Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Niver. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now here's our pastor, Todd Nyvert. I've entitled the message for
this morning, Who Needs a Physician? Our text is found in Mark chapter
2, beginning in verse 15. And it came to pass that as Jesus
sat at meet in his house, speaking of Matthew's house, he had called
Matthew and follow me. And Matthew rose up and followed
him. And Matthew, we know from Luke's account, had a party at
his house with the Lord Jesus Christ. And it came to pass that
as Jesus set at meat in his house, many publicans and sinners sat
also together with Jesus and his disciples. For there were
many, and they followed him. And when the scribes and Pharisees
saw him eat with the public and sinners, they said unto his disciples,
how is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners? Now this was said by way of criticism. When Jesus heard, he saith unto
them, they that are whole have no need of a physician. but they that are sick. I came
not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Who needs
a physician? If I told you about a doctor
who had developed a medicine that had a 100% success rate
for the cure of cancer. Every kind of cancer. There are
two ways that you and I would receive that, or if you heard
that, if I told that to you, there are two ways you could
receive it. As a person with cancer, or as a person without
cancer. Now, if I told you that a doctor
had a medicine that had a 100% success rate for the cure of
any kind of cancer, if you didn't have cancer, you would think,
well, if I ever need that, that's good to know. Or you may even
be apathetic and think, well, I don't have cancer. What's that
to me? Or you could hear as someone who had this devastating disease,
and you would listen with great interest to find out about this
doctor and what he could do for people who had cancer. Now, it's really the same way
with sin. If I told you of one who could
grant complete deliverance for all sinners, you could listen
to that in one of two ways. You could listen to that and
think, well, if I ever need that, if I fall into sin, if I do something
bad, that's good to know. I'll remember that. Or if you
hear as a sinner, someone who is completely sinful and you
can't deliver yourself, you're gonna listen with a whole different
interest. Now, this message that I'm going
to try to bring is foundational to an understanding of the gospel. Now, the Lord had seen Matthew
sitting at the receipt of custom, and he said, Follow me. And Matthew
rose and followed the Lord Jesus Christ, and had this I guess
you would call it, or a banquet for the Lord Jesus Christ in
his home. And when Matthew arose and followed
the Lord Jesus Christ, remember, he was a publican. Evidently,
many publicans and sinners saw this and followed Matthew and
followed the Lord to Matthew's house. They were Matthew's friends. They were people who felt comfortable
with Matthew. And they came to his house. And
it came to pass that as Jesus sat at meat in the house, many
publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus and his disciples. Now, a publican was a man who
was a Jew. who was employed by the Roman
government to collect taxes from the Jews. And he also had the
authority of the Roman government. He had the backing to be able
to charge higher taxes and give the Romans their part, and he
could keep whatever he charged above for himself. And these
men were the most hated men in Israel. They were ripping off
their Jewish brethren and making themselves rich at the expense
of their brothers. So they were hated. A sinner
is an immoral person, a person who is just not honest, sinful,
would commit sinful practices and so on. But these publicans
and sinners somehow could sit around the Lord and His disciples
and not feel threatened. not feel judged. I'm sure when
they got around the Pharisees, they felt very threatened, very
judged, very looked down upon. But somehow when they were in
the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ and his disciples, they
didn't feel threatened. They didn't feel judged. They
felt comfortable sitting with them. And the Pharisees didn't
like this. They thought it seemed to be
wrong. They ask this question. How is
it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners? How does the Lord Jesus Christ
do this? They're bad people. He's putting
his approval on their unclean lifestyle. They're wrong. How
can he do this? Now, let me remind you. Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners. 1 Timothy 1.15,
Paul said this is a faithful saying, and it's worthy of all
acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners, of whom Paul said, I am the chief. Those are the people he came
to save. And if you're not a sinner, I
can't give you any assurance that Christ came to save you.
He says at the end of this passage of Scripture, I came not to call
the righteous, but sinners to repentance. So the reason these
people felt comfortable around the Lord is because the Lord
came to save them. And the Pharisees thought this
is wrong. Now, the publicans' lifestyle
was very wrong. The sinners' lifestyle was very
wrong. There's no approval of this.
But if you would have the attitude of the Pharisees, he's wrong
in being around people like that. Who do you think you are? Do
you think you're any better than they are? Do you think you're
any more pure in God's sight than they are? The fact of the
matter is you're not. And if a man demonstrates that
kind of attitude, what do you do in hanging around with people
like that? All you prove is that you're totally blind concerning
how sinful you really are. I think of what Paul said, and
he said this as a saved man. He didn't talk this way before
the Lord saved him. Before the Lord saved him, he'd
say things like, touching the righteousness which is in the
law, I was blameless. He had such a high opinion of
himself before the Lord saved him. But after the Lord saved
him, He said, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am
carnal, fleshly, sold under sin. He didn't have that understanding
before the Lord saved him. But when he was given a new nature,
he now could see the sinfulness of the old man and the old nature. He wouldn't look down at somebody
after the Lord saved him. If he was, before he was saved,
he would have been with the rest of the Pharisees condemning the
Lord for being around publicans and sinners. But now that the
Lord has saved him, he has a completely different attitude. Now, I love
what the Lord said to these people when they said, how is it that
he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners? When Jesus heard,
he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the
physician, but they that are sick. Now the word whole is generally
translated able. It has to do with strength and
ability. Now, do you have any spiritual
strength and ability? Do you have the ability to come
to God? Do you have the ability to stop sinning? Do you have
the, even a free will is ability. Somebody says, well, I can do
something when I want to. Now, let me say this about free
will. There's no such thing. We do what we want to. denying
that in any way. We do what we want to, but our
will is controlled by our natures. We're born with evil natures. We're born with the nature of
our father Adam after he fell in the garden and became dead
in trespasses and sins, and your will is controlled by your nature.
It's true you do what you want to do. I do what I want to do,
but there's no such thing as free will. Your will is controlled
by your nature. And you know, most preachers,
most people would say, sure, I believe in free will. And you
prove by that, you don't really believe that you're dead in trespasses
and sins. You believe you have some spiritual
ability. Now, as long as you have any
ability, you will not come to the great physician because you
don't need him. The whole need not a physician. Now, the difference
between the people that come to the physician and the people
that do not come to the physician, the difference is need. One needs the great physician. The other does not need the great
physician. Now, as far as personal sinfulness,
there's no difference between the two. One's as bad as another.
I think that scripture, there's no difference. All, this is Romans
chapter 3, 22 and 23, there's no difference. No difference
between one man and another as far as one being a better person
or more holy or more righteous. There's no difference. You take
the best man alive and the worst man alive before God, there's
no difference. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. No difference. The difference
between the man who comes to the physician and the man who
doesn't is one of need. The whole need, not a physician,
but they that are sick. Now, if someone is not blinded
by prejudice, and are open-minded, I can demonstrate to them from
the Scriptures. We're going to have to go from
the Scriptures. The Scriptures are the Word of God. Somebody
says, how do you expect me to believe that? Well, do you believe
God created the universe? Well, if you do, you can believe
the Bible is the Word of God. If He can create the universe
from nothing, He can inspire men to write a book and preserve
it and keep it from error through the centuries. It's not hard
for God. God's God. And if we don't have
the Bible, we've got to begin there. If we don't have the Bible,
we've got my opinion, we've got your opinion, and that's it,
and that's useless. But from the Bible, I can demonstrate
to somebody that God really is God. He's sovereign. He is in control of everybody
and everything. And He is sovereign even over
the free and uncoerced actions of men. He controls everything.
The things that are going through your mind right now, He's in
control of because He's God. He's all-powerful. He's sovereign.
I can show you that that's what the Bible actually teaches concerning
Him. Daniel 4.35 says, He doeth according
to His will. in the armies of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay His hand or
say unto Him, What doest Thou? He does His will all the time. His will is always done. It's
never thwarted because He's God. Now I can show you that from
the Scripture. I can show you that the Scripture teaches that
men have no spiritual ability at all, that they're dead in
sins. Ephesians 2.1 says, And you hath he quickened who are
dead in trespasses and sins? And you can say, Well, yeah,
it does say that. It does say that. I can show you from the
Bible that before time began, God elected exactly who would
be saved. according as he hath chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world. For the children
being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand." I can show you
that from the Scripture. You can say, yeah, he does say
that. I see that. I can show you from the Scripture that the
blood of Christ is successful, that everybody he died for must
be saved. I love thinking about that. He
can't die for you and you'd be anywhere but in heaven. He didn't
die for somebody that's in hell. His blood is successful. Thou
shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from
their sins. And you can see that and say,
yeah, I see the Bible does teach that. I see that. And I can show you that God's
grace actually saves. I can show you that from the
Scripture where you're going to say, yeah, it says, by grace are you
saved. Yeah, I see that. I see that's true. Giving assent
to that has nothing to do with saving faith. Just giving assent
to it and saying, yeah, I see the Bible teaches that. Need
is the difference. Now you listen to me. I need
for God to be God. I need God to be absolutely sovereign
and to will my salvation. Because if He doesn't, I won't
be saved. Election. I need election. I know if He
doesn't choose me, I'll never choose Him. I need Him to choose
me. I need His blood to be successful. If He can die for somebody and
they wind up in hell anyway, I know that I'll wind up in hell
anyway. I know that. I need His blood to be successful. I need for salvation to be all
of grace. Need. I need thee, precious Jesus,
for I am full of sin. My soul is dark and guilty, my
heart is dead within. I need the cleansing fountain
where I can always flee, the blood of Christ most precious,
the sinner's perfect plea. I love that verse of Scripture
in Luke 9, verse 11, where it says, He healed them that had
need of healing. Well, I'm one of those people,
and I need the great physician because I am full of sin. Now, if you don't see yourself
in that light, you won't need this. You might even see that,
well, he's telling what's in the Bible, but it won't mean
that much to you. It won't be that important to you. But if you
ever see yourself as a sinful man, you will need everything
the Bible says about God's salvation being by grace, and God electing
a people, and Christ dying for the elect, and accomplishing
their salvation, and the grace of the Holy Spirit not taking
no for an answer. Like when he said, Matthew, follow
me. Could Matthew have said no? No,
he couldn't have said no, because his grace is always all-powerful
and invincible. He rose up, forsook all, and
followed him. That's the way God's grace works.
Do you need it that way? Well, I certainly do. Now look what he says. Verse
17. When Jesus heard, he saith unto
them, they that are whole, They that have some ability have no
need of the physician, but they that are sick. Now, this word sick means literally
evilly sick. Evilly sick. It's not just somebody
you pity because of the sickness that they have. It means evilly
sick. That means I'm evil. My sin is my fault. And this
is the person that needs the physician. They that are evilly
sick. And then the Lord gives his mission
statement. He said, I came not to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance. Now listen to that statement
once again. Our Lord's giving His mission statement. He's telling
us exactly why He came. He said, I came not to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance. I came. I came. I think of that passage of Scripture
in 1 John chapter 4 where John tells us that that one who does
not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not
of God. But it's the spirit of Antichrist. Now, to say, I came
in the flesh, and that's what he did. He came in the flesh.
To say that is to say he was before he came. I love it when
he said to the Pharisees, I came down from heaven. I bet they
were thinking, what in the world does that mean? He came down from
heaven. You see, he was before he came. He's the eternal, uncreated
Son of God. I came. He came in the flesh. God was manifest in the flesh. God became flesh. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. Now, He didn't have sinful flesh
the way you and I have. That's why I was born of a virgin.
Somebody says, do you believe He was born of a virgin? Of course
I do. The Bible says He was. And if He was not, that means
He would have a sinful, fallen nature. He had nothing to do
with Adam's fallen nature. And that's why a lot of people
will say, well, I believe in the virgin birth, and they have
no understanding why it's even necessary. If he wasn't born
of a virgin, that means he would have been born with Adam's sinful
nature. But he came in the flesh, born
of a virgin, and he did what he came to do in the flesh. Well,
what did he come to do? Matthew 121, the very opening
chapter of the New Testament, The angel said, Thou shalt call
His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. And my dear friends, that's exactly
what He did. When He came in the flesh, He
saved His people from their sins. Now He says, I came. Oh, I'm
so thankful He came. He said, I came, and then he
tells us what he didn't come to do. I came not to call the
righteous. Now, if you have any personal
righteousness, you exclude yourself from mercy. He didn't come to
call the righteous. Let me say something about any
personal righteousness you and I have. It's what the Bible calls
self-righteousness. Any righteousness that comes
from self is actually nothing more than filthy rags in God's
sight. Isaiah 64, 6 says, our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags. And if you think you have any
righteousness, you exclude yourself from God's mercy. You exclude
yourself from Christ doing anything for you. Because he said, I came
not to call the righteous. If I'm righteous, if I have any
personal righteousness at all, Christ did not come for me. He said, I came not to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance. That's who he came to call, sinners. What's a sinner? The sinner is
the one who commits the sins. A sinner is somebody because
of his evil nature, everything he does is sin. His praying,
his Bible reading, it doesn't matter what it is. Have you ever
understood that sin is not just things you do, it's what you
are? It's what you are. A sinner cannot not sin. All he does is sin. And a sinner,
he can't look down his nose and judgment upon anybody because
he knows he's just as bad. He knows his sin is all his fault
and he has no claims on God. If God passed him by, just and
holy would be God's name. That's the sinner. Christ Jesus
came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. When we were yet without strength,
in due time Christ died for the ungodly. Christ Jesus came into
the world to save sinners. He didn't come to call righteous
people. He came to call sinners to repentance. Now, what is this
thing of repentance? He came to call sinners to repentance. Have you ever listened to the
preacher say, repent of your sins, and wondered, well, just
what does that mean? I know that what most people
mean by repentance, they mean, well, You need to be really sorry
for your sins. You need to be sorry you committed
them, and you need to resolve to not commit them anymore. Now, we ought to be sorry for
our sins. Anybody disagree with that? We
ought to be sorry for our sins, and we ought not commit them
anymore. We should never sin again, as far as that goes. But
if that's what repentance is, Are there sins that you still
commit? That you know are wrong and feel sorry about, but you
still commit them? Well, if that's what repentance is, that means
you've never repented. And I've never repented. That is not really
what repentance is. The word repentance means a change
of mind. A change of mind. Earlier, when the Lord began
His public ministry, He said, Repent ye and believe the gospel. You don't believe, change your
mind, believe the gospel. Now here's what repentance is.
I used to dislike hearing that God is in absolute control of
everything. I don't have any control then.
I used to dislike hearing that God had elected a people before
time began to be saved. Because that let me know that
there's nothing I could do to save myself. I was totally in his
hands. I used to dislike hearing that Christ died only for the
elect because I thought, how could that be fair? How could
it be fair for Him to die for one and not die for the other?
I did not feel any comfort in that. I used to dislike hearing
of the sovereignty of God's grace, how He saves who He will. I did
not like those things. I did not like God being so holy. He's too holy. He's too strict.
But you know, with regard to all those things, I've changed
my mind. And the reason I've changed my
mind is because God changed my mind. Repentance is a new heart
believing the gospel. It's a change of mind. I now
love God being absolutely sovereign. I love the fact that Christ is
all in salvation and that he did everything and that his death
is a sufficient payment because I see that if it's not, I have
no hope. My mind has been changed. And that's what repentance is.
I came not to call the righteous, but sinners, to a change of mind. A change of mind about God, a
change of mind about themselves. They see they're nothing but
sin. A change of mind about grace. It's the only way I can be saved.
a change of mind. Now, this change of mind will
lead to other things. There's no doubt about it. But
let's take repentance for what the Bible says it is. It's a
change of mind. Christ Jesus, oh, this is such
a blessed, blessed truth. Christ Jesus came not to call
the righteous, but sinners, to repentance, a change of mind. I would advise you and me, ask
the Lord to change your mind. We have this message on DVD and
CD. If you call the church right
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Nyberg praying that
God will be pleased to make himself known to you. Amen. To receive
a copy of the sermon you have just heard, send a request to
todd.nyberg at gmail.com. Or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen.