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Once again, we come to a time when we can open up the Word of God and we find ourselves this morning in Luke chapter 6. We're going to look at verses 17 through 19 as we once again, make our way through this wonderful gospel vers-by-verse. I've entitled my discourse to you this morning, “Jesus' Power Over Diseases and Demons.”

Before I read the text, let me remind you that this is now the fourth summary of Jesus' ministry in Luke's gospel thus far, yet another opportunity for him to remind each reader of the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ; a concept, a truth that is mocked in our godless pagan American culture, especially during Halloween, which is such a bizarre time with its observance of evil and darkness and death, whereas as believers we're obsessed not with those things but with love and righteousness and truth and light, especially the light of Christ and eternal life, things that are foreign to our pagan American culture.

Now with that, let me read this summary to you and then we will examine it. Luke 6, beginning with verse 17,

“Jesus came down with them and stood on a level place; and there was a large crowd of His disciples and a great throng of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon,

“who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were being cured.

“And all the people were trying to touch Him, for power was coming from Him and healing them all.”

Now let me begin with a bit of historical background to give you context here. Jesus has recently now selected his 12 apostles, which now will join with him in his ministry, and what I hope to do as we go through this is to give you some very practical applications as we understand what the text says, especially in the day in which we live.

Now for starters, in order to understand the historical context, you want to put yourself in the minds of the Jewish people who were primarily the ones following him to learn more about him. Most of those following him were curious, many of them were superstitious, and they were looking for that long-promised Messiah. They were fascinated with his miracles, many of them came because they wanted to be healed. Wouldn't you? If you had some problem, absolutely, or if you had a loved one. And they also wanted to hear what he had to say, because they'd never heard anything quite like this. So messianic expectations ran high. Now I want to go back about a thousand years, because they would have understood these things, and sometimes we don't. About a thousand years prior to this, the prophetic office really began with Samuel. And the prophets routinely described a coming age when God would reign and rule the world through Israel, and he would do this through a righteous king that would come from Israel.

And of course, all of this was consistent with the Abrahamic covenant, remember the seed that would come from Abraham, that would be the Messiah? And also the Davidic covenant, where it speaks of the greater son of David that focuses on Christ. This righteous king would eventually emerge, and he would deliver Israel from their enemies, and ultimately from their sins. So this was the mindset.

However, they were much more focused on being delivered from their enemies than from their sins, as we will see. They were still looking for this king, and none of David's descendants had risen to that level of righteousness and delivered them from all of their enemies. I mean, after all, now they're under Roman domination.

I'm reminded of David's descendant Manasseh. We read of him in 2 Chronicles 33:9.

“Manasseh misled Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do more evil than the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the sons of Israel.”

This guy was more wicked and led them to do things that were even more wicked than the Canaanites. He even had Isaiah sawn in half with a wooden saw in about 686 BC. By the way, you can read some of that even in Hebrews chapter 11 – and tradition affirms that as well.

But what's interesting is just before that happened with Isaiah, Isaiah wrote the book of Isaiah; and the Jews in Jesus' day understood what Isaiah said, or at least they knew what he said, but they weren't able to apply it as they should. So the Jews in his day were familiar with what is called really the “gospel of the Old Testament”; although they didn't see it that way.

Now, an important digression here, if you'll bear with me, to help us understand the Jewish mindset in that day as well as the Jewish mindset today. Isaiah is divided into two sections. The first section is chapter 1 through 39, and it speaks of a coming judgment and captivity, judgment upon Israel; and that judgment came about 80 years later when the Babylonian hordes came in and conquered them in 603 BC. There were three deportations, one in 603, one in 597, and another one in 586. Now mind you, the northern kingdom had already been conquered by the Assyrians.

Now the first half of Isaiah predicted judgment upon Israel, and as you study it, judgment upon all sinners in the final judgment; and the second half of Isaiah, chapters 40 through 66, speak of grace and salvation. There you will read prophecies of deliverance - the deliverance of sinners from sin through a coming Savior - and you especially see that in Isaiah 53, and it will also speak of a final deliverance into the Messianic kingdom. In fact, the second half begins like this, chapter 40, beginning in verse 1.

“’Comfort, O comfort My people,’ says your God. ‘Speak kindly to Jerusalem; and call out to her, that her warfare has ended, that her iniquity has been removed, that she has received of the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.’

“A voice is calling, ‘Clear the way for the LORD in the wilderness; make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.’”

And of course this is ultimately a reference to John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Messiah, who by the way preached this very passage in Luke chapter 3, as you may recall.

But the Jews in Jesus' day refused to acknowledge any of that, and later they refused to acknowledge Isaiah - actually 52, beginning with verse 13, all the way through 53 and verse 12. That clearly refers to a suffering servant, a Savior that would be the Messiah King, and of course all of that was pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ. And of course, the Jews did this because they saw no need for a Savior, after all they're people of the covenant, and we keep the law. So they refused to acknowledge their sin, and again because of their Abrahamic descent and God's covenant promises, they felt like their salvation was sure.

So they're not looking for a Savior, they're looking for a righteous King to deliver them. They rejected what Isaiah said in chapter 1 in verse 4,

“Alas, sinful nation, people weighed down with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, sons who act corruptly! They have abandoned the LORD, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away from Him.”

And it goes on and on to describe their wickedness with many passages that elaborate their hypocrisy and so forth.

You know, the Jews should have seen this in Jesus' day, but oh no, they didn't. They should have recognized that John the Baptist was the fulfillment of Isaiah chapter 40 verses 1 through 3 that I read earlier. And by the way, it is not by accident that the New Testament begins with John the Baptist heralding the coming of the Messiah King - the Lord Jesus - and it also ends in Revelation 21 and 22 announcing the new heavens and the new earth, the same way the second half of Isaiah began and the same way it ended in chapter 66.For example, in verse 22 it says,

“’For just as the new heavens and the new earth which I make will endure before Me,’ declares the Lord, ‘So your offspring and your name will endure.’”

Now if you will bear with me a little bit more, a very important footnote here, the second half of Isaiah chapters 40 through 66, that focuses on grace and salvation, is divided into three sections of nine. There are 27 chapters, and each section contains within it warns of judgment upon the wicked, but also the coming blessings, the promises of salvation.

In section one, it speaks of salvation from Babylon. In section two, it speaks of salvation from sin. And in section three, it speaks of salvation of the earth from the curse and the glory of the Messiah in his kingdom. But in the second section, that middle section that promises salvation from sin that will come through a suffering servant that is sent from God - that second section chapters 49 through 57 - we see something fascinating in the very middle of that middle section, the middle of the second section, which are chapters 52 and 53. And the middle verse of chapter 53 is verse 5 that says,

“But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.”

Beloved, the very point of all of this is that at the very heart of this middle section that speaks of God's grace, and the forgiveness of sin is a description of the substitutionary piercing of the servant of Jehovah, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now the question is, how did the Jews miss all of this? You know, at that age, in that time, in the ancient days, they all agreed that this whole section was messianic, but the reason they rejected it is because it didn't say what they wanted it to say. Isn't that the way we typically are? They couldn't admit their sin and need for a Savior, so they put their spin on this section. In fact, if you study ancient history, you will see some of them believed that Isaiah 53, for example, was a reference ultimately to David, King David. Others believed that it was speaking of a compassionate, sympathetic Messiah that bears human burdens and can feel our pain, especially the anguish of the Jewish people who were suffering under the hands of the Gentiles. And later on in the medieval period, the rabbis reinterpreted it again and said it was not a reference to any individual but to Israel as a whole who suffers unjustly. And by the way, that's what they believe today.

You know, when you spiritualize the Word of God, you can make it say anything you want it to say, but the Jews then and now simply could not and would not see it as a reference to the substitutionary atonement of a suffering servant, although their entire sacrificial system pointed to that. In fact, if you think about it, they disregarded all of the Old Testament symbols. And to you, dear Jewish people that may be hearing my voice today, think about this:

This means you would have to disregard, for example, the whole story of Noah's Ark, a picture of a deliverance from judgment, and we read about that in 1 Peter 3, verses 20 and 21. You would have to disregard the ram that God provided for Abraham as a substitute for his son in Genesis 22. You would have to disregard the whole picture of the Passover lambs that ultimately pointed to the sacrifice, the final sacrifice of the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.

You would have to disregard the very essence of the Day of Atonement that pictured his sacrifice on the altar as the propitiation, that is the satisfaction of our sins. They would also, along with that on the Day of Atonement, would have to disregard the second scapegoat, if you remember that, that pictured the removal of sin and guilt, which speaks of expiation. So in the Day of Atonement, you have propitiation and expiation. You have to forget all of that. You have to disregard all of that.

You would also have to disregard the manna that God provided in the wilderness that pictured Jesus as the bread out of heaven, John 6:32, that gives life to the world. They would have to disregard the bronze serpent that was lifted up in the wilderness, remember, in Numbers 21, symbolizing the saving power of Christ's death on the cross. In fact, Jesus spoke of that in John 3, verse 14, where he said,

“’As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.’”

They would also have to disregard the whole story of Jonah that spent three days and nights in the whale's belly, all of which foreshadowed Christ's death and resurrection, as Jesus himself indicated when he said that the Son of Man would spend three days and nights, quote, “in the heart of the earth,” just as Jonah was in the belly of the sea monster, Matthew 12 and verse 40.

They would have to disregard the prophecy in Isaiah 7:14, that the Messiah would be born of a virgin. How can you miss that? And Micah's prophecy that he would be born in Bethlehem, in Micah 5 and verse 2. They would have to ignore that the Messiah was going to be God incarnate, according to Psalm 45, verses 6 and 7, that he would be a sovereign king and an eternal high priest, Psalm 110 and verse 1 through 7. They would have to disregard Daniel 9, verses 24 through 27, that speaks of what we call Daniel's 70th week, that was filled on the exact day as it was prophesied on Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem. And according to Zechariah 9:9, the prophet says that he would do so, he would come into Jerusalem while riding on the colt of a donkey. You just have to overlook all of these things to deny that this is Jesus, the promised Messiah.

Well, why do you do that? Because they wanted a sympathizer, not a Savior. Because they wanted a righteous king, not a suffering servant. By the way, this is what Philip encountered. Remember in Acts 8? Remember that great story where he hops up on the chariot that's being driven by this Ethiopian eunuch, a Gentile proselyte to Judaism, and what was he reading? He was reading Isaiah 53, verses 7 through 8. And this is recorded in Acts 8, beginning in verse 32.

“’He was led up, or he was led as a sheep to slaughter; and as a lamb before its shears is silent, so He does not open His mouth. In humiliation, His judgment was taken away; Who will relate His generation? For His life is removed from the earth.’”

And then in verse 34 and following,

“The eunuch answered Philip and said, ‘Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of someone else?’

“Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this scripture, he preached Jesus to him.”

 And again, by the way, the popular interpretation with Jewish people today of Isaiah 53 is that it refers to suffering Israel; as if Israel is a humble, voluntary, righteous group of people suffering unjustly and vicariously for others. I mean, it's utterly absurd. By the way, today God is still punishing Israel, but he's also protecting them. He is still saving Jewish people, and he will continue a remnant of his people. And of course, when they're saved, there's neither Jew nor Gentile in the body of Christ, but indeed he has not permanently abandoned his people. I don't believe that for a second. He has not therefore violated his unconditional, unilateral, irreversible covenants to them, but they're not going to experience the kingdom promises that they've been looking for all these years, until by the power of his regenerating grace, they see their sin and they repent. And then at that time, as Paul says, “all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:25).

“For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery - so that you will not be wise in your own estimation - that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in;

“and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written,

“’The deliverer will come from Zion; He will remove ungodliness from Jacob. This is My covenant with them when I take away their sin.’”

Very, very clear. This is God's promise.

I might also add Zechariah 12 verse 10, at that point, here's what will happen,

“’I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.’”

So, back to this powerful summary in our text in Luke 6, where it describes Jesus' power over diseases and demons. What is fascinating is it had little effect on the hearts of the Jewish people, because they had already hardened their hearts against him, but they were indeed words of eternal life to the remnant of his elective grace.

So, let's look closely now at what the Holy Spirit reveals to us in this passage. We're going to look at four things, the popularity, the preaching, the power, and the compassion of Jesus - the popularity, the preaching, the power, and the compassion of Jesus.

Now, notice first of all, so” Jesus came down with them and stood on a level place…” this is probably, we believe, a plateau on the side of the mountain that is west of Capernaum, and what is called Tabgha. This would have been where Jesus would preach the Sermon on the Mount. You read about that in Matthew 5 through 7; and we're going to see a condensed version of that sermon later in Luke 6, beginning in verse 20 through 49.

But I want you to notice, number one, the popularity of Jesus, and put yourself there.

“...and there was a large crowd of His disciples, and a great throng of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon,

“who had come to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases;”

Now, imagine the scene, Jesus has come down now to this plateau, he's surrounded by his appointed apostles, and there's this huge crowd of his disciples, it said. Now, how big is huge? Well, we don't know for sure, but we know later on in chapter 9 and verse 14, it describes a crowd of 5,000 men, and you add the women and children, you probably got 20,000 people.

Matthew and Mark speak of another similar sized crowd on another occasion, and Luke describes another incident in chapter 12 and verse 1, where he says, quote, “so many thousands of people had gathered together that they were stepping on one another.” So you've got this mob scene, you've got this herd mentality. Of course, people lose their sense of identity and responsibility and personal accountability and embrace all the anti-social aspects of and impulses of a mob when this happens. They lose their self-awareness. Maybe you've read about mob mentality, and that's what's happening here. So everybody's pressing in somehow just to see Jesus and to hear him and, oh, to touch him, to be healed. And you know how people are in large groups like that, when they're pressing, and the reason they were is because the text says “power was coming from Him and healing them.”

So no doubt some people were even trampled underfoot, we don't know, it doesn't say that anyone was killed, but we know how depraved humans can be when they get in a mob type of a situation, and we know how selfish people can be. If you've ever driven to Nashville during rush hour, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Now, who were these disciples? In Greek they were the “mathētēs” which simply means they were students that were following Jesus, they were considering him to be their teacher. Some of them, no doubt, were true believers, but most of them were superstitious curiosity hounds, shall we say; tares amongst the wheat. Jesus warned about that, especially in Matthew 7, there's going to be the few and the many. Most who call on him as Lord will never enter the kingdom because their faith is phony, they're Christian in name only.

And you will recall, for example, in John 6:66, the crowds are following Jesus, but he elaborates on the doctrines of sovereign grace, which have been systematized in what is commonly and disparagingly called Calvinism, and as a result of that, the text says in John 6: 66 “…many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.”

By the way, you have the same result today. People have a rabid commitment to self-determination, and they are horribly offended that God would save some but not all, and that it's solely dependent upon his grace; so they see him as being unfair and unkind, and in their fallen sense of justice, they reject him and fabricate a God that doesn't even exist.

Now notice, these people came from all over. It says people “from all Judea,” which is just a reference to all over Israel, “and Jerusalem.” It would be like us saying, yeah, we got a group of people from Washington here. Well, that would mean not just people that live in Washington, but probably, you know, the authorities, the bigwigs; so they would have had the religious elite that were there as well - the scribes, the Pharisees. And it says, “and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon.” Now, this was a Phoenician - historically a Phoenician region - Gentile region, a seaport, cities on the northwest part of Galilee on the Mediterranean Sea in modern-day Lebanon, and it was a place that was notorious for idolatry and immorality.

By the way, I like to check these things out, that would have been about a 40-mile hike from where Jesus was there in Capernaum, all right, so they'd come a long way. In Mark 7, beginning in verse 24, we read how Jesus later ministered in that region and delivered the little daughter, remember, from the Syrophoenician, that is the Canaanite woman, the little girl had an unclean spirit, and so forth. So the point is, they're coming from all over, so we see the popularity of Jesus.

Now, notice, secondly, the preaching of Jesus. It says that they had “come to hear Him.” Now, what did he preach? Well, we know from many other passages that he preached his deity. He preached the gospel, that there was forgiveness of sins for all who would repent. You will recall, when he went to his hometown there in Nazareth, in Luke 4, beginning in verse 18, he's teaching the people, he says,

“’The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who were oppressed,

“’to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.’”

And then he went on to say,

“’Today the scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’”

As a result of that, remember, they tried to kill him. Once again, don't tell me what I don't want to hear. And at the end of his sermon, recorded in Matthew 7, we have another example of preaching at the end there. By the way, that sermon he's speaking on the danger of self-deception and failure to enter through the narrow gate. He's speaking on the danger of some phony repentance and how important it is to submit to the Lord in humility and so on and so forth.

And there in that text in Matthew 7, beginning in verse 28, it says, “…the crowds were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, not as their scribes.” And the reason they're saying that is because when the scribes preached, they didn't preach based on their own authority, but the only authority of other rabbis that they were quoting from many years back.

But not so with Jesus. Jesus is preaching based upon the authority of the scriptures of the word of God. And he spoke eternal truth with boldness and with love and with clarity and with power. None of us have any authority apart from the word of God. You see, Jesus knew what we should all know, and that is divine truth is either going to harden or soften hearts. Our responsibility is to preach it and it will be God's responsibility to either harden or soften the heart.

And the conversion of a sinner is a sovereign, gracious work of God; a work of his divine power. And the result is an effectual calling of God's Spirit, whereby he convinces the sinner of his sins, and he renews his will and enables him to voluntarily embrace the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

And again, the responsibility, especially of pastors, is to publicly and privately plow up the fallow ground of men's hearts by preaching the word of God to them and then trust in God's sovereign operations to save the remnant of his elect that hear. And like Jesus, our responsibility is to be faithful, not popular. You can't be both, you'll be one or the other. Oh, Jesus was very popular until they started hearing things they didn't want to hear, they didn't like, and then they left him.

So we've seen the popularity and the preaching of Jesus. I want you to notice, thirdly, the power of Jesus. It says, “and those who were troubled with unclean,” that's a reference to evil or demonic spirits, “were being cured.”

Now it's interesting, as we read scripture, we see that demons possess the supernatural power of angels. And as we read in scripture, I won't give you all the references, but they can indwell humans and animals, physically afflict people, terrorize humans, imitate false worship, promote false doctrines, perform false signs and wonders, deceive prophets, encourage idolatry, and even engineer death. But what you want to remember is that they unwittingly serve the purposes of God, who is sovereign over all of these things, and has ordained to allow these things in order to demonstrate his glory.

And we see in scripture that these demons are terrified of Christ, and they're terrified of the gospel. But unlike non-believers, Christians cannot be demon-possessed. Demons cannot invade a believer's body. They cannot spatially indwell us. They cannot take control over a believer, because the Holy Spirit of God dwells within us. Second Corinthians chapter 6, I think, verses 14 and following.

In Colossians 1 and verse 13, we read,

“For He rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.”

In 1 John 2:13 through 14, we read how that we have “overcome the evil one.” 1 John 4:4 we read how that the greater power resides within us through the Holy Spirit. And in 2 Corinthians 1:21 through 22, and Ephesians 4:30, we read about the sealing ministry of the Holy Spirit that protects us from demonic invasion. And John tells us in 1 John 5:18, “We know that no one who is born of God sins…” referring to sin as basically the pattern of their life, “…but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.”

I might also add, nowhere in the New Testament are believers warned about the possibility of demon possession, nor are we instructed on how to cast out demons from unbelievers or believers. Nowhere do you see any of that. However, true believers can be plagued and oppressed and harassed externally.

You remember Paul's satanic thorn in the flesh in 2 Corinthians 12. We've had those kind of people in our church. We've got them in our families, don't we? We've got co-workers that are that way. We've got these people governing our state and our country and so forth. It's always going to be there until the Lord returns.

So what are we supposed to do? Well, James 4:7 says, “Submit therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you.” Ephesians 6 speaks about how we're to wear “the whole armor of God so that we can stand firm against his attacks.” But nowhere in scripture do we read that we are somehow to rebuke or bind or exercise or pronounce mystical incantations or hold up crucifixes or be a part of deliverance ministries. Folks, you need to run from that stuff. That's phony. 1 John 3 and verse 8, “The Son of God appeared for this purpose to destroy the works of the devil.” And if we encounter a person as I have, maybe you have, that is truly demonized, you will appeal to God in prayer and you will unleash the gospel on them for it is the power of God unto salvation.

So again, those who were troubled with unclean spirits were being cured. And folks, this demonstrates the authority and the power of Jesus over Satan and his kingdom. Again, this proves his deity. And this should be of great comfort to us as we watch the wrath of divine abandonment playing out in our own country. You look at some of these politicians today. I mean, you see wickedness in all the parties, but my goodness, the Democratic Party in particular has become a death cult. I mean, they are obsessed with slaughtering unborn babies. They exalt vile perversions that we see in the LGBTQ community. They celebrate all of the woke liberal socialist communist lunacy that seeks control over our nation.

And to allow the demonic false religion of Islam to take foothold in our country and even allow these people into Congress is an indication of just the gullibility of human depravity and the activity of the doctrines of demons. The brutality of Islam and the barbaric cruelty of Sharia law is terrifying to any honest student of history. Let me dwell on this just for a moment.

Islam, which means surrender, is merely a totalitarian political ideology that disguises itself in a religion. And it is a great example of demonic deception. And Muslims who desperately need the Lord, and by the way, many of them are coming to Christ all over the world - we can rejoice in this; we serve a redeeming God; we need to pray for these people, love them for the sake of the gospel - but they reject the deity of Christ. If you read the Quran, we read how Jesus from their perspective was just another man. He was a prophet. He didn't die. He didn't pay for the sins of all of us. There was no atonement in his death because there wasn't a death. And he did not rise from the dead. He merely departed into heaven like Elijah. Now he sits at the right hand of Allah. And he's waiting for Allah to send him back. And the reason he's going to be sent back by Allah is to basically correct all of the Christians who really misunderstood who Jesus really was, that he wasn't God and he needs to explain that to us. He wasn't God who died as our substitute and rose from the dead.

And by the way, when he comes back, they say that he will get married, he will have children, and eventually he will be buried next to Muhammad. Folks, this is why Islam and Christianity cannot coexist. And this is why it has never coexisted with Christianity anywhere in the world.

The same is true of socialism and communism. It cannot coexist with biblical Christianity. It can liberal phony Christianity, but not true Christianity. Yet these people have taken over portions of several states, and they seek office at the highest level. And what's amazing is there are people that absolutely applaud this. All you have to do is look at Europe and see what's happening.

Oh, dear friends, these people need the Lord. And it should be no surprise that even some quote-unquote “Christians” see no problem with this, no problem with the things that so many of these politicians are promoting that are so vile, that are so blasphemous in God's eyes. We're told why in 1 Timothy 4, beginning in verse 1,

“But the Spirit explicitly says that in latter times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons

“by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron.”

Beloved, there is only one God, and it is the triune God that has revealed himself in the Holy Bible and in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you reject Christ, he will reject you eternally. You know, after describing the plagues upon Egypt, I'm reminded of how God spoke through Moses in Deuteronomy 4, verse 35. He says, “’To you it was shown that you might know that the LORD, He is God…’” that is Yahweh, “’…He is God; there is no other besides Him.’”

Folks, let me be clear. There is only one way to avoid the punishment of hell and to enter into the bliss of heaven, and that's by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Jesus made that so clear, John 14, verse 6,

 “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me.”

And in Acts 4, verse 12, Peter is preaching and he says,

“There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”

And Paul said in 1 Timothy 6, beginning in verse 3,

“If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness,

“he is conceited and understands nothing…”

So back to the text. Jesus is healing those who were troubled with unclean spirits, and then it says,

“And all the people were trying to touch Him for power was coming from Him and healing them.”

Folks, this is unimaginable power. This is creative power, all that affirms his deity. And I want to close with a few thoughts on the compassion of Jesus that we see here. And beloved, don't miss this.

I'm moved when I think about the sympathy that Jesus had and has for those in great need. And this is what motivated him to heal - his great love for sinners. We read examples of this, Matthew 9, verse 36,

“Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.”

Matthew 14, verse 14,

“He saw a large crowd and felt compassion for them and healed their sick.”

And you will recall when he saw the two blind men in Matthew, Matthew chapter 20 and verse 34, it says that Jesus was “moved with compassion and touched their eyes, and immediately they regained their sight and followed Him.” I'm reminded of the leper in Mark 1 in verse 40. We read that this “leper came to Jesus, beseeching him and falling on his knees before Him and saying, ‘If you are willing, You can make me clean.’” And then we read in verse 41, how Jesus was, quote, “moved with compassion and stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, ‘I am willing, be cleansed.’”

Beloved, think of this. Jesus knew the specific physiology of each one of those image bearers that he had created. He knew the mitochondria, if you will, of every cell, the powerhouse that generates the chemical energy that powers all that goes on in a cell. He knew all of that. He knew the amount of energy that is stored in every molecule. He knew every strand of DNA that stores and transmits all of the genetic instructions for every cell. Jesus knew each one of those people.

He knew them by name. He knew every diseased cell. He knew every deformed bone. He knew every displaced joint. And he knew every dead organ. Why? Because he created them.

Beloved, he was intimately acquainted with every person then as he is now with each one of you. And out of his sympathy, he healed them.

Well, I would challenge each of you, if you've never come to Jesus in repentant faith, I pray that you will do so today before it's too late; for there is forgiveness in eternal life and no other name.

And I close with a story that I was reminded of as I was thinking about this. I'm reminded of the great hymnist in the 1800s, who, though she was physically blind, had perfect spiritual vision. Her name was Fanny Crosby. And once a well-intentioned Scottish minister remarked to her, quote, “I think it is a great pity that the Master, when he showered so many gifts upon you, did not give you sight.” Well, she was quick to respond, and she said, quote, “Do you know that if at birth I had been able to make one petition to my Creator, it would have been that I should have been born blind?” He asked in surprise, “Why?” And she answered, “Because when I get to heaven, the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Savior.”

And out of that heart, she wrote that great hymn, My Savior First of All. I'll read you just a little of it in closing.

When my life work is ended and I cross the swelling tide,

When the bright and glorious morning I shall see,

I shall know my Redeemer when I reach the other side,

And His smile will be the first to welcome me.

And you remember the chorus,

I shall know Him, I shall know Him, and redeemed by His side I shall stand

I shall know Him, I shall know Him by the print of the nails in His hand.

Amen.

Let's pray together.

Father, thank you, thank you, thank you for saving us by your grace. Oh, the power, the love, the compassion of Jesus. And I pray that you will help us all to apply these great truths to our lives. May we serve you more fervently. May we rejoice in Christ more deeply, and may you use us mightily for the sake of the kingdom that others will come to saving faith in the lover of our souls. And it's in his name that I pray. Amen.