Matthew 8

… It's Matthew chapter 8 that I've had laid on my heart for many months now and I would like to spend the majority of our time together looking at this chapter and some of the things that this chapter teaches us. I would like us to try and answer the question of why is it that the Holy Spirit has put together in this particular chapter the events and the stories and the miracles and the discussions that he had with various people and put them together in this particular chapter. If we have time I'd like also to briefly look at some of the events in chapter 9 and see if we can get some idea of why those events have been placed in that order and in that particular location in Matthew's gospel. Perhaps we could read together then Matthew chapter 8. When he was come down from the mountain great multitudes followed him and behold there came a leper and worshipped him saying Lord if thou wilt thou can 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 said 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 said 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 to 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 the west and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth and Jesus said unto the centurion go thy way and as thou hast believed so be it done unto thee and his servant was healed in the self same hour and when Jesus was coming to Peter's house he saw his wife's mother laid and sick of a fever and he touched her hand and the fever left her and she arose and ministered unto them when the evening 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 bear 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 with us whoever thou goest and Jesus said unto him the foxes of holes and the birds of the air have nests but the son of man have not where to lay his head and another of his disciples said unto him lord suffer me first to go and bury my father but Jesus said unto him follow me and let the dead bury their dead and when he was entered into a ship his disciples followed him 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 you fearful oh 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 gergesins there met him two possessed with devils coming out of the tombs exceeding fierce so that no man might pass by that way and behold they cried out saying what have we to do with thee Jesus thou son of god art thou come hither to torment us before the time and there was a good way off from them a herd of many swine feeding so the devils besought him saying if thou cast us 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 into 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 them everything and what was befallen to be the possessed of the devils and behold the whole city came out to meet Jesus and when they saw him they besought him that he would depart out of their curse. So as we've read through this eighth chapter of Matthew's gospel I would like us to try and put stories together and have a good idea of the stories that are mentioned in this chapter. Almost all of them are very well known incidents in the life of our Lord Jesus. Many of the children will have already have heard of these wonderful stories that we read of in Matthew chapter 28 sorry Matthew chapter 8 sorry. The sheet that I've produced for you on the first side that's labeled Matthew's gospel chapter 8 tries to show the order of these events that took place chronologically the order that they actually happened in the time that they occurred with our Lord and those stories there if we look perhaps down the column which is entitled events or miracles we can see that the order in which they actually happened is greatly different from the order that Matthew gives them to us. So there must be a reason why Matthew has put these events in a different order. If we look down the headings that I've tried to show for Mark's gospel and Luke's gospel we can see that in Luke's gospel all of these events are indicated but in what we think basing it mainly perhaps on Mark's gospel the chronological order. Mark leaves out the centurion servants and he leaves out the last few verses about the scribe and disciple coming to the Lord but Luke gives us all these stories but in a different order. So why is it that these actually took place in a different order and Matthew's got them in a alternative order. If we look at the chronological order we can see that what happened first of all was the healing of Peter's mother-in-law. That event according to the stories we've got in our chapter took place the very first and perhaps took place before the actual sermon of the mount. We've just read chapter 8 which talks about events and they come in Matthew's gospel after the sermon of the mount. If we look at the calming of the storm on the lake that event took place after the parables the seven parables of the kingdom that Matthew talks about in Matthew 13. So even Matthew gets orders differently. So if we start off and look at the first of these stories the leper on many different levels we can get a great deal of blessing from these different incidents in the life of our Lord Jesus. We know that leprosy speaks of sin that in particular leprosy speaks of the corrupting nature of sin. That leprosy here can be thought of as a type a type of the moral condition of Israel at that time in particular in the presence of their messiah. The children of Israel the people of God were in a very poor spiritual state. This leper knew something of the worthiness of the Lord Jesus Christ and he came to the Lord Jesus and was wanting to know whether the Lord was willing to make him clean. The leper could acknowledge the person of the Lord Jesus Christ but he wanted to know whether the Lord was willing to make him clean. If Israel as a nation as the people of the Jews had come to the Lord Jesus and asked him to make them clean then the Lord had come to do that very task. He had come to the Jews to the Jews first of all and this story surely shows us the grace of the Lord Jesus, the power of the Lord Jesus and the undefilable holiness of the Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus that he was willing to come that he was willing to live amongst mankind. The power in that he was able to cleanse this leper of his leprosy and the undefilable holiness that he was a man who could come and walk in this world that he could not be tainted by sin and he could reach out and touch the leper and not be made sin because of his touching with this uncleanness. The Jews knew that God was the only one who could cure leprosy. That God was the only one who could cure leprosy. That the Lord Jesus here in their midst healed that man of his leprosy. What were they going to think? What was their action and reaction going to be to this wonderful miracle done in their midst? We're obviously reading of a time before the cross and the Lord Jesus sought to maintain the law and he sent the healed leper to the priest so the priest could authenticate that the leprosy had been cured. That was one of the most important signs to the people of Israel that the Messiah was here. We perhaps read the story we don't realize the full consequence perhaps of the Lord healing the leper and that was the very one of the very signs that the Jews knew that the Messiah was amongst them. So what was the reaction of the Jews? The Jews didn't own him and they would not own him and it's one of the features as we look through this chapter and through the whole of Matthew's gospel that we see the Lord being rejected on every hand. He was rejected time and time and time again. He came unto his own and his own received him not. So if we move on to the story of the centurion. We've got the leper out of chronological order opening this chapter for us after Matthew has told us about the sermon of the mount. So the story of the centurion is I think fairly clear. It's very obvious the main purpose of this story and the reason why it's put into this chapter at this particular place. The event had taken place a considerable time after the healing of the leper. If perhaps for a moment you wanted to have a look at that column that I added called event number on the left hand side. I've used Cor Bruin's book as just an example really where he's gone through all the stories in the gospels all the events and most of them and put them in what he thought was chronological order. There's a few areas that there might be discussions about but if you look at the numbers that are there it gives you some idea of how the gospel writer inspired by the Holy Spirit has picked out a story here has picked out another story there another one over there hasn't kept them in the same order but put them in an alternative order. There must be a reason as to why that has happened and this story of the centurion's servant and see it's called ten events happened certainly a while after this story of the leper but Matthew gives us no indication of sequence. If you look at where this event starts most of them begin with the phrase and behold and when unlike Mark who is often using sequential time. So the centurion had been given by God a far greater and fuller sense of the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. This centurion appreciated that the bodily presence of the Lord Jesus wasn't needed. He was a man who was used to commanding troops and the very hearing of his word of his command even if he wasn't present would activate the action. He knew the Lord Jesus could heal his servant and he was bothered about his servant. I don't think many centurions would have been but he knew that the Lord could heal his servant. So we see that in this case there was no touching that was required. There was no need for the Lord Jesus to go and to touch this servant. The very word spoken by the Lord was able to heal that person. What a wonderful thing that is. The Lord could just speak and the man could be healed. It tells us as we look down to verse 11 the reason why this story is put in. Because that many shall come from the east and the 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 there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. So from the east and the west the centurion being a gentile not of Israel that he was going to be and many like him were going to come from the east and west and they shall be part of this kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom the Jews would be cast out where there would be weeping and gnashing of teeth. So if we go back to the story of the leper we've got the story of the leper representing the Lord Jesus coming to his people the Jews. They were full of sin the leper speaking of that. But the next story put in speaks of the centurion the gentiles and the Lord says here that the gentiles would be brought in. So we have the Lord going to the Jews which we know he did and then going to the gentiles and I presume that most of us here in this room are gentiles and that we have received that blessing of the gospel coming to us. That it went out to the Jews first of all but the Jews rejected their messiah and the gospel has been proclaimed thankfully throughout this world and this story of the centurion suggests this sequence of events. So it foreshadows the incoming of millions upon millions of gentiles who have trusted the Lord Jesus and the faith that the centurion used is characteristic of the gentiles who did not see the Lord did not touch the Lord. We notice that the Lord didn't go to touch the servants in this instance and so it speaks of the gentiles who believe. But then if we move on to the third story that we've got in Matthew chapter 8. This in fact was the very first story chronologically but Matthew puts it in here as the third story in this chapter. Why? Well it's a few verses that tell us about the healing of Peter's mother-in-law. Why has this been put in at this particular place? Well throughout this chapter we see something of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Grace in going to Israel, grace in going to the gentiles. But this story is perhaps put in here at this particular position because Matthew didn't want the Jews to feel that they had been completely cast aside. But he comes back to Peter's mother-in-law who needed healing. But the story here speaks of the good news going to the Jews again as well. That the Jews haven't been completely cast aside. That the rejection, the continued rejection that they meted out to our Lord Jesus Christ, the thorough unbelief that characterized the Jewish nation, that this would not alienate the heart of the Lord. And we see the Lord's continuing love and grace as he reaches out in this story here to Peter's mother-in-law. We might ask why Peter's mother-in-law? Just wonder that Peter was the apostle to the circumcision. That seems to emphasize this fact that the Jews are still in mind. That the natural tie that the Lord has to Israel is brought back into prominence. That God has not forgotten Israel. That though they've rejected him, God has not forgotten them. And that the scriptures full of promises to God's earthly people, the Jews, that those will be fulfilled and that those will be brought into fruition. And we are privileged enough to live in a time where we see these things or some of these things happening and building up to the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. So the healing of Peter's mother-in-law could perhaps represent the Lord's continuing love for Israel even though they rejected him and had no heart for him. So if we move on and look at what is obviously just a few verses from, we have the incident perhaps just quickly in verse 16 where the Lord at the even time, many he says were possessed with devils and he cast out the spirits with his word and healed all that were sick. They rejected him but still people came and they came with all the problems that they had and he healed them all it says here. How many times just I wonder do we feel rejected and not wanted? And we might say right I'll have nothing to do with them, don't want anything to do with them anymore. But these people kept coming to the Lord Jesus, they kept rejecting him but he kept doing these wonderful miracles in their midst and nothing would stop him from keep on with his work and showing him that he was the Messiah. So when we look at verse 19 in particular of this scribe that came to the Lord Jesus. Now if we found the comparable passage in Luke we can see it's Luke chapter 9 and that in fact is after the transfiguration a considerable time afterwards and that might help us to understand why these few words were mentioned in that after the mount of the transfiguration. This scribe, this Jew wanted selfishly a place of honour for himself, that something of the Lord's glory he had understood and a Jew wanted some honourable place with the Lord Jesus. Now this Jew was just a carnal Jew, a Jew that wanted a good place with the Messiah. He was concerned with present earthly things and therefore we'll notice that the Lord just speaks to him about earthly things and he talks at that famous and well-known verse the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests but the son of man hath not where to lay his head. The scribe was given perhaps we could say an earthly answer. He offered to follow the Lord Jesus but he wasn't called and perhaps we might think that those who are not called might think that they can do anything or go anywhere for the Lord Jesus but if we look at verse 21, another of his disciples, someone who was a disciple and he was called but this disciple feels something of the difficulty and pleads the natural duty of burying his father, something that earthly speaking we would think of as of the most importance but he pleads that duty before following the Lord Jesus and the Lord Jesus says to him follow me. So we find the man who isn't called, the scribe, promises to go anywhere and do anything in his own strength but the man who is called, the disciple, feels the difficulty and pleads this natural duty and so after we've had the three previous stories of the leper, the Lord going to Israel, the centurion, the Lord then going to the Gentiles, the healing of Peter's mother-in-law, the Lord still going to the Jews, we see here discipleship and following the Lord Jesus brought in to show those that of the cost of discipleship and how it is something that must be seriously and truly embarked upon. So from verse 23 we've got the well-known story of the storm on the lake. Now this story, this event actually happened after the telling of the seven parables of the kingdom. The seven parables of the kingdom well known and well talked about in Matthew chapter 13. We would expect this story even in Matthew's gospel to follow Matthew chapter 13 but Matthew has put it in this particular place. Why? Well we know the great comfort that this story can bring. We know that it tells us and speaks to us of how the disciples followed the Lord Jesus, that they were with him in the boat, that troubles, calamities, the storm in this particular instance came upon them and they asked the Lord to help them. Now it's a wonderful story isn't it that we can remember and use when we have present difficulties and problems and issues that we need help with, that the Lord is there in the boat with us, that he can calm the storm, that he can come in for us and calm the problems and help us to cope with the problems, sometimes even miraculously making them go away. How wonderful it is that I'm sure each of us in this room who's trusted the Saviour knows something of going to the Lord when we've got difficulties and problems, of asking him to help us and he miraculously sorts things out, that something that was a real issue to us, that it goes away, it's solved, it's not such a bigger problem, the Lord helps us to get through. Well thankfully we can take that encouragement and that heart from that story but the story speaking here of the disciples speaks obviously of in the first instance of Jewish disciples, of the disciples being tested by a storm that apparently their master knew nothing about and this would speak to us of the godly part of Israel, those that we often refer to as the remnant, that the Jews there being separated to the Lord Jesus, being with the Lord Jesus in the boat, not expecting everything to be a bed of roses but we know that remnant of Israel will go through that tribulation as a primary instance and that the Lord Jesus will be with them and will guide them and help them as they're exposed to their enemies and as they suffer terrible tribulation at that time but the Lord acts in power for them just as he can do so for us today. So the last incident that we've got in Matthew chapter 8, another very well-known story, carrying on we think just afterwards and when they'd come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes or the Gadarenes and there we find that the Lord is met by these two people possessed of devils. Matthew, it's interesting to note, speaks of two. There are many instances in Matthew's gospel where he talks about two people and the other gospel writers only speaking about one. Perhaps it's obviously there were two people that were actually there but Matthew picks upon that and mentions two because it was so important to Matthew to have a witness in Jewish terms, two agreeing together that these things did happen and so we can think of these two men possessed and controlled by Satan that it shows the way in which the devil controls people today, that he controls people and that we see the dreadful excesses that people are succumbed to and controlled by and dominated by. We're finding it more and more in this world in which we live that as people give themselves over to the devil, to all these excesses that the devil is in control and the dreadful things that are happening and people are succumbed to. But as we see later in this passage we can think of it also as the quiet way in which the enemy seeks to dissuade people and in this particular instance cause the Lord Jesus to leave. We live in a time where perhaps many of us don't feel that outright antagonism against us as people of the Lord but how we often feel that the population at large are so in their hearts and in themselves antagonistic against the things of the Lord. They're really against Christian things. They might not say so aggressively openly but if we try to mention the Lord's things, if the topic of conversation goes that way then we see this is a surprisingly people who perhaps we otherwise get on with quite well are so against Christian things and at the end of this story the people are asking the Lord Jesus to leave. They want nothing to do with the Lord Jesus. So the Lord shows here his power in delivering these two men from the power of Satan. It was proof that it could be done, proof of a future time when Christ's power will deliver the Jewish remnant, when Christ will come and rescue that remnant for himself. But how terrible it is in this story, I'm sure you've thought of it many times, how that the men here would rather be found in a position or to be left with the demons rather than enjoy the presence of the Lord Jesus. How terrible that is. There's a man, the Messiah, the Son of God was with them. He'd come to them, they'd seen his power, they knew these two people, they'd seen his great power and yet they wanted him to leave. They'd rather be left with the demons than enjoy the presence of the Son of God. How terrible that is. And so we have these devils pleading with the Lord to go and be put into that herd of swine. The swine of course shouldn't be there in the Jewish economy. But here this swine is typifying the final condition of the defiled apostate mass of Israel. That the swine are those people in that final day, the people of Israel, who know not the Messiah, who don't want the Messiah. And these devils, and it's typifying for us how that into that mass of unbelieving Jews that they will be given up and given up to the devil and tradition. And so as we come to the end of that chapter, I hope we can see these types and this sequence of events and how this could be the reason why the Holy Spirit has put these events from different times and different locations into this particular order. That the Lord Jesus went to the Jews first, full of sin, as spoken by the leper. That he went then because they rejected him to the Gentiles, spoke the centurion with his great faith. That the Jews were not forgotten. That the Lord healed Simon Peter's mother-in-law. That if we move on to the storm of the lake, that the disciples, the Jewish disciples, with him in the boat, that remnant speaking of how the Lord would come in and help preserve that remnant. And then in the last story of the legion and the devils in the Gergesin area, that here speaking of the end of the age when the Lord Jesus will actually come. And there the majority of the unbelieving Jews are given up. Now I find that we often say the dispensational side of Matthew, but we can see in a number of instances in Matthew's gospel quite remarkable. That this chapter is showing from a concoction of events this theme and this thread that goes all the way through. There are some other wonderful points that we can think of in this chapter. That Matthew always writes and he's calculated to meet the conscience of Israel. Luke in his gospel about the leper spoke of the leper of being full of leprosy. The Gentiles speaking, the nation full of leprosy. Matthew just mentions that he was a leper. We find if we compare the stories that the leper was healed by the Lord's touch and by his word. That the centurion was healed by the word and Peter's mother-in-law was healed by touch only. That if we look at the faith, if we look at the faith of the centurion, the great faith that's mentioned as attributed to him. The disciples had little faith. They were in the boat, they had little faith. The leper, we can perhaps think of him as having defective faith and the Gadarenes in the last instance, no faith at all. But what a wonderful thing it is. Tremendous thing. That it doesn't matter if there's great faith of the centurion, the little faith of the disciples or the defective faith of the leper. That they all receive the blessing. Little, defective, great. They all receive the blessing. That the blessing is not according to the quality or the quantity of faith but according to the Lord's heart of grace. How wonderful that is. Now if you can perhaps very briefly dip into chapter nine and point out the stories for you in chapter nine and see mainly if you would go away and think about it. Because as we look at chapter nine there and if you've got a bible which has got the headings of the stories it is a lot easier. But first of all we've got Jesus healing the palsied man. We know that story very very well known. Secondly we've got about Matthew himself. Most interesting as to how Matthew speaks about himself. It's interesting for instance that Matthew doesn't say how that he gave away his money. The other gospel writers tell us but Matthew doesn't. Then we have a discourse about the pharisees and the pharisees criticizing and complaining and saying why does the master eat with publicans and sinners. We have an interesting two verses in 16 and 17 where it speaks about the old garment and the new garment. Verse 17 neither do men put new wine into old bottles else the bottles break and the wine runneth out. And then the well-known story in verse 18 of Jairus's daughter. We know that in the middle there verse 20 for a few verses there's a woman that comes to him with an issue of blood and that she's healed. And the Lord stops going to Jairus's daughter and heals that woman and then carries on with that story. And then at the end of the chapter we've got 27. We've got two blind men and over the page we've got the eyes opened yes and the dumb healed as well. The demon cast out sorry. Now from those stories very simply and very quickly we get a similar type of sequence. We've got the palsied man. Palsy, illness, speaking of sin. In this case sin that was incapable of healing himself. So we could perhaps think of the palsy of the Lord going to Israel to the Jews again just as in the letter. When we look at the call of Matthew we see that increasingly it shows the display of grace that went out. Matthew was a tax collector. He was hated by the Jews. He was doing an iniquitous job but the grace of the Lord Jesus went out and came to Matthew and called Matthew. That the Pharisees and one of the characteristics of this chapter is that it shows us the effect on the religious leaders of the Jews that the presence of the Messiah had. It speaks there's a theme running through that speaks about what effect does the presence of the Messiah in Israel have upon this religious leaders. And then we have this parable of the old and the new garments. And here we have the mistake of Christendom really don't we. But it's saying to us quite clearly you cannot mix Christianity and the Jewish system. You cannot mix the old and the new. The new wine with the old wine. It's completely different. And the economy that we now live in of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ that they cannot be mixed and this is being brought in as new. And then Jairus's daughter. Now Jesus again goes with this ruler. He was one of these rulers against the Lord Jesus perhaps. But he comes to the Lord with a dire need and the Lord deigns to go with him. We see the contrast between the centurion, the Gentile. He believed that the Lord could just speak a word but here the ruler of the Jews anxious that the Lord comes with him and stays with him. And we can connect that with the Jewish nation of the Lord being present with the Jewish nation at that time. And that when the Lord heals the daughter it speaks obviously of the restoring of the Jewish nation. But in the midst of that story in the middle we've got the woman with the issue of blood coming out and touching the Lord's garments. Perhaps speaking to us of the Gentiles of the further ways of grace that God is reaching out to whoever comes and accepts him in faith. That the Lord's primary purpose is to come to Israel and bless Israel but the message goes out to whosoever will. And that the two blind men of the confession of Christ by Israel in a future day when they address him as the son of David. And again we've got the demon cast out and it's giving us type after type, promise after promise that Israel would not be forgotten. They might keep on rejecting him and rejecting him. The Lord might keep giving them proof after proof. He might in his heart of love keep healing them and going to individuals and groups. But they still didn't want to know him. How terrible that would be. How terrible it is that people still do not want to know our Lord Jesus Christ. So we have in Matthew's gospel many I'm sure of you are well aware the characteristics of Matthew's gospel. That Matthew presents the Lord Jesus as a king. That his gospel here is primarily for the Jews, for Israel. That in Matthew's gospel there are more Old Testament scriptures quoted and fulfilled than the rest of the gospels put together. He wanted to prove to his people that here was truly the Messiah. That Matthew's gospel is written in a dispensational order in many cases. And that it emphasises the kingdom of heaven and is perhaps the only complete sketch we have of the kingdom of heaven. That Matthew wrote to the Jews because he was a Jew. Some of the other gospel writers weren't Jews. And that it was important that he was an eyewitness that he was actually there when these happens to the Jews. So if you just had a few seconds really to look on the second side of the sheet that I've given you. I've tried and I knew that we'd hardly get to this particular point. But I've tried to pick out there chapter by chapter in Matthew's gospel some of the main themes to enable us to see why it is the gospel has been put together in such a way. We first of all see in chapter one the genealogy of the Lord Jesus. Why is that put first? Because Matthew had to show that the Messiah was son of Abraham and son of David. Most important to give his credentials. Very interestingly in Matthew's gospel we see that although it's the gospel to the Jews that often the Gentiles and the church are mentioned in particular ways. And we find here the Lord's birth but we find the only story or writing of the story of the Magi coming and worshipping the Lord Jesus. Why is that put in there? Because as the Lord went to the Jews and the Jews rejected him the gospel goes to the Gentiles. So it's put in here right at the very beginning. We have the chapters five six and seven the sermon of the mount giving us the principles and the laws of the kingdom. And then we come to our two chapters and we see there that it's speaking of the Lord's presence in Israel. His rejection and the results of his rejection. And chapter nine the effects of his presence on the religious leaders. But he was rejected and right the way through we see this rejection time and time again. But the heart of the grace of God shines out. That in chapter 10 he sends out the disciples to Israel. That in 11 and 12 we've got a transitional state. The kingdom of heaven is set up in this mysterious form. That there's a break between the Israel going to Israel and being rejected by Israel. Chapter 13 we've referred to about the parables of the kingdom. It shows the character of the kingdom that it takes while the king is hidden. And then chapter 14 Israel dismissed. The story again the similar story of Christ on high. The disciples in the boat speaking figuratively of the Lord in heaven and the disciples on this boat on land. And then arriving at land Gennesaret and when that speaks of the world out of which he'd been expelled and they worship him there. A number of types in there. Then 15 and 16 there these principles of the kingdom. But we notice the Lord still feeding the Jews the millennial kingdom there. 16 the first instance we have of reference to the assembly in particular in this gospel that went out to the Jews. The transfiguration this the partial view of the kingdom illustrating the glory of the rejected son of man. And then 18 the principles again and 19 other principles that are brought in. But still in verse 20 we get the laborers in the vineyard and we get this idea of grace the sovereignty of God that God is still acting in grace. And 21 the Lord coming to Jerusalem on an ass and the last formal presentation of Jesus as king. The fig tree speaking of Israel is cursed. And we move on to the marriage feast of the grace again going out again to the Jew first and then the Gentile and the religious leaders eventually silenced. 23 the Lord still owning the existence of Judaism but pronouncing doom upon them. And then 24 the Olivet discourse where we moved into the later times and the parable of the Virgin and the talents and the king's return the wonderful king's return. And then we get the important events of the Lord's being taken to Calvary's cross and crucified. And lastly we see no mention of the ascension in the gospel of Matthew that the disciples were sent to the Gentiles. But no mention of the Lord being ascended on heaven. So as I hope we've seen we've taken a small section of Matthew's gospel and seen that the Holy Spirit hasn't just thrown things into a pot and mixed them all together but the reasons for that ordered dispensational reasons that throughout Matthew's gospel things might be put out of chronological order but there are reasons there. And how this I'm sure thrills our hearts to know something of the wonders of the Word of God. To know that it is inspired by the Holy Spirit. To know that we can pick it up and read it and it can provide help for ourselves help for a present moment and a present difficulty. That we can trust the Word of God in its content and its message this wonderful message which keeps showing the Lord Jesus going out in grace and love to his people. Keep being rejected but he still goes all the way to Calvary's cross. So may it be that we're each thrilled by reading and understanding something of the Word of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ of whom it speaks. So could we close by singing hymn number 384. The sands of time are sinking the dawn of heaven breaks. The summer morn I've sighed for the fair sweet morn awakes. Dark dark have been the midnights but day spring is at hand and glory glory dwelleth in Emmanuel's land. Hymn number 384. …