I would again, this evening,
read one of the sermons of the late pastor, Mr Kenneth Matronola. The sermon is entitled, Sin,
Sickness and the Only Physician. It was preached on the Lord's
Day evening, 20th of October 1991. The text is Matthew chapter
9 and verse 12. Matthew chapter 9, verse 12. They that be whole need not a
physician, but they that are sick. They that be whole need
not a physician, but they that are sick. The account which Matthew
gives here can also be found in both Mark and Luke's accounts.
We learn that it immediately followed the conversion of Matthew,
the penman of this first gospel, who had been a tax gatherer,
a publican. And Jesus passed forth from thence.
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. We find that Matthew made
him, as Luke describes it, a great feast. Although Matthew, as we
might expect, just says Jesus sat at meat in the house. Mark
emphasizes the fact that it was held in his, that's Matthew's
house. There was a large company gathered,
behold many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and
his disciples. The fact that the Lord Jesus
was in the home of Matthew, the tax collector, the tax gatherer,
encouraged these others also to come, in order that they might
be where Jesus was. But this caused great offense
to the Pharisees, and we're told that when the Pharisees saw it,
they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your master with publicans
and sinners? It is noteworthy that they didn't
come directly to the Lord with their inquiry, but they came
to others. Those who are opposed to the
preached word seldom come directly to the preacher and declare openly
how they feel. How many gospel churches have
been disaffected in this way? By those who hate the doctrines
which are preached from the pulpit, trying to influence other members
of the congregation. May God ever defend us from such. But when they speak against us
in this roundabout fashion, it's nothing new, because that was
precisely how they treated the Lord Jesus himself. The words
of our text are Christ's defence, but when Jesus heard that he
said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but
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. He declares that as the physician
ought to be found where the sick and the needy are, so the Saviour
ought to be found with those who know themselves to be sinners.
The implication being that the Pharisees did not consider themselves
to be sinners and the Lord is speaking to them when he says
they that be whole need not a physician the Pharisees were in fact far
from whole for all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God but they had such a view of themselves and such a religion
of their own making that they did not find anything wanting
in themselves and therefore they didn't feel to need a physician
and as a result they will know nothing of the salvation of the
Saviour. They that are whole need not
a physician but the sick do need it and they know it. I want to
speak about soul sickness and the only remedy for it which
is found in the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. We must begin,
however, by considering that the reason for soul sickness
is sin. Souls are sick because of sin. Many places in the Word of God
make a comparison between the sinfulness of men's hearts and
soul sickness. Isaiah, for example, describes
a sinful people as a sick people. The whole head is sick and the
whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot even
unto the head there is no soundness in it but wounds and bruises
and putrefying sores. They have not been closed, neither
bound up, neither mollified with ointment. A sinful people portrayed
as a soul-sick people. is also found in Ezekiel's prophecy. where there is the word of the
Lord against the false shepherds, the false pastors of God's people.
In that day, Son of Man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel,
prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God unto the shepherds,
Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! Should
not the shepherds feed the flocks? Ye eat the fat as ye clothe you
with the wool, ye kill them that are fed, but ye feed not the
flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened,
neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound
up that which was broken. The false shepherds are indicted
because they have not sought to strengthen or to heal the
diseased, those with soul sickness, but have left them in their awful
condition. This image of the sinfulness
of the human heart, described as the sickness of the soul,
can also be found in Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the
Temple, where he prays that, "...all thy people Israel, which
shall know every man the plague of his own heart, may be heard
and brought to know the forgiveness of God." Is there not more than
a hint in Isaiah chapter 53 of sin as a cause of soul sickness? He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes
are we healed. Peter, as he quotes from that
chapter, says, who his own self bear our sins in his own body
on the tree, that we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness
by whose stripes ye were healed. As disease affects the body,
so the disease of sin affects the soul. However, sometimes
the disease of sin in a man's soul will affect his body in
such a way that it shows bodily evidence of the sickness of his
heart. There are those, for example,
who have given themselves up to a life of dissipation and
they bear in their bodies the marks of the sin in their souls
which has brought them into a bondage from which they cannot break
free unaided. This can be seen in those who
have become dependent on alcohol and drugs, and which, although
they have done so in a voluntary way, out of the sinfulness of
their hearts, often leaves marks upon their bodies, which even
if God is pleased to save them, some will bear to the grave.
There is in these days the awful AIDS epidemic which is connected
to sin and the violation of the law of God, in particular the
seventh commandment which is to do with sexual purity and
which is a visitation upon the bodies of men for the great sinfulness
which is in their hearts. It can be said that all bodily
sickness can be traced back to the advent of sin, to the fall
of our first parents. There is soul sickness, however,
even when we may enjoy good physical health. Every man or woman has this trouble
within their heart, even if in the mercy of God, although they
may not acknowledge God's part in it, there has been a restraint
placed so that they have not sunk into dissipation and evil
to such an extent that it has brought bodily consequences upon
their lives. Yet, there is no difference,
there is none righteous, No, not one. The soul is sick even
when there is no realization of its sickness. It may only
be when the realization comes that any awareness of soul sickness
is discerned. It is only when the Prodigal
Son, it was only when the Prodigal Son came to himself after he
had spent his substance with riotous living, and was in the
place of want and virtual destitution, and would fain have eaten the
husks which were fed to the swine, that he realised his sinfulness
for what it was, the sickness of his soul. The sickness of
his soul. And he said, I will arise and
go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned
against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called
thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants.'
And he was received. Felix, the Roman governor, trembled
when Paul stood before him and reasoned of righteousness, temperance,
and judgment to come. The prisoner didn't tremble,
but the governor trembled as the preaching was brought with
power and with the authority of God to him. And he discovered
that it was not well with his soul. Satan would seek to keep us from
any influence which would disturb us and make us to consider how
it is with our souls. His strategy is to deceive men
into thinking that they have not even got such a thing as
a soul. To make them confuse their bodies
for their souls. He will keep them in ignorance
so that he can lead them into greater and greater bondage of
their soul to sin and to greater and greater evidence of the soul
distress and the soul sickness which is in the race of men.
It is therefore a great mercy if we've been brought to see
ourselves as sinners, those whose souls are sick, those who can
never stand before God in their own strength, for we are without
strength, we are sick. The great lack in our day is
to find men and women who are convinced of their sin, and this
has led much of what passes for evangelism in these days, to
take up other ways and means to reach men. So-called evangelism,
therefore, emphasizes the advantages of being a Christian. The unbounded
prosperity, for example, which will be ours if we become a Christian. But the apostles didn't preach
such a gospel, for it is no gospel. What shall it profit a man if
he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? It is
a false gospel which deals with anything other than the sinfulness
of men's hearts and their need for the Saviour and His blood
which alone can atone for the sin of the soul. their need for the remedy which
is God given, the only balm in Gilead which is able to soothe
the wounded soul. It is therefore a great mercy
if we have been brought to know that we have, because of sin,
a wounded soul. And still says, deep are the
wounds which sin has made. And in Hart's words, What comfort
can a saviour bring to those that never felt their woe? Would
that there were a whole generation who, conscious of their soul
sickness, sought the remedy in the good physician? It is more than a mere persuasion
that we have wronged others, or even that we have committed
crimes against society. but it brings a man to the place
where he realises that he is guilty before God. Against thee, thee only have
I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. Sin brings us to a
sense of guilt and that feeling of guilt in a man's heart is
soul sickness. Guilt that we have violated the
law of God James tells us, whosoever shall keep the whole law and
yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. We are all offenders. We deserve judgment as much if
we break one commandment as if we break them all. Although I
believe that those who are great offenders will be brought in
the day of judgment to no great recompense for their sins. and
there is enough in one sin committed, one law violated to bring us
to judgment and to hell. When a man becomes aware of this
and a sense of guilt comes upon him it brings him into soul sickness
and it is soul sickness of which he is increasingly aware. Adam was made with an original
righteousness but Adam sinned and we read of Adam and Eve that
they hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst
the trees of the garden. They had a guilty conscience
and they hid. The conscience is that faculty
within us which either excuses or accuses our behaviour in the
performance of certain things. Paul clearly sets this forth
in the first chapter of Romans. All men have a conscience. It
is one of the two things which make a man inexcusable before
God. Therefore thou art inexcusable,
O man. Men have the testimony of the
created world, the visible things, which show forth God's eternal
power and Godhead. And they have the voice of conscience
within. The conscience either excusing
or accusing, but usually accusing, because that is what sin does. And that is why there is such
a thing as a wounded soul because of sin. Sin causes the sense
of wounding, the feeling of guilt, the conscience which accuses
us this can be a very real thing even in unregenerate men. Kain
for example said my punishment is greater than I can bear and it was the punishment of
conscience for what he had done and Judas having betrayed the
Lord went and hanged himself. Just as physical disease can
remove beauty from the body, it is the same with the soul.
Sin takes away soul beauty. Man was created with soul beauty. Adam, made in original righteousness,
made in the image and likeness of God, without sin, had soul
beauty. But when he sinned, Although
he and all his posterity were still in the likeness of his
maker, he lost that beauty. Defilement was brought in. So that we read, the Lord looked
down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any
that did understand and seek God. They are all gone aside. They are all together become
filthy. Sin defiles. The sin-sick soul
is the soul which, although it is defiled, is beginning to be
conscious of its defilement because of sin before God. The godly
who have been brought to salvation certainly know this. Hart says
in the hymn, how sore a plague is sin to those by whom it is
felt. The Christian cries, unclean,
unclean! even though released from guilt. Because of the indwelling of
sin within our hearts we still know something of the defilement
of sin and we still often feel our sinfulness. The soul is sick
and diseased because there is a reign of sin over it. Men live
and die in their sin and for the most part they are ignorant
of God. The fool has said in his heart there is no God. and
in the folly and perversity of their sinful condition they live
and die. This pertains to the majority
of the race of men who are blinded to the truth and who live in
utter ignorance of God. They are not only in ignorance
of God but their affections are blighted. They do not love God
because they either do not know that there is a God or the God
who they have who they have had declared to them, they refuse
and fight against with all their power. Their affections are also misplaced. Their affections being not toward
God are upon the things of sin. This is so evident in our society,
it scarcely needs any elaboration. The Word of God comments upon
it. who, knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit
such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have
pleasure in them that do them. This is the solemn thing which
is so prevalent today, that there are those who are doing things
which are known to be wrong, and yet men take pleasure in
those who do these things. Men, in their sinful condition,
are under the reign of sin upon their souls. Their minds are
darkened, their affections are misplaced, and their wills are
in chains. They are the slaves, the bond-servants
of sin. Those who are, as Paul writes
to Titus, serving diverse lusts and pleasures. Even the people
of God who have been delivered and who have been acquitted by
the justification which is in Christ Jesus and by the operations
of grace still know something of the power of sin within them.
They will be a powerful foe until we are delivered utterly from
the very presence of sin in glory. Only then will we be free from
the awful bias which is in us to sin. It is the child of God
who is the groaning captive. O wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? Soul sickness is a spiritual
disease. It affects the whole man as we've
seen. His mind is darkened, his heart
is alienated and his will is in bondage. It affects us in
all of our being. In Isaiah, it is shown to have
spread from the sole of the foot even unto the head. It is also a hereditary disease.
We're born with it. David knew it, for he says, Behold,
I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive
me. We are born with this soul sickness within us. We are crooked
when we come into this world. Even the littlest child, the
infant in arms, is a sinner before God. People often say, oh the
innocent little babe. But even the baby is constituted
a sinner in Adam. With all of Adam's nature upon
him, which will very soon be made abundantly plain. The wicked
are estranged from the womb. They go astray as soon as they be born, speaking
lies. It is an infectious disease.
It spreads to others. It influences others. You cannot
be a sinner in isolation. Others close to you cannot be sinners and you remain uninfluenced
by their sin. If you are found in their company,
in the seat of the scornful, you will partake of their sin. It is infectious and it is deadly. There must therefore be every
effort to separate ourselves from it. If men were conscious,
another person had some bodily infection, They would take every
step to separate themselves from it. And yet, they are so unconscious
of the infectious character of the sin which is in their hearts. Soul sickness spread so rapidly,
it's all concerning the world before the flood. The wickedness
of man was great in the earth and every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Man is so sinful,
so much under the reign of sin that it repented the Lord that
he had made man on the earth. It's no better in our day. Sin
was preserved in the ark. It was not drowned when the flood
came. There were saints in the ark, but there was sin in the
hearts of saints. Sin is still with us. The effects
of it and the evil of it Paul warns Timothy that in the last
days evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving
and being deceived. The condition of the wicked today
is no better than that of the world before God brought the
flood of judgment upon it. Christ himself bears testimony
to this when he says, As it was in the days of Noah, so shall
it be also in the days of the Son of Man. post-millennialism. The belief that the world is
getting better is a myth. It is a delusion to say that
the whole world will be brought under Christ until there is no
more manifestation of sin. Scripture itself clearly states,
When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? Does not our generation bear
all the characteristics of that antediluvian generation, with
its indifference, the love of many waxing cold, its worldliness,
eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, and its
buying and selling? God is not in all his thoughts. People for the most part live
their lives without God. as though they were not made
in the image of God, as though they did not live and move and
have their being by the will of God, and as though they were
not accountable to God. But when the Lord comes, and
of that day and hour knoweth no man, it will be as the days
of Noah, when they shall see peace and safety, then sudden
destruction cometh upon them. Suddenly there will be ushered
in that awful day, the day of judgment which will be a blessed
day for his people when Christ will take the place which the
Father has given him for the Father judges no man but has
committed all judgment unto the Son. Sin spreads and works its
evil within a man until inevitably judgment shall come. The judgment is but the prelude
to the awful sentence. Depart from me, ye cursed, into
everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. Soul
sickness is therefore a mortal sickness, and except an antidote
is found in time, it will bring us to be hurt of the second death. Death, the separation of the
soul and the body comes because of sin. But there is the death
of the soul. Now, there is the present death
of the soul. There are those who are dead
in trespasses and sins. Those who are mortally wounded
with all that which is of death within them. Although they are
still alive and are not yet brought to the separation of soul and
body. But they are dead within and they are under wrath. The
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men. Men are under wrath now. But when Christ comes and the
judgment of the great day takes place, there will be an eternal
recompense and there will be the awful separation, the second
death in everlasting fire. What an awful thing sin is! It is a spiritual condition,
a hereditary condition, an infectious condition, and a mortal condition. If, however, we have got any
awareness of its awful nature, it is a very precious thing.
Often you hear men say, when a loved one dies, who has suffered
pain, they are at rest, at peace now. The obituaries are full
of such thoughts. But what a solemn thought it
is in the light of the Word of God. And let God be true and
every man a liar. That when there is the end of
bodily pain there can only be for those who are sinners and
outside of Christ the beginning of endless torment. Conscious
existence in the place where the flame is not quenched and
the worm dieth not. The lie of requiesce in pace,
rest in peace, has lulled many a person to think that death
is the end of the struggle, and yet it is only the prelude to
such a struggle as has not been known before, nor could be known
in this life. How necessary it is therefore
to consider how it stands with our souls. Where are we going? What is our hope? For if the
sole disease which is in our hearts has not been dealt with,
then that will be our ultimate destination. We come now to the antidote.
That Christ is the great physician. They that be whole need not a
physician, but they that are simple. Perhaps you're thinking,
should you not have spoken earlier and at far greater length about
the physician? But you've got to know that you
need the physician. The Pharisees did not know they
needed a physician. There will be little point in
speaking of the merits of the physician if you didn't feel
any need of him. Someone may tell you how good
their doctor is, how patient and understanding, and how accurate
in his diagnosis, but if you're well, it doesn't really interest
you. It's a different matter, however, if you've got some malady,
and if you've tried many physicians and you seem to be getting no
satisfaction, to be told of a good doctor, you'd be prepared to
cross seas to go to that man, if he could only give you some
hope. It is your need which makes the
difference. Where there is no sense of need, there will be
no great concern for the remedy, let alone for the one who dispenses
it. But when we have come to know
distress of soul, when we have begun to feel what guilt is,
when we have come to some awareness of our condition, the direness
of it, the defilement of it, the ultimate consequences of
it, and know something of the reign of sin over us, this is
when we begin to start to look for the physician. I don't want to speak of the
theology of the physician and his remedy, although it is a
blessed theology, for it is the theology of the covenant of grace.
It is the theology of Christ as the surety and the substitute
for his people. I want simply to say to every
sin-sick soul that there is a remedy. There is a remedy in Christ for
those who are brought to him, who are made to call upon his
name and to seek after him. Christ has the cure. He is the
good physician. Let us consider the physician.
How does he care for the sin-sick soul? He cures the sin-sick soul
by his blood which was shed. there is a cleansing in his blood.
It is as though we are bathed in sin and we need to be cleansed.
The cleansing of the blood of Christ is that which removes
the defilement of our sin and sinning. Robert Murray of Shane
said that as the flood in the day of Noah covered the highest
mountains, So does the blood of Christ cover the highest peaks
of our sin and of our sinning. The blood of Jesus Christ, his
Son, cleanseth us from all sin. With his stripes we are healed. In that which he endured, the
contradiction of sinners against himself and his sufferings and
death upon the cross, there is a remedy for us. The remedy is
opened up to us by His blood. His body, the church, is healed
by the sufferings of Christ, their glorious head. This cleansing
is communicated to us by His Spirit. It is by the Spirit of
God regenerating, washing away experimentally our defilements. Christ has procured it by the
blood which He shed. The Holy Spirit applies the blood. There is the experience of it
to us. There is the mollifying of the guilty conscience and
the subduing of the reign of sin. There is the beauty of holiness,
in some measure at least, given to us, instead of all the defilement
which was previously ours. We learn then that it is by the
washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which He shed
on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour. He cures
by His blood, He cures by His Spirit, He cures also by His
Word. Now are ye clean through the
Word which I have spoken unto you. And the Word of God As the
Spirit brings it to us, the same Word which has wounded us and
shown us our sinful condition, which has been as a surgeon's
scalpel to expose the malady, now becomes the Word of comfort
and of grace and of blessing to us. As the Spirit employs
it, we are brought through the Word to see Christ in all His
offices, and especially His precious blood which was shed. The psalmist
says he sent his word and healed them and delivered them from
their destructions. We are told in Ezekiel that the
waters to swimming which flow from the sanctuary are waters
of healing. The word which is preached in
gospel pulpits is a healing word to those who know the operations
of the spirit efficacious to them he is able
to cure he is able to cure but is he willing to cure sinners
to bring it closer to home is he willing to cure me that's
the great question There are doctors who are able to help
but they're not always willing for one reason or another. They
may have their attention taken up with other patients. Some
will not take on serious cases in case they're unable to heal
them and as a result their reputation may suffer. What will Christ this physician
do for me? who feel to be soul-wounded,
soul-distressed, and ready to perish. He is able, but is he
willing? Yes, he is willing. He is willing. But then there is the next objection.
I cannot pay. But Christ's is a cure without
payment. He has paid it all. The cure
is without money and without price to those who sue for him
and ask him to apply the remedy. But you may object and say my
case is a desperate case. Mine's an urgent pressing case
says Newton in the hymn. He takes the very worst of cases.
He loves the vilest offenders, those whom men would regard with
disdain as outcasts. That is why he was found in Matthew's
house with publicans and sinners. He is willing to save. All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to
me I will in no wise cast out. He is sent and commissioned by
the Father. He has got full credentials to
do the work of the good physician. He is sufficient for the work.
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me. And the Spirit condescends
still to sanctify those to whom the blessing is intended in the
covenant of grace. He, praying for his people in
the presence of the Father, has sent his Spirit upon us, that
we might know the blessings of the Great Physician in our souls. He is not only commissioned and
sufficient for the task, but he loves his people. Unto him
that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and
hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, He who
has prepared the medicine at such cost to himself is bound
to use it. It cannot be that having secured
such an antidote it will not be used. It will be used until
everyone who is in the mind and desire of God to bless is made
to know the remedy and brought to rejoice in the physician. What a cost to prepare that medicine
a cost which he has taken to himself and paid in full. I'm reminded of the story of
one of the princes of the House of Orange in Holland who was
taken seriously ill with smallpox. His life was despaired of It
was eventually suggested that if someone would only go into
the bed where he lay and clutch him and warm him that perhaps
the virulence would pass into that other person and the prince
would be spared. But was anyone prepared to do
such a thing? One of the pages came forward
and said he would do it for his master. And he took the poor
sick body and held it close by reason of this there was the
passing of the fever and there was eventually the raising up
again of the young prince and of course the page was exalted and his house the house of Benting
is a famous house in the Netherlands to this very day but he bore
in his body until the day that he died the awful marks of the
smallpox which he had willingly contracted that the other might
live. Our dear Saviour has the marks
of his passion upon him, the bleeding wounds which he bore
in his hands and in his feet and in his side, which even after
his resurrection he could show to Thomas, reach hither thy hand,
and thrust it into my sight, and being not faithless, but
believing. He is the Saviour who was stricken
and smitten for us. He has secured our pardon. It
is not that we ennoble Him in any way, but rather that He has
ennobled us. He has raised us up. He has provided
an infallible remedy. Have you known that remedy applied
to the sin sickness of your heart? If you have, the glory will belong
to the physician. The physician who is able to
heal a desperate case receives acclaim and honour. Should not
this great physician of men, our great Redeemer, have all
the glory and all the honour for what he has done for his
people? I am sure that it would be true
to say that even sin and the fall of man are in the decree
of God for this reason, if for no other, that it ensures that
there might be the maximum glory to the name of Christ. And that there might be none
other name throughout all the ages to come who will have the
homage of heaven. He who loved his people so much
that he gave himself for them in order that he might remedy
their awful condition, make them his people and bring them to
be with him in the place he has prepared for them. There shall
we see his face and never, never sin. There from the rivers of
his grace drink endless pleasures in. He is able to save. He is willing to save. He is
ready to save. In these lovely words of heart,
come ye sinners, poor and wretched, weak and wounded, sick and sore. Jesus ready, stands to save you,
full of pity, joined with power. He is able. He is willing. Doubt
no more. The Son of Man is come to seek
and to save that which was lost. He is come that he might deliver
us from the wrath to come and heal the ravages of sin in our
hearts. Souls are sick through sin. We
should never mock that sin. Only fools mock at sin. Surely
it is but another evidence to us of the solemn condition of
our nation that this generation delights in sin and makes those
who break the law of God and sink deeper and deeper into sin
its entertainment and its sport. Sin is abomination in God's sight. He ever views it with hatred.
All his holy being is roused against it. O that our nation
might be brought to feel something of sin, that they might have
some awareness of guilt and the widespread character of sin,
the deadly nature of it and the mortal condition which they are
in because of it, that they are presently under God's wrath,
and they will be forever under wrath, unless they are brought
to seek after Christ. Oh that you also might be brought
to see something of this. There are those who raise the
question, how can you preach a gospel address to a small congregation
and declare that there are those who need salvation, those who
are sin sick? It is of the very essence of
the ministry to preach the gospel and to preach it to those who
have heard it many times before. Can we make assumptions as to
the condition of all those who are before us? To sin-sick souls
there is but one remedy and that remedy is Christ. Then delay
not to seek this physician. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. Call ye upon him while he is
near. It is not often that a physician
comes seeking his patients. In everyday life, the patients
must seek the physician, but this physician comes to us. The
Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. Call upon Him, cry to Him, ask
that He might deal with your organs, that He might be pleased
to apply the balm which only He can apply. the remedy which
is a sovereign and an eternal remedy. Cry to Christ. You cannot save yourself. Others cannot save you. There
is but one physician who can and does save. There is but one
physician who is found where the sick and the needy are. They
that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. If you've
been brought to know this cure, if you've been saved by this
blessed Redeemer, then your soul will esteem this great physician.
How you will love him! How you will love him! He will
be precious indeed to your heart. You will hate sin and begin to
groan even under those things that you formerly took pleasure
in. You will groan at the presence
of the sin which is still within you. even though now it has no
legal power over you, you will delight to speak to others of
the good physician, whom to know is life eternal. God bless these
thoughts to us and give us to know the remedy, the antidote
for sin and for the sin-sick soul in the good physician. They that behold need not a physician,
but they that are sick. Amen.