I hope you'll follow along in
your Bible with me this morning as I bring you a message from
God's Word found in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 6. The Gospel
of Luke, chapter 6, in verse 19, it says, The whole multitude
sought to touch him, for there went virtue out of him and healed
them all. Speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the whole multitude, many people, sought touch him for virtue or
power went out of him and healed them all. My hope, my prayer
is that someone listening this morning needs healing. Someone
is seeking the Lord and they hope and pray that they might
touch him or rather lay hold of him. Isaiah 64 7 says this,
there's none that calleth upon thy name that stirreth up himself
to take hold of thee." There was a man named Blind Bartimaeus
who called upon his name, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He cried out, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. He needed healing. He was blind. Oh, may someone call, may someone
cry out this morning unto the Lord that he might touch them
for virtue, healing power, mighty saving power only comes from
him, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Lord that healeth. He is Jehovah Rapha, the Lord
that healeth thee. In verse 19, it says he healed
them all. In another gospel, it says he
healed all that had need of healing. Everyone who needed healing and
came to him, he healed them. All who sought Him, they found
Him, and He healed them. All who called upon Him, all
who came to the Lord Jesus Christ, He healed them all. The blind
received their sight, the lame woke, lepers were cleansed, the
deaf heard, dead were raised, and the poor had the gospel preached
to them. These were real healing, not
these fake, phony healings of false prophets today, but true
healing, real healing. But now, listen carefully, do
you know that all these healings, all these diseases symbolize
something much greater? That all these diseases and afflictions
represent the disease that is in all of us, the disease called
sin from which we are dying and dead. The disease of sin that
renders all of us blind. halt, lame, lepers, deaf, dead
in trespasses and sin. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
the only one who can and will heal us. The only one who can
and will and must put away sin by the sacrifice of himself,
by his power, by the power of God's Spirit, by the power of
God's Word. For salvation is of the Lord. Jonah 2 9 says salvation is of
the Lord Jesus Christ from start to finish it is of the Lord He
and he alone has the power to say to give life to dead sinners
And here is how he does it every time Every time he did it then
he does it now in verse 13 of this same chapter in Luke 6 it
said When it was day he called unto him his disciples and of
them he chose twelve whom also he named apostles. Over in Mark's
gospel it says he went up into a mountain and called unto him
whom he would and they came to him. You see this story began
with the Lord coming to them. In verse 17 it says he came down
with them and stood in the plain in the company of his disciples
and a great multitude came to hear him. He came down. The Lord
Jesus Christ, God, the Son of God, God was manifest in the
flesh. He condescended. He came down. He humbled himself to come to
this earth. Scripture says in Psalm 8 verse
4, what is man that thou art mindful of him? David is saying
man is not worthy of God's recognition. What is man that God would be
mindful of him, even think on him, let alone visit him, come
to him. And he did. God came down to
this earth. He condescended to this earth
because the Lord is merciful. The Lord is gracious. The Lord
is slow to anger and of great kindness. Oh, he came down to
save some of these unworthy. Now, this is what Scripture says
of man. And if you know anything about
yourself, You know this is true. He came down to save some unworthy,
rebellious, unthankful sinners. Yea, a multitude which no man
can number. No one deserves to be saved. But yet God in great love and
mercy and grace came to save many. Yea, a multitude which
no man can number. Scripture says as the stars of
the sky and the sands of the seashore No man can number them,
but he has. He has them numbered. He has
them named just like the stars of the sky, because he chose
them. He elected them before the world
began, put their names in the Lamb's Book of Life. He purposed
to save them. Someone may say, well, there
he goes again, speaking about sovereign election. Yes, I do. Here I go again, because this
is truth. This is where salvation started.
This is the glory of God. It puts the creature in the dust
where he belongs. This is the glory of God. This
is where salvation started in the mind, the will, the choice,
the purpose of God, His work, His glory. He will not share
it with another. Salvation doesn't start with
man. It starts with God. If you reject
this, God rejects you. If you hate this, You must hate
God's sovereignty, God's right to be God. You hate God. You hate the truth. If you insist
on your will, if you insist on man's will, you're no better
than Satan who said, I will. This is what I will do. If you
do not bow to God's will, you will be cast out. And you must
not be blind, halt, lame, deaf, or a dead sinner. or else you
would be crying out unto the Lord to open your blind eyes,
open your deaf ears. And if you are not blind, our
Lord once said to the Pharisees, you'll die in your sins. If you
were blind, you would have no sin. Go and learn what that meaneth. Nonetheless, the Lord chose you
through preaching. If He chose you, He will through
preaching, what I'm doing right now. He will show you yourself. He will open your blind eyes
and your deaf ears, and you will cry for mercy. He will loosen
your tongue to cry for mercy. So the reason anyone comes to
the Lord is the same as in this story. He came to them. And the
reason He came to this earth is for His glory, for His great
love to His people. Not all mankind is worthy of
the love of God, but God set His love upon some, yea, many. He came for His great love to
them, not our love to Him. Oh no, herein is love, not that
we love God, but that He loved us. Who's the us? Those He came
to save, those that will believe by His power, by His grace, by
His mercy, by His Spirit for His glory. He came to this earth
to save a people who could not save themselves, who would not
if they could. because they're unwilling. But
He came in sovereign mercy and sovereign grace to save some,
yea, many. And He said this is how they
are saved. He calls them. For whom He did
foreknow, He did predestinate. Whom He did predestinate, He
called by the gospel. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation to everyone that believe it. Christ said, My sheep
hear My voice. The gospel is His voice. It's
not an attempt to save, it's a powerful command. Just as God,
who in the beginning said, let there be light, God in sovereign
mercy and love and grace to his people, he comes to them through
the preaching of the gospel and says, let there be light, and
there is light. This is how true healing begins,
by hearing. Healing begins by hearing. Healing from sin. Salvation begins
by hearing. Verse 17, it says, They came
to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases. They all first
heard Him preach, came to hear Him for faith, which is another
word for life, spiritual life, another word for sight, for hearing. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the Word of God. By the Word of God, that's the
command of God. As God said, let there be light,
there was light. So God must say, let there be
sight. There will be sight. Let there be a hearing, like
a man in Mark 7 who was deaf, who could not hear, and the Lord
Jesus Christ said, Be opened. Then and then only were his ears
opened. And so it is with us. By the
Word preached, by the command of God, have that man hear me. By the Word preached, I've already
quoted Romans 10, it says, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him
in whom they have not believed? How shall they believe in him
of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent?" 1 Corinthians 121 says that It pleased God
by the foolishness of preaching to save them to believe, to open
blind eyes, deaf ears to hear His voice. Now, if you do not
like what you're hearing, then you do not have ears to hear.
You do not hear the truth. You reject it. This is the truth.
But if you do, oh, bless God, bless the Lord. He's opened your
ears. So in verse 17, it says they
came to hear Him and be healed over in Matthew's Gospel, chapter
9. It says this, Matthew 9, verse
35, He went about all the cities and villages teaching in their
synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing. In that order, He preached, He
taught the Word, the gospel, and He healed them. This is what
heals, the gospel. It is the power of God unto salvation. It's the virtue, the mighty power
of God that saved. The gospel preached, declared,
not offered. Not offered, but declared, like
Peter at Pentecost. What is the Gospel? It's not
a what, it's who. It's declaring who God is. Creator,
Owner, Sovereign, Judge, Holy. If taken by the Spirit of God,
that opens blind eyes, blind eyes of men and women to see
what they are. Sinners, rebels, ungrateful,
unworthy, undeserving, helpless, cursed under the law, guilty,
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, which causes him to
cry unto God, repentance toward God. God, be merciful to me,
the sinner. This gospel opens blind eyes
to ourselves, to sin, to the world, to see this world for
the perishing place that it is. It opens our blind eyes to false
religion, our false profession, our works profession of religion,
which is filthy rags of self-righteousness. It opens deaf ears to hear the
truth. What is the truth? Not a what.
It's a who. Who Christ is. Who Christ is. The way. The only way to God.
The truth. The life. Opens blind eyes. This gospel opens blind eyes
to see that Jesus Christ is the only hope. The only peace with
God. We don't make peace. Christ must
make peace. The only acceptance with God.
We don't accept Him, we must be accepted in the Beloved. The
only righteousness God will accept, the only salvation, loosens the
tongue to cry, to call, to repent, lame feet to walk, to come to
Christ and believe on Him. Oh, may the Lord open your deaf
ears and blind eyes today. Amen.