Latest / HBCWestminster / 3.8.20 Luke 4:31-44 Pastor Danny Gardner

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3.8.20 Luke 4:31-44 Pastor Danny Gardner · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  Well, we're going to get to God's Word this morning in Luke chapter 4. Our text will be verses 31 to 44. And if you would stand in honor of God's Word, I'll read it. We'll pray and begin. Beginning in verse 31. And he went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and he was teaching them on the Sabbath. And they were astonished at his teaching, for his word possessed authority. And in the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, Ha!
• 0:34
  What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. But Jesus rebuked him, saying, Be silent and come out of him. And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him, having done him no harm. And they were all amazed and said to one another, What is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits. And they come out. Reports about him went out into every place in the surrounding region. And he arose.
• 1:05
  and left the synagogue and entered Simon's house. Now Simon's mother-in-law was ill with a high fever, and they appealed to him on her behalf. And he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. And immediately she rose and began to serve them. Now when the sun was setting, all those who had any sick with various diseases brought them to him, and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed him. And demons also came out of many, crying, You are the Son of God. But he rebuked them.
• 1:34
  and would not allow them to speak because they knew that he was the Christ. And when it was day, he departed and went into a desolate place. And the people sought him and came to him and would have kept him from leaving them. But he said to them, I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well, for I was sent for this purpose. And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea. And Lord, I pray that you would stir our hearts with passion and joy for your word.
• 2:03
  May we not be like those who would manipulate your word, who would use cunning, disgraceful, and underhanded ways to twist your word to make it say what they want it to say. Lord, may we simply state your truth and be transformed by it. Open our ears to receive it this morning, God, and incline our hearts to action. And it's in the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you. You can be seated.
• 2:36
  Well, there are two Greek words used in the New Testament for communicating God's truth through teaching. One, euangelizomai, is where we get the word evangelism. Evangelism. The other is chariso. Evangelism and chariso. The former has as its focus the subject of the message, that is, the good news. The latter, its focus on the urgency with which the good news must be preached. The message.
• 3:06
  and urgency. And we as the saints of God, as His church, as God's ambassadors on earth to a lost and dying world, which is what you and I are, must have a dual focus also when it comes to getting the word out. We must ensure that our doctrine is sound. Amen? But we must also ensure that the message is conveyed with passion and urgency. A real problem comes when teachers focus on one without the other. It's possible
• 3:35
  to become so passionate about reaching people that the message gets lost. That is possible. It is also possible to become so focused on the message with sound doctrine, with rightly dividing the word of truth, that our passion wanes. In other words, it is possible to preach the truth and yet remain ineffective and unproductive. It is possible to preach God's word and yet never have it bear fruit.
• 4:05
  Because our communication is frightfully boring. Can you imagine a boring Bible teacher? One man on our board emphatically yelled, yes, at that point. And I appreciate none of you doing the same. Like, yeah, I'm making eye contact with him right now. You know, I've been reading John Piper's most recent book, Expository Exaltation, it's called. And in it, he says this, and I quote, the preacher must be animated.
• 4:38
  Not by boring or uninteresting news, but by good news. Throughout the New Testament, the gospel is preached by those who are excited to preach it. You remember, in the gospel of Luke, the angels coming to the shepherds and saying, I bring you good news of great joy. Of great joy. This is good news. Romans chapter 10 and verse 15. How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. And we have all experienced, I think, the myriad preachers.
• 5:09
  who are sure good at making the good news sound boring. And this makes no sense to me. One pastor has said, if the pastor's not bored, the people won't be bored either. R.C. Sproul is a young man, was contacted to teach Bible at a Christian school. And the dean who was doing the interview sat him down and he worded it this way, I'm looking for a man who can make the Bible come alive. And I loved R.C. Sproul's comment and response when he said, come alive.
• 5:42
  I didn't know it had died. Who was the attending physician at the Bible's demise? I didn't know. The Bible is dead? And then he said this, and this phrase has haunted me. No, I don't make the Bible come alive. It makes me come alive. That's the Bible's job. I'm not here to make it come alive. It makes me come alive. And it reminds me of John 6, when Peter uttered those now famous words, right? Thousands had come to Jesus. He had taught.
• 6:11
  They didn't like his message. And so they turned around and thousands had left. And he looked at Peter and he said, what about you? Will you also desert me? And Peter said, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words, what? Eternal life. You have the words of eternal life. Lord, to whom shall I go? Your words make me come alive. I'm not interested in staying dead. And may I this morning humbly request that we approach the word of God with that same attitude.
• 6:41
  That contained within the covers of this book, the pages that are sitting on your laps contained within these words are the words of eternal life. They're not boring. And I know that sometimes, sometimes it's easy for us, especially who have grown up in the church, who are familiar with the stories, who have read the gospels again and again. Sometimes we come to these same stories. You're like, oh yeah, he cast out another demon. Oh yeah, he healed disease.
• 7:05
  Oh, yeah, he did. Oh, yeah, he taught in the synagogue. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I know the story of Jesus. And as we read and as we hear, it's possible for us who are so familiar with the message that our eyes can just glaze over, like I've heard all of that before. Listen, church, I promise as your pastor not to become bored. I will not. And I promise as your pastor not to be boring. I believe that we do the Word of God a disservice.
• 7:39
  by doing so. And on top of that, I don't know that the Bible allows for it. This morning, we come to Jesus casting out demons. Listen, if we made a movie about it, it'd be a blockbuster, right? I mean, for being a people as a nation who are basically naturalists, who believe in the physical world, matter and energy and all, and that's it. For being a people who are basically naturalists, movies about supernatural things sure do really well. People with supernatural powers.
• 8:09
  Those make a lot of money, those movies. But listen, no X-Men ever had the ability to do this. None of them did. I mean, none of the Marvel characters, none of them, none of the DC, none of the superheroes could rebuke demons, could rebuke disease, could explain heaven and hell because he'd been there.
• 8:29
  could come and explain the human condition because He was one. None of them could do those things. And so as we read God's Word this morning, let's read it, let's understand it, let's study it with passion and vigor and zeal. Let's be focused on sound doctrine, evangelism, and let's also be focused on the proclamation of it, cariso, urgency, urgency, intensity to get the message out. One man said this, don't think... I loved this.
• 8:58
  don't think that you're an expository preacher just because you're boring. I liked that. We define expository preaching a lot of ways. And he said, don't think that you qualify just because you're a boring person. This morning's text, I don't think we'll allow for it. And so let's go through it. I'm going to pull God's word just apart. We'll go through it kind of point by point. And the first thing I want you to note is that it was the preaching of Christ that drew the crowds.
• 9:23
  It was the preaching of Christ that drew the crowds. It wasn't his miracles. It wasn't his casting out of demons. It wasn't his feeding of thousands. It was the preaching of Christ that drew the crowds. And it was the preaching of Christ that drew demonic opposition as well. Look at verse 31. And he went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee. Capernaum, we'd said last week that Jesus was from Nazareth, that Jesus went back to his hometown of Nazareth and was rejected there.
• 9:47
  Hometown rejection, we called it last week. And Nazareth, we said, was a sleepy little kind of suburb, hill country town, right? Nobody really was from there of any note. Nothing really ever happened there that was noteworthy. But Capernaum, he leaves Nazareth and goes to Capernaum. Capernaum was a much larger city. He's all in that region of Galilee, up in the north of Israel. For a year, he was in Judea teaching.
• 10:13
  doing miracles, and then he returned home. And for about 18 months, he will be in Galilee preaching, teaching, and doing miraculous signs. Continue, it says, and he was teaching them on the Sabbath, and they were astonished at his teaching for his word-possessed authority. We'll come back to that in just a minute. And in the synagogue, there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon. Let's skip ahead just for sake of tying these two things together.
• 10:42
  Look at verse 42. And when it was day, he departed and went into a desolate place. And the people sought him and came to him and would have kept him from leaving them. But he said to them, and I love this phrase, I must preach the good news of the kingdom. I must preach the good news. Must is a good word to circle. If you circle words in your Bibles, must. He had no choice. He had been compelled.
• 11:09
  In order to remain obedient to the Father, in order to remain obedient to his mission, in order to fulfill his job, I must, he said, preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well, for I was sent for this purpose. Jesus, although the miracles were awesome, was not sent to perform miracles. Honestly, he could have cast out demons from heaven. He didn't have to come, right, to cast out demons. He could have done that from there.
• 11:39
  He didn't have to come down from heaven in order to heal people from their diseases. He could have done that from there. He could have spoken the word from heaven and the diseases would have left full healing from heaven. That's not why he came. He came. He said his words. He came to preach. And Jesus preached constantly. He preached in the morning. He preached at night. He preached in synagogues.
• 12:07
  He preached on hillsides and in valleys and on the plains. He preached on the seashore. He preached in towns and in the country and in boats and in the temple. He preached in houses. He preached as he walked along the road. John MacArthur has said Jesus was above all a preacher. That's what he did. But he didn't just preach. Verse 32 says he preached with authority.
• 12:37
  authority. And that was different. In Matthew 7, right at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, in verse 28, it says, and when Jesus had finished these sayings, that is, the Sermon on the Mount, what we all know, the Beatitudes and all of that stuff, the crowds, it says in Matthew 7, verse 28, were astonished at His teaching, for He was teaching them as one who had authority and not as their scribes. You see, they had heard teaching before, but never teaching like this. His teaching was different. He never guessed.
• 13:11
  Can you imagine that? He never approximated. He never quoted other rabbis. He never did that. Everybody else said, well, rabbi, what's his name? Says this. Okay. He never said that. There were times when he quoted other scriptures. You've read it in Daniel. You've heard that it was said, do not commit adultery. But I say to you, don't even look lustfully at a woman. He quoted the scriptures, but listen, he wrote the scriptures. It was his book. Let me just quote my book real quick.
• 13:40
  Like he wrote the Ten Commandments. He was there. And so it's not like he's quoting other teachers. He had a self-sourced authority that no one else had. Jesus spoke about heaven and the Father, and he spoke about Abraham, and he spoke about angels, and he spoke about the future as if he had seen those things. Almost every time he opened his mouth, he offended people.
• 14:11
  Because he spoke about God the Father with such intimacy that they thought it was blasphemous. Nobody can know the Father like he does. He spoke about the kingdom of God as if he himself was the king. And his teaching left people astonished. But his greatest goal in his preaching was not just communication of truth. Never, never in the New Testament do you see Jesus preaching and having no expectation at all on his hearers.
• 14:43
  Never. Never was it his goal to leave them inspired but unchanged. Never. Any good teacher will tell you that their desire is not just to teach their students, but to reach their students. And there's a difference, right? Whether you're preaching from the pulpit or you're teaching kindergarten, you're not just trying to inform them, you're trying to transform them. And that is a difference. And this, this transformation from the heart,
• 15:14
  is what the devil cannot allow. He can't allow it. You ever wonder, you ever ask the question, you ever thought in your own mind and heart, like why can't the devil just leave us alone? Why can't he just leave us alone? The answer is he can't. Every time we start doing something good, every time we make a good decision, every time we follow after the Lord, every time we repent, every time we try to get our lives right, every time we try to break off bad friendships and forge new ones, is the devil not right at your elbow?
• 15:46
  Trying to thwart those plans, trying to make you trip. Every time when God's word is preached and when God's name is worshiped, when testimony of his working is given, when words of encouragement are offered to his bride, the church, our adversary shows up every time. And Christ coming to earth intensified the age-old battle for the souls of men.
• 16:12
  Heaven and hell have been fighting over the souls of men for millennia, and Christ coming from heaven to hell through fuel, through gasoline on the fire. Him walking this earth, Him preaching, Him touching and performing miracles on people intensified that age-old battle to the point that during the earthly ministry of Christ, Satan launched the greatest spiritual offensive the world has ever seen.
• 16:41
  And my sons asked me just a couple of weeks ago, actually, one of my sons came and they said, dad, have you ever encountered demons or demon-possessed people? Dad, have you ever come across a demon-possessed person? And I told him, yes, I have. I have been preaching in church. I have been preaching at funerals, during funerals.
• 17:08
  where people have stood up in the middle. One time, I mean, you guys, literally in the middle of the gospel message, a man stood up in the middle, right about where Myron is sitting. Sorry, Myron. Right about there. I mean, and the guy stood up, and I'm not kidding you guys, foaming at the mouth, screaming, cursing, denying, pointing. I mean, it was an assault. It was unbelievable. I waited.
• 17:37
  attendance from the funeral home came. I mean, they wrestled this dude to the ground. Cops showed up, handcuffs, backup cars. I mean, the whole thing. Yeah. Have you encountered demon-possessed? Yes, I have. I have. In the 20 or so years I've been in full-time church ministry, maybe half a dozen times where it's been to that degree, just a full-on frontal assault by demons, demon-possessed people I have. But honestly, it's only about half a dozen times.
• 18:07
  When you open God's word to see the life of Christ, it seems like he encountered them every day. Doesn't it? Every day. You want to know why? Because he did. He encountered them every day. Every single day. I mean, every time he opened his mouth, there was the adversary. There was the adversary. There was the adversary. He encountered them even thousands at a time. Do you remember Mark chapter 5?
• 18:32
  The demon-possessed man who comes, we are legion. There were so many thousands, I don't even know, countless inside of this man. He encountered them thousands at a time. You say, well, why? What's the difference? Listen, if the Lord himself was walking on earth and preaching, you can imagine the enemy just saying, we have got to stop that. Drop whatever you're doing. You can imagine him calling in the full force. You got to get here. Where else would they be?
• 18:59
  Who else would they be trying to attack? Who else? I mean, they would have been right there at his heel the entire time trying to cast doubt and cause doubt. You see in verse 33 that this demon is actually called unclean, an unclean demon. Unholy is the same word. Unholy, vile, vile demon at the Lord's elbow. Why?
• 19:29
  Because nothing brings the bugs like turning on the lights, right? You turn on the lights, man. In the summer, you put the lights on on your back deck and those bugs come. The light attracts the bugs. And so church, beloved church, can I honestly ask, are you surrounded by bugs? Because if you're not, then you should ask, why not? When I was the youth pastor of a church, some of the kids about 15 years ago or so came to me and this was when...
• 19:59
  paintballing has kind of surging in popularity. Everybody wanted to paintball. It was really, really, really fun. And we lived in the middle of the desert. And so we could just take all of our guns and our masks and all of that, literally out to the desert. They would just set up these obstacle courses and all that. So we'd go out and they said, Pastor Danny, will you take us paintballing? Sure. Anybody who wants to go paintballing, sign up and whatever. And about two dozen kids came, 23 boys, one girl.
• 20:24
  All right, and the girl's name was Jackie, and she was an absolute sweetheart. She was a senior in the group. She had said, Pastor Danny, I've always wanted to try paintballing. Can I come? Of course you can come, Jackie. I've never done anything like this, Pastor Danny. I'm a little bit scared, you know, but I want to try it. I want to say that I've done it. That sounds great, Jackie. She was very sweet, very quiet, gentle, even petite framed. Just everything about her was small.
• 20:46
  She was well-respected among her peers. They loved her to death. She was the only girl brave enough to sign up that day. And so we go out to the middle of the desert. We divide up teams, 12 on 12. We start the game. You know, everybody's out there. You just hear that pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, right? Everybody's got their CO2 canisters and their, you know, shampoo bullets, whatever they are, and just trashing each other. It was so fun. We get to the end of the first game. Nobody had seen Jackie.
• 21:11
  She's gone. Where is she? And she came out from behind this. There was this little thing about this size, this little bunker thing that she had found, this little hole where she could tuck herself down inside of this thing. And she sat inside of that thing. She was too scared to come out the entire game. The next game, guys, you're like, okay, guys, you ready? We'll divide up new teams, whatever. Okay, we get to the end of that next game. Nobody had seen Jackie. She's hiding in that hole again.
• 21:36
  Another game goes by. We're like, Jackie, where are you? It's terrifying. Like, I don't want to come out. I'm going to get lit up. No, Jackie, you'll be fine. You'll be fine. One more game, Jackie. This is it. This is the last game. She said, okay, Pastor Danny, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. We divide up the teams, 12 on 12. Jackie's on one team. We blow the whistle. Here we go. Everybody's firing and doing all of their stuff. And I can't find Jackie again. Where is she? She's hiding in that same little hole.
• 22:00
  And I'm yelling, couple more minutes, that's it, two minutes, you know. And finally, Jackie has just been working up the nerve, working up the nerve, working up the nerve, that she jumps out of that little hole. And I'm not kidding. She didn't try to shoot anybody. She literally, arms up in the air, just starts running like this across, straight across the field. She's just running. You know, and she's running across. And you guys, all guns, including the ones on her own team.
• 22:30
  Everybody saw Jackie and turned, you know? And you guys, every single person, you just, you know, and she's, I mean, she got trashed, trashed. You know, she's running across. You know, we get done. And in about 20 seconds, the whole day, she only played about 20 seconds. In that 20 seconds, she had welts everywhere, her whole body. She has cuffs. She just got smashed. You know, I think about.
• 23:00
  The spiritual battle that the Bible says is raging around us and most of us, and I'm including myself in that most of us, I feel like are just kind of cowering down. We found a little tiny bunker. Nobody knows where we are and we're just hiding and we're just keeping our voice down. I don't wanna cause any problems. I don't wanna make any waves. I don't wanna attract any attention. You guys, I don't wanna get bit by the bugs. I'm not gonna turn my light on. I'm gonna light my lamp and I'm gonna hide it under a bowl.
• 23:29
  That's exactly what I'm going to do. Sorry, Jesus. That's exactly what I'm planning on doing. I'm going to light the lamp and I'm going to stick it under the bed so nobody can see it. I don't want the bugs. I don't want the problems. I don't want the crosshairs that came on to Jackie that day. That's not what I want. Listen to Philippians 2 and verse 14. Familiar passage. Do all things without grumbling or disputing that you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation. Now listen to verse 16. Among whom...
• 23:59
  You shine like lights in the world. God's intention for us is that we would shine. And if we shine, we're going to call in the bugs. It happened to Jesus. The lights are on. It will attract attention. But church, let's be careful not to define spiritual peace. And I'm going to put that in quotes because I don't mean peace with God. I mean peace here.
• 24:28
  No waves, no problems, no trials, no suffering, no tribulation, that kind of peace. Let us not define spiritual peace as spiritual success because those two things are not the same. If the enemy is leaving us alone, then I would wonder why. That's first. The preaching of Christ brought in the people, but it also brought in the bugs. But notice second, the power of Christ confirmed his preaching. The power of Christ. Look at verse 34.
• 24:57
  This unclean demon cries out with a loud voice. Ha, he says, what have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? Now the us there is interesting because I think the people in the synagogue probably assumed that he meant them. Have you come to destroy us? You know, you can imagine all of them looking at Jesus. Have you come to destroy us? Like he wasn't talking about the people. He was talking about the demons. Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are.
• 25:25
  the Holy One of God, but Jesus rebuked him saying, be silent and come out. When the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him having done him no harm and they were all amazed and said to one another, what is this word? For with authority and power, he commands the unclean spirits and they come out and reports went all over the place about him. You see in the text that Jesus had the authority to command evil spirits and they obeyed.
• 25:53
  And now there is a certain fascination in our culture and even in the church with demon possession. And so I'm going to talk just for a moment about it. The New Testament is replete, full of examples of men, women, even children who have been possessed by, controlled by, and tormented by demons. The Bible says demon possession is real. In fact, 30 times, better than 30 times, in the four gospels and the book of Acts.
• 26:18
  We read phraseology referring to demons entering a person or being cast out of a person. There are times when one who is demon-possessed is described as a demoniac. In fact, that man that we referenced before, the man who was living in caves, tombs, was a demoniac. And that meant that they were under the full control of that demon or demons to the point that they cannot, could not successfully resist. However...
• 26:46
  Scripture is also clear, and church, I cannot state this emphatically enough, Scripture is also clear that believers cannot become possessed by a demon. We cannot. Because we have within us the Spirit of the living God, and greater is He who is in us than what? He who is in the world. Nobody gets to push the Holy Spirit around.
• 27:14
  The Holy Spirit can push around whoever he wants, okay? They are pawns that he can shove around the board. But it does not go the other way. And although believers, I believe, still can be oppressed by demons, that is, tempted by, influenced by demons, they cannot be possessed, controlled by a demon because the Holy Spirit dwells.
• 27:40
  And don't get me wrong, church. If we quench the Holy Spirit of God in our lives with sin, with unrepentance, with stubborn pride and arrogance, if we quench the influence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, it is possible that demons can have influence over us, tempt us, and even oppress us, never to the point of possession because the Holy Spirit is still there.
• 28:09
  But we can still give them at least some degree of power over us if we are willing to quench the Holy Spirit's influence by sin. But they can never control us because the Holy Spirit lives in our hearts. And what is unclear from Scripture is whether an unbelieving individual can be released from the power of a demon without coming to saving faith in Christ. And turn with me if you would. We're going to go to the left. Matthew chapter 12. Just for a minute, I want you guys to see what one man's experience was with demon possession.
• 28:39
  Matthew 12, we'll look at verses 43 to 45. And in this text, Jesus gives an example of what happens to an unbelieving person who was possessed by a demon. But then we find out either because of the demon's own choice or because of the command of God, that man was left alone. The demon left. And look at verse 43. When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. And then it says, I will return to my house from which I came.
• 29:09
  And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself. And they enter and they all dwell there. And the last state of that person is worse than the first. And the demon returned and found the house, what the ESV describes as empty, swept, and put in order. In other words, the guy got his life right. He reformed morally, but he had never been transformed.
• 29:39
  By the power of the gospel, which means that although he had cleaned up his life, the Holy Spirit never moved in. He got rid of the bad. He put off the old man, Ephesians 4 would say, but he never put on the new man. And because the Holy Spirit never moved in, the vacancy sign stayed up.
• 30:02
  And so when this demon's going around, he can't find anything else. He comes back to the man. He finds even this moral report, like things are pretty good. His life's back in order. Things are empty and clean. This is nice. Thanks for cleaning stuff up. And he not only moved in, but all of his buddies did as well. And it says that the end state of that man was actually worse than the beginning. Demons love to masquerade as angels of light. And what better place to do that than a religiously reformed...
• 30:33
  I think demons, listen, love religious people. Religious people who never actually are transformed by the gospel. What better way to masquerade as an angel of light than in a person who is moral, who is a good guy, right? But never finds Jesus, never receives Jesus. We see in our text this morning, we'll go back to Luke chapter four. We see in our text this morning that Jesus commanded demons,
• 31:04
  And they left. But you also see that he commands disease and the disease leaves. Look at verse 38. Jesus arose and left the synagogue and entered Simon's house. And Simon's mother-in-law was ill with a high fever and they appealed to him on her behalf. And he stood over her and rebuked the fever. The same word rebuked, the demons and the disease. And it left her. And immediately she rose and began to serve them. And when the sun was setting, all those who had any sick, various diseases brought them to him. And he laid his hands on every one of them and...
• 31:35
  healed them. Simon in our passage is Peter. He had just not had his name changed yet. And in our text, after seeing him perform miracles at the synagogue, Simon, Peter, must have invited Jesus back to his house to meet his mother-in-law who was very sick, a very high fever, bedridden, maybe even to the point of death. And our Lord can heal any disease. Amen? Our Lord can heal any disease. It is baffling to me.
• 32:08
  that there is a theology in some churches which teaches that Jesus no longer does miraculous healings. I don't know where that comes from, but it ain't from here, all right? You cannot read this book and say God stopped healing. That's not what the Bible says. God can heal any disease. God can heal anybody. God can heal using any means that He chooses to use, right? If He is limited in any way, then He stops being sovereign. He is a sovereign God who does what He wants.
• 32:39
  But here maybe is what causes the confusion. There have been some false healers who have paraded themselves in front of the church and in view of the world who have faked their way into popularity for the sake of ill-gotten wealth. They shear the sheep rather than truly blessing them, and they have brought reproach on Christ's church.
• 33:04
  And so what can we glean about the healings of Christ compared to the healings of these false teachers, false healers? What about the ministry of Christ was different? Let's look at just several observations regarding the true healing that Christ offers. Number one, his healing was with a word. He had merely to speak and the sickness left.
• 33:21
  Even disease obeys. Second, the healing was immediate. It even uses the word immediately. She rose and began to serve them. More than once in the Gospels, the healing of Christ was instant or in that very moment. Notice third, that Christ's healing was total. Every symptom, no matter its severity, was healed by Christ when He rebuked it. Can you imagine Peter's mother-in-law sick?
• 33:48
  to the point that she can't even, high fever, vomiting, coronavirus. I mean, there it is. I thought it's been around a long time. Can you imagine her laying there in bed, nearly dead, and her coming and being healed of her fever? Like, what's wrong with her? She's got a fever, and Christ's saying, okay, he rebukes the fever, and it leaves, but the vomiting and the headaches and everything else, none of the rest leaves? Oh, I should have asked him for the other things too. Like, no, she's sick. Okay, you're healed, all of it.
• 34:17
  What else? I mean, I even imagine that if she had a hangnail, it was done, right? Toe fungus, gone. Like, it's just gone. Like, what do you mean? You don't have to stipulate. Like, Lord, heal. And he did. Notice, Jesus could heal anybody and everybody. There was no such statement as, you just don't have enough faith. I've noticed that modern fake healers use this cop-out statement relentlessly.
• 34:46
  The problem is never their own. It's always that of the sick individual. And Jesus never had that issue. Not one time was it like, you know what? I could do it, but you're not open to it. It's never that way. Now, there were times when he rebuked people's lack of faith. I'm not saying that they had faith. They didn't have faith. He rebuked it, but that did not determine, their faith did not determine his power. Notice fifth, Jesus could heal any ailment.
• 35:15
  You came to Jesus with something vague, unverifiable, like headaches or lower back pain or heart palpitations. He could heal you, and He would. But nobody else would really be able to verify whether the healing was genuine. Because headaches, although they are real, they are impossible to verify. They're impossible. I don't know if you really do suffer from headaches or if you're just faking it and make it look like this guy can heal you. But if you came to Jesus with easily verifiable ailments,
• 35:45
  Missing limbs. Can you imagine that? Don't heal my arm. Lord, I need you to make me a new one. He could do it. Paralysis. He could do it. Death. Death. He could bring you back. His miracles. The difference between fake healers and real healers is that their healing, the real, genuine, true healing of God is impossible to deny.
• 36:18
  Christ is able to make broken people whole, physically and spiritually, and He can do the same for us. He didn't just preach, He performed. Notice last, there's kind of a peculiar proclamation of truth from the demons. The demons actually kind of testify to Him, and I'll just hit this quickly. Verse 34, what have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? He says, I know who you are, the Holy One of God. He actually speaks the truth again in verse 41.
• 36:48
  You are the son of God. But both times he rebukes them and would not allow them to speak. Not only did he cast them out, he silenced them. He muzzled them. And why would he do that? Do you remember the time in Christ's ministry where he was actually accused by the Pharisees of using the power of Satan to cast out Satan? You remember that? By the power of Beelzebub, by the power of the devil, he casts out the devil. Their argument was that Jesus only had power over demons because he was actually one of them.
• 37:17
  And in anticipation of this heresy, I think Jesus not only cast out demons, he even forbade them to speak because he was not interested in receiving testimony from those who could later claim that they were his allies all along. Do you remember this demon might say all the way back, Capernaum, I called it, I knew who he was. I was an ally all along and Jesus needed no testimony from his enemies. His authoritative preaching.
• 37:43
  His undeniable miraculous power spoke for themselves and the Lord Jesus is the divine deliverer. He's able to heal and restore with a word. He is the king of this natural world and he is the king of the supernatural world. And church, that is good news. Amen? Amen. God, thank you for your word this morning and thank you for your love. Thank you, God, for your revelation to us, who you are and who we are. And God, I pray that we would just stand in awe of your miraculous working power and that we would find rest.
• 38:12
  knowing that that God has promised, has promised that we will not be left, we will not be forsaken, that we won't even be left unfinished, that we will one day be fully sanctified and like you in holiness. And it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.