Our Divine Deliverer, Part 2

How merciful and kind and loving you are to those of us who are here We thank you lord that as we examine your word, we are able to come to grips with the reality of your existence And not only the reality of it lord, but the importance of it for our lives And we ask that today we would see that and we would respond in a way that would bring glory to your name We ask in the name of jesus christ the coming king Amen Turn with me in your bible if you would once again to luke chapter 4 luke chapter 4 as we Make our way verse by verse through this great and wonderful gospel And as you're turning, let me remind you that first timothy 1 verse number 15 says that this is a trustworthy Statement worthy of full acceptance that christ jesus came into the world to save sinners Jesus christ came into the world to save sinners.

Our lord is a deliverer. He is a savior He is a rescuer of men That's why he came to this world. He came to us He did not wait for us to come to him. Why because he'd be waiting forever. We would never come to him That's why he took the initiative. He was the one who came To us and so when christ came not only did he claim to be the savior and the deliverer he proved He was the savior and the deliverer. That's why in john's gospel in john chapter 20 verse number 30 and 31 It says and many other signs did jesus do?

But these were written That you may believe that jesus christ is the the messiah the son of the living god These things were specifically put into print so you will know that jesus christ is who he claims to be And so there was overwhelming evidence of the fact that jesus truly is the messiah When luke writes his gospel listen to what he says in luke chapter one, let me refresh your memory luke chapter one verse number one In as much as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us Just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word Have handed them down to us.

It seemed fitting for me as well Having investigated everything carefully from the beginning to write it out for you in consecutive order most excellent theophilus So that you might know the exact truth about the things You have been taught Luke is concerned about the truth Luke is concerned that the exact truth about the messiah is known And that's why he puts things down in Consecutive order or in a order that is appropriate to understand who the messiah is He writes him in such a way that there is No doubt whatsoever that jesus christ is who he claims to be And that's why when we come to verse number 38 of luke chapter 4 We come to grips with the fact that luke is giving to us some of the realities of his his work and authority So we once again see that the claims he made are true based on the works that he accomplished while here christ came To be our savior And if he is going to be the savior he must demonstrate his power over the natural the supernatural and the eternal Because if he can't demonstrate his power in those three areas, he cannot be the savior of the world If christ jesus is going to save us from our sins.

He must prove himself authoritative over that which is natural in other words over that which is Physically Debilitating that is in the physical realm. He must have power over disease ultimately over death In the mental world. He must have authority over our minds and be able to deliver us from demonic influence And he must have power in the spiritual realm in the eternal realm to deliver our souls from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light Luke's whole point is to help us come to grips with that He wants to clarify for us the ministry of the messiah He wants to amplify for us the glory of the messiah He wants to identify for us the identity of the messiah.

So we understand that jesus christ is the god of abraham isaac and jacob And so he goes to great length to begin luke chapter 1 All the way to where we are in luke chapter 4 to explain to us who jesus christ is and his authority authority over the natural the supernatural and the eternal And what luke does in verses 38 to 44 is give us a summation Of that authority so we once again are reminded that jesus christ truly is the savior of the world Last time we talked about his power in the realm of the physical or in the realm of the natural To help us come to grips with his power It says in verse number 38 of luke 4 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 requests of him on her behalf and standing over her he rebuked the fever and 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 that's where we left off last week to help you understand the healing power of jesus christ His authority in the realm of the natural his authority over the realm of whatever physically debilitates us his authority over the realm of illness sickness disease and when he healed somebody he did it Immediately it was an instantaneous healing. It was a total healing There is nowhere recorded in scripture where there is a gradual healing process where someone would come to christ He would touch them.

They would go away and progressively get better over the weeks When christ touched someone when christ spoke the word they were immediately healed they Immediately became whole if they were blind they could see If they were lame, they could walk if they were dead they were raised because that's the power of jesus christ That's who he is We need to understand that now someone always comes around and says well, what about mark chapter 8 wasn't that a progressive healing? Turn to mark chapter 8 people always say well, there's a guy that was blind in beseda and Christ touched him and he really wasn't healed immediately.

It kind of a was a progressive thing folks Let me tell you that you need to understand something when christ does something he does it with a purpose And you need to understand the context of mark chapter 8 now i'm gonna spend a lot of time here We got this on tape if you want to get it from about 15 years ago Uh, I think i'm going to say the same thing now that I said then but just in case I might not might want to get The tape to see what I said back then But listen to what it says in verse number 11 and the pharisees came out and began to argue with him seeking from him A sign from heaven remember told you last week first corinthians 1 22 the jews require a sign So when christ came he gave them signs his whole life was about a sign that he was the messiah And signed deeply I'm, sorry.

Let me finish that a sign from heaven to test him and sign deeply in his spirit He said why does this generation seek after a sign or seek for a sign truly?

I say to you no signs shall be given to this generation and leaving them he again embarked and went away to the other side And they had forgotten to take bread And did not have more than one loaf in the boat with them and he was giving orders to them saying watch out Beware of the leaven of the pharisees And the leaven of the of herod And they began to discuss With one another the fact that they had no bread And jesus aware of this said to them. Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread?

do you not yet see or understand Stop right there christ has already fed the 5 000. He has just fed the 4 000 earlier in march chapter 8 Disciples get into a boat and they're concerned that they do not have enough bread So christ says beware of the leaven of the pharisees beware of the leaven or the evil influence of herod the the evil influence of materialism beware of the evil influence of Religiosity beware of those things and how they permeate their mind and all they could think about was the physical a lot like us We go to church and we can't wait to figure out what's for lunch We we can't wait to see where we're going to go for lunch.

We're always concerned about the physical And the disciples were the same way Christ knowing that says what's wrong? Can't you guys understand? Have you not yet? seen evidently your vision is blurred You have not yet Understood what i'm about and what needs to be important to you Because evidently what's important to me is not important to you And if you're going to be one of mine, then you have to have the same level of importance of things that I do So he says this Do you have a hardened heart?

Having eyes. Do you not see having ears? Do you not hear and do you remember or do you not remember when I broke the five lows for the 5 000? How many baskets full of broken pieces you picked up They said to him 12 And when I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of broken pieces? Did you pick up? And they said to him Seven and he was saying to them Do you not yet? understand Don't you get it? I'm going to take care of all your needs. I'm going to supply everything that you have Go go back and look at the 5 000 which probably was closer to 20 000 because remember it's only 5 000 men And 4 000 men the only count of the men didn't count the women and the children So you got about a feeding of 20 000 on one hand probably a feeding of 16 000 on the other hand Those are low numbers not high numbers.

Those are low numbers. Those aren't evangelistically speaking. There were 16 000 people there though. Those are low numbers Okay, so christ says i've already fed these people don't you get it He stops right there now listen to this And they came to beseda They brought a blind man to him and treated him to touch him and taking the blind man by the hand He brought him out of the village and after spitting on his eyes and laying his hands upon him.

He asked him. Do you see anything? He looked up and said I I see men for I am seeing them like trees walking about Then again he laid his hands upon his eyes and he looked intently and was restored and began to see everything What's the next word? clearly And he sent him to the home saying do not even enter the village People say well see that that was a progressive healing christ touched him and he really couldn't see very well And so he had to touch him again so he could really see clearly the context of what happens In mark chapter 8 is for the benefit of the disciples who yet to see clearly the mission and ministry of the messiah And what he's about?

And so what christ does is ask the man to define the nature of his blindness In other words, we know the man wasn't blind from birth How do we know that we know that because he's able to distinguish trees and men so he knows something about the the the way a man looks the way trees look But what christ was having him do was define the fact of the extent of his blindness So the man so the disciples would realize that they are in a constant need Of a specific touch from the messiah so they will ultimately see what messiah wants them to see It's the context of what the scriptures say that help you understand what it is The lord does and the lord did heal him instantaneously Once the man defined the character of his blindness makes sense That's what christ does and so when christ heals somebody it's immediate.

It's instantaneous It is complete it is total it is whole because that's the way he did it and we talked about that last week And that's why that's why you have the record in matthew mark luke and john Of everybody saying the same thing that is we have never seen anything like this done in israel There has never been a man who has been born blind in the history of the world that could now see that's in john's account they go on and on about speaking concerning the the incredible authority and power that the messiah has In the physical realm to heal people unlike he's ever healed them before So the question comes does god do that today?

Does god heal people like that today if jesus christ is the same yesterday today and forever Therefore he must heal that way all the time answer. That is no How do we know that? We looked at it last week The very first record of a healing in the bible is in the year 2200 bc And between 2200 bc and 750 bc there are 20 records of people Physically being healed and from 750 bc to the time of christ There is no record in the bible of anybody ever being healed But when christ shows up on the scene Everybody gets healed Everybody we mean everybody well We know that from the bible faith was not a requirement for healing right because everybody who came to the door was healed In mark's account, uh of what happens in luke That we're reading about here in capernaum at peter's house that everybody was the whole village was at the door Bringing the people who were demon possessed who were sick who were ill they needed a healing And because the sabbath was over it was night time The sun had begun to set the sabbath was over they could bring whoever they wanted to carry them to jesus He would touch them.

He would heal them but faith was never a prerequisite for healing salvation Was never a prerequisite for healing why because the purpose of the healing? Was to prove the credentials of the messiah He healed because that's what he came to do He was the messiah And these would prove his credentials Prove once again that he was who he claimed to be Folks, this is so important to understand Because we have a real problem in this area All these faith healers going around saying, you know, somebody wrote a book a number of years ago A miracle a day keeps the doctor away Change the title to a miracle a day keeps the devil away And claiming that you need to claim a miracle every day From jesus because he wants to do a miracle every day in your life Now, is that true?

Or is that false? Answer it's false Christ is not in the business of doing a miracle for you every day. Here's the point We think that somehow god must transcend The natural laws of the universe For me That's a miracle A miracle is not going to the mall at christmas and praying for a place to park And there'll be one opening up right in front of macy's That is not a miracle. Okay now you can pray for a parking spot Especially when it's raining right close to the door That's a good thing to pray for but that doesn't mean it's a it's a miracle unless somehow God would transcend the natural laws of life pick up that car that's in the space that you want Let you drive in and move that car out of your space.

Now if god did that that would be a miracle, right? But folks we we have minimized the effect of what a miracle truly is when god caused somebody to see He he gave them new eyes When he when he caused the withers the man with the wither hand to be healed He gave them a new hand when he gave somebody who was paralyzed the opportunity to walk. He gave them new legs He gave them new feet. He gave them new everything because he is the creator the sustainer of the world and he can do that with a spoken word Folks that does not happen today The paraplegic is not going to get up instantaneously and walk out of the wheelchair and run to football practice that afternoon That's not going to happen Say wow pastor.

You don't have very much faith You don't believe very much about god. Let me tell you something god can heal anybody.

He wants to heal He can do it anytime he wants to do it But there is absolutely no person alive today who has the gift of healing no matter what they say and no matter what they claim Because it does not match the word of god There was a specific time in the history of man where there was an outpoint of miracles That was during the time of christ and the apostles because christ was going to prove his credentials At the same time the apostles had to prove that the message they preached was the exact message from the messiah And god gave them the opportunity to cast out demons and to heal many people who were sick But as you go through the new testament more and more people remain sick less and less people were healed Why?

Because the healing ministry of christ Was not for you It was to prove who he was Because after you're healed guess what you're still going to die You will not live forever in this earth. You're still going to die And people do die everybody who's ever existed has died Except for enoch and elijah. We talked about them last week, but everybody else has died and you're gonna die, too Just in case you didn't know that And you came to church today to realize you will die Everybody dies unless of course the lord comes and raptures us out of here and takes us home to be with him That would be the only exception to us not dying and that would be the example of elijah back in second kings But we're all going to die And the reason christ healed people in a supernatural way you could read about it in all the gospels everybody who came to him Was healed nobody went away disappointed Nobody went away and said oh gee jesus just couldn't do it for me today Didn't happen for me There's no record of that in the bible Everybody who touched him everybody he touched every time he spoke the word They were healed Instantaneously completely everything was completely new And they walked away but yet the depths of their soul Needed to be touched with the saving grace of the gospel And yet christ because of his mercy his kindness would heal everybody because he gave everybody the signs That proved he truly was the messiah Does god heal?

Sure, he does Sure, he does Are we supposed to pray? Well, the bible says the first peter 5 7 to cast all your cares upon him because he cares for you, right James 5 says that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much The bible says ask and you shall receive Why so that my father will be glorified in heaven?

John 14 So we know that the prerequisite to our answered prayer is the glory of almighty god God is going to do what he wants to do for his glory and for his honor Because it's his glory that's at stake It's his honor that's at stake and that's how he will operate in your life and in mine And so we need to come to grips with some reality So let me give you a couple of personal illustrations that might help you come to uh, just to grip this a little bit more Okay A number of years ago when I was married to sandy, uh Over 20 years ago now, uh before she died of cancer She uh, I was fired from my job Uh in may she contacted cancer in june a diagnosis of cancer in june a terminal illness that she would die In a span of 15 months I had no job had nowhere to go and god opened the door for me to be the college pastor at the king's college in new york So I went to the king's college and was the college pastor there and there was an overwhelming support of the student body and the faculty And staff for the sake of the condition of my first wife sandy Knowing that they were praying for us and always praying for us.

There are many students there in the on the campus that were from charismatic backgrounds And they came to me quite regularly and said, you know pastor I I think it would be good if you if you brought her to one of our healing meetings at our church And I said really I said, yeah, if you were to bring her to there, maybe she'd be healed I said maybe Maybe she could be And and they would come and they would ask quite frankly why I didn't do this And I said let me illustrate this way for you Do you believe that god heals I said yes, I said so do I I do that.

I believe that I said but let me help you understand something the same god who heals Is Also the same god who can prevent me or my wife from ever contacting the illness Would you not agree with that?

Of course, they would have to say yes right If god is powerful enough to heal someone from a disease is god not powerful enough to keep them from contacting the disease Yes So somehow I said there must be a purpose as to why she has this disease And what that purpose is I do not know But I do know this I want god to be honored And I want god to be glorified Because his purpose and his plan is more important than my desires And that's my commitment Whatever that purpose may be That's what I want And so I was committed to that 15 months later almost to the day she died Went on to be with the lord And you know what god was so good Because you see there was a whole constituency of constituency of students who had to come to realize Number one the college pastor either doesn't have enough faith Or number two God doesn't heal everybody Well, their belief was that god healed everybody who had faith So the summary of that was well, the college pastor must not have enough faith or his wife wouldn't have died But see we told you last week that Faith is never a prerequisite for healing read mark chapter 9.

It's the faith of the healers That is the hindrance To people being healing not the faith of the person being healed. That's in mark chapter 9 So Listen carefully what i'm going to say sometimes sometimes God wants you Sick Sometimes God wants you to die Now aren't you glad you came to church today? Say what do you mean? Let me help you come to grips with a couple of things God doesn't want all of you to be well Physically Say well i've been told that god wants me well That god wants me to be better.

God wants me to feel better. God wants me healed really Let me give you a couple illustrations God might want you sick.

God might even want you dead psalm 116 tells us what precious in the sight of the lord are the death of the saints So think about it. God might want you home with him So therefore you'll die Now how you die? I don't know but but god if you want your home is going to take you home because Precious in the sight of the lord of the death of the saints Some of you here today are sick Some of you here know that you are dying folks We're all dying. Some of us are a little bit more aware of it than others are because of our illness or because of our sickness But let me give you just a couple of biblical illustrations to help you come to grips with the reality of healing In what god is doing in your life.

Number one is this? Sometimes god makes you sick sometimes God makes you Sick Let me read to you what the gospel of john says Verse chapter 11 verse number one now a certain man was sick lazarus of bethany the village of mary and her sister martha And it was the mary who anointed the lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair whose brother lazarus was sick The sisters therefore sent to him saying lord behold he whom you love Is sick now our lord had a great relationship with lazarus All right And that's why the disciples came and said the one that you love He's sick Now here is the lord of the universe, right?

Who has all healing power? Knowing that the one he loves a very close friend of his is sick. What do you think god's going to do? He's going to let him die We'll let him die listen to this The sisters therefore sent to him saying lord behold the the he whom you love is sick But when jesus heard it, he said the sickness is not into death But for the glory of god the son of god may be glorified by it Verse five now jesus loved martha and her sister and lazarus when therefore he heard that he was sick He went immediately to bethany to heal him That's not what it says.

It says he stayed then two days longer in the place where he was Why would jesus do that Well, listen Then after this he said to the disciples Let us go to dudee again The disciples said to him rabbi That jews were just now seeking to stone you and are you going there again? And jesus answered are there not 12 hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble because he sees the light of the world But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles because the light is not in him this he said And after that he said to them our friend lazarus Has fallen asleep But I go That I may awaken him out of sleep In other words lazarus has died It's time to go to lazarus Because god was going to do something He was going to put his works on display.

He was going to raise lazarus from the dead But he did not go to heal lazarus Because there was a greater purpose at stake in the plan of god Look at john 9 turn back there just a couple of a couple of pages And as he passed by he saw a man blind from birth and his disciples asked him saying rabbi Who sinned this man or his parents that he should be born blind?

because in jewish thinking a man born blind a man born with a some kind of deformity or Disablement is because he sinned or his parents sinned That was the conclusion and jesus said It was neither That this man sinned nor his parents but it was an order that the works of god might be displayed in him In other words God caused him to be born blind So that on this day in john 9 Our lord would demonstrate not only His precious truth not only his personal touch but his perfect timing And our lord would demonstrate that by healing this man and it becoming a testimony to all who are around That god causes the blind to see You see sometimes god makes you sick because there's a greater purpose at stake than your physical well-being And that purpose is the glory of almighty god See we have a hard time getting getting that through our through our minds.

We think it's about us. It's not about us It is about god his glory his providence his plan his purpose And in the providence of god god knew that he would be there on this day at the pool of siloam Which means sent speaking of the messiah being the sent one to israel and he would be the sent one Who would heal this man? blind from birth To show that he truly was the messiah. So sometimes God makes you sick Sometimes Satan Makes you sick Luke chapter 13 Luke chapter 13 Verse 10 and he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath and behold There was a woman who for 18 years had had a sickness caused by a spirit And she was bent double And could not straighten up at all.

And when jesus saw her He called her over and said to her woman. You are freed From your sickness And he laid his hands upon her and immediately she was made erect again and began glorifying God Sometimes satan Makes you sick but Satan can only make you sick If he has god's permission To make you sick Did you know that? Satan is not sovereign. Satan is not omnipresent. Satan is not everywhere at one time Satan is only in one location. Only god is omnipresent everywhere at all times Satan is not But satan can only do what he gets permission from god to do job chapter 1 Says this Verse 8 and the lord said to satan have you considered my servant job for there was no one like him On the earth a blameless and upright man fearing god and turning away from evil Then satan answered the lord does job fear god for nothing Has that not made a hedge about him in his house and all that he has on every side Thou must bless the work of his hands and his possessions have increased in the land But put forth thy hand now and touch all that he has he will surely curse thee in thy face Then the lord said to satan behold all that he has is in your power Only do not put forth your hand on him.

So satan departed from the presence of the lord and you know the story See satan satan wanted job, but god had protected job. And so god said, you know, everything that he has is yours You have the power to do whatever you want to do with whatever he has But you cannot touch him So satan did job did not curse god. So job comes back to god and god says, okay You can touch his life, but you can't kill him But see satan can only do what god allowed him to do And sometimes god allows satan to make you sick Did you ever think about that?

If you're not sick It's because god's protective power In your life You see god is at work in the life of his people constantly We forget that But we need to go back and begin to understand what it is. God is doing over in second corinthians 12 You know the story in second corinthians 12 verse number seven And because of the surpassing greatness of the revelation for this reason to keep me from exalting myself There was given me a thorn in the flesh a messenger of satan to buffet me to keep me from exalting myself Concerning this I entreated the lord three times that I might depart from me and he said to me My grace is sufficient for you for power is perfected in weakness Most gladly therefore I will rather boast about my weaknesses that the power of christ may dwell in me Therefore I am well content with weaknesses with insults with distresses with persecutions with difficulties For christ's sake for when I am weak then I am strong paul says there is this thorn in the flesh this messenger from satan That buffeted me on a regular basis and I asked god three times that he would remove it and god kept coming back and saying No, my grace is sufficient for you And paul realized that if that thorn in the flesh was not there It would cause him to boast and become arrogant and god kept him humble because of his sickness Whatever that may be we do not know what that is So he realized that there was a messenger from satan That god had allowed to touch the life of the apostle paul he realized that contentment came From understanding the sovereign will of god for his life And that amidst that weakness that's when paul would become the strongest Because of the grace of almighty god another thing you need to realize about sickness and healing Is that sometimes?

god Makes you sick Gives you an illness because he wants to perfect you He wants to make you just like him And maybe the only way to do that is to cause you to totally depend upon him during your time of illness or sickness That's why the psalmist said over in psalm 119 These words Psalm 119 verse 67 before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word There was something about affliction that kept the psalmist In the word of god that before there was an affliction. He kind of did his own thing But now that he's been afflicted he keeps the word of almighty god and then he says down in verse number 71 It is good for me that I was afflicted That I might learn thy statutes Psalmist learned that that affliction was a good thing for him because it taught him to keep the statutes of almighty god So sometimes god makes you sick sometimes satan makes you sick, but satan can only make you sick as if If he has god's permission to make you sick And if you are sick Sometimes it's there because god wants to perfect you and to make you just like him To cause you to depend upon him and trust him and believe in him and follow him But sometimes another reason god makes you sick is because he needs to chastise you needs to discipline you That's found over in in first corinthians chapter 11 first corinthians chapter 11 It says this verse 29 for he who eats and drinks eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly For this reason many among you are weak and sick and a number Sleep or in other words are dead Because they have eaten and drinking the lord's cup in an unworthy manner It's in the realm of communion And you see when you come to take communion on the lord's day And you eat the bread in an unworthy manner that is you have not judged yourself You have not examined your life.

You have not confessed your sin. You have not gotten right with god Then sometimes you're sick. Sometimes you are ill. Sometimes you die Because you ate and you drank in an unworthy manner. You see we take that for granted We think that's just no big deal So we come to the lord's supper supper and we we we partake at the lord's table and we think it's going to be okay That the bible doesn't really mean this But I believe it does People get sick they die Because they eat and drink of the lord's table in an unworthy manner If you go back and you read deuteronomy 28 You realize that there was the blessings and the cursings that the people would recite one on mount garrison Which was the mount of blessing and one of the mount ebaul which was the mount of cursing And they would they would recite the blessings and cursings of god that when they followed the law of god He would bless them.

He would give them this he would give them that he would do this He would do that But when they disobeyed the law of god and acted independently from god and did what they wanted to do god said this The lord will send upon you curses confusion and rebuke and all you undertake to do Until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds because you have forsaken me The lord will make the pestilence clean to you until he has consumed you from the land where you are entering to possess it God says listen if you want to take my word In a trivial manner and not treat it as it needs to be treated and disobey me and live as you want You will suffer the consequences for that See we forget about that We forget about that and so god has to chastise us and so god sends sickness upon us to get us to repent of our ways And follow him and serve him.

It might not be physical sickness. It might be financial sickness or financial distress That comes because of my unwillingness to be obedient to god and to follow his word See we need to gain perspective Perspective We need to pray that god does a great work does god heal I believe god does heal people's lives who are sick I believe he does And I believe that god can prevent people from being sick too because he has the authority and the power to do that And yet there are sometimes people get sick sometimes they die Sometimes satan makes them sick because god's given them permission or given him permission Sometimes we're sick because god needs to perfect us and sometimes we're sick and ill because of our disobedience to god That's all true And yet we need to realize that no matter what happens God is to be glorified.

His perfect will is to come about in our lives. No matter how we feel physically That must be the the ultimate in our lives Lord, you be glorified you be honored you be put on display And may your purposes be known And I remember when sandy died I thought to myself lord, what am I going to do? How is all this going to work itself out? How is your plan and purpose going to be unveiled before me? And you know what? I have seen god do so many marvelous things in my life And so many times my children sit down with me and say, you know, what was it like being married before dad You know, I said well i'm getting a little old now.

I can't remember way back then But but I would tell them I said, you know, look at it this way if it wasn't for sandy dying And me marrying your mother you wouldn't be here There'd be no andrew.

We know ashley. No. Aaron. No. Anna. No. Cade. No aj. No. Avery Think about that They scratch their head and they think well, why wouldn't I be here? Because I wouldn't be married to your mother. That's why You see and how god has As has blessed in an abundant way because god had a purpose and a plan for my life That went beyond anything. I could ever imagine or think But but god did something that would enable me to learn to trust him and to believe in him That god can do anything he wants and if god would choose to heal sandy he could heal her god chose not to god Chose to take her home, which really truly is the ultimate healing, right?

the perfect healing And provided for me in a unique Fashion that gave me more than I could ever dream. I would ever have in this life That's the purposes of god. That's the plan of god. I didn't see that 24 years ago Didn't see it then Then I had to trust god to do what he was going to do, right? Now 24 years later I can look back and say wow. Look what god did Isn't god good? That's why the psalmist said before I said that I went astray but now I keep your word God is good And do us good See now he could say that because now he saw how good god was In keeping the word of god You're able to experience the goodness of god and trust in him and believe in him and that's what the psalmist came to he came to that conclusion God is only good and god only does good.

He didn't do bad So well, isn't my sickness bad no No, not if you understand the providence of god. It's not God's at work, right? And god's at work in your life and in my life Let me finish the text for you before we can move on to chapter five next week.

Go back to luke 4 for a second Verse 41 the 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 Now he has he has power over the demonic world over the supernatural And this is so good because not only does he prove himself in the natural realm. He proves himself in the supernatural realm in the area Of man's mental faculties because you see demons control the mind of a man Do you think an unbeliever thinks his own thoughts? No, no An unbeliever doesn't think his own thoughts The unbeliever only thinks demonic thoughts How do I know that?

Ephesians 2. Ephesians 4. Listen to what it says Ephesians chapter 4 verse number 17 This I say therefore and affirm together with the lord that you walk no longer as the gentiles also walk How does that in the futility of their mind? Being darkened in their understanding excluded from the life of god Because of the ignorance that is in them because of the hardness of their heart And they having become callous have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness That's the mind of the unbeliever Ephesians 2 verse 1 and you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked according to the courts of this world According to the prince of the power of the air of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience Among them we too all formerly lived in the lust of our flesh Indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest So you see paul tells us that our minds as unbelievers are controlled by demonic forces that we are subject To the doubting of god to distrusting god to turning away from god Because we are following our father who was the prince of this world.

That's not christ. That's satan himself See unbelievers don't think their own thoughts they think the thoughts of satan They think that they think demonic thoughts Because their minds are filled With unbelief their hearts are hardened because of disobedience to god And so when christ proves himself having authority over the demonic world by casting out demons And they and the demons would know you are the son of god They would make the remark that would affirm the fact that jesus was the son of god He would rebuke them and after he rebuked them.

He would tell them they could no longer speak about him Why is that it's because simply that bad publicity is not good in the kingdom of god You don't want the demonic world affirming the fact that you're the son of god Why never back in action after 16 when paul and silas were preaching in philippi and there was this demon-possessed woman Following them around and and telling everybody these guys are from the lord god of the universe These guys speak the truth and paul said be quiet Can't speak anymore Why?

Because you see you don't need the support of the demonic world And paul knew that christ doesn't want the support of the demonic world doesn't need that Doesn't want people to be confused over who christ is The last thing he needs is for the world to think that satan supports his ministry, right? So he rebukes them they cannot speak anymore to prove once again his authority over the demonic world over the supernatural And then over the eternal verse number 42 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 folks This is a this is amazing Because this happened throughout his whole ministry People were so into jesus that they would press against him constantly You can read about it in in luke chapter 5 verse number 1 Now it came about that while the multitudes were pressing around him and listening to the word of god He was standing by the lake of gennesaret He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake But the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets and he got into one of the boats There were so many people squeezing around him and listening to him They had to get off the shore into the boat so he could get away from the people because there were so many of them You can read about it in luke chapter 5 verse number 19.

Luke 6 19. Luke 8 19. Luke 8 40 And luke chapter 12 verse number 1. It tells us that thousands not hundreds Thousands of people pressed against him because that was the essence of his ministry Listen, if you can heal people you are a valuable commodity Everybody wants you Everybody needs you right He had to get away He'd been all night according to mark's account Healing people there who came to him at capernaum so instead of saying I gotta get some sleep, man. I'm tired He went to look for a lonely place so they could commune with his father in heaven To be replenished stay focused that's what he did And and the people went looking for him, where's jesus anybody seen jesus He's got to heal my son.

He's got to heal my daughter anybody see let's go find jesus And so they all went after jesus. What are you doing? Where are you? How come you're not at our disposal anymore? Christ says I must preach the kingdom of god to the other cities also For I was sent for this purpose You see christ knew that the essence of a man's lives was not wrapped up in their physical healing but in their spiritual healing Let me let me say say it this way if you're here today and you have a physical illness And that consumes you Folks, let me tell you something.

There's something more important to that and that's your spiritual illness Are you right with god Have your sins been forgiven? Do you know that when you die not if you die, but when you die You're going to spend eternity with christ Christ said I must preach the kingdom of god. There was that divine must I must do this Why why because that's the only way to deliver the soul from darkness into light It comes through the preaching of the gospel. It's the word of god that does that he knows it And he knows that no matter how many people he touched or how many people he spoke to And the fever would be gone or the blindness would be gone or the the the person who was lame could now walk in It doesn't make any difference.

They're going to die. Anyway, the question is where will they spend eternity with him without him? His concern was that they would spend eternity with him I must preach the kingdom of god because for this purpose I was set The bible concludes verse 44 and he kept on preaching in the synagogues of judea In the synagogues of judea why because that's where all the people would gather And as we talked about in luke chapter 4 verses, uh, 18 and 19 He was sent to preach the gospel to the poor So he did now folks listen throughout the rest of the gospel of luke We're going to see christ and his authority over the natural the supernatural and the eternal Luke this doesn't throw these verses out for filler To fill up the passage so we can get to chapter 5 No, it's all part of the whole ministry of christ And luke is saying our messiah has complete authority over the physical the mental and the spiritual The natural the supernatural and the eternal because he's the deliverer He is the messiah And we will see that ministry continue on throughout the whole gospel of luke because that's what he came to do He is the deliverer.

The question is has he delivered your soul? Has he delivered you from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of his dear son? Let's pray father We thank you for the word of god the truth of god and all that you have done and pray lord that on this day God you would do a great and mighty work in all of our lives that we might serve you forever in jesus name. Amen