Would you turn back to Matthew
chapter 4? And there will be no services
tonight or Wednesday, the week of Christmas. Obviously, we don't
put religious significance to a day. I love the fact that Christ
came into the world though, don't you? That the word was made flesh. And I love the story in the scripture. I've got an uncle, I've told
this before, it tickles me. I've got an uncle who's very
much against Christmas. And he says, I won't give gifts,
but I will receive them. Matthew chapter 4. It's my prayer
that precisely what took place in our text when Christ was preaching
in Galilee will take place here this very morning. Let's read it again. Verse 23. And Jesus went about all Galilee
teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the
kingdom. Now, this is the first time in
the New Testament we read the word gospel. And I've entitled
this message, The Gospel of the Kingdom. And what happened in him preaching
the gospel of the kingdom and healing all manner sickness and
all manner of disease among the people. And his fame went throughout
all Syria and they brought unto him all sick people." Now that
word is a different word that is usually used with regard to
sick. It actually means evilly sick, evilly sick. You have a sickness
and it's evil. One word to describe me and you,
evilly sick. And they brought unto him all
sick people that were taken, they were overcome, they were
taken with diverse diseases and torments. And those which were
possessed with devils And those which were crazy, that's what
that means, lunatic, moonstruck, crazy. They had mental illnesses. And those that had the palsy,
they were paralytic. And he healed them. And there
followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee and from
Decapolis and from Jerusalem and from Judea and from beyond
Jordan. Now this is the first time The
word gospel is used in the New Testament, the gospel of the
kingdom. And I love the word gospel. It means good news. It's not bad news. It's good
news. Now, when the gospel comes in
the power of the Holy Spirit, it always comes as news. new, fresh, powerful. It's like something you've never
heard before, and you're hearing it for the first time. Now you
can have heard the gospel thousands of times, yet when it comes to
you and the power of the Holy Spirit, it comes as like it's
the first time you've ever heard it. It comes as news. If I'm not hearing the gospel
as news, one of two things are true of
me. Number one, I'm not hearing the
gospel in the first place. If I'm not hearing it as news,
and it's coming new and fresh and powerful to me, one of two
things are true. Either I'm not hearing the gospel
in the first place, or I'm not hearing as a sinner. and I become
dull in hearing, as Hebrews states. Somebody says, well, the preacher's
getting awful dry. Perhaps, perhaps, but maybe I'm
the one that's dry in hearing. The gospel comes as news when
it comes in the power of the Holy Spirit. Best thing I've
ever heard, first time I've ever heard it. And it comes as good
news. We read in the scripture, these
descriptions of the gospel, the mystery of the gospel. It's a message man couldn't concoct. And the only reason we know it
is because God has made known the mystery. It's mysterious. It's not something that we can
account for other than the fact that God has stated it. We read
of the everlasting gospel. I love the fact that the gospel
is eternal. It's everlasting. It never had
a beginning. It'll never have an ending. It
is the eternal gospel. We read of the gospel of the
glory of the blessed God. This gospel is about the glory
of God. We read of the gospel concerning
His Son. The gospel is concerning the
Lord Jesus Christ. You may benefit from it, but
it's concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. That's God's gospel.
And then we read of the gospel promised afore by His prophets
in the Holy Scriptures. This gospel is stated clearly
in the Scriptures. It's not some man's opinion.
It comes from God's holy word. We read of the gospel that's
the power of God unto salvation. This gospel that I'm preaching
this morning, it's the very power of God unto salvation. If you're
saved, this gospel, the gospel of God is the gospel that will
save you. We read of the gospel of the
grace of God. The gospel is about his grace.
What a beautiful word. We read of the gospel of peace. The only way you're really going
to have peace with God is through the gospel. And then in our text,
we read of the gospel of the kingdom, the gospel of the reign. That's what one of the translations
calls it, the gospel of his reign, of his kingdom. Now we read where
Jesus went about all of Galilee in verse 23, teaching in their
synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom. Now Christ was preaching and
he was teaching. Now that is the means God uses
to make known the gospel, preaching and teaching. It's still true
that it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them to
believe. A fool like you is going to sit
here and listen to a fool like me. And that's what God is going
to use. It's what the world would call
foolishness. I realize that. But it's still true. This is
the means that God uses to create faith and to make himself known
to people. the preaching, the teaching of
the word of God. And that's the methodology that
the Lord used. And I love that he went about
preaching and teaching the gospel of the kingdom. Christ is the king of this kingdom
and he reigns. Revelation 19, 6, hallelujah
for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Right now, He reigns. He always has. He always will. This is the eternal reign of
the Son of God. You know what that means? That means right now, He is your
Lord and He is your King. Whether you know it or not, whether
you acknowledge it or not. He is your Lord, and He is your
King. Now, let me give you scripture
for that. Romans 14, 9 says, for this end, Christ both died
and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and the
living. If you're dead in sins, and you
don't know the gospel, He's your Lord. You're in His hand. He can do with you whatsoever
He's pleased to do. If you're living, He's your Lord,
isn't He? He's your King. Do I hear somebody say, we'll not
have this man reign over us. You've got no choice. You can't
prevent His utter reign over you. He's reigning over you right
now, exercising complete sovereignty over the thoughts that are going
through your mind right now. He reigns. I love saying that. Somebody says, I don't believe
that one. It does. He reigns. That's who He is.
He's the Lord. And your eternal destiny is in
His hands. That's what we're talking about
when we're talking about the gospel of the kingdom. Listen to me
carefully. Your eternal destiny is in His
hands. He can save you to the praise
of the glory of His grace, or He can damn you to the praise
of the glory of His justice. I repeat, our eternal destiny
is up to Him, and whatever He does is right. What this means
is me and you have no control in this thing. None. You hear that? None. That is who he is. This is the gospel of his reign. This is the gospel of the king
of kings and the Lord of lords. And whatever he does is right. And whatever he does is good.
The Lord's good. Whatever he does is good. I love
what the Lord said when he said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord
of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babies. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight. Now there we have the Lord's
action in salvation, Him revealing to some, His action in condemnation,
Him hiding from some. And I love what the Lord says,
Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. And you know
what? Anything that's good in His sight is good in my sight
too. With every believer, whatever he does is good and right. He
is the king. Now, until you and I see this,
we'll not worship. We've never worshiped. You see,
you'll only worship a sovereign. You'll only worship one where
you're in his hands and you have absolutely no control. That's the one you'll worship.
And if you have any control, you won't worship. And you won't cry for mercy.
until you see you have no control and you're in His hands for Him
to do whatsoever He's pleased to do. Now, when you find yourself
there, you know what you'll do? Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou
Son of David. That's what you'll do. And you
won't ask for mercy until you're placed in this position where
you see you have no control and it's up to Him as to whether
or not you will be saved. Now, we have a beautiful description
of this kingdom. spoken of in Isaiah chapter 9.
If you'll turn with me there. Isaiah chapter 9. It's the gospel
of the kingdom. It's the gospel of the reign
of Jesus Christ. It's the gospel that's the eternal
gospel. It never had a beginning. It's
nothing new. It's nothing that man's concocted, it's the eternal
gospel. It's always been the gospel.
It's the gospel of Jesus Christ, his reign, his control, his kingship,
his lordship. Now look here at Isaiah chapter
nine. This is, I think, the most complete
description, or as complete a description, as we're gonna define, of the
gospel of the kingdom, his reign. Now let's read Isaiah nine, verses
six and seven, then I'd like to make a few comments on it.
Isaiah chapter nine, verse six and seven, four, verse six, four. Unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. And the government, that word,
don't think about the government that might be shutting down or
is already shut down or politicians, don't think about that. What
this means is the dominion. the sovereignty, the absolute
control. The government is upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty
God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, of the increase
of His government, His dominion, His control, His reign, His sovereignty,
of the increase of His government and peace, there shall be no
end. And upon the throne of David,
and upon His kingdom, to order it and to establish it with judgment,
with justice from henceforth, even forever, the zeal of the
Lord of hosts, will perform this. Now, what a description of the
gospel of the kingdom. Unto us, a child is born. Unto us, a son is given. Who's the us? Not everybody. Not everybody. Who then? all the elect, all for whom Christ
died, all who believe, every sinner, every sinner. If you're a sinner,
you're one of these people unto us a child is born, unto us a
son is given. Somebody says, why are you even
making a point of that, that it's not everybody? Because the
Bible does. And if he was for everybody, then everybody would
be saved. Or if he's for everybody and somebody ends up being lost
anyway, that means what he did is not enough. That's why we
make this point unto us. The same us as if God be for
us, who could be against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all. Hast thou not also with him freely
give us all things? You see, the us is those he saves. Unto us a child is born, unto
us a son is given. Now there was a day when this
child was born, December 25th. No. Probably born in the spring
is everything I can remember. I don't know where December 25th
came from. But there was a day when God
was made flesh. What a mystery. What glory. God took upon him flesh. Great is the mystery of godliness. was manifest in the flesh. He was born in a manger, no room
for him in the inn. The wise men came from the east,
and I love what they said, we have come to worship him. Veiled in flesh, the Godhead
see, hailed incarnate deity, pleased as man with men to dwell,
Jesus our Emmanuel. This child was born, but I love
this son wasn't born. This is the eternal son. There
was never a time when he began to be. Nobody made him. He's
the eternal God. Unto us a child is born. Thank
God for that. Unto us this son, the Lord Jesus
Christ is given. He wasn't born. He's eternal
God. Now, let's go on reading about
him. It says, for unto us a child
is born and us a son is given and the government. Now, like
I said, don't think of politicians and Democrats and Republicans
and government. No, this is talking about the
absolute dominion and rule and control of everything. The government
shall be upon His shoulders. Do you know that anything that's
done is done because He willed it? He's the Lord. The government's
on His shoulders. He controls everything. He controls
me. He controls you. He's in absolute
dominion. The Lordship of the Lord Jesus
Christ. His government. I love thinking
about this. You're in His hands. I'm in His
hands. That's such a glorious place to be. Think of the opposite. What if you're in your own hands?
You're in trouble. I'm in trouble. Thank God He
is in absolute control of everybody and everything. He's Lord in
creation. He created the universe. Providence
is His will being done. He's Lord of salvation. Whether
or not me or you're saved, it's up to Him. It's up to Him. You have no control. And bless
God, that's a good place for you to find out where you're
at, because that's when you ask for mercy. That's when you'll worship Him
for who He is, rather than how you can manipulate, even get
Him to do your will. You'll know He is Lord. The government,
the dominion, the rule shall be upon His shoulder. And I love His name. Verse 6,
His name shall be called Wonderful. Wonderful. You know, we use that
term way too loosely, don't we? How was your meal? Wonderful.
Well, it's good, but you know. His name is beyond description. Any words used will fall short. His name is wonderful. His name is Counselor. Now here the word counsel is
a verb. It's not a noun. He's not a counselor
where you go to him and give good advice. We have counselors. Everybody goes to counselors.
This is not what this is talking about. He's the one whose counsel
is done. He counsels all things after
the counsel of his own will. He is the counselor. You know
what that means? He's the decreeer. He's the decreeer. He's the one
who controls everybody and everything. Whatever happens is according
to his counsel and his will. There's all kinds of implications
of that. Well, what do you want me to do about it? I know people
will take things like this and hang themselves with it. Nothing
I can do about it. It's still true. Whatever happens
is his decree. He is in absolute control. He's
wonderful counselor. The mighty God? Jesus Christ is the mighty God. He's the Lord God omnipotent. Oh, Jesus Christ is the mighty
God. And what's it say next? The everlasting
Father. How's that make sense? Well,
you remember when Philip said, show us the Father, and it sufficeth
us? And he said, Philip, if I've
been so long time with you, are you really this dull? That's
what he's saying. Are you really this dull? Don't
you know that he that hath seen me hath seen the Father? I'll take that right there. I'm
not going to try to explain that away. All you're ever going to
see of the Father is Jesus Christ the Son. That's all you'll ever
see of him, the glorious son of God. And I love this, the prince of
peace. He is our peace. He made our
peace with God and he gives us peace. He said, my peace I give
you. I love to think of the peace
that exists between the father and the son. He said that peace
I give you. However peaceful the father is
with his son, that's the peace we have because of what he is,
who he is and what he has done for us. Now look in verse seven. Of the increase, the greatness,
the abundance of his government and peace, there shall be no
end. Now there is no end. There's
no boundary. to His dominion. We're talking about absolute
sovereignty. He has no boundaries. There's
no end that He can't reach. He doeth according to His will
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth
and none can stay His hand or say unto Him, what doest thou?
He is Lord. There's no boundary to His Lordship. and there is no boundary to the
greatness of his peace. Now, there are two things I want
you to think about with regard to peace, because he said in
John chapter 16 or 14, my peace I give to you. Two things I want
you to think about peace. Number one, I want you to think
about the peace that exists between the father and the son. What
peace? just completely pleased with
each other, satisfied with each other, overcome with the loveliness
of each person of the Godhead. Oh, the peace, the joy, the harmony
that exists between the Father and the Son. Now, that peace is the same peace
that is real in justification. Being justified by faith we have
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5.1. Now
understand this about justification. If I'm justified, that means
I don't have anything to feel guilty about. It means I've always
done that which is pleasing to God. It means when God looks
at me, He's pleased A perfect life. Perfect righteousness.
My righteousness. That's what justification is.
It's the righteousness of God. Now, if I'm justified, that means
I have the very righteousness of God. That's my personal righteousness. I don't have anything to feel
guilty about. I don't have anything to fear. I'm perfectly righteous
in God's sight. I am righteous. It's like this. You're holy and unblameable and
unreprovable in his sight. And that's what justification
looks like. It's having the very righteousness of God. What peace
there is in that, this great abundance of peace. The increase,
the greatness, the abundance of his government and his peace
shall have no end. No boundary. Nothing that can
cause it to messed up. And what's he going to do? Upon
the throne of David. You see, he's David's Lord and
he's David's son. He's the true David. He's the
true beloved. That's what David means, the
beloved. Christ is the beloved. Beloved of His Father, beloved
of His people. He sits upon the throne of David
and upon His kingdom. Remember, we're talking about
the gospel of the kingdom. Upon His kingdom, He's sitting
to order it. There's no chaos in His kingdom.
There's nothing running amok. It's perfectly ordered. This
is the same order David spake of when he said in 2 Samuel 23,
5, Although my house be not so with God, yet hath He made with
me an everlasting covenant, ordered, ordered in all things, and sure. And to establish it, our text
says, with judgment and with justice. And that word justice
is the word that's generally translated righteousness. Same
thing. He's ordered his kingdom in judgment. Everything in his kingdom is
judgment. His judgment. When Christ died
on the cross, that was judgment. And when I'm saved and brought
into heaven because of what Christ did, that's judgment. That's
God giving me what I deserve. Everything is perfectly righteous.
Everything is judgment. My sins became Christ's sins. God judged Him. He became guilty
of them when my sin was given to Him. Judgment. When I'm brought
into heaven, I have perfect righteousness. It's judgment. It's God's judgment
saying, come in thou good and faithful servant. Why? Because
I'm a good and faithful servant because of Christ is I am. It's
all judgment and righteousness. Now look what it says. The zeal
of the Lord of hosts will perform this. The zeal of God for his
own glory. the zeal of God for His people,
He's going to perform this and cause it to be. Now, nothing
less than what is stated in Isaiah 9, 6, and 7 is the gospel of
the kingdom. Isn't that a beautiful description
of the gospel of the kingdom? Now let's go back to Matthew
chapter 4. Matthew 4. Now, as soon as this announcement
of the gospel of kingdom is made, we read of certain things that
took place. Now, I think it's interesting
when Moses, the representative of the law, is giving the signs
of The Lord's behind this. The Lord's in it. This is the
Lord's will. God's behind this. Moses, the
representative of the law, what were the signs? Judgment, death,
plagues. You think of the 10 plagues that
demonstrated the Lord's behind this and his judgment. But when
the Lord gives the signs of God being behind Him and He is God. The signs are healing, salvation. You see, the Lord
didn't come to condemn the world. The world was already condemned.
He came that the world through Him might be saved. His purpose
is saving. You're already condemned. I'm
already condemned. He didn't come to condemn the
world. He came to save. You see, all he's got to do is
leave us alone and we'll be condemned. But he came to save. That was
his purpose in coming. And when he announces his glorious
kingdom, what does he do? Now look back in our Verse 23,
and Jesus went about all of 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. There was no sickness, there
was no disease that he was not able to heal. Now most physicians
have a specialty. They have a special thing that
they do. I don't know of any doctor that is an expert and
specialist at everything. Well, this physician is. And
he's got the one medicine, the gospel, that heals every disease,
all manner of disease. There's nothing that he could
not heal. Now look at verse 24. And his fame went throughout
all Syria. And they brought unto him all
sick people." Now, just a note, that's what the job of the church
is, to bring to him all sick people. Somebody says, well,
I can't bring anybody to Christ. Well, you can bring them to him
in prayer, can't you? You can pray for them. You can
bring him to them in preaching the gospel to them, in witnessing
to them. You can bring them to Him in
bringing somebody to hear the gospel. You're bringing them
to Him. He is in the preaching of the
gospel. You're bringing people to Christ.
And that's what the job of the church is. The Spirit and the
bride say, come. Not go and do, but come. Come
to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the job of the church,
to bring people to the Lord Jesus Christ. And we dead sure know
that we can't do anything for anybody, but He does. And we
believe that. And we see this, in our text,
and his fame went throughout all Syria, verse 24, and they
brought unto him all sick people. Now, I've already pointed this
out, that particular word means evilly sick. Yes, the sinner
is to be pitied. Any sickness is to be pitied,
isn't it? But it's also true that the sinner
is to be blamed. My sin, my sickness, my disease
is all my fault. Now that's sin. I can't, I'm
not gonna blame God. Well, you said God's sovereign.
Yeah, I believe that with all my heart, but all my sin is all
my fault. I can't lay it at the blame of
God. So will God let me sin? It's his fault. No, all my sin. I'm evilly sick. I'm evilly sick. All my sin is all my fault. But I tell you what, somebody
like that, this is the person that needs grace. This is the person that
needs mercy. This is the person that needs
the death of Christ. Nothing else will do. All my sin is all
my fault. And that's what this evilly sick
means. If somebody gets cancer or any kind of disease, you don't
think, well, it's because of their sinfulness. You ought not
think that way. If you do, wonder what they did
that caused God to give them that. Don't think that way. Not
thinking about yourself, but don't think about anybody else. The point is, evilly sick. These
are the people that he came to save. These are the people he
came to save. People who are evilly sick. Are you sick? Evilly sick? Then he came to save you. The
whole need not a physician, but they that are, here's the same
word, sick. Sick. That's who needs the physician. A sicko. Somebody who's sick. His fame went throughout all
Syria and they brought unto him all sick people. Notice the word
all. All sick people that were taken. If a man be overtaken in a fault,
they were taken. They were possessed. They were taken with diverse
diseases and torments. Oh, their sin tormented them.
Sin is a cruel master. They were taken by torments and
diseases. And those which were possessed
with devils, demon-possessed. I love that passage of Scripture
in 2 Timothy 2 where Paul talks about those who were taken captive
of the devil if the Lord will recover them. You think of the
Gadarene demonic, cutting himself with stones. And the Lord came
to him. What have I to do with thee,
Jesus, thou Son of the Most High God? Have you come to torment
me before the time? He wasn't even suspecting mercy. And Christ
saved him. Look at the next description. Those that are lunatic. Crazy. Just plum crazy. And those that
had the palsy, they were paralytic. They couldn't walk. They couldn't
walk in God's commandments. They were paralytic. They were
unable. And what did He do? He healed
them. He didn't offer them salvation.
He didn't say, if you have enough faith, I can heal you. He took
those people and He healed them by His stripes. his medicine. By his stripes
you were healed. Verse 25, and there followed him great
multitudes. Now this I know, if he heals
me or if he heals you, here is the tangible evidence You follow
him. You follow him. You know, if a couple of men
are walking down the road with a dog behind following, you don't
know which one's his master until those two men separate. And you
find out who his master is then, don't you? That dog's following
his master. And this I know about following.
The only way you can follow someone is to keep your eyes on them.
You start looking at somebody else, you'll get lost. You start
looking at your feet to see how you're walking, you'll get lost.
You look some other direction, you'll get lost. You'll lose
them. The only way you can follow somebody is by keeping your eyes
upon that person and looking nowhere else. Have you ever done
that? You're just keeping them in your sight and you know if
I look down, you just keep looking. Seeing were compassed about was
so great a cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every weight
and that sin which did so easily beset us and run with patience
the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of our faith. Now, if you would follow Christ,
you know what you do? You look to Him. You look at
Him. You don't look at Him. You don't
look anywhere else. You don't look to yourself. You don't look to
the preacher? You don't look to your works?
You don't look at somebody else to see how you can compare yourself
with them? You know, I was thinking of that
Pharisee. I thank thee that I'm not as other men are. And you
know, that's every lost man's religion. He compares himself
to somebody else to make him feel better about himself. Everybody
does that. Don't do that. You look at you,
you compare yourself to somebody else, and if you think you're
better, you're deceived, really. You're just deceived. You've
lied to yourself. No, you're just as bad as that
guy, really worse, really worse. Looking unto Jesus. The same way those Israelites
did when they were bit by the snake. They had become discouraged
because of the way, you can read about it in Numbers 21, they'd
become discouraged because of the way. And I understand discouragement,
don't you? Disillusionment. And they started
complaining. And they said, our souls loathe
this light bread, this manna from heaven that at one time
had been so glorious to them and tasted so good. It's now
light bread. The manna hadn't changed, but
their perception of the manna had changed. And the Lord sent
fiery serpents to bite him. And many of them died. And they
came back to Moses. They said, we've messed up. Will
you pray for us that the Lord do something for us? And he said,
take a serpent and put it on a pole and lift it up. And whoever
looks, anybody who looks, What if I
can't see? Look. Look. Anybody who looks will live. And the scripture says everybody
that was bitten, they looked, they lived. I wish I knew how to describe
how simple that is. I can't. Any description I make
will probably just mess it up. So look. and live. Let's pray. Lord, give us the grace to look
away from ourselves. To not look at others. And to
look to the blessed son, just like those Israelites that were
bitten in the wilderness. Oh, Lord, give us grace. to look
to him. Lord, we will not and we cannot
do that unless you cause us to do it. Lord, I ask in Christ's
name that everybody in this room, according to your will, would
be enabled by thy spirit, by thy grace, to look to thy dear
son as everything you require. everything they want and everything
they need. Bless this message for the Lord's
sake. In His name we pray.