Pray with me, please. All gracious and merciful Father.
Lord, we do pray that you might teach us the things of Christ
today. Lord, we want to know more of Christ. We want to know
about the miracles that Jesus did. Lord, you've given us the
faith to believe. But dear Father, teach us the
spiritual lessons that these miracles illustrate Make those
lessons powerful in our hearts. Oh, dear Father, we long to see
the salvation of souls. Might you bless us with that
knowledge. Might we see the salvation of souls. May you enable me to
preach the good news of Christ for the salvation and comfort
of your people. As we all seek Christ, to know
more of Christ, in whose name we come to you in prayer. Amen. Our text this morning is literally
the whole chapter of Matthew chapter 8. You might open your
Bibles there, but we want to first, the first verses that
we're going to look at are in Matthew 11. Matthew 11 verses
3 to 5. So, they're not far apart. You
can put a finger in each spot. But, Matthew 8 tells us about
some of the great miracles which our Lord Jesus performed while
he walked here on this earth. They were, without question,
supernatural works. They were indisputably miraculous
works, which could only have been done by the power of God. That's what makes them miraculous.
The Jews made every false accusation that you could imagine against
our Lord's claim to being the Messiah or the Christ or the
Son of God. But the Jews never once raised
even the slightest hint of a question about either Christ's genealogy
or validity of the miracles which he performed. I think they didn't
make an objection to these two points because they were a public
record. They were beyond dispute. And
so they couldn't be denied or even called into question. Our
Lord's numerous and unprecedented miracles which He performed served
two purposes that I can see. First, they proved that this
man called Jesus was the Christ. He was the Messiah, the Son of
God. In Matthew 11, verses 3-5, John
the Baptist sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus a question. The
question was, that was addressed to Jesus, Art thou He what should
come? Or do we look for another? And
then in verse 4, Jesus answered that question and He said unto
them, Go and show John again those things which you do hear
and see. The blind receive their sight,
and the lame walk. The lepers are cleansed, and
the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have
the gospel preached to them. Jesus was saying, I think very
clearly, the things that I say and the
things that I do may testify of me. The miracles you see me
do prove that I am the Messiah of God. And then the second thing
that these miracles teach us Like all of the other supernatural
works of God that we see in the deliverance of God's people in
the Old Testament, these miracles were designed to be pictures
of God's saving grace and they were intended to teach us spiritual
lessons. It is those spiritual lessons
that I would direct your attention to today. If God is gracious
to us, and I pray that He will be, His Word will be a comfort
to these miracles will be of comfort to our souls as we look
to Christ and we learn of Him. Here in Matthew 8, briefly, we
see a description of some of these miracles which are performed
by our Lord. And I think it was done, if I
read the text correctly, although it's not a positive statement,
but I think they were all done in a single day. But to understand
these miracles, you need to know that our Lord's miracles were
both pictures of His grace and object lessons, which are full
of spiritual instruction for those who have eyes to see and
ears to hear the things that are revealed in them. J. C. Ryle wrote, There is a beautiful
fitness in this. It was fitting that the greatest
sermon ever preached should be immediately followed by mighty
proofs that the preacher was the Son of God. So that's the
purpose of these miracles, to teach us of Christ and the things
of Christ. That Jesus Christ is the Messiah. He is the Son of God. The first
miracle in Matthew 8 verses 1-4 gives us a lesson about repentance. Would you like to know how to
come to Christ? Do you want to know how a sinner
can come to Christ and obtain mercy from Christ? If that interests
you at all, then learn from the leper. In Matthew 8, verses 1
to 4, it says, When he, when Jesus Christ, was come down from
the mountain, great multitudes followed him. And behold, there
came a leper, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt,
thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand,
and touched him, saying, I will. Be thou clean." And immediately
his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus said unto him, See
thou tell no man, but go thy way, and show thyself to the
priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded for a testimony
unto them. This poor wretch of a man who
had leprosy represents every poor sinner who is convinced
of his leprosy, convinced of his sin by God the Holy Spirit,
and then who turns and comes to Christ. Being convinced of
Christ's ability to heal him, this man came to Christ just
as he was. He came to Christ as a leper.
He was unclean, unworthy. He was a legal outcast. He was
a leper. Death was on his breath. He had
an incurable disease. He had no right to approach the
Lord Jesus like he did, but he knew that no one else could do
anything for him. Certainly he couldn't do anything
for himself. And so he went to Jesus to be healed. All that
we each want would be like that leper. Turn to Luke 23 and verse
42, please. This leper came out of the crowd
to seek the Savior. And he worshiped Christ as Lord,
bowing down in humble reverence before a man that he acknowledged
to be his rightful sovereign Lord. There's no other way to
come to Christ except as a sinner pleading for mercy. In Luke 23,
verse 42, the dying repentant thief, that thief on the cross,
turned to his Savior and he said unto Jesus, Remember me when
thou comest into thy kingdom. And in Acts 9, verse 5, Saul,
who would later be called Paul, turned to the voice of God from
where he had fallen there on the earth, and he said, Who art
thou, Lord? He was turning to this voice.
He'd heard that voice. Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord
said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. It's hard for thee to kick against
the pricks. Repentance. Isn't a man determining
that he is going to stop sinning? Repentance is a sinner turning
to Christ, seeking mercy. If you could stop sinning, you
wouldn't need a Savior. And notice that this leper freely
acknowledged Jesus Christ's sovereign right to give or to withhold.
God has the choice. It is all according to God's
sovereign will that he can either give or withhold His grace. He does it according to His own
pleasure. He is the Lord, and He has every right. The leper
says to Jesus, Thou wilt, Thou canst make me whole. That's a
statement that's made by faith, isn't it? There may have been
great weakness in this leper's faith. He seems to have been
confident that the Lord Jesus was able to heal him. But he
doesn't seem very confident that Jesus was willing to heal him.
And yet the apparent weakness of his faith didn't prevent Christ's
mercy to him. I pray that each of you might
see this. It isn't the strength of our
faith, but it's Jesus Christ who is
the object of our faith that saves us, not the strength. but
Jesus Christ, who is the object of our faith. Trusting Christ,
this leper obtained mercy. And then Matthew 8, verse 3 says,
And Jesus put forth his hand, and he touched him. I'm amazed
at that, that anybody would reach out and touch a leper. He touched him, saying, I will. I will make you clean. Then he
says, Jesus says, be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was
cleansed. The master tenderly touched this
unclean leper, touched him with his own hand as if to indicate
his loving sympathy with the poor and needy leper. And Christ
still reaches out his tender but all powerful hand. He reaches
out to touch and to heal the needy soul. that comes to him. And notice that Jesus healed
this poor, needy leper by the power of His Word. When the leper
asked Him, Jesus said, I will. And with a word of grace, the
Son of God made this vile son of Adam clean. Jesus' words were,
Be thou clean. Jesus commanded and immediately
this man's leprosy was cleansed. It was gone. It was completely
gone. If we would obtain mercy, if
we would be saved, hear me carefully, we must come to Christ. We must
come to Christ just like this leopard did. Now, our coming
will not save us. But we must come to Christ if
we're going to be saved. Then in Matthew 8, verses 5 to
13, we are given a lesson about faith. While the scribes and
the Pharisees and most of the people of Israel despised the
Lord Jesus, they despised not only Jesus' person, but they
despised his gospel. It was an unnamed Roman officer
who fully believed that the man standing before him was the Lord
God, sovereign over all things, with whom nothing is impossible,
nothing is even difficult. In Matthew 8 verses 5-10 it says,
And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him
a centurion beseeching him, and saying, Lord, my servant lies
at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus said unto
him, I will come and heal him. And the centurion answered and
said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my
roof. But speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.
For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And
I say to this man, go, and he goes, and to another, come, and
he comes, and to my servant, do this, and he does it. And
when Jesus heard it, he marveled. And he said to them that followed,
Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith. No,
not in Israel." Turn please to Ephesians 2, verses 8 and 9.
This Roman centurion, as he comes to Jesus, shows us, and I think
especially here in verse 10, he shows us what a great and
precious gift the gift of faith is. To believe Christ, to trust
Christ, is a rare and a precious gift of God. It's God's saving
grace. In Ephesians 2, verses 8 and
9, the Apostle Paul says, For by grace are you saved through
faith. That not of yourselves, it is,
faith is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should
boast. And in Philippians 1.29, Paul said, For unto you it is
given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but
also to suffer for His sake. You know, we all should be very,
very thankful if we have this God-given gift of grace. We should
be thankful because very few people have this gift. Many people
say that they believe, but few are willing to come to Christ.
Oh, they might come down the aisle of a church, but they're
not willing to come to Christ because, well, they're not willing to
come as helpless Sinners, they're not willing to commit their souls
to Christ. Few people will forsake their
own righteousness to trust Christ alone as the Lord our righteousness.
Few people will come to Christ trusting Him alone to save them.
That kind of faith, that kind of faith is the faith of Christ.
And it only comes as a gift from God. Faith in Christ appears
to be small and is an insignificant thing in the eyes of the world.
But true faith, that faith which is of Christ, worketh by love,
and is the highest privilege, the greatest gift, and the rarest
jewel in all the world. Many people have religion, but
few of them have faith. This centurion had faith. So great was his faith that the
Lord Jesus marveled at the centurion's faith. You know, I can't help
asking, why is it recorded, and it is recorded by divine inspiration,
why is it recorded that Jesus marveled at this centurion's
faith? Why did the Lord Jesus, who gave this man the faith,
that faith that this centurion exercised, why did Jesus give
this man, that he had given this man faith, why did he then marvel
at the display of that faith? Why has the Holy Spirit recorded
this detail here in His Word? Do you wonder about that like
I do? Surely it must be because that true faith, the faith of
Christ, has become the personal possession of this believer. When God gives faith, He gives
it to every believer. He gives it to every one of His
children and it becomes their faith. It's true that God gave
the centurion his faith. We rejoice in the knowledge of
that fact. And yet the faith given became
the centurion's faith. It didn't originate with the
centurion, but it became his because God gave it to him. And
yet it was the faith of Christ that God gave to him. Hear this,
please. The faith of Christ given by
God to His children isn't a notion, or a doctrine, or a principle. God-given faith is the heartfelt
confidence of every needy sinner who looks to Christ as his only
Savior, and then that confident faith causes him to confess,
my Lord and my God, as Thomas did in John 20, verse 28. That
is an expression of faith. Yes, faith is God's gift, and
faith is God's operation in us, and faith is the fruit of the
Holy Spirit according to Galatians 5.23. And yet it is our faith. It's our faith because God gave
it to us. If God gave it to me, that makes
it mine. If God gives it to you, that
makes that faith yours. Maybe this illustration will
help us to understand what I think is a very important concept.
The breath in my lungs is God's gift too. It's God who enables
me to breathe every breath that I've ever taken. He is the one
who controls whether I live or die. And yet it is my breath
and my continuing to breathe which is the evidence that God
has given me physical life and that He continues to give me
that life. And the breathing of my lungs
in my body is just as necessary to my living as God's gift of
life. The two can't be separated. If
you doubt that, just try putting a plastic bag over your head
and then try to go ahead living. You can't do it. It's God's heir. You can't live without Him giving
you the breath to breathe. That's the way it is with God's
given faith. You can't have spiritual life
without it. As Galatians 3.26 says, we are
the children of God by faith. We're the children of God by
faith in Jesus Christ. Which you have been given by
God's grace. And that is your faith in Christ. In Ephesians
1, verses 15 and 16, Paul thanks God for them, for these Ephesians,
because of their faith. He says, Wherefore I also, after
I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all
the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention
of you in my prayers. He thanks them because of their
faith. And yet that faith was a gift
of God. And he did the same thing with the Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians
1-4, Paul says, I thank my God always in your behalf for the
grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ. And then in
1 Corinthians 2-25, Paul tells us what that grace was that he's
talking about. Paul is thanking God for it.
He says that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men,
but in the power of God. I think it's very important for
us to understand that faith, the faith of Christ, is God's
gift. And because God gave it to you,
it has become your faith. And your faith in Christ is just
as necessary, just as vital to your everlasting salvation, just
as precious as God's decree of election, as Christ accomplished
redemption and as the Holy Spirit effectually calling you to your
salvation. In Hebrews 11 verse 6 it says,
Without faith it is impossible to please Him. For he that cometh
to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of
them that diligently seek Him. Have you ever asked, like the
Philippian jailer asked Paul, What must I do to be saved? Now I don't hesitate for a second
to answer with the inspired words of Paul and Silas. They answered
this jailer boldly and they said, this is what you must do to be
saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And that's true. It's what you
have to do. But don't let anybody ever cause
you to look to yourself or to your own experience. Don't ever
let anybody point you to your belief as the thing that saved
you or your own experience as the thing that saved you. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and salvation is yours. But you've missed Christ if you
think that your belief has saved you. Look to Christ. Look to Christ for your salvation.
Your faith is the faith of Jesus Christ. It was given to you by
God. If you want to be saved, look to Christ. And have you
ever asked, well, how then can I know that I'm saved? If that's your question, If you
ask yourself that question, then my answer to your question is
this. Do you believe on the Son of
God? It doesn't matter in the least whether or not you can
answer the question, what did you know when you first professed
faith in Christ? That's not an important question.
Or was the man that was preaching to you a good, sound gospel preacher? The question isn't, When did
you believe? Those questions are totally irrelevant. They're irrelevant to your question,
how can I know that I'm saved? This is the only question to
be answered. Dost thou believe on the Son
of God? If you trust the Lord Jesus Christ,
then salvation is yours. But if you trust yourself, or
if you trust in something that you have done, then you've missed
Christ. It's as simple as that. However,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Look
at Matthew 8, verses 11 and 12. The centurion is held up before
us by the Holy Spirit of God as a beautiful picture of God's
elect among the Gentiles who must be saved. In Matthew 8,
verses 11 and 12, Jesus says, And I say unto you that many
Gentiles, like this centurion, I say unto you that many shall
come from the east and the west and shall sit down with Adam,
with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But
the children of the kingdom, the children of Israel's earthly
kingdom, the children of the kingdom, and these Gentiles are
alien to that to the nation of Israel. They're aliens. They're
foreigners. The children of the kingdom shall be cast into outer
darkness, and they shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Unless,
and this is a big unless, unless God gives them faith, unless
God gives them faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, they
will be cast into outer darkness. The Lord Jesus tells us that
this man's faith in Him was effectual faith. And it was. In verse 13,
Jesus says, Go thy way, as thou hast believed, so be it done
unto thee. And then Matthew tells us, And
his servant was healed in the selfsame hour. You can be sure
of this. You can be positive of this. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and you shall be saved. But if you think that your belief
has saved you, then you haven't trusted Christ as your Savior.
You're trusting in your belief. Then in Matthew 8, verses 14
to 17, there's a lesson about sickness. It says, And when Jesus
came 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 ministered unto them. And
when even was come, they brought him many that were possessed
with devils. And he cast out the spirits with
his word, and healed all that were sick, that it might be fulfilled
which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself took
our infirmities and bore our sickness." Indeed, there is much
to be learned from these verses. If the Holy Spirit will be our
teacher, there is much that he can teach us from these verses.
But in this case, there are some things that are taught which
are so obvious that only willfully ignorant people can miss the
meaning of Matthew's words. I'm not going to dwell on it,
but certainly it was the intent of the Holy Spirit in this passage
to give us a clear, indisputable record of the fact that Apostle
Peter was a married man. It's his wife's mother who was
sick. And second, we clearly see this
passage as a clear demonstration of the fact that faith in Christ
and faithfulness to Christ doesn't prevent sickness and disease
and pain and sorrow or bereavement and death. These things are all
the results of sin and the consequences of sin ran through Peter's house
just as it does in any other man's house. Peter was not any
different than the rest of us from that respect. And the third
very obvious thing to see here is that these people who are
the objects of God's mercy should be diligent in the Lord's service.
Just as soon as Peter's mother-in-law was healed, she rose, it tells
us, and ministered unto them. She ministered unto the Lord
Jesus, unto Peter, and unto all who were with him. Nothing so
affectionately inspires love for and devotion to the Lord
Jesus Christ and His people as a God-given gratitude for the
grace that is experienced when they see the love of Christ as
He dies for them on the cross. Our great Savior, our sovereign
Lord, is in complete control of all things, and that includes
sickness and disease. He sends it. He controls it. He removes it. It takes no more
than His Word or His touch to relieve His suffering child.
But these are the obvious things of this text. I'd much more prefer
to spend our time looking at Matthew 8, verse 17, because
here we see some marvelous things about Jesus Christ. And what
could be sweeter, what could be more comforting or more honoring
to our blessed Lord than the statement given by the Holy Spirit
in verse 17 that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself took our infirmities
and bore our sickness. Our Savior so completely identifies
Himself with us that He takes our infirmities and our sickness
to be His own just as surely as He bore our sin in His body
on the tree. The love of Christ causes Jesus
to take our sickness for His own. Now be careful. This verse doesn't teach us that
there is healing from sickness and disease in the atonement
of Christ. It teaches us that there is sympathy
in our Savior. Our Savior who sends sickness
and death, or healing and life, and as He sees fit, to the people
that He loves. But we're all sinners. It is
seldom that you can trace your sickness to a single sin. As
Robert Hawker observed, what a beautiful representation is
here made of the lovely and all-loving Jesus. What a display this is
of his sovereignty, what a display of his grace. Christ Jesus himself
took our infirmities and bore our sickness. Now there is no
possibility of Jesus Christ ever becoming sick. Sickness is the
result of sin and our Savior knew no sin. And yet, he was
made sin for us and he bore our sins in his body on the tree.
And so we see here that by his love and by his sympathy, he
bore our sicknesses. In this sense, Jesus Christ knew
and felt more of what sin and the sorrows of sin and sickness
were than we'll ever know. Jesus Christ who felt the whole
weight and burden of our sins, the wrath of God as our surety,
must have known more and felt more both of the bitterness of
sin itself and of all the horrid consequences of sin. He must
have felt that more than we'll ever know. If righteous Lot vexed
his soul by day with the filthy deeds of the Sodomites, what
then were the feelings of our blessed Lord Jesus as he beheld
the sins of his Throughout the days of Christ's early life,
our dear Savior bore our sicknesses until at last He gave Himself
as a ransom for us to redeem us from sin and of all its consequences. But look back at Matthew 18 and
verse 16 for just a minute. I know I'm backing up a little
bit, but I'll get there. What I pray is that we can learn
something from verse 16 about a lesson about usefulness. Matthew 8 verse 16 says that
when the even was come, they brought unto him, they brought
to Jesus, many that were possessed with devils. And he cast out
the spirits with his word, and he healed all that were sick.
Throughout each of the four Gospels, we're told over and over again
that men and women brought other needy men and women to the Lord
Jesus to be healed by him. And they were always commended
for doing that. Some people say that God doesn't
need man. Well, I couldn't agree more with
that. God doesn't need us. But I rejoice in the fact that
God has chosen and God has ordained the use of saved sinners for
the saving of other sinners. If you want to do something for
your fellow man, the highest and the greatest and the most
useful service that we can do for the souls of men is to bring
them to Christ. I challenge you to show me one
place in the New Testament where someone ever brought a needy
soul to the Savior who didn't succeed in obtaining for them
the mercy which they were seeking for their friend. What a hopeful
thought! God honors that faith which brings
sinners to Christ. In fact, we're told in Luke 5.20
that when our Savior saw the faith of those four men, you
remember those four men who carried their friend on a stretcher?
He said to that man that was on the stretcher, Thy sins are
forgiven me. And we're not told in that passage
that the man who was healed ever said or did anything at all.
They were simply brought to Jesus He was simply brought to Jesus
by His four friends. That's God's grace to His people,
isn't it? What a joy it is to see somebody that you are concerned
about when you bring them to Jesus. And Jesus receives them. And Jesus heals them from their
sin. Then in Matthew 8, verses 18-22,
our Lord Jesus teaches us a lesson about discipleship. He says,
Now when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave commandment
to depart unto the other side. And a certain scribe came and
said to him, Master, I will follow thee wheresoever thou goest.
And Jesus said unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds
have their nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay
his head. And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord,
suffer me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus said unto
him, Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead. Don Fortner
pointed out that our Master wasn't one of the modern, slick, polished,
soul-winning evangelists who will use every trick imaginable
to get people to make a profession of faith. And I agree with Don. When the scribe came and said,
I will follow thee, and then one who professed to be his disciple
said, I will follow just as soon as I have buried my father, our
Master replied with solemn words of warning. They were words of
reproof. In verse 20, to the first man,
Jesus said, if you follow Me, you'll find that I don't have
a place to lay My head, and so you won't have a place to lay
your head either. And in verse 22, Jesus said, if you follow
Me, you will have the dead to bury their own dead. Oh, dear
Father, teach us this lesson. Teach us the lesson that I need
to learn. Let me preach Your Gospel clearly and as plainly
As you can possibly let me preach it, leaving nothing out and all
of the results, let me leave them up to you. Make the preaching
of the gospel the most important thing in my life, dear Lord.
If we would be faithful to God, if we would be faithful to the
souls of men, then we must keep back nothing from those who say
that they want to follow Jesus. We must never enlist souls in
the cause of Christ under false pretenses. Let all who would
follow Christ sit down first and count the cost. Before anyone
can wear the crown of glory, he must daily take up his cross
and follow the Master. That may mean giving up earthly
comfort. It may mean neglecting ordinary
but unnecessary duties of life. Someone will bury the dead. Discipleship
to a child of God means that Jesus Christ is all, and that
Christ is first ahead of everything else in your life. Oh, that would
be true of me. This is the first place in the
New Testament in which we meet the phrase, Son of Man, in reference
to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a phrase that our Savior
frequently used to describe Himself. He seems to have particularly
delighted in calling himself the son of man. It's a title
by which he set forth his wonderful condensation and his great love
in assuming our nature. He who thought not robbery to
be equal with God was delighted to become one of us so that he
might redeem us. For you know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for our sakes
he became poor. that ye through his poverty might
be rich." Oh, dear Lord, let me put Christ first in my life.
And in Matthew 8, verses 23-27, we see the disciples with the
Lord Jesus, and they're crossing a stormy sea of Galilee, and
we learn a lesson about fear. It's a lesson, I think, that
we all need to learn, but especially I need to learn it. Beginning
in verse 23, it says, And when he was entered into a ship, his
disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great
tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with
the waves. But he was asleep. And his disciples came to him
and woke him, saying, Lord, save us, we perish. We perish. And
he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and he rebuked
the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. But the men
marveled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the
winds and the sea obey him?" I pray you can hear what I'm
about to say here. Fear is inconsistent with faith. And yet, faith and fear live
together in the same heart. True saving faith is often mingled
with fear and weakness and infirmity. Now, this is a humbling lesson
to learn, I think, but it's a needful lesson for us to learn. Many
people who stand on the shore might laugh and make fun of those
terrified disciples who were out there in that little boat.
But experience tells me that very few people are more confident
themselves when they're in the storm. Many people who believe
Christ and love Him and who gladly and truly forsake all to follow
Him are full of fear when they face danger. Many of those who
have enough faith to cry out, Lord save us, we perish, because
they don't have enough faith to calmly ride out the hurricane
at sea in a little fishing boat. But that's the way the disciples
were, isn't it? They were afraid. They were with
Almighty God. They were with the Creator of
heaven and earth. But they were afraid. I also
know this. We will never know. We'll never
know the weakness of our faith until that faith is tried. But
hear me please. Weak faith is not false faith. I rejoice in reading David's
words in Psalm 56, verse 3. I read them even as my heart
breaks with the acknowledge of my own fear and my own unbelief.
David prayed, What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee. Oh, that we all would trust Christ
whenever we're afraid. instead of trusting ourselves.
If you have the strong faith of Job, so that you can say,
though he slay me, yet I will trust him, then don't despise
that weak, trembling, fearful faith that cries, Master, care
us not that we perish. The Lord Jesus didn't despise
such faith, but in fact what He did was to nurture such a
faith as that wherever He found it. And we ought to do the same.
especially in ourselves. Let's give thanks to God for
a great high priest. A high priest who is compassionate
and who is tender hearted. He knows our frame. He remembers
that we're dust. He is touched by the feelings
of our infirmities. And he doesn't cast us off because
of our defects. He reproves, but he also pities
those whom he reproves. And even the prayer of faithful
little faith doesn't go unheard and unanswered by our Lord Jesus
Christ. He may not take away your fear,
and you may just have to live with your fear, but if you do,
it will only be one more reason for you to look again to Jesus
Christ. Jesus Christ who can calm the
storm. Praise God that your fear continually
shows you a continuing need for your Savior, Jesus Christ. In
these verses that we're looking at in Matthew 8, verses 23-27,
we're given a beautiful, clear, and instructive picture of our
Savior's two-fold nature as the God-Man, our Mediator. Here is
Christ the Man sleeping because He's tired. And here is Jesus
Christ our Lord and our God, the One by whom all things were
made, rebuking the wind and the sea. And we can trust in Him
because He is Almighty God. Who but the Creator could command
the mighty waters? What sweet consolation this passage
ought to be to our souls in every time of trouble, to hush all
the winds and storms that are in our lives. Our God and our
Savior sometimes appears to be asleep. He sometimes appears
to be inattentive. and uncaring when our little
boats are filling up with water and our distressed souls cry,
Lord save us, we perish. But we should always remember,
he is with us even in the midst of the storms. He will keep our
little boats safe. And at the appointed time, he
will deliver us. He will arise and rebuke the
winds and the sea and there will be a great calm. Storms of fear
and storms of temptation must all subside at the command of
our all-powerful God and Savior. He is the God of heaven and earth
and He rules all things and He controls all things. Why should
we fear? Why should we fear when He loved
us enough to die for us? And then we have a lesson about
unbelief. In Matthew 8, verses 28 to 34,
the Holy Spirit uses two demon-possessed men, a herd of hogs, and a group
of worldly businessmen to teach us a lesson about unbelief. In
these last seven verses, Matthew describes our Savior casting
out devils with unusual fullness and detail. These verses must
not be overlooked and ignored because just as we all have fears,
we also all have doubts. Well, I'm speaking for myself,
but I suspect that we all have doubts. Beginning in verse 28,
it says, And when he, when Jesus was come to the other side, into
the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with
devils, coming out of the tombs exceeding fierce, so that no
man might pass by. They were afraid just to walk
by these fellows. And behold, they, those devils,
cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou
Son of God? Art thou come hither to torment
us before time? And there was a good way off
from them a herd of many swine feeding. And so the devil besought
him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into
the herd of swine. And he said unto them, Go. And
when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine.
And behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep
place into the sea and perished in the waters. And they that
kept the swine fled, and they went their ways into the city.
And they told everything, and what was befallen to the possessed
of the devils. And behold, the whole city came
out to meet Jesus. And when they saw Him, they besought
Him, that He would depart out of their coasts." The devil and
the demons of hell are real. Now I don't know much, I don't
know really anything at all about the subject of demonology. And
really and frankly, I don't want to know anything about demonology.
Especially I don't want to know about the demons by experience.
But I know just enough to know that they're real. And I warn
you all, the devil is a real adversary to our souls. Demons
are real. Only a fool is going to deny
their existence. and only a fool will investigate
their operations. I strongly encourage you, have
nothing to do with them. Have nothing to do with Satan
and those that follow him. I rejoice to tell you that Satan
and demons of hell and the powers of darkness are all under the
total control of the Lord Jesus Christ. But nevertheless, we
by ourselves are no match for them. But the Son of God holds
the chain that binds them. They can only go where the Lord
leads them and they can only do what He commands them to do
or He gives them permission to do. Let me read to you some verses
that tell us exactly that. Turn please to John 12, verses
30 and 31. While Jesus was praying, there
were people around Him and they heard a voice from heaven speaking.
And they thought that it might be an angel. But in John 12,
verses 30 and 31, Jesus answered and said, This voice came not
because of me, but for your sakes. Now is the judgment of this world.
Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. Who's the
prince of this world? He's Satan. Turn to Revelation
20, verses 1 to 3. Our Lord defeated Satan at the
cross when he conquered sin and death. We're not strong enough
to deal with Satan, but our Lord is. He has defeated him. In Revelation
20, verses 1-3, the Apostle John said, I saw an angel come down
from heaven having the key of the bottom of his pit and a great
chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon
and the old serpent. That old serpent from the Garden
of Eden, remember? That's the devil. And Satan,
the devil and Satan had bound him a thousand years and cast
him into the bottom of his pit and shut him up. and set a seal
upon him that he should deceive the nations no more till a thousand
years should be fulfilled. And after that he must be loosed
a little season." Now turn to Acts 10 and verse 38. As powerful
as Satan is, he's not all powerful. He's not omnipotent. Satan only
operates by divine permission. If you read the book of Job in
chapter 1, you'll see Satan going to God for permission to do whatever
he wanted to do. Job suffered, but it all worked
out for good. And learn this too. Satan doesn't
willingly give up on anybody. If he has possession of them,
he will not willingly turn them loose. But Jesus Christ is able
to deliver lost souls from the power of Satan. In Acts 10 verse
38 it tells us, how God appointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy
Ghost and with power, who went about doing good and healing
all who were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him. And in Hebrews 7.25 it tells
us that's why Christ is able to save them to the uttermost
that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession
for them. Jesus Christ is God all-powerful,
And he who brews the serpent's head is the only one who can
bind the strong man and cast him out of his house and dispossess
him. And so here in Matthew 8, verses
28 to 34, we see a clear demonstration of the fact that there is no
greater hindrance to faith, no greater power to keep sinners
in the darkness and the death of unbelief than the love of
the world, which is demonstrated by these Gergesenes. God walked
on their shores. He walked in human flesh, yet they didn't believe. Demon-possessed
lunatics were retrieved from the clutches of Satan before
their very eyes, and yet they believed not. The sovereign master
of heaven and earth and hell stood before these men, yet they
believed not. And they begged Him to go away.
Why did they beg Him to go away? because the hope of the gains
was gone, as it says in Acts 16, 19. Now turn to 1 John 2,
verse 15 to 17, please. These men were much more concerned
with the things of the world. They had lost, when they lost
those pigs, they lost all of the gain that they had anticipated.
Multitudes of people perish in their unbelief under the wrath
of God. They perish for the same reason that these Gergesenes
did. Their only concern is for money and for the things of this
world. They don't care about Christ, his word, their souls,
or the glory of God. There is a terrible, infectious,
and spreading disease which has entered their hearts. It's a
disease for which they should continually pray for deliverance,
but they won't. It's called worldliness, which
is the love of this world. In 1 John 2, verse 15 to 17,
God says, to those who can hear his voice,
he says, Love not the world, neither the things that are in
the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father
is not in him. For all that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride
of life, is not of the Father. It's of the world. And the world
passes away, and the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of
God abideth forever. Behold the wonders of our wonder-working
God. That was Robert Hawker's admonition
in his Reflections on Matthew 8. He said, See the leprous man
cleansed, the paralytic healed, the raging fever subdued. Yea,
the winds, sea, and devils in a moment brought unto the word
of our Jesus. But let us not stop here. He
that cleansed the poor leper in his body can and will cleanse
all the leprosy of soul in His people. He that gave strength
to the palsy of nature can and will make the crippled in soul
to leap as a heart, and all the feverish lusts of His redeemed Jesus will subdue. Pray with
me, please. O Thou gracious God, the God
of our salvation, Lord, we pray that no storms of hell or storms
of indwelling corruption or storms of this world will be able to
drown your people. We know, Lord, that Jesus, for
a while, may appear to our impatient minds as being inattentive to
us. But he has said, for the sign of the poor and the oppression
of the needy, now will I arise. And oh, dear Father, we think
about the tenderness and the feeling that the Lord Jesus enters
into with all the concerns of His redeemed. Truly, Lord, it
may be said of Thee, Thou dost Thyself take our infirmities
and bear our sicknesses. O gracious Lord, keep Your continual
presence with us. Never, never, Lord, we pray,
would we have Thee depart out of our coasts, because without
You we are lost, we are in the hands of Satan, Keep us and preserve
us in Christ we pray. Amen.