Today I would like you to turn
in your Bible to Matthew chapter 9. Matthew chapter 9, and let's
begin reading at verse 10. Matthew 9, verse 10. And it came to pass, it came
to pass by God's purpose, by God's grace, it came to pass
as Jesus said at meet in the house, behold many publicans
and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. And
when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, why
eateth your master with publicans and sinners? When Jesus heard
that, he said unto them, that is, he said unto the Pharisees,
unto these self-righteous religious folk, he said unto them, they
that behold need not a physician, need not a doctor, but they that
are sick, go ye and learn. What that meaneth, I will have
mercy and not sacrifice. I'm not come to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance." I want to tell you this morning about
my doctor, about my physician. He's always available. I never
need to make an appointment. He's always ready to make house
calls. He always has the proper medicine for my problem. His
practice is most successful. He has never lost a patient.
He deals with the sick in a most gentle way. Do you know who He
is? He is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is my physician. He is my
doctor. He spent His whole earthly ministry
around sinners who were in need of healing. It says in Matthew
9, verse 35, that our Lord went about cities
and villages, teaching in their synagogue and preaching the gospel
of the kingdom and healing every sickness and every disease among
the people. He was very much about His business,
executing His office as the great physician-son of God, seeking
out sinners who were sick, seeking out sinners who were in great
need of healing, great need of mercy. Now from this text, I
want to consider this morning our great physician, the Lord
Jesus Christ. God regards, let me tell you
something first of all, why we need a physician. God regards
sin as a disease, an awful, horrible disease in His sight. Sin is
fatal, a fatal disease of the soul when all people are infected
with it. It's deforming. weakening, wasting,
and killing by all human means, and by all human means completely
incurable. All men, because of Adam's sin,
and Adam all died, and Adam all became ruined, and Adam all received
a sinful nature. Sin is an awful disease. Now
let me give you some biblical truth about our sinful, depraved
nature. Sin is a hereditary disease. That is, we're born with it.
It's flowing through our bodies, through our veins. We were born
in sin and shaped in iniquity. Sinners can only beget sinners. Job, in the book of Job, we read,
how can anyone be clean that's born of a woman? Sin is not only
a hereditary disease, that is, we inherit that from Adam and
from our parents. But sin is also a disabling disease. A sin sick person or a sick person
can't work, physically a sick person can't work, walk, think
or run. Even so, sin prevents us from
serving God, from worshipping God. Sin has stripped us of our
ability to worship and serve Him. Men love darkness. That's our wretched nature. Men
love darkness rather than the light because their deeds were
evil. Sin is disabling. It disables us from worshiping
God. Thirdly, sin is very loathsome
and a terrible thing in God's sight. It's the mother of all
evil. It's the egg of all mischief.
It's the fountain of bitterness and a root of misery. And in
God's sight, it's horrible. We read in the book of Habakkuk
that God's have purer eyes than to behold iniquity. God can't behold sin. Something else about sin. Sin
is incurable. Our problem cannot be cured by
human efforts and human means. Our problem can only be cured
by the divine method of God, by our divine physician. We cannot cure ourselves. We may reform and we may restrain
ourselves, but still the truth is still there of God. The carnal
mind is enmity against God. Something else about sin, it's
not only incurable and disabling, and loathsome, sin is a mortal
disease. Sin is fatal to body and soul. When sin is fully ripened, it
brings forth death and eternal destruction. The wages of sin
is death. When sin is finished, it brings
forth death. Now, this is a humbling fact.
Nevertheless, it is most certain and true, and it's a biblical
fact. We're all suffering under the
disease of sin. We've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Now, you see the reason we need
a great physician? Thank God He's been pleased to
send the Lord Jesus Christ, the great physician of sinners. Our
Lord never came into the world merely to explain what sin is. Moses and the Law exposes our
problem. By the Law, sin became exceeding
sinful. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't
come merely to explain what sin is, He came to put away sin by
the sacrifice of Himself. He came to tell us how sin is
removed. We're redeemed with the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He didn't come merely to save
us from hell and condemnation. He came to save us from our sin. Our problem is sin, and the only
remedy is the suitable, God-sent Savior and physician, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Let me tell you several things
about the physician of sinners. He has a proper and divine diploma. Would you like to read his diploma?
It comes not from the College of Physicians, but from the God
of Physicians. We read over in Luke chapter
4, verse 18. Here's his diploma. He said,
the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed
me, God has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, God has
sent me to heal the brokenhearted, God has sent me to preach deliverance
to the captive and recovering of sight to the blind, set at
liberty them that are bruised. The Lord Jesus Christ has all
the proper credentials to be our great physician. Now, I would
not trust my body to a self-appointed doctor, would you? Certainly
you wouldn't. When you go in the doctor's office,
I'm sure if you're like I am, I always look for those diplomas
that are hanging on the wall. I wouldn't trust my body to any
self-appointed doctor, yet alone would I trust my soul to no one
but God-sent, God-appointed physician, the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only
does he have a proper diploma, but he has proper education and
experience too. There's not a single disease
which he does not know experimentally as the man Christ Jesus. We read
in Matthew 8, verse 17, And this is quoted from Isaiah 53, that
it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah, the prophet
saying, himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses in his
own body. He knows not sin by practice,
but he certainly knows our sin by imputation. God laid on him
the iniquity of us all. Something else about our great
physician, he's the greatest specialist in his field. When you have a certain problem,
you look out and try to find a specialist in that field. The
Lord Jesus Christ is a specialist in saving sinners. He knows our
frame. He knows our thoughts afar off.
He can look upon the heart. The Lord Jesus Christ has made
the whole of our human, fallen, depraved nature and our salvation
His specialty. His cures are speedy. He says,
look unto Me. and be ye saved. All the ends
of the earth, I am God and there is none else." His medicine never
fails because His medicine and His cure is Himself. In Him dwells
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and we are complete in
Him. We read in Isaiah 53, by His stripes we are healed. By
His substitutionary atonement in His blood we are healed. His
healings are eternal, certain and sure. He gives us a new nature,
a new heart, a right spirit. If any man be in Christ, he's
complete and he is a new creature. What a blessed physician for
our awful disease we have. You see, great sinners need a
great Savior. And my friend, the good news
of the gospel is we have a great Savior and a great physician,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Thirdly, let me give you this.
That which moves our great physician to come to our aid is our need. Our need. We read here in our
text, in Matthew 9, verse 12, they that behold don't need a
physician. Our Lord said those who are not
sick don't need a physician, but those who are in need. But
the sick need a physician. He said in this same chapter,
I didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. He
said in Luke 19, verse 10, He's come to seek and to save that
which is lost. Lost. We read over in the book
of Romans, you see, He comes because of our need. We read
in book of Romans, chapter 5, verse 6, when we were yet without
strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. God commended
His love toward us in it while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. God who is rich in mercy for
His great love wherewith He loved us even when we were dead in
sin. He quickened us together with
Himself. Now listen to me carefully. Would
there be a need for our Redeemer and our Savior and our Physician
to come and undertake for us had We not been sinful? Would there be a need for Him
to come had we not been sinners? Well, absolutely not. He is our
Savior because we're sinners. Why did He shed His blood? Because
we were righteous or because we were sinners? Now, you know
the answer. The reason that He died is because
we're sinners. Why did He suffer the wrath of
God? Because of our goodness or because of our iniquity? Well,
certainly He didn't die because of our goodness. We don't need
for Him to suffer the wrath of God. He suffers the wrath of
God because of our iniquity. He dies as the sinner's substitute
because of our sin. He suffered once the just for
the unjust that He might bring us unto God. He'd bear our sin
in His own body on the tree. And the reason that He does is
because of our need. We need to have sin put away.
Even now that he's exalted at the right hand of God, he's making
intercession for who? He's making intercession not
for the righteous. The righteous don't need an intercessor.
He's making intercession for transgressors. We read in the
book of Acts, God exalted him to his right hand to be Prince
and Savior, to give repentance and forgiveness of sin. He's exalted. Right now with
God's right hand and making intercession for who? Sinners. The gospel
of God's mercy and grace is for sinners. We read in 1 Timothy
1 15, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation
that the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners. Now listen to me carefully. Your
sin will never keep you from Christ. Now you heard me right.
Your sin will never keep you from Christ." He said, all of
you that are laboring and heavy laden, he said, come. But I tell
you what will keep you from Christ. Your phony, plastic, religious
self-righteousness will keep you from seeking mercy where
mercy is found. You remember what he said to
those Pharisees? He said, you are those which you think you're
highly esteemed among men, but that which is highly esteemed
among men is an abomination." He said, you justify yourselves.
And he said, that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination
in the sight of God. Those, my friend, in closing,
let me give you this, those who are sick and sinful shall be
saved, shall be saved by Him. We never read in the Scripture
where the Lord turned a beggar away. He dealt harshly with the
Pharisees and the self-righteous. We read in the book of Luke 9,
verse 11, He healed all them that had need of healing. We read in Philippians 4, verse
19, But our God shall supply all your need according to His
riches in glory through the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you sinful? Are you guilty? I've got good
news for you. Christ died for the ungodly.
In closing, let me give you this. I pray that God will show you
your need. Now, we're in great need whether
we realize it or not. We're terribly sinful and depraved
before God, fallen with a sinful nature, a sinful principle in
our heart. I pray God will show us our need
of a proper physician, the Lord Jesus Christ, the right, suitable
Savior. Our problem is that we think
too highly of ourselves. Something else, take heed that
you don't delay seeking Him. The best way to have good success
against cancer is early detection and early treatment. If you're
thirsty, seek Him who is the water of life. Take heed that
you make use of no other physician. Don't look for a cure anywhere
else. Don't look for a remedy. Don't
look for atonement. Don't look for pardon and cleansing
and forgiveness anywhere but in Christ. Dr. Law will only
curse you. Dr. Ceremony will only smooth
your problem and ease your pain and gloss over. He's an imposter.
Dr. Good Works will never cure your
soul. He'll only mock you because he's
a quack. Listen to me, there's no other physician but Jesus
Christ for sin sick souls to apply unto. There's no other
Savior but Christ. There's no other mediator between
God and man but the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no other fountain
but His blood that will cleanse us from sin. There's no other
refuge, no other foundation, no other salvation, no other
righteousness. whereby guilty sinners can stand
before God, holy, complete, unblameable in His sight, but Jesus Christ.