You'll take your Bibles now and
turn with me to Matthew 4. The lesson begins here in verse 21. Going on from thence, he saw
other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his
brother, and a ship was Zebedee their father, mending their nets,
and he called them. This is exactly where God finds
us going about our business in this world in the daily tasks
of our life. And He finds us, finds His own,
and calls them. And not too long ago, I was talking
to somebody about the effectual call of Christ, and I said, when
He called them, they went. indication in here of any resistance
whatsoever. They were over there mending
nets, going about their business, going about their daily tasks
of life. And when God called them, He calls, affectionately
when He calls, He called, they dropped their nets. They dropped
their living. They left their father with the nets, the nets
would hold them. They left their father and the
nets and their business and they left everything and they followed
Him. They followed Him. It says here in verse 22, they
immediately left the ship and their father and followed Him. And Jesus went about all Galilee
teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the
kingdom and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of
disease among the people. Now, the lesson this morning
is all Christ. It's all Christ. It's all there
is. All there is. And I believe those
who truly know Him know that this is so no matter what you're
studying. It's all Christ. That's where
it's headed. That's what it was written for.
And those who truly know Him know that. They know that. It says in the Bible, of God
is He made unto us wisdom. If we're ever going to have any
wisdom, we're going to have to know Him. He is our wisdom. He's made that of God. Of God
is He made unto us, that's what Paul said, wisdom. Wisdom. Now He's not made wisdom to everybody. No, they need and want and desire
other things. But unto us, He made wisdom. That's where we find wisdom.
I don't find wisdom in the old archaeological finds of, you
know, they find this and they find that and they establish
this and establish that. Well, God declared that to us
way back when He made the thing what it was. And I have no reason
to doubt that he made it. I don't need to find some ancient
artifacts to believe that there was an Ark of the Covenant, do
you? No, I have the Word of God. I
know that there was an Ark. And he's made unto us wisdom. That's where we find our wisdom.
He's made unto us righteousness and sanctification. and redemption. That pretty much spans the whole
gamut there of salvation. And we found it all in Christ.
He himself said this, I am the true vine. I'm the true vine. I'm the reason God had a garden. I'm the vine. I'm the vine. Everything God's going to grow
in His garden, going to be connected with this vine. I am the vine,
he said. I am the resurrection. I am the
way, the truth, the life. He said, I am the good shepherd.
I am the bread that cometh down from heaven, the water that shall
be in you, springing up into everlasting life. I am these
things. It's all Christ. It's all Christ. And this morning, I want us to
consider him as he's set forth here by Matthew as the teacher
and the preacher and the healer. That's what it says here. He
went about all Galilee teaching in their synagogues, preaching
the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness.
Now, as the teacher, Jesus Christ alone Where is the eternal name
of God as the Word? If there's going to be a Word
from God, it's going to be of Christ. If you're going to hear
anything from God, you're going to hear it in Christ. You're
not going to hear it in these things in the abstract. Don't
ever try to separate the doctrines of Christ from Christ. Don't
ever try to separate the ordinances of Christ from Christ. In Him is life. It's not in that
ordinance. It's in Him. It's not in them
doctrines. Well, I came to the knowledge
of the doctrines of grace. Well, there's no salvation there.
Salvation is coming to Christ. You come to Christ, and then
you come to the doctrines. That's how you're going to understand
the doctrine. And His name alone implies communication. We're talking about a name, an
eternal name, the Word. The Word. This was God's eternal
purpose. His name alone implies communication. And it is the eternal will and
purpose of God to communicate Himself in the glory of His name
through His Son. None other name given among men. And now what he said, whereby
we must be saved. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the same
was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him. He teaches us through creation,
don't He? Huh? Sure He does. He teaches. He spoke and it was
done. He commanded and it stood fast.
He teaches us something of His sovereignty in creation. He teaches
us something of His power in creation. He teaches us something
about His purpose and will to save sinners by creating this
world and putting man in it who would fall and then be redeemed.
He's the teacher, as He is the eternal Word. And all creation
teaches and declares to unregenerate man His eternal power and Godhead
so that Paul said, they're without excuse. There's an order. We were talking about this the
other day. There's an order. And there's a signature of God's
deity in the order and in the preservation and in the daily
function of this universe. There's no way this thing evolved
from chaos. No way. This thing was created
of God. There's too much order to it.
There's too many things that depend on this thing and that
thing and the next thing. And if one thing gets, we've
already learned that, one thing gets a little glitched, and man,
it's like a stack of dominoes. The whole thing comes down. He's the teacher. He teaches
us in creation. And he's the teacher as he's
the subject of all the Old Testament types and prophecies. You'll
never have any understanding of the Old Testament. You know,
most people don't even read Old Testament scriptures because
they don't make sense to them. They may read a story like Samson
and Delilah and make a love story out of it and so on. Or they
might come over here and talk about the splitting of the sea
because it was such a miracle or different stories. They'll
pick stories out of there. Sometimes they'll pick a moral
teaching out of there and they'll come and try to make some application
to that and use that as a springboard. But he's the subject of the Old
Testament. He's in everything. He's in the
tent peg. He said, I'll fashion him as
a nail, as a peg in a sure play. And upon him will I hang all
the glory of my Father's house, all the glory of that tabernacle.
held there by that little peg in the ground. That's a picture
of Christ. And you can go on and on and on with all of those
things. He's in all of these things. He teaches us through
all of these things. And in Christ, He's the lesson
as well as the teacher. He's both. You know it might
sound like a paradox, but Christ preached Christ. That's right. What did He preach,
Russell? Come unto me. Ain't that what
He said? Come unto Me. I am the vine. I am the water. I am the bread. Come unto Me.
Put My yoke upon you. Huh? Put My yoke upon you and
learn of Me and find rest for your soul. Christ is the Teacher
and He is the Teacher as He is the Revealer of God in His person
and work. Everything we're ever going to
know about God, we're going to learn in Christ. Everything.
God is spirit. God is beyond your wildest imagination. That's why He forbids us to make
images, John, because He's so far beyond any image that no
image can represent Him. And yet in the end of time, miracle
of miracles, The incarnate Son of God was sent into this world
and bore the express image of His person. We want to learn
something about God, there it is. There it is, isn't that man? What do we know about pardon?
Pardon comes through Him. He pardoneth all our iniquities.
Pardon comes through Him, forgiveness of sins. In Him we have redemption,
the forgiveness of sin, righteousness. What do we know about righteousness?
I know in Him is righteousness demonstrated. I know in Him righteousness
is established. And then I know in Him righteousness
is manifested, it's accomplished. I know that through Him righteousness
is imputed. And then what do I know about
justice? One fellow said, all I want is
what I got coming to me. No, you don't want that. Uh-uh. Justice. What do we know about
justice? Justice without flaw. Exacting justice. Justice that
he says that will by no means clear the guilty. Justice that
will not overlook sin, will not wink at it or in any way forgive
it. apart from justice being satisfied
to its full and perfect extent. Justice and holiness. What do
you and I know about holiness? My whole young life growing up
in church, I thought holiness was something we could do. I
thought it was something you could do by coming to church
or by giving your sacrifices and your offerings by the way
you dress, by the way you tie. I thought all of that had something
to do with holiness. Holiness has to do with the whole
character of God. That's what holiness is. It's
that whole character of God maintained in perfect harmony in all of
its perfection. That's holiness. Holiness. And love. What do we know about love? Very
little. Very little. He said love, not
that you love God, but that He loved you. You want to learn
something about love, that's how you're going to learn it,
in Christ. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son. We know nothing of any of these things outside of Christ.
He Himself, by His glorious incarnation and work, teaches us of the true
character of God. Without learning anything at
all about godliness, I'm going to learn it in Him. I'm going
to learn it in Him. And then secondly, He says that
Christ is the preacher. He preached, it says. You remember
last week I mentioned to you, I think it's over there in the
book of Luke, where he picked up the book and he had him turn
to a certain page and he read it. It said there that he was
anointed to preach the gospel and so on. He said, this day
is this fulfilled in your ears. Christ was a preacher. A preacher. To preach means to declare. It
means to herald something, to proclaim the good news. And Christ
is the preacher. His very presence in this world
just declares volumes. Over in Hebrews, it said, in
the volume of the book it's written to me. When he came into the
world, he saith. I didn't mean that little baby
over in Bethlehem's manger said anything. It's just by his presence
in this world, he saith, sacrifice an offering thou wouldest not. Paul said, God who spoke to our
fathers through the prophets has in these last days spoken
unto us by his Son. And in the original, it reads
more like this. He spoke to us in Son. In Son. In Son language. And there is no good news apart
from Christ. Everything this book has to say
to call dead sinners out of darkness into light, and to establish
and ground them in the truth, to comfort and console them in
trouble, and to speak to all their problems, whatever those
problems might be. And then to motivate them and
encourage them and instruct them in godliness. All of those things
is all intertwined with Christ. And anybody who preaches these
things in the abstract is leading you to self-righteousness. We
see these things in Christ, and as we see them in Christ, we
understand them. We understand them, and the motive
also is established. All true faith is in Christ. It feeds on Christ. It's founded
on Christ. It desires to be made like Christ,
and it desires to be with Christ. Paul said, for me to live is
Christ. He summed up his whole life in
one word. For me to live is Christ. Now
he said, that's my life. That's my life. As you have therefore
received Christ Jesus, he said, so walk ye in him. Rooted and
built up in him, established in the faith. Why did he insist
on that? Why is that so important? Why
is that so important? Why must we make such a thing
out of that? Well, he goes on to tell us.
He said, because in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily, and we're complete in Him. Now, if in Him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and we're complete in
Him, what are we outside of Him? Empty. Empty. There's nothing of God or godliness
anywhere else. He said, great is the mystery
of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. Here's godliness right here. Now we want to look over here
to a law that those who received that law and walked under that
law, Didn't even hear the law. Couldn't even begin to understand
what this law declared. They never saw the holiness of
God in that law. Never did. Oh, here's the law
fulfilled and honored and exalted. So we look to Him. I don't look
over here to some dead letters. I don't understand anything by
that. I'm left to my own play. But I see godliness in Him who
obeyed the law and honored the law. Now I can see the law. Now
I can see it in its holiness, and it's exalted in Him. It's beauty
in Him. It's fulfilled in Him. I see
that, Lord. There's nothing of God or godliness
anywhere else. And it's impossible, I hope you'll
hear me, it's impossible to teach godliness apart from Christ.
It's impossible. So Christ preached Christ. And those who heard Him, they
preached Christ. And those who read them and understand
them, they preach Christ. Because there's nothing else
to preach. He said, I am come to do my Father's
will. I am come to save. I am the good
shepherd, the vine, the bread, and the water. And I challenge you, go through
the Scriptures. See if you can find anything
in here taught outside of Christ. You can't find it. It ain't there. It ain't there. Godliness preached and taught
in the abstract will just lead you to self-righteousness. And
where is any comfort in all these future prophecies? They come
out by multitudes. They come out to hear these men
talk about future events and prophecies and all those things.
Where's the comfort in that apart from Christ? Huh? When we're talking about these
future events set forth in the Word of God, we're talking about
death. We're talking about judgment. We're talking about the end of
the world. Can you look into those things and find comfort
apart from Christ? My soul, no. No. Only one thing that can comfort
your heart on these issues, and that is the personal experience
and union with Christ. Now, I'm a preacher, but not
in the same sense that he is. He is the very declaration of
God. We are, Paul said, ambassadors
for Christ, ambassadors of Christ. And we beseech you in His stead,
be you reconciled to God. But you take Christ out of the
gospel, there's nothing left to preach. Turn with me to Hebrews
chapter 12. Lots of people believe that Christ
is the basic, fundamental beginning of salvation because they view
salvation as an isolated act. They're coming along and they're
looking for that one event, that one experience, that one thing
that's going to POW! It's going to hit you and say,
that's it! That's it! And they're going to start looking
back. Looking back to that day. All
the rest of their life they're going to look back to that day.
Back to that day. That's not salvation. Salvation
is seeing Christ and following Christ and walking with Christ.
That's salvation. And lots of folks believe that
Christ is the basic fundamental beginning of salvation, from
which this so-called saved man now goes on to other things.
They always say the same thing. We get it. We get it. After they've
heard it about 20 times, we get it. Now let's go on. No, there
ain't no going on. You don't get it. When you get it, you won't want
to go on. Will you go too? To whom shall we go? Thou ask
the words of eternal life. We ain't going nowhere. I remember I came into church,
and this young preacher was filling in for Don, and he told me, he
said, you look familiar. He said, like somebody I've seen
around. I said, well, I've been around.
These disciples, they've been around. But when He called them,
they wouldn't go anywhere else. They'd already been around. They
wouldn't follow Him. To preach Christ is to preach
the whole counsel of God. Now look at this here in Hebrews
12, verse 1. Wherefore, that is based on the whole of chapter
11 and all those examples that He set forth in it of faith.
All these men. hundreds of them, literally hundreds
and probably thousands that he set forth here. He named a lot
of them just in general groups. Seeing we also are compassed
about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every
weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us
run with patience the race that is set before us. Now listen,
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Oh, I thought he was just the
author. Oh, no. He's the finisher of
it, too. And this whole race, like the
prize at the end, you fashion your eyes on Christ, and that's
what you run to. You don't run this way and that
way. You run right at Him. Run right at Him. Christ Himself
is the Teacher, and Christ Himself is the Preacher. His prophecies
preach, His appearance preaches, His life preaches, His death
preaches, His resurrection preaches, His intercession preaches, everything
about Him preaches. Everything about Him preaches.
He is the preacher. And then thirdly, Christ is the
healer. He's the healer. This world is like a city besieged
with a plague. This whole world, it's like a
city besieged with a plague, and all that's in it are dead
and dying. Isaiah said, covered from head
to foot with wounds and bruises and putrefying soul. It's like
a leper colony, banished from the camp, shut out of communion,
shut out of the fellowship of the children of God, barred from
worship, dead while they live, rotting from the inside out.
It's like a leper colony. All their beauty is gone. All
ability to serve is gone. Unclean, infectious. Can't get
around them, they infect you. Lot was infected with that behavior
of those men down in Sodom. He was infected with it. And
stinking with the smell of death. And this world is filled with
blindness. He said, if our gospel be hid,
it's hid to the lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded
their minds, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ
should shine unto them. And it's like those porches around
the pool of Bethesda, filled with those who can do nothing
for themselves. They laid there and waited for
the angel of God. You know what angel is? That's
a minister. They laid there on that porch and waited for the
minister of God to stir the water. Because there ain't going to
be no healing until the angel of God's covenant stirs the waters. It's not going to happen. It's
not going to happen. Oh, and for the grace of God
to put them in the pool. That's what has to take place.
This world is like the land of the Gadarene, filled with Demon-possessed
men and women full of unclean spirits and all of its inhabitants
living in tombs and doing ungodly and irrational things. This world
is like the cave in which Lazarus was laid, his sickness being
more than he could bear. Now listen to the Master. The whole need not a position. Ain't that what he said? I don't
need a physician, but they that are sick." Now he said, you go
learn what that means. You go learn what that means. Where does a man learn this?
He learns this when God reveals his true state and condition
to him. When he manifests his disease
to him, his death to him, his uncleanness to him. when he manifests
his disease and his paralysis and his blindness and his demon
possession and his leprosy and his spiritual death. Nahum was
a great man. Scripture said he was. He was
a man of power and influence, a man of title. He was a general. And he was a man of holdings
and wealth and influence. He was a leader. A man of great
accomplishments. But in the end, having said all
these things about Naaman, it said, but he was a leper. He was a leper. And none of those
other things amounted to anything, did they? He was a leper. It was his leprosy that brought
him to the healer. God manifested that leprosy to
him. He knew that he was a leper.
And he knew he had to go to... And he didn't like the man. And
he didn't like what the man said. But his servant said, now if
he'd asked you to do something great... Huh? If he'd asked you
to do a triple off the diving board, you'd have done it. You'd
have broke your neck trying it. He said, all he told you was
go down and dip in the river. He said, maybe y'all just listen.
Hmm? Maybe that's what we ought to
do. Just listen. Just listen. Oh, he was a leprosy. But his
leprosy is what brought him to the healer. It was the blindness
that caused Bartimaeus to cry out, wasn't it? He wouldn't have
cried out if he hadn't been blind. He'd been fishing. Sure he would. He'd been down there trying to
make his fortune. He wouldn't have been out there crying, Jesus,
thou son of David, have mercy on me. It was the demon possession
that brought legion to the Lord. No man could tame him. They couldn't
chain him up. He broke the chains. They couldn't
bind him. He said, the whole need not a
position but they that are sick. And I tell you this, if you can
walk out here this morning as though you had a thousand options,
you don't need a position. That's right. You don't need
the physician. The whole need not the physician.
That's what he told those Pharisees. It was the Pharisees that questioned
him, wasn't it? Nobody else did. These sick folk,
I'm telling you, these sick folk came to him. and was healed. Every last one of them was healed.
They came to him, bowed at his feet, recognized him for who
he was, gave him the fame of his name, gave him the glory
of his name, and he healed them. And they went their way rejoicing.
But not the Pharisees. The Pharisees said, now, you
don't quite come up to our level. You don't quite meet up with
our expectations. He said, the whole don't need
a physician, the sick. Now, you go learn what that means.
You go learn what that means. And to me, this is the great
end of all preaching and teaching. Look here in Matthew 4, verse
24. And His fame... His fame is what? Well, what did He do? He taught,
He preached, and He healed. That's what He did. And His fame... went throughout all Syria. Boy, it looks to me like that's
the last place a preacher could have any fame in Syria. But God
manifested His there. His fame went throughout all
Syria and they brought unto Him all sick people. They didn't bring any well folks
down there. They brought the sick. that were
taken with diverse diseases and torments, and those which were
possessed of devils, and those which were lunatic, and those
that had the palsy, and He healed them. Huh? He healed them. This is the great end of all
preaching and teaching, that all those whose sins and spiritual
diseases are made manifest will be brought to the feet of Christ.
And those that are brought there with that sin revealed and call
on His name, He will heal.