Matthew Chapter 9

Matthew 9:1-8 ~ The Healing of the Paralytic

Our text says, And when Jesus saw their faith. How does that work? The false gospel narrative will say when God sees your faith, He will work a miracle. What it is really saying is Jesus saw God's Spirit working in their life persuading them to carry that man and lower him down through the roof. They were not trying to prove anything. They were not down below saying, "You know if we had enough faith, we could get this guy healed. We are going to have to go up on the roof and really prove our faith." They did not do that. They had evidences that God's Spirit was bringing them and had arranged this whole episode. Jesus responds to faith, not the faith of people but the persuasion of His Spirit in people's lives.

Matthew 9:9-13 ~ The Position of the Disciple of Jesus Christ

I'm going to make a statement to you. There is no salvation without repentance. When you receive the Spirit of Christ into your spirit, you are surrendering yourself. You are saying, "I am no longer the Lord of my life. I am making the decision to change the direction of my life." His Spirit comes in and takes us down His road, down His direction. It is receiving His Spirit that makes the change because His Spirit comes in and takes over. He is now the Lord. And as I said before, some gospels in our culture say, you receive Christ then you take Him with you. But the Gospel of the Bible is that you receive Christ and He takes you with Him. The direction changes.

Matthew 9:14-17 ~ The Teaching on the Wedding, the Clothes, and the Wineskins

God will not pour out his Holy Spirit into an old man-made religious system. People can practice their religious practices all they want to, but it is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ that God pours out His Spirit over, not religious practice. That is human. That is not spiritual. And yet some people would prefer the religious system. It is more secure to practice a religious system than it is to surrender one's life to Jesus Christ and develop a spiritual relationship with Him.