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Greg Elmquist

The Great Physician

Luke 4:38-40
Greg Elmquist March, 20 2024 Audio
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The Great Physician

In "The Great Physician," Greg Elmquist addresses the vital theological topic of forgiveness of sins as central to the Gospel narrative. He argues that the physical healings performed by Jesus, particularly the healing of Peter's mother-in-law, serve as profound illustrations of spiritual healing and the ultimate forgiveness available through Christ. Elmquist uses various Scripture references including Luke 4:38-40, Psalm 130, Colossians 1:12-14, and Matthew 8:17 to demonstrate that Christ is the Great Physician who not only heals physical ailments but removes the deeper malady of sin. The sermon emphasizes the necessity of recognizing one's need for forgiveness, likening it to being stricken by a debilitating fever, thus underscoring the assurance that in Christ, all sins of God's people are completely forgiven and forgotten. This doctrinal understanding echoes the Reformed doctrines of grace, emphasizing total depravity, unconditional election, and the sufficiency of Christ's atonement for believers.

Key Quotes

“Is there anything that is more needful for a sinner than to have their sins forgiven?”

“The point of this healing was to reveal him as the one and only one who is able to forgive sin.”

“If Christ doesn't atone for my sin, I've got a great fever.”

“Forgiveness had to be purchased. It had to be purchased and only Christ could do that.”

Sermon Transcript

Auto-generated transcript • May contain errors

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Let's open tonight's service
with hymn number 452 from your hardbacked hymnal, 452. Let's
all stand together, my Savior's love. I stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus the Nazarene, and wonder how he could love me, a sinner
condemned unclean. How marvelous, how wonderful,
and my song shall ever ? How marvelous, how wonderful ? Is
my Savior's love for me ? For me it was in the garden ? He
prayed not my will but thine ? He had no tears for his own
griefs ? But sweat drops of blood for mine ? How marvelous, how
wonderful ? And my song shall ever be ? How marvelous, how
wonderful ? Is my Savior's love for me In pity angels beheld
him and came from the world of light. To comfort him in the
sorrows he bore for my soul that night. ? How marvelous, how wonderful
? ? And my song shall ever be ? ? How marvelous, how wonderful
? ? Is my Savior's love for me ? He took my sins and my sorrows,
He made them His very own. He bore the burden to Calvary,
And suffered and died alone. How marvelous, how wonderful,
and my song shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful
is my Savior's love for me. When with the ransomed in glory
His face I at last shall see, T'will be my joy through the
ages To sing of His love for me. How marvelous! How wonderful! And my song shall ever How marvelous,
how wonderful is my Savior's love for me. Please be seated. Good evening. Let's turn in our
Bibles to Psalm 130. Psalm 130. Out of the depths have I cried
unto Thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice. Let Thine
ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. If Thou,
Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But
there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared. I wait for the Lord, my soul
doth wait, and in his word do I hope. My soul waiteth for the
Lord more than they that watch for the morning, I say more than
they that watch for the morning. Let Israel hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption,
and he shall redeem Israel. from all his iniquities. Zobi's mother, Mary, has been
in the hospital, in ICU, actually. She was supposed to be moved
today to a room. She has pneumonia, and I think
she's making some improvements, but I want us to pray for her. Let's pray together. Our gracious, merciful Heavenly
Father, what hope we find in those words
of truth and comfort that you've spoken to us, that with thee
there is plenteous redemption. Lord, that there is forgiveness
that thou mayest be feared We ask, Father, that you would
enable us this hour to look in faith to Christ and find in his
shed blood the covering for our sin and the hope of our salvation. Lord, we pray for Mary. Thank you for helping her to
improve and pray that you would give her full strength and enable
her to be back here and worship with us. We ask it in Christ's
name. Amen. Number 11 from your Spiral Gospel
Hymns hymn book. Number 11. Let's stand together
again. ? With broken heart and contrite
side ? A trembling sinner, Lord, I cry ? Thy pardoning grace is
rich and free ? O God be merciful to me ? I smite upon my troubled
breast ? With deep and conscious guilt oppressed ? Christ and
his cross my only plea O God, be merciful to me. No works nor deeds that I have
done ? Can for a single sin atone ? ? To Christ the Lord alone
I flee ? ? O God be merciful to me ? ? And when redeemed from
sin and hell ? With all the ransom throng I dwell, my raptured song
shall ever be. God has been merciful to me. Please be seated. You can turn with me in your
Bibles to our text tonight. You'll find it in Luke chapter
4. Luke chapter 4. I've titled this message, The
Great Physician, but really the message is about the forgiveness
of sin. Is there anything that is more
needful for a sinner than to have their sins forgiven? Is
there anything more glorious to the Lord Jesus Christ than
the full, complete forgiveness of the sins of His people? Is there anything that makes
a sinner happier than to know that their sins have been put
away? And is there anything that will
cause us to love and worship our God more freely than to know
that he has forgiven us? The healings that we see in the
New Testament that our Lord performed, he tells us what those are really
about. We're going to look at the fourth
miracle recorded in the Gospels tonight, the healing of Peter's
mother-in-law. But I remind you of when those
men brought the one who was sick with a palsy And because of the
press of the crowd, they weren't able to get into where the Lord
was. And so they removed the tiles from the roof and lowered
him down. And the scripture says, when
the Lord saw their faith, he said to the man that was on the
stretcher, thy sins are forgiven thee. And the The enemies of Christ said, who
is this? Only God can forgive sin. And
the Lord looked at them and said, what is easier to say, thy sins
are forgiven thee or stand up and walk, but that you might
know that the son of man has power to forgive sins on the
earth, I say unto thee, stand up and walk. And so the Lord
tells us right there that The point of this healing was to
reveal him as the one and only one who is able to forgive sin. I love the way the Lord has progressively
revealed himself in these miracles. The first one you remember, the
turning of water to wine, and we saw that it was a statement,
it was a revelation of the Lord Jesus as the fulfillment of the
law. He is our righteousness. The second was the healing of
the nobleman's son and we saw there the power of our Lord's
Word. He spoke and the nobleman believed
and the son was healed. And then last Wednesday night
we looked at the casting out of the demons of the man that
was in the synagogue in Capernaum. And we're reminded about how
the Lord came to set the captives free and to take those who were
captive to darkness and death and make them captive to himself.
And he came to destroy the works of the devil. But now tonight,
when we look at this miracle, I hope that the Lord will not
just speak to us of these glorious doctrines, but that it will be
personal. that not that the others aren't
personal, I don't mean to suggest that at all, but that this forgiveness
of sin will be something that will speak encouragement and
hope to our hearts. Before we look at the miracle,
turn with me to Colossians 1. Verse 12, giving thanks unto
the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light. How did he make us meet? Well,
by making Christ our righteousness and justifying us through his
death on the cross. He made us qualified. That's what that word meet means.
He made us qualified to be inheritors of eternal life. Look at verse
13, who have delivered us from the power of darkness. That was
the third miracle, the casting out of the demon. delivered us
from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom
of his son. He's made us to be children of
God. In whom we have redemption through
his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. Even the forgiveness
of sins. Is there anything more comforting
to a sinner than for the Lord to say even the forgiveness of
your sins. Sins have been put away. That's
what that word forgiveness means. It means they've been cast out
of God's sight, sewed up in a bag, hid in the depths of the sea,
separated from God as far as the East is from the West, so
that he says, I remember them no more, covered by the blood
of Christ, justified in the very presence of God. And that word
justified means to be without sin. so that we can stand in
the very presence of a holy God, in the person of Christ, and
by virtue of our union with him, we are loved and accepted even
as Christ is. That's the forgiveness of sin.
And that's what these miracles are given to us to illustrate. What, What comforting words we
hear from our Lord at the cross when he said, Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do. We don't have any real
understanding of the horrors of our sin. The Holy Spirit,
thankfully, brings conviction of sin and we know that it's against God,
but experientially, Only the Lord Jesus knew the real darkness
and offense to God that sin was. When he bore our sins in his
body on the tree, he knew that. And he was saying to the Father,
Father, they don't know. They don't know, but I know.
But I know. And because of what I'm experiencing
in their behalf, here's what God made him. who knew no sin
to be sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
And so when the Lord Jesus bore our sins in his body on the tree,
he experienced, he experienced what you and I can't experience.
And faith looks to him and the sorrow and the suffering that
he experienced for the hope of our salvation. And we're going
to combine the fourth and fifth miracle together here in our
text because they're very similar. And Matthew, Mark, and Luke,
all three, John doesn't deal with this, but all three of them
give us this fourth and fifth miracle together. But we'll look
at it in the book of Luke. Verse 38, this was after he cast
the demon out of the man in the synagogue. He's in Capernaum,
the fishing village that's Peter's home. And he rose out of the
synagogue and entered into Simon's house. And Simon's wife's mother
was taken with a great fever. Now, Paul tells us in the book
of Colossians, when he's greeting the church, he says, he says,
the beloved physician, Luke, greet you as well. And Luke was
Paul's traveling companion and Luke wrote much of the things
that, you know, that Paul recorded. And we find out from the book
of Colossians that Luke was actually a doctor. He was a physician. And he adds something in this
story that Matthew and Mark don't add and that's one of the reasons
I wanted us to look at Luke's account. He says it was a great
fever. A great fever. We've all had
fevers and how debilitating a fever is to the entire body. When you
have a great fever, you're unable to do anything. You're bound to your bed and
hopefully somebody will come with a glass of water and a straw
and put it to your mouth and allow you to sip some water,
but you can't do anything. You have a great fever. Now,
some might ask, well, how bad do I have to experience my sin
in order to be forgiven? Well, I think the answer's right
there. You can't do anything to get
rid of it. You can't do anything to satisfy. You have a great
fever. You're debilitated. You're without
strength. You're without power. You're
without ability to do anything to put your sin away. If we confess our sin, John 1,
9. And that word confess means to
speak the same word. And so the Lord's not saying
if you confess your sins, you make a list of all your sins
and you sorrow over your sins and you have, you know, churches
in the past have had morning benches where, you know, you
come and you cry and you, you know, The Lord says, if you agree
with me, if you speak the same thing about your sinful nature
that I have said, then he is faithful and just to forgive
you of your sins and cleanse you of all of your unrighteousness. What's required for forgiveness? A great fever. A fever that has
laid you out. A fever that has left you with
no strength and no ability to do anything about your sin problem. Lord, if the blood of Christ
doesn't cover my sin and if you don't forgive me of my sin for
Christ's sake, I can't help myself. I can't put my sin away. I can't justify myself before
God. I can't do anything to atone
for my sins. If Christ doesn't atone for my
sin, I've got a great fever. You see, that's the point of
this miracle, isn't it? Before the fall, Adam and Eve
had perfect bodies and were not subject to disease or death in
any way. What we suffer now in our bodies
is the result of and the evidence of sin. Now, the accuser of the
brethren would try to get us to focus our attention on our
own guilt and sin by, you know, and I've read I've read men who've
said, you know, the first thing I do when I get sick is I figure
out what did I do to cause this? That's not the point. The point
is that sin and that sickness and disease and death among us
is the result of sin. There was no sin before. There
was no sickness before sin. When the Lord performed miracles
of healing, it was, though temporary, and
they were always temporary because everyone that was healed got
sick again and died, but whenever he performed a miracle
of healing, it was a complete healing. It wasn't a partial
healing. And there again, we see that
when the Lord puts away our sin, that's why I wanted to read Psalm
130 tonight. If thou shalt mark iniquity,
who shall stand? Lord, if you leave one sin left
to my account, I'll not be able to stand in the presence of God.
You've got to put them all away. You've got to make me completely
whole. You've got to cast all my sins into the depths of the
sea. We suffer sickness and we pray. And we pray for one another. Notice in our text in Luke chapter
4, and he rose out of the synagogue and entered into Simon's house
and Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever and
they besought him for her. They pleaded with the Lord, they
asked the Lord, that's what the word besought means, they asked
the Lord, Lord, would you come and heal my mother-in-law? and how appropriate it is for
us to go before the Lord in prayer. James tells us about that. He
says that if any of you be sick, let the elders pray and the effectual
fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much and anoint
him with oil. And the way I understand that
anointing of the oil, oil was used for medicinal purposes in
2000 years ago, olive oil in particular. And I don't think
the Lord is telling us, you know, to perform some sort of ritual
to anoint someone with oil and hopefully that will, you know,
bring about God's mercy and healing. I think the Lord's saying to
us, pray and go see the doctor if you need to. You know, apply
the medical means that I've provided for you. He's the great physician,
and whatever medicine and help we can get from the
medical profession, we know the first cause of that is the Lord,
and we use those things, but never with the absence of prayer. So here they besought the Lord,
come Lord and heal my mother-in-law. And he stood over her, notice
in verse 39, he stood over her and rebuked the fever and it
left her. Now Matthew and Mark says that
he touched her. And in touching her, the fever
left her immediately. And immediately she arose and
ministered unto them. Is there any healing that we
need more than the healing of our souls? And just as our bodies
are fighting a foreign object, which is the cause of a fever,
So our souls are in conflict with this sin problem, aren't
we? And the forgiveness of sin is
not something that we settle one time and, okay, well, we
don't have to deal with that anymore. The more we grow in
grace and the knowledge of Christ, the more we see of our sin. And we're always coming to the
Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sin. Is there any prayer
that you pray more often than, Lord, forgive me? Yes, the Lord Jesus put away
our sin, all our sin, once and for all, when he bowed his head
on Calvary's cross and said, it is finished, all sin, all
the sins of all of God's people was put away from the presence
of God and covered by the blood. But in our walk, we're continually
coming To whom coming? We come before the throne of
grace looking to the Lord Jesus for the continual washing away
of our sin. This fever that's within our
soul that's fighting against us is always something that weakens
us spiritually and would devastate us if the Lord didn't come and
put his hand on us and stand over us and speak truth to us. Matthew tells us in Matthew chapter
eight that this miracle was the fulfillment of Isaiah 53. Let
me show you that, Matthew chapter eight. Verse 14, and when Jesus was
coming to Peter's house, he saw his wife's 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. And
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 Isaiah the prophet saying himself took our
infirmities and bore our sicknesses. So the Lord tells us that these
healings were the fulfillment of what was prophesied in Isaiah
chapter 53. We'll go there in a moment, but
go back with me to our text. in Luke chapter five. Luke chapter five, look at verse
31 and 32. And Jesus answered and said unto
them, they that are whole need not a physician, but they that
are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to
repentance. Oh, there we are. You know, most
people There are life-threatening illnesses that don't cause a
fever and show no symptoms. They're silent killers. And all of a sudden, one day,
it just takes your life. You didn't know you had it. You
know, that's the way sin is for the reprobate. It's a silent
killer. They don't know they have it.
What a blessing it is for the Lord to lay us low with a fever. What a blessing it is for the
Spirit of God to convict us of our sin and cause us to be sick. The Lord said, the well need
not a physician. Is there anyone that's not a
sinner? Is there anyone that's well before God? No, he's talking
about those who have the silent sickness of death in them and
they don't know it. And what grace it is that the
Lord would, well, turn with me to Zechariah
chapter 12, the last book in the Old Testament, Zechariah
chapter 12. I came not to call the righteous
but sinners to repentance. Here's the point. The Lord has
to afflict us with our sin before we're going to see our
need of a savior. No one ever went to an optometrist
that wasn't having problems seeing. No one goes to a doctor unless
they have some symptoms of a problem. And so it's a great blessing
of God's grace. That's what the Lord said when
he said, it's expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not
away, the Comforter will not come. But when he comes, what's
he gonna do? He's gonna convict you of sin
because you believe not on me. The conviction of the Holy Spirit
is what's being pictured here. And Peter's mother was suffering
with a great fever. Zechariah chapter 12, look at
verse 9. And it shall come to pass in
that day that I will seek to destroy all the enemies that
come against Israel. And I will pour upon the house
of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace
and of supplication. I'm going to be gracious to my
people while I'm going to pour out my wrath and judgment on
the on the world at the same time I'm going to be gracious
to my people, what am I going to do to them? I'm going to give
them a spirit of supplication. Now you know what the root of
that word supplication is, it's supply. What do we need God to
supply us with? We need for him to supply us
with forgiveness. We need for him to supply us
with righteousness and justification. We need for him to supply us
with Christ and eternal life and the putting away of our sin.
And so that's the spirit of supplication that the Lord gives through grace
that causes us to come before him and say, Lord, you've got
to provide this. You've laid me low. I can't move. I'm bedridden, I'm sick with
a great fever. And when that happens, how do
we know that the Lord has poured out a spirit of grace and supplication
and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced and they shall
mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son and shall be
in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his
firstborn. We know that the spirit of grace
and supplication has been poured out upon us and that we've asked
the Lord to supply us for forgiveness. when we've been left with no
strength. Lord, I'm mourning after Christ.
If Christ doesn't save me, if Christ doesn't forgive me, if
Christ doesn't give me life, I can't get out of this bed.
I can't do anything to atone for these sins. Verse 11, and in that day shall
there be a great mourning in Jerusalem as the mourning of
Hadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon. This is just a picture of death. And the mourning here is, Lord,
this fever's gonna take my life. This fever will kill me. This
fever will separate me from thee for all eternity. I'm dealing
with something that's life and death here. This is not just
a minor cold that I have that, you know, I need a few, you know,
a few over-the-counter drugs for. This is a life-threatening
illness. That's what my sin is. And the land shall mourn every
family apart, the family of the house of David apart, and their
wives apart, and the family of the house of Nathan apart, and
their wives apart. This is not a group thing that
can be done. This is not a corporate prayer. This has to be prayed individually,
doesn't it? This has to be something that
each one of us experience. and the family of the house of
Levi apart, and their wives apart, and Shimei apart, and their wives
apart, and the families that remain, every family apart, and
their wives apart. And when that happens, look at
verse one of chapter 13. When that happens in that day,
there should be a fountain opened to the house of David and to
the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. And it shall come to pass in
that day, saith the Lord of hosts, that I will cut off the names
of the idols out of the land and they shall no more be remembered.
I'm gonna put their sin from them as far as the East is from
the West. There's gonna be a fountain opened and they're gonna come
and they're gonna drink freely from the water of life. It is a great blessing and the only blessing that will
lead to the forgiveness of sin, to be laid low with a great fever,
to be made to see that, Lord, I can't do anything, I can't
work. Go back with me to our text. I'll remind you of a few verses.
You remember when the Lord said in Matthew chapter 11, come unto
me all ye that labor and are heavy laden. A lot of people
in this world labor with sin. Unbelievers reprobate, labor
with bad behavior and bad habits and things that are self-destructive. but it's only when God makes
us to be heavy laden. Heavy laden means I can't bear
this burden anymore. I've been struggling with this
thing, but the weight of it is too great for me. It's too great
for me. Come unto me all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Learn of me, take
my yoke upon you, My burden is light, why? Because I bore the
full weight of sin on Calvary's cross. His burden wasn't light
in the garden, his burden wasn't light on the cross, but because
he bore that burden and put our sin away, he can say to us now,
come unto me, get into yoke with me. when the children of Israel were
dying in the wilderness as a result of those venomous snakes, the
fiery serpents. And you know, that's a picture
of sin. And the Lord told Moses, said, take some brass and fashion
a serpent and put it on a pole. And if anyone has been bitten and
they look at the serpent, they should be healed. You had to
be bitten before you could be healed. Not everyone's been bitten
with a fiery serpent but God's people have. God's people have
been laid low with a fever and they must look, they must look. And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. And
I, if I be lifted up, will draw men to myself. Look unto me and
live." Oh, what hope, what hope. Is this not our greatest need?
Do we not find ourselves, go back with me, look at our text.
I want you to see in verse 40 of chapter four. And when the
sun was setting, all they that had any sick with diverse diseases
brought them unto him and he laid his hands on every one of
them and healed them. He's healing them by imputation. He's taking their griefs and
their sorrows unto himself. Paul said this, he said, once
I was alive without the law. But when the commandment came,
sin revived and I died. Paul was dying of a silent killer
just like every unbeliever is until the Lord Jesus revealed
himself on the road to Damascus and then Paul saw Oh, it's a
matter of my heart. It's not being without sin in
the eyes of men, it's being without sin in the eyes of God. How can
that be? And the Lord exposed his heart. And what God uncovered, then
he covers it. He uncovers our sin to cover
our sin. The Lord Jesus was vexed with our sin. He alone. Let me show you a passage
of scripture, 2 Peter. And we just studied this recently,
but I believe there's a type of Christ
here in 2 Peter that I've not seen before. Speaking
of Lot, we can identify with Lot, we
linger in Sodom, the Lord has to come and take us by the hand
and drag us out. If Lot wasn't, if this scripture
right here didn't say that Lot was just Lot, that word just
means righteous Lot, we wouldn't have any reason in Lot's life
to think that he was a believer. And we're comforted in knowing
that the Lord can take someone like that and someone like us
and make us righteous in Christ. But I found out that Lot's name
translated means covering. Covering, it means atonement.
The ark was pitched within and without with a covering And the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is the atoning covering. It's
the, put on the mercy seat. And God said, when I see the
blood, I'll pass by you. We are in need of the covering
of the blood of Christ. And I saw something here in these
verses that I think reveals something of the Lord Jesus. Look at 2
Peter 2 at verse seven. And God delivered, Righteous, that's what that word
just means. It's most often translated righteous. God delivered righteous
lot, just lot. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
righteousness before God and God delivered him. And he was vexed. And I looked up that word vexed.
It means to be exhausted with labor. It means to have such
a great fever that you're laid low in the bed and you can't
do anything. It means to be heavy laden with your sin. That's what
the word vexed means. And, you know, when we look at
this world, we get vexed over the sin and the rebellion of
man toward God in this world, but What vex us more than that
is our own sin, is it not? May God spare us of any self-righteousness
that would look out at others and be vexed over them without
being vexed over ourselves. We're vexed more of ourselves.
But here the Lord says that righteous lot or just lot delivered by
God was vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked. Whose soul was vexed more than
the Lord Jesus? Who himself is our covering? Who bore the sorrow and the shame
and the separation from God as a result of sin more than Christ?
Why do you do it? To forgive us. Forgiveness had
to be purchased. It had to be purchased and only
Christ could do that. Look at verse eight. For that
righteous man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing vexed
his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. Is there anything that the Lord
Jesus doesn't see? Is there anything he doesn't
hear? Is there anything that did not,
is there any sin that he bore in his body on that tree of ours
that he wasn't vexed over and saw the full horrors of it? Sin doesn't really bother us
much, does it? when I read this about Lot. And
then you go back and look at the Old Testament picture of
Lot. Lot didn't seem too vexed over
things. He wanted to stay in Sodom. Yet we know that the full truth of this relates to our
Lord. And yet the scripture says in
the book of Isaiah, who is, now Lot saw and he heard everything
that was going on. And then in the book of Isaiah,
it says, who is so blind as my servant? And it's speaking of
Christ. And the Lord's telling us that,
yes, when he was on the cross, he saw and he heard the full
horrors of all of our sin, but by the shedding of his blood
and the putting them away and the separating them from us as
far as the east is from the west, he remembers them no more. He's
blind to them. When he looks at us, he doesn't
see our sin. We still see our sin and we still come before
God as sinners in need of forgiveness. Why? Because it hinders our fellowship
with him. But the Lord Jesus as the servant
of God is blind to our sin. He put them away. Now, in closing, let's turn to
Isaiah chapter 53. The Lord said, let me go back
to another verse or two. The Lord said in Luke chapter
four, when they were questioning his
authority, he said to them, you will surely say unto me, physician
heal thyself. And then when he was on the cross,
he said, others he saved himself, he cannot save. And they said,
physician heal thyself. Well, the only way that he could
put our sin away is by not say, he said, I could have called
12 legions of angels to deliver me. He could have saved himself. But as the great physician, the
one who heals us of that great fever, that's much more serious
than any physical illness that we might have to suffer in this
world. He could not save himself. He
could not save himself. In order to save us, he had to
let sin and the wrath of God be poured out in the fullness
of its judgment. And that's what Isaiah 53 is. Look, let's just start in verse
four. for the sake of time. Surely
he hath borne our griefs. I looked up that word grief.
It's the word sickness. It's the word sickness. He has
borne our sicknesses and carried our sorrows. I looked up the
word sorrow. It's the word pain. We suffer
physical pain when we're sick. If we're laid out with a great
fever, everything in your body hurts. And here the Lord Jesus
goes in, he puts his hand on this woman, he stands over here
and he says, fever be gone. And immediately she's healed. Here's the picture. The Lord
Jesus bore our sicknesses and carried our pain. Yet we did
esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he
was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him. And with his stripes, we are
healed." We are healed. He was oppressed and he was afflicted.
I'm sorry. all we like sheep have gone astray
we have all turned everyone to his own way and the Lord hath
laid on him the iniquity of us all Matthew tells us in Matthew
8 17 we already read it that this healing of Peter's mother
and those others that came that night was the fulfillment of
Isaiah 53 it was a it was a Well, the cross was a fulfillment
of Isaiah 53, but it was the physical picture of what the
Lord would do in putting away our sin. He bore our griefs,
all our sicknesses, and all our pain. And he said, come to me, all
you that labor a heavy laden. All right, Tom 1 26. Let's stand
together. Rock of ages, cleft for me, let
me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from
thy wounded side which flow be of sin the double cure. Save from wrath and make me pure. ? Could my tears forever flow
? ? Could my zeal no longer know ? ? These for sin could not atone
? ? Thou must save and thou alone ? ? In my hand no price I bring
? ? Simply to thy cross I cling ? ? While I draw this fleeting
breath ? When my eyes shall close in death ? When I rise to worlds
unknown ? And behold thee on thy throne ? Rock of ages, cleft
for me ? Let me hide myself in thee
Greg Elmquist
About Greg Elmquist
Greg Elmquist is the pastor of Grace Gospel Church in Orlando, Florida.
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