Our scripture reading, let's
turn to Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews 4. Let us therefore fear, lest a
promise be left us of entering into His rest, any of you should
seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached
as well as unto them, but the word preached did not profit
them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we
which have believed do enter into rest. As He said, As I have
sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest, although
the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise,
and God did rest the seventh day from all his works. And in this place again, if they
shall enter into my rest, seeing therefore it remaineth that some
must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached
entered not in because of unbelief. Again, he limited a certain day
saying in David today, after so long a time, as it is said
today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. For if
Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken
of another day. There remained therefore a rest
to the people of God. For he that has entered into
his rest, he also has ceased from his own works. as God did
from his. Let us, therefore, labor to enter
into that rest, lest any man should fall after the same example
of unbelief. For the word of God is quick
and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing
even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the
joints and marrow and as a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest
in his sight, but all things are naked and open under the
eyes of him with whom we have to do. Seeing then we have a
great high priest that has passed into the heavens, Jesus, the
Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not
a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our
infirmities, but was in all points tempted, like as we are, yet
without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. We'll end our reading here. Let's pray. Our God and Father in heaven,
Lord, we thank you for this day. We thank you for this opportunity
you've given us to gather together. Lord, to sing hymns of praise. Lord, to read thy word. Lord, to hear thy gospel preached.
Lord, we pray that you would bless us with your presence here
this morning. Lord, I beg of thee that you
would enable me to declare the truth of thy word here this morning. Lord, that you would enable us
to hear thy word, to listen and hear thy word. Lord, bless us
with your word. Bless us with your presence. Lord, we thank you for your many
blessings. We thank you for our homes. Lord, we're thankful for
our families. Thankful for all that thy hand
has provided. Lord, above all things, we thank
you for the Lord Jesus Christ and desire to know more of him. Lord, we pray you to forgive
us. Lord, forgive us our sin. Forgive us our unbelief. Lord, forgive us when we murmur
and complain. against thy providence. Lord, we know that thou doest
all things well. Lord, cause us to rest in thee
and look to thee in all things. Lord, we pray for our pastor
and Janet as they travel. Pray for Pastor Frank as he preaches
your word. Lord, bless him in preaching
your gospel. And Lord, in all places where
where men whom you've called to preach your word stand to
declare the truth. What caused your word to go forth
in power? Lord, to the saving of the soul. Lord, let it be
mixed with faith. What caused your people to believe
and rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ? Lord, for those of our
number who are in a time of trouble or a time of sickness, Lord,
we pray your hand upon your people. Lord, we think especially of
our brother Cecil. Lord, we ask that you would be
with him, Lord, that you'd strengthen him, that you'd be with his family. Lord, for the many of our number,
Lord, in a time of trouble, comfort and strengthen your people. And
in all things, teach us to look to thee and rest in thee and
trust thee. Now again, we thank you for this
opportunity to gather together. We pray you would set aside for
just a little while the thoughts and cares of this world, or the
many things that grab our attention. Lord, that you'd set them aside
just for a little while and let us see Christ. In his name we
pray and give thee thanks. I build it on the rock, on the
rock of God. Build it on the rock, Christ
Jesus. I dug down deep and build it
on the rock. Build it on the rock of God. I'm not the rock, but the rock
holds me. The rock holds me, the rock holds
me. I rest on the rock, and the rock
holds me. Resting on the rock of God. Why should I fear when the winds
sweep by, Builded on the Rock, Christ Jesus? Or shaken be when the waves roll
high, Builded on the Rock of God? Ash-raging billows at his
command Build it on the rock, Christ Jesus Oh, peace be still
beneath his loving hand Build it on the rock of God Sing it! I rest on the rock and the rock
holds me, Resting on the rock of God. Praise God for our foundation
sure. Build it on the rock, Christ
Jesus. No storms can harm our house
secure. Build it on the rock of God. I hold not the rock, but the
rock holds me The rock holds me, the rock holds me I rest
on the rock, and the rock holds me Resting on the rock of God Thank you, brother Mike. I'd
ask you to open your Bibles to Luke chapter nine. While you turn in there, I just
noticed a note here I'd left myself so I wouldn't forget.
Frank wanted me to remind everyone that we'll observe the Lord's
Table this coming Wednesday. Luke chapter 9. Our text will come from one verse
of Scripture. Verse 11 of Luke 9. Here we read, and the people,
when they knew it, followed him. He received them and spake unto
them of the kingdom of God and healed them that had need of
healing. I titled this message, originally I titled it, What
Does a Sinner Need? I think it might be more appropriately
said, what do I need? What do I need? I believe there
are five points here that we need to see in this passage of
Scripture. One, I need to hear of Him. I need to know Him. I need to know Christ. I need
to come to Christ. Isn't that what we read? It said the people, they followed
Him. I need to follow Christ. I need
to see Him as sovereign. As sovereign. We read that He
received them. He received them. I need Him
to speak to me. I need to hear His gospel. It
says, He spake unto them of the kingdom of God. And then last,
I need to see my need of Him. My need of Christ and for Him
to heal me. Look again at this portion of
Scripture. First we see when they knew,
when they knew. Now earlier in this chapter,
the disciples and the Lord Jesus, they had went through these towns
preaching the gospel. If we go back and read, they
went through these towns preaching the gospel. And we read that
Herod was perplexed. The Gospel was being preached.
People were being healed. And Herod couldn't figure out
what was going on. He was kind of troubled by it.
And someone told him that Elias had appeared or maybe one of
the old prophets. But Herod just could not make
sense of this. He said, He said, I beheaded John. Who
is this? Who is this? Of whom I hear such
things. But in our text we read that
the people knew. They knew. Something had been,
someone had been revealed to them. Now it, you see that word
it, it's been added by the translators. It's in italics. It's been added.
But up to this point in the text, we've been reading of Christ
in his gospel. Herod didn't say, what is this? He said, who is this? Who is
this? Who is this of whom I hear such
things? Salvation isn't a what. Salvation's a who. Salvation's
all of him. It says, when the people when
the people knew, when they knew. What does a sinner need? What
do I need? I need to know Him. I need to know of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Over in 1 John 5, John said this,
he said, We know that the Son of God has come and has given
us an understanding that we might know Him. Him that is true. And we are in Him that is true,
even in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God. This is
eternal life. What does a sinner need? What
do I need? I need to know Him. To acknowledge Him for who He
is. He's God. He's my Savior. The Scriptures
declare he's our prophet, priest, and king. To know him is to believe
on him and to trust him, to trust him and him alone. Paul said,
I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. Paul said this, remember when
he was on that ship, that ship that was was doomed to crash. Remember that? And that angel
appeared to him and said, he said, you're going to lose the
ship, but there'll be no loss of life. Not one. Not one. And Paul said this,
he said, sirs, I believe God. I believe God that it will be
just as He told me. It will be. To know Him is to believe in
Him. To believe Him. Not just to believe in Him, but
to believe Him. And to rest in Him. To know Christ
is to experience Him. To be one. To be made one with Him. Just
as a husband and a wife are made one flesh, it's to be made one
with Him. It's not a doctrine, it's a person. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. Paul said, Christ liveth in me. To know Christ is to experience
Him, to be made one with Him. To know Christ is to have fellowship
with Him. To have fellowship with Him. A few weeks ago, I was in Columbus
for a few days. And I looked this up. There's 879,170 people that live
in Columbus. They claim that as their address
or their zip code. To my knowledge, I don't know
a single one of them. So when I was there, when I ate
breakfast, I ate by myself. When I ate lunch, I ate by myself.
When I ate supper, I ate by myself. Didn't know anyone there. When
I came home, I sat with my family. We sat together, we ate, enjoyed
each other's company. Why is that? We know each other. We love each other. We enjoy
each other's company. To know the Lord Jesus Christ
is to have fellowship with Him. I was thinking about this. I
mean, how often have we gathered together, experienced each other's company,
enjoyed each other's company, and we enjoy those times? Why
is that? Why is that? Why can we go over to Jonathan's
house and enjoy his company? We have a common love. We have
fellowship around our Savior. We go somewhere and preach. When you're among God's people,
you feel welcome. Why is that? Because of that
fellowship, that kindred spirit. We know each other. Again, we
have a common love. To know Christ, to know the Lord
Jesus Christ is to have fellowship with Him. And again, it's not
knowing just some facts about Him, it's knowing Him, personally
knowing Him. 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. Second, I need to follow Him. Look at our text there in verse
11. It said they came to Him and they followed. They followed
Him. That's what He told His disciples.
Turn to Matthew chapter 4. Turn back just a few pages to
Matthew chapter 4. Look at verse 17 of Matthew chapter
4. Verse 17, From that time Jesus
began to preach and to 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, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway,
they didn't wait till the fish quit biting, did they? Straightway
left their nets and followed him. And going on from thence
he saw Other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John
his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets,
and he called them. And immediately, immediately
they left the ship, and they left their father, and they followed
him. They left their jobs, they left
their families, they left all and followed him. followed Christ. They heard His voice and they
followed Him. They had to, didn't they? Huh?
All that the Father had given me shall what? Shall come to
me. In Matthew 9, we read of two
men, two blind men, and they followed after Him, crying and
saying, Thou Son of David, have mercy, have mercy on us. And
our Lord, He went on, He went into a house, and these two men,
they continued to follow Him. And they came to Him, and the
Lord said, Do you believe? Do you believe that I'm able?
Do you believe I'm able to do this? What did they do? They
followed Him. And they came to Him, and when
He said this, Do you believe I'm able to do this? They said,
Yes, Lord. Yea, Lord. And He touched their
eyes saying, according to your faith, be it unto you. And their eyes were opened. And
the Lord asked His disciples, He said, later on, He said, will
you go away? Will you go away? Simon Peter, he said, Lord, to
whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. We believe and are sure that Thou art the Christ the
Son of the living God. They followed Him. They followed
Him and that's what we needed, to follow Him, continually coming
to Him and following Him. What do I need? I need to know
Him. I need to follow Him. And then
next we see this, He received them. Who did the receiving? He, He received them. It's by His power. This thing
of salvation, it's of Him. It's all of Him. He received
them. Turn to Matthew chapter 8. Look at verse 1 of Matthew chapter
8. It says, when he was come down
from the mountain, great multitudes followed him. And behold, there
came a leper. John Gill wrote this in his commentary.
He said, leprosy is an emblem of sin, an emblem of the corruption
of our nature, which is uncleanness, no better way to describe it,
and it's a symptom with which every man is defiled. It renders
him infectious, nauseous, and abominable, of which he is only
to be cured and cleansed by Christ, the great high priest, through
his blood which cleanses us from all sin. And no doubt, no doubt
this leper came covered in his leprosy. Probably, I think about
that and I wondered did he try to cover that up? Did he try
to drape some garment over himself to cover his just awfulness? And he came shouting, unclean. They were required to. Maybe
with that little They had that napkin they had to hold over
their mouth. Luke's account says this, he
was full, full of leprosy. Well, I wonder if he came like, who was that, Simeon. I wonder if he came with his not Simeon, that leper in the
Old Testament. He came with the letter from
the Naaman. He came with that letter from
the king. Remember that? All that with his gold and his
jewels. But here we read that this man
came to the Lord Jesus Christ and he fell at his feet and he
said this, he said, If thou will, if thou will, you can make me
whole. Lord, you're sovereign. You're
sovereign in all that you do. You have the power to save me.
You have power over sin. You have the power to heal me.
Lord, if thou will, thou canst make me clean. You can heal me
or you can You can pass by me, but Lord, if you will, you can. And the Lord Jesus Christ put
forth his hand and he touched him. He laid hold of him and
he received him and he said, I will be thou, be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was
cleansed. Who does the healing? Who does
the saving? It's all, it's all of Him. Modern religion would describe
this. They would say the leper came
and said, I've decided to let you heal me. I've decided to
let you take away my leprosy. How foolish, how foolish is that? Again, to approach like Naaman
did with the gifts and the gold and the letter from the king
and all those things. What do the Scriptures say? This
man, this man receiveth sinners. Lord, if you will, if you will,
you can make me whole. You can make me clean. And again,
the Lord Jesus Christ put forth His hand. Any other person who
did this, that leper would have stayed a leper, and whoever touched
him would have become unclean themselves, right? But not the
Lord Jesus Christ, not the Sovereign. He touched him, He made him whole. Jesus put forth His hand, touched
him, saying, I will be thou clean, and immediately his leprosy was
cleansed. He received Him. The Lord Jesus
Christ received Him. It's by His power. It's by His
power. Back to Luke 9, verse 11. They
knew. I need to know Him. They followed
Him. I need to follow Him. He received
them. I need Him. I need to recognize
Him. Know that He's sovereign. I need
Him to receive me. And then it says, He spake unto
them the words. He spake unto them of the kingdom
of God. What does a sinner need? I need
Him to speak to me. I need Him to speak to my heart. I need to hear His gospel. He said, My sheep hear my voice. He spake unto them of the kingdom
of God. In Matthew and Mark we read that
the Lord Jesus Christ went about preaching the gospel of the kingdom
of God. The good news. Not in pomp and
splendor, not in some type of outward observance, not in ceremony. He said this, he said, the kingdom
of God is not of this world. his kingdom. And that being so,
he's the king. You don't have a kingdom without
a king. He's the king. We read that he's
our prophet, priest, and king. And as king, not like in our
day where you have a bunch of factions warring against each
other, he's sovereign. He's sovereign over all of his
kingdoms. to do with them as he will. As the king, he rules and he
reigns. Isn't that what Nebuchadnezzar
said? Remember that he said all the
inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing and he do
it according to his will. In the army of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or
say unto him, what doest thou? His kingdom He has subjects,
subjects that bow to Him. Every knee shall bow and every
tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father. You know, there were some rulers
over in Matthew that questioned His authority. And our Lord,
He told a parable. And he said to the publicans,
he silenced them, but he said this, he said, the publicans
and the harlots will go into the kingdom of God before you
do. He said that to those so-called
religious leaders of the day. He said, publicans and harlots
will go into the kingdom of God before you. The publicans and
harlots believe. The publicans and harlots repented. In this kingdom, his subjects
bow down to the king. They worship the king. Remember that publican there
in Luke? Now men, the natural man says
this, we will not have this man to reign over us. But that publican,
He beat upon his chest and he wouldn't even raise his eyes
to the heavens. And he cried out, God be merciful
to me, the sinner. There was a harlot. There was a woman taken in the
very act of adultery. Remember that? Remember our Lord
told about that? And the scribes and the Pharisees,
again, Those so-called religious leaders, they brought her to the master,
and boy, did they think they had him, didn't they? They said
this, they said, the law says stone her. The law demands justice. The law says stone her. What
do you say? What do you say? And our Lord
stooped down, And he began to write on the ground with his
finger. And he acted like he didn't hear. Some of the old writers seemed
to think that maybe he was writing down some of the things that
maybe they had done they would not be so proud of. But they
continued to ask, and they said, what sayeth thou? And the Lord
said this, He said, He that is without sin, let him cast the
first stone. And as you know, they all just
one at a time left, didn't they? From the oldest to the youngest.
And then He looked at her. There He was, just the Savior
and one of His sheep. And He said, Where are thine
accusers? Where are thine accusers? Is there no one left to condemn
thee?" And he said, neither do I condemn
thee. Go and sin no more. Can you imagine what peace must
have filled her heart? There she stands before the Master
and he says, neither do I. Go, go and sin no more. His kingdom, His kingdom is not
of this world. Righteousness, peace, joy, peace
and pardon by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Justification
by His righteousness. Free and full salvation by Him
and Him alone. His subjects bow and worship. He preached. He preached the
gospel of the kingdom of God. He speaks, and when He speaks
to His people, He speaks peace, peace to the heart. Back to our
text. Again, Luke 9, 11. Five things
I desperately need. I need to know Him. I need to
follow Him. I need Him to receive me. I need Him to speak His gospel
to me. I need to hear His gospel. Fifth, I need to know my need
of Him. I need Him to heal me. Look at the end of verse 11. He healed them that had need
of healing. Now let me ask you a silly question.
Who did He heal? He healed them that had need
of healing. Turn back just a few pages to
Luke chapter 5. And after these things, he went
forth and he saw a publican named Levi sitting at the receipt of
custom, and he said unto him, Follow me. And he left all and
rose up and followed him. Levi made him a great feast in
his own 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 answering said unto
them, they that are whole need not
a physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the
righteous, but sinners to repent. Blind men, lepers, harlots, countless
others in the scriptures. What did they all have in common?
They had a need. They had a desperate need. They
needed Him. And they that were in need, they
came to Him and He healed them. Has He revealed, let me ask you
this, has He revealed your need? Has He revealed that to you?
Has He revealed that I desperately need Him? Have you heard of Christ? Have
you heard of the Lord Jesus Christ? Then seek Him. Follow Him. Believe Him. Rest in Him. knowing this, that He is able. He is able. Are you in need of
healing? Well, the Scriptures declared
this, that He healed them that were in need of healing. The Pharisees, the religious
people of that time, just as in our time, Things haven't changed
much, have they? They didn't need Him. They didn't
need Him at all. In fact, they denied His power
to save. They were looking for ways to
run Him off. Remember that man of the Gadarenes. Remember that wild man? He was
naked. He was running through the cemetery.
They couldn't even hold him down with chains. I think it even
said with strong chains. He couldn't be tamed. But then
the Master comes and speaks peace to his heart. But how did they
find him then? They found him at the feet. of
the Lord Jesus Christ, seated and in his right mind. And he would have followed the
Lord Jesus Christ anywhere he went. That's how he received. But how did those folks that
came out to see what had happened, they'd heard about this stir,
and what did they say? Depart from us. Depart from us. They had no need of Him. They
had no need. They had no need. They desired Him to depart. But
a sinner, a true sinner must have Him. Are you in need of Him? Then
seek Him. Turn to one more Scripture. Turn
to 1 Timothy. Chapter 1. 1 Timothy 1. Verse 15. Do I need Him? This is a faithful
saying. worthy of all acceptation that
Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. Paul said, of
whom I'm the chief, he came into the world to save sinners. What's a sinner left to do? Seek
him. Seek him, rest in him. All right. Brother Mike.