Matthew - Prayer Meeting Address (Quality: Average)

[0:00] The Gospel of Matthew chapter 8 When Jesus was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him.

[0:16] And behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me keen. And Jesus put forth his hand and touched him, saying, I will, be thou clean.

[0:33] And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus saith unto him, See that thou tell no man, but go thy way, show thyself unto the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded for a testimony unto them.

[0:51] And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him and saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home, sick of the falty, grievously tormented.

[1:07] And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and hear him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shalt come under my roof, but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.

[1:26] 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, and he cometh, and to my servant do this, and he doeth it.

[1:40] When Jesus heard it, he marveled and said unto them, 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 from the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.

[2:03] But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness, and there shall be weeping, and gnashing of teeth. Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way, and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee.

[2:23] And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour. And when Jesus was come into 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.

[2:41] And she arose, and ministered unto them. And when the evil was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils, and he cast ate the spirit with his word, and healed all that were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bear our sicknesses.

[3:09] Now when Jesus saw great multitudes above him, he gave commandment to depart unto the other side. And a certain scribe came unto him, and said unto him, Master, I will follow thee withersoever thou goest.

[3:27] And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, and the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head. And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.

[3:44] But Jesus said unto him, follow me, and let the dead bury their dead. And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him.

[3:55] And behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves, and he was asleep.

[4:06] And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us, we perish. And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?

[4:21] Then he arose, and rebuked the winds of the sea, and there was a great calm. But the men marveled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds of the sea obey him?

[4:37] And when he was come to the other side, into the country of the Gergesenes, they met him too, possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way.

[4:50] And behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thy son of God? Art thou come hither to torment us before the time?

[5:03] And there was a good way off from them, a herd of many swine feeding. So the devils besought him, saying, If they have cast us out, suffer us to go away, into the herd of swine.

[5:18] And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine, and behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters.

[5:33] And they that kept them fled, and went their ways into the city, and told everything, and what was befallen to the possessed of the devils.

[5:44] And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus. And when they saw him, they besought him, that he would depart out of their coasts. When I began to think, yesterday, of this service today, I had one thought come into my mind, and it was the first line of the hymn that we use, Jesus is a wise physician.

[6:13] And my mind went into the next chapter, into chapter 9 in this gospel, and into the twelfth verse, where it said, Jesus heard what was said.

[6:25] I'll read the passage. It came to pass, that Jesus sat at meat in the house. Behold, many publicans and sinners came, and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto the disciples, Why eateth your master with publicans and sinners?

[6:44] But when Jesus heard that, he said, They that behold, need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth.

[6:55] I will have mercy and not sacrifice, for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And, as I said, first that thought came into my heart, Jesus is a wise physician, skillful and exceeding kind.

[7:13] And then this thought, they that behold, need not a physician, but they that are sick. And I began to think about the text. I will admit that every time that I have referred to it, I have thought of the sick, and of the whole.

[7:30] Yes, the physician came into the middle of it, but was not the centre of my thoughts. But not so this time. Oh, as I began to think of who the physician was, as I began to think of who the physician was, it became exceeding precious to my thoughts.

[7:49] And I found, as I looked through the word of God, and as it went through my mind, and various passages came into meditation, how much this was, not only in the evidence of the gospel, but in that which preceded it, how much this was, that which the Lord Jesus Christ came to do.

[8:12] Oh, yes, we can look upon it very simply. I thought of the word that he said, sent to John, when John sent to him that thought, art thou he that should come?

[8:26] Or do we look for another? And we had that thought. The blind received their sight, the lame walk, the dumb speak, and, yes, it was all a matter of healing.

[8:39] And then, lastly, perhaps the greatest healing of all, the poor have the gospel preached unto them. And I looked back into the word of God.

[8:52] And when the Lord spoke from Mount Sinai, through Moses, he gave himself a name. We sometimes think of the names of Jehovah, and this one is called, not literally in the text of the Bible, but in the original, it is Jehovah Rophi.

[9:12] I am the Lord which healeth thee. And we think of God revealing himself, and then we think of the Lord Jesus as the living word, and we have to look upon the relationship between the two.

[9:28] When he came, he came, in a very real sense, as a healer. Yes, a healer of souls, truly, in the greatest sense, but there had to be that demonstration of his ability.

[9:46] And oh, how it was demonstrated. I couldn't begin to count the number of times in which it said, as I looked through the gospels, of the nature and number of the healing works of the Lord Jesus.

[10:03] And sometimes it seems that the simplest one to look at is where it said, and he healed them all. They brought the sick to him. They brought the afflicted.

[10:13] They brought the maimed. They brought the blind. And he healed them all. And yet, there is a lovely thought that comes when we think of the, of the man sick of the palsy, who was let down through the roof.

[10:31] And, yes, he looked at him and he said, man, thy sins be forgiven thee. I would love to have looked into the heart of the palsied man.

[10:44] Surely, he felt better already. Yes, I think most of us would understand what it was to have, as it were, the double sickness, to be sick in body, but to be more sick in soul.

[11:02] Strangely, once the soul is comforted, how much more the comfort there is even in the afflicted body. I'm thankful that I'm able to look upon the relatively recent experience of that same blessing.

[11:20] But, I thought of it in this man. I think if he'd been carried out again, he would have gone out rejoicing. But then the Lord said, that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power, he said there, on earth, to forgive sins.

[11:38] But let us leave out the on earth, yes, some unearthly creatures, but reaching down from heaven, the Son of Man hath power to heal, souls, as well as bodies.

[11:50] And then he said to the sick of the palsy, rise, take up thy bed, and walk. And he did so. Impossible in nature, but possible with God, with Christ.

[12:02] And oh, my friends, what a blessing we see in this dear Lord, who healeth thee. Oh, yes. And, sometimes we do not always think of the significance of some of the expressions.

[12:19] And, we find, that one which was quoted, that it might be said, I'll tell you the reference, I'll try to write down a few, if I've got them labelled, but, but, any case, it's just like this, that it might be said, which was spoken by the prophet, himself, taketh our infirmities.

[12:43] It came in our reading, I believe. And as we, I thought of it, I looked up the reference, of course it is, Isaiah 53. And, we did esteem him, stricken, smitten of God.

[12:58] And then, as it goes on, it shows, why he was smitten, how he was smitten. And I thought of it, in the natural sense, every time the Lord said, to his people, thy sins be forgiven thee.

[13:16] He was looking forward. He knew there was a price to pay. He knew there was that, which would be carried in his own soul.

[13:27] And oh, my friends, what wondrous love we see, in the heart of the Saviour, who, knowing all things, he still, expressed the forgiveness, even down to the last moments of his life, when he said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

[13:49] Yes, we can see the absolute, the spiritual healing, was carried. And, very literally so, himself, took our infirmities.

[14:02] He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him. With his stripes we are healed.

[14:12] You see, this turns from the healing. But it doesn't turn, from another thought that had to come. The God. He was the fulfillment of God's word.

[14:25] I, yes, the word that, I showed Jehovah Ropi, I am the Lord, which, healeth thee.

[14:37] I looked through, several parts of the Gospels, and oh, how, all, all of them, delight, in that, which Christ wrought, especially, in his healing.

[14:51] How it showed to them, that he was that one, that should come. None other, as Nicodemus, acknowledged, no man, can do the works, which thou doest, except, he be sent of God.

[15:06] And, oh, my friends, when we look at this physician, isn't it a comfort? What a comfort it is. And there are two things, that need to come out of this.

[15:19] First, we find, that when the people, when they heard it, they followed him. And, the sick, came to him. Yes, there was a wonderful thought, in the first one, wasn't it?

[15:34] A leper, came and worshipped him. Oh, what a wonderful illustration, it is. If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.

[15:45] And the Lord said, I will. But see, the leper came, and he worshipped. What a blessed example. And what a blessed example, too, of the grace, in which he was received.

[15:58] What a physician we have. What a gracious physician, is our God. Now, every one of us, for one reason, or another, have, known what it is, to have physical sickness.

[16:12] And what do we do with it? We take it to the surgery, we take it to the doctor, we go. And what a blessing it is, that it's just as simple, just as straightforward, just as blessed, if I can put such a word, on the natural treatment, for often it is blessed.

[16:31] But how much more blessed, when we go to this physician, for the diseases of the soul. How didn't we sing together, that, this physician understandeth, all diseases of the soul.

[16:47] Oh, and we look at it, and, we know, the blessedness, of what it is, to have such a physician. One, yes, utterly qualified.

[17:01] There's a difference. when we, come to the natural physician, first of all, we have to tell him, what is our problem?

[17:13] And then perhaps, he carries out many tests, and he begins to make an evaluation, and eventually, he, concludes, what is the, nature of our ailment, and he then, gives to us, the remedy, he feels, is most suitable.

[17:32] But not so this physician. Oh, he, would that we came to him. You don't find it, that, nearly every time, but not quite every time, the, patients, were brought, or, came to him, for help.

[17:52] Like the poor woman, with the, affliction of many years, who came, and touched the hem of his garment. They came. They drew near. And some of them came, like this leper, and asked.

[18:05] And they came in faith, knowing the blessedness, of his ability. It had been demonstrated. And oh, do we not see, the blessedness, of that ability, demonstrated, through the whole, ages of time?

[18:18] Can't we look upon those, we have known, of whom, we are assured in spirit, that they knew, the blessing of forgiveness.

[18:29] Yes, perhaps they, came, and felt, the need of it, for a lifetime. But they came, to the time, when they felt, the blessing of it.

[18:41] Oh yes, it is, something, that we see, so adequately demonstrated, that we cannot, fail to believe, that it is possible.

[18:52] Oh, may the grace, be given to us, that we should be, as those, not only, who, like this leper, come, in that spirit of faith, but also come, like the, the centurion, and, he, he was coming, for somebody else.

[19:12] But what was the, immediate response, to the Lord, who searched his heart, who knew his desire, and he knew his, spirit of faith. He said, I will come and hear him.

[19:25] Oh, but the centurion felt, how we can, how we can, I was trying to say, sympathize, not the word I want, empathize perhaps, with this centurion.

[19:38] I am not worthy, that they should, is come under my roof. Speak the word only, and my servant, shall be healed. What did the Lord say? I have not found, so great faith.

[19:50] No, not in Israel. Oh, my friends, what faith we need. But what faith is given? What faith is given, when?

[20:03] Yes, we think, not so much of the malady, not so much of the need, although these things, were very real, experimentally, in our hearts.

[20:16] But when, as my mind was brought, in the early part of yesterday, and in the time since, to think, and to think scripturally, upon the evidence, of the word of God, of this healing Savior, this one who can heal, and this one, who can heal, that much greater malady, than that even of leprosy, the malady of sin.

[20:47] Oh, my friends, what a blessed Savior we have. What a blessed position. May we each, know what it is, to have, his healing touch.

[21:01] Yes, where is that? It's not necessary. His healing word. Oh, to think of it, he never went near, to the servant, but he was healed.

[21:13] He never went near, to the daughter, of the, the, not physically, that is to say, to heal, in that case, to the daughter, of the woman, of Syrophoenicia, but she was healed.

[21:27] It was done, as from afar. And, although we know, that he is, a God near at hand, and not only, a God afar off, as we think of him sometimes, we think of God in heaven, and we think of the wonder, of the glory of heaven, but, we also have to think, one of our hymns begins, Heal us Emmanuel.

[21:52] What is the inference? Here we are, waiting to feel thy touch, a God at hand, Emmanuel, God with us. Oh, may this blessing be yours, and mine, to know, that he says to us, I will, be thou clean.

[22:13] Amen. Okay. Jez Emmanuel, God bless you. Amen. Thank you.