0:18 We turn again today to continue our study on all that Jesus taught. And we've been looking through the Gospels and we will look today at Matthew chapter 12 and verse 15. Jesus withdrew from a certain place because people there were trying to kill 0:38 him. Now, I was saying how that is the most sensible thing to do when you're in a place where people are trying to kill you. Uh don't try to show your bravery there. Follow Jesus' instructions in Matthew 10. When they persecute you in your one 0:51 city, he said, "Run. Flee to another. Don't walk, run. There's no virtue in standing around there. Go somewhere else so that you can live and continue to proclaim the gospel. And don't tempt God by saying, "Well, 1:09 God will protect me." He'll protect you if he's told you to go there specifically. But if not, the best thing to do is run. So, Jesus himself withdrew because they were trying to destroy him. Verse 14. Verse 15, "And many followed 1:25 him and he healed them all." This is one of those places in scripture like we saw earlier in Matthew 8 when not a single person remained without being healed. All these people today who claim that they are healing people like Jesus, 1:42 they're just deceiving you. Because you find that in all their healing meetings, not even 1%, not even 1% of the sick people are healed. And even in the churches which proclaim Jesus as healer, not even 1% of the sick 2:00 people there are healed. That's not the healing ministry of Jesus. Don't be fooled. Jesus heals people. We can ask the Lord for healing. I have experienced it myself. I've seen people healed. But 1% or less. I must be honest. 2:17 And there could be many reasons. Sometimes it could be there's sin in people's lives. And sometimes God may, like in Paul's case, you know, say you need to keep that for a particular purpose. Or like in Timothy's stomach's 2:30 infirmities, that could have been Timothy's still thorn in the flesh. There could be many reasons. We don't know it all. But Jesus, when he healed in these number of instances, he healed them all. It was an attestation of the fact that he was the son of God. 2:49 And it was not something that he told us to imitate and in the history of Christianity, nobody's ever imitated it. Not even the Apostle Paul who could not heal the stomach aches of his co-worker Timothy. Imagine that, a man like Paul 3:03 who raised Eutychus from the dead could not heal a small thing like a stomach ache. So, these things are written in scripture. It says in 2 Timothy 4, Paul left his co-worker Trophimus sick in Miletus. So, we find that we need we must uh not be 3:23 confused that when confused with the attestation of Jesus' ministry by total healing and imagine that we got to do the same thing cuz otherwise you live in a world of delusion and fool other people into trying to live a type of Christianity which is not 3:40 being lived by anybody. And then the if you believe that type of lie, you can be led astray in many other areas. I mention that as a word of caution. Don't go to one extreme where you say every sick person will be healed. Don't 3:53 go to the other extreme where you say no sick person will be healed. Both are wrong. The narrow way lies between the two. God heals, but he doesn't heal everyone for reasons best known to him. And further, he warned whenever he healed people. This 4:12 we come to the same thing again. Verse 16. He warned them. What a strong word. He didn't just tell them. He warned them. It's like warning people against a danger. We warn people against dangers. He warned them, "Don't make this known." 4:29 Now, he never said that when people were telling others that he was one who forgave sins or that he was the Messiah, you know. Philip went and found Nathanael and said, "We found the Messiah." Jesus didn't say that was wrong. 4:47 He didn't say don't tell anybody uh that I can forgive sins. But he did tell whenever he healed people, he said, "Don't tell anyone that I healed you." Why was that? Because then a lot of people would come 5:05 to him not for something spiritual, but something physical. And that's the great tragedy. A lot of people today are being drawn with the message of God will bless you physically, materially. This is the very thing Jesus said, 5:22 "Don't teach that. Say that I will heal you spiritually. I'll give you rest. I'll make you gentle and humble like myself. I'll make you spiritual. I'll make you holy. But don't advertise the other things too much. And of course, 5:40 uh some people disobeyed it even in Jesus' time. A lot of people disobey it today. And here it says, "In order that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled." Saying, "Behold my servant whom I have chosen. 5:57 My beloved in whom my soul is well pleased. This is a quotation from the Old Testament in Isaiah 42:1. "Behold my servant." And it means, "Look carefully at my servant." It's a wonderful exhortation. 6:16 Look carefully at Jesus. All of us need to obey that exhortation. Look carefully at Jesus, the one who is chosen, one who I will put my spirit upon him and he shall proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not quarrel. 6:34 Look carefully at my servant who never quarrels with anyone. My brother and sister, why do you quarrel with anybody? With your husband or wife or other sisters or other brothers 6:53 or neighbors or in the office? I'll tell you. You do not look carefully at Jesus. He says, "Look carefully at my servant who will never quarrel with people." He stood for the truth. He drove out the money changers from the 7:13 temple. We can do all that. But he never quarrel with people. When they spat on his face or called him the devil, he was not going to go fight with any one of them. He did not fight with flesh and blood because he was leading us into the new covenant. 7:28 He's the mediator of a better covenant. The old covenant involved fighting with Goliaths and giants and Canaanites and Midianites, etc. But in the new covenant, we fight with Satan. He did not quarrel at all. Now, I want 7:41 to encourage all of you. There's a great need for such Christians in our land who look carefully at Jesus and stop quarreling and finish with it in their lives permanently. It's possible. I found it true in my own life. 7:58 But it was not true for many years because I did not look carefully at Jesus. I looked at other Christians and I found most of them quarreling and I followed them in my blindness and stupidity till I learned to look carefully at 8:09 Jesus. He did not quarrel. He did not cry out. Nor would anyone hear his voice in the streets. You know, you don't have to shout and yell to impress people with the power of the Holy Spirit. 8:28 It says here Jesus did not raise his voice and shout. If he's preaching inside the house, they wouldn't hear him on the streets. Isn't that wonderful? That his preaching was not with yelling and shouting and frequent hallelujahs. 8:45 No. A lot of people think that if a person yells and shouts and bangs the table and uh says hallelujah every 2 minutes, he's a he's a mighty servant. It's absolute rubbish. Jesus wasn't like that. In all his sermons, he never said one 9:01 hallelujah. And it says here he did not raise his voice. Now, there may be a place where for emphasis, you can raise your voice, but to think that that is the time when you're really filled with the spirit is wrong. There are a lot of churches where they 9:17 think that when the decibel level, when the noise level in a time of singing rises up to a very high level and the emotional pitch becomes very high, they think, "Ah, the Holy Spirit has come." This is deception. The Holy Spirit's presence is not 9:34 recognized by the decibel level of the sound or the emotional high that people are having. It is by purity. It's by a spirit of praise, genuine praise that makes people fall on their faces and worship God and recognize the 9:51 holy presence of the Son of God in the midst of a meeting. That is the mark of the Holy Spirit. Very important to understand that that Jesus our example would not shout and yell, but what did he do? These are some things he did not do. But what did 10:07 he do? He would take a battered reed and make it whole. He would not break it off. He would not blow out a smoldering wick, but he would blow it to a flame. That's the meaning. So, what does that mean? And what is a 10:26 battered reed? You know, a person who is discouraged and a failure, person who's made a mess of his life. Like there are many Christians like that, constantly defeated, given up hope. I mean, I've had numerous letters from 10:41 people on the verge of suicide. They're they're battered reeds. They've been battered sometimes by preachers who condemn them. Smoldering wicks. Once upon a time the flame was burning, but it's died out due to circumstances, 10:55 difficulties, problems in marriage, etc. And the Lord says, "Don't give up. Don't get discouraged. I can help you." He can take the most battered reed, broken reed. He says, "I'll fix it." Most people would just throw it away and 11:12 let's pick another reed. The Lord says, "No, I'll fix that broken one first." And a smoldering wick. You say, "This is useless wick. Throw it away. Let's get another one." No, no, no. Let's blow this up to a flame. I want to say to you, any of you who are 11:26 discouraged and defeated, you feel that your life is a total failure, you've done so many wrong things in your life, you've tried so long for victory, and you've never obtained it. You've heard stirring messages on victory and 11:40 the effect of it seems to last for a very short time. I want to say this to you. Jesus has not given up on you. I don't care how battered you are as a reed. I don't care if the flame has gone out from your life and you're just smoking now. 11:57 A smoking wick is worse than a wick that is not smoking. The smoke a wick that was never lit. Because smoke is very uncomfortable. And the Lord says, "Even if you're like that, I will blow you up to a flame. I can put the fire of God back into your 12:17 life. And I hope you will hear this. This is a word of the from the Lord to you. That he will repair that broken reed, and he will blow that wick back to a flame. The Lord can do it. And again, I would ask you the same 12:35 question which he asked the blind people. "Do you believe that I can do this for you? Do you believe that even though your life is so utterly defeated and a failure in your eyes and in the eyes of men and probably a bigger failure in 12:49 your eyes because you know all the secret sins in your life that other people don't know?" The Lord says, "I can lead you to a glorious holy life." That was my experience 40 years ago, even as a Christian. I was thoroughly 13:01 defeated. I had no fellowship. I was not part of any living church. I did not have a spiritual father. I did not have a godly example I could follow. I never had anyone who explained the new covenant to me and told me that I could 13:15 have a life of victory. I was defeated, defeated, defeated. Utterly backslidden as a born-again Christian. And at the depth of my defeat and when I was at rock bottom, you know what the Lord did? I'll tell you what is the only righteous thing 13:31 that God could have done to me at that time when I was at rock bottom, when I was such a hypocrite, preaching things that are not true in my life. He should have sent me to hell. But he didn't do that. And let me tell you this. 13:47 If he had forgiven me completely, that itself would have been more than enough, but he did more than that. He not only forgave me completely, he filled me with the Holy Spirit. Teaching me that God does not give the fullness of 14:01 the Holy Spirit to those who deserve it or those who earn it by years of fasting and prayer. He gives it to those who desperately need it. I certainly did not deserve it. I say certainly did not spend years in fasting and prayer, 14:16 but I desperately needed the power of the Holy Spirit. Oh, no. Oh, oh, yes, sure. I certainly did need the power of the Holy Spirit. And I learned there that God meets people at the place of their need. When they're not looking at others and 14:31 judging others, when they're not trying to earn the fullness of the Spirit, but saying, "Lord, I need it. If there's anyone on earth who needs it, it's me. I need to be filled with the Holy Spirit." You know, to illustrate with the human 14:45 example, it's like supposing you're working in a company and you've done a lot of wrong things. You messed up some of their machines and spoiled them and um they've had to spend a lot of maybe lakhs of rupees fixing all those 14:59 machines because you spoiled some of them and they still haven't sacked you. You should be thankful for that. And then one day you carelessly do something and spoil one of their most expensive machines which costs a crore of rupees, 15:15 and you're sure they'll sack you now without a doubt. Because you messed up so much. And you get a call from them managing director. He says, "I want you to come and see me." And you know what he's going to say. Not only you're going to be sacked, that 15:31 you got to pay a big fine, etc., etc., or probably go to jail if you can't pay the fine, etc. And you go there and you get the surprise of your life when he says, "It's okay. I've forgiven you for what you did. And not only that, 15:46 I want to make you the deputy managing director of this company." You think he's joking. And he says, "No, I'm not joking. I'm giving you a big hike in your salary." There's no company in the world will do that. But this is exactly what God did to me. 16:03 And this is exactly what God has done to many, many people around the world. And he can do that for you. I say that as an encouragement to you who are battered reeds, smoking wicks. I was more battered than all of you. I was 16:18 the fire had gone out from my life long before I was a thoroughly backslidden defeated Christian 40 years ago. God met with me, filled me with the Holy Spirit, and turned my life around. He can do that for you. And it's never been the same. Once God 16:38 touches you and fills you with the Spirit, and you realize you got what you don't deserve. You know, the another result of this is that I can never look down on other battered reeds now. I've seen a lot of battered reeds in the 16:50 last 37 years as a planet churches in different places, but God is my witness. I've never, never despised any of them, never looked down upon any of them as though they are inferior to me. I've seen smoking wicks in which the 17:04 fire had gone out years ago. I don't despise them. Cuz I know what a smoking wick I was. And what a battered reed I was. And God did that for me. I say I have hope for every backslidden Christian in the world. I have hope for 17:18 the worst sinner in the world. Cuz I know what God did for me. I can understand a little bit of what Paul said when he said, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief." You understand that? 17:35 That's the message here. That's the message of the gospel. And it is he will not give up. It says until he leads us verse 22 victory. He will not give up. He will not get discouraged until he has led us to victory. 17:54 And in his name the Gentiles will hope. I hope you trust in this savior who can lead you to this wonderful life. This is what Jesus taught. And this is what we need to experience and proclaim wherever we go. And then further in verse 22, 18:13 there was brought to him a demon-possessed man who was blind and dumb. It's amazing. There are cases where a demon possesses a person and the person becomes blind. And on top of that, it becomes dumb as well. Now, that's very rare. 18:28 To meet a person who's both blind and dumb is very rare. I've never seen someone in my life who's both blind and dumb. I've seen blind people and I've seen dumb people, but blind and dumb is such a rarity. And here was a man who was blind and 18:41 dumb. It was And it was due to a demon. And Jesus healed the man. He cast out the demon with a word. And the man's eyes were open. He could see. And he could speak. And the multitude said, "Wow. This must be the son of David. 19:01 This must be the Messiah. Look what he did. We've never seen anything like this in our lives." But the Pharisees, they were jealous. See, there are a lot of preachers who want all the admiration of people for themselves. They cannot bear to see 19:16 somebody else drawing people to a better gospel, turning away from the inferior gospel they presented to something higher. And so there's jealousy. And that jealousy makes them judge others. 19:34 Don't be disturbed if you are the object of jealousy by others. And if they call you bad names. Has anybody called you the prince of devils? They called Jesus by that name. It says here that when Jesus did this good thing 19:50 which so many people appreciated, The religious leaders said, "Hey, that's by the power of the devil." He's just in league with the ruler of demons. He's hand in hand with Satan. And that's how he does this. And Jesus didn't get upset with them. 20:07 They were blind. How can you get angry with a blind man if you got sight? And another person is blind and you say this wall is white and that man says, "No, it's black." Because he's blind. How can you argue with him? How can you 20:22 convince a blind man that a wall is white? You'd be stupid if you get angry with him. Saying, "He's crazy." He's not crazy, he's blind. And that's why Jesus wasn't upset with them when they called him the prince of devils. It's because they were blind. 20:38 He was the son of God. He was pure white. But they called him dirty black. What do you do when a blind man says something is dirty black which is absolutely pure white? A blind man has never seen snow, for example. He can think snow, he can touch it. He 20:55 can think it's black. But you know it's not black. So Jesus wasn't upset with them. And it's very foolish to be upset with somebody who insults you. And when Jesus in a very rational, calm way said, "Listen. You think I cast out 21:10 Satan with the power of Satan? How can that be? Can a kingdom divided against itself stand? Or a house divided against itself? It'll not stand, it'll fall. And if Satan is casting out Satan, then he's divided against himself. 21:24 How can his kingdom stand then? Satan is not so foolish. Christians fight with each other, but the demons don't. That's something you can learn from the demons. Don't fight with one another when you're fighting for the same cause. The demons 21:37 are fighting for one cause, for the glory of Satan. And they're united. Christians are supposed to be fighting for the glory of God, but they fight with each other. A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. A house divided against itself 21:53 will fall. Husbands and wives who quarrel with each other need to hear this word. A house divided against itself will not stand. Your children will suffer. Don't be foolish. Learn from the demons not to fight with each other, not to 22:07 cast each other out. And then he went on to say, "If I, by the prince of demons, cast out demons, what about your sons? Some of your sons are going around casting out demons. They'll be your judges." I don't know exactly the details about 22:24 what is happening there, so I can't talk about it. The things that are not written in scripture, I don't have an explanation. But he said, "I'll tell you one thing, verse 28. If I cast out demons by the spirit of God, 22:40 then the kingdom of God has come upon you." In the Gospel of Luke, in the similar passage, he said, "If I cast out demons by the finger of God." See, that's 22:58 the thing which he pointed out. If I cast out demons by the finger of God, in Luke's Gospel, you see that, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Here it is, "If I cast out demons by the spirit of God." Now when you put these 23:11 two verses together, you find that the finger of God is the spirit of God. And like Jesus, like God wrote the 10 Commandments with his finger on tablets of stone and gave it to 23:29 Moses, today he writes with his finger, the spirit of God, in our hearts. The same laws. That's the new covenant. So it's wonderful to see when you compare scripture with scripture, that the finger of God is the spirit of God. 23:45 It's the Holy Spirit. It's the person through whom God writes his laws in our hearts so that we can obey them. And he says, "How can uh you How can anyone enter a strong man's house and carry off his property unless 24:05 he first binds the strong man? Then he can plunder his goods. If Satan's not been defeated, how can you take possession of what what he's taken or robbed you from your life? Supposing the devil's robbed you of many things in your life, and he 24:18 has. All Christians he's robbed. How can you go and take it all back if Satan himself is not bound? That's why people could not overcome Satan in the Old Covenant. In the New Covenant, we know Satan was defeated on the cross. 24:33 And therefore, we can take back everything that he's taken away from us. There's no Satan got no authority over us anymore. He's been defeated on the cross. And then he says about their sin, "If you If you're not with me, you're 24:47 against me. If you don't gather with me, you're scattered. And so I say to you, this blasphemous word you've spoken, it'll be forgiven. If you've blasphemed against the Holy Spirit, that will not be forgiven. Don't speak against the Holy Spirit. But if 25:01 you've spoken a word against the Son of Man, it's forgiven. But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. The point I want you to see here is that when they cursed him and called him the prince of devils, he 25:16 forgave them. That's the difference between Jesus and the Old Testament prophets. Moses, somebody cursed Moses, Miriam got leprosy. Somebody cursed Elisha, they got beaten by bears. But Jesus gave forgiveness. And that's 25:30 how a new covenant servant lives. God bless you. Let's continue our study in the next episode.
