Are you tired of hurting yourself and others? It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick.
“And it happened that as He [Jesus] was reclining at the table in the house, behold many tax-gatherers and sinners came and were dining with Jesus and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, ‘Why is your Teacher eating with the tax-gatherers and sinners?’ But when He heard this, He said, ‘It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means, 'I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT SACRIFICE, 'for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’” Matthew 9:10-13 NASB77.
There are two groups of people referred to by Jesus in this statement, ‘the righteous’ and ‘sinners’. What does the Bible have to say about the righteousness of man? “The LORD has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.” Psalm 14:2-3 NASB. ‘The best of them is like a briar, the most upright like a thorn hedge.’ Micah 7:4 NASB. This is the way many are who say they are a Christian, but don’t have a true conversion and God in their life. But those who see their need will turn to Him for help.
“Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?” Jeremiah 8:22 KJV. Why are all of God’s people today not seeking healing from Him? Aren't we all sick? This is God’s message to His people in our day too! There needs to be a balm in Gilead and help from the Great Physician, because many of His people in our day are in as much need of healing from the sickness of sin as they were when Jesus was dining with the tax collectors and sinners. Unfortunately because many of His people do not know or care that they are sick and in need of the Great Physician’s help, in need of the balm of Gilead, they have not been healed. If anyone needs healing they must first see that they are sick and in need of help; otherwise there will be no help or healing for them. The tax collectors and sinners in our passage in Matthew 9 received their opportunity of healing from sin from Jesus, and one of them was Matthew the disciple and apostle! See the verse before in Matthew 9:9. These were the sinners who the Pharisees were accusing Jesus of eating with. And at least one of them became Jesus’ loyal disciple, Matthew! How many people have been blessed by the book of Matthew? Aren’t you glad that Jesus ate with the tax collectors and sinners at Matthew’s house? We know that we are. There is hope for you too dear reader!
If someone see’s their need and allows Jesus to heal them from their sickness of sin, He will help them be good. When they have this change wrought in their heart they will have mercy and compassion on others who are still sick and in sin. If you consider yourself to be ‘the righteous’, go and learn what this means, ‘I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT SACRIFICE’, if you do not already know it. Hear now what God says here through Hosea the prophet, whom Jesus was quoting from In Mathew 9:13: “O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away. Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth. For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.” Hosea 6:4-7 KJV. God is saying here that He wants His people to have mercy and compassion on others, to desire a true knowledge of Him and His ways of love, and to keep their covenant with Him.
No one can be good or righteous if they are not kind and merciful to others; this is the way God is with mankind! It doesn’t matter what someone says they believe, if they are not kind and merciful to others they are unrighteous! To be a Christian and a disciple of Jesus, all must be kind and merciful to others. When Moses asked God to show him His glory, God said, ‘I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.’ Exodus 33:19 NASB. The King James Version renders this as: “And He [God] said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.” Exodus 33:19 KJV. So we see here that God’s glory is His grace, mercy and compassion! But all those who have been shown mercy and compassion by God, because they asked for it from Him, should be grateful for the kindness that He has shown them. This should awaken His love in their heart and sympathy for others who are still trapped in the bondage of sin and addictions. Those who are grateful for the help they have received from Him will have mercy on sinners and will want to help them, instead of tearing them down. This is what Jesus meant when He said ‘Go and learn what this means.’ Those who say that they know Him and are not kind and merciful to others do not really know Him yet, and if they don’t repent they will find themselves shut out from the kingdom of Heaven. See Matthew 5:7, 6:12; John 13:34-35; 15:12, 17; 1 John 4:20; 2:4; Matthew 25:21-40; 7:21-23.
We first heard someone using this text as a promise that God would help them ‘if they were sick’ by a dear brother in Christ. He said that before he met Christ he did a lot of bad things. We believe he was looking for hope that life could be better for him, he was listening to the voice of God. After he started studying the Bible, when he read this text, he knew there was hope for him! He prayed something like this, ‘Dear Lord I am sick, so I need a physician. Jesus came to heal those who are sick. Please heal me!” In his heart he knew that God heard is prayer, because he was sick! And God helped him to become a better person and to stop doing bad things! All who see their sickness can pray to God, and receive forgiveness and healing from sin; and get help to stop doing bad things, just like our dear brother did!
Yes, all those who are ‘sick’ can receive help from the Great Physician if they will plead for His help! Jesus came to help those who are sick, not those who are sick but don’t think that they are! God will not provide healing for someone like this until they see their need and freely ask for His help. He compels none. Those who do not see their great need will not be helped. But there is love and mercy for all those who know that they are sick and are desperate for the help that only the Great Physician can supply.
So there is a balm in Gilead and the Great Physician there to provide healing for all who are sick. Are you sick? Then there is hope for you! If you pray the prayer that my brother prayed above, you will be healed, no matter how bad you are and no matter what you’ve done. Jesus came to call you, Oh sinner, if you would be healed!
May the grace of God be with you all! May you see your need of Jesus and receive healing from all sin!
P. S. We would like to thank our dear brother in Christ for his testimony on this text - that he knew that God would hear this prayer and help him when he prayed it! How it gave him hope that God would save him because he was spiritually sick! We hope that his testimony and this article will be a blessing to others, giving hope to all who are sick and trapped in sin and want to be free! We want all to be delivered from bondage to sin, all who want it.
Jesus said, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” John 8:36 KJV. So there is hope for all who want it! There is the Physician and the balm of Gilead for all who see their need and want it. No reason anymore to be trapped in sin and guilt, when Jesus came to make all free! Amen.
By John Foll, written 10/28/2017
© Copyright 2017 John Foll
#Sick #Well #Physician #Mercy #Compassion #Sacrifice #Ear #Tax #Collectors #Sinners #Righteous #Help #Healing #Hurt #Stop #Yourself #Others #Testimony #Forgiveness #Free
Originally posted 2017-10-29 10:40:00.
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Dear Friend: I see you have had a lot of trouble since you became a Christian. You have had great trouble and were wondering why God wasn’t helping you. You haven’t had an easy life, and the enemy of humanity has been greatly troubling you and trying to put you down, and to steal your new life away from you. You don’t know why you can’t have an easier time, and not have so many problems. I would like to tell you about my special friend whom you are starting to get to know. His name is Jesus. He knows what you are going through, the problems you inherited, and knows the battles that you are fighting. But He has won the battle for you at the cross and has been given all power and authority. Matthew 28:18. Just let Him fight your battles for you and rest in His strength. He is pleading on your behalf to the Father. Sometimes you have felt like you were ready to give up. Are you ready to give up yet? Then let God take care of you.
"The just shall live by faith." Who are the just? -- They are only those who are of faith, because men are justified only by faith. For though we all "have sinned and come short of the glory of God," yet we are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." For "to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Those who are of faith and those alone are the just in the earth.
“To whom would He teach knowledge, and to whom would He interpret the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just taken from the breast? For He says, 'Order on order, order on order, line on line, line on line, a little here, a little there.' Indeed, He will speak to this people through stammering lips and a foreign tongue, He who said to them, "Here is rest, give rest to the weary," And "Here is repose," but they would not listen.” Isaiah 28:9-12 NASB. [Or as it says in the KJV: “this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.”]. Yes that is the question: To whom will God teach knowledge? Would He want to keep having to teach us over and over the basics of the truth when we should have already learned it long ago? God prefers that His people advance closer to His ideal for them, instead of being “stuck in neutral” or backsliding. In this article, we want to discuss some important Bible study principles to help you to know how to properly study and understand the “saving truths” that you need to know, and not be deceived into the many errors that plague Christianity today and modern man. We want to help equip you to know the truth if you don’t already know it. But we believe there is ever more to learn. It’s time to get beyond the basics, but to get beyond the basics the errors must be unlearned and true faith learned by all who would want to be weaned from spiritual infancy.
The Joy of a Fool or the Joy of the Wise? Which will you have? How can both the wise and the fool have joy? “Folly is joy to him that is destitute of wisdom: but a man of understanding walketh uprightly.” Proverbs 15:21 KJV. Now from the NASB: “Folly is joy to him who lacks sense, but a man of understanding walks straight.” Proverbs 15:21 NASB. Solomon declared that foolishness or folly is joy to the man who lacks understanding. The fool is compared with a man of understanding who walks uprightly, the wise man or the righteous man. Is there also joy for the righteous? Yes true joy! There are two paths to joy. Which one will you choose?
“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” Ephesians 2:8-10 NASB. Not only are we saved by grace, but we were also created in Christ Jesus for good works. According to Paul its not one way or the other its both: We are saved by grace AND created in Christ Jesus for good works.
Jesus said, ‘But so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. Get up, let us go from here.’ John 14:31 NASB. It’s time to get busy serving the Lord and carrying out His will. Get up, let us go from here! This is what Jesus said as He went out of the last supper with His disciples, to allow Judas Iscariot and the mob to arrest Him and take Him to Jerusalem, that He might die on the cross for our sins. Men did a lot of bad things to Jesus, but it was necessary for our salvation and for the world that He submit to all that Satan and evil men would do to Him; that He would drink this cup that the Father had given Him to drink and die on the cross for our sins, a most cruel death, but He did it out of love for His Father and for you and me! But He would see all the people who would be saved, and be satisfied with His sacrifice. “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.” Isaiah 53:11 KJV. Never forget what Jesus did for you and the other sinners in this world! Meditate on this often, never let it depart from your mind. In like manner, if we love Jesus and His Father, it is time, high time, that we go out from here to carry out God’s plan to save the world.
The Kingdom of God consists not in words but in Power! Listen to what the apostle Paul says here: “But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I shall find out, not the words of those who are arrogant, but their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist in words, but in power.” 1 Corinthians 4:19-20 NASB. Paul here was addressing a class of people among the Corinthian believers who were arrogant. 1 Corinthians 4:18. Evidently some people were causing problems in the Church, who were living without the power of God in their lives. Sound familiar? This problem and the solution addressed by Paul here is largely the same problem that we have today, and his solution is the same that is needed today. Yes, his counsel is for our day too, not just for the Corinthian church of his day. Do you want God’s power in your life to help you be good and His gifts to serve Him with? Do you want the assurance of your salvation? Then get His power in your life.
