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["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] All right, good evening, everyone. Welcome to First Works Baptist Church. Let's all make our way inside and find our seats. Let's grab a songbook and open that songbook up to song number 43, We're Marching to Zion. And let's all stand together for this first song, If You Are Able. Song 43, We're Marching to Zion. Everyone, all together nice and strong on that first verse. Come we that love the Lord, And let our joys be known, Join in a song of sweet accord, Join in a song of sweet accord, And thus surround the throne, And thus surround the throne, We're marching to Zion, Beautiful, beautiful Zion, We're marching upward to Zion, The beautiful city of God. Let those refused to sing, Who never knew our God, Amen. But children of the heavenly King, But children of the heavenly King, May speak their joys abroad, May speak their joys abroad. We're marching to Zion, Beautiful, beautiful Zion, We're marching upward to Zion, The beautiful city of God. The hill of Zion, Yield a thousand sacred sweets, Before we reach the heavenly field, Before we reach the heavenly field, Or walk the golden streets, Or walk the golden streets. We're marching to Zion, Beautiful, beautiful Zion, We're marching upward to Zion, The beautiful city of God. Then let our songs abound, And every tear be dry, We're marching through Emmanuel's ground, We're marching through Emmanuel's ground, To fair worlds on high, To fair worlds on high, We're marching to Zion, Beautiful, beautiful Zion, We're marching upward to Zion, The beautiful city of God. Amen. Let's open our service with the word of prayer. Father, thank You, God, Lord, for allowing us, God, to be here tonight, Lord, and gather together and hear Your word preached unto us, God. We pray, Lord, that You would bless the service, Lord, every aspect of it, God, that You would fill past from here with Your Holy Spirit, Lord, as You preach us to us, God, and be with us, Lord, in the congregation, that we would apply that which we hear to our lives, Lord, and leave here differently than when we came in, God. We love You, Lord, and it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. Song number 167, All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name. Song 167, All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name. Everyone all together nice and strong. All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name. Let angels prostrate fall. Bring forth the royal diadem and crown Him Lord of all. Bring forth the royal diadem and crown Him Lord of all. Ye chosen seed of Israel's race, ye ransom from the fall. Hail Him who saves you by His grace and crown Him Lord of all. Hail Him who saves you by His grace and crown Him Lord of all. Let every kindred, every tribe on this terrestrial ball to Him all majesty ascribe and crown Him Lord of all. To Him all majesty ascribe and crown Him Lord of all. Oh, that with yonder sacred throng we at His feet may fall. We'll join the everlasting song and crown Him Lord of all. And crown Him Lord of all. All right, great singing. Thank you for being here this evening. Just a few announcements here. Before we sing our next song, which will be Psalm 139, amen. If you did not get a song sheet, I'm sure the ushers have them available. So raise your hand and one of the ushers can provide one for you. Wonderful song here. We'll be singing that soon. If you did not get a bulletin also, please raise your hand so the ushers can get one to you. Our services are as follows. Sunday morning is at 1030 Sunday evening at 5 p.m. and then we have our Thursday night Bible study at 7 o'clock. You see the soul winning times and teams and the list of expecting mothers. Please continue to keep them in prayer. And then also the important reminders are at the bottom. Some of the upcoming church events. We have the ladies prayer breakfast this coming Saturday, this Saturday on June 3rd. You can see Ms. General Gonzalez for more details about that. She has that up on Saturdays and so just keep that in mind there. And then on Sunday, June 18th is the reason June even exists, amen. It's because of Father's Day. Why did I get only one amen on that? Amen. I mean, I believe it. Father's Day service, June 18th. Ain't nothing much else happening in June anyways, you know. Nothing of significance, nothing of importance. You know, we're not the type of church to celebrate perversion or anything like that. So, you know, we like to highlight Father's Day. And you say, well, I'm not a dad yet. Then celebrate someone else's, the fact that someone else is a father, amen. Or be a spiritual dad of some sort. And so we're looking forward to that and we'll have a gift for all the dads. And then, I don't know, I might preach against the dads. I haven't decided yet. I haven't decided yet, we'll see. Man's Prayer Night is coming up on Friday, June, July 7th, excuse me, 7 p.m. at the church building. Of course, dinner will be provided as well. And then you see the regular reminders there at the bottom. Please make sure you silence your phones during the preaching so as to not be a distraction during the service. Go ahead and pull out your prayer sheet. We're going to go over that briefly and then Brother Gio's going to come up and pray over the needs. Of course, pray for our church corporately, for God's favor, for the sowing, the teams, the missions of our church, spiritual and numerical growth, new people, of course, and then pray for our church, just the church families in our church, different family members who are not saved, friends who are not saved, pray for families to grow. And I do want to mention, of course, all these needs are very much important and keep them in prayer, but obviously I was joking about it, but June is no laughing matter, actually, okay? And so I want to encourage you to first and foremost pray with your family. Regarding the state of our country and how disgusting and depraved it's gotten, and we are living in perilous times. I mean, just a couple days ago, our pastor friends had a conference about the King James Bible, and they had people outside their church with assault rifles or whatever and protesting their church, and so it's ridiculous, and of course the police weren't doing anything about it, and it's ridiculous that that can happen today, but it's a real thing, so pray against the abominations of our land and pray that the Lord would spare our nation just so we can win more souls to Christ, amen? We have more time to turn more people to righteousness and pray that the Lord would smite the enemies of the Lord and pray that, you know, hopefully, actually, not hopefully, I know that it's already happening. In my observation over the last couple of years, I've noticed that even people who didn't agree with us or didn't take the same stance as us, they're starting to come our way a little bit, you know, and you kind of think to yourself, like, man, it's getting so bad out there. It's getting so filthy and perverse. It's such a wicked thing that's taking place, but to a certain extent, it's good, and let me explain what I mean by that because when you're a normal person and perversion begins to permeate society, a normal person, if they disagree with us, they're going to resist that stuff, and then they're going to start looking at us and say, you know, maybe those guys were right, and they're going to start seeking out the truth, and I know this personally because even within the last couple of months, I've had people reach out to me who in times past did not agree with me at all regarding, you know, the sodomites and the perversions, and now they're just kind of been listening to the preaching, and they're using our type of language, amen, and just kind of seeing it our way, the biblical way, and so I'm thankful for that, and obviously, you know, there's people out there that believe they can be saved. We're not necessarily talking about that. You know, they're sincere, but they're sincerely wrong, obviously, right? We just want them to at least take a stand, amen, and so pray for that. Pray against them. Pray against the abominations of our land, and I'm going to actually do something. We're actually going to do something different this coming Sunday night, and I want to encourage everyone who's here to be here on Sunday night. Sunday night, we're going to have regular services on Sunday, but on Sunday night, I want our families to get together after the service and pray, okay? We're going to get together as families and pray against the abominations of our land and pray that God will continue to use our church, pray that people will not be brainwashed with all that filth and disgusting nonsense that's being pushed through the media. We're just going to pray against it, okay? And you're like, oh, what good will that do? You know, prayer goes a long way. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man goes much. How much more for a church, right? And so don't skip out on church Sunday night, amen? We need all the righteous men we can get to get together, and you're like, well, you know, what if my family doesn't come here to get together with the singles, and we're going to pray against this nonsense, and so I hope you take that serious, and I hope that you're praying on your own. I mean, just leading up to today, my soul is vexed. I'm grievously vexed. You're like, why? All the filth, all the perversion, all the nonsense, all the brainwashing, and if it doesn't bother you, then you need to get right with God. If that stuff doesn't bother you, if you don't want to shed a tear, if it doesn't anger you every once in a while, you know, you need to turn off the news, you need to turn off the video games, you need to start getting in tune with the Bible and let these things bother you. You need to sigh and cry for all the abominations done in the midst, okay? And so my soul is sorely vexed overall, the things taking place, and so, you know, I'm going to be praying, and I hope you're here on Sunday night to do so as well. Well, at this time, brother Gio's going to come up, and he's going to pray over these needs. Brother Gio, come on up. All right, let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this day, Lord. Thank you for all the blessings that we have in our lives, Lord. We also want to thank you for keeping us safe as we traveled here from our jobs or from wherever we came from, Lord. And I always want to pray that you continue to bless our church and have your favor on our church, Lord. We've been in a time of peace for a long time now, Lord, and we just thank you for that, and we just pray that we continue to have a time of peace so we can just come here and serve you without having to worry about people protesting us and causing hindrances, Lord. So we thank you for that, and we just continue to pray that you continue to bless our church, Lord. Lord, I also want to pray for the soul winning and the soul winning teams, Lord, that our soul winning continues to do great, Lord, and we continue to see a lot of souls saved, and that our soul winning teams, we continue to go out, Lord, and that hopefully in the future we can even add more team leaders, Lord, and that we just continue to see a lot of people saved. And I also pray for the spiritual and numerical growth and more laborers, Lord, that as we get new people into our church, and we've seen a lot of new people recently, a lot of new visitors that have been getting plugged in and coming in consistently, Lord, we thank you for that, Lord, and we just continue to pray that you continue to increase the church numerically, but also spiritually, that as these new people come in, that they get plugged into the Christian life, they start reading their Bibles, Lord, and they get that burden to go preach the gospel to everyone, Lord, and we just pray that you continue to help us out in that area, Lord, and you continue to grow the church, Lord. And we also want to pray for the mission trips, Lord. We pray for Belize, especially, that our trip is now coming up even closer now, Lord, and we just pray that those souls that we got saved on our previous mission trips, that they are attentive, Lord, and that when we come in November, that we can have a church service that's going to be very edifying for them, Lord, and that we can have a great turnout over there, and that great work can just be done for you, and that hopefully in the future, we can have a potential church started over there, Lord, so we just pray that that door remains open unto us and that we can go see a great work for you done over there, Lord. Lord, we also want to pray for your protection on our church and the church families, Lord, especially during this time of June, Lord, where we have a bunch of freaks outside, Lord, we just pray that you keep us safe as we're at work and just keep us safe as we go through our day-to-day lives, especially as a church family, Lord, we just pray that you just have a hand of protection over us, Lord, as we just go about our day-to-day lives. Lord, I also want to pray for salvation of our unsaved family members and friends. Everybody in here has somebody that's, you know, unsaved in their family, their friends, or coworkers, or anything like that, Lord, that are obviously important to us, you know, Lord, so we just pray that you just soften their hearts, whatever that issue may be, if, you know, maybe they haven't heard the gospel, or maybe they rejected it, Lord, but we just pray that whatever it is, that you just soften their hearts and that they come to the free gift of salvation, Lord. We also pray for the families to grow, Lord, we just pray that any barren women, that their womb is open, Lord, and we also just pray that, you know, families continue to grow, we've seen new babies already this year, and it's obviously a very great blessing, Lord, so we just pray that we continue to see more babies being born, and just the barren women, their wombs are open, Lord, and we just pray that our church can usually grow as well in that manner. Lord, we also just want to pray for all the general and unspoken requests, Lord, obviously you know the needs that are needed there, Lord, so we just pray that you fulfill those needs, whatever issue that is, Lord, we just pray that you just take care of that for them, Lord. We also want to pray for just the month of June, and obviously there's a bunch of filth and perversion out there right now, Lord, especially during this month, and Lord, we just pray that, you know, people just see how wicked this world is getting and how perverse it is, and just how disgusting it is and vile, and they just decide, you know, like they start seeking after the truth, Lord, and we just pray that, you know, as they're seeking for the truth that, you know, you give them more and more truth, and they eventually find one of our churches, Lord, that actually preaches right and doesn't hold back and actually preaches the full counsel of God, Lord, and that, you know, they can actually find the truth and come to the foot of the cross and get saved, Lord, because obviously salvation is super easy, and, you know, with this whole month being disgusting and wicked, I just pray that it opens people's eyes and just wakes them up to how easy it is to get saved and just the truth in general and how important it is in our day-to-day lives, Lord, and lastly, Lord, I just pray that you just destroy the wicked people, the people that are protesting, that show the faith, and Washington at Sherrif Foundation, Lord, we just pray that you just destroy these wicked reprobates, Lord, that are just, you know, just causing more problems, you know, and trying to hinder us, Lord, but obviously we know the word of God is not bound. Great work is still going to be done for you over there, Lord, but we just pray that you just destroy the wicked, Lord, during this time, and now we just pray that you fill Pastor Mejia with your spirit, Lord, that you can preach the sermon he has prepared for us tonight, Lord, and we also pray that you fill the congregation with ears to hear, and we pray this now in Jesus' name, amen. You could go to the handouts, which is Psalm 139. All right, you should have a song sheet. Psalm 139. If you don't have a song sheet, if we don't have any, you could open your Bibles to Psalm 139. It'll be the last couple verses there. Let's all sing nice and strong all together. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God. Depart from me, therefore ye bloody men. Depart from me, therefore ye bloody men. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? And am not I grieve with those that rise up against thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? For they speak against thee wickedly, For they speak against thee wickedly. And thine enemies take thy name in vain, And thine enemies take thy name in vain. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? And am not I grieve with those that rise up against thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? I hate them with perfect hatred, I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them mine enemies, I count them mine enemies. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? And am not I grieve with those that rise up against thee? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Amen. At this time, the ushers will collect the offering. Tonight will be in Matthew, chapter 8. Matthew, chapter 8. Matthew, chapter 8. Matthew, chapter 8. Good evening. We're in chapter 8 of Matthew. And the Bible reads, When it 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, be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus saith unto him, See thou 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 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 palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest 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 unto this man, Go, and he goeth, and to another, Come, and he cometh. And 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, and shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And Jesus saith unto the centurion, Go thy way, and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And the 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, and she arose and ministered unto them. When the event was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils, and he cast out the spirits 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 bare our sicknesses. Now when Jesus saw great multitudes about him, he gave commandment to depart unto the other side. And a certain scribe came and said unto him, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not word to lay his head. And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus saith unto him, Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead. And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves, but he was asleep. 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? Then he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. But the men marveled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him? And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils coming out of the tombs, exceeding fears, so that no man might pass by that way. And behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, thou Jesus, thou Son of God? Art thou come hither to torment us before the time? And there was a great way off from them, and heard of many swine feeding. So the devils besought him, saying, If thou castest out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine. 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. And they that kept them fled, and went their ways into the city, and told everything that was befallen to the possessed of the devils. And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus, but when he saw them, they besought him that he would depart out of their coasts. Let's pray. We thank you, Heavenly Father, for the King James Bible, dear Lord. We thank you for every precious soul in this church. We thank you for our pastor, and we ask that you please bless him with your spirit tonight as he preaches your word. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Okay, we're continuing this evening with the book of Matthew. We're in chapter 8 tonight, and of course we just concluded the Sermon on the Mount. And in verse number 1 of chapter 8, it says, When he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him. Of course, multitudes were already following him prior to this, which is why he was preaching to a great multitude. But then after he preaches God's word, and he's preaching to the groups of people there, they obviously see that he has a lot of power when he preaches, and he's very much convincing. He has the Spirit of God upon him. He's obviously the Son of God. And so they continue to follow him, essentially trying to see what else is he going to do, what miracles he's going to commit, what teachings he's going to have. And we see a myriad of different topics that are covered in chapter 8, starting with the healing of the leper. In verse number 2 it says, And behold, there came a leper and worshiped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand and touched him, saying, I will be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed, and Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man, but go thy way, show thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded for a testimony unto them. So let's talk about this for a couple of minutes here, regarding the healing of the leper. Now of course leprosy was very much a real disease, and still a real disease today, but it was definitely a prevalent disease in Jesus' day. And it's a skin disease, a very morbid type of just grotesque looking type of disease. And in these particular days, if someone had the disease of leprosy, they were obviously considered unclean, and there's various ordinances that they had to go through in order to be cleansed of it, and so they were essentially seen as the outcasts, the people who were diseased. And in the Bible, the Bible seems to liken leprosy to sin from a spiritual perspective. And even though leprosy is a real disease, there's a greater disease that exists out there known as sin, and the reality is this, is that every human being has been infected with that leprosy. It doesn't matter what culture you're a part of, what part of the world you come from, what your upbringing is, it doesn't matter, for all have sin and come short of the glory of God. The Bible says as it is written, there's none righteous, no not one. And in fact, the Bible specifically says, we are all as an unclean thing, and our righteousness are as filthy rags in the eyes of God. So obviously even though leprosy was very much a real disease, it's picturing this matter of sin. And what does leprosy, the sin of leprosy so to speak, do to us? Well, it keeps us away from people, right? It keeps us away from God. It keeps us away from being healed and being clean. And so we have a picture here that there's a leper who has this disease, and he comes to the Lord, and he's saying, look, if you will, you can just make me clean. And obviously we know that the Bible says that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. So notice that Jesus is not being a little Calvinist here, and saying, sorry, I didn't select you to be cleansed. You're not one of the lepers that I was looking for. You're not elected. You're not the chosen. No, he says, I will. Because his will is that all men be saved, right? And come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. And so he puts forth his hand. He touches him, saying, I will be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy was cleansed. Notice he didn't say, yeah, I will, but first, you know, you've got to kind of clean yourself up a little bit here. You're kind of dirty. You're kind of nasty looking. You have all these pus around you. Before you come to the Savior, you've got to make sure you clean yourself up just a little bit, and then I'll heal you at that point. Now, at that point, you know, you could say that works are being involved, right? And that's exactly what people believe today. They believe that in order to be saved, yeah, it's the healing touch of the Savior that saves you, but you've also got to do your part. Whereas the picture that we're getting here is that Jesus Christ puts forth his hand, and immediately his leprosy was cleansed. What does that mean? It means it wasn't like a process. It's not like, hey, take two and call me in the morning. You're going to have to take two of these. Let's do some visits once a week, and I'll touch you, and you'll be cleansed. And little by little, you become more godly. Little by little, you become more clean. No, immediately. Just as when you call upon the name of the Lord, you're just immediately saved, right? You're immediately saved. You immediately have eternal life. It's not a process, as people like to call it. No, you know, salvation is a process. It's a day-to-day thing. Wrong. The examples that we're seeing here, and obviously, this is not necessarily a story that we would hang our doctrine of salvation on, right? We want to use clear portions of scripture to define for us what salvation is. However, stories like this symbolically represent salvation and help us to better understand it. The fact that once Jesus Christ's hand heals you, you're immediately forgiven of all your sin. It's not like he had a little corner of skin that still had leprosy, okay? Can you turn that off, brother Ulysses? I think people are freezing in here. Raise your hand if you're freezing. Oh, no one's freezing. Raise your hand nice and high if you're freezing. Raise your hand if you're not freezing. Okay, we win. Never mind. What is it at? Put it at like 72. Put it at 72. Sorry, the majority rule's here. I'm just kidding. And by the way, if there was more people who were freezing, I would probably still keep it on. I'm just kidding. But what we see here is that he's completely cleansed of his leprosy. It's not just a little corner. You know, he's like completely cleansed from head to toe except for his little toe or something like that. Everything gets cleansed. Just as when you believe on Jesus Christ for salvation, you're forgiven of all sins past, present, and future, according to Romans chapter 4, right? The Bible talks about the blessing of being forgiven, having our sins covered, the fact that the Lord will not impute sin, which is a future tense there. It's showing us that God gives us the totality of forgiveness once we believe on Jesus Christ. And so this leprous cleanse, immediately after he encounters Jesus Christ, he asks him for that cleansing and he receives it. In like manner. The way we are completely cleansed of our sin, i.e. getting saved, is by what? Asking. You know, you gotta ask for salvation if you're gonna get it, okay? It's not like, you know what, I think Jesus can do it. And then you just automatically get saved or something. You know, this leper came to Jesus and opened his mouth and said, thou canst make me clean, right? In other words, he's asking Jesus Christ to heal him and the result of that is that Jesus Christ heals him. So, you know, we want to make sure that when we talk about salvation, that we also include calling upon the name of the Lord. Which would seem pretty obvious, but you know, there's a group of people out there that seem to want to remove this particular element out of the gospel presentation. You know, they pay lip service to believing on Jesus Christ and how by getting saved you have to believe on him and place your faith in him. But then, for some odd reason, they want to remove confessing with your mouth the Lord Jesus. You know, they think that it's not necessary to open your mouth and ask him to save you. But folks, it's such a stupid thing to believe and to teach due to the fact that God wants us to call upon him. The Bible says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, yes, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Essentially what he's saying is that what you believe in your heart, if you really want it, you're going to ask God to save you. No one says, well, I want God to save me, but I'm just not going to tell him at all. You know, I want to be saved from hell, but God forbid that I should actually open my mouth and tell him and ask him to save me. I mean, it's a stupid thing to believe, but it's out there and it's a constant attack on soul winning. It's a constant attack on the calling upon the name of the Lord, something that was done all the way back in Genesis chapter four. Men have called upon the name of the Lord since the beginning of the Bible, and we need to keep telling people when we explain the gospel to them to call upon the name of the Lord, right? And obviously people do it differently, but one of the simple ways to do it is after you're done with your gospel presentation, if they're in a complete agreement with what you have shown them, I typically say, well, you know, I like to help you ask God what you already believe in your heart, telling God what you already believe in your heart, just asking him to save you. Can I just pray with you real quick? Yeah, let's pray. You know, someone who actually wants to get saved is going to be like, sure. You'll have your little wild cards that say, well, I'd rather just do it later, you know, a little embarrassed or whatever, but rarely will someone actually want to get saved and be like, oh, no, no, I'm not going to do that. It's only by believing in my heart. I don't have to confess with my mouth. You read the verse, I saw it. So no way. I see what you're trying to do there, trying to get me to open my mouth and confess with my mouth the Lord Jesus and call upon the name of the Lord. No, it's only by believing. No, the natural byproduct of believing in your heart is that you confess with your mouth and ask him to save you. And in fact, the Bible specifically says, by thy words, thou shall be justified. By thy words, thou shall be condemned. It doesn't say by the thoughts of your heart. And so the leper comes to Jesus, says, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. He says, I will be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy was cleansed. And it kind of goes to show you, you know, that salvation is nigh unto thee, even in thy mouth. The word of faith which we preach unto you, you can get saved immediately. It doesn't require process. Obviously, for some people, they have a harder time understanding the gospel. And you might be even one of those people who it took you a while to get saved because you didn't quite understand everything, all the facets of salvation. It didn't quite click to you just yet. But there's one point where you just realize, OK, I think I get it now and I'd like to get saved. OK. And so that's what the example we see here. But I want you to pay attention to verse number four. It says, And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man, but go thy way and show thyself to the priest. Now, the first thing I want to point out is that he tells them, hey, don't tell anybody that I healed you. OK. And, you know, I remember when I first read the Bible, I would read this. I'm like, why? Why would he say that? But the reason he is telling him not to go and tell everybody, like he told many other people who he healed, is because he knew the result of this would be that they would want to make him a king immediately. OK. And so he was trying to be really low profile at this time at the beginning of his ministry. But he tells them, Go to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded for a testimony unto them. Now, what does this particularly mean? Why is he telling them to go offer, make an offering to the priest as Moses commanded? Well, the reason why is because Jesus Christ during this time is still under the Old Testament. Now, when we look at Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in our physical Bibles, they're found in the New Testament. Right. Like when we go to the New Testament, we obviously know that it begins with Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. However, the events that it covers, not all of it, but some of the events that it covers, the majority of the events that the Gospels cover, are still found under the Old Covenant, also known as the Old Testament. OK. Which is why he's still telling him to obey the laws of Moses regarding the ordinances. OK. Referring to the meats, drinks, divers, washings, carnal ordinances. These things were still imposed upon Israel during this time. OK. Now, why? Well, because of the fact that the Old Covenant had not yet ended. OK. You say, Well, how do you know? Well, because the conclusion of the Old Covenant required the beginning of the new, which required the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. The Bible specifically teaches that when Jesus Christ was crucified, he brought in the reformation, not that fake reformation from whatever, you know, you know, what is it, Luther or whatever. No, we're talking about the real reformation. According to Hebrew Chapter nine, where he brings in a better covenant. He's a better mediator established upon better promises. OK. And so during this time, he's still adhering to these dietary laws, the carnal ordinances of making offerings and bringing an offering of the gift to the priest as Moses commanded. Now, what is he referring to specifically? Well, Leviticus Chapter 14 is actually where you find the instructions of what a leper was supposed to do if he was supposed to come, if he wanted to be cleansed first and foremost, and what he was supposed to do thereafter. And we don't have time to go through it all. But basically, Leviticus 14 talks about the fact that if a person was a leper, OK, they're a leper and they want to be cleansed, they were to go to the priest. And the priest was to follow these specific instructions of bringing two birds. OK. One of them he would kill and allow and wash that particular bird in running water. OK. Slay the bird. The second bird he would keep alive, but he would couple it with scarlet, hyssop and cedarwood. OK. Which obviously you see the symbolic representations of those. The cedarwood, such as the cross, scarlet being red, and the hyssop, the fact that hyssop cleanses, which is what the blood of Jesus Christ does. And they were to take the living bird and essentially sprinkle or dip it, dip the scarlet, the cedarwood, the hyssop and the bird in the blood of the dead bird. OK. After that, they were to sprinkle that seven times over the leper in order to cleanse the leper. OK. And then the leper was supposed to shave off his beard, shave off his hair, and essentially be isolated for about seven days. OK. Now at the end of that, when he was on the seventh day, he was supposed to shave off everything, like his eyebrows, unibrow got to go, all the hair got to go from his body. And then essentially on the eighth day is when he would bring an offering of two lambs to the priest, which is essentially what Jesus Christ is telling this leper to do. So the reason this particular leper doesn't come and he doesn't go to the priest, you know, so the priest can slay one bird and keep the other bird alive, is because of the fact that that was the ordinance instituted to cleanse the leper. Whereas at this point, the leper's already cleansed. But you see the symbolic representation there, right? The leper is essentially like the living bird, the bird that got to live, who is being washed in the blood of the slain bird, coupled with the cedarwood, representing the cross, scarlet, which is representation of red, and then the hyssop that cleanses him. So once that took place, then he was supposed to be isolated, seven days, and then on the seventh day, he'd take off all his hair, eighth day, he was to come and offer those two new lambs. So the couple things I want to mention in that regard is the fact that, you know, we are basically like that bird, right? They got to live. And Jesus Christ represents the slain bird, and the fact that in this particular case, you know, in Leviticus chapter 14, you have him offering these two new lambs after he was cleansed as an ordinance, as a picture. But today, it's kind of reversed, is it not? You know, we are essentially cleansed of our sin because the lamb of God has already been slain. And so in those days, in Leviticus 14, the ewe lambs are slain after he's cleansed, as a representation of Jesus Christ. But today, when someone gets saved, they are essentially cleansed of their sin because of the fact that Jesus Christ has already suffered on the cross, he was buried, and he resurrected again. It's a beautiful picture of salvation. And it should give us a greater appreciation for the laws of God of the Old Testament, those ordinances that were instituted. You know, they're not just kind of miscellaneous things. God's not just like filling the Bible up with a bunch of ordinances like, all right, I don't know, just get a cedarwood or something. I don't know, like hyssop or scarlet, just having to do a bunch of stuff. There's obviously a symbolic representation behind it. And it shows us that God takes it serious, right? And so during this time, Jesus Christ is having him do that because Jesus Christ has not yet been crucified on the cross. Now, when Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross, they no longer had to observe these things because of the fact that he's the culmination of all of those ordinances and what they represented. You understand? Now, why even talk about verse 4 and Moses' law and the ordinances and all that? What's the point of all that? Well, the point of it is the fact that during this time, John is around as well, and John is writing about the ministry of Jesus Christ. And the book of John emphasizes the fact that you have to believe on Jesus Christ for salvation. So if he's teaching you have to believe on Jesus Christ for salvation, yet Jesus is still under the Old Testament law, it shows us that salvation has never changed now, has it? It's still the same. See, people want to separate Matthew, Mark, Luke from John as though John is like the New Testament teaching or something. But no, those events also took place during this time. These are all from different perspectives of the disciples, and they're like, no, it's just repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. You have to repent of your sin. Well, but John's gospel says you have to believe on Jesus Christ for salvation. And it's more distinct and clear from John's gospel that you have to believe in order to have everlasting life, right? And the reason for that, of course, is because the gospel of John is geared more towards the world, towards just everyone in general. And so obviously the cookie is going to be put on the bottom shelf. Salvation is going to be explained far more clearly because he wants all men to be saved and come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Therefore, he makes salvation very clear. Whereas the book of Matthew is geared towards the Jews negatively, as we're going to look at in just a bit. And it covers just other aspects of Israel and other aspects of Jesus' ministry and isn't necessarily centered around the message of the gospel. You understand what I'm saying? And so although we find bits and pieces of salvation being mentioned in the book of Matthew, that's not necessarily like the moving theme of the book of Matthew. The moving theme of the book of John for sure is believe on Jesus Christ, which is why you see that word over and over and over again. And in fact, most of the unsaved world is familiar with the book of John. Most of the world is familiar with John 3.16. I mean, I guarantee you, you could probably go sowing. And I would say about 70 to 80 percent, if you were to ask them, can you quote John 3.16, they would tell you what that verse says. Even though they're not saved. So it's a verse that has virtually permeated all of society because that is the purpose of the gospel of John. It's so that people are without excuse. On Judgement Day, it's just like, I didn't know, it's just like, quote John 3.16. You knew. Alright, let's move on here. So, we see that they're still under the Old Testament law. And by the way, that's why they're still observing the Sabbath as well. But then after Jesus Christ dies, they're no longer observing the Sabbath. You know why? Because just as he was a representation of the ordinances found and the meats, drinks and diverse washings, he's also the Sabbath himself. You know, people are like, no, you got to have church on Saturday, not Sunday. And we got to keep the Sabbath. Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. You know, you Baptists got it all wrong. You know, the fact that you still want to keep the Sabbath, even though Jesus Christ has been crucified, is like, you're basically disrespecting Jesus. Because Jesus Christ is our Sabbath, he is our rest. The fact that Jesus Christ died for us and he resurrected pictures the Sabbath because we rest in Jesus Christ from our works. And in fact, it specifically says that in Hebrews chapter 4. That, you know, we rest from our works as God did from his. So, if you're still willing to observe the Sabbath, essentially you're saying, you still want to do works. That's what it pictures there. And, you know, it's important to say that because of the fact that there are so many Sabbath keepers out there. And so many people who just want to uplift the Sabbath. These holier than thou, hyper spiritual people that all they want to talk about is the Sabbath. What's your take on the Sabbath? Shabbat or whatever. Like Sabbath? Like Sabado? Like Saturday? I mean, I do all kinds of things on Saturday. And, you know what, the people who claim to observe the Sabbath, they don't even know how to observe it anyways. So, they're over here, you know, virtue signaling that they're keeping the Sabbath, but they don't even know how to do it biblically anyways. So, they're doing it the way, like, the seventh-day Abbanses do it. Which is not biblical at all. And so, and the Bible tells us, let no man therefore judge you in meads, drinks, or respect of an holy day or of the Sabbath days. So, it specifically says, don't let these Judaizers come to your church until you got to keep the Sabbath. Those things are done away with. They're a shadow of things to come and not the very image, as the Bible says in Hebrews, I believe it's chapter 9 as well. Basically, it's saying that a lot of these ordinances of the Old Testament are a shadow, which means that they're like the figure of what's going to come around the corner, which is Jesus Christ. And so, a lot of these seventh-day Adventists and Sabbath keepers, they're still abiding in the shadows, unfortunately. They're trusting in those shadows instead of the real figure of the image itself. And so, that's the teaching there of the leper. Look at verse number 5 here. Where's Ulysses? Is brother Ulysses here? I regret telling him to, it's getting warm here. Go down to 69. Can someone put it at 69? Man, it's too warm. Verse number 5 says, And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion beseeching him, saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. And the centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest 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 when he goeth, and to another, come when he cometh, and to my servant do this, and he doeth it. And when Jesus heard, he marveled and said unto them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. So let's talk about this, okay. A centurion comes to Jesus, and of course a centurion is essentially a Roman soldier who is over, you know, a group of a hundred men. That's why they call him centurion, like a century, a hundred there. So he's a man of great authority, he has people under him, he leads this group of a hundred soldiers or so, and he's not an Israelite, he's a Roman. So this also shows us that, you know, the Gentiles were not the plan B of God. Okay, because a lot of dispensationalists would like to teach that, and claim, well, you know, it didn't work out with the Israelites, so God kind of had to shift his plans a little bit, and then go for the Gentiles. Wrong! He always wanted the Gentiles to be saved. There's multiple scriptures in the Old Testament where the Bible specifically prophesies saying that Jesus Christ will be a light unto the Gentiles. Okay, because he wants them to be saved. He doesn't have the specific favor for salvation on Jews, he wanted the Jews and Israelites to be a light unto the nations, so they can get other nations saved. But then what happens? They begin to construct this superiority complex about themselves, because they have the true God of the Bible, and then they become closed to other races, other nations, and they stop giving the gospel. And the result of that is that essentially, they heap to themselves teachers, false prophets, known as the Pharisees, with a false version of salvation. They, you know, are keeping people from the truth, and then of course later on, Judaism is constructed out of that, which is a false religion. But you have the centurion come, and he obviously knows of Jesus. So one thing I want to point out about the centurion is the fact that he knows of Jesus, he's heard about him, but number two, he cares for his servant. I mean, think about that. This guy is an important guy, he is a man of authority, you know, he is a pretty prominent individual, but he obviously has a tender heart towards his servant. And his servant is home, he's sick of the palsy, he's grievously tormented, and I don't think the centurion's like, can you heal him, because he needs to get back to work. Like, I need things that need to get done, and this guy is just not getting with the program, I heard you could heal him. You know, obviously this guy actually cares for his servant, he cares for him, he has compassion on him, and he wants Jesus Christ to heal him, and he knows that Jesus has the ability to do so. And then Jesus says, I will come and heal him. So it shows you that Jesus does not hate Gentiles. Because you know, people want to point to scriptures where he calls the woman a dog, you know, she's like, no, he's making a point, he's testing that woman's faith is what he's doing, right? He doesn't hate them, he's like, he's basically saying, I'm going to come personally and heal him. And the centurion responds by saying, you don't even need to do that. He says, I know how authority works, because I have people under me that say, hey, go do this, and they do it. You know, another man comes and I say do this, and he cometh, do this. You know, he basically understands authority. He understands that if someone comes in the authority of Jesus, it can still be done as long as Jesus approves. I mean, this is some great faith. This is not a guy who's just like, hey, no, I need you to be there, Jesus. I don't want none of these little disciples you got going on here, you know, trying to come and do your work, I want you to be there, you know. You don't even have to waste your time going there. If you want him to be healed, just give the authority to one of your disciples and they can do it, I understand how authority works. Now this takes a lot of faith, my friends. It takes a lot of faith. Which is why Jesus Christ marvels, and this is essentially the first time that Jesus begins to slam Israel. He's like, I haven't found this kind of faith. No, not in Israel. And a bunch of Israelites are following, you know what I mean? I was like, man, why you gotta say it like that, you know? But, I mean, he's telling the truth there, obviously. He's like, this is a man of great faith. I haven't found this kind of faith in Israel. You know, Israel obviously is a perverse generation. Okay? Because they're always looking for a sign, they don't have enough faith, they always want a sign. But a crooked and perverse generation seeketh after, a wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, but there shall be no sign given unto them but the sign of Jonas the Prophet, the Bible says. It's like the only thing you guys are gonna get is you're gonna see the resurrected Christ. Whereas the Centurion, we don't even know if he's seen any miracles. We don't know what he's seen. He's probably just heard of it. He's probably just heard of Christ, he's heard of Jesus, he's heard of his fame, and in light of the transmission of that information, he's like, I know he can heal him and he doesn't even need to come personally. And look, anybody who's living in this generation has more faith than the Israel of the Bible. Because they're actually there with him, we've never even seen him with our own eyes. I don't care whether anybody tells you they saw him in a dream or whatever. They're like, oh, pastor speak for yourself. I saw him in a dream, I saw a vision, you know, no you didn't. Okay? And if you claim to, describe to him to me, and if long hair is part of the equation, you just immediately discredited yourself. You saw a vision of Caesar Borgia, or the Antichrist, or both or whatever. But we don't need a vision of Jesus Christ in our dreams. We don't need to have some sort of prophetic vision or whatever. We don't need that, we have God's word. A more sure word of prophecy, the Bible says. Which according to the Bible is even more credible than the experience that Peter had on the Mount of Transfiguration. And that was a very credible event, obviously. But even then, our more sure word of prophecy, referring to the word of God, has more credit than the experience of Peter. Okay? And so he's obviously getting this by word of mouth of someone, and in light of that, he goes to Jesus, he has faith, and Jesus honors him for that. Now remember, the centurion is a Roman, the centurion is not part of Israel. Centurion is not a Jew, he's not part of Israel. And so keep that in mind, look at verse 11. 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. So this isn't a separate thought. This is all in context of the centurion. He marvels at his faith, and he says, he's basically saying, this is why, in the end, when everything's said and done, there's going to be people coming from the east, from the west, and in Luke, I believe chapter 7, he says from the north and from the south, and they're going to sit with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they're going to sit and meet with him, because of the fact that they have more faith than Israel. But then he says in verse 12, this is very interesting, but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness. Now that has always puzzled me, why it says the children of the kingdom. I mean, has anybody ever thought about that? Like, why is he calling them the children of the kingdom? And if you look this phrase up in the Bible, you grab a concordance, you look it up, it's only found twice. And it's very interesting because of the fact that it's found here in Matthew chapter 8 in regards to people who are going to hell, and then the second time that it's found, it's describing safe people, in contrast to those who are children of the wicked. So the other portion of scripture talks about the children of the kingdom going into everlasting life, and then the children of the wicked one going into everlasting damnation. I'm kind of summarizing, but that's basically what it says in that portion of scripture. So you kind of wonder, why is he referring to them You know, here's two theories as to why, what this is referring to. But let me start off by saying that whoever this is talking about, they're going to hell. Can we conclude that? Outer darkness is not like they're outside or something. Outer darkness is referring to hell, as clearly seen by the fact that they're weeping and gnashing their teeth, which is a phrase commonly used to describe people who are in hell. And we saw that in chapter 5, we see that throughout the gospels, that Jesus Christ describes hell as being a place where people weep and wail and gnash their teeth. And he refers it to the outer darkness and in 2 Peter chapter 2, hell is described in that manner as well. So obviously these people are going to hell. So this isn't referring to Christians. Even though the second time that this phrase is mentioned, it is referring to Christians. This particular time, it's not referring to Christians. It's referring to people who can't go to hell. Everyone understand that? So why does he call them that? Well, just as I mentioned in verse 4, according to this particular timeline, we are still under the Old Testament laws, or the Old Covenant, excuse me. And aside from the fact that the meats, drinks and diverse washings, cardinal ordinances were still being imposed upon them, another aspect of the Old Covenant, aside from those ordinances, is that the Jews were still God's chosen people. So during this particular time, the Jews, Israelites, are still God's chosen people and they are considered the children of the kingdom. What kingdom? God's kingdom. Now people can make the argument that this is just referring to just unsafe people and the kingdom is referring to Satan's kingdom or something like that, but in context, he's slamming Israel and he's saying, this guy, the centurion, where are you from, east or west? Whatever, doesn't matter. He's sitting with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the children of the kingdom, which everyone knew who he was talking about because the Israelites were the children of the kingdom, they're going to be cast down to outer darkness. Now the reason they're referred to as the children of the kingdom, as I mentioned, aside from the fact that they're God's chosen people, unto them are committed to the oracles of God, the Bible tells us in Romans chapter 3. It says in Romans chapter 9, when the Apostle Paul is talking about his kinsmen according to the flesh, he states that, you know, to them pertain the adoption and the glory and the covenants, it says, and the promises of God, the services of God, but he says they are not all of Israel, which are of Israel. You say, well, that's not what he's talking about though, but Paul's the one writing it though. So he's making a distinction, because Paul's an Israelite, but he's making a distinction between him and the people he's talking about in Romans chapter 9, because he says they, and so this is why they're referred to as the children of the kingdom, because the New Testament, when Jesus Christ is crucified, brings in the new covenant, and with that, the children, the people of God, God's chosen people, also transitions from being a physical nation known as Israel to being a spiritual nation made up of all believers. During this time, you know, you're God's chosen people, if you're part of Israel, you partake of the covenant, you get circumcised, you're part of Israel, then you are God's chosen people. It's not even based upon salvation in the Old Testament. However, when Christ is crucified, he dies, he brings in a new covenant, and thereby creating one new man, the Bible says. That's why in the New Testament, there's neither Jew nor Gentile, Jew nor Greek. All are one in Christ Jesus, the Bible says. If Paul wasn't going around saying that he was a, what do you call it, a Judeo-Christian, you won't find that phrase in the Bible. You'll never find Rabbi Paul being referred to himself as Rabbi Paul. You'll never see him with a prayer shawl or a shofar, you know, observing Shabbat and going to different parts of Thessalonica and going to Corinth, going to Ephesus, saying I'm a Judeo-Christian. No, it doesn't exist. That's something that was instituted by Zionists. When Zionism infiltrated Christian circles and started teaching false doctrine regarding the Jews, they're the ones that coined the phrase Judeo-Christian. It doesn't exist. Because Judaism does not hold to Jesus Christ being the Son of God. They think he is like a devil. They think he was possessed. They believe he's in hell right now, burning in his own escriment. So how are you going to attach Judaism with Christianity if they're opposing doctrines? And in fact, Judaism did not quite get along with Christianity in the New Testament. Obviously it's not referred to as Judaism in the Bible, but that's what it evolved to become later on. Same ideas. And so they're called the children of the kingdom because this is still under Old Testament law. And this is why, folks, Jesus says later on that the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof, implying that they had the kingdom. So when you sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the idea there is they're going to have dinner together. They're going to feast with one another. You get to rub shoulders with the greats, the patriarchs of the Old Testament. The Jews, they would love to have done that. We are of Abraham. We are of Moses. Like, dude, you're going to hell, bro. You ain't going to see Abraham. The only one who was able to see Abraham who wasn't saved was the rich man. That was it. But this is the significance of this particular scripture because in Luke 16 you have the story of the rich man and Lazarus. And the Bible says that Lazarus was in Abraham's bosom, right? And people try to take that to mean that he isn't like, hell is the motel, or should I say, hell is the motel, and then Abraham's bosom is the hotel. They're kind of like across the street from one another. It's like a second compartment of hell. And they say that's what Abraham's bosom is, the neon sign, Abraham's bosom. So when believers in the Old Testament died, they would go to that and then he's going to take everyone out. He has to preach the gospel to them again because they got to get saved again and then come up or whatever. It's just like what was it called before Abraham? By the way, when you read Jewish encyclopedias, I don't recommend it, they called it Adam's bosom. Why would you call it Adam's bosom? But then Adam's bosom because that's what they believe. So all that to say that Abraham's bosom, according to the dispensationalist, does not exist. It's not real. We obviously know that a bosom is your chest. He said, well, what is he doing? Are you trying to tell me that Lazarus was like in his bosom? Yeah, you know the way like John was in Jesus' bosom at the last supper? Because when you're in Israel, who has more faith than Israel, is going to be sitting with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He's going to be, Lazarus is not the only guy who's in Abraham's bosom. All kinds of Gentiles are going to be in Abraham's bosom. We're going to be rubbing shoulders. We're going to be able to like, he's going to put his arm around us and we're going to be in his bosom. That's how it works. And so, you know, they want you to read and we're disciples of Moses. It's like, dude, I'm going to be rubbing shoulders with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And I'm as Gentiles as you can get. But, you know, it's not because I'm better than you. It's because I believed on Jesus Christ. You rejected the Savior and therefore you shall be cast out into outer darkness and there shall be weeping and wailing and ashen of teeth. You're basically trying to get across the fact that, you know, it's the Gentiles who are going to be the fish that are biting. That's why it's worthless to go to Israel to go evangelize. It's a fool's errand to go there because they've been rejected in the Gospel over the last 2,000 years. They've been rejecting the Gospel, rejecting the Savior, mocking Jesus Christ. You know, these independent people who go to Israel and pray for Israel and all this nonsense, folks, it's a fool's errand. And there's people who actually do mission trips to Israel. They do mission trips to Israel and have to tolerate all the blasphemy over there. Well, don't you want to go to the Holy Land? There's nothing holy about. The land is the fowl, my friends. I mean, you think sodomy is bad here. Tel Aviv is way worse. Jesus walked Jesus. Jesus lives inside of me. I have Christ in me the hope of glory. I don't got to pay a plane ticket to go to a land of a bunch of Christ-rejecting Jews who lie and blaspheme when I have them right inside of me. And, you know, I have enough faith to know that that's where he walks, so why do I have to go over there? I don't have to go to a piece of dirt and be like, Oh, okay. Now I believe it. I have a Bible. I have a more short word of prophecy that tells me that's what he did. And look, Jesus Christ does not esteem the land of Israel either. In fact, according to the Bible, Israel is referred to as spiritual Sodom in Egypt, which is an indicator to us as Christians that we should not go there. We don't want to go to Egypt or Sodom now, do we? We got enough problems where we're at right now. You know, we're in Babylon. And so it's a great picture here to show us that the centurion, a Roman, you know, because, by the way, this is another narrative that's always pushed. It's just like, Oh, the Romans just, you know, they're the ones that murdered Paul, they beheaded Paul, they're against Christians. You know, when I look at the Bible, I don't really see that. What I see is the Romans constantly, like, looking at Paul, we see the centurion here coming to Jesus Christ with great faith. You know, it looks like the Gentiles were always receptive to the Gospel, and so I'm looking forward to hanging out with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, being in their bosom, and telling him, telling Abraham, they got this really funny story going on down there about your bosom. Although I'm sure many Christians have already told him that story. He said, I'm going to go over your ribcage. Verse 13 says, And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way, as thou hast believed, so be it unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour. Amazing miracle there. Verse 14, it says, And when Jesus was come into the Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother laid in sick of a fever, and he touched her hand and the fever left her, and she arose and ministered unto him. Or the fact that he actually gets along with his mother-in-law. I mean, that's pretty amazing. I think I focused more on that part. I'm like, wow, Peter. Man, you can get along with your mom. I'm just kidding. Sort of. Okay. I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding. It's a miracle. When the even was come, they were brought into many that were possessed with devils, and he cast out the spirits with his word and consciousness. Let me mention a couple things here. You know, we see here that Peter's married. He has a wife. And this proves the fact, or it shows us why he's a pastor later on. Because only pastors or only men who are married can become pastors. There's no such thing as single pastors. And that's a very prevalent thing in different churches. Of course, I've only known fundamental Baptist churches, and so I'm speaking by that single men to become pastors. Whereas the Bible specifically says in 1 Timothy chapter 3 that a man's supposed to be the husband of one wife if he's going to be a pastor. That's what the Bible says. He's supposed to have children and be the husband of one wife. But sometimes, you know, the old IFP is just like they kind of like overlooked that, and they don't even care about that. What do they care about if you have a degree in a pastor? You're a novice. You can't even get a woman to follow you, to marry you, to like you, to want to have a family with you. You're not equipped, you're not qualified to be a pastor. It doesn't mean you're a bad person, but you know there's people out there who want to become a pastor by any means necessary, even if they're not married or they don't have children. It's wrong. Here we see that he has a wife. Later on, of course, he's renting his home, obviously. So even though he's serving Christ and he's going with them for those three and a half years, they're obviously coming back home. He's spending time with his wife. He's even healing his mother-in-law of the sickness there, of the fever. But the main point of this particular portion of Scripture is that it pictures the fact that Jesus Christ heals us of infirmities, which means whatever disease that humans have is the disease of the fact that sin is going to take us to hell if we don't believe on Jesus Christ. But folks, even thereafter, when we get saved, we're still in this corruptible body. So this flesh still desires to sin. And you know what? We still have the great physician who is operating on us on a daily basis through the Word of God, cleansing us through His Word to help us to overcome sin in the flesh. And so He Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses, referring to the fact that He Himself bore our own sins on His own body on the tree, the Bible says. Look at verse 18. Let me hurry up here because we're almost out of time. Great stories here. I love these stories. Now when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave commandment to depart unto the other side, and a certain scribe came and said unto Him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head. Another of His disciples said unto Him, Lord, suffer me first to go bury my Father. But Jesus said unto him, Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead. Now this is pretty rough, right? People are like, Hey, I'm willing to follow you. And He's just like, Okay, but I don't even have a place to sleep. Basically Jesus doesn't even have a home to call His own, other than where His parents live. And He's like, you know, even the animals, He's provided a home for the animals, for the birds, but He doesn't even have a place to lay His head. What this is essentially teaching us here is that we should never come to serve God under our own stipulations, right? Placing stipulations for the service of God. Well, I'll serve God. I'll keep coming to church as long as I find a husband. I'll come to church as long as He fixes all my problems. I'll keep serving God as long as, you know, He prospers me, as long as I have a place to lay my head. Wrong attitude. We're to serve Christ because He deserves our service. It's the love of Christ that constrains us, and obviously we've not seen the righteous forsaken nor seed begging bread. God's always going to take care of us, and He's given us all things richly to serve God, you know, holding God to an expectation to say, I'll serve you as long as you do these particular things. Folks, we've got salvation, and if we got nothing else after salvation, we have it made in the shade. I mean, if all we got was salvation, that merits our faithfulness to church. That merits our service for God. That merits us living for the Lord for the rest of our lives and keeping Him as the church worthy, right? But thankfully, He's giving us even more than that. But the point that He's trying to make here is the fact that, like, what if He just never offers you anything after that? What if there is no cherry on top? You know, we should still serve Christ no matter what. And let me clarify what He tells the man who's like, you know, basically his father just passed away, and he's like, let me go bury him. You know, people can follow me and let the dead bury their dead. Now, I don't believe this is an attitude that we should have today. I believe the reason he's saying this is because Jesus Christ had a limited amount of time to fulfill His ministry. So He doesn't have time for fickle people. He doesn't have time to, like, deal with fickle people and people who are just inconsistent. He's just like, you know what? He's God. He's here at that moment. So everything should be put on the back burner. He's the most important one, right? Like, basically, like, if Jesus Christ was here today, and we knew He was only here for one year, everything should go on the back burner. You're like, what would you do? I'd be like, Sarah, kiddos, I love you guys, but if Jesus calls me at, like, 1 a.m., and he I'm not coming home until, like, three months, I love you, but Jesus is calling, though. Obviously, it's not going to happen. But I'm saying He's number one. He deserves all our loyalty, all our faithfulness, yes, even above our spouse, yes, even above our children, yes, even above every single relationship in this world. Now, thankfully, He doesn't require that of us, amen? And in fact, there's specific principles and doctrines of the Bible that God tells us to be faithful to our spouse, to love our spouse, to love our children, and things of that nature. But when it comes to the loyalty in here, it should always be towards Christ above all else, okay? And so here in this particular story, He's telling them, look, I'm only here for three and a half years. I don't have time for people doing their own thing. Let the dead bury their dead. Follow me. And then in another story, putting His hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the Kingdom of God. So He says, look, if you're plowing for me, don't look back. You better plow forward for the Kingdom of God, and if you can't do it because you keep looking back, you're not fit, you're not equipped for the service of God because you're constantly looking back, and that's not what He wants. And so I don't believe this is an attitude He wants us to have above sisters and brothers, above friends, above everyone else because He is the preeminent one. He deserves our utmost loyalty no matter what takes place. I must say, verse 23 says, when He was entered into a ship, His disciples followed Him, and behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, and so much that the ship was covered with the waves, but He was asleep. And His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, Lord, save us, we are all calm, but the men marveled, saying, what manner of man is this that even the winds in the sea obey Him? Now wonderful story here, and obviously the application here is the fact that the winds represent the storms of life, right? And you know, sometimes we go through a tumultuous time, a storm, so to speak, and it kind of feels like the Lord is just asleep on the job because we're just like, oh, you're getting all wet, you know, and you're like, the Lord is asleep, He's not even helping right now. But if you try to wake Him up, per se, you know, these words should ring true, hey, oh ye of little faith, God is able to calm the storms of our life, right? So here's my advice to you, if you're in a tumultuous time, just enjoy the waves. You know, like, let's see how far this thing can go, you know, without compromising, without forsaking the Lord, you know, if He's not awake, you know, let Him sleep His full, let Him stay under as much as He wants to, and just kind of ride the waves, you know, you're like, what if I drown? Then you, I mean, you drown, I don't know what to tell you, you know? But you know what? Let's increase our faith, and stop having little faith, and realize that God can calm the storms at any moment, at any time. And, you know, these guys, when the storm just calms immediately, and they're just like, I got a little carried away there, you know? We do have the Son of God here, why were we tripping out, you know? Why are we being weenies about this whole thing? We should have just had great faith that He's there, because if the ship goes down, He's in the ship with us, right? But obviously, you know, we're irrational sometimes we just don't understand everything, and so it's important for us to realize, no matter how big the waves are, no matter how big the storm is, the Word of God can calm it at any time. So just surf it out, you know? Just surf it out, get wet a little bit, just have faith in the Lord that the winds and the seas will obey Him, okay? And He's just testing our faith. And then lastly, I'm not going to spend too much time on scripture, but I'm going to come here, and that is the subject of the man who's possessed with the devil. Now here in this particular scripture, we see two men that are possessed with the devils, and it says of Gergesenes, okay? In other gospels, it refers to the maniac of Gadara, okay? Now this is not a contradiction of scripture because one has two possessed with the devil, and the other account has one. The reason why we're talking about the gospel of Luke and the gospel of Mark, highlighting only one of the maniacs, is because he is essentially the prominent one, okay? He's probably the one who actually comes to Jesus and wants to go with Him. He's sitting in clothing in his right mind, and so he's probably like the prominent person, the one that stands out the most to Mark and Luke, and therefore he chooses to only highlight that next week. But the main thing that I want to get across here is the fact that, you know, the story with the leper, the fact that as sinners before Christ, BC, were considered as lepers, right? And we need the healing touch of Jesus Christ, which comes by placing our faith in Him alone for salvation, and the fact that, you know, now begins Jesus Christ slamming Israel, and you know, this is very mild slamming compared to what we're going to look at in the coming weeks, okay? He's like revving up on getting on the Jerusalem Law. And you can sense this frustration here, where it takes a centurion, who's a Roman, he's not of the adoption, he's not a partaker of the glory and all those other things, he has more faith than the people he's coming to. This is why the Bible says that they miss the time of their visitation. And so that's pretty much it. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word, and help us as your people to have the faith as the centurion, not just for salvation, but when we have it even thereafter, as the Bible says, faith to faith. And I pray that, Lord, when we're affected by the storms of life and the waves come upon us, and it may seem as though we're drowning in the difficulties and tribulations of life, sometimes it may seem as though you're sleeping and you're not fully paying attention to what's going on, and we may feel as though you're just going to let us perish, but we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you will deliver, Lord, and I pray that you do so and increase our faith in you, show yourself strong on our behalf in the coming months and years, and may you calm the seas and the waves and help us in the coming months and years. All right, we have one last song, song one hundred and forty-four, a mighty fortress is our God, song one hundred and forty-four, you want to follow along, sing nice and strong on that first verse, A mighty fortress is our God, A bulwark never failing, Our Helper He amid the flood, Of mortal ills prevailing, For still our ancient foe, Doth seek to work us wove, His craft and power grave, And armed with cruel hay, On earth is not His equal, Did we in our own strength confide, Our striving would be losing, Were not the right man on our side, The man of God's own choosing, Dost ask who that may be, Christ Jesus, it is He, Lord Sabaoth, His name, From age to age the same, And He must win the battle, And though this world with devils filled, Should threaten to undo us, We will not fear, for God hath willed, His truth to triumph through us, The prince of darkness grim, We tremble not for Him, His rage we can endure, Follow His doom, His shore, One little word shall fill Him, That word above all earthly power, No thanks to them abided, The Spirit and the gifts are ours, Through Him who with us cited, Let goods and kindreds go, This mortal life also, The body they may kill, God's truth abided still, His kingdom is forever.