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[0:00] as the Lord may be pleased to help me this morning I would venture to speak a little to you from a word you will find in the gospel according to Mark chapter 2 and we read verse 17 when Jesus heard it he saith unto them they that are whole have no need of the physician but they that are sick I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance the gospel according to Mark chapter 2 verse 17 when Jesus heard it he saith unto them they that are whole have no need of the physician but they that are sick I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance you notice these words spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ are really in answer to the question that these Pharisees and scribes put to the disciples concerning the Lord Jesus Christ who at this time was in the publican's house

[1:31] Levi that is Matthew whom he had called to follow him as one of his true disciples and it came to pass that Jesus sat at meat in his house evidently Matthew being called or as he's named here Levi same man being called by the Lord Jesus Christ there was that which was wrought in his heart to as it were to welcome the Lord Jesus Christ to sit at meat with him and many publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus and his disciples for there were many and they followed him and the scribes and Pharisees viewing this made this question known to the disciples how is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners and it was in answer to that because Jesus heard he heard them questioning his disciples and the Lord Jesus Christ himself answers the Pharisees and scribes on their behalf as it were and what a word it is because it immediately reminds us that the Lord Jesus Christ himself who stated this word was no less than this one good and great physician the physician of souls and all through the time the Lord Jesus Christ was here upon earth how often he exercised his wonderful healing power amongst men in a literal sense many had been healed of their diseases and their sicknesses and this demonstrated who he was that he was no less than the Son of God and yet so many there were especially amongst the scribes and Pharisees who were totally blind as they looked upon Jesus and as they saw the things that he did their hearts were so hardened their minds were so blinded as it were that they could not see him who he was and even though his works proclaimed who he was yet they still did not acknowledge him and it only reminds us of the of our fallen state by nature man in his fallen condition and yet the wonderful mercy is this that in this text we are reminded that there is one who came to seek and to save poor sinners his dear people and to be all that they needed to bring about their eternal salvation and so as we try and look at this word this morning

[4:55] I trust we might be helped to do so in the significance of it we have really those things remind us of the malady of sin and indeed those things remind us of the one remedy and that is in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ himself and in the light of what the Lord Jesus Christ says here we are reminded of how many of these scribes and Pharisees were as Jesus describes in this word in a sense in their own view were whole they didn't feel their need of the Lord Jesus Christ they didn't know themselves as needy sinners rather they were wrapped up in their traditional religion professing to be the people of God professing to be

[5:59] Abraham's children religion and it would seem most of them were well satisfied with their traditional religion and were totally ignorant of their true state before a hole in a heart searching God and so the Lord Jesus Christ speaks of those that are whole and that is of course that in their own estimation as it were feeling no need of the Lord Jesus Christ how many there are in these days in which we live are totally ignorant of their need of the Lord Jesus Christ being totally ignorant of their condition as guilty sinners before a hole in a heart searching God and it is a great mercy dear friends if we have not been left to be ignorant of our condition as sinners before a holy God it is one of the gracious dealings of the Holy

[7:05] Spirit in the hearts of sinners to reveal to them something of their sinful condition and in the light of the text before us to reveal to them something of their sin sick condition and indeed sin is a terrible sickness and while there were many who came to the Lord Jesus Christ with their bodily sicknesses and diseases and the Lord Jesus Christ in his mercy and as the good physician was pleased to heal them he had the ability to do so he had the compassion and pity toward these who came to him when you think of the disease of sin that is far deeper because it reaches the heart and such is the awful condition by nature that we are in as sinners we are sick we are diseased yes altogether through and through man will not accept this and it is to be feared many religious people do not regard these things as being needful to know and yet really how needful they are to know for the

[8:33] Lord to make known to us our real sin sick condition and the word of God is very plain in describing this sin sickness that it is indeed a plague it is a terrible sickness and when man fell in the garden of Eden you see these seeds of sinful sickness were sown as it were and therefore all mankind are partakers of that sin sickness and yet so many are ignorant of this and we have various words in the scripture to remind us of this sickness this heart sickness as it were there's a very striking word in the first chapter of the prophet

[9:35] Isaiah and the words are these the whole head is sick and the whole heart faint from the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores you see it reminds us of the festering sores of sin and sin is described in the word of God so clearly as a spiritual leprosy or it is a a a a deep disease yes a disease which is altogether beyond man's ability to deal with and in this word which I've just read in your hearing there is this that is added putrefying sores they have not been closed neither bound up neither mollified with ointment whatever man may try to do to patch up his sinful condition it is to know vile well those who read in this chapter this morning where the

[10:55] Lord Jesus Christ speaks about trying to as it were patch up the old garment and he says no man also seweth a piece of new cloth and an old garment else a new piece that filled it up taketh away from the old and the rent is made worse and under that I know this is a different figure but it sets forth the same truth you see man cannot patch up his sinful condition no good resolutions will avail we're sinners and as it were to try and patch up the old man and there are those who try to do that and think they can do it it is just like a man sewing a piece of new cloth and an old garment and the effect is this the rent is made worse but what a mercy to your friends if we are not totally ignorant of this something of our sinful condition by nature and that no effort of our own can remedy that dreadful malady that we each one of us are the subject of

[12:21] I know some are led more deeply into these things but you know I believe this everyone who is taught of the spirit of God will know something to a greater or lesser degree of their sin sickness did not Solomon in his prayer the dedication of the temple make reference to the character in these words which should know he says every man the plague of his own heart I know these are not pleasing things to the flesh but we need to consider them and a mercy friends if we've been made to know something of the plague of the heart you see sin is deep isn't it it affects the heart and while we see many evidences and solemn evidences in these days of the effect of sin as it raises ugly head around us in various ways in all the wickedness that abounds all spring from one root evil root that seed which was sown in

[13:38] Eden in Eden's garden and we see the outward effects of it but it only goes to show what there is in the heart of man but those in the Lord designs to make known his mercy he will lead them into something of this and teach them something of the malady of sin and how necessary it is isn't it good it is if we are found amongst these who are sick Jesus said they that are whole have no need of physician but they that are sick and you see it was the sick ones that came to the Lord Jesus Christ wasn't it not the healthy ones no the sick ones the needy ones those who were bowed down with their various complaints and these were the ones that came to the Lord Jesus Christ and all the significance of this who will come to this good physician but sin sick souls they are sick and it's the sick ones they have need of the physician well many of these scribes and

[14:58] Pharisees they didn't consider themselves to be in the category of those who were like publicans and sinners or they considered they were on a far higher plane than such and they despised these publicans and sinners but we notice the Lord Jesus Christ didn't despise them he even chose one publican to be one of the twelve disciples and this shows to us how the Lord Jesus Christ had compassion upon sinners didn't he and it was for sinners that he came down into this world to live and to die and it was that there should be sinners that would be called by his grace this text speaks about sinners being called to repentance I came not to all the righteous but sinners to repentance and think of the mercy of it how low the

[16:05] Saviour stooped didn't he and you know that is our hope isn't it if we know something of our state and condition of sinners that will be our hope that the Lord Jesus Christ stooped to sinners these scribes and Pharisees many of them they thought no need of the Lord Jesus Christ they were full of criticism and so blind they were and so hard in their spirit toward the Lord Jesus Christ that they often overlooked the wonderful works that he did and they criticised they criticised the disciples they criticised the Lord Jesus Christ they questioned the things that he said and as we read this morning of the poor man who was sick of the palsy when the Lord Jesus Christ granted him that wonderful blessing far greater than to be healed of his palsy and that was for his sins to be forgiven oh they immediately rose up in their spirit as it were when they heard the

[17:25] Lord Jesus Christ speak to this poor man and they reasoned in their hearts why did this man thus speak blasphemies who can forgive sins but God only and so they were so blind to the wonderful mercy and compassion the Lord Jesus Christ made manifest to poor needy people that they were always ready to criticise and seek to undermine the great truth concerning the Lord Jesus Christ who he was such they were but you see the thing was they didn't know themselves they didn't know themselves remember how the Lord Jesus Christ spake the parable didn't he of the Pharisee and the public and going up to the temple to pray and what a distinction between the two the

[18:27] Pharisee was certainly not a sin sick soul was he no he was indeed one of these who are whole they that are whole have no need of the physician and as the Lord Jesus Christ described him in his so called devotions in the temple he had no need he didn't ask for one mercy did he there were no requests in his prayer he thought he could thank God for all that he was and all that he accomplished as a religious Pharisee and yet how solemnly deceived but how different with the publican and you see the Lord Jesus Christ he spoke those parables with an end in view didn't he and that parable he spoke to those who trusted themselves that they were righteous and despised others these

[19:32] Pharisees and scribes many of them they despised others they despised the Lord Jesus Christ and they despised these when they regarded as sinners but the Lord Jesus Christ he even sat and meet with them and it was this that raised the question as it were amongst them to the disciples and then Jesus gave this wonderful answer and so as we try and consider this this morning I hope we might be helped to do so profitably these gracious words of the Lord Jesus Christ reminding us first of the terrible malady of sin because you see it needed no less than the dear Son of God to come down and to relieve the situation as it were and the sad condition of man in his fallen condition it needed no less than the

[20:37] Son of God to come down into this world and for this purpose to save sinners to redeem them yes and to heal the awful disease of sin that they were found in because there was a purpose of grace there were to be those who were to be delivered from this dreadful malady those who should know something of the glorious and blessed remedy what a mercy the Lord in his thoughts toward mankind what a mercy that he designed to save he did not leave all to perish in their sins and to receive the due wages of their sins sin which would bring death while all have to enter into that experience that is of death in the literal sense of the word yet there are those who are saved from the second death and blessed with life divine in their hearts and there's one outstanding aspect of the

[21:57] Lord Jesus Christ as the sinner's friend I feel in the hymn that you sung just now brings it out doesn't it that is he gives life you see not only are we sin sick sinners a disease but there is death there is death now in a literal sense when you think on the human level as soon as death well then the cleverest physician is powerless he cannot bring back to life but here is a physician that in the first place he brings back to life he died that sinners might bear and while this dreadful sickness has brought about a spiritual death in the soul of man here this wondrous good physician is the one who can rise from the dead this was demonstrated wasn't it in the

[23:04] Lord Jesus Christ himself when he was here upon earth when he raised the dead yes he raised the dead those who had ceased to live as it were like Lazarus and buried in the grave what a demonstration the almighty power and compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ well then this dreadful malady this sickness a mercy to know something of it to know something of what it is to feel and realise especially at times the plague of the heart and we're still sinners and we shall be so to the end of the journey and those whom the Lord is pleased to deal with by his grace and bless with those blessings of salvation still have to realise that they have a sinful nature and this being so how such have to resort to this good physician again yet again such is the disease then but then you see we have the distinction here were some the Lord

[24:34] Jesus Christ spoke of as being whole that was holding their own estimation their esteem had no knowledge of their sin sick condition it was not a sickness to them now it has to be said doesn't it that all have sinned yes we're all diseased by this dreadful malady but how many know it just as many as the Holy Spirit is pleased to teach by his good spirit and convince of their sin and make to know something of this malady which will know every man the plague of his own heart and the mercy of you and I are found amongst those and while it is a humbling it can be a painful truth to learn yes our condition of sinners before a holy God and for there to be at times those things that remind us of our sinful condition yes the heart sins a great mercy to be kept outwardly and we must acknowledge

[25:48] God's mercy where this is so but all the inward sins yes what we are by nature within heart sins and such know what it is to feel to be sick Jesus said but they that are sick in contrast to them that are whole now there is then the blessed remedy the Lord Jesus Christ who is the one and only physician the good physician there's a wonderful word isn't there in Jeremiah's prophecy it is a question isn't there is there no balm in Gilead is there no physician there it is one of those pointers to the

[26:50] Lord Jesus Christ really the balm of Gilead we understand this balm was very precious it was got healing properties it was very precious and there's something about this that reminds us of the manner in which the Lord Jesus Christ did indeed become the good physician we understand they had to pierce these trees to obtain the balm it used to the tree being lacerated somewhat it would bleed as it were and that was the balm very precious but oh how it points to the good physician doesn't it reminding us of how he suffered suffered for sinners oh this good physician was the one who suffered altogether beyond what any human being could ever enter into he suffered for sinners and what he suffered and my thoughts went to that wonderful chapter also in

[28:07] Isaiah chapter 53 I think it is we have a wonderful setting forth of the suffering saviour and among many things that you find in that chapter which have direct reference to the passion of the Lord Jesus Christ his sufferings and his death we have this word but he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities and the chastisement of our peace was upon him and there's this word and with his stripes we are healed and with his stripes we are healed reminding us of the healing virtue of a suffering Jesus oh he suffered didn't he stripes relied upon him cruel men scourged the Lord

[29:08] Jesus Christ and yet that word is with his stripes we are healed surely it reminds us of the exceeding sinfulness of sin and what it cost the dear saviour to bring about healing and what he suffered at the hands of cruel men and yet you see it was in the fact that he was made sin for his people and that he endured what otherwise would have to come upon all sinners the condemnation yes from the justice of God but the Lord Jesus Christ as a suffering saviour bore that for his people and he suffered those stripes all those dreadful scourges sins but this was for sin what it cost the dear saviour to bring about forgiveness and healing with his stripes we are healed and when at length the Lord

[30:28] Jesus Christ was hung upon the cross and shed his precious blood there was one soldier who pierced his side and we read how there came forth water and blood here was the fountain open for sin and uncleanness here is the source of all healing for sinners diseased with their sin that while they have no ability whatever to relieve the situation of their sickness their disease in the Lord Jesus Christ everything was done for the healing of all his dear people and all the virtue of his precious blood the virtue of those sufferings and while he suffered as man and he needed to become man to suffer yet he was God to save there is a line in a hymn it is not in our book but it is a good hymn it is this man to suffer but God to save and as we try and think of this wondrous physician the God man

[31:49] Jesus Christ he came to bind up as it were and while the Holy Spirit gives the wound and convinced sinners know something of what it is to be wounded with their sin they feel to be afflicted in that way as they brought to some knowledge of their sinnership their guiltiness before God here is one that binds up the wounds he has all that is needed to heal their wounds and while you and I have no modifying ointment as it were in the Lord Jesus Christ there is healing and it is complete healing and how this was signified wasn't it in the Lord Jesus Christ in his ability to heal even bodily diseases it was perfect healing you think of the leper and I like the record in

[32:55] Luke's gospel concerning that leper and he tells us there that the leper as he came to Jesus such was his condition that he was full of leprosy full of leprosy not just a spot here and there but he was full of it and now that describes sin doesn't it describes the malady but all the healing and the dear man came with his petition didn't he Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean what faith there was wasn't there in the Lord Jesus Christ and Jesus said I will I will be thou clean and immediately his leprosy was cleansed it was a complete healing not just a as it were a little covering up or a partial recovery it was a complete healing now that is the way the Lord Jesus Christ heals these poor sinful lepers that you and I are by nature it is a complete healing doesn't him right to put it something like this seek my soul no other healing but in

[34:07] Jesus barmy blood oh we need this physician dear friends what can man do to heal the disease he can do nothing he's a sinner he's a sin sick soul he's diseased from head to foot as it were and within the heart but here's a physician that is able and has the ability yes to heal these or taught to mourn over their sin might to feel the sinfulness of it and the malady of it and how do we come to the Lord Jesus Christ do we come as sinners notice what Jesus says here he says I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance the words of the good physician and he calls these sinners he calls them to himself and he calls them to repentance notice this you see we such is our fallen condition we cannot repent of ourselves but the

[35:20] Lord Jesus Christ he calls sinners to repentance and one of the aspects of that effectual and gracious call is this he calls them to repentance yes they are taught to mourn over their sins to grieve over this sad condition this malady and there is repentance wrought in the heart godly sorrow for sin and dear friends if we should have just a glimpse a glimpse of a suffering saviour and what it costs the dear Lord Jesus Christ to put away sin surely it should melt our hearts sad it is we are so often unmoved aren't we but oh this gracious god given repentance oh to know it to know it more to feel it more for our hearts to be dissolved a little with a sense of the mercy of god to us as sinners i came not to call the righteous that is the self righteous but sinners to repentance here then are the words of this good physician and what a mercy it is he does call these sinners doesn't he we read in the gospels how that one another came to the

[36:51] Lord Jesus Christ with their diseases and they soon proved that it was no vain thing to come but here the Lord Jesus Christ reminds us of how he by his spirit he calls these sinners to himself and this is one of the gracious dealings of the Holy Spirit in this matter he who reveals the malady he reveals the remedy he leads poor sinners yes and the Lord Jesus Christ calls these sinners as a wonderful harmony as it were in this to be considered with regard to the gracious dealings of God to poor sinners and he calls them to him and there is that wonderful word isn't there and really you can think of it as a word to these poor people these poor sinners who fear to be diseased with their sin and burdened with it there are those wonderful words come unto me all you that labour and are heavy laden I will give you rest no no rest unless there is healing all these festering sores need to be healed well what a wonderful mercy it is there is this good and kind physician and in so many ways in the word of

[38:24] God he is set forth as this wonderful physician this good physician this able physician I think of the parable spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ concerning the man who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho he fell among thieves what a sad condition the thief left him in wounded robbed and spoiled left along the road so I know dead passed by by the priest and the Levite but there is one who came to him the Samaritan and the certain Samaritan says Jesus as he journeyed came where he was and the mercy is this dear friends the Lord Jesus Christ came where sinners are he stooped so low didn't he now he demonstrated this didn't he so many times and in this instance here as he sat with these publicans and sinners he came where they were and that's what we need don't we we need a saviour who can come to us where we are what could that poor man do by the roadside half dead he couldn't obtain any relief in any effort of his own he was there in a dying condition and we in our condition of sinners are in a dying condition but there was one the good

[40:01] Samaritan and he came where he was and then he had compassion didn't he and he had the necessaries to effect a healing not only was there compassion he had the ability he had the wonderful resources to deal with the poor man's condition and all this points to the Lord Jesus Christ as the good physician there's compassion yes and he comes where poor sinners are and he has all that is required yes to bring about a complete and perfect healing and as the Samaritan poured in the oil and the wine you think of the fullness there is in the Lord Jesus Christ as the good physician and you see the gospel proclaims this yeah and there is as it were the oil in the wine of the gospel that the

[41:04] Holy Spirit pours in to poor sinners in their sin sick condition you see the gospel is a gospel to sinners isn't it it's not a gospel to the self righteous and that is the reason why many of these scribes and Pharisees were so blind to who the Lord Jesus Christ was they didn't feel their need of him and he meant nothing to them but he meant everything to poor sinners these poor needy ones but what a wondrous physician and just as the good Samaritan you see poured in the oil in the wine they set him on his own beast and took him to an inn yes and there was provision made to take care of that poor man and this wondrous physician the Lord Jesus Christ takes care of his people yes he watches over them amidst all their failings and their sins he still watches over them and he will preserve them unto his heavenly kingdom and they shall know that healing in the fullest sense of the word and these who are sick need the physician while we have the words of

[42:37] Jesus in the negative sense they that are whole have no need of physician we have the positive word here but they that are sick and dear friends if you and I are found amongst these it is a mercy because sin sex souls will value the physician no one else and surely the deeper we may learn of our sinfulness and the malady of sin the more we should prize the good physician we have clearer views of him and he would be made more precious to us you see they're self satisfied there may be some profession of religion may be some profession of being a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ but what is it it is all superficial but spirit taught sinners come to learn the value of the sinner's friend and the sinner's friend as this good physician and it is to him they have to come and surely dear friends you'll have to come again and again come to this fountain which is open for sin and uncleanness you see sin is so defiling isn't it and I read in your hearing that description in the first chapter of

[44:12] Isaiah about the putrefying sores uncleanness but there's the fountain fountain fountain which is open open fountain for sin and uncleanness fountain for sinners and the mercy is dear friends you can come again again to that fountain good it is to be kept conscious of our need of it because we're sinners and yes we still sin it's still in us by nature and it will be so with us to the end of the journey but what a mercy there is still the remedy and there's still this healing it still flows in all the fullness of it in all the virtue of it and the mercy is this it still flows in the freeness of it one has said in the hymn and no payment he demandeth when he makes the wounded whole so then after these scribes and

[45:22] Pharisees questioned the disciples about the Lord Jesus Christ mixing with these publicans and sinners it brought forth this wonderful word from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ they that are whole have no need of the physician but to they that are sick I came not to call the righteous the self righteous the self satisfied but sinners to repentance God grant we may know both something of the malady really and truly and indeed something of the remedy yes to know something what it is to be healed and cleansed in that fountain the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ nothing else can bring this about no good works can obtain this we have no healing medicines that is a word in

[46:22] Jeremiah's prophets that there is no healing medicines how true that is man may try to patch up as it were his sinful condition but it is impossible to do that we need the good physician yes and him alone and he is that physician yes one has said in the hymn heal us Emmanuel here we are waiting to feel like touch deep wounded souls to their repair and saviour we are such amen jesus is a wise physician skillful and exceeding time through him sinners find remission and enjoy sweet peace of mind in November 976

[47:57]  CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS