Our Divine Deliverer, Part 1

Heavenly Father, we are a blessed people because not only have you saved our souls, but you have allowed us to be able to study the Word of God, to understand your great power in our lives. And today, Lord, I pray for everybody in this room who needs the healing touch of the Master. If they would understand your great and wonderful healing power, and thus learn to trust you all the more because of the power of your Word, we pray in Jesus' name, Amen. Turn with me in your Bible to Luke chapter 4, we're going to continue our study in Luke's record of our Redeemer.

There are four records of our Redeemer as he was upon this earth, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and we are studying Luke's gospel. And Luke, as well as Matthew, Mark, and John, give to us everything that God wants us to know about his Son. Everything that God wants us to be able to see concerning his Son is recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John during his earthly ministry in Galilee and in Judea. And so we have before us a record of our Deliverer, the record of the Savior of the world. And we are studying Luke's gospel, we are in chapter 4, looking at verse number 38 down to the end of the chapter and realizing that there are four consecutive paragraphs that when we read them seem to be sort of disconnected, but in reality they are all one and the same.

And we're going to explain that to you in a moment. But Luke was a physician, you need to remember that, because he was big on people's physical well-being. He wanted to make sure that people were better. I mean, after all, Luke was one of the guys that traveled with the Apostle Paul. And the Apostle Paul was in great need of a physician on a regular basis because of the shipwrecks and the beatings and the snake bites and whatever else he had. He was always in need of a physician, Luke was that man.

And Luke knows about your problems and my problems physically, but he also knows way beyond that the inner turmoil man has spiritually in his life and knows that he must be delivered. And the essence of his discussion in Luke 4 verses 38 and following deal with the fact that he wants us to come to grips. He wants us to come to grips with how God, the Messiah, the Deliverer is going to rescue us physically, mentally, and spiritually. All this is important. Remember 1 Corinthians 1.22, that the Jews always require a sign.

The Jews were just not going to accept anybody who came down the path and said, hey, I'm the Messiah. There had to be some kind of working that would validate their Messiahship. And so the Lord Jesus is the one who would give them clear evidence that he was the Messiah. You go all the way back to Isaiah chapter 7 verse number 14. It was the Lord God who said, I will give you a sign and behold, a virgin will conceive and give birth to a child. And that child's name will be called Emmanuel. God says, I'm going to give you a sign, a virgin will conceive.

In Luke chapter 2, the shepherds received a sign. This will be a sign to you that the baby will be wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. God knows that the Jews are in desperate need of a sign. So when his son came to earth, his whole life was filled with the miraculous to prove his credentials as the Messiah. And what we have before us is an understanding of our Redeemer, our Deliverer, who is able to rescue us physically, mentally, and spiritually. Physically, we are diseased and we are decaying.

Mentally, we are demonized. And spiritually, we are darkened and dead. And so if there's going to be a Redeemer, if there's going to be a Deliverer, he must prove himself powerful over physical ailment. He must prove himself more powerful than any mental deficiency that we might have, and he must prove himself all powerful so as to save the soul that's been darkened by Satan and death. And that's what Jesus does. And so Luke wants to be able to prove that for us. And so what we have is a problem physically.

We all have a problem physically, right? I mean, we're not getting any better. I mean, look around. We are evident of the fact that we're not getting any better. We are getting older. We are aging. We have illnesses. We have disease. Our bodies are decaying. We have all kinds of problems physically. Well, if we're going to have a Deliverer, he must prove himself powerful enough to give us what we desperately need, and that is a perfect body where there is no sickness, there is no suffering, there is no debilitating disease that will keep us from being what God wants us to be.

And so if we're going to ever exist eternally with God, free from sickness and disease and suffering and physical ailments, there must be one who can deliver our physical bodies from the decaying diseases that it faces day in and day out. When you're born, you're on the pathway to death. The moment you are born, you're on your way to dying, and yet if there's going to be a Deliverer, he must be able to deliver our soul and our bodies from that. Mentally, we have a problem. Mentally, we are in deep trouble because that's where the center of our lusts are in our mind.

That's where we have difficulty with temptation, evil desires, evil thoughts. They come from our mind, and that is where Satan likes to work the most to get us to doubt God, to distrust God. That's where depression is. And so if we're going to have a Savior, a Deliverer, he must be able to bring healing to the mind. He must be able to deal with that which has been poisoned. He must be able to free us from the demonic influences of the world. And thirdly, our souls, they are dead.

They are darkened, and they are desperately in need of salvation. And if there's going to be a Redeemer, if there's going to be a Deliverer, then because we are all subject to the power of Satan, because we're all born dead in our trespasses and sin, and we are all of our Father the Devil until Christ saves us, he must be able to prove that he is the victor and the conqueror of Satan, sin, and death. And so Luke sets forth for us the authority of Christ. He's already talked to us about the identity of the Messiah.

He moved from the identity of the Messiah to the ministry of the Messiah that he came to preach the gospel. And now he talks about the authority of the Messiah. So you and I will know that he is who he claims to be. And that's where Luke is taking us in verses 38 and following. Let's read these four paragraphs, and then we'll talk about that. Verse 38, and he arose and left the synagogue and entered Simon's home. Now Simon's mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they made request of him on her behalf.

And standing over her, he rebuked the fever, and it left her, and she immediately arose and waited on them. And while the sun was setting, all who had any sick with various diseases brought them to him, and laying his hands on every one of them, he was healing them. And demons also were coming out of many, crying out and saying, You are the Son of God, and rebuking them, he would not allow them to speak, because they knew him to be the Christ. And when day came, he departed and went to a lonely place.

And the multitudes were searching for him, and came to him, and tried to keep him from going away from them. But he said to them, I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose. And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea. The three points we had before us deal with our physical bodies, our minds mentally, and of course our souls spiritually. And we're going to look at Christ has authority over all those areas in our life.

To prove not only is he the Messiah, but to prove that he is that great deliverer you desperately need. And it begins with the physical aspect. It begins with our Lord's authority over physical ailment, to show us that he truly is the Messiah. And as we talk about this, the Bible says in verse 38, and he arose and left the synagogue.

Now, if you've been with us, you know that Jesus Christ had left Nazareth. He had gone to Capernaum, and he was doing in Capernaum the same thing he did in Nazareth. He was preaching in the synagogue. And on this Sabbath day, as he was preaching in the synagogue, there was a man who was demon possessed. And this demon could not contain himself any longer, and he cried out during one of Christ's sermons. Christ was preaching the gospel, and this demon cried out, because this demon had to be exposed because of the preaching of the Word of God, because of the purity of God himself, because of the purposes of God.

We saw that the last couple of weeks. And that's what happened in the synagogue there in Capernaum. And so here was Christ demonstrating his authority over the demonic world when he commanded this demon to come out of the man, be quiet, come out. The demon had no choice but to obey the sovereign ruler of the universe. And the Bible tells us up in verse number 36, and amazement came upon them all, and they began discussing with one another, saying, what is this message? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits.

And they came out. And the report about him was getting out into every locality in the surrounding district. This was an amazing thing. They had seen what the Messiah had done firsthand in Capernaum. So when you come to verse number 38, it says, and he arose and left the synagogue. So right after this event, right after this had taken place, he gets up, he leaves the synagogue, and entered Simon's home. Now, if you go to Israel today, you can see exactly how this would happen. You can go to where the synagogue was 2,000 years ago.

You can go to a place where they believe is Peter's home. They know that because they had built an ancient church over Peter's home, and Peter's home was right outside the synagogue there in Capernaum. If you go there today, the Catholics have built this great monstrosity over Peter's home, and it's kind of sad to see, but it's there, and yet you understand how Christ would have left the synagogue and exited the doorway and went into Peter's home. And so we come to the first point under the physical aspect of Christ's authority, and that is a request that is made.

It says, he arose and left the synagogue and entered Simon's home. Now, Simon's mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they made a request of him on her behalf. Now, why is it they felt the need to make a request for her to Christ? That's because they understand the ministry of the Messiah. They understand his great and powerful authority. Now, the Bible says that he entered Simon's home.

Now, there's no discussion about Peter here because by the time Luke writes his gospel, everybody knows who Peter is. Peter is not yet an apostle. That doesn't happen until Luke chapter 6. His name has not changed from Simon to Peter yet either. That doesn't happen until Matthew chapter 16. Mark's account tells us that Andrew was there along with John and James. So, these men, not yet being disciples, not yet being apostles, had a supreme interest in the Messiah, and they would be one of his followers along with many other people.

And they would leave the synagogue. They would enter into Simon's home. Remember, Simon was from Bethsaida, which is not too far from Capernaum. But he made his home in Capernaum because it was right on the Sea of Galilee, and he was a fisherman. And so, this was a great fishing district, and this is where his home would be. And so, they would leave the synagogue, and they would make their way to Simon Peter's home. Now, his mother-in-law had a high fever. Now, we know Peter's married by 1 Corinthians chapter 9, verse number 5.

1 Corinthians 9, verse number 5. I'm going to get a new microphone one day. Somebody buy me a new microphone, would you please? So, we know Peter was married. We know because he's got a mother-in-law, okay? And it was very common in those days for families to live together, all right? So, if you like to have your mother-in-law live with you, your father-in-law live with you, I mean, you love being Jewish because that's what they did. And so, the mother-in-law was there with them, and Peter was there, and Andrew was there.

Doesn't say his wife was there, but presumably she was there. And it was around the time, probably around noon, because that's usually when synagogues would let out, around noontime. We try to let out around noontime. Sometimes we don't try very hard, but we do try to let out around noontime. And so, on this day on the Sabbath, this was the major meal of the day. But Peter's mother-in-law was ill. She had a high fever. She had, as Luke describes, a mega fever. Now, Mark and Matthew don't record how high the fever was.

They just say she had a fever. But Luke, because he's a physician, knows the debilitating effect that this fever had upon Peter's mother-in-law. And this wasn't a fever that you would get just because maybe he had some slight infection someplace. This was a major, major crisis. This was a family crisis. She evidently had some infection that caused her to have an incredible high fever, almost to the point where she could possibly die. They were concerned about the mother-in-law. They were concerned about what was going to take place.

And so, they had known about the healing power of Jesus. They had seen him do great and mighty deeds. In fact, over in Luke chapter 4, it says this in verse number 13, excuse me, verse number 14, "...and Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit. And news about him spread through all the surrounding district. And he began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all." So, news about Jesus had already begun to spread. And down in verse number 23, it says, "...when Christ was speaking, no doubt you will quote this proverb to me, Physician, heal yourself.

Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well." So, evidently, what had taken place in Capernaum was well-known in the area. We do know this, that during Christ's first Judean ministry, during the first year of his ministry, there was an individual who had a fever who was healed.

Over in John chapter 5, verse number 46, it says this, "...and he came therefore again to Cana of Galilee, where he had made the water wind. And there was a certain royal official whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to him and was requesting him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Jesus therefore said to him, unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe." You see, the Jews were big into signs.

That's why the Pharisees kept asking, show us a sign, show us a sign, show us a sign. And all the signs were before them. The only sign he regularly gave them was the sign of his death and resurrection. That is a sign of Jonah in the belly of the fish. But he goes on to say this, "...the royal official said to him, Sir, come down before my child dies. Jesus said to him, Go your way, your son lives. The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he started off. And as he was now going down, his slaves met him, saying that his son was living.

So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. They said therefore to him yesterday at the seventh hour, the fever left him. So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, your son lives, and he himself believed in his whole household." This is again a second sign that Jesus performed when he had come out of Judea into Galilee.

So before the incident ever in Luke chapter 4, they, that is the residents of Capernaum, know of the healing power of Christ through the spoken word because of this official son who had a fever and was healed when Christ spoke the word while he was in Galilee. So now he's in the synagogue, and Peter and James and Andrew are sitting there thinking, you know, we should have Jesus to our house for lunch. I mean, after all, my mother-in-law is really sick. We know that he can heal somebody with the fever.

We know what he can do just with the spoken word. Let's have him come to our house for lunch. Can you imagine having Jesus for lunch today? Man, what a day that would be, right? And so here was Jesus, and he just cast out this demon in the synagogue, and they're thinking, wow, man, if he can do that, just think what he can do to my mother-in-law. Let's have him over for lunch. And so they bring him into the house, and here she is with this very high fever. They make a request. Somehow, Jesus would touch her life.

So that leads us to the rebuke. The Bible says, and standing over her, he rebuked the fever, and it left her.

And she immediately arose and waited on them. Now, Mark's account tells us that she was lying down, all right? Mark's account also tells us that he took her by the hand. Now, Mark does that specifically because, remember, he presents Jesus Christ as servant. And so when you read the gospel of Mark, and we've told you this before, that you'll see a great emphasis on the hands of Jesus and the feet of Jesus. And there's a key word running all throughout Mark's gospel, and that word is immediately. It's a key word in the gospel of Mark.

Why? Because servants always obey immediately, and servants are always using their hands. And so whenever Mark writes about Jesus Christ as servant, he has a big emphasis on the hands of Christ, the feet of Christ, and how quickly Christ works because He is the ultimate servant. But it shows the tenderness of Christ. It shows the compassion of Christ. And it also shows us that through the spoken word, just the spoken word, the fever is immediately gone. There is a rebuke. And this debilitating defect, whatever it was that caused Peter's mother-in-law to be taken ill was immediately removed.

And the results, that's point number three, was this, that she immediately arose and waited on them. Now, that is very important. Why is that? Because it tells us that there was no lingering symptoms in her life. In other words, she didn't have to get up, take a shower, take a bath because the fever broke and she broke out in a cold sweat, or that her cheeks were flushed, or that she had to have some chicken soup to get her strength back. It also tells us that what took place was not gradual. There was no period of recovery.

It was instantaneous. It was immediate because that's the way Jesus healed people. And so we realize that when Christ spoke, she was instantaneously healed. Immediately she was better with no residual effects. She was able to get up. And what did she do? She began to serve everybody else. Why? Because whenever you experience the healing touch of Jesus, you can't wait to serve. Can't. You want to serve. You want to serve because that's what servants do. You ever known people who have experienced the healing touch of the master, and what's the result of that?

They want to serve the Lord God. They want to give God everything they have because they realize His great effect in their lives. Folks, if you've been touched by the master, you want to serve because you want to serve His kingdom. You want to be about His purposes. And she would immediately arise and she would begin to serve and do on that day what she had been called to do. And Christ rebuked that fever. And then I want you to notice the repercussions.

And while the sun was setting, all who had any sick with various diseases brought them to Him and laying His hands on every one of them, He was healing them. Folks, that's important. Why? Because you see, now the Sabbath was over. That's why Luke tells us, as the sun began to set, that means the Sabbath's over. That means those Jews now could carry their sick ones to Jesus. If you read Mark's account, it tells us that the whole city was there. Where? At Peter's door. Who did they bring? Everybody with a disease.

Everybody who was paralyzed. Everybody who had a demon. They brought them to Jesus. And I want you to notice what the text says.

He healed them all. Every single one of them, He healed. Which leads me to this. We need to come to grips with people who claim to have the gift of healing today. I want to let you know that that gift does not exist today. If you think you have it, I got news for you. You don't have it. If you see a guy on TV who claims to have it, I got news for you. He didn't have it either. You will notice that everybody came to Jesus and Jesus healed them all.

There was no requirement of faith on behalf of the people to be healed. And it doesn't say they were being saved either. It just says that He healed everybody who came. You see, there are many people today who either on television, on stage, or in a controlled environment will say they have the gift of healing. But if you were to bring sick people to their hotel room, they could not heal them. Morris Cirillo is one of those men who claimed to have this healing power. And one time he was on his way to India to do a bunch of crusades to heal people.

They're in India. And some of the leaders in India got together and thought, you know, before we let this guy out in our country, let's examine to see if what he says he can do, he can really do. And so they went to his hotel room and they began to question him and said, I'll tell you what we're going to do to make sure that you can do what you say you can do. We're going to bring some sick people to your hotel room, and we want you to heal them before we let you go in our country. He could not heal any of them.

So they quickly put him on a plane and sent him back to America. Thanks a lot. Now we got him. You see, the issue is, is that when when if you have the gift, listen, if you have the gift of healing, you can heal anybody, anytime, anywhere. No questions asked. And faith is never a prerequisite for healing. Never is. In fact, the Bible records, listen, if someone is not healed, it's not the person being healed's fault. It's the person with the healing powers fault. Did you know that? Mark 9, turn there with me if you would for a second.

Mark chapter 9. Christ comes down off of the Mount of Transfiguration. It says in verse number 14, And when they came back to the disciples, they saw a large crowd around them, and some scribes arguing with them. And immediately when the entire crowd saw him, they were amazed and began running up to greet him. And he asked them, What are you discussing with them? And one of the crowd answered him, Teacher, I brought you my son possessed with a spirit which makes him mute. And whenever it seizes him, it dashes him to the ground.

And he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth and stiffens out. And I told your disciples to cast it out, and they could not do it. Now the disciples have been given power, remember, to exorcise demons and to heal people. So verse 19, And he answered them and said, Oh, unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him to me. And they brought the boy to him. And when he saw him, immediately the spirit threw him into convulsion and falling to the ground, he began rolling about and foaming at the mouth.

And he asked his father, How long has this been happening to him? And he said, From childhood. And it was often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us. And Jesus said to him, If you can, all things are possible to him who believes. Immediately, the boy's father cried out and began saying, I do believe. Help my unbelief. And when Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly gathering, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, You deaf and dumb spirit, I command you come out of him and do not enter him again.

And after crying out and throwing him into terrible convulsions, it came out. And the boy became so much like a corpse that most of them thought he was dead. But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him. And he got up. And when he had come into the house, his disciples began questioning him privately. Why could we not cast it out? And he said to them, This kind cannot come out by anything. But prayer. See, the reason the disciples couldn't do it is not because the boy or the father didn't have faith.

See, that's very important to understand. The disciples were unable to do it because of their lack of faith, because of their unwillingness to depend upon the power of God in their lives. It was their problem, not the person's problem. Did you get that? See, because the faith healers today will tell you, Well, you know, you can't be healed because you don't believe or you don't have enough faith or you've given a negative confession and your negative confession negates any healing power in your life.

You hear it all the time. Folks, that's just not true according to biblical standards. When Jesus healed people, he healed them instantaneously, totally, completely, immediately. Folks, that's the gift of healing. There is never a record in scripture where someone was gradually healed, that they got better at the meeting and they're getting better as the week goes on. They were completely healed at the time that Christ spoke the word or touched them because of his mighty power. This is important.

We have lots of charlatans out there. We have lots of false teachers out there from Catherine Kuhlman to Benny Hinn and beyond. They're all a bunch of charlatans. They're all false teachers. They don't speak the truth. And you got to be aware of them. Remember John Wimber, David Watson, people of the Vineyard Movement who claimed they had the gift of healing and could teach people to heal and they both died of cancer. So either they couldn't heal themselves or they couldn't probably teach somebody else to heal them because they both died of cancer.

Folks, there is no gift of healing today. No one has that gift. Does God heal? He does. And if God chooses to heal your physical ailment, He'll do that because He is the God of the universe. But there's no one who has the gift of healing today. That gift, that gift specifically was a temporary sign gift given to Christ and the apostles to authenticate the Messiahship of Christ and the message of the apostles. It was strictly a temporary sign gift. Folks, remember the Bible talks to us about being not ignorant of spiritual gifts.

But folks, the body of Christ is pretty ignorant about spiritual gifts. They don't understand the special gifts. They don't understand the speaking gifts. They don't understand the support gifts and they don't understand the sign gifts, which need to understand them or you're going to get all confused. And the sign gifts were temporary gifts given to authenticate the message and the messenger so that people would know that Jesus Christ truly is the Messiah and the apostles truly were sent out by the Messiah.

It's so important to understand. And yet, if God chooses to heal someone, He will. You know, I've often wondered if I could choose a gift, this is the one I choose, the gift of healing. I would love to be able to heal somebody who had a defect, had some kind of disease, whose body was riddled with cancer, to be able to reach out and touch them and heal them. What a miraculous thing that would be. But even if I possessed that gift and I healed you, you would still die. You'd still die. You see, everybody who's ever lived has died.

Is that news to you? It shouldn't be, except for Enoch and Elijah, Genesis 5, 2 Kings 2. But everybody else has died. Everybody before them and everybody after them will die because that's the result of sin. The wages of sin is death. Everybody dies. And Jesus Christ died to conquer sin and to conquer death. So you and I would experience His eternal life. And yet, everybody will die. And Christ is that conqueror over the physical world. Because one day Christ is going to give you a brand new body.

No sickness, no death, no suffering, no ailments, no bad eyesight, nothing. It'll be perfect. And that's what Christ Himself has promised to do. The healings of the Bible by Christ were all instantaneous, total, and complete. From Matthew 8, the centurion's servant, to Luke 10, the 10 lepers, to John 5, the man who had been paralyzed for 38 years and was healed, to John 9, when the man born blind was now able to see. In fact, John 9 is the only record in the Bible of someone healed with a congenital birth defect, a man born blind.

And Christ healed that man. He was able to see at the Pool of Siloam. And every time Christ healed somebody, it was immediate, complete, total. Instantaneous. Because that's the ministry of Christ. It proved the fact that He truly was and is the Messiah. And when Christ healed, He healed at will, and He healed by both the Word and touch. Something about spiritual gifts you should know. Listen carefully. Spiritual gifts are given to be operated, listen, at will. That's why the Bible says, if you got to get to mercy, show mercy.

If you have the gift of giving, give with liberality. If you have the gift of leadership, lead with diligence. If you got the gift of healing, heal. See, it's done at will. You have to wait for it to come upon you. You do it because God has gifted you with that gift. And so when Christ would heal someone, or the apostles would heal someone, or the apostle Paul himself would heal someone, he did it immediately, totally, and completely, at will. But you will notice, you will notice that as you get into the epistles, people get sick, and they stay sick.

Why would Paul leave Trophimus and Miletus sick when Paul had the gift of healing? Why would he do that? Because the gift of healing was given for a specific purpose, and that was to authenticate the message of the apostles. But once the message was completed, there needed to be no longer any authentication, because that came through the written word of God. Think of Timothy, Paul told Timothy, take a little wine for your stomach's sake. If you're ailing, drink some wine. Why did he say if you're ailing, go see the local faith healer?

Because there'd be no use in that. That's not what healing is for. And you can also go and you can read about Epaphroditus, who almost died in Philippians chapter 2. You can read about the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12, who had an affliction that he wished could be removed, but the Lord would not remove it from him, and he had the gift of healing. He couldn't even heal himself. Because, why? It was designed for a specific purpose, for a specific period of time. Listen to this. In the first 1600 years of recorded history, there was not one miracle of healing.

The first recorded miracle of healing is in 2200 BC, during the time of Abraham. From 2200 BC to 750 BC, the Bible records, listen carefully, 20 healings. Almost 1500 years and records 20 healings. There were five during the time of the patriarchs, five during the time of Moses, two in Samuel's day, and eight between David and Isaiah. 20. Listen to this. From 750 BC to the time of Christ, there was not one recorded healing in the Bible. But, when Christ shows up on the scene, there are 90 different New Testament references about his healing in the Gospels.

Why? Because, you see, it came to prove the credentials of the Messiah. He was the healer. That's why in Matthew's account of what we've read about in Luke, in Matthew 8, it says these words. Matthew chapter 8. And when Jesus had come to Peter's home, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick in bed with a fever, and he touched her hand and the fever left her, and she arose and waited on him. And when evening had come, they brought to him many who were demon-possessed, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were ill.

Listen to this. Verse number 17. In order that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, he himself took our infirmities and carried away our diseases. You say, see right there, there is healing in the atonement. And there is. But you've got to realize that Christ fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah 53. He proved himself to be the Messiah by healing the infirmities of those who were sick. And that's why when you read that all who came to him were healed, when you read that throughout the Scriptures, you'll read about it in Matthew chapter 4, before Christ preached the Sermon on the Mount, that everybody around was being healed, being cured of all kinds of issues.

And before the Sermon on the Mount is preached, Christ sits down and says, you know what? I know that you're glad you've been physically healed, but that's not the issue at stake. It's your internal heart. It's your soul that needs to be healed. And he preaches the gospel to them because all those people who were healed didn't believe. They had no faith. And Jesus raised dead people. Dead people had no faith. They don't believe in anything. They're dead. Think about it. The widow's son at Nain. What did he believe?

We don't know. Jair was his daughter. What did she believe? We don't know. But he raised him from the dead. They had no faith because he proved his Messianic credentials as the Messiah. Why do I tell you all that? I tell you that because, you see, the issue with us is not so much our being healed now as it is our being healed for eternity. Listen carefully. You could have a horrendous defect, a horrible disease, and maybe you do. I don't know. I don't know. And God in his providence could heal you because you believe in the power of prayer and you believe that God can do a great and mighty work.

God can heal you. And maybe God will choose to do that in your life. I do not know. I would pray that that would be the case. I would want God's glory to be number one in your life, that God would be glorified in and through your life.

But even if you are healed today, you will die tomorrow. You will die. I'm reminded of the lady that church where Harold and I used to go to, she came up to me one day and she said, because I was preaching a service and message on spiritual gifts and sign gifts specifically. And I was talking about how sign gifts has ceased. And she said, you know, my husband, he's been healed. I said, really? She said, yeah. I said, what did he have? She goes, he had cancer. I said, wow. Wow. Where is he? She goes, well, he died.

I said, what did he die of? She said, cancer. I said, I thought you said your husband had been healed of cancer. Well, he was. Eight months ago, he was healed. I said, if he was healed of cancer by God, he wouldn't have died of cancer. He'd have died probably of something else, but not of cancer, because he would have been healed from cancer. When God healed somebody, it was gone. It was gone. And it was total. It was complete. It was instantaneous. It was immediate. Because that's what God does.

And for us, we need to understand that there's coming a great day. Listen to what Paul says in Philippians chapter three, verse 20. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of his glory by the exertion of the power that he has even to subject all things to himself. One day, I'm going to have a body just like Jesus. I'm going to have a glorified body just like Jesus had at the resurrection.

I'm going to have that. That's given to me because of the atoning work of Christ, according to Isaiah chapter 53. It's not a big deal for me to have a great healed body now.

Why? Because I don't want to live here forever. I want to go to heaven and be with Jesus forever. Right? Isn't that the bottom line? To go home and be with the Lord forever. And that's where I am promised. Physical, complete, total healing. When I die and go home to be with the Lord, no more sickness, no more pain, no more misery. Because that's the healing work of God. That's why, that's why, listen, when Jesus was here, listen to what the Bible says in Mark chapter two, verse number 12.

He rose and immediately took up the pallet and went out in the sight of all. This is a man who was, who was paralyzed. So they were all amazed and were glorifying God saying, we have never seen anything like this. They had never seen anything at all like what they had witnessed that day in Mark chapter two, verse number 12. In Matthew nine, verse number 33, it says this. And after the demon was cast out, the dumb man spoke and the multitudes marveled saying, nothing like this was ever seen in Israel.

There had not been anything like this ever in the land of Israel. Over in Luke chapter 10, verse number 23, it says this. Luke 10, verse number 23. Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see. For I say to you that many prophets and kings wished to see the things which you see and did not see them and to hear the things which you hear and did not hear them. Oh, there are many people who wish they could witness what you've witnessed, but they never had the opportunity because Messiah was not there, but he is now.

And then over in John chapter nine, John chapter nine, after the man who was born blind was healed. It says this in verse number 32. Since the beginning of time, it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. See, miracles, listen carefully, were not a common everyday occurrence. They weren't. They never have been except during the ministry of Christ and the apostles. That's the only time. We need to come to grips with that, folks, because you'll hear the faith healers say, well, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

And because he is, then you can be healed today. No, no, no. Because if Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, we know very, very few miracles ever in the history of mankind, except during the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Do you get that? Folks, the bottom line is this. It's not how well you are physically today, but how well you will be tomorrow when death knocks at the door. Will you go home to be with the Lord? And will you experience that great and glorious body like our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ?

That's the issue. Because Christ, you see, by healing Peter's mother-in-law, healed her in such a way, he proved once again that he was the Messiah. By the way, Jesus never healed anybody with lower back pain, headaches, emotional distress. He healed all organic diseases, things that were very obvious and seen to everybody. Remember that? He healed the issues of life that could see. He made quadriplegics able to get up and walk, and stand, and run, and skip. People could not see, could see clearly.

People who were filled with leprosy were completely clean as the driven snow. And we've told you before, and we'll tell you again, that whenever Christ did a miracle in the physical realm, it was to portray what he was ultimately gonna do in the spiritual realm. So when he touched the soul, or excuse me, when he touched the body and made the lady in Mark 5 who bled profusely over and over again, and when she touched his garment, she was healed, and she no longer bled again. Or the man born blind who could see, or those who could not walk could now walk.

Those who were leprous were now as white as snow. What God was showing you is that one day, this is the way it's going to be for everybody who believes in me. No sickness, no death. No heartache, no pain. Because I will have conquered everything. And so he portrayed to them what the kingdom would be like if they would accept him as the Messiah and believe in him as their redeemer, as their deliverer. And that's why he kept healing people after people, person after person, individual after individual.

So everybody who went around would see, this man actually does do what Isaiah 53 says he's gonna do. This man truly is the Messiah because we have never seen anything like this. Never in the history of Israel, never in the history of the world has anybody born blind ever seen. But now they do because the Messiah is here. And yet they did not believe that Jesus was who he said he was. The question is, do you believe that? If you do, if you've given your life to Christ, you have this guarantee that one day you'll have a body just like his, complete, perfect, and glorified.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for today and all that you do. We pray, Lord, that you would do a great and mighty work in all of our hearts. Thank you for the truth of the word of God that speaks to every issue of life. And may we with great discernment understand the truth that causes us to live forever. In Jesus' name, Amen.