Gospel—A. Roach
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General Meetings, Montreal, October 12, 1963. Gospel by Adrian Roach.
#37
The Gospel of Thy Grace. My stubborn heart has won.
For God so loved the world, He gave his only Son, that whosoever will believe shall everlasting life receive hymn #37.
So we brought.
Shall we turn to the Gospel of Matthew?
The first book of the New Testament, the Gospel of Matthew.
The 8th chapter Matthew Chapter 8.
We'll begin with verse one.
When he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him, and behold, there came a leper, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand and touched him, saying, I will.
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Be thou clean and immediately.
His leprosy was cleansed, and Jesus said unto him.
See now tell no man, but go thy way. Show thyself to the priest.
And offer the gift that Moses commanded for a testimony unto them. And then and when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, they came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, and saying, Lord, my servant, lieth at home, sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.
And Jesus said unto him, I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou should have come under my roof, but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed, for I am a man under authority.
Having soldiers under me, and I say to this man, go, and he goeth.
And to another come anti common.
To my servant. Do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus heard it, he marveled and said to them that followed. Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith. No, not in Israel. And I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and West, and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of heaven.
But the children of the Kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness.
There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And Jesus said unto the centurion.
Go thy way. And as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the self same hours. And when Jesus was coming to Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother laid and sick of a fever, and he touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she arose and ministered unto them.
This meeting has been announced as a Gospel meeting.
This meeting has been announced for the proclamation of God's gospel. And what is the gospel? The gospel, in plain, simple language, means good news. We've got good news tonight. We've got good news to a world.
Lies under the power of sin and of Satan. There is a savior that God has provided for sinners. Is that not good news? A man that is dying of thirst? What good news it is to him When someone says here is water and he takes it, he drinks of it. His thirst is quenched, his strength revived. All tonight, at the very beginning of this meeting, this good news meeting, we want to say this, that there isn't a soul, there isn't a person in this room.
That can ever get to heaven unless they get there through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, never separate salvation from the Savior, never separate God's blessing from God's beloved Son. The only way into heaven, the only salvation God has to offer, is through his beloved Son way down there. In Egypt many years ago, the people came to Pharaoh, king of the land.
And they wanted bread. There was a famine. And where did Pharaoh direct them? Pharaoh said go to Joseph. Go to Joseph. All this whole tonight, the one to go to for salvation is the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you realize that we're thinking now, especially of the dear young ones here? Oh, how thankful we are that there were hundreds here tonight who know the Lord Jesus as their savior, who know where they're going when they leave this world.
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We know that you're praying there silently for the blessing of the Message, but all tonight God looks down and He sees a line drawn, and you're either on one side of that line or the other. Either you are Christ and on your way to glory, or you are still in your sins and on your way to hell. There are the saved and there are the lost. There are those who know Christ, and there are those who only know about Him but do not know Him as their Savior.
You know, some years ago, and I want to tell this story, It shows how important the Sunday school work is. This story I heard many years ago as a boy in Sunday school. The details as I remember them, an outline of this are these is a man who had heard that they had struck gold in Australia and he made the long trip and he went down there and sure enough he was able to dig out a good sum of this gold.
But he wanted to go back to England, and he thought one of the easiest ways of carrying as well was to purchase a very large, brilliant diamond, which he did. He bought this precious stone and he went on board the ship, the sailing vessel, and on his way back he used to amuse himself on the deck of that ship very often by tossing that diamond up so that the light of the sun would strike it, and he would enjoy noticing the various colors.
And the sun reflecting in that, in that gem. But you know, some reminded him that there was a foolish thing to do. He might lose it all. But he laughed at that. Oh, he said, no, I won't miss it. I won't drop it. But you know, one day, as he was on the deck and he tossed that diamond up, a wave struck the side of the ship and threw him off balance. And as that diamond came down, he reached forward in vain, and it went over the side and it was lost.
Or would you say here, everyone of you children and grown-ups? Well, that was a foolish thing to do, for a man to have that diamond with all his savings as it were wrapped up in it, and to treat it in such a way, and to be so careless about it. Why that man was foolish. Do you know this soul, that if you're here unsaved tonight, after having heard the gospel at least once, that you are more foolish than that man? That you were juggling your soul?
That you were not. You have not come to Christ. You are treating your soul with indifference. All the greatest, the most valuable thing that you possess here tonight is that immortal soul, that soul which will live on and on and on through all eternity. When God made man in his image, and after his likeness, and he breathed, he breathed into that form the breath of light.
Man became a living soul. You will never find a mortal soul spoken of in the word of God. You'll find a mortal body spoken of, but you'll never find a mortal soul spoken of. Why? Because man's soul will live on and on and on as long as God himself shall live and exist. Dear friends, that's a solemn thought. That's a solemn thought if you're not sure.
Of where that never dying soul will spend eternity. You've got to leave this world.
You've got to leave this world. Death comes in at every hand. Death comes in when least expected. A few years ago there was a young man, wealthy young man, in our office there in New York City, and I believe the hand of the Lord was behind the desk. Arrangements for this man had nothing to do with the work in our division, but he was placed at a vacant desk right near right in front of me, in fact, and sometimes we had occasion, particularly near the end of the day.
To say a few words to him, we found out he was a well educated man, but the word of God was not important to him. But he at least got developed an interest in hearing about these things. And he used to ask questions and he'd accept tracks. He was just a young man, a young man. He had wealth. He had his father had been the president of one of the big insurance companies in the United States and here he was Clinton. His name was.
One night, one Saturday night, this young man went out for a night of pleasure. He went to a dance, and while in the midst of a pleasure, he was struck with a cerebral hemorrhage. He fell to the floor. He was taken out. He was taken to the hospital. He was paralyzed down one side. But you know, we couldn't get this young man out of our minds.
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We felt that there ought to be one more effort to testify to his dying soul, and we were able and able to visit him in the hospital a few days before he passed on into eternity. But all listen to this dear friend, the importance of being saved now while you're well, while you can say yes to the Lord Jesus. This man was paralyzed, and every now and then he had a moment of consciousness and he relapsed back into unconsciousness.
And we will look into the Lord. What can we do? We couldn't unfold the gospel in its fullness to him. But the Lord, I believe, laid one thought upon our hearts that we can only get into his soul something that he can grasp with a hand of faith. And we felt led to repeat over and over when he was conscious. These words. The Lord is my shepherd. Oh, he had a waking moment. He recognized me. And I would say the Lord is my shepherd. Clinton, the Lord is my shepherd.
Over and over again. And he would go out and the nurse would say, well, you can't talk with him now then, she said. Now you can talk with him. Oh dear, young people, don't wait to a deathbed. You know. There there's less chance of a deathbed repentance. Now, we're not setting aside the grace of God. When people die today, they've got so many things in them and they're unconscious and they're kept under opiates. And there's never seems to be a last chance for a soul to get saved just before they die. The important thing is they get saved now.
I don't know what happened to that young man, but the grace of God could have.
In those last moments given him to lay, hold my faith, and say the Lord.
Is my shepherd. May it be so. May it be that I'll see that young man in the glory. But we tell about him tonight to show that death is sudden. Death is sure in this world. We're not Speaking of the Christians hope tonight we're Speaking of what happens in this world. Death is sure. Man cannot stop it. Oh, dear friend, consider eternity tonight. Before we look at these verses, I want to tell another story. How old must you be to realize that you lost?
How old must you be? Can you be a young boy or a young girl and think about eternity and the awfulness of going into into hell? Yes, you can realize that right now, while you're here tonight. God sets no age limit. I was saved when I was 12. My daughter was saved when she was nine. I know a brother down in the States who was saved when he was sick. And and so the grace of God can reach right down to the lowest age that we do not have to wait until we're older. We do not have to understand these things. All we need to know is that we're lost.
And that Christ is the savior of sinners is going Cornwall. There was a preacher by the name of William Haslam.
And he had a besides preaching the gospel faithfully, he had a little school. And there was a boy, a young boy, in that school. And this boy was a very bad one, too. He was not only bad himself, but he'd stir up the other boys. And he made so much trouble that they had to put him out of the school. They had to forbid him to come. But you know, there was one thing about that boy, even though he couldn't come to the school, he used to come to the preaching. And Mr. Haslam would go to other towns to preach the gospel. He looked down and he see that boy in his audience.
So one day he was able to catch hold of the boy and talk with him. Oh, and the boy said, no, he said, you can't, you can't get me into that. You can't get me into that. But, you know, one night the boy came up to him and he, Mr. Haslam, could see on that boy's face that he was in real earnest. There was something had happened and the boy came to him and he said, you know.
Mr. has let me know, he said I had a dream. He said. I had a dream that I died and I went to hell. I had a dream that I died and I landed in hell.
Mr. Haslam looked at him faithfully and he said, young man, that dream will come true. That dream will come true unless you come to Christ. Unless you come to Christ. The Lord used a dream to stir up that boy as to his need of salvation. You don't need a dream tonight. You've got the word of God. The word of God says the wicked shall be turned into hell with all the nations that forget God and look at look up in the New Testament.
You'll find that the Lord Jesus. As far as I can recall, the Lord Jesus is the only one.
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Who uses the word Gehenna, Lake of fire shall be cast into hell fire. The apostles use a different word. But the Lord Jesus, that preacher of grace and mercy, also preached righteousness. And he lets the Sinner know that there's a fiery lake ahead. The lake of fire is ahead. Gahanna, that lake of fire for the lost. Oh dear soul, realize tonight that God doesn't want you to go there. God did not make hell for man. He made the earth for man and put every kind of blessing man needs here on earth.
But he made hell for the devil, and his angels would notice this. Now we're going to reason a little bit within what we have with the truth of the word of God. If God made you for the earth, and you've got to die and leave the earth, and you've never taken Christ, well then you can't go to heaven either. You no longer can stay on earth and you can't go to heaven. So that leaves only one other place, and that is hell, the lake of fire. There is a hell, And Jesus died to save you and me from going there.
If we will trust him. But the reason I read this scripture tonight.
We have in this passage a Savior presented who can meet every need. A Savior who can meet every and any need that presents itself to him. Here, it's the Sinner. Sin is brought before us in three different ways, and we find the Lord Jesus is the answer to it in every case. Mercy, blessing, all we've heard tonight thus far, the warning We've heard of hell. We've heard of the lake of fire. But all dear friends, as a Savior on high in the glory, there's a Savior who came into this scene.
To die. To put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Now let us trace the Lord's path. Where do we start? In this chapter? We start on top of a mountain. We're way up in a high place. Where did Jesus come from here? He came down from the mountain. He came from an exalted place up on high. Oh, how that tells us of the origin of our Savior, the Lord Jesus came from heaven. He came from heaven.
He is the eternal Son of God, but as God he could not die.
God as such could not die. And then? But there must be a Savior, There must be one who can die, and yet one who was not subject to death himself. What was God's answer to that? The incarnation of his blessed Son, the Lord Jesus, came from heaven and in wonderful grace.
Was born a babe and cradled in Bethlehem's Manger. As that babe lay there in that Manger and they looked upon him. They were looking upon their Creator. They were looking upon the very one who at that moment was sustaining all things by the word of His power. That was no helpless babe. That was that babe was the eternal Son of God in human form. And He came into this scene, and He was born of the Virgin. He could not come into this scene with a mark of sin upon himself.
He must be sinless if he's to die for your sins and mine. Oh, tonight we point you to Christ. Christ the Son of God. He came from on high. Well, now here in our chapter, when he gets down from that high place and he's down to the earth, here it says great multitudes followed him.
It doesn't say the great multitudes believed in him, because later on the Lord turns the multitude and shows the difference between the faith of that Gentile centurion and their lack of faith. You know, it's easy to be mixed up with a Christian multitude. It's an easy thing today to be looked upon as a Christian. Outwardly ask a man if he's a Christian and he says, do you think I am a Jew? Do you think I'm a Jew?
Ask him to be saved. Well, that might strike home a little better, but he professes to be a Christian. Multitudes throng the Lord Multitudes of thronging him now. But are they saved? Oh, dear soul, are you simply one of the throng? Are you simply one of the multitude, Or are you one of the lepers that have been cleansed? Are you a servant of a centurion healed of palsy? Are you, as Peter's wife's mother, Healed of the fever?
Oh, tonight, whatever your state, whatever your condition, the Lord Jesus is the remedy and has the remedy in his own blessed person and his own blessed work. Well, now when the Lord comes down from from on high, he's immediately found in the place of D, in the place of need. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. He didn't come into the world to make it better. He didn't come into the world.
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To find a world that was prepared for him, or there was a godly Remnant prepared for him.
That's in the early chapters of Luke. God saw to that, but the world in general was not ready for him.
And the world didn't want him. Oh, tonight is in your heart. Have you opened your heart's door to receive the Savior He comes from on high. And notice in the second verse, behold, there came a leopard, a leopard, a man who had leprosy, a man that was covered with leprosy. And if we had time to read all the scriptures, you'd find in the 13th of Leviticus that a man that was a leper. It says of him. There he is, a leprous man.
He is unclean. He shall dwell alone.
Outside the camp shall his habitation be. That is, a leper in Israel was condemned to be outside. Inside was the place of blessing, the place of approach to the Lord. But outside, outside the camp, was a dreadful place to be in. That leper was cut off from all contact with the Lord in that way, and with his people here on earth. Oh, dear friends, that word leprosy.
Leprosy. What does leprosy tell us? Well, we just quoted from Leviticus. He is a leprous man. He is unclean. Leprosy brings before us sin in its defiling character. Sin has made every one of us, Let us be plain about it. Sin has made every one of us dirty in the sight of God. We need to be cleansed. Leprosy speaks of sin in its defiling character.
You know, I was thinking, people like to get rid of the word sin. When we were living in Honolulu, the local government there didn't like the word leprosy. For some reason or other. They thought, well, that was an old custom and people believed it was made them unclean and this sort of thing. And so the local government there decided to get rid of the word leprosy. They couldn't get rid of leprosy, of course, but they wanted to get rid of the word. So they changed it, and they call it Hansen's disease.
But you know, the remarkable thing about it, every time they refer to it in the newspaper, they put in parenthesis leprosy. They couldn't get away from it. Well, you know, people treat the word sin that way. They'll say that wasn't sin because that man committed that crime. That was a disease. That was a disease. And all he needed was a little care and that sort of thing. And he wouldn't have done that. And so they tried to explain away sin. Man doesn't like the word sin at all. And if you're here tonight, dear friend, and you don't like the word sin, and you don't like to be challenged as to whether you're saved or not.
Lookout. Lookout. You're in danger. When you find a person that you ask are you saved and they resent it, What does it prove? It proves they're not saved. It proves they have no love for the Lord Jesus Christ. I've met strangers and so have you who you've never seen before, but who knew Christ? And the moment you got talking about Christ, did they resent it? When you spoke to them and said, you say, did they resent it? No, Their face lighted up and said praise the Lord, I am saved.
Or if you don't like the word sin tonight, if the word sin is like that word, leprosy to the Hawaiian government all tonight, face the fact there is sin and you're guilty of it. And a guilty person needs cleansing, needs justification, and so the Lord Jesus comes, and notice this leopard.
Or there are two things, I believe that are very striking about this leopard. First of all, he knew his need. He didn't try to hide it. He didn't try to cover it up. He didn't try to cover it up. Naman in the Old Testament might have had all kinds of garments to cover his leprosy and hide it. He was a wealthy man, a man in a prominent position. But here is a man had nothing to hide. He knows that he's a leper. He knows the awful end. And so, but there's another thing.
Oh, there's something precious. He has a sense in his soul, some somehow or other. Here's a man that can do something for me. Here's one that I can go to. And who does he go to? The man that came down from on high. The man that just came down from the mountain. He came down from that high place and to meet the sinners need. And so the leopard has the sense here that Jesus was the one to go to. The multitude didn't have that sense.
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The multitude might have had all kinds of deeds, but they didn't go to Jesus for them. It's where this man who felt his need. And so he says it says the leper in verse two. There came a leper and worshipped him.
Saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
Oh, what a lovely attitude that was. He counted on the Lord's grace, and yet there wasn't presumption on his part. He says, Lord, if you want to, you can make me clean. I don't believe there was any doubt at all, though it may seem so in the words that the leper used. I don't believe for one moment there was a doubt in that man and that man's soul and mine, but that Jesus would respond and heal him. But it's a precious way in which he comes. He's humbled, He says. Lord.
If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. Dear soul, have you ever come to Jesus with your sins? Have you ever come and said, Lord, I'm a Sinner, but I know that you are willing, and I know that you can cleanse me through thy precious blood, all the precious blood of Jesus. It cleanses us from all sin. And I like another translation of that the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from every sin.
Every sin, oh, I like that because it conveys this thought to me as though God took the pile of my sins and took everyone individually and said that's under the blood, that's under the blood. Every one of them. It cleanses from every sin. All this whole the night. What a say do we have to present to you and how feebly we present him, Come to him tonight, trust him, just as this leopard did. Was a leper's faith in vain?
Did the Lord Jesus say you get outside the camp and holler out unclean, unclean with anybody approaches you?
Know the gracious, blessed, accessible savior. The Lord Jesus was the most accessible of men. He's still accessible even though he's gone back to the glory.
On two occasions, without planning it, I happen to come across crowds that were gathered and I got a glimpse of the President of the United States going by flanked on both sides with men on motorcycles that protect him and nobody could get anywhere near him. And he just went shooting through there with in his car full speed ahead. Oh, there was no accessibility there. Here we find the Lord Jesus was the most accessible of men.
90s accessible, he says. Come unto me, all ye that labored are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Now he says to the leper, he First he does something to the leper that no one else would dare to do. For anyone else To touch the leper would be to defile themselves in Israel. But here the Lord Jesus, before he says a word to the man, touches him. Oh, I think that was wonderful assurance when that leper we don't know just where the Lord touched him.
Whether he touched him on the hand or on the face, but wherever he touched him, what immediate assurance.
Came into the heart of that man. Well, here is the one I trust who can cleanse me. And he's touching me. He's touching me. What happens? Does Jesus become defiled? No, The lever becomes cleansed, The lever becomes cleansed. And the Lord to reassure him, says, I will be thou clean now you can be saved tonight right on the spot. You can be saved right where you sit if you will say yes to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Salvation is not a development. It isn't something you start out and you get a little bit and you go on until finally you have the thing perfectly in your possession. If that was so would be very it would be a very poor message we'd have to give you tonight. For suppose you get started to get saved. If you started to be saved tonight and the Lord came and took away all who were saved, God doesn't have that kind of a salvation. God has a salvation already, it's all said.
You know, I like that there in Leviticus on the Day of Atonement.
The scapegoat on which the sins of the people were confessed, If they were, he was to be taken into a wilderness by a man standing ready. That's the other translation. A man standing ready. Oh, how ready God is to receive the Sinner through our Lord Jesus Christ. Can you trust Christ? Can you say yes, I believe in the Son of God. I believe that he died from my sins.
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Do you feel the weight of your sins tonight? Do you want to spend eternity and glory, or trust in the Lord Jesus Christ? How long did it take for the leprosy to go? It says, And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. It was gone, gone forever, forgotten, forgotten forever. If sought for, God findeth not one. Those were the words written by a monk in the 14th century, one who knew the Lord Jesus.
That his sins washed away so completely that he could say, let one in his innocence glory another in works. He has done thy blood. Is my claim entitled? Besides it? Oh Lord, I've none. That man trusted the blood of Christ. Oh, tonight your leprosy can be cleansed right now if you trust the Savior.
Well, let's further.
Cases to be dealt with. The next case is a Gentile.
I have no doubt that we're sure, of course, that the leopard was of Israel.
He sent it to the priest for a testimony unto them, Will Passover that portion for the moment.
We find in verse five that Jesus entered into Capernaum.
Came unto him, a centurion beseeching him. Now, this isn't a leper. This isn't a man who knew about Israel's religion. Here is a man, an officer in the Roman army, a man who was a captain, over 100 men, a man, and what the world would consider a dignified position. And he's a gentile. And here he comes to the Lord Jesus, and he has a need to This need is for someone else.
He has upon his heart his servant, his servant. What was wrong with the servant? Verse 6. The Lord, my servant, lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.
Palsy brings before us in as that which makes man weak and without strength. Man is without strength. He's weak and helpless. I remember years ago we used to go to the Kings County Hospital.
In Brooklyn on Sunday afternoon and there were men with the palsy. They'd sit in wheelchairs. They were helpless. They couldn't walk about. Their hands were tremble. And when you offered them a track their hand would shake back and forth. You'd have to move your hand in unison with airs to get attract into their hands, or they will help us. They were weak or the palsy. This is sin that is robbed man of any power to stand before God when we were yet without strength.
In due time Christ died for the ungodly. Do you think you've got strength tonight? Have you got strength? Could you even keep one of the 10 commandments? Oh, dear friend, you have no strength to stand before God. Sin has taken away all power. Man has no power, no strength in the sight of God. You know, even David, David, a man after God's own heart, he says in the Psalms, and to not into judgment with thy servant.
For thy sight shall no man living be justified. David didn't want that kind of judgment. David wanted mercy. He didn't want a judgment that would weigh his sins on one side of the scale and his good deeds and the other he knew which would outweigh. He knew where he where that would end. And so he says, Lord, enter not of the judgment with our servant. Oh dear soul, do you want God to take your sins in a coming day and balance them off against what you thought were good deeds? Why your good deeds might have been sinned?
Scripture says the plowing of the wicked is sin and all the way the deeds that you thought would be in this scale would be along, and the other scale with all the rest and this would be empty. There wouldn't be anything that wasn't sin. Oh dear friend, the remedy is Christ. The remedy is now now faith in Christ. But notice the faith.
And I believe that the faith of this centurion corresponds to the faith.
That God has given to us, the Gentiles, you might say. All right, if I were here, the Lord Jesus were here, and I could walk up to him like the leper, and he could touch me and I could have contact. Well then I believe. But notice that the faith of this centurion reaches beyond the point of contact. His faith goes over all those kind of barriers. He knows that what the Lord could do right next to him, the Lord could do at a distance.
If the Lord could cleanse that leper standing next to him, he could heal indeed this servant miles away. And if the Lord has gone back to glory, he can still reach down from heaven and save the Sinner that trusts him. So here then we find the.
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Lord the Lord brings out this man's faith. The Lord had a wonderful way of doing that. The Lord knew what he was going to do, but he brings out this faith into the open, he says in verse 7.
I will come and heal him.
I will come and heal him. Ah, that had been Jairus. He would have said yes. Come, raise my daughter, come. That was Jewish faith. But here is the Gentile. No claim upon God. But why then did the Lord Jesus bother with him at all? Well, you know, in those days the middle of all of partition hadn't been broken down. But it says in the 49th of Genesis Joseph is a fruitful bow, even a fruitful bow by the well whose branches run over the wall.
Now in this portion we have Joseph's fruitful bow running over the wall so the Gentiles can reach up and get the fruit. Oh yes, how wonderful. Here we find a Gentile. No claim upon the God of Israel. And what claim of you tonight, this Sinner? Nothing but your sins, nothing but your need.
Will he turn you away? No. No.
Now the centurion says in verse 8 Lord, I am not worthy.
I am not worthy. What a good confession that is not worthy.
That thou should have come under my roof.
But speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. Ah, this is the faith of the Gentile. Now, Lord, just speak the word. Just pronounce that word of healing, and I know it'll come to pass.
Notice his reasoning here.
I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this man, go, and he goeth, and to another common he cometh. And to my servant do this and he do with it. Why this man was pleading with the Lord, saying, Lord, it isn't necessary for you to come all that way. You don't have to come down there. Why? Look, I have authority in my sphere. My soldiers obey my every word, and they obey it immediately. And Lord, all you've got to do, you've got greater authority. You've got greater power than I have.
All you need do is speak the word. Now, dear soul, the Lord Jesus is in the glory tonight, and he can look down here and he looks down in love, and he's ready to speak the word to your soul of peace and blessing and salvation if you'll trust him castaway every other, trust and rest unreservedly on the Lord Jesus Christ.
What happens? Did the Lord meet this need? Not without comment first?
Verse 10 When Jesus heard it, he marveled and said to them that followed.
Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith. No, not in Israel. And I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and West, and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of heaven. But the children of the Kingdom shall be cast out. The children of the Kingdom shall be cast out. Who are they? Those who are in the place of privilege?
That those who are in the place of privilege in the midst of God's blessings and God's Word at that time.
The children of the Kingdom were those who had the word of God there in their land, and every blessing God could bestow upon them, and they turn away from the Lord Jesus Christ. But you know, I'm thankful, and you will be too tonight if you take the Savior. I'm thankful for what the Lord says here, that he says many shall come from the West. That's where I come from, West of Palestine. All, dear soul, the gospel reaches West of Palestine. It reaches east of Palestine.
Broken bread. And so have some of you with those from the East, whoever who knew Christ as their Savior. The Lord's word has been carried out. The gospel is gone. Come to the West, where we are, and fair to the South, and brought us to Christ. It's gone to the East. It's gone to the islands of Japan and other places. Yes, many shall come from the West, from the East, and sit down and that wonderful scene and the children of the Kingdom cast out. I'd like to address a word at this moment.
To those who have been brought up in Christian homes, are you here tonight, unsaved? Do you know that you if you are, do you realize what's going on in the heart and mind of your parents? Do you realize what it means to Christian parents to have unsaved children? Do you realize the agony of soul and the prayer that which they agonize in for your salvation all come to Christ tonight? Turn that agonizing prayer to praise.
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And Thanksgiving, not only in heaven among the angels, but in the heart of your parents, the children of the Kingdom, those in the place of privilege. You've heard the word of God. You can recite verses of Scripture, but what do they mean to you? Have they brought you to Christ?
Well, we will pass on to the next need.
Our time is passing in the 14th verse. Well we might just notice in the end of the rather in the 13th verse Jesus said unto the centurion, go thy way. And as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the self same hour. Notice that salvation is sudden. After all salvation, conversion is sudden. The word of God strikes home and brings the soul to Christ.
Oh, tonight you can be saved.
On the spot Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Is the God's word to those who want to be saved. Those who are anxious enough to say, what must I do to be saved? God has that answer. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. But here's another need. We have the fever now. Verse 14. And when Jesus was come into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother laid.
And sick of a fever.
Oh, that's what marks this whole world. There isn't a person in the world, an unsaved person, who hasn't got the fever. What does a fever do to you? It makes you uncomfortable, makes you toss them out, makes you search out for something to make you cool and comfortable. I can remember as a boy having one of those diseases with a fever. And Eric, I can still remember that eye in bed, how it was good to creep up toward the top and put one's cheek against the metal to get some cool.
Something cool, Something to take away this restlessness, this uncomfortable feeling.
Peter's wife's mother was tossed with a fever. The world is tossed with a fever tonight.
They're going everywhere to find something to satisfy their hearts and never finding it, never finding it. All Souls will only get the kind of fever that the man got who under whose preaching I got saved In 1918, he got the religious fever in one sense. He went in 22 years. He went through 17 different denominations looking for something, seeking for something. And the day came after all that searching, when the fever was gone.
He found Christ, or Christ found him. He was saved through the precious blood of Christ, and he used to rejoice to preach the sinners. He must be born again. He must be born again. That was the gist of his message. Over and over again. He must be born again. Well, he experienced it. The fever had cost him about, and he found full relief and healing in Christ. And so if leprosy represents sin in its defiling character.
And the polls he represents sin is that which has taken away all strength and man. The fever shows how unsatisfied sin is made man and unsatisfied preacher. He's an unsatisfied preacher. He God, why the world can't fill man's heart?
As we get an Ecclesiastes, the heart is to the heart cannot be filled.
By the world.
The world is not big enough to fill it, but Christ fills it to overflowing all that. A difference. Ecclesiastes lets us know that man's heart is too big for the world to fill it. The Song of Solomon lets us know that Christ is so great and overflowing that the heart isn't big enough to contain it. Oh, how wonderful that we can find that salvation and blessing through our Lord Jesus Christ. And so here what happens in verse 15.
He touched her hand. All that healing touch of the Lord Jesus Christ. That healing touch which will reach down from heaven tonight to your soul, dear friend, and take away that fever. The defilement will be gone, the weakness will be gone, and you'll no longer look round about for something to satisfy the heart. You'll have it in Christ. What happened to Peter's wife's mother?
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Why? Notice now what she does.
She arose and ministered unto them, She could serve Christ. You can't serve Christ if you haven't been healed by him first. You can't serve Christ unless you are his. And so this dear woman, the very first thing it before her soul is when she's able to get up, when she's got strength, is to serve Christ. And now, in closing, I just like to bring before us solemnly and blessedly to.
The contrast between two men who bore the same name up to a certain point.
I'm referring to Lord Nelson and John Nelson Darby. I just like to bring briefly before you the end of those two men, Lord Nelson, as we know from history.
Had won many victories. He was not a man. He was a man that was not easily frightened. He was a brave man, a courageous man and a smart naval man. Well at the Battle of Trafalgar, which happened this month, about 156 years ago.
He was on his flat walking at the deck of his flagship when he was struck by a bullet and he was carried below deck. And we're going to tell you something now. You don't read about much in in history books. They don't tell you this in history books. When he was brought below deck and he realized that he was dying, they brought the chaplain in the minister of religion on that ship in the midst of the battle and.
Lord Nelson.
His conscience began to trouble him. He began to think of his sins. And he had been a Sinner quite publicly, too. Here he was dying, and the chaplain comes in with the gospel. No, I'm sorry to say, as far as the account I have, there's nothing about the gospel brought in at all but Lord Nelson as he was dying, he said, Chaplain, I haven't been such a great Sinner, have I? And the historian goes farther and says again with great pathos in his voice.
He said, Oh, Chaplain, I haven't been such a great Sinner, have I? The chaplain could have, should have pointed him to Christ, that perhaps he didn't know Christ. He didn't know Christ himself. And that great man died with these words on his lips. Thank God I've done my duty. Oh dear soul, those words will not take you to heaven. That great man won many victories, sweeping victories.
But all how sad to think of him going down into eternal defeat.
Power of sin. But what about John Nelson Darby, who was named after him? Who was named after him when he was dying? In fact, I have a I'm going to read a little note I've got in the back of my Bible.
Of a statement of Mr. Darby's about 3 weeks before he died, before he passed away. And I love this statement, he says. Well, it will be strange to find myself in heaven.
But it won't be a strange Christ, one I have known these many years.
How little I know of him. I am glad he knows me. I know my sheep. And he went home to be with the Lord about three weeks after that. What a difference. He wasn't concerned about his sins. He knew they were gone and gone forever. He was just thinking of the fact that when he got to heaven, it would be a strange place. He had never been there, but it wouldn't be a strange Christ that he saw. It's the Christ he knew and served for so many years.
Their soul? Which end appeals to you? Which end would you rather be great in this world and pass out into a lost eternity? Or would you rather be unknown in general in this world, but no Christ, and go out into that eternal glory? Oh, what a what a wonderful thing it is that in this scene of death and sin God has a message of life and forgiveness, and the answer to the whole problem is Christ.
He can heal. He can cleanse the leper. He can give strength to the man with the palsy. He can dispose of the fever. He can bring in blessing and strength. The question The only question that remains is will you have him?
Will you have him?
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Shall we sing #30?
Faith in Christ will save me. Trust in Him, the risen one. Trust the work that he has done to his arms I now may run. Faith in Christ will save me. Jesus fled and died from me. Jesus suffered on the tree.
Jesus waits to make me free. He alone can save me.
Hymn #30 Shall We rise?
Shall we pray?
Blessed God and Father once again, we thank Thee for the glorious light of the gospel of Thy grace. We thank Thee for the simplicity of it.
That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. We thank Thee for the work which He did upon the cross, and we thank Thee that every sin, every sin of those who believe in Him, those sins are gone and gone forever.
We thank you for the assurance of this through thy precious word. But all our God. Once again, as this meeting comes to a close, we cry unto Thee, For any who came in here tonight, unsaved and unsure of eternity. We know, blessed God, they will not go out with less responsibility than they came in with. But all we pray that they may go out with a blessing that they did not come in with. We pray for the salvation.
Of every lost soul here tonight.
Of every young child.
Who has heard thy word, and has hesitated or held back?
We pray our God that this night may be the beginning of years for them.