a. Levi could not have invited a better guest.

b. He feasted Jesus with his cheer; Christ feasted him with salvation.

I. THE DYING PATIENTS.. ”THEY THAT ARE SICK” Vr. 31)

A. NOTICE THAT SIN IS A SOUL DISEASE... (He hath borne our griefs” (Isa. 53:4)

1. The O. T. Hebrew calls it “our sickness”. (Isa. 53:4)

2. Man was originally created in “Perfect Health.”

3. Adam’s soul had perfect beauty and glory.

1. His eye was clear

2. His heart was pure

3. His affections were in sweet harmony with God.

B. NOTICE SEVERAL WAYS IN WHICH SIN RESEMBLES SICKNESS.

1. Sin is compared to sickness, being highly contagious.

a. Sickness is often cought through carelessness ---in the rain.

b. Sickness is sometimes caught through intemperance..

(1) (Prov 23:29-30) "Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? {30} They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine."

2. Sin is compared to sickness in the nature of it.

a. Sickness may spread all over the body.

(1) (Isa 1:5) "Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint."

3. The memory is diseased.

a. Adam’s memory was at first like a golden casket, to store up those precious conversations with his maker and God.

b. But then it became like a colander, or leaking vessel, which lets all that is good run out.

c. Our memory lets God’s truths sift through; but holds on to all the vanity.

d. Most men can remember a bad joke, but cannot remember the church creed.

e. Our memory is like a bad stomach that vomits up good food.

f. So the most precious truths will not stay in the memory, but rather come up again and are lost.

4. The will is diseased...(The will is the soul’s commander-in-chief.)

a. But since the fall, it is faulty and oh so irregular.

5. The affections are sick.

a. A sick man often desires that which is harmful to him.

(1) Full of feaver, he calls for strong drink.

b. So the natural man calls for that which suits his flesh.

c. He has no tastes for righteousness. (Mt. 5:6)

Ill. A lost man will grieve over a lost inheritance; but never over God’s grace and salvation.

6. Sickness debilitates and weakens the body.

a. A sick man is unfit to walk; so the sickness of sin weakens the soul.

1. (Rom 5:6) "For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly."

2. Someone has rightly said: “"Talk it over with the great Physician--no appointment necessary. "

b. Before falling, Adam was strong in serving God,

(1) But like Samson, the locks of his strength were cut off.

(Jud. 16:17)

7. Sickness causes a person’s beauty to disappear.

a. (Psa 39:11) "When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity. Selah."

b. The Moth consumes the beauty of the cloth; so a bit of sickness consumes the beauty of the body.

Ill. (1 Sam 4:21) "And she named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel: because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father in law and her husband."

8. Sickness takes away the comforts of life...Joys are gone and life becomes a burden.

a. (Isa 57:21) "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked."

b. (Prov 17:21) "He that begetteth a fool doeth it to his sorrow: and the father of a fool hath no joy."

9. Sickness takes away the taste; (A sick man can’t taste the sweetness of his food.)

a. So the sinner has no taste for spiritual things.

b. (Psa 34:8) "O taste[1] and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him."

1 "TASTE": "Try it" "Do not talk to me," said Coleridge, "of the evidences of Christianity. Try it. It has been eighteen hundred years in existence, and nobody who has tried it on its own terms has ever challenged it as a failure."

"Try it," exclaims the chemist to his laboratory assistant who suggests the possibilities of a new combination.

"Try it, " urges the professor of mathematics when his student proposes a new demonstration of a theorem. Will any man challenge the scientific basis of such tests?

Who then will have the emerity to object to the Psalmist when he says, "O taste and see that the Lord is good," Who shall cast a doubt upon the soundness of the apostle's assurance, and upon that of the ten thousand who, like him, have put Jesus Christ to the test, and exclaimed--"I know whom I have believed."

c. (1 Pet 2:3) "If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious."

1 "TASTED": Not a mere superficial one, such as hypocrites may have of the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come;

2. ISRAEL HAD BAD TASTE BUDS IN THE O. T. "The people ground it in mills, beat it in mortars, baked it or boiled it; it had a certain appearance and its taste was described; if kept too long it even bred worms (Exod. 16 and Num. 11).

3. Yet the Apostle Paul, guided by the Holy Spirit, says this manna was spiritual food.

4. F. B. Meyers, commenting on Pauls statement, well says, It was, although material in itself a food of supernatural, divine, and spiritual origin.

5. Notice Ezekiel's taste buds: Ezekiel is given a scroll to eat, and finds its taste as sweet as honey." [Ps. 119:103-4],

6. David wrote, (Psa 119:103) How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through thy precepts I get understanding.

7. Homiletical Commentary says: "The N. T. describes the beginnings of religious life under a variety of forms and figures.

a. Sometimes it is the passing in at a gate. (Lk 13:24) “Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.”

b. Sometimes it is the first breath of a new life; (Jn. 10:10) “.....I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

c. Sometimes it is the first cry of a new-born babe; (1 Pet 2:2) “As newborn babes, .........” We are to desire, not the five things Simon Peter warns about in (Vr. 1), but rather the "Sincere Milk of The Word of God."

d. Sometimes the first prayer of a repentant soul; (Acts 9:11)

e. Sometimes the spiritual healing in response to a "look"; (Num. 21:9) “And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.”

f. Sometimes the answer to a call; or the laying of a life foundation. (Mt. 4:19) “And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

g. Here it seems to be the infant's first taste of food--"tasting that the Lord is gracious."

II. CONSIDER WHAT THE DISEASES OF THE SOUL ARE:

A. CONSIDER A FEW EXAMPLES.

1. Pride is the trumpet of the soul.

2. Lust is the fever of the soul.

3. Error is the gangrene of the soul.

4. Unbelief is the plague of the heart.

5. Hypocrisy is the scurvy of the soul.

6. Hardness of the heart is the stone of the heart.

7. Malice is the wolf in the breast.

8. Covetousness is the dropsy of the soul.

9. Apostasy is the epilepsy of the soul.

III. THE THIRD THING ABOUT SIN IS THAT IT IS THE WORST SICKNESS A MAN CAN HAVE

Int. A body plagued with sores is sad, but a soul plagued with sin is far worse.

A. A BODY CAN BE DISEASED WHILE THE CONSCIENCE IS QUIET.

1. (Isa 33:24) "And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity."

a. William Jay’s Morning Devotion: “How many of ou r fellow-creatures, the subjects of infirmity, langour, and nervous apprehension, are saying, " I am made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed to me.”

2. (Isa 57:21) "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked."

B. A MAN MAY HAVE BODILY DISEASES, YET GOD MAY LOVE HIM.

1. (2 Chr 16:12) "And Asa in the thirty and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great: yet in his disease he sought not to the LORD, but to the physicians."

a. (2 Chr 20:32) "And he walked in the way of Asa his father, and departed not from it, doing that which was right in the sight of the LORD."

2. If sin be a soul sickness, how foolish it is to try and hide it from God.

a. It is foolish to hide a disease; so it is foolish to try and hide sin from God.

3. (Jn 11:3) “Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick

IV. CONSIDER THAT CHRIST IS THE GREAT PHYSICIAN TO HEAL THIS DREADED DISEASE OF SIN.

A. THE TERM PHYSICIAN IS ONE OF OUR LORD’S TITLES.

1. (Exo 15:26) "And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee."

B. JESUS WAS ANOINTED BY THE FATHER TO HEAL THIS DREADED DISEASE.

1. (Isa 61:1) "The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;"

C. JESUS CAME AS A PHYSICIAN WITH THE NATURE OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN.

1. (Luke 10:33) "But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,"

Note: “Earthly physicians come to the patient only for gain, but Jesus goes to the patient out of sympathy.”

D. CHRIST IS THE ONLY SPECIALIST IN THE FIELD OF HEALING THE SOUL..

1. (Acts 4:12) "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."

2. (John 14:6) "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."

3. Jonathan Edwards said: "A MAN must feel himself in misery before he will go about to find a remedy; be sick before he will seek a physician; be in prison before he will seek for a pardon. A sinner must be weary of his former wicked way before he will have recourse to Jesus Christ for refreshing. He must be sensible of his spiritual poverty, beggary and slavery under the devil, before he thirsts kindly heavenly righteousness, and willingly takes up Christ's sweet and easy yoke. He must be cast down, confounded, condemned, a castaway, and lost in himself, before he will look about for a Saviour."

V. CONSIDER HOW HE IMPLIMENTS THIS HEALING PROCESS.

A. HE DOES IT THROUGH HIS WORD.

1. (Psa 107:20) "He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions."

a. Thomas Watson said: “Christ is the most inexpensive physician, he takes no fee. He desires us to bring nothing to him but broken hearts. And when he has cured us, he desires us to bestow nothing on him but our love. Other physicians can only cure those who are sick, but Christ cures those who are dead,” (Eph 2:1)

2. (1 Pet 1:23) "Being born again , not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever."

a. R. L. Dabney says: " Topical Lectures on Scripture, Gods people are willing in the day of His power (Ps. 110:3). He worketh in them both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Phil 2:13)"

b. Trapp: "A man shall never have occasion to curse the day of his new birth."

c. "AGAIN": ---Octavius Winslow said: "The work of restoration is a greater achievement of power than was the work of creation. To repair the temple when ruined was more glorious than to create it out of nothing. In one day God made man; He was four thousand years in redeeming man. It cost Him nothing to create a soul; it cost Him His dear Son to save it. And who can estimate the cost? He met with no opposition in creating man; in re-creating him, Satan, the world, yea, man himself, are against Him."

3. (James 1:18) "Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures."

Assist my soul, my heavenly King,

Thy everlasting love to sing;

And joyful spread thy praise abroad,

As one, through grace, that’s born of God.

B. HIS WOUNDS BRING HEALING..

1. (Isa 53:5) "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed."

2. C. H. S. Morning & Evening: “The Roman scourge was a most dreadful instrument of torture. It was made of the sinews of oxen, and sharp bones were inter-twisted every here and there among the sinews; so that every time the lash came down these pieces of bone inflicted fearful laceration, and tore off the flesh from the bone. The Saviour was, no doubt, bound to the column, and thus beaten. He had been beaten before; but this of the Roman lictors was probably the most severe of his fla/gel/lations. My soul, stand here and weep ove r his poor stricken body. “

VI. WE SHOULD ASK THE QUESTION: IF CHRIST IS THE GREAT PHYSICIAN, WHY ARE NOT ALL MEN HEALED?

A. BECAUSE ALL MEN ARE BLIND AS TO THEIR CONDITION.

B. BECAUSE APART FROM SOVEREIGN GRACE, ALL MEN REJECT THE REMEDY.

1. Prescribed with the remedy is Repentance and Endurance.

2. Repentance was our Lord’s first message.

a. (Mt 4:17) “From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

C. BECAUSE APART FROM QUICKENING GRACE, ALL MEN HAVE NO CONFIDENCE IN THE PHYSICIAN.

1. Jesus once asked two blind men: (Mat 9:28) "And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord."

VII. FINALLY, MAY I SAY THAT CHRIST IS THE BEST PHYSICIAN.

A. HE IS INDEED THE BEST PHYSICIAN.

1. Because there is no disease to hard for him.

a. (Psa 103:3) "Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;"

B. CHRIST IS INDEED THE BEST PHYSICIAN BECAUSE:

1. Because He cures the better part----“THE SOUL”

2. Other physicians can only cure the body, but Jesus cures the soul.

3. Paul said: (Heb 9:14) "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?"

C. CHRIST IS THE BEST PHYSICAN BECAUSE

1. He has never lost a patient.

a. (John 17:12) "While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled."

b. Christ is a physician for the dead, of every one whom Christ cures, it may be said, 'He was dead, and is alive again' (Luke 15:32)."

Conclusion:

1. Christ is the most bountiful of all physicians.

a. Other patients enrich their physicians; but Christ enriches His patients.

b. He not only cures His patients; He crowns.

c. He raises them from the dunghill to the Throne. (Ps 113:7)

2. None of Christ’s patients ever die.

a. (John 11:26) "And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?"