The Great Physician and His Patients

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Mark 2:17

When Jesus heard it, he said to them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick…

This was Christ's apology for mingling with the publicans and sinners when the Pharisees murmured against Him. He triumphantly cleared Himself by showing that, according to the fitness of things, He was perfectly in order. He was acting according to His official character. A physician should be found where there is work for him to do, etc.

I. MERCY GRACIOUSLY REGARDS SIN AS DISEASE. It is more than disease, but mercy leniently and graciously chooses to view it as such. It is justified in such a view, for almost everything that may be said of deadly maladies may be said of sin.

1. Sin is an hereditary disease. The taint is in our blood, etc.

2. Sin, like sickness, is very disabling. It prevents our serving God. We cannot pray or praise God aright, etc. There is not a single moral power of manhood which sin has not stripped of its strength and glory.

3. Sin also, like certain diseases, is a very loathsome thing.

4. Fearfully polluting. Everything we do and think of grows polluted through our corruption.

5. Contagious. A man cannot be a sinner alone. "One sinner destroyeth much good."

6. Very painful; and yet, on the other hand, at certain stages it brings on a deadness, a numbness of soul, preventing pain. Most men are unconscious of the misery of the fail. But when sin is really discerned, then it becomes painful indeed. Oh, what wretchedness was mine before I laid hold on Christ.

7. It is deep seated, and has its throne in the heart. The skill of physicians can often extract the roots of disease, but no skill can ever reach this. It is in its own nature wholly incurable. Man cannot cure himself. Jehovah Rophi the healing Lord, must manifest His omnipotent power.

8. It is a mortal disease. It kills not just now, but it will kill ere long.

II. IT PLEASES DIVINE MERCY TO GIVE TO CHRIST THE CHARACTER OF A PHYSICIAN. Jesus Christ never came into the world merely to explain what sin is, but to inform us how it can be removed. As a Physician Christ is —

1. Authorised.

2. Qualified. He is, experimentally as well as by education, qualified in the healing art.

3. Has a wide practice.

4. His cures are speedy, radical, sure. His medicine is Himself. O Blessed Physician for this desperate disease!

III. THAT NEED IS THAT ALONE WHICH MOVES OUR GRACIOUS PHYSICIAN TO COME TO OUR AID. His Saviourship is based upon our sinnership. Need, need alone, is that which quickens the Physician's footsteps.

IV. It follows therefore, and the text positively asserts it, that THE WHOLE — THAT THOSE WHO HAVE NO GREAT NEED, NO NEED AT ALL — WILL BE UNAIDED BY CHRIST.

V. It follows, then, that THOSE WHO ARE SICK SHALL BE HELPED BY JESUS. Are you sick, sinful, etc.? He loves to save. He can save the vilest. Trust Him.

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