The NXR Podcast - THE SERMON - Christ Came To Save Sinners ｜ Matthew 14_34-36

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00:00:26.800 This morning, we're continuing our sermon series through the gospel according to Matthew.

00:00:30.660 Our text for today is Matthew chapter 14, verses 34, 35, and 36.

00:00:36.080 Again, that's the gospel according to Matthew chapter 14, verses 34, 35, and 36.

00:00:41.580 I'll read our text for us in its entirety.

00:00:43.660 When I finish reading the text, I'm going to say this is the word of the Lord,

00:00:47.160 at which point I would appreciate very much if you would respond by saying thanks be to God.

00:00:51.080 One final time, our text for today is the gospel according to Matthew chapter 14, verses 34, 35, and 36.

00:00:59.160 The Bible says this,

00:01:21.080 This is the word of the Lord.

00:01:23.940 All right, please be seated.

00:01:25.580 We'll go ahead and dive right in.

00:01:27.500 Three points that I believe are emphasized by these three short verses in our text today.

00:01:34.480 The three points are as follows.

00:01:36.620 Number one, Christ came into the world to save sinners.

00:01:40.420 In our text, we see him healing the sick.

00:01:43.640 But this is a symbol and a sign that he is the great divine physician,

00:01:49.060 that he heals more than just our physical maladies,

00:01:52.720 but he actually heals the problem of sin

00:01:56.000 by his atonement, by his forgiveness.

00:01:58.720 Christ came into the world to save sinners.

00:02:01.540 Secondly, we see in the text today a symbol,

00:02:04.380 another sign that Christ's means of grace are ordinary.

00:02:09.320 We have within the Reformed tradition

00:02:10.960 the understanding of the ordinary means of grace

00:02:13.860 that God gives to us, to his people,

00:02:18.200 grace, but not through extraordinary means, but ordinary means. And I'll flesh out what I mean by

00:02:25.260 that when we come to that point in the text. Third, lastly, we see that there's a universal aspect of

00:02:32.500 Christ healing. Not universal meaning each and every individual that ever was sick, but universal

00:02:39.100 in the sense that all who came to him were healed. All who came to him. And that is the condition.

00:02:45.120 The condition is that we come, and so we'll see that as well, that Christ does not reject

00:02:51.120 or turn away any who come to him, but universally heals all who come. So Christ came into the world

00:02:59.760 to save sinners, number one. Number two, Christ's means of grace are ordinary. Number three,

00:03:06.480 come to me all who are weary. Christ gives a universal promise to heal and to give rest to

00:03:14.300 all with one condition, the condition being that we come. By way of introduction, I've written this

00:03:20.440 in your sermon notes. If you have them, feel free to follow along. In this passage, we are confronted

00:03:25.980 with a striking picture of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. When the boat lands at Gennesaret,

00:03:32.980 the people, having recognized Jesus, bring forth their sick with great haste, begging only that

00:03:39.040 they might touch the fringe of his garment and we see that as many as touched it were made well

00:03:45.160 here therefore we behold both the misery of mankind and the sufficiency and willingness

00:03:52.040 of Christ to remedy all our many miseries mankind is indeed miserable afflicted by many ailments

00:04:02.020 but most importantly, afflicted by guilt of sin, condemnation, the wrath of God.

00:04:08.780 And yet we see that Jesus, once again, heals, remedies, all who come to him.

00:04:16.020 Now, the first point in your notes, I've written this.

00:04:19.200 First, we must observe the eagerness with which the people run to Christ.

00:04:24.020 Though their knowledge of Christ was elementary, and this is key,

00:04:27.760 They have a very primitive, basic, elementary knowledge of Christ.

00:04:33.200 And yet, seeking chiefly, in their case, the healing of the body.

00:04:37.360 For many, that's all they knew that Christ could provide.

00:04:40.500 Nevertheless, they discerned in him, in Jesus, that he possessed a power that could not be found among men.

00:04:49.020 That he was unique.

00:04:50.400 Likewise, even the simplest among us must eagerly come to Christ as the one in whom God has placed the fullness of salvation and forgiveness of sins.

00:05:02.300 The fullness of salvation and forgiveness of sins.

00:05:06.280 There is a blessing and a promise that Christ extends to all who are willing to come that we must have faith.

00:05:13.640 That is the condition.

00:05:14.460 But that faith oftentimes is a simple faith, and simple faith will not be rejected.

00:05:21.580 Little faith will not be rejected.

00:05:24.580 I think of the man who approaches Jesus, asking for healing, and Jesus asks him,

00:05:30.060 Do you believe?

00:05:31.240 And he responds by saying, I believe.

00:05:33.380 Lord, help my unbelief.

00:05:35.720 Right?

00:05:35.940 So there was a part of him that believed.

00:05:37.460 There's a part of him that doesn't believe.

00:05:39.500 We could argue on that basis that his belief was partial.

00:05:44.120 His belief was incomplete.

00:05:46.680 He had half faith.

00:05:48.620 And yet he received a whole miracle.

00:05:51.500 A whole miracle.

00:05:52.600 Because at the end of the day, it's not the size of our faith, but the object of our faith that really counts.

00:05:59.200 Is your faith, be it small or be it simple, is your faith in Jesus?

00:06:04.220 The crowds that are coming to him in this region are coming to him with a very elementary understanding.

00:06:11.260 There's nothing in the text for us to assume

00:06:14.440 that they understood Jesus and his true divinity,

00:06:17.920 that they understood Jesus to be the Son of God,

00:06:20.460 that they understood Jesus to be the Lamb of God

00:06:23.060 who takes away the sins of the world.

00:06:25.440 There's nothing in our text that explicitly suggests

00:06:28.400 that they had a robust understanding of justification

00:06:32.640 by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

00:06:36.220 We don't see any of that.

00:06:37.840 All we know for sure from our text today

00:06:40.600 is that these people understood that Jesus had the power to heal. And so they flocked to him.

00:06:48.480 They did not waste any time. They ran to Christ to do for them exactly what they knew he was able

00:06:56.280 to do, what they had faith for him to do. In their case, it was physical healing. And I think of us

00:07:04.080 as New Testament Christians, there are many, many cases, many such cases, as the kids would say,

00:07:09.360 where there are people who are very, very, very new to the Christian religion.

00:07:15.760 They have a very elementary understanding of Christian doctrine.

00:07:20.640 There are many things that they do not understand.

00:07:23.560 But they know one thing.

00:07:25.040 They know that Christ offers forgiveness for sin.

00:07:29.180 And they know that they are sinners.

00:07:31.160 And they know that they wrestle under guilt and condemnation for their sin.

00:07:36.540 and that that guilt and condemnation,

00:07:39.400 they trust, they have faith

00:07:40.900 that it can be alleviated,

00:07:43.420 that it can be cured in Christ

00:07:45.840 who offers forgiveness of sins.

00:07:49.080 Is this sufficient for salvation?

00:07:52.260 The answer is yes.

00:07:54.060 Little faith is sufficient for salvation.

00:07:57.700 Incomplete faith is sufficient for salvation.

00:08:01.940 Simple, elementary faith

00:08:04.120 is sufficient for salvation.

00:08:06.540 Again, it is not the size of our faith that saves, but rather the object of our faith that saves.

00:08:14.380 Faith does not save you.

00:08:16.580 Jesus saves you.

00:08:18.380 And he saves you by his grace, which is received through faith as an instrument.

00:08:24.140 Faith is a means.

00:08:25.940 It's the channel, the avenue, the instrument.

00:08:28.720 It's the empty hand, as the reformers argued, that lays hold of the grace of God.

00:08:33.840 And that grace is in Christ.

00:08:36.540 So Christ is the one who saves us.

00:08:39.400 Our faith does not save us.

00:08:41.440 Our Savior saves us.

00:08:43.960 And faith is the avenue or the instrument that lays hold of the gracious salvation that Christ alone offers.

00:08:52.080 Faith can be incomplete.

00:08:54.000 Faith can be simple.

00:08:55.580 Faith can be small.

00:08:56.540 But if it's true faith that has its object as Christ and Christ alone, then it is a potent faith.

00:09:05.560 It is a powerful faith. It is a sufficient and effective faith for salvation. You've heard me

00:09:12.880 quote from Pilgrim's Progress written by John Bunyan many times, but I'm going to do it once

00:09:18.380 more. There is a character in the second edition, right? Everyone's familiar with the first.

00:09:24.000 Pilgrim's Progress, the lead protagonist being Christian, right? And Christian's on his way to

00:09:28.740 the celestial city. And ultimately what John Bunyan is doing, the author is painting a picture

00:09:33.500 of in his mind the normative Christian life and I say in his mind not to say that he's wrong 0.55

00:09:39.500 but to say that probably all of us are wrong and he's right because when he thinks of the

00:09:45.300 normative Christian life he thinks that it's a life of constant trial and tribulation and

00:09:50.940 difficulty that requires perseverance determination and vigilance and for many modern Christians

00:09:59.120 today, we think that we're somehow going to just coast in to the celestial city, just coast in

00:10:04.920 to paradise, that it's somehow going to be easy. Although Jesus literally promised us that we would

00:10:10.820 have enemies in this life, that if the world hated him, that the world would hate us also, that we

00:10:16.080 would have adversaries, that we would face all kinds of challenges and opposition. John Bunyan

00:10:21.920 gets this right. Many modern Christians get this wrong. Yet, even in the conception of the Christian 0.99

00:10:28.660 life, again, in his mind, the normative Christian life, John Bunyan still leaves room for those who

00:10:35.080 have little faith. And those who have little faith still ultimately, by the grace of God, make it

00:10:41.420 into the life to come, into the heavenly abode, into the celestial city. And we see this in his

00:10:48.080 second book, Pilgrim's Progress, the second edition. The first being the individual normative

00:10:53.920 Christian life. Christian, and he has a few sidekicks along the way. Hopeful is one of them.

00:11:00.300 Faithful is one of them. But in his second book, John Bunyan's second book, Pilgrim's Progress,

00:11:05.740 we now see a corporate picture of the Christian life, the Christian journey to the celestial city.

00:11:11.880 No longer just one individual who perhaps has a friend along the way going to heaven together,

00:11:18.060 but we see in the second Pilgrim's Progress a corporate ecclesiastical church-wide journey.

00:11:25.740 We see Christian, his wife now, Christiana, and their four sons and they are joined by a great

00:11:31.820 company. You have Great Heart who's kind of leading the way. He's a powerful warrior for

00:11:36.960 the Christian faith who is helping them along the way and ends up slaying one of the giants

00:11:41.880 who is antagonizing and oppressing Christians on their way to the celestial city. So they pick up

00:11:48.720 members of their company who are strong in the Christian faith, like Mr. Great Heart. But they

00:11:54.620 also pick up a great deal of members of their company who are weak. There is one called Mr.

00:12:00.860 Ready to Halt. There is one who is called Feeble-Minded, right? John Bunyan, he doesn't

00:12:07.240 really understand the concept of subtlety. It's very on the nose, right? When he names his characters,

00:12:13.000 you know exactly who they are. And so, you know, feeble-minded, ready to halt. And another one is 0.68

00:12:19.080 named Little Faith. And there's a certain point in the story where one of the characters is arguing

00:12:24.240 with another whether or not Little Faith will ultimately make it throughout the entire journey

00:12:29.560 to the celestial city. Whether or not he actually has the grit that is necessary, the vigilance

00:12:36.680 that's necessary in order to make it into the kingdom of heaven or whether or not he will

00:12:42.220 perish along the way. And another character who is arguing with him who's pro little faith he says

00:12:49.040 well wait a second remember his name. His name is little faith. His name is not no faith but little

00:12:57.440 faith. And this is what Jesus explicitly taught in the gospel narratives. We remember that Jesus

00:13:03.820 says, if you have faith as of a mustard seed, you can move mountains. So it's not as though we need

00:13:11.780 to somehow conjure up faith within ourselves, as though faith was a work of man, and that we somehow

00:13:19.060 have to manufacture a great deal of faith, the size of a mountain, that we might somehow move

00:13:26.260 mustard seeds. No, it's precisely the opposite, that if we have a small amount of faith, a mustard

00:13:32.940 seed amount of faith, that faith, by the grace of God, can actually move mountains, including

00:13:39.720 the mountain of your sin that stands between you and a thrice holy God. It is not, again, the size

00:13:47.500 of your faith that ultimately determines whether or not you will inherit eternal life, but rather

00:13:53.780 it is the quality of faith. It is the purity of faith. And to have faith that is pure, faith that

00:14:01.580 this true, true salvific faith is to receive the faith that comes from God as a gift. God saves us

00:14:10.520 by his grace, which is a gift. That grace, which is a gift, is laid hold of by faith, which is also

00:14:18.800 a gift. This is what Ephesians teaches, right? Ephesians says that we're saved by grace through

00:14:25.460 faith. And this is a gift of God, not a result of works, human works, so that no man may boast,

00:14:34.340 but rather it's a result of God's gift, right? Saved by grace through faith. And this is a gift

00:14:41.440 of God. What is the this? Well, it's not just the grace and it's not just the faith, but it's both.

00:14:49.220 both grace and faith are gifts that God gives. If God has given you faith as a gift, then you can

00:14:58.800 be sure that faith, albeit perhaps small, albeit perhaps incomplete and unfinished, albeit perhaps

00:15:07.460 elementary and simple, even primitive, that faith, if it be truly a gift from God, it may be small,

00:15:16.040 but it will be pure. It may be simple, but it will be true. And true, pure faith that comes from God

00:15:27.160 is saving faith. It is the faith that saves. So these people are coming to Christ with a basic

00:15:37.100 understanding. They don't understand all the theological intricacies that some of us may

00:15:43.320 understand today. It is likely that some of them perhaps were regenerate or in this moment of being

00:15:51.120 healed by Christ and seeing this sign, this wonder, this miracle, perhaps they became regenerated by

00:15:57.540 the Holy Spirit. Perhaps the Holy Spirit of God gave them spiritual eyes to see, spiritual ears

00:16:03.580 to hear, and new hearts that were softened and malleable, able to receive Christ for the fullness

00:16:09.780 of who he is. But one thing we know for sure, whether regenerate or not, whether they truly

00:16:16.700 understood Christ's divine identity or not, what they did know of Christ is that he could heal

00:16:24.180 the sick. And they come to him with eagerness because they're desperate to be physically healed.

00:16:30.640 And all who come are received. And all who Christ receives, he heals. Period.

00:16:39.780 So whatever they did know of Christ, they knew enough to come to him and to come to him with

00:16:45.860 vigilance, with eagerness and with haste. They did not delay. And what they knew of Christ,

00:16:53.320 the purpose of their coming, what they were coming to him for, they all received. No one

00:17:01.400 was turned away. No one came to Christ for healing and was not healed. The text tells us

00:17:08.640 that all were healed. Now, this is reading into the text. That was explicit. What I'm now going

00:17:15.280 to espouse for a moment is implicit. Okay, so this isn't explicitly in the text. We don't know for

00:17:21.180 sure, but I think that it's not a necessary inference from the text that we have today,

00:17:26.260 but it would be a plausible or reasonable inference, meaning this is not infallible,

00:17:31.720 what I'm about to say, but it is possible. It is possible that there were sick people in this

00:17:38.440 region that were not healed. What's not possible from what the text explicitly says is that there

00:17:44.940 could be no sick people that came to Jesus and were not healed. Because all who came to Jesus,

00:17:52.160 that's what's explicit in the text, they were healed universally, each and every single one of

00:17:58.380 them. But what is possible is that there were perhaps some sick people in this region who were

00:18:04.660 not healed precisely because they did not come. Right? Perhaps as word spread, Jesus of Nazareth,

00:18:14.180 He's in our region. The one who heals the sick. The one who opens blinded eyes. The one who causes

00:18:21.980 the lame to walk. The one who heals the leopards spots. It's not leopards. This is a tough one for

00:18:30.100 the kids. The leopards. The one who actually heals leopards and cleanses them so that they can

00:18:37.440 re-enter into their families and society. He's here. He's in our region. He's in our town. He

00:18:44.040 is among us. Well, it's possible that some who heard this news still did not believe. Not even

00:18:50.740 an elementary belief a simple belief not even a belief much less that he was divine and could

00:18:58.080 forgive sins but not even a belief that he was miraculous and that he could heal physical bodies

00:19:03.680 and so perhaps there were some or perhaps even many who stayed home and anyone we can I think

00:19:11.680 infer this from the text with great confidence any who did not come to Jesus they were not healed

00:19:19.260 Any who did not come, they stayed sick.

00:19:22.540 Any who stayed home, stayed sick.

00:19:25.520 But any who came, they were healed.

00:19:29.160 So what does this mean for us?

00:19:32.020 Well, as far as we can tell from this text and ample others throughout all of the Scripture,

00:19:38.260 anyone who comes to Christ in faith, if they come to Him for salvation,

00:19:45.320 the healing and atonement, forgiveness of sin,

00:19:49.720 if they come to Him for grace,

00:19:52.380 if they come to Him for atonement,

00:19:56.160 for forgiveness,

00:19:57.820 they are received.

00:19:59.880 They are taken in.

00:20:02.480 They are forgiven.

00:20:03.900 They are washed.

00:20:05.140 They are cleansed.

00:20:06.620 They are saved.

00:20:09.100 Any who come,

00:20:10.940 those who are not forgiven of sin,

00:20:13.380 those who ultimately, tragically, die in their sin.

00:20:18.040 They die in their sin and go to hell for eternity

00:20:21.000 because they die in unbelief.

00:20:25.060 There is no one who dies in their sin

00:20:28.000 and then enters into the eternal just punishment of God forever

00:20:34.240 who believed in Christ and came to Christ

00:20:37.940 but was turned away by Christ.

00:20:41.080 No, at the end of the day,

00:20:42.920 those who are not forgiven are those who did not come.

00:20:47.520 Those who Christ does not save are those who did not believe.

00:20:52.600 They did not trust Him.

00:20:54.220 Those who die in their sin are those who died in unbelief.

00:20:59.220 But Christ heals all who come to Him.

00:21:02.520 Christ saves all who come to Him in faith, even simple faith.

00:21:09.480 Perhaps you're here today and all you know of Jesus

00:21:11.940 is that he saves sinners.

00:21:15.200 It reminds me of what the Apostle Paul said

00:21:17.920 in 1 Timothy 1, verse 15 and 16.

00:21:21.100 This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance,

00:21:24.860 that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,

00:21:30.100 of whom I am the foremost.

00:21:32.740 But I received mercy for this reason,

00:21:35.540 that in me, as the foremost, that is the foremost sinner,

00:21:40.080 Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience.

00:21:44.620 What Paul is essentially saying is this,

00:21:47.300 that in his previous life, before his miraculous conversion,

00:21:51.600 when he was still Saul of Tarsus, 0.98

00:21:54.360 he was not only a sinner, as all people are sinners,

00:21:57.960 but he was a sinner of a heinous sort.

00:22:01.800 He was a sinner of a high-handed kind, variety.

00:22:06.960 He was persecuting the church of Jesus Christ.

00:22:10.220 He hated Christ.

00:22:12.380 Now it's true that every sinner outside of conversion, outside of salvation, does hate Christ. 0.83

00:22:19.460 They may not be verbally saying it out loud.

00:22:22.080 They may not be explicit with their hatred.

00:22:25.940 But they ultimately do hate Christ.

00:22:28.660 We know this because the book of Romans tells us.

00:22:31.220 The book of Romans says that the mind of the sinful man is neutral towards God.

00:22:36.740 No. Indifferent. Just not interested.

00:22:40.240 No. The mind of the sinful man is hostile towards God's law.

00:22:45.340 He does not submit to it, nor can he.

00:22:49.280 He is unwilling because he is unable.

00:22:52.640 And he is unable to submit to the law of God because of his nature.

00:22:57.700 It's not merely a matter of will.

00:23:00.000 right no one is saved by the work of man nor by the will of man but people are saved solely as a

00:23:09.660 work of God's grace and the thing that God accomplishes in his grace among many things

00:23:15.620 but one of these things chiefly is that he causes your very nature to change if any man is in Christ

00:23:23.520 Jesus, he is a new creature, a new creation. The old has passed away and the new has come.

00:23:32.080 Ezekiel tells us that God must remove a heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh

00:23:39.840 that is soft and receptive to the things of God. Every time God saves a man, he's saving and

00:23:47.660 healing the blind. Those who are spiritually blind and cannot see his goodness unless he grants to

00:23:54.220 them new eyes, spiritual eyes, that can see. Every time God saves a man, he is saving a deaf man who

00:24:03.860 previously could not hear. His ears were dull of hearing, but God, who transforms the very nature

00:24:11.380 of man, removes his physical dole of hearing ears and replaces them with spiritual ears, new ears

00:24:19.760 that can hear the spiritual things of God. What God does in salvation is he actually changes us.

00:24:28.380 It's not merely that he forgives us, but he actually changes us. No one comes unless God

00:24:36.540 changes his very nature and causes him to be eager to come desirous to come willing to come

00:24:46.340 this is what must take place God has to change a man the spirit of God must regenerate a man

00:24:55.420 cause him to become a new man a new creature who then now with this new nature has the gift of

00:25:04.180 faith and therefore comes. And as he comes to Christ, he will not be turned away. Again, 1 Timothy

00:25:13.160 1, 15 and 16, this saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus

00:25:19.060 came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost. The apostle Paul was not neutral

00:25:26.580 towards Jesus Christ. He was not indifferent towards Jesus Christ or the church of Jesus

00:25:33.180 Christ. He persecuted the church of Jesus Christ. He hated the church of Jesus Christ because the 0.77

00:25:40.820 mind of the sinful man is hostile towards the things of God, towards the law of God. He does

00:25:47.840 not submit to God's law because he cannot submit to God's law. You will never make a choice that

00:25:55.540 is not included within the confines of your nature. I'll say that again. You will never make a choice

00:26:02.980 that is not included within the confines of your nature.

00:26:08.520 Jonathan Edwards spoke of this.

00:26:11.340 Jonathan Edwards gave different illustrations.

00:26:13.920 One of them was an ox and a lion.

00:26:16.780 That the lion, if you put before it hay and meat,

00:26:21.620 that the lion would choose, not most of the time,

00:26:24.980 not even 99% of the time,

00:26:27.260 but every single time, as the kids would say,

00:26:30.440 every single time, the lion would choose to eat the meat because it's in his nature. His literal,

00:26:37.260 physical nature can't even process or digest the hay, so he's never, ever going to choose it.

00:26:44.000 He's not. Free will, as many by default understand it today, is an absolute myth,

00:26:52.520 and you must understand that. Now, there is such a thing as human agency because if there is no

00:26:59.140 human agency whatsoever, then there can be no moral culpability. And if there is no moral

00:27:05.180 culpability, then God cannot be just when he judges the sinner. Or to argue it now in reverse

00:27:11.200 of these three steps, God is just when he punishes sinners. Because sinners are morally culpable.

00:27:17.660 That is, they are morally responsible and guilty for their sin. And they are morally responsible

00:27:24.380 for the sin that they commit because they actually do have human agency. But human agency should not

00:27:31.400 be interpreted in this broad banner, limitless free will, as it's often defined by modern

00:27:38.380 Westerners today. Let me give an example. You do not have true free libertarian will

00:27:45.480 in multiple instances, meaning that you cannot make limitless choices because limitless choices

00:27:52.540 are not afforded to you because of the limits of your finite nature. For instance, you cannot

00:27:58.220 choose to fly. You can't. You can fly on an airplane. I'm aware of that, okay? But you cannot

00:28:05.800 choose to climb on top of a tower, jump off, and naturally fly. Why? Well, I'm free. I have free

00:28:13.700 will. I can choose anything I want. No, you can't. You can only choose those things within the

00:28:18.640 confines of your nature. You cannot will yourself to be nine feet tall, right? And you might say,

00:28:26.280 well, these are some ridiculous examples. Oh, they go far further, far further. Turns out there are 0.98

00:28:32.200 even ticks, insects, that if they bite you, you will no longer choose to eat red meat. Do you know

00:28:39.800 why? Because your nature will be changed and become hostile to red meat, and you will be allergic,

00:28:46.940 And you can be sure that as soon as this news got out, there's a whole group of liberals who are now, I just read this, trying to multiply those ticks so that everybody becomes allergic to red meat, so that Bill Gates wins the day and you have to eat your beyond meat, synthetic, whatever, and the cows get to live.

00:29:06.920 Once again, this is a typical thing, liberals trying to destroy all of humanity and ruin the world, right?

00:29:10.960 No shocking news there.

00:29:12.980 That's par for the course.

00:29:15.020 But my point is that even when it comes to choices like eating,

00:29:19.100 there are a ton of choices that some of you can't make.

00:29:22.340 Why?

00:29:22.840 Because your physical nature doesn't allow for it.

00:29:25.520 All of us cannot make the choice of, I would like to eat cyanide, right?

00:29:30.300 None of us can make that choice, okay?

00:29:32.600 But some of you, even beyond that, I can't eat tree nuts.

00:29:36.400 Or I got bit by a tick last week and now steak is off the menu.

00:29:40.400 The point is that your choices are limited by your nature.

00:29:43.140 So what does God do in salvation?

00:29:46.200 He changes your nature.

00:29:48.400 That's what He does.

00:29:50.100 That's what the Spirit does.

00:29:52.000 That's the doctrine of regeneration.

00:29:54.700 What God does in salvation is He causes you to become a new man.

00:29:59.660 It is not that you make a new choice and then are rewarded by becoming a new man.

00:30:06.100 No, that new choice is a choice you'll never make.

00:30:09.740 You cannot submit to God's law.

00:30:11.560 You will not because you cannot.

00:30:14.660 And so what has to happen first is regeneration preceding faith.

00:30:19.260 God first has to cause you to become a new creature.

00:30:22.380 And then all of a sudden, as a new creature with a new nature,

00:30:26.220 you have a new spectrum of choices that are now available to you.

00:30:30.420 And so you're able now to choose new things that previously you would have never chosen left to yourself.

00:30:37.820 Because you didn't want to.

00:30:39.340 you didn't desire God you were hostile towards God but in grace in mercy he caused you to become

00:30:48.720 a new man so the apostle Paul is saying this I received mercy verse 16 of first Timothy chapter

00:30:56.580 one for this reason that in me as not just a sinner but the foremost some translations say

00:31:04.980 the chief of sinners, a really, really bad, visibly bad, manifestly bad sinner in me by God

00:31:13.960 saving me as a foremost sinner, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience towards everyone

00:31:21.660 else. Essentially what Paul is saying is this. He's saying God saved me as a testimony so that

00:31:28.760 everyone would know that if God could save me, then he's able to save them. Because there's no

00:31:35.680 one worse than Paul, when he was once a different man, Saul of Tarsus, outwardly, visibly, manifestly

00:31:45.120 hating and persecuting the church of Jesus Christ. So Paul's saying, God saved me. And how did he

00:31:52.660 save him. He caused him to become a new creature who then had new choices, now willing to run to

00:32:00.540 Christ because he had faith in Christ, because he had a new heart. He was a new creature in Christ.

00:32:09.060 And if God was able to do that for the apostle Paul, he is able to do that for anyone that he

00:32:15.160 chooses. So Paul says, I know this, this saying, it was a saying in the churches, the New Testament

00:32:23.080 churches. There's a saying, there's lots of things to know about Christ, many truths about Christ.

00:32:30.180 But here's a basic one that everyone knows. This saying is trustworthy and worthy of full acceptance

00:32:37.460 that Jesus Christ came into the world, his incarnation, he took on flesh and he came into

00:32:44.340 the world to do what? To save sinners. And he saved Paul, who was a chief of sinners, which means that

00:32:51.920 he is able, if he be willing, to save any sinner. That's what Paul knew. And it seems as though

00:33:01.380 Paul is saying that many other New Testament Christians at that time were aware of this, knew

00:33:06.400 this also. So a simple elementary faith that would cause us, like the people in the region where

00:33:15.360 Jesus was healing the sick, to flock to him eagerly to come to him. A simple faith would be this,

00:33:22.600 knowing that Christ Jesus has come into the world and that he came for the purpose to save

00:33:27.860 sinners and that he's able to save the worst of sinners. Therefore, he's able to save us also.

00:33:35.220 Do you believe that?

00:33:37.400 Do you have that level of faith?

00:33:41.020 Simple as it is,

00:33:43.120 do you have that level of faith?

00:33:46.000 And it doesn't mean that that faith, again,

00:33:48.000 is robust or perfect or complete.

00:33:51.300 And it doesn't mean that you have that faith

00:33:53.460 without the presence of any doubt.

00:33:56.060 Remember, again, the man who says,

00:33:58.100 Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.

00:34:01.260 So the question is this,

00:34:02.580 do you have any faith?

00:34:04.380 any sense of assurance or hope or belief or trust

00:34:09.960 that there is a God in heaven,

00:34:12.820 that He has an eternal Son

00:34:15.340 who once came into the world,

00:34:17.800 took on flesh.

00:34:19.400 In the beginning was the Word.

00:34:20.660 The Word was with God.

00:34:21.840 And the Word was God.

00:34:22.980 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

00:34:26.980 The Word, Jesus Christ, incarnate.

00:34:31.140 Do you believe that there is a God,

00:34:33.420 That He is a holy God?

00:34:36.580 Do you believe that His Son Jesus

00:34:38.400 actually came into the world?

00:34:40.360 Do you believe that He came for the purpose

00:34:42.280 to save sinners?

00:34:44.220 And that He saved even one of the worst of sinners,

00:34:47.140 namely the Apostle Paul,

00:34:48.420 and therefore He can save you also?

00:34:51.980 If you believe that at all,

00:34:54.880 even with the presence of doubt,

00:34:56.860 even with many, many theological questions

00:34:59.580 still left unanswered,

00:35:01.180 If you believe that at all, then you will come to Christ.

00:35:05.180 And as we see in our text, if you will come to Christ, you will be received by Christ.

00:35:11.100 There are none who come and are ultimately turned away.

00:35:15.480 None who come, that is, in faith.

00:35:18.940 In faith.

00:35:20.480 But here's the last part.

00:35:22.600 And this is key as well.

00:35:24.720 Back to this saying, 1 Timothy 1, verse 15 and 16.

00:35:28.240 this saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance

00:35:31.360 that Christ Jesus came into the world to save,

00:35:34.060 and here it is, sinners.

00:35:36.760 There's one last prerequisite required for salvation.

00:35:42.660 You must trust that Jesus came into the world,

00:35:46.840 that he came to save sinners,

00:35:49.420 that he saved even the worst of sinners,

00:35:51.700 therefore he can save you also.

00:35:53.220 But you also must believe that you are a sinner.

00:35:58.940 Jesus did not come into the world to save people

00:36:02.120 who simply struggle in their ability to communicate with their spouse.

00:36:07.940 Jesus did not come into the world to save people

00:36:11.320 who their real problem is simply a matter of ignorance, right?

00:36:15.360 There's no real moral hostility or deficiency.

00:36:18.240 It's just a matter of education, right?

00:36:22.140 They're just missing a few pieces of the puzzle.

00:36:24.440 It's not really their fault.

00:36:26.020 They're innocent, right? 0.97

00:36:27.740 Their innocence stems from their ignorance. 0.62

00:36:30.700 Jesus did not come into the world to save ignorance.

00:36:34.760 He did not come into the world to save lack of communication.

00:36:39.100 Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

00:36:42.120 So the final prerequisite for salvation,

00:36:45.640 so that you don't spend eternity under the just judgment of God,

00:36:50.080 is this, you must recognize Jesus as Savior,

00:36:53.400 that He came into the world to save,

00:36:55.320 that He's able to save,

00:36:57.240 but you also must believe that the group he came to save are sinners and you must include yourself

00:37:03.460 in that group of sinners. You don't get to be saved by Jesus who saves sinners

00:37:08.980 if you're not willing to admit that you yourself are a sinner in need of his salvation.

00:37:17.000 And that's part of the problem. Many do not come to Jesus for salvation because

00:37:22.740 one, there are those who don't believe

00:37:24.940 that Jesus is real. They don't believe

00:37:26.940 that He's the Savior. They don't believe He

00:37:28.820 came into the world. But there are

00:37:30.820 others, and I would argue many

00:37:32.840 others, who fall

00:37:34.980 into this final category. For them,

00:37:37.720 it's that they don't believe

00:37:38.880 they need His salvation.

00:37:41.280 They don't believe that they're

00:37:42.840 sinners.

00:37:44.680 They don't believe at the end of the day that they

00:37:46.740 really have a moral deficiency.

00:37:50.280 When you

00:37:50.960 describe them as someone who is hostile to Jesus, who hates Jesus, who is at war with God, they would

00:38:00.460 say, no, no, no, not me. I don't hate Jesus. Well, there is no middle ground. You are either for him

00:38:11.980 or against him. You either bless him or curse him, love him or hate him. But there is no neutrality

00:38:18.600 when it comes to the person of Jesus Christ.

00:38:22.580 Somebody may not be explicit.

00:38:25.700 They may not verbalize it.

00:38:28.120 But the person who doesn't come to Jesus,

00:38:30.680 rest assured, that person,

00:38:32.720 he does in fact hate Jesus.

00:38:36.620 There have been many contexts

00:38:38.000 and many times and many cultures

00:38:39.940 throughout human history

00:38:41.820 these last 2,000 years

00:38:43.780 who for various reasons

00:38:46.780 were heavily incentivized

00:38:48.820 to not say out loud

00:38:51.140 that they hated Jesus.

00:38:53.060 But they did hate Jesus.

00:38:56.060 They did.

00:38:58.460 You can be in a place and time

00:39:01.040 in a context that is very outwardly

00:39:05.120 pro-Jesus.

00:39:07.100 A culture that is embracing of Jesus.

00:39:11.000 And therefore,

00:39:12.180 you may not be incentivized

00:39:14.000 to express a hatred of Jesus. 0.51

00:39:16.780 But if you're not a Christian, if you have not been caused by God supernaturally to go from 0.85

00:39:23.760 death to life, from the old man to the new man, a heart of stone to a heart of flesh, then you do 0.91

00:39:30.440 hate Jesus. You do. Now, I'm not trying to pick on anybody, but I thought about this in preparation,

00:39:37.960 and I just think that the illustration helps to make the point more clear. Okay, so I'm going to

00:39:43.360 use an individual as an example, okay? I'm not trying to be particularly rude to this individual,

00:39:49.240 but I think that it makes the point very clear. It's a well-known individual. That's why I'm using

00:39:53.720 them, because if I use someone obscure, then nobody would know, and the point would fall

00:39:57.600 in deaf ears. Ben Shapiro. Ben Shapiro is not at least regularly. He has said a thing or two,

00:40:05.500 but at least regularly. It would not be fair to say on a regular daily basis or weekly basis,

00:40:11.300 he's saying blatantly antagonistic, hostile things about Jesus. I hate Jesus. Jesus is, 0.97

00:40:20.000 you know, the son of a W-H-O-R-E. You know, this, that, and the other. Jesus is currently burning 1.00

00:40:28.520 in hell. He's a false prophet. I hate him. Okay. Ben Shapiro is not saying that, as I just stated, 0.97

00:40:35.440 on a regular basis.

00:40:37.840 But could there be any reasons why?

00:40:41.480 Could it be perhaps that

00:40:42.960 he's living in a Christian nation?

00:40:45.880 Nominally Christian, albeit,

00:40:47.380 but still a Christian Western nation?

00:40:49.920 That in a generic sense,

00:40:52.520 in a general sense,

00:40:53.900 is pretty pro-Jesus?

00:40:58.760 What tangible benefits

00:41:02.520 in America,

00:41:03.960 even in the year of our Lord,

00:41:05.280 2025 with as much as much compromise and degeneracy as our nation is currently steeped in

00:41:14.580 even now even now what tangible benefits to somebody garner for themselves by being hostile

00:41:23.180 visibly audibly verbally against Jesus I mean think about this even the progressives who we know

00:41:33.280 hate Jesus. They still don't say it out loud, right? Don't they still take time to do triple

00:41:39.860 axle, you know, aerials, you know, in midair, jumping through 17 different hoops in order to 0.91

00:41:45.420 argue, well, the reason why you need to trans your kids is it's actually really pro-Jesus. 0.59

00:41:51.300 Why? Why take all that time to make some kind of argument for, well, actually the will of Jesus 0.96

00:41:58.100 is that you don't have a country because you let millions and millions of people from the third 1.00

00:42:02.120 world in. Actually, the will of Jesus is that you embrace every sodomite you've ever seen. 1.00

00:42:07.020 Actually, the will of Jesus is that you have drag queen story hour. I mean, that's a lot of effort. 1.00

00:42:13.660 Right? I mean, it's hard for me to say, well, actually, two plus two equals 47.

00:42:18.760 Right? It's a lot easier just to say two plus two is four. Why do that? Because America is still a

00:42:24.640 Christian nation. That's why. It is. Perhaps Christian in name only. I'm willing to admit that. 1.00

00:42:32.120 But you still stand to benefit by speaking positively of Christ.

00:42:38.200 Even if it's twisted speaking, deceitful speaking, insincere speaking.

00:42:45.540 Everyone knows that it does not serve any tangible goals

00:42:51.360 to stand up on a pedestal and say out loud,

00:42:55.640 I'm trying to trans all the youth 1.00

00:42:58.480 and facilitate a full invasion from the third world 0.99

00:43:02.520 because I hate Jesus and I hate America. 0.70

00:43:09.880 Everyone knows that's a bad campaign, right?

00:43:12.660 Everybody knows, I don't think that's going to win an election.

00:43:18.500 That ain't going to work.

00:43:19.820 That dog won't hunt.

00:43:21.560 So instead, what you have to say is,

00:43:22.860 it's actually because I'm really, really, really pro-America.

00:43:25.840 and everyone knows what's best for America

00:43:28.900 is millions of Somalians, right?

00:43:33.060 And it's actually that I'm really, really pro-Jesus.

00:43:35.520 And everybody knows that Jesus

00:43:37.440 really, really loves the trans community, right? 1.00

00:43:41.940 They still take the time

00:43:43.360 to use that kind of rhetoric

00:43:46.340 because there is a tangible benefit.

00:43:50.960 So my point is this.

00:43:52.720 If you're tempted to think of some person

00:43:55.100 that you think might be an example of the exception. 0.99

00:43:58.400 Well, this guy's not a Christian. 0.63

00:44:00.980 This guy is an atheist,

00:44:03.160 but he doesn't seem like he hates Jesus. 0.54

00:44:06.300 Or this guy, you know, he's not a Christian.

00:44:08.520 This guy is an Orthodox Jew,

00:44:10.820 but he doesn't seem like he hates Jesus.

00:44:13.020 Or this guy, you know, he's a Muslim,

00:44:15.180 but he doesn't seem like he hates Jesus.

00:44:18.300 Well, consider the context.

00:44:21.240 Where is he?

00:44:23.780 Oh, he's here? 0.77

00:44:25.100 In a country that since its founding has been shaped by Christian thought?

00:44:31.000 Oh, well that's why he doesn't say out loud that he hates Jesus.

00:44:36.120 But if he's not submitted to Christ as a Christian, then rest assured, he does hate Jesus. 0.63

00:44:46.060 So, what does it require for salvation? 0.93

00:44:50.520 Simple faith, elementary faith, incomplete faith,

00:44:55.940 faith even in the midst of doubts,

00:44:58.380 small faith, half faith, but true faith.

00:45:03.540 True faith to believe what?

00:45:05.660 Every tenet of Bovink's systematic theology?

00:45:08.920 That'd be great, right?

00:45:10.580 Maybe work up to that.

00:45:12.540 But as a prerequisite for salvation,

00:45:15.960 this saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance.

00:45:20.120 Do you believe that Christ came into the world?

00:45:22.760 That he came to save sinners?

00:45:25.240 And this group that he saves, namely sinners, that you're one of them.

00:45:32.360 That you were once hostile towards Jesus.

00:45:35.320 Even if you never expressed it out loud.

00:45:38.320 That you once were hostile towards the law of God.

00:45:41.740 That you once, like Paul, hated the church of Jesus Christ.

00:45:46.360 even if Jesus saved you as a five-year-old child on the pew can you at least still admit

00:45:54.360 that when you were a four-year-old child on the pew you despised going to church you thought it

00:46:00.220 was boring you did not love Jesus whether it's a four-year-old hatred of Jesus whether it's a

00:46:08.500 34-year-old hatred of Jesus whether it's the hatred of Jesus of the Islamic variety or the

00:46:14.620 Jewish variety or the libertarian atheist variety. All of us, myself included, were once enemies of

00:46:25.000 God. The scripture says, but God showed his love for us in this, while we were yet sinners, Christ

00:46:33.760 died for us. We were his enemies, not just ignorant, not just indifferent, not just neutral, hostile,

00:46:42.780 but Christ came into the world to save sinners these people in Gennesaret they knew that Jesus

00:46:52.820 could heal the sick and they knew that they were sick and so they came to Christ and he did not

00:47:02.000 turn them away we know that Jesus not only heals the sick but that Jesus saves sinners and we know

00:47:12.260 that we are not merely sick, but sick with sin. And so will we come to Christ? If so,

00:47:21.740 then we can trust He will receive us, He will forgive us, and He will save us. Second, the

00:47:30.180 healing effected by the mere touch of Christ's garment teaches us that the power of Christ

00:47:34.960 is not confined to outward means. Notice how Jesus heals. We've looked at the what,

00:47:40.920 we've looked at the who. Now let's look at the means. How does Jesus heal in this instance?

00:47:46.680 There are many instances of Jesus' miraculous healings throughout the gospel narratives.

00:47:51.740 But notice that in every single case, the means by which he heals is always an ordinary,

00:47:59.860 simple means. He heals by his word. He simply gives the word and it's done. Or he heals by

00:48:08.800 a garment. A really special Roman Catholic garment that was seamed, you know, four million years

00:48:15.300 previously by this saint in a cape. Nope, just a garment. Just a garment. He heals by word. He heals

00:48:23.360 by garments. He heals even by spitting in the dirt and making mud. Really, really special mud. Nope,

00:48:29.900 just mud. In every case, the power of Christ comes to those who need it most, who trust in him

00:48:37.620 through ordinary means.

00:48:40.860 And this has application and relevance for us also.

00:48:45.500 The healing affected by mere touch of Christ's garment

00:48:48.380 teaches us that the power of Christ

00:48:50.420 is not confined to outward extraordinary means,

00:48:54.420 nor is it dependent upon the dignity of visible signs.

00:48:58.420 The virtue flowed not from the fringe itself,

00:49:03.100 but from the person of Christ

00:49:05.260 who uses even the least and simplest things to convey His grace.

00:49:10.000 In this, we are instructed to lift our minds above the sign

00:49:15.000 to the Lord Himself who sanctifies it.

00:49:18.440 For the true touch that brings healing

00:49:20.560 and the true touch that brings salvation

00:49:23.480 is the touch of faith by which we apprehend Christ

00:49:27.980 as He is offered to us in the Word and sacraments.

00:49:32.860 What are the ordinary?

00:49:35.740 Sometimes we wish that it was more extraordinary

00:49:38.040 because then it might be, I don't know,

00:49:42.040 in our finitude it might seem to us more convincing,

00:49:45.340 more sure, more promising.

00:49:48.660 But the reason why extraordinary means of grace

00:49:53.480 would seem to us more sure, more certain, more secure

00:49:57.140 is because we would be putting at least some degree of our faith

00:50:01.580 in the means of grace themselves

00:50:04.040 rather than the grace,

00:50:07.000 the person, Jesus Christ.

00:50:09.880 So what are the ordinary means of grace

00:50:12.080 for the New Testament church

00:50:13.780 by which God, through Christ,

00:50:16.620 forgives sin, strengthens the church,

00:50:20.840 bolsters our faith?

00:50:23.620 It's bread, it's wine, it's water,

00:50:27.140 it's word, and in His Word,

00:50:31.580 It's the exposition of his word, which is found in preaching.

00:50:36.540 And notice that even this means of grace, namely the preaching of Christ's word.

00:50:41.420 What does the Apostle Paul say elsewhere about preaching?

00:50:45.160 He calls it the foolishness of preaching.

00:50:49.780 That God is pleased to save sinners even through the foolishness of preaching.

00:50:55.780 and it's true although it's certainly not flattering to myself since i happen to be the

00:51:02.320 one currently preaching but it is exceedingly true and i can tell you as a preacher that there

00:51:08.720 is a foolishness of preaching it is foolish it is absolutely absurd to think that what i'm doing

00:51:18.060 right now would have eternal ramifications that what i'm doing knowing that i am a sinner

00:51:25.200 the foremost of sinners that by simply standing behind a stack of wood and opening a book

00:51:34.000 and giving meaning and application for the words on a page out loud that this somehow

00:51:41.520 would save souls dangling over the flames of hell and usher them into the bliss and glory

00:51:49.820 of heavenly life. 1.00

00:51:52.740 It's foolish. 0.99

00:51:54.820 And yet it's true. 0.99

00:51:57.540 God is pleased to save.

00:51:59.900 He saves who?

00:52:01.160 Sinners.

00:52:03.640 What is this salvation?

00:52:05.580 Grace.

00:52:07.480 But how does he save?

00:52:10.580 He saves in ordinary ways.

00:52:14.520 Through ordinary means.

00:52:17.320 he saves with water really special water right water that we go behind this curtain me and the

00:52:26.700 elders and we say incantations and and if we mispronounce the words then it doesn't work

00:52:32.440 no just water holy water water wine well what kind of wine i mean did you did you purchase it

00:52:43.760 from Italy? Is it even good wine? No, I regret to tell you it is the cheapest of wines used here

00:52:50.640 at Covenant Bible Church. I don't know where it was made. I don't feel like a lot of effort was

00:52:57.500 put into it. I've got to shoot you straight. Water. Ordinary water. Usually cold, uncomfortable

00:53:06.880 water wine cheap wine bread cheap bread word infallible word preaching foolish preaching

00:53:21.800 but of the infallible word and you put all those things together and what do you get

00:53:29.580 eternal souls saved from hell and ushered in to the glory of god

00:53:35.260 ordinary means extraordinary salvation and why these aren't the means that we selected i wouldn't

00:53:46.320 have selected them right in a million years if i was sitting and contemplating i'm going to start

00:53:51.520 a religion and there's going to be mechanisms avenues means of salvation i would never think

00:53:59.720 and they will be water, wine, bread, and a book.

00:54:05.580 I wouldn't.

00:54:07.800 And you can look at all the different religions

00:54:10.260 that we know were created by man, 1.00

00:54:14.040 false religions, 1.00

00:54:15.260 and their means are pretty extraordinary. 1.00

00:54:17.980 Whether it's a black box in the Middle East

00:54:20.320 where everyone's gathered and circled around 0.58

00:54:22.580 and peering into it,

00:54:23.980 or whether it's some shriveled up old foot

00:54:27.820 that they splash in water and everybody gets a little little drop right i mean there are multiple

00:54:33.560 different different religions with different you know hocus pocus special mystical means

00:54:41.100 but the christian faith the true christian faith god saves extraordinarily but through simple

00:54:50.400 ordinary means and the reason why we know that these means were selected chosen by god and not

00:54:57.800 by man as one. They're simple. But if we were to beg the question a little bit, why would God

00:55:03.360 choose for the true religion in the worship and salvation of people as we worship the true

00:55:09.820 triune God, why would he select such ordinary means? Well, I think the answer to that is

00:55:15.920 something that's quite simple. And I think we can all agree, we can all assume, why would the true

00:55:22.180 God select for himself for true salvation such simple ordinary means so that our faith would be

00:55:31.960 in him and not the means so that he would get the glory and not the robes and tassels and not the

00:55:40.060 candles and not the incense and not the special wine that's flown in from Italy not just him

00:55:48.440 that He would get the credit.

00:55:51.020 He would get the glory.

00:55:52.160 That He would be viewed by His people

00:55:54.880 as the true author and finisher of our faith.

00:55:58.900 As the giver of life.

00:56:01.360 As the Savior of our souls.

00:56:04.660 God is jealous.

00:56:06.520 His name is jealous.

00:56:08.300 He is jealous for His glory.

00:56:10.120 He will not share it with any man.

00:56:12.000 And He will not share it with any wine

00:56:13.780 or any bread or any water.

00:56:15.180 he alone gets the glory because he alone does the work of salvation lastly we see in this

00:56:25.440 universal healing all who came were healed a testimony to the boundless mercy of our savior

00:56:31.640 none were rejected none were turned away all who approached jesus and touched his simple garment

00:56:37.440 were made well. So it is even to this day with the malady of sin. If we come to Jesus truly,

00:56:45.500 humbly confessing our need, he does not turn us away, but cleanses us completely. I'm reminded

00:56:52.760 of Matthew chapter 11 that we saw in weeks prior. Verse 28 that says, come to me. This is Jesus

00:56:59.060 speaking to the crowds. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

00:57:06.240 but again all the way back to the first point of the sermon today you must ask the question

00:57:12.840 rest from what you must come you must come to him that is christ but you must be desiring for him

00:57:22.440 to give you rest for what i'm just so busy right now you can pray that god would give you literal

00:57:29.840 rest i mean the psalms even say that he gives sleep to those he loves so i'm not saying that

00:57:34.880 We can't pray and ask for God to make physical provision,

00:57:38.640 to provide physical rest, to provide physical healing,

00:57:42.700 a physical residence, somewhere to live, shelter, all these things.

00:57:46.500 That's permissible and even commendable because God tells us to ask.

00:57:50.500 But the chief thing that we seek Christ for is forgiveness of sin

00:57:56.860 and rest from sin.

00:58:00.560 And further, we might say, rest from the guilt of sin.

00:58:04.880 Rest from condemnation.

00:58:07.900 Rest from God's judgment.

00:58:10.640 Rest from the punishment we know we deserve.

00:58:15.920 Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden.

00:58:19.040 That is all who are weary of sin.

00:58:22.220 Again, the prerequisite for salvation

00:58:25.000 is to trust and believe that Jesus came into the world,

00:58:29.360 that He came to save sinners,

00:58:31.240 and that you and I are a sinner.

00:58:34.880 when is the last time that you were weary and that you rooted the cause of your weariness

00:58:43.040 in your sin when was the last time that you were heavy laden that you were stressed and rather

00:58:51.460 than thinking well i merely need my circumstances to be better and my stress will go away i merely

00:58:58.720 need this to happen this outward external thing and all of a sudden i want to be so tired i

00:59:04.820 I wouldn't be so heavy laden.

00:59:06.120 I wouldn't be so weary.

00:59:07.460 When's the last time when you were wrestling,

00:59:10.000 when you were struggling,

00:59:11.240 when you were weary,

00:59:12.300 when you were tired,

00:59:13.420 you thought to yourself

00:59:14.740 and you said to your God,

00:59:16.220 my chief problem is my sin.

00:59:20.880 I need rest from my sin.

00:59:23.700 I'm weary from my sin.

00:59:26.160 I am tired because of my sin.

00:59:30.360 My chief problem.

00:59:32.820 My chief adversary.

00:59:34.820 is my sin.

00:59:37.420 God, forgive me.

00:59:39.820 Cleanse me.

00:59:41.480 Change me.

00:59:43.320 Cause me to sin less.

00:59:46.060 Grant me repentance

00:59:47.320 that I might turn from my sin

00:59:49.640 and turn in faith to Jesus.

00:59:55.360 I've said this before.

00:59:56.640 I'll say it again.

00:59:57.380 When we think of heaven and the life to come,

00:59:59.380 there are many things.

01:00:01.200 We started this whole text by saying

01:00:03.500 that we saw in Jesus healing

01:00:06.560 all these people who were sick

01:00:08.140 and coming to Him.

01:00:09.080 We saw both the sufficiency of Christ

01:00:11.460 but also the misery of mankind.

01:00:14.460 There are many miseries in this life

01:00:16.940 because the world has fallen

01:00:19.440 under the curse of sin.

01:00:21.200 Sin entered the world

01:00:22.120 and through sin, death.

01:00:23.820 Death being one of the chief miseries

01:00:25.920 of this life.

01:00:27.040 There are many earthly miseries.

01:00:29.620 The death of loved ones,

01:00:31.260 the sickness of children,

01:00:33.500 The difficulty of work, the difficulty of the cost of living, even if you work hard.

01:00:41.440 There are many earthly miseries.

01:00:44.580 And we can think to the life to come, the heavenly life, and long to be free of death.

01:00:51.920 To be rejoined, reunited with loved ones who have passed away.

01:00:56.280 to be done with no more sickness,

01:00:59.380 no more fatigue, no more hunger,

01:01:02.660 no more work, at least a work that is cursed

01:01:05.500 where the ground works against us.

01:01:08.920 And all of these are good things to long for.

01:01:12.660 But our greatest longing

01:01:14.340 in terms of things that we wish to be free of,

01:01:18.320 miseries that we wish to be finished,

01:01:21.820 the greatest thing that we should wish to be free of,

01:01:24.760 The greatest misery that we should wish to be done away with is the misery of sin.

01:01:32.360 The misery of sin.

01:01:35.480 I cannot wait to be free of sin. 1.00

01:01:40.180 And not just the Jews' sin. 1.00

01:01:42.840 Not just Muslims' sin. 0.99

01:01:45.340 Not just atheists' sin. 0.62

01:01:47.760 Or James Lindsay's sin.

01:01:48.800 I can't wait to be free of James Lindsay's sin.

01:01:50.340 But most importantly, I can't wait to be free of my sin.

01:01:56.040 No one's sin causes me more trouble than my own.

01:02:01.280 And that's not to say that the world is not filled with other people's sin.

01:02:04.860 And it's not to say that other people's sin don't have real serious consequences because they do.

01:02:10.460 And I would like to be free of that sin also.

01:02:13.080 I would like to be free of that sin in the life to come when Jesus does away with it once and for all.

01:02:18.780 I'd also like to be free of at least some of the earthly consequences of other people's sin

01:02:24.780 in this life before Jesus' final physical return through some decent policies.

01:02:31.440 You can actually have people who have sinned, but let them sin 3,000 miles away, right?

01:02:38.960 That's called the great solution of salvation, deportation. 0.76

01:02:44.760 Powerful, and I would say thoroughly Christian. 0.85

01:02:48.640 But, most of all, my sin. 1.00

01:02:55.140 Here's the deal.

01:02:55.980 It's got to be both.

01:02:58.200 It's got to be both.

01:02:59.860 You've heard me say this.

01:03:00.800 I'm saying it again.

01:03:02.440 We cannot be suicidal.

01:03:05.900 Here in the West, it's just my sin.

01:03:09.080 And everyone's the same.

01:03:10.880 Everyone's sin is equal.

01:03:12.580 And everyone gets to live here.

01:03:13.920 And everyone can do what they want.

01:03:15.580 And one day, Jesus will fix it all.

01:03:17.660 No. If you do that, if you give way to that kind of cultural, political apathy,

01:03:25.580 then your children are doomed. And you are a terrible father and a terrible mother. 0.94

01:03:33.220 You are. You need to feel that in your bones. God is angry with you. And your children will 1.00

01:03:39.680 rise up and not call you blessed. They will call you cursed. Because like Esau, you sold their

01:03:44.980 inheritance for a bowl of soup. In this case, maybe it was curry soup and H-1B visas. 0.89

01:03:53.580 You're a terrible person. Shame on you. And also, you're a sinner. And your kid's greatest threat, 1.00

01:04:04.700 even greater than mass immigration, all that, is you being an angry father. You not loving their

01:04:10.600 mother with every fiber of your being as Christ loved the church? You not leading the way with

01:04:15.920 humility and repentance and grace? In other words, it's all the above. In other words, it's a tall

01:04:25.260 order. In other words, the Christian life, maybe John Bunyan got it right. Maybe it is really hard. 1.00

01:04:31.220 It's everything. It's fighting for civilization. It's being engaged politically and culturally,

01:04:37.440 but it's also the deep spiritual truths.

01:04:40.240 It's also humility and repentance and faith.

01:04:43.380 It's mercy and intolerance

01:04:45.560 and knowing with wisdom and discernment

01:04:48.140 when is the proper time for which.

01:04:51.900 It's not going to be easy.

01:04:54.540 The mess that we have gotten ourselves into

01:04:57.500 both individually as sinners and a nation

01:05:00.580 filled with sinners

01:05:01.820 is a mess that has been in the making

01:05:04.080 for quite some time.

01:05:05.360 and with big messes accrued over long periods of time you do not solve those

01:05:12.160 messes in a day it's going to be a lot of work

01:05:16.720 personal work individual work collectivist work also

01:05:22.960 both are true when you stand before god you will stand before god alone you will not be able

01:05:31.220 to vouch for yourself by your parents

01:05:34.000 or by your ethnic group or religious group

01:05:36.800 or political affiliation,

01:05:39.140 individual judgment before God.

01:05:41.400 And also in earthly temporal life,

01:05:44.280 there's such a thing as groups.

01:05:46.940 And every single group in the world

01:05:49.140 thinks of themselves as a group, 0.99

01:05:50.760 except for one, Christians,

01:05:54.620 particularly European Christians.

01:05:57.720 Everybody else thinks of themselves as a group.

01:05:59.780 You know that, right?

01:06:01.220 everybody else ilhan omar is thinking in a group mentality she's like i am leading for what's good

01:06:08.900 for somalia i mean america she says it out loud all the time she's not thinking my fellow americans

01:06:18.520 of every stripe and color whatever you know no one group my group and i serve their benefit

01:06:28.580 Everybody else, one group, my group, and I serve their benefit.

01:06:34.060 The only people who don't think like this, Western Christians, particularly white Christians.

01:06:43.380 That's it. 0.91

01:06:45.020 You're the only people who don't think like this, and that's why you're losing.

01:06:50.740 And I will say this, historically speaking. 0.99

01:06:53.080 when you look at nations that are minority white that minority is not treated with benevolence

01:07:00.840 when you look at nations that are majority european the minorities are treated with much

01:07:06.520 more kindness and so as a christian who cares more about religion than i care about color or

01:07:13.920 ethnicity i care more about christ and christianity but it's because of my christianity

01:07:19.540 that I want a benevolent society and I know statistically speaking and historically speaking

01:07:27.560 if America remains predominantly majority European it has a higher likelihood of being

01:07:35.980 kind and benevolent to everyone else so I want that I want that for my children I want that for

01:07:45.000 your children because it is a net positive and that's just the history read a book you will find

01:07:52.140 that what i said is true so i desire this because i'm a christian first and foremost and as a

01:07:58.760 christian i love people and i want their good all of this is true also our sermon today

01:08:07.680 I'm a sinner and if I save the West what is a profit a man if he gains the whole world

01:08:16.840 but forfeits his soul you can fight for Western civilization and God bless you for it

01:08:22.920 you can fight to restore America and God bless you for it you can have courage political and

01:08:29.840 cultural courage to say the things that people don't want to hear and to be called a bigot and

01:08:35.860 a racist and a homophobe and everything else and god bless you but you can do all that and go to 0.72

01:08:42.900 hell you can do all that and always think that the problem is someone somewhere else 0.99

01:08:49.880 but forget that this saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that christ

01:08:57.820 came to save sinners of which i am the foremost true christian faith historic christian faith

01:09:05.260 in the West, throughout Christendom, in Europe, held both of these in tandem. They understood that

01:09:11.780 Western civilization was different, that it was worth preserving. They thought in groups,

01:09:18.920 and also they thought as individuals. My sin, I will have to stand before God one day, and Christ

01:09:25.980 is my only hope. My sin, needing my salvation and civilization, and caring for that as well.

01:09:35.260 it's all the above we must learn to walk and chew gum at the same time no one will enter the kingdom

01:09:42.600 of heaven without vigilance or as the scripture says since the beginning the kingdom of heaven

01:09:47.700 has suffered violence and the violent will take it by force meaning apathy will not work you must

01:09:55.680 be diligent you must press in you must press in let's pray father thank you for your word i pray

01:10:02.540 that you would bless it to your people that we'd be strengthened and encouraged by it we pray all

01:10:07.220 this for your glory I pray Lord that we would be reminded first and foremost every day that we are

01:10:13.800 sinners that we are sinners and that we need your mercy and your kindness Lord I pray that we would

01:10:22.000 not lose the heart of the Christian faith which is the gospel for sinners of which we are the

01:10:28.520 foremost. But Lord, I also pray that we would not truncate the Christian faith and narrow it

01:10:34.820 with such simplicity that we only care for the life to come while this temporal world around us

01:10:42.160 perishes, leaving no hope or future for our children. Help us, Lord, this church to be a wise

01:10:49.460 and discerning and mature church, able to articulate all these truths with grace, but also

01:10:56.580 courage, no matter the cost. We pray this for your glory. In Jesus' name, amen.

The NXR Podcast - November 30, 2025

THE SERMON - Christ Came To Save Sinners ｜ Matthew 14_34-36

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