The privilege is mine. Me and
Jamie are privileged to be here and humbled. I hope you know
what I'm talking about. It's humbling to be up here. Happy New Year to everybody.
Here's what I want you to do. I want you to think back to a
time in your life when you were thirsty. And I'm talking about
really thirsty. so thirsty that all you could
think about and all you desired and all you craved was a cool
drink of water. That's the only thing that was
on your mind. Does anybody have a story like that? I bet just
about everybody does. I have one. I was out in the
desert, and I had gone a while without some water. I don't remember
how long, but it was a pretty good while. And finally, by the
time I made my way to water, where the water was stored was
in a tanker truck, big metal tanker truck. And it was the
middle of the desert, and it had been baking out there in the
heat. And all I could think about, I just wanted a cool drink of
water. It was the only thing I could possibly think of. And I sauntered
up to that faucet to get some water. And as it's coming out,
I can almost see the steam coming out of it. It's that hot. It's
been sitting out baking in that sun of that tanker truck in that
100 degree heat. There's about two things you
could have done with that water. You could have brewed some tea, or you could have took
a bath. That's about what it was good for. But it certainly
wasn't refreshing. But it was good, clean water
to keep me alive, so I drank it. But my attitude towards that
water and towards that circumstance was certainly not what it should
have been. Now on that thought. There's a group of people in
the scripture who went through a much greater instance, but similar. And I want to read it, if you
would, turn to Exodus chapter 15. This is going to be our text,
Exodus chapter 15, and pick up in verse 22. So Moses brought Israel from
the Red Sea. And they went out into the wilderness
of Shur. And they went three days in the
wilderness and found no water. And when they came to Marah,
they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter.
Therefore, the name of it was called Marah. And the people
murmured against Moses, saying, what shall we drink? And he cried
unto the Lord. And the Lord showed him a tree.
which when he had cast it into the waters, the waters were made
sweet. There he made for them a statute
and an ordinance, and there he proved them, and said, if thou
wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and
will do that which is right in his sight, and will give ear
to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put
none of these diseases upon thee which I have brought upon the
Egyptians. For I am the Lord that healeth thee. In this story,
I see four things, four things I hope the Lord will allow me
to convey to you. First, I see a great trial and a wicked response. Second thing I see is a picture
of false religion, but also a true believer's response to the message
of false religion. Third thing I see is this. I
see how a bitter sinner, someone who is bitter before God, just
like me and you, how he can be made sweet. And the fourth thing
I see is just a beautiful call to faith. And so I'm not going
to take very long. Hopefully we can hit on these
points. But to begin with, I want you to put yourself in the position
of the children of Israel at this time. So you have just been
emancipated from Egypt, all right? The Passover has just happened.
The Lord had come through, and he had passed over Egypt. And
all the Egyptian houses, he had killed the firstborn. But you
were safe and sound in that house with the blood over the door,
that picture of Christ and the refuge that's found in Him. That's
where the Lord passed over, the house with the blood over the
door. And after that, the next morning, you get thrust out.
The Egyptians say, get out of here. Go. Take our gold. Take
our cattle. Take whatever you want. Just get out of here. Go
serve your God. So you go on, and then you get to the Red Sea.
And the Lord ports that Red Sea. And you and about two million
of your fellow countrymen, you walk on a dry seabed. all the
way to the other side with these enormous walls of water on both
sides. Can you imagine that? And then,
as soon as the last Israelite gets to the other side of the
Red Sea, he turns around, and you see Pharaoh and his army,
your great enemy, and they are charging after you, and they
want to kill you. And all of a sudden, you see those walls
of water come down, and the Lord just completely wipes out all
your enemies. What an experience that must have been, right? What
confidence these people must have had in their God at this
time. Now, you enter the wilderness for sure. And the first day goes
by. You've got no water. You're thinking, I'm getting
thirsty. But I mean, the Lord just emancipated us from Egypt.
He just parted the Red Sea. He just wiped out all our enemies.
No doubt, Lord's going to provide water. It's right around the
next bend here, there's no doubt. But it's not. Day two comes along. You're thinking, Lord, where's
that water? I'm really thirsty. But I mean, the Lord always provided
for us. No reason to fret. It's going to be around this
next turn, no doubt. But it's not. The third day comes. Now
you're desperate. And understand, this is not a
wilderness like we would have in Kentucky or Tennessee with trees
and grass and stuff like that. This is a desert. There's nothing
but rocks and sand and mountains and the hot sun. That's it. And
most experts would agree that in this climate, three days is
about the maximum a human being can go without water. So you
are literally dying of thirst. But keep in mind, it's not just
you. Those of you who have little children, Your whole family's
with you. Imagine your kids being on this journey with you and
they want water and they're tugging at you. Daddy, where's the water?
Mom, where's the water? And you see them faint because
there's no water. And how discouraging that must
have been. And all of a sudden, all of a
sudden you hear from the front of the pack, because there's
two million of you, so word would have to travel back. Somebody
from the front says, we see water. We got water. And you think,
the Lord delivered us again. No doubt. And that first Israelite
comes up, and he's hot, and he's tired, and he just dives in.
He's going to dive into this water. And he comes up, and he takes
a big drink. He wants this big, refreshing drink. And he comes
up, and everybody just watches him spit it out. It's bitter. They can't drink it. And what
they do next is evil. It is wicked. It is absolutely
inexcusable, and it is exactly what I would have done in their
position. They murmured. It says they murmured against
Moses, but who were they murmuring against? It's the Lord. See, they had
forgotten something. And it's the same thing you and
I often forget in the face of trial. It's the same God who
had emancipated them from Egypt and ported the Red Sea and wiped
out all their enemies was the same God who had led them into
the wilderness of Shur and to the waters of Mora and into this
great trial. He is the sovereign of the universe.
He is the first cause behind everything, the God that before
had emancipated, had redeemed, was now trying. It is the exact
same God. Now, the scriptures tell us in
no uncertain terms in this world we're going to have tribulation.
The life of the believer is absolutely riddled with trials. I think
it was your pastor, the last person I heard say this, every
believer is always in one of three states. He's either in
trouble, he's about to be in trouble, or he's just coming
out of trouble. And that is our experience, is it not? Now the
ultimate purpose, there is a purpose to these trials. It is not just
a random force of events. There's a purpose to it. The
ultimate purpose is the very glory of the God. And also the
secondary purpose is the very good of his people. The Lord
doesn't unnecessarily call suffering to his people. It is for our
good. But the scripture actually gives
us some insight as to what trial works in us. And I want to show
you, if you would, turn to Romans 5 and pick up in verse 1. Romans 5 and pick up in verse
1. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by
faith into the grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope
of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory
in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh Patience. And patience, experience. And
experience, hope. And hope maketh not ashamed,
because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost, which is given unto us. Three things mentioned here.
Three things achieved by trial in the believer. Patience, experience,
and hope. And I want to just take a second
to talk about those three things. This thing of patience. I want
to grow in this grace, don't you? I want to be a patient man.
I don't want to be constantly murmuring in the face of adversity.
I don't want to have a childish and immature reaction every time
the Lord brings trouble my way. I want to be brought into a voluntary
submission to the will of the Lord to where truly the cry of
my heart is, Lord, thy will be done, and not mine. Your ways
are not my ways. Your thoughts are not my thoughts.
You know what's best. Your will be done. And in the
face of adversity, I want to be brought to a place to where
I pour my heart out before the Lord. I seek the means by which
he would deliver me from that trial. But after that, I shut
my mouth. and I patiently wait for the
Lord to deliver me. Not kicking rocks, just patiently
waiting, knowing that the Lord's going to deliver me. I want to
develop that patience, but it only comes one way. It comes
through tribulation. And patience worketh experience. And that
word experience is actually proof, and it's in reference to faith.
Understand that trial does not produce faith. It doesn't produce
faith. Faith is the product of the new
nature. Rather, it exposes it. It strengthens it. It galvanizes
it. In a trial, the believer's faith is actually manifest. We
see it. Now, I want this, don't you?
I crave this. I want to be a man strong in
faith. I want to trust the Lord Jesus Christ alone, absolutely
nothing doubting. I want to trust Him for my salvation
completely and utterly, nothing doubting. But I also want to
trust Him for the food that's going to be on my table tomorrow. I
don't want to trust Him if I'm sick. He's going to heal me.
He's either going to rid me of the disease or I'm going to die
and I'm going to be really healed, one of the two. But I want to
trust Him completely, nothing doubting. And this is how faith
is strengthened. It's true through tribulation.
And experience, or proof, works hope. Now I'm going to borrow
a Todd Nybergism here. What is hope? Hope is a confident
expectation in reference to the future. But your hope is only
sure if the expectation is certain. We have an expectation. Any man
or woman who's looking to Christ alone is their only hope of salvation.
Our expectation is that we have been saved. And you know what?
That expectation is certain. If Christ alone is your only
hope, your sins have been put away, and you have made the very
righteousness of Christ in Him. That's a good hope. But this
is what trial and tribulation shows us, more than anything.
It shows us that this world is not our home. That there is nothing
really here for us. And don't misunderstand me. I'm
thankful for my family. I'm thankful for my job. I'm
thankful for the relationships I have with my brothers and sisters
in Christ. But at the end of this valley of the shadow of
death, and that's what we see it for what it is. It's a valley
of the shadow of death. We have a hope that we're going
to meet our Redeemer face to face. And we're going to be just
like Him. And there's not going to be any
tears, and there's not going to be any pain, and there's not
going to be any suffering. And we're going to dwell in the
house of the Lord forever. Now, doesn't that make you patient?
Can't you wait on that, knowing you're going to meet Christ face
to face, and you'll be just like Him? And there's no reason for
shame, and there's no reason for guilt. That makes me patient.
Now, I don't wish for trial. And Todd and I have said this
several times, and I agree with it 100%. I want to get out of
every trial I can, basically because trial shows me how easily
I break. It just doesn't take much. Every
time I think I'm smart, The Lord shows me I'm a fool. Every time
I think I'm strong, the Lord shows me I'm weak. Every time
I think I'm courageous, the Lord makes me a coward. That's the
way it works. And I don't want trial. I want to get out of every
trial I can. But I do want to grow in grace, and I do want
to grow especially in these things of patience, experience, and
hope. Don't you? That's the first point.
Here's the second point, the message of false religion. Now,
what is the condition of the Israelites at this time? They're
thirsty, right? And what does it mean to be thirsty?
It means to have a conscious need. And it's a need. If the
need isn't fulfilled, you're going to die. That's where they're
at. And these people are representative people. They represent the elect.
Now, as a side note, What a blessing is it to be needy, to have a
need. If any man has ever, it's ever
revealed to him that he's a sinner and he is given a great need
of the Lord Jesus Christ, what a blessing that is because the
natural man doesn't have that. Every man on the face of this
earth is in need, but only a select group of people note they have
been made needy, that they hunger and thirst after the Lord Jesus
Christ. What a blessing that is to be needy. Now notice the
language in verse 23 of our text. The waters were so bitter that
they could not drink of the waters. They could not. Now let me ask
you a question. If you had went three days without
water, and you were about to die, and you found a body of
water, and it tasted really bad, it smelled horrible, but you
knew it was clean enough that it would keep you alive, would
you drink it? I dare say you would. If you were dying of thirst,
And even if water tasted bad, you'd drink it to keep yourself
alive. So what does that tell us? It tells us this water is
not bitter in the sense that it tastes bad. It's bitter in
another sense. It's bitter in the sense that
it is brackish. So what is brackish water? The short answer is it's
just salt water. But how the water becomes salty
is actually So brackish water implies that there is a clean,
clear flowing stream of water that's good for the drinking,
that will support life. And along that way, a tributary
flows into that same stream, and it's seawater, it's saltwater.
And where the two meet, a pool forms, and that whole pool is
salty. It's been corrupted, it's been polluted by the saltwater. So where are you going with this?
This is a picture of false religion in our day. You will be hard
to find anyone preaching under the banner of Christianity who
will say, listen, salvation has nothing to do with the shed blood
of Jesus Christ, and it has everything to do with man's obedience to
the law. Nobody's going to tell you that. You'll be very hard
pressed to find that. It will always be presented as a mixture.
They will always try to mingle works and grace. And it'll sound
something like this. Listen, of course you need the shed blood
of Jesus Christ, but you have to do something to make his work
effectual for you. It's brackish. They try to present
it as a mixture. Now, how can I know if I'm listening
to a brackish message, a message that is being infused with works
religion? I'm going to talk for a few minutes about some facts
about saltwater, realistically in this world, but we can draw
some spiritual parallels. Here's the first thing I found
out about saltwater. Saltwater can never quench your thirst.
In fact, the more saltwater you drink, the thirstier you'll become.
And that's true for every believer. If you hear this message, any
message that says salvation is in any way dependent on you holding
up your end of the bargain, that message will never quench your
thirst. Why? Because we are a needy people.
We are in need of a righteousness we can't achieve. We're in need
of a sin atonement that we can't offer. We're in need of a new
heart and a new man that we can't come up with. And we're in need
of faith that we can't muster. We are a needy people. We're
in need of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if salvation is presented
in any way dependent on what we do, it'll never quench our
thirst. In fact, we will leave thirstier
than when we first showed up. But you know what quenches my
thirst? What O.B. read. Hebrews 10, 11 through 14. And I'm gonna read it again.
because I enjoyed it so much. It says, and every priest standeth
daily, ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices,
which could never take away sins. Why did they stand? They stood
because their work was never done. Because all those sacrifices,
the killing of the goats and the bulls and offering the blood,
it never took away sins. It was all symbolic of the Christ
that was to come. They never sat down because their
work was never done. But this man, after he had offered one
sacrifice for sins forever, What did he do? He sat down. He sat
down because his work was done. Henceforth expecting, till his
enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected
forever that which are sanctified. Does that quench your thirst?
That quenches my thirst. Here's another thing I know about
salt water. Objects in salt water are more buoyant. What do I mean
by that? So if you have a salt water body and you have a clean
water body, take the same object, throw it in the salt water body,
it'll probably float to the top. The salt makes the water buoyant.
Take the same object, throw it in the clean water body, it'll
probably sink to the bottom. Say, what's my point? Take the
natural man, throw him into a message. If the water is brackish, if
it's salty, if it's infused with works religion, man will rise
to the top. Salvation by works always finds
glory for man. They will always try to find
glory for the creature, but not in grace, not in the preaching
the gospel. In the preaching the gospel, you throw the natural
man in there and he will sink like a stone all the way down
to the bottom and it exposes us for who we really are. We
are ungodly, we are unrighteous, we are unable, and we are unwilling.
And there's one who rises to the top and that's the Lord Jesus
Christ. He gets all the glory. And we love it that way. Don't
you love it that way? Here's another thing I know about salt
water. It'll kill you. That's the truth. If a man tries to
sustain his life through salt water, eventually his kidneys
will shut down and he will die of dehydration. That's how serious
this thing is. If a man hears a message, it
gives him anywhere else to look but Christ alone. That's a damning
message. That man has just signed his
death warrant. And here's the last thing I know about saltwater. And it actually comes in the
form of a question. Somebody might ask, how much salt does
water have to contain before it's harmful, before it'll kill
you? I looked on Google all I could, and I couldn't find. I don't
know. I don't know. In a spiritual sense, I do know, though, any
at all. You throw the smallest grain of works into a pool of
grace, the whole pool is contaminated. and it is all of works. There's
no mingling of grace and works. Salvation is either all of grace,
completely and utterly dependent on what Jesus Christ has done,
past tense, or it is completely and utterly dependent on what
a man must do. If you want to come on the ground
to your own personal obedience, understand this, this is your charge. You
must keep every commandment, every time, both inwardly and
outwardly in the very imaginations of your heart. Anybody up to
that task? I love salvation by grace. I
love it. Third point, how can a bitter
sinner, somebody like you and me, be made sweet before a holy
God? Look back at your text, Exodus
15, and look at verse 25. It says, and he, speaking of Moses,
cried unto the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree. And what's interesting about
that is, where was the tree? Well, it had been there the entire
time. Moses just couldn't see it until the Lord revealed it
to him. And the Lord showed him a tree, which when he had cast
it into the waters, the waters were made sweet. Now change the
types for a moment. You and I are now the water.
What's our condition? Bitter, distasteful before the
Lord because of our sin. How did we get in this condition?
Interestingly enough, the story of our fall How we became to
be in this condition, it begins with the story of a man and a
tree. Adam was put in the garden. He was created upright and innocent,
and he was given one command. Do not eat of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. In the day you eat thereof, you
shall surely die. What does Adam do? He eats the tree, and he
dies. He dies spiritually, and he passes
that fallen nature down to you and me. Now, before we are too
hard on Adam, understand this. Adam is just a representative.
You and I were in Adam. It was me who reached out and
took that fruit and took the bite. It was you who reached
out and took that fruit and took a bite. Adam was just the representative
body we were in. That was us doing that. We are
no victims in all this. But just as the story of our
fall begins with the story of a man and a tree, the story of
our redemption concludes, finishes with the story of a man and a
tree. What are you talking about? Turn
to Galatians 3, look at verse 13. Galatians 3 verse 13, Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written,
cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Notice the word hath. It speaks of something accomplished.
This is how redemption was accomplished, past tense. And the type here
is very simple. Just as the waters of Marah were made sweet, they
were made to be what they were not before. They were bitter,
they were made new waters, they were made sweet. The Lord Jesus
Christ was made a curse for us. He was made to be what he was
not before. On the cross, the Lord Jesus
Christ bore our sins in his body on the tree. He was cast into
the bitterness of my sins. and the sins of every member
of the elect. And because he was cast into the bitterness
of sins, he bore them in his body on the tree. He was cast
into the bitterness of the Father's wrath, the wrath that was reserved
for every member of the elect. He was cast into. Now, many sacrifices,
as we read in Hebrews 10 just a minute ago, have been offered
before this. And the fate of those sacrifices was always the
same. The sacrifice was put on the altar. The fire rained down.
The sacrifice was completely and utterly consumed. For the
first and only time in history, this sacrifice was offered. And
you know what happened? The sacrifice consumed the fire.
He was made the sins of his people. He suffered the wrath. that was
kept for every member of the elect, and he swallowed up that
wrath. He put sin away. He was raised
again. And because of that finished
work, every member of the elect is sweet. There is no more sin. There is no more shame. There
is no more guilt. We are sweet in the eyes of God
the Father, He who sees things as they really are. Not water
that kind of tastes sweet, but still has a little salt left
in it. Not water that might taste sweet if it would just kind of
flow the right way. No, no, no. It was bitter water and it was
made sweet. And what was the reason for it?
It had everything to do with the tree. It is finished. All right, let
me give you the last point. A beautiful picture of faith.
Look at verse 26 of your text. Exodus 15, verse 26. And said,
if thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy
God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and will
give ear to his commandments and keep all the statutes. I
will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought
upon the Egyptians, for I am the Lord that healeth thee."
Now, if we read that without understanding, that would certainly
inspire fear, wouldn't it? I mean, if the only thing that's holding
the Lord back from raining punishment down upon me is my personal observance
to the commandments and statutes of his holy law, I've got a real
problem, don't I? Because I've never kept one commandment
one time. Not inwardly or not outwardly.
Not me. But what's the meaning? There's
four conditions given here. Here's the first condition. What
does the voice of the Lord say? Well, according to Matthew 11,
28, it says, come unto me, all ye who labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. Now, somebody says, why should
I come? Give me a reason. I'll give you five. It'll be
real short. Don't worry. Here's the first reason. Because
it's not just a gracious invitation. It is a command. It is a command
address to everyone who fits the description given in the
verse, someone who is labored and are heavy laden. And if there
is anyone here in that boat, you are heavy laden with the
burden of your own sin and you are labored. You have tried to
work your way out of it and work your way into an acceptance with
God and you find you just cannot. then you are commanded, not asked,
not requested, but yet commanded to come and believe on Jesus
Christ right now and trust him completely. Not just an invitation,
but a command. Second reason, because of what
is promised, rest. A cease from labor. No works
left to perform. Nothing left to do. Truly it
is finished. Peace. Peace with God. Your warfare
is accomplished. Anybody have an interest in that?
I do. I give you the third reason because you have nowhere else
to go. If you're a sinner, you can't look at your works. They're
no good. They cannot produce life. Filthy rags. You can't
look at your feelings or your experiences. You don't know if
they're real. You have one place to go for refuge, and that's
the Lord Jesus Christ alone. You've got nowhere else to go.
I'll give you the third reason, and this one's self-evident.
I'm not even going to comment on it. You'll perish if you don't. That's the
hard truth of the matter. But I'll give you the last reason,
because if you're called of the Holy Spirit, it is impossible
not to come. You see, grace is both irresistible
and invincible. And if you're called of the Holy
Spirit, you know what you do? You come running. You have no other
choice, and you want no other choice. Now, if that makes someone
apathetic, they say, well, You know, Lord's in control of it.
I guess I'll just wait here, and if he calls me, I guess I'll
come. And if he doesn't call, I guess I wasn't predestinated.
This is the cry of a believer. This is the cry of someone who's
been called. Lord, call me. Draw me. Bring me to you. I can't get to you. Bring me.
Drag me. Draw me to you. Come get me. Back in verse 26,
what's another condition? It says, do that which is right
in his sight. If it's talking about me personally,
we have a real problem, because I have not done that which is
right in his sight, not in the body of his flesh. But let me
ask you this. When the father looks at every
member of the elect, what does he see? He sees none other than
his darling son. Jesus Christ. Has he always done
that which is right in the eyes of the Father, he who sees things
as they really are? Yes, he has. What does that mean
for all of us? For every member of the elect?
Anyone who is trusting the Lord Jesus Christ alone right now?
What does that mean? It means in the eyes of the Father, you
and I have always done that which is right. we meet the condition. Next condition, keep all his
statutes. Now, what's a statute? It has something to do with the
decree and it normally pertains to a particular circumstance.
So basically it means when this happens, do this. And I think
we can understand it in two ways. The first scripture I thought
of was first John two, one, my little children, these things
I write unto you that you send not. And if any man sin, we have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."
What's he saying there? Not in the event that you do
sin. What he's saying is when you do, we have an advocate with
the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. What's the situation?
I've sinned. I've sinned against God and I've
sinned against His holy law. What's the remedy? What's prescribed?
What's the decree? You flee to the advocate. This
man is a very special advocate. He's actually the judge's son.
And this man has a very special relationship with the judge.
He can walk into the courtroom. and demand anything he wants
from the judge. And the judge always gives it
to him. He can say, I demand this man's salvation. And all
he does is he shows the judge the holes in his hands and his
feet. And the judge says, that man gets whatever he wants. That
man is justified right there. He gets whatever he wants. He
just has to show me his hands and his feet. He's a very special
advocate. Flee to the advocate. That's
the decree. That's the statute. And there's another way we can
understand this. We can understand it in the eternal decree of God
the Father. Now, before time began, God the
Father made a decree. He set a statute. What he said
was, all those that I love, that I've foreknown, that I've predestinated
and chosen in Jesus Christ, they're going to be redeemed. They're
going to be brought back to me safe and sound without a scratch on
them. And he laid the responsibility of that solely at the feet of
Jesus Christ. And you know what? He honored
that decree. He kept that statute. And folks, we have been saved. It is a completed work, a completed
salvation. And our charge is to look to
him. That's it. And I'll give you the last condition. Give ear to his commandments.
And I'll have you turn to this one, 1 John 3, 23. What does it mean to give ear
to His commandments? 1 John 3, verse 23, and this
is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son,
Jesus Christ, and love one another as He gave His commandment. This
is the sum and substance of all these four conditions. This man. His is the voice we hearken to.
He's the only place for refuge. This man. This one who's kept
all the statutes and always done that which is right in the sight
of his Father. We trust his righteousness alone.
This man. We trust his work of redemption,
keeping God's eternal statute. It's this man we look to. It's
this man we trust. The charge here is not the do's
and don'ts of the law. The charge is faith. Look to
Jesus Christ. Believe on Him. That is your
charge. And if you're a sinner, that
is easy to do, because you've got nowhere else to go. I'm going
to conclude here, and I want you to turn over to Luke 9, verse
11. At the end of our text, the Lord
refers to himself by a name. I am the Lord that healeth thee,
Jehovah Rapha. Now look at Luke 9, verse 11. 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 notice that word, it, it's in italics. It
was provided there by the translators to try to give a better sense
of the verse, but it actually does some damage here. It's not
when they knew it, it's when they knew him. When they had
been brought to a saving knowledge of who Jesus Christ is when they
knew him. What happened? They followed
him. How do you follow somebody? You
keep your eyes on them. You look to them. And what did he do?
He received them. What a blessing that is. And
he spake to them like a man speaks to his friend. And he healed
them that had need of healing. And I'll ask anybody here this
morning If you have need of healing, if you are a sinner, and you
are sin sick, and what comes to mind is actually the term
leper. That's a great picture of sin in the Old Testament.
You know how they referred to a leper? It wasn't a man who
had leprosy. They referred to him as a leper
because his disease defined who he was. And I'm talking about
a sinner here this morning, not a man who's committed some sin,
but a sinner. Your disease defines who you are. And you come to
this one, and he'll receive you, and he'll speak to you like a
friend, and he will heal you of all your diseases. He is Jehovah
Rapha. I'm going to get down now. Thank
you all very much for listening.