Matthew 12, 14. Then the Pharisees went out and
held a council against him, how they might destroy him. The word then, the fact that
the Pharisees did this then tells something about why they did
it. They did it right after our Lord had healed this man with
the withered hand on the Sabbath day. They asked him a question
deliberately to get him to say something wrong in their eyes. The fact that our Lord healed
this man on the Sabbath day, they objected to, And him doing
it on that particular day caused them to think that he was an
imposter. But what made them want to kill
him, to destroy him, is that he shamed them right in front
of the very people that those Pharisees had eating out of their
hands. He went right into their synagogue,
right in front of them. In verses 1 through 8, the Lord
rebuked these same Pharisees in defense of His disciples.
Remember eating that corn in the field on the Sabbath day. He revealed there that these
Pharisees had no knowledge of the Scripture. The very thing
that they prided themselves on was their knowledge of the Scripture.
And our Lord said, haven't you read the Bible? If you knew what
the Bible said, you wouldn't condemn the guiltless. and how
humiliating that is, and that's part of why they wanted to destroy
him. And he declared his own deity
to them as Lord of the Sabbath. He said, Son of Man, Lord even
of the Sabbath. And that was, if you recall,
one thing that they could not tolerate was him to declare himself
to be God. When he declared his deity, they
despised him for it. And then in verses nine through
13, it says, when he left that cornfield, he went into their
synagogue, their synagogue, the people's church, not God's
house, and staged this scene in which he looked with anger
upon them. because of the hardness of their hearts to begrudge this
man having his hand healed because it was what they call the Sabbath
day. And this was a violation of their
tradition, not the true law of God. But our Lord staged this
scene in that very place, in their synagogue, and looked upon
them with anger and then completely undermined their authority. and
openly defied their teaching by healing this man on the Sabbath
day, which teaching was manifestly ridiculous, by the way. They
said, it's not right for you to heal on the Sabbath day. Really? Nobody since the beginning of
time has ever healed anybody of anything. How can there be
a law against that? You see how ridiculous it is?
How many people have said, stretch forth thy hand? Somebody who
was born deformed is able by the power of God. How often has
that happened? And there's a law against it,
really? But our Lord undermined, deliberately undermined their
authority and showed how idiotic they were. And by his question
to them, revealed them to be hypocrites. He said, which of
you, if you had a sheep that fell into a ditch on the Sabbath
day, you'd go get it. Because everything these Pharisees
did, everything false religion does, has to do with their own
gain. They're not going to lose one
of their sheep on the Sabbath. But if you do that, oh, you've
violated the Sabbath day. Hypocrites. How many times did
he call them hypocrites? You clean the outside of the
cup, but inwardly you're full of corruption. He's not the polite
little Jesus that we hear about these days, is he? He had mercy on real sinners.
But he looked with anger on religion. False, man-deifying, free will,
foolish religion. And again, here he revealed his
own sovereign power as the God-man. And he did it right on their
own front porch. Showed that he had power that
only God has. About healing with a word. The
only one there that we know of that didn't want to kill him
was that man with the withered hand. He had to change his name. He was the man with the withered
hand. Now he's the man whose hand used to be withered. And
that man could have said with King David that day, thou preparest
a table before me in the presence of my enemies. What the Lord did that day was
blasphemy and sin to the Pharisees, to the organized religion of
his day. But to that man, it was free, marvelous, omnipotent
grace. And right in the face of my enemies,
you've had mercy on me. Has God done that for you? And
one more thing about this verse, or maybe two, beware of councils. They held a council. Religion
loves to do that. When I say religion, I mean us
by nature. You know that. We're not talking
down on anybody. This is us by nature. We were
talking about that in the men's meeting this morning. We were
all right there. Most of us. I was in religion too one day.
The Lord saved me. I was like Nicodemus. I was right
there with them. I was one of them. I was going
door to door, you know, with them. And I know from firsthand
experience, they love to have counsels. People are corrupt. We know that. Especially people
in any kind of power. They're corrupt. Without the
grace of God, in and of ourselves, we're just vile, and you give
us some kind of authority, and we manifest it even more openly,
our vileness and our corruption. And councils are even more corrupt
than the sum of their parts. Especially religious councils.
We call it organized religion, and we do so with disgust. Many
of us have been there, and we know what we're talking about.
The World Baptist Fellowship, I was in on that one. The Southern
Baptist Convention, the United Methodist Church, the Freemasons,
all of the Catholic councils you may have heard of, the Council
of Trent, the Council of Nicaea, all of the Vatican councils,
and thousands of others like them. all corrupt and evil and
progressively so. The more they get together, the
more evil comes of it. The very idea of coming together
and deciding that this book is the inspired word of God. You're
going to decide that? Let's take a vote on it. Let's
decide today if this is God's inspired word. Do you know God
has rained fire and brimstone down on entire nations for less
than that? Let's hold a council. and decide
what God can do and what He can't do. Let's not, shall we? Let's just declare what God said. And everybody that loves mercy,
everybody that falls in love with the Lord Jesus Christ, we'll
rejoice together. And all of His enemies can go
off fussing and fighting amongst themselves. How about that? We
do not hold counsels, and you'll never find in the Word of God
that God's church did that. We preach Christ. In the nine
years I've been a pastor, we haven't held a single vote about
anything. And I like it like that. If something needs to get
done, we just do it. Is there something wrong with
that? Remember, too, here in this verse that we have a reminder
of God's sovereign power and grace. This is the Almighty Christ.
And they saw how that they might destroy him. And they did eventually. what
they considered to be destroying him. Does that mean they win? The eventual outcome of this
council and others like it was the greatest evil ever perpetrated
by man. The crucifying of the son of
God, Paul said, Peter, I believe, said, you've killed the prince
of life. And when they realized they had, they said, what in
the world are we going to do? How are you going to out, your good
going to outweigh your bad when you've killed God's son? What
are we gonna do? But what they call the destruction
of the Lord Jesus Christ is the salvation of his people. Paul
said, we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block,
but unto them which are called Christ, the power of God and
the wisdom of God. They unwittingly and with wicked
hands fulfilled the determinate counsel of God. There's the council
I'm interested in. How about you? The council of
God. Ephesians 1.11, in whom Christ, in whom we also have
obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the
purpose of him who worketh all things after the council of his
own will. He don't need us to get together
and hold a council. He's already had one with himself. And the outcome of it is the
salvation of his people. Well, I like that, don't you?
Verse 15 in our text, But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself
from thence, and great multitudes followed him, and he healed them
all, and charged them that they should not make him numb, that
it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet,
saying, Behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in
whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my spirit upon him,
and he shall show judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not strive
nor cry, neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not
quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory." Now what's this
talking about? This sounds on the very surface
of it counter to man's religion of our day and every day, doesn't
it? He healed people and said, don't tell anybody about it.
Does that sound like religion to you? Don't tell anybody. He removed himself from them.
He didn't run from them in fear. He simply withdrew himself from
them because his hour had not yet come. Those that followed
him were healed. He healed them all, those that
followed. He withdrew himself from some,
but others followed him, and he healed them. And we see this
all through the scriptures, don't we? When those who followed him
were hungry, he fed them. He had compassion on them, and
he fed them. When they had needs, he met them. When they needed to be taught,
he taught them. This raises a question. in my
mind, and maybe yours, were all those that followed him believers?
Was everyone that he healed a believer necessarily? I don't know that
for sure, but I seriously doubt it. I know that everybody that
he fed among those 5,000, many of them followed him for the
wrong reason, didn't they? In John chapter 6, we saw that. They followed him because of
the mirror. They followed him just because they wanted a free
meal. And he said, don't labor for that meat which perisheth,
but for the meat that I can give you. If I give you to eat, you'll
never hunger again. That's the meat we should be
laboring after. And all these things, the Lord
said, I'll add them to you. You seek me for you follow me
and learn of me and seek that which I am able to give. And
I'll add all this other stuff to you. Don't always be worried
about what I'm going to eat, what I'm going to wear. That's
what this world is taking up with. And not if I'm going to
have anything to wear, but how nice is it going to be? You know,
that's what we're worried about. How nice of a car am I going
to drive? Things like that. You know what
I'm talking about. But our Lord taught them. But it says that he didn't commit
himself to them because he knew what was in them. But I'll tell
you this, I'm pretty sure that not everybody that he healed
was a believer. But I see the spiritual lesson
here too, don't you? The spiritual teaching. Turn
to John chapter 10. When those followed him after
he withdrew himself from some, many of them didn't follow him.
You can bet your bottom dollar on that. They didn't want to
hear what he was saying. But many did, and it says he
healed them. The spiritual teaching there,
John 10, 24. Then came the Jews round about
him and said unto him, how long dost thou make us to doubt? If
thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. And Jesus answered them, I told
you and you believe not. The works that I do in my father's
name, they bear witness of me. But you believe not because you're
not my sheep. As much as people want to turn
that around, it doesn't say, you're not my sheep because you
don't believe. It just doesn't say that. It said, you don't
believe because you're not my sheep. And then he said this,
my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. That's what happened here in
our text. In an earthly physical sense,
some followed him and he healed them. And so, spiritually speaking,
when our Lord Jesus Christ speaks, some are offended and walk away.
One day, just about everybody did, except his apostles, and
he said, are you going with them? And Peter said, where would we
go, Lord? You have the words of eternal life. My sheep hear
my voice, and they're not going anywhere. They follow me. And, verse 28, I heal them. Isn't that what he's saying there?
What's your problem? What do you need? What's your
one need? Physically speaking, that man with the withered hand,
his need was obvious, wasn't it? What's a blind man's need?
What's your need as a sinner? Life. They follow me and I give them
life. I heal them. You see what that
teaching there in our text? Those that followed him in the
text, he healed them of all manner of disease and malady of every
sort. But our great and only spiritual
need is life. You have he quickened, Paul said
to the believers in Ephesus, which were dead. You have he
quickened, which were dead. That's salvation. They follow
me and I give. That's what we see there. Eternal
life. Now this passage of scripture
from Isaiah 42, one through four is what is quoted here back in
our text. It's a prophetic passage of scripture
in Isaiah of our Lord's charge in our text that these should
not make him known. That was prophesied long before,
hundreds of years, thousands of years before that he would
do this. And as I said, religion wants
everybody to know about them. If multitudes increase, they'll
just build a bigger building. They just tear it down and build
a bigger one. That ain't no problem. Just bring them on. Bring on
everybody. We want everybody to get together. But the multitudes
thronging our Lord Jesus Christ became a hindrance to him and
his ministry. The Lord came to save every one of his elect,
and that's what he'll do. But it's not a popularity contest,
is it? We know that. It won't be accomplished by making
him famous. We saw earlier in the book of
Matthew how that our Lord deliberately avoided the multitudes at times
in order to go where one sinner was, one or two maybe, to have
mercy on them. And here's why, and here's what
it means to us. Don't misunderstand me. Wait
till the second point here and you'll understand, I hope, what
I'm saying. Number one, It teaches this is
what it means to us. Our Lord was here on this earth
not to court the praise and adoration of men. He didn't have any illusions
about how man was going to react to his teaching and what was
going to happen to him. He was despised and rejected
of most and he knew that he would be and deliberately and necessarily
did and said the things that made them despise him. And this
is key because if you and I do and say the things that he's
taught us to do and say, men are gonna hate us too. That's
what he said. Marvel not if the world hates
you. They hated me before they hated you. We'll not be courting
the multitudes either if we do and say what he said. Our Lord
knew that the multitudes didn't follow him because of what he
did and said, but because of the miracles. And he often avoided
them. and had mercy on whom He would.
Our Lord was here to do His Father's will, to accomplish redemption
for His elect, to seek and to save that which was lost. And
this is not a numbers game. It's not a numbers game. If it
was, then bring on the multitudes by all means. But our Lord knew
His elect. He knew the hearts of men. He
did not commit Himself to the multitudes in John 2 because
He knew what was in them. John 2, 23, listen to it. Now,
when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover in the feast day, many
believed in his name. Oh, that's, that's wonderful.
When they saw the miracles, which he did, but Jesus did not commit
himself unto them because he knew all men. And need it not
that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. These are the same ones that
he taught later. Don't labor for the meat which perisheth.
Don't just follow me around for a free meal. That's not what
this is about. But then secondly, what does this mean to us today?
I don't know what's in man, do you? I have no idea what's in
man. We have some idea of what's in
us by nature, don't we? The Lord's revealed what we are.
We're vile and wretched by nature. We're selfish. We're religious.
We believe in our sins. We believe we'll work our way
to heaven and do something to please God and he'll reward us
with heaven. That's what our natural thought is. And I know
something about what he does when he saves a sinner in us.
It's a new creature, a new creation, ordained under good words. But
I can't see your heart the way he can. I have no idea. And our
Lord could have given us that ability. You reckon he could
have if he wanted to? He could have given us the ability
to say, there's my sheep and these are not. There's one there,
there's one there, there's one there and the rest are not. But
you know what he did instead? He said, you go and preach to
every creature. That's what our business is.
Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature
and everybody that believes I'll save them. And everybody that
doesn't believe what you preach, he said, I'll damn them. That's
what he did do. And the Holy Spirit did forbid
the apostles to go to certain places in the book of Acts. You
can read that for yourself. He forbade them to go places
that they were going to go and led them, caused them to go,
directed them to other places instead. And he still does that. Not verbally. But he still, he
sends his preachers where his people are. You reckon he's able
to do that? Wherever one of his sheep is, I guarantee you the
gospel will be preached to them somehow or another. The Lord
will see to that. I have no doubt about that. God
sent Paul to Corinth and said to him, don't be afraid, Paul,
but speak and hold not thy peace for I am with thee and nobody
shall set on thee to do thee harm for I have much people in
this city. What's going to happen is going
to have to do with God having some sheep there. That's the
God we serve. And he said, go preach to everybody.
And he'll lead us and direct us where he will. And he'll save
whom he will. So wherever he has people, much
or few, he sends and upholds his preachers there. But wherever
he sends us, we preach to whoever, anybody and everybody that'll
listen. whether that be a multitude or not, but we know that when
our Lord preached, his preaching didn't draw multitudes. And they
came around when the miracles were done, but when he spoke
the truth, they began to leave or pick up stones to stone him.
And so we don't have any illusions about that either, but we'll
preach to whoever listens. If you do some miracles now,
if I came up in here and started healing people, we'd have a multitude.
I bet you that. You reckon? But you're not going
to preach the sovereign grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and
get a multitude. Not unless God is pleased to
do something unusual. He can if He wants to. And we
know this when we do preach. Turn to Isaiah 42. Isaiah 42,
1-4. This is the passage of Scripture that's quoted there in our text.
This is the prophecy that's being referred to. And you'll recognize
the language, but there's one part I want us to notice particularly.
Chapter 42, verse 1 of Isaiah, Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. I have put my spirit upon him.
He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not
cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.
A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he
not quench. He shall bring forth judgment
unto truth. And look at these next four words.
He shall not fail. When we do go preach like he
told us to, we know that. This is not my ministry, this
is his ministry. It's not my word, it's his word.
It's not my church, it's his church. And he's not gonna fail. Till he have set judgment in
the earth and the isles shall wait for his law. He shall not
fail. Well, we gotta figure out a way
to get everybody to come. You know, there's not enough
people. We need to appeal to the multitude. We need a worldwide
ministry. No, let's just do what he sent
us to do. We'll preach to anybody and everybody
who will listen and we'll use whatever means the Lord gives
us to preach to as many as will listen. If he gives us means
to reach more people somehow with the gospel, that's what
we'll do. And do it gladly and do it with joy to be able to
preach a gospel. of a redeemer that actually redeems. And I'd have to tell people,
you know, if you take the first step, God'll meet you halfway.
That's a mockery to a dead sinner. You go to a dead corpse laying
in a coffin and say, if you'll just take a step, God'll save
you. That's a mockery. We preach a savior who's mighty
to save. He'll come right where you are
when you're laying bleeding in the ditch and he'll pour in the
wine of his precious blood and the oil of his grace. and he'll
set you upon his beast and take you to the end and pay your way
and say to the innkeeper, if he owes anything else, put it
on my account. In other words, he'll just flat
save you if that's what he wants to do. He shall not fail. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2,
14, now thanks be unto God, which always causes us to triumph in
Christ and maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by us
in every place. When the gospel's preached, it's
a victory. Wherever and whenever it's preached, it's a triumph.
It's Christ accomplishing in us, by us. He said he makes manifest
the savor of his knowledge by us. How condescending of him
to do that by us. Yeah, Paul said we have this
treasure in earthen vessels by us. And he'll accomplish the
work though. He'll do it by us. He'll use
us. But it's his work of salvation
and he shall not fail. His precious, sin-atoning, all-sufficient,
soul-redeeming blood shall not fail to avail for everyone he
shed it in order to redeem. Paul said he obtained eternal
redemption for us with that blood. That's what he did. He didn't
make anything available. He obtained redemption for somebody.
He said, I laid down my life for the sheep, and not one of
his sheep shall ever perish. He shall not fail. And he shall
not fail in this ministry of which we're a part by his condescending
grace. His word shall not ever return
unto him void. He said in Isaiah 55, 11, it
shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing
whereto I send it. And I tell you what, That's encouraging
to a preacher. The last verse in our text we'll
see today, verse 21, look at that. And in his name shall the
Gentiles trust. Now this is also part of that
prophecy that we read a while ago from Isaiah. And the word Gentile there, the
Hebrew word translated Gentiles there in Isaiah, in the prophecy,
in the Hebrew language. That word is people. It's usually
used for non-Jews, but not always. And we know who the people are
here, don't we? We know who's going to trust
in him. The Apostle Peter preached in Acts 2.39, the promise is
unto you and unto your children and unto all that are far off,
even to as many as the Lord our God shall call. As many as Who
shall he call? Well, Paul said whom he did foreknow,
he also did predestinate, and whom he predestinated, he called. That's who he calls. Who he loved
before the world began, and fixed their destiny before they ever
existed, that they should be like his son one day. Predestinated
to be conformed to the image of his dear son. That's who He
calls. And in His name shall the Gentiles
trust. They trust in His name. In His
name. Does that just mean they run
around saying Jesus this and Jesus that? His name is who He is. It's His
character, His attributes. They trust in Jehovah Jireh,
the Lord who provides. God will provide himself a lamb. Is that who you trust in? They
trust in Jehovah Rapha, the Lord who heals. That's what he did
here in our text. He healed that man on the Sabbath
day. He'll heal on any day he wants
to heal on. He's the Lord of the Sabbath. He'll heal who he
wants to, when he wants to, the way he wants to. Is that who
you trust in? Jehovah Rapha. He has healed
all our soul's diseases. They trust in Jehovah Nissi,
the Lord, our banner. He brought me to the banqueting
house and his banner over me was love. We follow him into
battle and we're more than conquerors through him that loved us, Paul
said. Is that who you trust in? They trust in Jehovah Rea, the
Lord, my shepherd. You trust him? Can you say with
David, I shall not want. The Lord's my shepherd. That's
all you need to know. I shall not want. He's the one
that prepares a table before me right in the presence of my
enemies. They trust in Jehovah Shalom, who made peace by the
blood of his cross. They trust in Jehovah Sidkenu,
the Lord, our righteousness. I don't have any righteousness,
never have and never will in and of myself. He is the Lord,
my righteousness. They trust in Jehovah Shammah,
the Lord who is present, the Lord who's with us. What did
Moses say to the Lord? He said, how shall we be known
from all the other people? in the earth. Will it not be
that thou goest with us? Jehovah Shema, the Lord's with
us. They trust in El Shaddai, God
Almighty. Isn't that what he said to Abraham? I am God Almighty. If he will, he can. That's who that leper trusted
in in Matthew chapter 8, I believe it is. Lord El Shaddai, God Almighty,
if you will, you can make me whole. If he will, he can make
you whole. He can make your children whole.
He can make whoever he will whole. He can heal you of all your diseases. He quickens whom He will. He
said, even as the Father giveth life to whomsoever He will, so
He has given power to the Son to give life to whomsoever He
will. He's God Almighty. Do you trust
Him? In His name shall the people
trust. What people? His people. His peculiar people. His chosen people. Do you trust
him? May God give us grace this morning
to trust in his name. Let's bow in prayer.