No, he just preached. He went
from town to town, place to place, synagogue to synagogue, and he
preached just what I'm doing right now. He said there, and he said unto
them, in verse 38, let us go to the next towns that I may
preach there also. For therefore came I forth, this
is why I came, to declare the gospels of good
news. He preached in their synagogues throughout all Galilee and cast
out devils. In Luke 4.18 it says this, "'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, declare, proclaim deliverance to the captives.
and recovering a sight to the blind, to set at liberty them
that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord."
He came to deliver the message. He came to declare who God is. No man knows the Father saved
the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him. He came to preach the good news. It says in 1 Corinthians 1.21,
For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew
not God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching, what this world calls foolishness, to save them that believe. All told Timothy. He said, Timothy, preach the
Word. Declare the word, declare the
gospel, preach the gospel, and nothing else. Nothing else. When Christ came preaching, when
he was in the synagogue, he preached. Well, we read this in the first
part of Mark. Repent and believe the gospel. Repent and believe
the gospel. He preached the grace of God.
He preached the sovereignty of God. I read to you here a week
or two ago about him preaching and his talking about there were
many lepers in Israel. God only saved one, Naaman. And
it made them so mad. It made them so mad they wanted
to kill him. They tried to throw him off the brow of the hill
because he preached the sovereignty of God and salvation. God saves
whom He will. He declared that. And they got
mad. They got mad. He preached redemption
by His blood. He preached peace with God. He
preached the gospel. No greater honor was ever put
on preaching than when our Lord did it, when He did it. When I read the gospel, You know,
I started, I actually started, like I said, on another message,
a touch of the Master's hand. But as I began reading through
this, these little nuggets, I thought, we can't just let these go. I
can't let these go. There's so much here that we
can find encouragement in. Seeing him do these things throughout
the scriptures ought to encourage us in our hearts and encourage
us and witnessing to others. Are you in trouble? Tell him. Do you know someone else in trouble?
Like Peter's mother-in-law? Tell him. Not that we're informing,
but we're told to pray. Pray for one another. I find,
I tell you what, going through the Gospels, I like going through
the Gospels a lot. Because I get to just watch Him.
Watch Him work. Watch Him move. Watch Him save. Watch Him heal. It's like just
standing here and watching Him do it. And that's our Lord. That's our Lord.