Matthew 9

Matthew 9:1-35

VS. Matthew 8:1 to Matthew 9:35 inclusive. Compare Mark 1:40 to Mark 2:14 and Mark 5:22-43; Luke 5:12-39. OF CHRIST’S DEITY THE Sermon on the Mount finished with the conclusion of the seventh chapter, revealing the marvelous ability of Christ as teacher, and left the multitudes in amazement at His doctrine, “for He taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes”. But Christ was more than Teacher. He was Physician, Friend, and even Life itself, as the Scriptures of the eighth and ninth chapters clearly show. The wisdom in Christ’s teaching was scarcely more wonderful than the power in Christ’s touch. The noble ethics of the mountain-side sermon scarcely surpassed the deeds of sympathy and of love that characterized Him when He came into the plain. The two sides of Christ’s ministry combine to justify His claim of Deity. When He spake, even His enemies had to admit, “Never man spake like this Man”; and when He wrought, a kindred concession was forced upon their lips, “We never saw it on this wise”. These two chapters, eight and nine, show Christ in action. In them, Christ treats disease; Christ determines discipleship, and Christ controls devils. CHRIST TREATS DISEASE “When He was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. And, behold, there came a leper and worshiped Him, saying, Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth His hand, and touched him, saying, I will; he thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them” (Matthew 8:1-4). This miracle is only a sample of a great series to follow, for in these chapters Christ heals the centurion’s servant (Matthew 8:5-13), raises up, from a bed of fever, Peter’s wife’s mother (Matthew 8:14-15); healed all that were sick (Matthew 8:16); restores the man stricken with palsy (Matthew 9:2-8); ends a twelve-year issue of blood (Matthew 9:20-22); raises Jairus’ daughter from the dead (Matthew 9:18-19; Matthew 9:23-26); heals the two blind men (Matthew 9:27-31), and makes the dumb to speak (Matthew 9:32-35). In these facts, see three things: He proves His absolute power over disease; He controls it, not by magic, but by command; and in this expression of power, He reveals His compassion. He proves His absolute power over disease. This is a day of quackery and specialization. Doctors are somewhat equally divided between the two. Either they profess cures wholly impossible to them, or they practice in a restricted realm, on the basis that it is quite impossible for one mortal man to make himself familiar with all kinds of diseases, and with all the possible disorders of a body composed of approximately twenty-six trillion cells. In fact, it would seem that the brain specialist would have enough to do to take care of the cerebral cortex with its nine billion, two hundred million cells. The old time doctor used to essay to treat everything, and the present-day physician will tell you that he treated nothing intelligently. But Christ was no specialist. Leprosy went at His word; palsy departed at His command; fever left its victim at His touch; the demon possessed came to right mind at His call; blood staunched at His word; blindness went at His will; dumbness ended at His command, and even death itself, the direst enemy of the body, dared not defy His demand. He who created the body by the word of His power, knows how to correct its evil distempers, and cure its every disease. Leprosy may be incurable with men, but not with the God-man. Palsy may be incurable with a human physician, but not for the Divine Physician. Blindness may baffle the keenest surgeon, but not the Christ. Death may send the ordinary doctor to his home heart-broken and consciously helpless, but even it holds no terrors for the Author of life. “Power belongeth unto the Lord”. These miracles were not by magic, but by His command. Modernists are wont to tell us that Christ effected cures through mental therapeutics; created first of all the spirit of expectancy, and then by well-known laws of psychology, made that expectancy result in physical improvement. There is a power of mental therapeutics that the well-informed do not question. There are cases subject wholly to mental manipulation, as medical men well know, and even casual observers are convinced. The power of the mind over the body is but partially appreciated. In the South recently, I learned from the lips of a most reputable minister of an instance where a farmer going to town was asked by his wife to get some diamond dyes. He bought them and put them on the inside of his vest pocket. The day was hot, perspiration was free, and the dyes ran through and colored his flesh. At night, when he took off his clothes, the blue shirt being practically identical with the dye, showed no discoloration, but all the flesh over the region of his heart was a bluish purple. At sight of it, he was alarmed. The family physician was called at once; a careful investigation was made and a counsel of doctors resulted.

The four of them sat in solemn conclave and declared that it was the fourth case of its kind recorded in the annals of medical history, and that each of the others had died within twenty-four hours, and that there was no hope. They called in the neighbors, therefore, to sit with the man to see the end. His pulse weakened; cold sweat gathered on his brow; death was imminent! The daughter, remembering her mother’s charge to the father when he left, not desiring to lose the dyes, shook the old man up and asked him what he did with them. He said, “In my vest!” They brought the garment, and lo, the whole section that covered this particular part of the heart region, was blue, and the daughter said, “Father, look, there is nothing wrong with you. That discoloration is a diamond dye”.

The old man sat up in bed; shooed the neighbors and family out of the room instantly; dressed himself and went to the barn to take care of the cattle. The daughter’s timely word kept her father from an untimely grave. Diamond dyes are a long removal from leprosy. The slight discoloration of the flesh from an external application of dyes is no such disease as palsy; has no such permanence as blindness, and no such agony as demon possession. Magic may work when sickness is a product of imagination, but it utterly fails when a true fever burns; when a hemorrhage drains veins and weakens arteries, and it is impotent in the presence of death. In the language of Joseph Parker, what can we say in the face of the facts here recorded, save “Lord, increase our faith. We are full of questioning and speculation, and cleverness and metaphysics, and we are keen at suggesting difficulties, and clever in the creation and piling of obstacles. I would God I could say always, right in the devil’s very face when he is grinding at my weakness most, ‘Lord, I believe’”. This whole series of miracles is the sure revelation of His compassion. “When the even 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 Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses” (Matthew 8:16-17). It is the custom of all those who call the modern miracle into question to emphasize the fact that miracles attested the Deity of Jesus, and added authority or weight to His words; but the most of them are silent touching the fact that miracles were ever wrought for their own sake; that miracles were ever wrought because the sight of suffering or distress so appealed to the Son of God that He could no more withhold His beneficent power than He could restrain Himself from tender pity. The glory of Jesus Christ consisted not alone in exhibitions of His Deity, but was equally manifested in the ebullitions of His humanity. At the grave of Lazarus, He “wept”. No man need be surprised therefore when He cried to His friend, fallen under the fierce assault of the last enemy—“Come forth”. He who will may believe that that miracle was meant only to attest the Divinity of Jesus, or add weight to His spoken words, but I am compelled to think that it was the cry of His humane heart calling back to His arms His bosom friend, and causing the hearts of those beautiful sisters—Mary and Martha—to lose their sorrow and leap for joy. Victor Hugo makes Jean Val Jean as watchful, as the hunted ever are, against possible detection on the part of his adversary; but when a driver’s wagon is mired, this same man crawls beneath it, and by his Herculean strength, releases its wheels, and in the very process publishes his own name. Did Jean Val Jean lift that wagon to exhibit his power? Never! but because his tender human heart could not “pass by on the other side”, seeing the distress of the stalled man! The Samaritan who ministered to the man on the way to Jericho, binding up his wounds, carrying him to an inn, paying his bills, providing against the future—did he do that that Samaria might have a good name, or that anybody might believe in him? Nay, verily, but because in his breast there beat the heart of a brother. And, if I know the Christ at all, He healed sick men, opened the eyes of the blind, and raised the dead, primarily because His heart was as humane as His character was Divine; His Spirit as compassionate as His Word was potent. Is it not written, “And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and He healed their sick” (Matthew 14:14). No wonder John wrote, “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace”, and that glory was never better manifested than in the miracles that Jesus wrought for the help, health and happiness of men. It is while studying this side of His character we realize that “our High Priest can he touched with the feeling of our infirmities”, and are encouraged to “come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need”.But we pass to the second suggestion: Christ determines discipleship. “Now when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave commandment to depart unto the other side. And a certain scribe came, and said unto Him, Master, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest. And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not 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” (Matthew 8:18-22). How strange a method of making disciples: He presents no alluring prospects or promises. This is a strange and unwonted way to secure followers. It is far removed from the method of the smooth modernist, as the latter paints rosy prospects and makes abounding promises. Christ, on the other hand, presents difficulties, erects barriers, names certain hardships, and then says, “Now, will you come?” In this as in all other matters, “Never man spake like this Man”. His appeal was not to softness, but to steadfastness instead; it was not to ease-loving, but to the heroic. Evidently, he was not “enamored of numbers”.

He did not care to pile up disciples, increase His church, to be able to claim His thousands. A few whose steadfastness would never fail were better. The wisdom in this method is known to the most observant men. Gideon’s three hundred were valuable above the thousands. The man who serves God for a price is no fit disciple of His Son. True disciples are not bribed.

They do not even demand softness, but willingly submit themselves to severe discipline. They are not “asking a pillow of down and a bed of ease”, but are content to share with their Master His pillowless estate. The present difficulty with the Church of God is at this point. We are more anxious to multiply our numbers than we are to make true soldiers of the Cross; to have heads to count and report through newspapers, than to make soldiers who will endure hardness and report to the “Captain of our salvation”. He demonstrates His professed possession of power. “And when He was entered into a ship, His disciples followed Him. And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves; but he was asleep. And his disciples came to Him, and awoke Him, saying, Lord, save us; we perish. And He saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then He arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm. But the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him!” (Matthew 8:23-27). It is encouraging to behold our Christ at work at another realm. One might imagine that He had, through some good fortune, found the key to health and the way to conquest of disease, but that He was limited to that single realm. Such would be a sufficient fame and fortune for any physician of earth, but Christ was more than “Lord of the body”. He was also the “captain of winds and waves”. All nature was subject to His control, and though it could not be said of the man Christ, as it is written of God, that “He never slumbered nor slept”, it can with all assurance be said of the man Christ, that the moment His disciples need Him, He is awake, and once awake, He is adequate. To many of us, Christ is asleep. The reason is that we ourselves are in the calm; peace is our portion, prosperity our estate, and we feel no need of Him. In fact, we are very well content to let Him alone, to leave Him to His rest. But let the storm arise; let sickness smite| let the black angel of death flap his wings through the room where wife, husband or child is burning with fever or gasping for breath, and then we instinctively turn to Him, tug at His garment, and cry, “Lord, save”, and the blessed fact is that He is instantly alert, ever sympathetic and always capable. I am a light sleeper, and when my children were babies and their cradles were nigh at hand at night, I relieved the dear mother of any concern or care through that time. Their faintest cry never once failed to enter my ear and bring me to be wide awake. Mrs. Riley used to say, “Those babies don’t need you half the time. They simply call you because they want to visit with you. It’s fun for them to get father up in the night under the pretense of thirst or other whim”.

I half admitted the fact, but mother didn’t seem to know that it was fun for father to get up also, and the fellowship of the dark-ness is better than the fellowship of day. So, Christ’s coming when the storm is on, when the mantle of night is wrapped around the earth, when the lightning flash brings alarm, when the foam-capped waves threaten the craft—aye, that is comfort, and that also is Christ. But when my babies were frightened, the best I could do was to ease them with my presence. I could not still a storm. He can! I could not banish the darkness and bring the day.

He does! I could not rebuke the fever and bring health. He wrought both. I could not still the waves and bring the boat to land, but the “Captain of our salvation” has “all power in heaven and on earth” and under every condition, His Deity is demonstrated. He defends the course and conduct of His own disciples. Read the ninth chapter from verses 9 to 17. “And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and He saith unto him, Follow Me. And he arose, and followed Him. And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto His disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, He said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, bid they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice; for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Then came to Him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but Thy disciples fast not? And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bride-chamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast. No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse. Neither do men put new wine into old bottles; else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish; but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved”. (Matthew 9:9-17) He called Matthew; he was a publican. How marvelous to make a disciple out of one with no social standing; and, such was the custom of Christ. Even His Apostles came from lowly station. “Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are; that no flesh should glory in His presence” (1 Corinthians 1:26-29). He did more than call; He defended. His disciples were subject to criticism on account of His own conduct, but He reminded their critics of the great fundamental of His earth-ministry, “I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance”. The disciples of John came demanding to know why Jesus did not impose fasting upon His own disciples, and Jesus answered them, “Can the children of the bride chamber mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?” and declared that their attempt to keep both the traditions of the fathers and the truth of God was like the foolish who “put a new piece of cloth into an old garment, or new wine into old bottles”. Truly, as Joseph Parker says, “There are many people whose virtue consists in abstention from vice’: it is a kind of minus quantity; it is the mere negation of wrong. They will not eat, they will not drink, they will not pursue this pleasure, nor will they follow after that delight, they will not be seen in such and such company—that is their lean and most puny virtue. It is necessary, it is part of the education, but a man ought not always to rest there. Virtue is positive, religion is emphatic; the true spirit is one of liberty!” Finally, CHRIST DEVILS. “And when He was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met Him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding 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” (Matthew 8:28-29)? “As they went out, behold, they brought to Him a dumb man possessed with a devil. And when the devil was cast out, the dumb spake: and the multitudes marvelled, saying, It was never so seen in Israel. But the Pharisees said, He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils. And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people” (Matthew 9:32-35). We have seen Him work in the realm of human flesh and bring it from sickness to health. We have seen Him work in the realm of the first heaven and quiet wind and wave. Now we behold Him work in a third environment, namely that of spirits. He discovers the same ministry there that He has shown elsewhere, and yet, as a matter of fact, these three realms are not so far apart as one might imagine, for sickness is of Satan; disease is of the devil! Storms may come from the same source, for He is the “prince of the power of the air”. Why should surprise then take us on the discovery of demon possession! Rather let us rejoice in some facts! First, the demons admit His authority against them! “What have we to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God? Art Thou come hither to torment us before the time?”Men seem to think that unbelief is a minor matter, a small sin, if a sin at all. The Scriptures teach us, on the contrary, that it is “the sin of sins”, “the root of all iniquities”. Men resent being compared with devils at any point, but let it be forever understood that even demons are not guilty of infidelity. “They believe and tremble”. They have felt the hand of God in judgment once already in “the loss of their first estate”, their “former habitation, and the binding of the chains that reserve them in everlasting darkness unto the judgment of the great day” (Jude 1:6). In memory of that fact, they are not foolish enough to doubt God, nor sufficiently forgetful of Christ’s authority and power to deny or decry Him. They have a day of judgment back of them. They consciously face another to come. They believe and fear. Oh, that men, if they will not learn from angels, might at least take suggestions from devils, and quit their skepticism forever. They unwillingly yield to His lightest word. “And there was a good way off from them an 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 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 every thing, and what was befallen to 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 coasts” (Matthew 8:30-34). They will resist men. They will refuse their commands. Witness the instance of the “vagabond Jews, exorcists, [who] took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded” (Acts 19:13-16). There are a great many demons that refuse the word of man. The demon of strong drink will not down at man’s word. The demon of lust will not depart at man’s command. The demon of greed will conquer the very one who seeks to control and utilize him. But all demons flee at the Word of God. This is the explanation of truly reformed drunkards, truly regenerated gamblers, and truly saved whoremongers. God’s Son came, and with His word, He banished the evil one, redeemed the body and cleansed it, and made it a temple of the Holy Ghost, and sent the Holy Spirit in to sit in authority and exercise control. Oh, demonized man! Oh, woman with unclean spirit! There is no hope in yourself; there is no possible reclamation through the power of your fellows; but “there is salvation, and it is of the Lord”. The darkest demons departed at His pleasure. “As they went out, behold, they brought to Him a dumb man possessed with a devil. And when the devil was cast out, the dumb spake; and the multitudes marvelled, saying, It was never so seen in Israel. But the Pharisees said, He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils. And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and-preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people” (Matthew 9:32-35). Devils depart; disease absconds; sickness subsides; salvation comes when He who “went about all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the kingdom”, has arrived. What is Jesus then,—a Teacher? Yes, the world never knew His like. What is Jesus then,—a Physician? Yes, no sickness can resist His speech, His word, His will, even His wish. What is Jesus then? Finally and forever, a Saviour. He is the enemy of all evil spirits, the end of all satanic influences. He is the Saviour of the soul. Lost men, look up! Lost women, hope! Christ is come, and Christ is God!

Matthew 9:36-38

THE CALL AND OF THE TWELVE Matthew 9:36 to Matthew 10:42ONCE more, we have Christ looking at the multitudes, and once again, being “moved with compassion toward them because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Then said He unto His disciples, ‘The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth labourers into His harvest”’(Matthew 9:36-38).How naturally the tenth chapter opens:“And when He had called unto Him His twelve disciples, He gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease”.The best way in the world to fit any man for an actual appointment to a definite spiritual duty is to get him interested in the same—interested to the point where he prays about it, for prayer is not only a medium of deeper interest, but equally so of the revelation of needs. It was the haystack prayer that revealed to three young men the whole foreign mission field and demand. It was after a prayer meeting that “Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people”. It was out from that same prayer meeting that Philip went to realize the needs of Samaria, and to see one of the most extensive and revolutionizing revivals known to the New Testament record.We imagine that the Book of Acts records the first missionary movement in the early church. Not at all so.

The tenth chapter of Matthew is a complete record of the great initial missionary movement. The origination of missions was not left to the Holy Ghost; it originated with Christ. It was the privilege of the spirit to illumine men concerning missions to the Gentiles. It was the thought of Jesus that both sent evangelists to Israel and paved the way for the crumbling of the middle wall of partition, that the Gospel might be eventually extended to all men.Will you think, with me, of this chapter under three heads—The Commission of the Twelve; the Courage Incident to Trial, and the Character of the Coming Contest! THE OF THE TWELVE This is recorded in Matthew 10:1-15.Their commission was from the Lord Christ. It was He who “called them unto Him”. It was He who “gave them power against unclean spirits to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease”. It was He who commanded them and sent them forth saying,“Go not unto the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel”.It was He who said,“As ye go, preach, saying, The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils; freely ye have received, freely give”.It was He who commanded“Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses. Nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves; for the workman is worthy of his meat, and into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, inquire who in it is worthy; and there abide till ye go thence”.It was He who enjoined them,“And when ye come into an house, salute it.

And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy let your peace return to you”.It was He who said,“And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city”.The twelve in the order of their naming in Matthew are: 1.

Simon Peter, 2. Andrew, 3. James, 4. John, 5. Philip, 6. Bartholomew, 7. Thomas, 8. Matthew, 9.

James, the son of Alphaeus, 10. Thaddeus, 11. Simon, the Canaanite, 12. Judas Iscariot. In Mark 3:16-19 we have the same list, but not the identical order; and in Luke 6:14-16, the same list but a third order, and in Acts 1:13 the same list minus Judas, who had already betrayed his Lord and committed suicide.The most instant and permanent impression received when one reads this Scripture comes from the imperious character of this call and commission.Christ does not persuade, He calls; He does not argue, He commands. Deity is in His deportment!

Never was a human leader more gracious and brotherly to his fellow-laborers than was Jesus, and never a captain so considerate of his associates as was Christ. And yet never for one moment did He assume or even suggest that their lives were on a level with His, that their minds were equally to be consulted, their judgments to be counselled before any new step was taken!

On the contrary, He assumed Lordship; “He spake with authority”; “He commanded and it stood fast”. If His enemies were compelled to say, “Never man spake like this Man”, and to remark, “He speaks as one having authority”, more surely still must His disciples have often reflected upon the same.But the text contains also another suggestion of the Divine right of this KING, yea, even of His Godhead,“He gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease”.Who can do this but God? Who else dare to defy Satan in his special realm and to declare him impotent against His will, and incompetent against His command save the Christ, the anointed of God? Yes, the commission of the twelve was from the Lord Christ.It involves certain important commands. Matthew 10:5-15. The commission of the missionary from the first has been in one word, and a marvelously little word, the shortest word in human speech, save the personal pronoun—“GO!” He limited for the time their territory “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel”.

He determined absolutely the primary duty,“Preach, saying the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand”.He put into His command promise of power such as mortals had never found possible of themselves, “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils”. He reduced evangelism to the simplest basis, and yet strange to say, to the only sufficient basis, “Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses, nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves, for the workman is worthy of his meat”. The Northwestern Bible Training School of Minneapolis put out 170 workers during the summer of 1925 on practically this basis. Not one of them went hungry for a sufficient time to weaken him; nor lacked for a bed. when sleeping time had come, and each of them returned at the end of the summer to give glad and glowing report of what God had wrought, for houses had opened, the spirit of God had come upon them, and it was seldom necessary to “shake off the dust of their feet” against even a single village. Boys and girls were instructed in the things of Christ and many of them yielded their hearts to Him. Strong men and women wept at the preaching of the Word, and hundreds of them were converted; and when the lads and lassies returned to school it was found not only had provision and travel expense been met, but there was something above, and friends from near and far had been moved to show sympathy for their endeavor and to assist in the same.One of Our city pastors recently said, “In America it is the custom with us to get a word and ride it to death. Our great word just now is challenge. A challenge is an appeal to meet some opposing foe.

It may be accepted or rejected. There is no obligation attached.

Challenge is not adequate for us. We are not challenged to do the Master’s work. We are commanded to do it. Christianity has a King. The King has commands!” And certainly those words of a pastor find illustration in this Scripture. To the early Church, His word “GO!” was an end of discussion, and the beginning of missions!Furthermore, it was associated with definite assurances. These are intimated rather than expressed. When in verse eight, He says, “Heal the sick”, the command is associated with the assurance of “power”, and all power in heaven and on earth belongs unto Him”.

He, and He alone could give it against unclean spirits, “and all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease”. When in verses nine and ten He says,“Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses, nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves, for the workman is worthy of his meat”.He practically assures them of a Divine provision. Bread and meat are at His command. The great prayer in which He taught us to voice ourselves, “Give us this day our daily bread”, is a delightful, yea, even a Divine discovery, when one comes to see and know that “meat is with Him”, and that when we have sought “first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness”, “bread”, “meat” and “clothing” are all pledged us. In fact when we remember the great commission recorded in this same Gospel (Matthew 28:19-20) we cannot forget His concluding phrase, “And, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world”.Can we suffer lack when the King is with us? Israel ran short of “bread” in the wilderness, but the King was with them and “gave them manna to eat”.

She lacked meat, but the King was with them and “the quails came”. She lacked water, but the King was with them, and the dry rock gushed forth a living stream.

She lacked clothing, but her garments through forty years “waxed not old” (Nehemiah 9:21).How far we have come from the original thought of missions and commission! How strangely we go about the whole procedure now! How much fussing and fuming over it all! We must have a certain kind of education, and, even now, with denominationalism in the ascendant, and modernism striving for the mastery, that education must be taken in certain schools, or we won’t even be permitted to go on a mission for Christ. We must sit before certain committees and they must pass upon our fitness. We must find people who are willing to provide us an outfit, and, if possible, to pay our transportation, and then, when once we have reached our destination, we must meet a local committee and our special place must be assigned, and we are told what we are to do and what we can’t do; whether we can teach; whether we can preach; what particular service we shall render, and, above all, what rules we must regard.For some reasons, one is glad to have been born more than half a century ago; born at a time when his inner conviction was the Divine call, and when he did not have to consult with flesh and blood to discover whether he dare yield himself to a divinely-appointed service; glad to have been ordained in a day when the great fundamental things were foremost; when he was asked whether he had been regenerated; why he believed that he was called to preach, and what Gospel he proposed to preach.

He was permitted to enter upon a ministry with open and unprejudiced pulpits, or preach from the top of a dry-goods box as he might decide, without having to go before the state commission and affirm solemnly that he would be “loyal to the denominational program”, whether or not it was loyal to Christ; that he would back up, with voice and purse, every denominational movement, even though he was absolutely convinced that it was away from Christ, unto Unitarianism, and was heading the denomination itself hellward.We therefore, declare our profound conviction that modernism in message is no more a sad departure from the New Testament commission, than is modernism, in method. Christ’s missionaries were not made after such a manner; and missionaries will never be made after that manner.

You can make your social service workers after that manner, but they are not missionaries of Christ. You can commission your civilizing agents after that manner, but they are not necessarily missionaries of the Cross. You can send out your school-teachers after that manner, but they are not always the agents of salvation. God’s method changeth not, and the commission of the first century is the only Christian commission for any century. But to the next point in our text—THE COURAGE TO TRIAL Matthew 10:16-31“Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves.“But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues.“And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for My sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.“But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.“For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.“And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father, the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.“And ye shall be hated of all men for My Name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.“But when they persecute you in this city, flee to another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of man be come.“The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his Lord.“It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his Lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?“Fear not them therefore: For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.“What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in the light; and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops.“And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both body and soul in hell. .“Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall to the ground, without your Father.“But the very hairs of your head are numbered.“Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows”.Having read this Scripture, let us return to its study to face the following plain facts:Common sense is fundamental to Christian courage. “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves” (Matthew 10:16). We do well to dwell upon both subjects of this verse. Christ never called His disciples to a soft berth. Christ never commissioned His disciples to a hospitable community. Christ never promised His disciples exemption from trial. On the contrary, His very commission involved the exercise of the highest courage. A missionary is “one sent”, and the Word of the Lord is, “I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves!” Is there much safety there? Even a wolf in the midst of sheep doesn’t promise any individual of the flock perfect safety; but a sheep in the midst of wolves, it is a hopeless prospect! A sheep has no power against a wolf.

That’s why He didn’t tell them, “Gird yourselves with swords and fight”; why He didn’t say to His sheep, “Sharpen your teeth and gnash; use your feet to trample and bruise!” Such exercises are impossible to sheep!What is the way then? It is the way of wisdom and the way of discretion. “Be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves”. Don’t start unnecessary trouble! Don’t play the fool and invite attack. You will have enough of both without bantering them. That’s what Christ meant!

Would God that men who are truly called and commissioned might regard the counsel. I know a great many evangelists today, who through the exercise of foolishness, have brought themselves into disfavor, and almost without exception they are saying they are discarded because they are Fundamentalists, and appealing for positions, open fields, and ethical and financial backing.

It is all as impossible as undesirable. The true evangelist is divinely called. Back of him is the Head of the Church Himself, and before him the whole world field is open; and if he doesn’t so far play the fool, that the Christ who commissioned him can’t continue to abide with him, he will have an abundance to do. Friends will multiply as fast as enemies, and open doors that no man can shut will beckon him in every direction.Kindred remarks would apply concerning many pastors. They have neither been “harmless as doves” nor “wise as serpents”, but sometimes wicked and foolish, and complications have come in consequence of a wrong course. They want to move to a new field and if it so happens that they have stood for the fundamentals of the faith, then they say they are discredited on that account.

I speak this as one who has never stood for anything else, and from the day that the ordaining hands were laid upon me until this goodly hour, I have absolutely refused to compromise with modernism in any form. I have fought it in private and in public, with pen and with tongue.

I have sought “to smite it hip and thigh”, and I declare my deliberate intention to continue in that conflict while breath shall be found in my body. But while it has closed some pulpits to me (on account of my conservatism) ten others have opened. While it has brought me enemies, it has far more multiplied my friends; and while it has denied me a few opportunities, there have been ten times as many awaiting as I could possibly employ.“Wisdom is justified of her children”, and a righteous course has never had a disastrous ending. Serpents commonly escape their enemies and doves are never responsible for battle, wounds or death. Exercise common sense; that is the fundamental of Christian courage.A conscientious course will bring certain conflict.“But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues.“And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for My sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.“But when they deliver you up, take no thought of how or what ye shall speak: for it shall he given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.“For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.“And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents and cause them to be put to death.“And ye shall be hated of all men for My Name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.“But when they persecute you, in this city, flee ye to another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of man be come” (Matthew 10:17-23).Christ isn’t promising that wisdom will always make a way of escape. The serpent is very careful not to produce an unnecessary conflict.

He glides away from every prospective one, but his enemies are multiplied and his head is often bruised. The doves never provoke a fight, but ofttimes they are wounded, bleeding, yea, and utterly consumed, for their enemies are both many and voracious.

So it is with a man commissioned by Christ. They will call ex-parte councils to sit in his case. They will seek to scourge him from the synagogue. They will bring him up before high ecclesiastical dignitaries. That all sounds like a page from yesterday’s denominational organ, for it occurs daily.But what of it? The Christ, who is with you, will give to the courageous man what he should speak.

In fact “the Spirit speaketh in him”. Though your denominational brother shall deliver you up to an ecclesiastical anathema or your denominational father shall prove your bitterest enemy, and though through the press they make your name a hissing, and though they unsettle your people and compel you to quit a loved pastorate, upon the great fact, and fact it is, “the disciple is not above his master nor the servant above his Lord”, rest yourself! “They have called the Master of the house, Beelzebub; how much more shall they call them of his household”.

Fear them not. God is a marvelous vindicator. “There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, or hid, that shall not be known”.Christ may seem to be working in secret, but His counsel will finally come abroad. What He whispers to you in the silent place, preach upon the housetop; and though your body perish in consequence, praise Him that the soul is untouched.The greatest single need of the hour is men who can “endure hardness as good soldiers of Christ”, who can take blows without moaning, and listen to lying criticism, and laugh at it. If I had my life to live over again, knowing as I know how God can make the most pointed dart to blunt against the shield of faith, the keenest edged sword to glance from the helmet of salvation, I would laugh opposition to scorn; and lay me down to sleep at night asking but one promise, and that already made, upon which to pillow my head for the soundest sleep, the most undisturbed spirit, viz., “I am with you alway”.Christ well knows and defends His own. “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing, and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your father? The very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows”.Of all possible illustrations, not one could convey it to us more clearly than does this. The Divine knowledge, the Divine sympathy, the Divine care.What, of living things, is of much less value than a sparrow? In the market he will not bring a penny if his true name and nature is known. They say that he is sometimes sold as “a reed bird”, and consumed as a tasty morsel at high class hotels, but that is because the fastidious do not happen to know the fowl.

His nature known, his name called, he is worth nothing! His number is such the world over that one sparrow makes no difference. There are millions, yea billions, and possibly trillions, still chattering under the edges of roofs and feeding from the middle of the roads. Does God care for them? So the Son said. Then He cares for me; then He cares for you.

Yea, He numbers the very hairs of your head. Think you that harm can come to one of them without His presence or even without His permission? Who then shall fear? The man who knows this can’t be a coward! Courage rises in exact proportion as one links his life with Him, loves Him, and truly trusts Him. Trials will only test such affection and enhance the personal devotion.

Let them come! Let them sweep, with all their fury, over you! Let their thunders roll about you! Let their keenest lightning flashes cleave the sky. You can still afford to be as calm as the disciples ought to have been in that stormy night, on Gennesaret, when Christ was on board. One word from Him and a calm was on, the storm was laid, the danger was past, the solid shore was nigh, the silver moon was shining, the quiet of sleep itself was come.THE OF THE COMING CONTEST Matthew 10:32-42.These verses reveal rather clearly some definite facts, such, for instance, as the open confession of Christ, invites conflict; that conflict disregards the most sacred relations, and in that conflict the disciple is identified with his Lord. The open confession of Christ invites conflict! “Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in Heaven. But whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father which is in Heaven”.It was very natural that that should be so in Christ’s day. He had not as yet been generally accepted. His outstanding disciples were but a dozen, and even one of them will forsake him. His friends were few, and his enemies a multitude. The proofs of His Deity were only partially in; the prejudices of Judaism were not at all broken down, and the infidelity of Gentiles was practically complete.

But how strange to find that in the twentieth century, with His Church the largest single institution in the world, His followers exceeding any number that ever combined in any single name under God’s heaven, the proofs of His Deity, “many and infallible”, the evidences of His redemption found in millions of faces and in every land, and yet, we come to a time when the true confession of Christ, the very God of very God, invites a conflict. Modernism retains His name but denies His Deity; modernism remains in the Church, but disputes the inspiration of its commission.

Modernism professes loyalty, but preaches “another gospel!” Rollin Lynde Hartt, in the November Forum 1925, rightly and distinctly says, “Two religions, so different that if the one is true the other must be false, exist side by side within the confines of Protestantism”. And further, “Had these two religions developed independently, no one would think, for a moment, of combining them”.It is becoming increasingly evident that we cannot combine them; that they are so separate, so distinct, so utterly remote, yea, even so opposed one to the other, that their continuance within the same body is not only impossible, but inconceivable!I hold in my hand the report of the Commission of Seven, appointed at Milwaukee in 1924, on our foreign affairs. It says: “That certain missionaries have laid themselves liable to just criticism and necessary investigation by the Board, seems to us to be clear from quotations which we now make. These are extracts from statements of certain of the missionaries about whose beliefs, formal complaint has been made:“Dealing with the subject of the Person of Christ, one writes: ‘But the unique element of Jesus’ nature does not lie in His being the Only Begotten Son of God. He is not that by His own teaching. Rather He is the only perfect one among the countless millions of the sons of God who have been born into our Heavenly Father’s earthly home.

Jesus owes many a debt to men who had not obtained the perfection that He had in His relation to God’.“In dealing with the person of Christ as related to His death, he writes: ‘In setting an unbridgable gulf between the glory of Jesus and our own possibilities, it seems to me that men are opposing themselves diametrically to His teaching and desires, and are to a large degree rendering His sacrificial life and death vain’.“On the inspiration of the Scriptures and in arguing to show that they are not infallible, he writes: ‘Surely it is clear that the Bible, part for part, is not an infallible Book. There is many a book, many a sermon, many a poem of our day as God-inspired and as God-filled and helpful as many of the Books of the Bible and more so than some.

God is still speaking to His children through the voice of His prophets’.“Of sin, he writes: ‘Today we have come to look upon wrong-doers not so much as sinners as unfortunates’.“Of atonement he writes: ‘When we see ourselves in our true position as the growing, erring children of God, is it not clear that such a thing as an atonement, a making good for us by another, could not possibly be acceptable to our Father, or even considered by Him? Seeing that we are a family together, not only is it not derogatory of God and Jesus to abandon the idea of the atonement, but it is testifying to the perfect quality of God’s fatherliness. It is not primarily the death of Jesus that saves us. It would not have been necessary under all circumstances’.“Of final salvation he writes: ‘But what about those children who desert the Heavenly Home? Who, when they know their Father’s desire is otherwise, deliberately turn away and follow the demands of their lower natures? Is there any hope for them?’ (In a later paragraph his answer is found): ‘Jesus will keep on and never give up until every last one is found.

There is no man, no matter how vile, without some solid good, some of the stuff of God in him. There is some invitation of God to which he will respond, although he may have to hear it in the next world.

God will never turn His back upon His children, neither in this world, neither in the world to come’.“Another writes: ‘I wish I might say that I have a firm faith in eternal life. It would be a comfortable belief. I have resolved to live as though life were eternal, but I have failed to find convincing evidence that such is the case, or that such is not the case. I must regard Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 15:19 as contrary to Jesus’ own ideals. “If we have only hope in Christ in this life we are of all men most pitiable”. Also 1 Corinthians 15:32 of the same, “If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die”. That is not my philosophy.

Whether we are to be raised or whether death ends all, it is still worth while to live the Christ life—to love God and men, to suffer for others, to serve and sacrifice. If death be the end, then we have lived as sons of God; if death be, as I hope, the entrance to a new life, it is well’.“We have noted in a number of instances also, .a hesitant and negative attitude on vital truths; for example, a missionary, when asked this question, ‘Was Jesus Christ a man, unique man, but man only, or was He something more than a man?’ writes, ‘I was not prepared to answer with a categorical “yes” or “no” for it is one of those questions that cannot be answered in that way’.“This same missionary when later questioned before the Board is quoted as saying in response to the question as to whether or not he believed in the Virgin Birth: ‘I think not’.

His reply when asked if he believed in the miracles, ‘I think not’. When asked if he believed in the bodily resurrection, his final answer was ‘I think not’, and when asked if he believed in the inspiration of the Scriptures, he said ‘I think not’ ”.Can you imagine loyal Christians continuing to support missionaries who hold such positions? To be sure, the cleaving edge of modernism is now sought to be blunted by a persistent report that there were only six or eight such found on the foreign field by this Commission—a report that has no consonance with fact.Years ago native students in the Shanghai Baptist University, China, protested against the teaching they were receiving from our American missionaries, particularly against their adoption and defense of the evolutionary hypothesis, and some of the students appealed to American friends for relief; while certain native churches declared their unwillingness to accept graduates of that University, as pastors, because they had departed from the faith of the New Testament. In other words, the newly saved heathen had risen to resent the lying impositions of modernistic teachers. Any man who cares to assure himself of these facts can look over the list of the Shanghai faculty and find that they come out of such schools as Union Theological Seminary, long since justly discredited; Chicago University Divinity School, known to be deep-dyed in modernism; Rochester and Crozer, open defenders of “another gospel which is no gospel”, and he will know that such teachers can have harmony among themselves solely because practically the entire company of them, if not the last man, on the faculty of that University are modernists of one mind. At Suifu another representative of the same society split the forces of this mission into factions by blatant modernism.From India one of our greatest missionaries has written again and again pleading against majoring 011 education, increasing 1500 per cent, while evangelism is increased 51 per cent., or thirty educators sent out for one evangelist. The Commission of Seven joined in that complaint, and made an appeal for a reform at that point also!Our missionary at home from China declared a few Christian Fundamentals “an intolerable yoke”, while a school in Japan largely built up by money from my own church is now reputed as under a Modernist.That conflict disregards the most sacred relations. “I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s foes shall be they of his own household”.“Prophecy is the mould of history!” The greatest evangelist that the United States of America has produced in her entire human history, has two sons today, set to the tearing down of what their father built up. One of them for ten to fifteen years has been an out and out modernist, and the other has recently turned the great conference and school-born in answer to that father’s prayers—into a conference and school of modernism.The greatest single homilitician that the theological seminaries of America have ever known, the man whose text book outshines all others on this side of the sea, has today a shallow son who repudiates the faith that was dear to his father. The greatest Greek scholar, and among the greatest of Hebrew scholars, that America has known, has now a successor in office who is increasingly yielding to the skeptical tendencies of so-called modern scholarship.The best informed layman that Minneapolis has ever known, has a son, an outstanding Seminary professor, who opposes every feature of the faith that was dear to his own father. In a great University in the East, one of God’s noblemen lives now in the advanced years that ought to bring serenity to a life of such high attainments and character, and yet, is heart-broken over two boys, both of whom have repudiated the faith in which he instructed them. The saintliest Baptist that American history has known has one son who is a pulpit doubter; while no less than six theological seminaries in my own denomination, and at least fifteen colleges in the same are today presided over by modernist presidents, and. filled with modernist instructors, who repudiate the basal principles on which those schools were founded. Again “the son has set against his father, and the daughter against the mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law”.It is all an appeal!

Remember the text “He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me”. And “He that taketh not up his cross, and followeth after Me, is not worthy of Me”. The hour has struck! The day is on when we are compelled to decide whether we will cleave to Christ or to our own flesh and blood, retain His Gospel or accept that insufficient and shallow substitute—social service.Finally, In this conflict the disciple is identified with his Lord. Matthew 10:40-42.“He that receiveth you, receiveth Me, and he that receiveth Me receiveth him that sent Me. He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward”.The true Christian will not seek a way of avoiding the cross; but neither will he forget, when it presses heavily upon him, that it rested first upon the shoulders of his Lord; and Christ is with Him to bear it even now, and in Him, to give him the adequate strength. Men forget when they insult a prophet of God, or any representative of Jesus Christ, that they are insulting the Son Himself rather than His servant, but the servant should not forget it. Men may not know that when they reject a prophet they are rejecting Jesus, but the prophet should never forget it. To recognize the fact that Christ identifies Himself with us is to feel that “infinity of power and wisdom” is with us, and to know that the slightest service rendered in His Name and for His sake cannot fail of its reward.I am concluding this exposition with an appeal, that I know you, my people, will heed. Let us decide here and now, and declare the same to the world that no mission nor board, nor institution, nor individual, can have our support, save it or he be found utterly loyal to the Bible—the Book Divine, and its Christ—our Coming King.