Let me take of thee, spring thou
up within my heart, rise to all eternity. Well, in our pastor's absence,
we have Brother Eric Floyd from Ashland, Kentucky, Hurricane
Road Grace Church. And this church is so thankful
to have you here, brother. Come preach to us. I ask you to open your Bibles
with me to Luke chapter 9. Luke chapter 9. And while you're turning there,
let me say thank you to John and Irene for having us over
last night. We had such a good evening. with everybody that was there,
but appreciate y'all opening your home to us and making us
feel so welcome. And it's also a blessing to see
Brother Henry indoors. I can't tell you how dear you
are to us and to our family. Just thankful to see you and
worship with you this morning. Luke chapter 9. Verse 11, we
read this in our Sunday school lesson. It says, Verse 11, And the people,
when they knew it, followed him, and he received them, and spake
unto them of the kingdom of God, and healed them that had need
of healing. Now, the title of my message
this morning is this. What does a sinner need? What does a sinner truly need? I can think of many things we
want, many things we would like to have, but what does a sinner
need? And I believe there's five points
here, five points in this text that will teach us what a sinner
truly, truly needs. First, I need to hear of Him. Oh, how I desperately need to
hear of the Lord Jesus Christ, to know Him, Him that is true. Second, I need to come to Christ. It says here, They followed Him. They followed Him. These people,
they heard of Him and they followed Him. Third, I need to see Him as the
Sovereign. What is that? It says there,
He received them. He received them. I need Him to speak to me. I
need to hear His gospel. I need to have His gospel declared
unto me. He spoke to them of the kingdom
of God. And then last, I need to see
my need of Him. You see that? My need of Christ. And for Him, I need Him to heal
me. I need to see my need of Him,
and I need Him to heal me. So, just for a little bit this
morning, let's look at this passage of Scripture together. It says,
verse 1, when they knew. Now, earlier in this chapter,
the disciples And the Lord Jesus Christ, they
had went through those towns and cities preaching the gospel. If you go back and read, you'll
see they went about preaching the gospel and healing the sick.
And we read that Herod was perplexed about this. He didn't understand
what was going on. The gospel was being preached,
people were being healed, and Herod just couldn't figure out
what was going on. Some had told him, they said,
Elias had appeared, or one of the old prophets had been risen.
But Herod just could not make any sense of it. And he said,
I beheaded John. What else, you know, kind of
what else is there? Who is this? Of whom, of whom do I hear such
things? Isn't that who we desire to know?
Whom do I hear of such things? But here in our text, we read
that the people, which says when they knew, now it, it says when
they knew it, but it, if you see it's in italics, that's been,
that's been added by the translator. It just says when they knew,
when they, when they knew. And up to this point, all we've
been reading about is Christ and him preaching the word. When
they knew, when they knew of him, when they knew of him. of Christ in his gospel. Herod didn't say, what is this? What is this? He said, who? Who? Salvation. Salvation is
not in a what. Salvation is in a who. Salvation
is in him. In him alone. When the people,
when the people know. What does the sinner need? I
need to know I need to know Him. Over in 1 John 5, John says, we know that the Son
of God is come and has given us an understanding that we might
know Him. That we might know Him that is
true and we are in Him that is true. Even in His Son, Jesus
Christ. This is, and he goes on, he says,
this is the true God. And this is eternal life. To know Him. What does a sinner
need? I need to know Him. I need to know Him. I need to
acknowledge Him for who He is. He's God. He's my Savior. He's my Prophet, my Priest, my
King. To know Him is to believe on
Him. and trust in him, to trust in
him and him alone. Paul said, I know, I know whom
I have believed and persuaded that he is able to keep that
which I've committed unto him against that day. Paul said this,
he said, remember that when he was on that ship and that ship
was going to, over in Acts 27, that ship was going to crash.
And everybody was worked up on the ship. And Paul said this,
he said, Sirs, I believe God. I believe God. It'll be, it'll
be just as he spoke. It'll happen just as he declared
it, just as he said it would. And if you remember, every man
on that ship was delivered safely. Every last one. Sirs, I believe
God. Isn't that what Abraham said
all the way back? Abraham believed God. To know Christ, to know
God, is to experience Him. To experience Him. To be one
with Him. To be one with Christ. Again,
not a doctrine. John, you said that last night.
Many of us knew the doctrine up here for a long time. But
until it's applied to the heart, Christ dwelleth in me, to experience
Him. Paul said, Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. To know
Christ is to be, again, to experience Him, to be made one with Him. Just as a husband and a wife
are made one flesh. To know Christ is to have fellowship
with Him. to have fellowship. This past
week, I had a trip for work and I was up in Columbus. And I looked
this up. I didn't count them myself. There's 879,170 people that live
in Columbus. OK, well, why would I say that?
Because when I ate supper, I ate by myself. When I got up and
ate breakfast, I ate by myself. I don't, as far as I know, I
don't know anyone. Out of all those people in Columbus,
I don't know one of them. But when I got home, I sat down
with Abby. I sat down with our boys. We sat. We had fellowship. We're
together. We're family. We have a common
love. Last night, John and Irene's
house, we went over. Never been in your home before.
But as soon as we pulled in the driveway, We felt like we were
at home. We felt welcome. And we had fellowship
with other believers. We sat around and we talked and
we sang hymns. Oh, what a joy to have fellowship,
to be one with our brethren. To know Christ is to have fellowship
with Him. To be one with Him. To know Christ. It's not knowing about Him. It's knowing Him. It's knowing
Him. Well, back to our text. What does a sinner need? What do I need? I need to know
Him. I need to know the Lord Jesus
Christ. I need to follow Him. Look again there in verse 11. When they knew, They came to
Him. You see that? They came to Him.
They followed Him. That's what He told the disciples.
Turn to Matthew chapter 4. Matthew chapter 4. Look beginning with verse 17
of Matthew 4. From that time, Jesus began to
preach and say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
And Jesus walking by the sea of Galilee saw two brethren,
Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net into
the sea, for they were fishers. And he saith unto them, Follow
me. Follow me and I will make you
fishers of men." And they straightway left their nets and they followed
Him. They dropped their nets right
there. We don't read that they put them up for sale to see what
they'd get out of them. They dropped their nets and they
followed Him. And going on from thence, he
saw two other brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John
his brother, and a ship with Zebedee their father, mending
their nets. And he called them, and they
immediately left the ship, and their father, and they followed
him. They heard his voice, and they
followed him. You see that? They had to follow
Him. They had to. All that the Father
given me shall come to me. And they dropped everything. They left their jobs. They left
their family. For what? For the Lord Jesus.
For the Lord Jesus Christ. In Matthew 9, we read of two
men, two blind men. They followed Him. And they cried,
saying, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. Have mercy on me. And our Lord went into a house
and they continued to follow Him. They followed Him into the
house. And He asked them, He said, Do
you believe that I am able? Do you believe I'm able? Do you
believe I'm able to do this? And they followed Him and they
came to Him and they said, Yes, Lord. We believe. We believe. And He touched them. He touched
them and He said, according to your faith, be it unto you. And
their eyes were opened. Our Lord asked His disciples
on this thing of following Him, He said, will you go away? Will
you go away? And they said, Simon Peter said,
Lord, to whom? To whom shall we go? Thou hast
the words of eternal life, and we believe and are sure that
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." To follow
Him. To follow Him. And continually, we continually
come to Him, don't we? We follow Him and continually
come to Him. What does a sinner need? Back
in Luke 9 and 11, what does a sinner need? We read that they knew
Him. We read that they followed Him. And third, He received them. He received them. Who did the
receiving? He did. He did. It's by His power. It's by His sovereignty. I need
to recognize in this thing of salvation, it is all of Him. It is totally and completely
of him. Turn to Matthew 8. Matthew chapter 8. Look beginning with verse 1.
When he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed
him. And behold, there came a leper."
Now, John Gill wrote this in his commentary. He said, leprosy,
it's an emblem, it's a picture of sin and the corruption of
our nature. It's uncleanness, uncleanness. And it's something in which every
man is defiled. It renders him infectious, nauseous, abominable. And it's a condition
of only which Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, can heal. can only be cleansed by Christ,
our great High Priest, who's able to cleanse us from all sin. And no doubt this leper covered,
tried to, when he approached Darwin, he probably tried to
cover his leprosy. They were told to, you know,
grab a piece of cloth and put that over their mouth and to
shout, unclean, unclean. And everybody around knew their
wretched and miserable condition. And that's us. That's us. That's us by nature. But here
in Matthew, we read he came and he worshipped the Lord Jesus
Christ. He fell at his feet. And look
at this verse, he said, Lord, if thou will, if thou will, thou
canst make me clean. Lord, You're sovereign. You're
sovereign. You have the power to save me.
You have power over sin, power to heal. And Lord, if You will,
You can make me whole. You can make me clean. God's sovereign. And He can save
us or He can pass us by. But this leper, he came to him
and he said, Lord, if You will, If you will, you can make me
whole. And Jesus, look at verse 3, put
forth his hand and he touched him. He laid hold of him and
he said, I will be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was
cleansed. Is there any question as to who
does the healing? Is that not cleared up? Christ
and Christ alone. Who does the saving? Christ and
Christ alone. I don't know how modern religion
would describe this encounter. Would the leper say, I've decided I've decided to let you heal
me." Isn't that just utter, utter foolishness? Would He approach
him like Naaman did? Would He approach him with his
gifts and his letter from the king and his gold and his silver? What does the Scripture say?
The Scripture says, this man, even the Pharisees said this,
this man receiveth Sinners. That's how we come before God. He's sovereign. I'm the sinner. Fall at His feet. Lord, if Thou
will, Thou couldst make me clean. And Jesus put forth His hand,
and He touched him, and He said, I will be Thou clean. And immediately, think about
that. I don't know how long this man
had been a leper, how long he'd been in this condition, but we
know this immediately. When the Lord touched him, immediately
he was made clean. He was made whole. He received
him. It's by his power and his own. Now back to our text. We read
that they knew him. They followed him. He received
them. And then forth he spake unto
them of the kingdom of God. What does a sinner need? I need
for him to speak to me. I need him to declare his gospel
unto me. We know this. If he speaks it,
Well, here he said, my sheep, my sheep, hear my voice. He spake
unto them of the kingdom of God. Now in Matthew and Mark, we read
that the Lord Jesus Christ went about preaching the gospel of
the kingdom of God. He went about. So what do I need? I need to hear the gospel. I
need to hear I need to hear his word, the good news, not not
in pomp and splendor. Not in some kind of outward observance
or ceremony. He said, my kingdom, my kingdom
is not of this world. It's his kingdom. And as it's
his kingdom, I listened to a message Brother Paul preached about this.
This is so his kingdom. He's the king. He's the king. Now, we don't know much about
that in our day time. We don't know much about a sovereign. one who rules and reigns over
all. But in his kingdom, he's the king. And we're all subject
to the king. He's the king to do with his
people as he will, as he sees fit. And he rules and he reigns
over all his kingdom. Isn't that what he revealed to
Nebuchadnezzar? Old Nebuchadnezzar, he said,
He said, all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as none. And he doeth according to his
will, and the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of
the earth, and none can stay his hand or say unto him, what
doest thou? He's the king, and he rules and
reigns over all. In his kingdom, his subjects
will bow to him. We bow to the King. We read this, every knee shall
bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of God the Father. Now there were some rulers over there in Matthew that questioned
His authority. Because again, his subjects,
we bowed to him, we bowed to him. But there were some, they
questioned his authority. And our Lord told a parable.
And he silenced them pretty quick. He told them this, he said, he
wrapped it up by saying this, he said, the publicans and the
harlots will go into the kingdom of God before you do. Now, think
about that. The publicans and harlots, they
knew something of themselves, didn't they? The publicans and
harlots, they believed. The publicans and harlots, they
repented. And they fell at His feet. In His kingdom, His subjects
fall at His feet. We fall at the feet of the Master. Remember that publican over there
in, I think it was in Luke? What did he say? Now the natural
man says this, we will not have this man reign over us. Isn't
that what they said when they crucified? We have no king. We
have no king but Caesar. But what did that publican do?
He beat upon his chest and he cried. He wouldn't even raise
his eyes to heaven. And he said, God be merciful
to me, the sinner. There was that woman taken in
the very act of adultery. And those Pharisees, those scribes
and Pharisees, they thought, we've got him now. And they took
that woman taken in the very act of adultery, and they brought
her before the master. And they said, according to the
law, she's to be stoned. What do you say about this? What
do you say? Well, you know, they probably
thought we did. There were a big crowd of them
there. They all wanted to see it, didn't they? And he said
that he acted, he just was right in there on the ground with his
finger and acting like he didn't hear. And finally, they just
kept at it. And he said, whichever one of
you doesn't have sin, you cast the first stone. And they all
rode out there, didn't they? And then it was just her and
the master. And the master looked at her
and said, where's your accusers? She said, they're all gone. And he said, neither do I accuse
thee. Oh, wow. Go and sin no more. Huh? His kingdom is not of this world,
is it? Righteousness, peace, joy, peace
and pardon by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Justification
by His righteousness. Free and full salvation by Him,
in Him and Him alone. He preached the gospel of the
kingdom of God. And listen, when he speaks, our
brother read that. What has the Lord spoken? He
shall speak peace. He speaks peace to the hearts
of his people. Well, back to our text. What
do I need? What does a sinner need? I need
to know him. I must know him. I need to follow
him. I need him to receive me. It's
on His terms, isn't it? I need to hear Him speak His
gospel, and I need to hear it over and over again. And last,
I need to know my need of Him. I need to be healed of Him. You see that at the very end
of the verse. He healed them that had need of healing. Who
did He heal? Those that were in need. Turn
back a few pages, just to Luke 5, Luke chapter 5, and look at
verse 27. Luke 5, and begin with verse
27. After these things, he went forth
and he saw a publican named Levi sitting at the receipt of custom,
and he said to him, follow me. And he left off and he rose up
and followed him. And Levi made a great feast in
his house. And there was a great company of publicans and others
that sat down with him. But their scribes and Pharisees
murmured against his disciples saying, why do you eat and drink
with publicans and sinners? And Jesus answered and said unto
them, they that are whole need not a physician, but they that
are sick. I came, I came not to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance. Blind men, lepers, countless,
countless others in the scriptures that were in need came to Him
And He healed him. And He healed him. He made him
whole. Has He revealed His need? You
know, I can remember a time when I didn't need Him. I can remember
a time when I was content with my works, my so-called self-righteousness,
and a man kept telling me, You're a sinner. You're a sinner. But he didn't leave it at that.
Christ came to save sinners. Boy, if the Lord would just be
pleased to reveal that to us. I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner and
I need Him. I need Him. Have you heard of Christ? Have
you heard of the Lord Jesus Christ? Seek Him. Believe Him. Rest in
Him and Him alone, knowing this, that He is able. He is able. Are you in need of
healing? What do the Scriptures declare?
Huh? He healed all those in need of
healing. You know, the Pharisees and those
religious people at that time and in our time, Don't need him. Just listen to them. He needs them. They were looking at ways. Listen,
they didn't need him. They denied his power. They tried
to run him off. They tried to be done with him.
Remember when he healed that gathering man and the people
came out to see what had happened? And here was this man that had
been running around naked in the tombs, chained, couldn't
be tamed. And now he's sitting, and he's
clothed, and he's sitting at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. What did they say? Get out of
here! Oh my! They bid him to depart. But a sinner? Wouldn't that gathering
have followed Him anywhere He went, wouldn't it? A sinner,
a true sinner must, must have Him. Must have Him. Are you in need of healing? Then
seek Him. Seek the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn with me to one more passage
of Scripture. 1 Timothy 1 verse 15. What did Paul say? 1 Timothy 1 verse
15. This is a faithful saying. It's
a true saying. This is a saying that must be
heard. It's a saying that's worthy of
all acceptation. That Jesus Christ came into the
world to save sinners. Paul throws in there and says,
of whom I'm the chief. Aren't we thankful? Aren't we
thankful? Well, I pray God would be pleased
Bless his word to our hearts here this morning. Let's all stand and turn to number
249. 249. Alright. Just as I am without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me, And that Thou bidst me come
to Thee O Lamb of God, I come, I come Just as I am, and waiting
not To rid my soul of one dark plot, To Thee whose blood can
cleanse each spot, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am, though tossed about
With many a conflict, many a doubt Fighting and feared within, without,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am poor, wretched,
blind, Sacred, just healing of the mind, Yea, all I need in
Thee to find, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am, thou wilt receive,
wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve. Because Thy promise
I believe, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. And I thank you, Lord, for giving
me a chance to move in your way. And I thank you, Lord, for giving
me a chance to move in your way. Thanks for watching!