Is that not our prayer and desire? Don't we desire that so much
for Christ to live in us? This song begins by saying, once
far from God and dead in sin, no light my heart could see,
but in God's word, the light I found because Christ lives
in me. Had we find it, Christ revealed
it to us. And then it ends by saying, with
longing all my heart is filled that like Him I may be, as on
the wondrous thought I dwell that Christ lives in me. We just
want to be like Him. Turn with me, if you would, to
Matthew chapter 9. Matthew chapter 9. I pray the Lord will meet with
us today and help us and bless us and reveal Himself to us. Matthew
9, let's begin reading in verse 18 together. While He spake these things unto
them, while our Lord spake these things unto them, Behold, there
came a certain ruler and worshiped him saying, my daughter is even
now dead, but come and lay thy hand upon her and she shall live. And Jesus arose and followed
him and so did his disciples." Mark's account tells us that
this man's name was Jairus. And it more clearly tells us
that his daughter was at the point of death on the verge of
death. Because while the Lord was on
his way to this man's house, the man said, would you please
come and heal my daughter? And the Lord said, I'll come.
And while they were headed to Jay Iris's house, some people
came and met them and they said, Jay Iris. There's no need in
you troubling the master any longer. Your daughter died. And I love this, the Lord looked
him right in the eye and he said to him, be not afraid, only believe. And he came to his house anyway.
while they were traveling to Jairus' house. Verse 20, it says,
Behold, a woman which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve
years, came behind him and touched the hem of his garment. For she
said within herself, if I may but touch his garment, I shall
be whole. And don't you love that story?
It was a great press of people. And this woman had to crawl through
all their legs to reach out and touch the garment of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And he stopped. He said, virtue
has gone out of me. Who touched me? They said, who
touched you? You see all these people? He said, no, no. Somebody
touched me. Somebody was made whole. Verse
22, But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said,
Daughter, be of good comfort. Thy faith hath made thee whole.
And the woman was made whole from that hour. And when Jesus
came into the ruler's house, Jairus's house, and saw the minstrels
and the people making a noise, he said unto them, Give place,
for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him
to scorn. But when the people were put
forth, he went in and took her by the hand and the maid arose
and the fame hereof went abroad into all that land. And when
Jesus departed, thence two blind men followed him, crying and
saying, thou son of David have mercy on us. And when he was
come into the house, the blind man came to him and Jesus sayeth
unto them, believe ye that I am able to do this. What a question. Do you believe that I'm able
to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord. Then touched he their eyes, saying,
According to your faith, be it unto you. And their eyes were
opened, and Jesus straightly charged them, saying, See that
no man knoweth. But they, when they were departed,
spread abroad his fame in all that country. As they went out,
behold, they brought to him a dumb man possessed with the devil.
And when the devil was cast out, the dumb man, the mute man who
couldn't speak when the devil was cast out, the dumb spank
and the multitudes marveled saying it was never so seen in Israel. But the Pharisees said, he cast
it out devils through the Prince of 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. But when he saw the multitudes,
he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted
and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Then
saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous,
but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of
the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. Now we've looked at each one
of those accounts individually before. They are worthy to be
looked at individually. Aren't they wonderful? With each
one of them, don't you just smile inside thinking about each one
of those stories, each one of those accounts. If the Lord is
willing, we will do that again. We'll look at each one of those
individually at whatever point the Lord would have us to do
that. But for this morning's message, I want to look at what
we just read as a whole. And the reason is because all
of this, everything we just read, collectively reveals to us what
happens when a child of God is brought to a knowledge of the
salvation that has been given to him or her in Christ. When
salvation comes, salvation was purposed, salvation was purchased,
and then salvation is understood, it's revealed, it comes in time
to God's people. And when it does, this is how
it comes. This is how it comes. When a
sinner who God elected to save, chose to save, when the time
comes for that sinner to be called by God to salvation, literally
quickened, made alive to a knowledge and an understanding of that
salvation, this is what happens. Spiritually speaking, we just
read a lot of physical things. Spiritually speaking, this is
what happens. These physical dealings that
the Lord had with these people, they represent the spiritual
dealings that he has with every one of his own. And the Lord
reveals the importance of that to his people. The average man
and woman is just so consumed with physical healing. They believe
that's the blessing of the Lord. Physical healing. If I could
just get a physical healing. Well, that's wonderful. I thank
the Lord for physical healing. But that's not the blessing of
the Lord. That's not His work of salvation to His people. This,
spiritually speaking, is His work. And it's this way every
single time. every single time. Now, our Lord
summarized all of this in one verse for us, all right? Everything
we just read, He summarized it in one verse in Matthew 11. If you turn your page to Matthew
chapter 11, verse 1 says, it came to pass
when Jesus had made an end of commanding His 12 disciples,
He departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities. Now,
when John had heard, John the Baptist, when he had heard in
the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples
and said unto him, art thou he that should come or do we look
for another? When he had heard of the Lord's
works. And John wasn't concerned with
physical things. He was not looking toward physical
matters. He was looking toward spiritual
matters. He was concerned with the things
of eternal life and from prison, he is in prison. And from prison,
he sent two of his disciples to ask the Lord, art thou he
that should come? to save us, to redeem us, to
eternally deliver us, or do we look for another? Are we looking
for another? Verse four, Jesus answered and
said unto them, go and show John again those things which you
do hear and see. He said, the blind receive their
sight and the lame walk. The lepers are cleansed and the
deaf hear. The dead are raised up and the
poor have the gospel preached to them. and blessed is he whosoever
shall not be offended in me." He said, what a blessed person
it is who is not offended in me. And I'm telling you, that
is a blessed person. That is a blessed person who
is not offended in, the Lord said, me, my way, my work, My word, you know, honestly,
men and women are offended by the Lord's way. They are offended
by the Lord's work. They are offended by the Lord's
word. Men and women naturally believe
they love. Oh yeah. Every word right there
in the Bible. But once they really see what it says, come to find
out they don't love every word. It's offensive. It's truly offensive. The Lord said, blessed is the
person who's not offended by my will. Blessed is the person who's not
offended by my glory, me getting all the glory. A person who has
been made to humbly bow to that has been blessed by God. And
you'll know who they are because They will have this salvation
revealed to them and they will love it. Strangely enough, just
so strangely enough, they will have this. The more we look at
this, they will have this revealed to them and they'll love it and
they'll plead it. and they'll cling to it. They
will know what they are in their flesh. They will know what Christ
has done for them. And not only will they not be
offended by it, it'll be their glory, it'll be their joy, it'll
be their crown. They'll say, look at what He
has done for us. Look at what He has done for
us. Do you see what He has done for
us? Well, go with me back to Matthew
9. There are so many things we could
look at in these accounts. It mentions many times the subject
of faith. We could look at the critical
importance of faith, looking to Christ, believing on Christ
for who He is and what He's able to do. He said, do you believe
I'm able to do this? We could look at the fact that
faith is not of ourselves. That's the gift of God to us.
That's the work of God in us. He's the author of it. He's the
finisher of it. We could look at the importance
of praying to the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth
laborers into the harvest laborers in the word. And I'll tell you,
if the Lord is willing, I want to preach another message on
that. Because it is important. We need men to go preach the
Word of God in truth. He's gonna have to call them.
He's gonna have to raise them up. But he said, pray that that
will happen. And we need to do that. And we
could spend time looking at that. So many important things that
I'd love for us to take the time to look at. But what I want us
to get a hold of for this morning is, what it was collectively
about all of these people that brought them to Christ. What was it about these people
that brought the Lord's attention to them? What was it that brought His
favor to them? What was it that brought His
blessing to them? And here's the answer. I'm gonna spill the beans, all
right? It was their infirmities. What
was it about all of them, collectively, that brought them to Christ and
brought His attention? Do we realize that woman, we've
already said, there was a huge crowd of people there. Why her?
Touching Him, touching Him, grabbing Him. How come no virtue went
out until her? What was it about them? It was
their sickness. It was their infirmities. It
was their disease. It was their inability. Here
it was. It was the fact that none of
them could have any confidence in their flesh. That's what it
was. While men are standing up and
here telling people, now you need to make it so you can have
confidence in your flesh. Here's what it was. It was the
fact that none of them could have any confidence in their
flesh. None of them, not one of them,
not one of them. Had these people not been sick,
this is the truth, had they not been sick and diseased in their
flesh and unable to help themselves. The Lord helps those who are
unable to help themselves. Had they not been unable to help
themselves, they would have never been brought to the Lord. They would have never sought
the Lord. They would have never had a desire placed in them to
come to the Lord. They were sovereignly brought
to Christ. Every soul that comes to Christ
is sovereignly brought to the Lord Jesus Christ. But here's
the thing about it. It was not by way of what they
could be proud of that brought them. It was by way of what had ruined
them that brought them. That's what brought them, what
had ruined them. That's how it is with God's people
and their sin. The longer I live, the more I
realize this. What do all of God's people have
in common? What do all of God's people have
in common? It's this. Their worthiness did
not bring them to Christ. Their wretchedness did. Honestly,
that's what all of God's people have in common. While men and
women are trying so hard to come based on their worthiness, God's
people can't. They cannot. The only thing that
can bring them to the Lord Jesus Christ is their wretchedness. That's the only thing, their
absolute wretchedness. None of God's people come because
of the goodness of their flesh. They come because of the ruin
of their flesh. And they all have a heart to
come. They want to come to the Lord Jesus Christ because that
ruin has been revealed to them. It's been revealed to him. A
long time ago, there was a preacher who preached on the radio and
he got a call one day from a woman who had a lot of questions based
on what she heard on the radio. She had a lot of questions and
he could tell that this woman was a woman of the street. I don't know how else to say
it, but he finally said to her, why don't
you come and Visit with us and why don't you come here? The
message is preached. I believe it would help you and and she
said You wouldn't want me to come down there She said I'm
a sinner And he said we have a lot of
those down here And she said no, no, no No, no, I'm a real
sinner. I And he said, we have a lot
of those down here. He said, I believe you'd fit
in nicely down here. You come. God's people have this utter
ruin revealed to them. God's people have utter ruin
revealed to them. God's people have utter ruin
revealed to them. This is the difference. God's
people have utter ruin. You can talk about utter ruin,
and those who do not know God do not know what you're talking
about. What do you mean, utter ruin? God's people have absolute,
absolute, utter ruin of the flesh revealed to them. The saddest reality and the saddest
truth that exists in this world is men and women by nature are
spiritually blind. They are blind to the Lord Jesus
Christ and His way and His righteousness. And they don't know it. That's
the saddest condition of life on this earth. Men and women
are blind to the Lord Jesus Christ, and they don't know it. This
is what physical blindness is. Okay. Physical blindness is not
being able to see the things of this world. Spiritual blindness is not being
able to see Christ, not being able to see the things of Christ.
Men and women are blind to the Lord Jesus Christ and they don't
know it. They see the scripture, but they don't see Christ in
the scripture. They can only see themselves
in the scripture. That's spiritual blindness. That's
what it is. They cannot see Christ's work
and Christ's fulfillment of the scriptures. They can only see
their work and their fulfillment of the scriptures. That is spiritual
blindness. They're blind to the fact that
their work and their fulfillment is no work and no fulfillment
at all. They think it is, but it's not. They're blind to that. The commandment is come to Christ. That's the commandment, come
to Christ. Men and women, this is so sad, men and women are
totally unaware of the fact that they can't come. Completely unaware
of the fact that no man or woman can come to the Lord Jesus Christ
except the Father draw that center to Christ. Man thinks he has
come to Christ. and has no idea that he hasn't. He's spiritually lame. Because he's not physically lame,
he cannot comprehend spiritual lameness. Because he can come
to church and because he can come to whatever, Man is so eaten up with the leprosy
of sin. Man is literally rotting before
God. Just eaten up with it, just rotting
before God. And man has no idea of his condition. He's hard pressed to find one
little spot here and there. Well, yes, I do see one little,
probably need to wipe that off. Man in his natural flesh does
not hear the Word of God. Man does not hear the Law. The Apostle Paul said, you who
desire to be under the Law, do you not hear the Law? Man does not hear the voice of
God. What does the voice of God say?
You're a sinner. Your only hope is a Savior. He has no idea he's spiritually
dead. He can hear physical things, but he can't hear spiritual things. Spiritually dead. Man in his
flesh is dead before God. He enters this world spiritually
dead before God. He has no idea. No idea. No idea that in his flesh he
does not possess the eternal life of God. Man in his flesh
is so poor before God. If man only knew how poor he
was before God. He may have all the money that
this world has to offer, but he is so poor before God because
he does not have one thing that he can offer God to pay for his
sin dead against him. He is so, so poor. Man is so poor. He thinks he
has everything to offer God. Has no idea he has nothing. Nothing. The warning from God is, when
there is no need for Christ, there is no healing from Christ.
When there's no need for Christ, from Christ, there is no healing
from the Lord Jesus Christ. Look right here at Matthew 9,
the end of verse 12 says, The end of verse 12, he said,
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 best
thing that could happen to every single one of us is that God
would reveal our sickness to us. That is the best thing that
could happen to all of us. that God would reveal our sickness
to us. If God would reveal to us the
reality of our condition in our flesh, we would lose all confidence
in our flesh. We'd stop talking about it altogether.
We would lose all confidence in our flesh. And we would have
no choice but to turn to the healer of our sickness. The savior from our sin, Christ
Jesus, our Lord. Every sin diseased center who
comes to him is made whole. Every single center who comes
to him is made whole. I love, you know, God chose a
people to save. He has a particular people. Only
those people are going to be saved. But I say to the world,
every sick sinner who comes to the Lord Jesus Christ will be
healed, spiritually healed. And here's the reason why. Only
God's people will want to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Only
God's people are made willing in the day of His power. If you
at all have a heart to come to the healer of sin and sickness,
go to Him. He will not turn you away. Verse
35, right here in Matthew 9 says, Jesus went about all the cities
and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the
gospel of the kingdom, the gospel good news of our spiritual healing
from our sin disease, our sin sickness. He 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, every one of them. Now, if we ever
come to realize the reality of our condition before God, It
is the Spirit of God that has revealed that to us. If we ever
truly see it and know it and believe it, God's Spirit has
revealed that to us. And if we ever come running in
our hearts to the Lord Jesus Christ, if the Lord ever brings
us to a place where we honestly, sincerely, in our hearts, just
come running to the Lord Jesus Christ for healing from our condition,
before God, that is the Father's draw. If your heart ever just
needs to go running to Him, that is the Father's draw. That's
the Father pulling you to the Lord Jesus Christ. So if these
things have been revealed to us, it's God that has done it
start to finish. Flesh and blood doesn't reveal
these things. God does. And He gets all the glory for
it. Now here's how I'll start to wind down. Has He revealed these things
to us? Has He revealed these things
to us? Answer some of these questions in your heart, not out loud.
Silently, in our own hearts, Be honest. Be honest. That's
the one thing I would say is let's be honest with ourselves,
inside ourselves. In our flesh before God, how
do we see ourselves to be? Alive in our flesh before Him
or dead in our flesh before Him? How do we see ourselves to be?
If we've had the truth revealed to us, this is what we'll say.
Dead. Dead, so dead. So dead. Oh, in my sinful condition, I
am so dead before God Almighty. Where is life? I'm dead. Where's life? Well, if spiritual
healing from God has come, we'll say, it's in the person of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Where is life? Christ has to
live in me. It's in His work, it's in His
righteousness, it's in His everything. That's where life is, it's in
Him. If I could just get to Him, I'd have life. That's what that
woman, if I could just touch, if I could just touch His clothes,
I'd have life. All right, here's another question. In our flesh before God, how
do we see ourselves to be? Let's be honest. How do we see
ourselves to be? Clean? Pure? Spotless? Before Him? Or diseased before
Him? Which one is it? If we've had
the truth revealed to us, We will say, I am diseased from
head to toe, wounds, bruises, putrefying sores, inside, outside,
all the way down to my core. I am diseased before Him. I'm so diseased. I'm just full
of a loathsome disease. That's me. filled with a loathsome
disease. That's all that flows through
my veins, just disease, sin. Where is cleansing from that
disease found? In a baptism? In a decision? If we've had the
truth of the Word revealed to us, we'll say, cleansing from
my disease can only be found in the blood that flows through
Emmanuel's veins. the blood that he shed on the
cross of Calvary to wash me from my sin. He must cleanse me. Where's cleansing? He must cleanse
me. He has to wash me or I'm not
going to be cleansed. The stain is too deep. If our honest answer to these
questions is no, I'm not. Are you dead? No, no, I'm not
dead. Are you diseased? No, no, I'm
not diseased. I'm not rotting and diseased.
That's the evidence of the fact that God has not revealed the
true condition of your sin to you. My sin to me, if that's
my answer, then that's my evidence. God has not revealed the truth
of these things to me. And he's not drawing me to Christ.
If that's my answer, I'm not being drawn to Christ. But if we cannot help but cry,
Lord, I am so blind. Please let me see Christ. You
ever drive to the service sometimes just begging God in your hearts,
please let me see Christ today. You ever come here begging him,
Lord, please open this deaf ear and let me hear Christ today.
Please open this deaf ear right here. Open these blind eyes. I'm so dumb, I'm so mute in my
flesh. All I do is speak of my flesh.
That's spiritually mute. Dumb. I feel like all I do is
speak of my flesh. Lord, please let me speak of
Christ. Open my spiritual tongue, Lord.
speak of Him, please purge me, please heal me, please save me
or I'm going to perish. You ever find yourself saying
that? If our true heart's desire and our only hope is to get to
the Lord Jesus Christ and to beg Him for healing and
for mercy, then it means God's gospel has come to us. That's
what it means. It means His salvation has come to us. What it means
is He has been moved with compassion toward us. And in the same way that every
single one of these people right here that we read about, in the
same way every one of them were healed, so will we be. The whole
do not need a physician, but the sick do. Here's the question. Are you sick? Are you sick like
I'm sick? Do we need Christ? Do we need Christ? Do we see Him to be our all? Do we hear Him to be the only
voice of truth? Everything He has to say about
us, do we cry, truth, Lord, truth? Do we need to come to Him? Do
we need to believe on Him? Do we need life from Him and
forgiveness from Him and mercy from Him and grace from Him?
If we do, it's only because He's made us to know that we do. And it means that we have everything
He's made us to know that we need. If we know we need it,
that's the evidence. You have what you need. If you
know you need it and you're crying out to God for it, begging Christ
for it, You have what you need. If we need Christ, it means we
have Christ. That's comfort to my heart. If we need him, it means we have
him. Lord, let us need you more and
more. Don't you want to need Christ
more? Lord, let me need you more and
more. Let us come to you. Let us cast
our all on you. And then Lord, please supply
our need. Let us cry out to you for all
our need. And then please, Lord, supply our need. If that is our
heart, He will. If that's been revealed to us
and that's our cry, that's our need, He'll supply it every time. All right, Brother Eddie, you
come.