NXR Podcast - THE SERMON - Christ Came To Save Sinners | Matthew 14:34-36
Aired: 2025-11-30
Duration: 01:11:02


=== Little Faith and the Celestial City (12:52) ===

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[00:00:27]  This morning, we're continuing our sermon series through the gospel according to Matthew.
[00:00:30]  Our text for today is Matthew chapter 14, verses 34. 35 and 36.
[00:00:36]  Again, that's the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 14, verses 34, 35, and 36.
[00:00:41]  I'll read our text for us in its entirety.
[00:00:43]  When I finish reading the text, I'm going to say, This is the word of the Lord, at which point I would appreciate very much if you would respond by saying, Thanks be to God.
[00:00:51]  One final time, our text for today is the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 14, verses 34, 35, and 36.
[00:00:59]  The Bible says this When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret.
[00:01:04]  And when the men of that place recognized him, they sent around to all that region and brought to him all who were sick and implored him that they might only touch the fringe of his garment.
[00:01:18]  And as many as touched it were made well.
[00:01:21]  This is the word of the Lord.
[00:01:24]  All right, please be seated.
[00:01:25]  We'll go ahead and dive right in.
[00:01:27]  Three points that I believe are emphasized by these three short verses in our text today.
[00:01:34]  The three points are as follows Number one, Christ came into the world to save sinners.
[00:01:40]  In our text, we see him healing the sick.
[00:01:43]  But this is a symbol and a sign that he is the great divine physician, that he heals more than just our physical maladies, but he actually heals the problem of sin by his atonement, by his forgiveness.
[00:01:58]  Christ came into the world to save sinners.
[00:02:01]  Secondly, we see in the text today a symbol, another sign, that Christ's means of grace are ordinary.
[00:02:09]  We have within the Reformed tradition the understanding of the ordinary means of grace.
[00:02:15]  That God gives to us, to his people, grace, but not through extraordinary means, but ordinary means.
[00:02:23]  And I'll flesh out what I mean by that when we come to that point in the text.
[00:02:27]  Third, lastly, we see that there's a universal aspect of Christ's healing.
[00:02:33]  Not universal, meaning each and every individual that ever was sick, but universal in the sense that all who came to him.
[00:02:41]  Were healed, all who came to him.
[00:02:44]  And that is the condition.
[00:02:45]  The condition is that we come.
[00:02:47]  And so we'll see that as well that Christ does not reject or turn away any who come to him, but universally heals all who come.
[00:02:58]  So Christ came into the world to save sinners, number one.
[00:03:01]  Number two, Christ's means of grace are ordinary.
[00:03:05]  Number three, come to me, all who are weary.
[00:03:09]  Christ gives a universal promise.
[00:03:11]  To heal and to give rest to all with one condition, the condition being that we come.
[00:03:18]  By way of introduction, I've written this in your sermon notes.
[00:03:21]  If you have them, feel free to follow along.
[00:03:24]  In this passage, we are confronted with a striking picture of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:03:30]  When the boat lands at Gennesaret, the people, having recognized Jesus, bring forth their sick with great haste, begging only that they might touch the fringe of his garment.
[00:03:41]  And we see that as many as touched it were made well.
[00:03:45]  Here, therefore, we behold both the misery of mankind and the sufficiency and willingness of Christ to remedy all our many miseries.
[00:03:56]  Mankind is indeed miserable, afflicted by many ailments, but most importantly, afflicted by guilt of sin, condemnation, the wrath of God.
[00:04:08]  And yet we see that Jesus, once again, heals, remedies all who come to him.
[00:04:16]  Now, the first point in your notes, I've written this.
[00:04:19]  First, we must observe the eagerness with which the people run to Christ.
[00:04:24]  Though their knowledge of Christ was elementary, and this is key.
[00:04:28]  They have a very primitive, basic, elementary knowledge of Christ.
[00:04:33]  And yet, seeking chiefly, in their case, the healing of the body, for many, that's all they knew that Christ could provide.
[00:04:40]  Nevertheless, they discerned in him, in Jesus, that he possessed a power that could not be found among men, that he was unique.
[00:04:50]  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]  The fullness of salvation and forgiveness of sins.
[00:05:06]  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]  That is the condition.
[00:05:14]  But that faith oftentimes is a simple faith, and simple faith will not be rejected.
[00:05:21]  Little faith will not be rejected.
[00:05:24]  I think of the man who approaches Jesus asking for healing, and Jesus asks him, Do you believe?
[00:05:31]  And he responds by saying, I believe.
[00:05:33]  Lord, help my unbelief.
[00:05:35]  Right, so there was a part of him that believed, there's a part of him that doesn't believe.
[00:05:39]  We could argue on that basis that his belief was partial, his belief was incomplete, he had half faith, and yet he received a whole miracle.
[00:05:51]  A whole miracle 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]  Is your faith be it small or be it simple?
[00:06:02]  Is your faith in Jesus, the crowds that are coming to him?
[00:06:06]  In this region, they are coming to him with a very elementary understanding.
[00:06:11]  There's nothing in the text for us to assume that they understood Jesus in his true divinity, that they understood Jesus to be the Son of God, that they understood Jesus to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
[00:06:25]  There's nothing in our text that explicitly suggests that they had a robust understanding of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone.
[00:06:36]  We don't see any of that.
[00:06:37]  All we know for sure from our text today is that these people understood that Jesus had the power to heal.
[00:06:46]  And so they flocked to him.
[00:06:48]  They did not waste any time.
[00:06:50]  They ran to Christ to do for them exactly what they knew he was able to do, what they had faith for him to do.
[00:06:59]  In their case, it was physical healing.
[00:07:02]  And I think of us as New Testament Christians, there are many, many cases, many such cases, as the kids would say.
[00:07:10]  Where there are people who are very, very, very new to the Christian religion.
[00:07:16]  They have a very elementary understanding of Christian doctrine.
[00:07:20]  There are many things that they do not understand.
[00:07:23]  But they know one thing they know that Christ offers forgiveness for sin.
[00:07:29]  And they know that they are sinners.
[00:07:31]  And they know that they wrestle under guilt and condemnation for their sin.
[00:07:36]  And that that guilt and condemnation, they trust, they have faith that it can be alleviated.
[00:07:43]  That it can be cured in Christ who offers forgiveness of sins.
[00:07:49]  Is this sufficient for salvation?
[00:07:52]  The answer is yes.
[00:07:54]  Little faith is sufficient for salvation.
[00:07:57]  Incomplete faith is sufficient for salvation.
[00:08:01]  Simple, elementary faith is sufficient for salvation.
[00:08:07]  Again, it is not the size of our faith that saves, but rather the object of our faith that saves.
[00:08:14]  Faith does not save you.
[00:08:16]  Jesus saves you.
[00:08:18]  And he saves you by his grace, which is received through faith as an instrument.
[00:08:24]  Faith is a means.
[00:08:26]  It's the channel, the avenue, the instrument.
[00:08:28]  It's the empty hand, as the Reformers argued, that lays hold of the grace of God, and that grace is in Christ.
[00:08:36]  So Christ is the one who saves us.
[00:08:39]  Our faith does not save us, our Savior saves us.
[00:08:43]  And faith is the avenue or the instrument that lays hold of the gracious salvation that Christ alone offers.
[00:08:52]  Faith can be incomplete, faith can be simple, faith can be small.
[00:08:57]  But if it's true faith, That has its object as Christ and Christ alone, then it is a potent faith.
[00:09:06]  It is a powerful faith.
[00:09:08]  It is a sufficient and effective faith for salvation.
[00:09:12]  You've heard me quote from Pilgrim's Progress, written by John Bunyan many times, but I'm going to do it once more.
[00:09:19]  There is a character in the second edition, right?
[00:09:22]  Everyone's familiar with the first Pilgrim's Progress, the lead protagonist being Christian, right?
[00:09:27]  And Christian's on his way to the celestial city and Ultimately, what John Bunyan is doing, the author is painting a picture of, in his mind, the normative Christian life.
[00:09:37]  And I say in his mind, not to say that he's wrong, but to say that probably all of us are wrong and he's right.
[00:09:44]  Because when he thinks of the normative Christian life, he thinks that it's a life of constant trial and tribulation and difficulty that requires perseverance, determination, and vigilance.
[00:09:56]  And for many modern Christians today, we think that we're somehow going to just coast in.
[00:10:02]  To the celestial city, just coast in to paradise, that it's somehow going to be easy.
[00:10:08]  Although Jesus literally promised us that we would have enemies in this life, that if the world hated him, the world would hate us also, that we would have adversaries, that we would face all kinds of challenges and opposition.
[00:10:21]  John Bunyan gets this right.
[00:10:23]  Many modern Christians get this wrong.
[00:10:25]  Yet, even in the conception of the Christian life, again in his mind, the normative Christian life, John Bunyan still leaves room for those who have little faith.
[00:10:37]  And those who have little faith still ultimately, by the grace of God, make it into the life to come, into the heavenly abode, into the celestial city.
[00:10:46]  And we see this in his second book, Pilgrim's Progress, the second edition.
[00:10:51]  The first being the individual normative Christian life.
[00:10:55]  Christian, and he has a few sidekicks along the way.
[00:10:58]  Hopeful is one of them, faithful is one of them.
[00:11:02]  But in his second book, John Bunyan's second book, Pilgrim's Progress, we now see a corporate picture of the Christian life, the Christian journey.
[00:11:10]  To the celestial city.
[00:11:11]  No longer just one individual who perhaps has a friend along the way going to heaven together, but we see in the second Pilgrim's Progress a corporate, ecclesiastical, church wide journey.
[00:11:25]  We see Christian, his wife now, Christiana, and their four sons, and they are joined by a great company.
[00:11:32]  You have Great Heart, who's kind of leading the way.
[00:11:35]  He's a powerful warrior for the Christian faith who is helping them along the way and ends up slaying one of the giants.
[00:11:42]  Who is antagonizing and oppressing Christians on their way to the celestial city?
[00:11:47]  So, they pick up members of their company who are strong in the Christian faith, like Mr. Greatheart.
[00:11:54]  But they also pick up a great deal of members of their company who are weak.
[00:11:59]  There is one called Mr. Ready to Halt.
[00:12:02]  There is one who is called Feeble Minded.
[00:12:05]  John Bunyan doesn't really understand the concept of subtlety, it's very on the nose.
[00:12:11]  When he names his characters, you know exactly who they are.
[00:12:15]  And so, Feeble Minded, Ready to Halt, and another one is named Little Faith.
[00:12:20]  And there's a certain point in the story.
[00:12:22]  Where one of the characters is arguing with another whether or not Little Faith will ultimately make it throughout the entire journey to the celestial city, whether or not he actually has the grit that is necessary, the vigilance that's necessary in order to make it into the kingdom of heaven, or whether or not he will perish along the way.
[00:12:44]  And another character who is arguing with him, who's pro Little Faith, he says, Well, wait a second, remember his name.

=== Grace Is a Gift of Faith (09:09) ===

[00:12:52]  His name is Little Faith.
[00:12:54]  His name is not No Faith.
[00:12:56]  But little faith.
[00:12:58]  And this is what Jesus explicitly taught in the gospel narratives.
[00:13:02]  We remember that Jesus says, if you have faith as of a mustard seed, you can move mountains.
[00:13:10]  So it's not as though we need to somehow conjure up faith within ourselves, as though faith was a work of man, and that we somehow have to manufacture a great deal of faith, the size of a mountain, that we might somehow move mustard seeds.
[00:13:27]  No, it's precisely the opposite.
[00:13:29]  That if we have a small amount of faith, a mustard seed amount of faith, that faith, by the grace of God, can actually move mountains, including the mountain of your sin that stands between you and a thrice holy God.
[00:13:45]  It is not, again, the size of your faith that ultimately determines whether or not you will inherit eternal life, but rather it is the quality of faith, it is the purity of faith.
[00:13:58]  And to have faith that is pure, Faith that is true, true salvific faith, is to receive the faith that comes from God as a gift.
[00:14:09]  God saves us by His grace, which is a gift.
[00:14:13]  That grace, which is a gift, is laid hold of by faith, which is also a gift.
[00:14:20]  This is what Ephesians teaches.
[00:14:22]  Ephesians says that we're saved by grace through faith, and this is a gift of God, not a result of works, human works, so that no man may boast.
[00:14:34]  But rather, it's a result of God's gift.
[00:14:37]  Right?
[00:14:38]  Saved by grace through faith, and this is a gift of God.
[00:14:42]  What is the this?
[00:14:43]  Well, it's not just the grace, and it's not just the faith, but it's both.
[00:14:49]  Both grace and faith are gifts that God gives.
[00:14:54]  If God has given you faith as a gift, then you can be sure that faith, albeit perhaps small, albeit perhaps incomplete and unfinished, albeit perhaps elementary, And simple, even primitive.
[00:15:11]  That faith, if it be truly a gift from God, it may be small, but it will be pure.
[00:15:18]  It may be simple, but it will be true.
[00:15:22]  And true, pure faith that comes from God is saving faith, it is the faith that saves.
[00:15:32]  So, these people are coming to Christ with a basic understanding.
[00:15:38]  They don't understand all the theological intricacies that some of us may understand today.
[00:15:45]  It is likely that some of them perhaps were regenerate or in this moment of being healed by Christ and seeing this sign, this wonder, this miracle, perhaps they became regenerated by the Holy Spirit.
[00:15:59]  Perhaps the Holy Spirit of God gave them spiritual eyes to see, spiritual ears to hear, and new hearts that were softened and malleable, able to receive Christ for the fullness of who He is.
[00:16:11]  But one thing we know for sure whether regenerate or not, whether they truly understood Christ's divine identity or not, what they did know of Christ is that he could heal the sick.
[00:16:25]  And they come to him with eagerness because they're desperate to be physically healed.
[00:16:31]  And all who come are received.
[00:16:34]  And all who Christ receives, he heals.
[00:16:38]  Period.
[00:16:40]  So whatever they did know of Christ, they knew enough to come to him.
[00:16:44]  And to come to him with vigilance, with eagerness, and with haste.
[00:16:50]  They did not delay.
[00:16:51]  And what they knew of Christ, the purpose of their coming, what they were coming to him for, they all received.
[00:17:00]  No one was turned away.
[00:17:02]  No one came to Christ for healing and was not healed.
[00:17:07]  The text tells us that all were healed.
[00:17:10]  Now, this is reading into the text.
[00:17:13]  That was explicit.
[00:17:14]  What I'm now going to espouse for a moment is implicit.
[00:17:17]  Okay, so this isn't explicitly in the text.
[00:17:20]  We don't know for sure, but I think that it's not a necessary inference from the text that we have today, but it would be a plausible or reasonable inference.
[00:17:30]  Meaning, this is not infallible what I'm about to say, but it is possible.
[00:17:35]  It is possible that there were sick people in this region that were not healed.
[00:17:41]  What's not possible from what the text explicitly says is that there could be no sick people that came to Jesus.
[00:17:49]  And we were not healed because all who came to Jesus, that's what's explicit in the text, they were healed universally, each and every single one of them.
[00:17:59]  But what is possible is that there were perhaps some sick people in this region who were not healed precisely because they did not come.
[00:18:10]  Right?
[00:18:10]  Perhaps as word spread, Jesus of Nazareth, he's in our region, the one who heals the sick, the one who opens blinded eyes, the one who causes the lame to walk.
[00:18:23]  The one who heals the leopard's spots.
[00:18:28]  It's not leopards.
[00:18:29]  This is a tough one for the kids.
[00:18:30]  The lepers.
[00:18:32]  The one who actually heals lepers and cleanses them so that they can re enter into their families and society.
[00:18:40]  He's here.
[00:18:41]  He's in our region.
[00:18:42]  He's in our town.
[00:18:43]  He is among us.
[00:18:45]  Well, it's possible that some who heard this news still did not believe.
[00:18:50]  Not even an elementary belief, a simple belief.
[00:18:54]  Not even a belief, much less that he was divine and could forgive sins, but not even a belief that he was miraculous and that he could heal physical bodies.
[00:19:04]  And so perhaps there were some, or perhaps even many, who stayed home.
[00:19:09]  And anyone, we can, I think, infer this from the text with great confidence any who did not come to Jesus, they were not healed.
[00:19:19]  Any who did not come, they stayed sick.
[00:19:22]  Any who stayed home, stayed sick.
[00:19:25]  But any who came, they were healed.
[00:19:29]  So, what does this mean for us?
[00:19:32]  Well, as far as we can tell from this text and ample others throughout all of the scripture, anyone who comes to Christ in faith, if they come to Him for salvation, the healing and atonement, forgiveness of sin, if they come to Him for grace, if they come to Him for atonement, for forgiveness, they are received.
[00:20:00]  They are taken in.
[00:20:02]  They are forgiven.
[00:20:03]  They are washed.
[00:20:05]  They are cleansed.
[00:20:06]  They are saved.
[00:20:09]  Any who come, those who are not forgiven of sin, those who ultimately, tragically, die in their sin, they die in their sin and go to hell for eternity because they die in unbelief.
[00:20:25]  There is no one who dies in their sin and then enters into the eternal just punishment of God forever.
[00:20:35]  Who believed in Christ and came to Christ but was turned away by Christ?
[00:20:41]  No, at the end of the day, those who are not forgiven are those who did not come.
[00:20:47]  Those who Christ does not save are those who did not believe, they did not trust him.
[00:20:54]  Those who die in their sin are those who died in unbelief.
[00:20:59]  But Christ heals all who come to him.
[00:21:02]  Christ saves all who come to him in faith, even simple faith.
[00:21:09]  Perhaps you are here today, and all you know of Jesus is that he saves sinners.
[00:21:15]  It reminds me of what the Apostle Paul said in 1 Timothy 1, verse 15 and 16.
[00:21:21]  This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.
[00:21:32]  But I received mercy for this reason that in me, as the foremost, that is, the foremost sinner, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience.
[00:21:44]  What Paul is essentially saying is this that in his previous life, before his miraculous conversion, when he was still Saul of Tarsus, he was not only a sinner, as all people are sinners, but he was a sinner of a heinous sort.

=== The Hostile Mind of Sinners (03:45) ===

[00:22:01]  He was a sinner of a high handed kind, variety.
[00:22:07]  He was persecuting the church of Jesus Christ.
[00:22:10]  He hated Christ.
[00:22:12]  Now, it's true that every sinner.
[00:22:14]  Outside of conversion, outside of salvation, does hate Christ.
[00:22:19]  They may not be verbally saying it out loud.
[00:22:22]  They may not be explicit with their hatred, but they ultimately do hate Christ.
[00:22:28]  We know this because the book of Romans tells us.
[00:22:31]  The book of Romans says that the mind of the sinful man is neutral towards God.
[00:22:36]  No.
[00:22:37]  Indifferent, just not interested.
[00:22:40]  No.
[00:22:41]  The mind of the sinful man is hostile towards God's law.
[00:22:45]  He does not submit to it, nor can he.
[00:22:49]  He is unwilling because he is unable.
[00:22:52]  And he is unable to submit to the law of God because of his nature.
[00:22:57]  It's not merely a matter of will.
[00:23:01]  No one is saved by the work of man nor by the will of man.
[00:23:06]  But people are saved solely as a work of God's grace.
[00:23:11]  And the thing that God accomplishes in his grace, among many things, but one of these things chiefly, is that he causes your very nature.
[00:23:21]  To change.
[00:23:22]  If any man is in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature, a new creation.
[00:23:27]  The old has passed away and the new has come.
[00:23:32]  Ezekiel tells us that God must remove a heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh that is soft and receptive to the things of God.
[00:23:44]  Every time God saves a man, he's saving and healing the blind, those who are spiritually blind and cannot see his goodness unless he grants to them new eyes, spiritual eyes that can see.
[00:23:58]  Every time God saves a man, he is saving a deaf man who previously could not hear.
[00:24:06]  His ears were dull of hearing.
[00:24:08]  But God, who transforms the very nature of man, removes his physical, dull of hearing ears and replaces them with spiritual ears, new ears that can hear the spiritual things of God.
[00:24:23]  What God does in salvation is he actually changes us.
[00:24:28]  It's not merely that he forgives us.
[00:24:31]  But he actually changes us.
[00:24:34]  No one comes unless God changes his very nature and causes him to be eager to come, desirous to come, willing to come.
[00:24:47]  This is what must take place.
[00:24:49]  God has to change a man.
[00:24:52]  The Spirit of God must regenerate a man, cause him to become a new man, a new creature, who then Now, with this new nature, he has the gift of faith and therefore comes.
[00:25:07]  And as he comes to Christ, he will not be turned away.
[00:25:12]  Again, 1 Timothy 1 15 and 16.
[00:25:14]  This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.
[00:25:24]  The Apostle Paul was not neutral towards Jesus Christ, he was not indifferent towards Jesus Christ or the church of Jesus Christ.
[00:25:34]  He persecuted the church of Jesus Christ.
[00:25:37]  He hated the church of Jesus Christ because the mind of the sinful man is hostile towards the things of God, towards the law of God.

=== No Neutrality Toward Jesus Christ (15:11) ===

[00:25:47]  He does not submit to God's law because he cannot submit to God's law.
[00:25:52]  You will never make a choice that is not included within the confines of your nature.
[00:25:59]  I'll say that again.
[00:26:01]  You will never make a choice that is not included within the confines of your nature.
[00:26:08]  Jonathan Edwards spoke of this.
[00:26:11]  Jonathan Edwards gave different illustrations.
[00:26:13]  One of them was an ox and a lion.
[00:26:17]  That the lion, if you put before it hay and meat, that the lion would choose not most of the time, not even 99% of the time, but every single time, as the kids would say, every single time, the lion would choose to eat the meat because it's in his nature.
[00:26:36]  His literal, physical nature can't even process or digest.
[00:26:40]  The hay, so he's never ever going to choose it.
[00:26:44]  He's not.
[00:26:45]  Free will, as many by default understand it today, is an absolute myth.
[00:26:52]  And you must understand that.
[00:26:54]  Now, there is such a thing as human agency.
[00:26:58]  Because if there is no human agency whatsoever, then there can be no moral culpability.
[00:27:04]  And if there is no moral culpability, then God cannot be just when he judges the sinner.
[00:27:09]  Or to argue it now in reverse of these three steps, God is just.
[00:27:13]  When he punishes sinners, because sinners are morally culpable.
[00:27:17]  That is, they are morally responsible and guilty for their sin.
[00:27:23]  And they are morally responsible for the sin that they commit because they actually do have human agency.
[00:27:29]  But human agency should not be interpreted in this broad banner, limitless free will, as it's often defined by modern Westerners today.
[00:27:40]  Let me give an example.
[00:27:41]  You do not have true free libertarian will in multiple instances, meaning that you cannot make limitless choices because limitless choices are not afforded to you because of the limits of your finite nature.
[00:27:57]  For instance, you cannot choose to fly.
[00:28:00]  You can't.
[00:28:01]  You can fly on an airplane, I'm aware of that.
[00:28:04]  Okay?
[00:28:05]  But you cannot choose to climb on top of a tower, jump off, and naturally fly.
[00:28:11]  Why?
[00:28:12]  Well, I'm free.
[00:28:13]  I have free will.
[00:28:14]  I can choose anything I want.
[00:28:15]  No, you can't.
[00:28:16]  You can only choose those things within the confines of your nature.
[00:28:20]  You cannot will yourself to be nine feet tall.
[00:28:25]  Right?
[00:28:25]  And you might say, well, these are some ridiculous examples.
[00:28:28]  Oh, they go far further.
[00:28:30]  Far further.
[00:28:31]  Turns out there are even ticks, insects, that if they bite you, you will no longer choose to eat red meat.
[00:28:39]  Do you know why?
[00:28:40]  Because your nature will be changed and become hostile to red meat, and you will be allergic.
[00:28:47]  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.
[00:29:02]  Beyond meat, synthetic, whatever, and the cows get to live.
[00:29:07]  Once again, this is a typical thing, liberals trying to destroy all of humanity and ruin the world, right?
[00:29:11]  No shocking news there.
[00:29:12]  That's par for the course.
[00:29:15]  But my point is that even when it comes to choices like eating, there are a ton of choices that some of you can't make.
[00:29:22]  Why?
[00:29:22]  Because your physical nature doesn't allow for it.
[00:29:25]  All of us cannot make the choice of, I would like to eat cyanide, right?
[00:29:30]  None of us can make that choice.
[00:29:32]  Okay?
[00:29:32]  But some of you, even beyond that, I can't eat tree nuts.
[00:29:36]  Or, I got bit by a tick last week and now steak is off the menu.
[00:29:40]  The point is that your choices are limited by your nature.
[00:29:43]  So, what does God do in salvation?
[00:29:46]  He changes your nature.
[00:29:48]  That's what He does.
[00:29:50]  That's what the Spirit does.
[00:29:52]  That's the doctrine of regeneration.
[00:29:54]  What God does in salvation is He causes you to become a new man.
[00:29:59]  It is not that you make a new choice and then are rewarded by becoming a new man.
[00:30:06]  No, that new choice is a choice you'll never make.
[00:30:09]  You cannot submit to God's law.
[00:30:12]  You will not because you cannot.
[00:30:14]  And so, what has to happen first is regeneration preceding faith.
[00:30:19]  God first has to cause you to become a new creature, and then, all of a sudden, as a new creature with a new nature, you have a new spectrum of choices that are now available to you.
[00:30:30]  And so, you're able now to choose new things that previously you would have never chosen left to yourself because you didn't want to.
[00:30:40]  You didn't desire God.
[00:30:42]  You were hostile towards God.
[00:30:45]  But in grace, in mercy, he caused you to become a new man.
[00:30:50]  So the Apostle Paul is saying this I received mercy, verse 16 of 1 Timothy chapter 1, for this reason that in me, as not just a sinner, but the foremost, some translations say the chief of sinners, a really, really bad, visibly bad, manifestly bad sinner.
[00:31:12]  In me, by God saving me as a foremost sinner, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience towards everyone else.
[00:31:22]  Essentially, what Paul is saying is this he's saying, God saved me as a testimony so that everyone would know that if God could save me, then he's able to save them.
[00:31:34]  Because there's no one worse than Paul when he was once a different man, Saul of Tarsus.
[00:31:42]  Outwardly, visibly, manifestly hating and persecuting the church of Jesus Christ.
[00:31:49]  So, Paul's saying, God saved me.
[00:31:51]  And how did he save him?
[00:31:53]  He caused him to become a new creature who then had new choices, now willing to run to Christ because he had faith in Christ, because he had a new heart.
[00:32:06]  He was a new creature in Christ.
[00:32:09]  And if God was able to do that for the Apostle Paul, he is able to do that for anyone that he chooses.
[00:32:17]  So, Paul says, I know this.
[00:32:19]  This saying, it was a saying in the churches, the New Testament churches.
[00:32:24]  There's a saying, there's lots of things to know about Christ, many truths about Christ.
[00:32:30]  But here's a basic one that everyone knows.
[00:32:32]  This saying is trustworthy and worthy of full acceptance that Jesus Christ came into the world, his incarnation, he took on flesh, and he came into the world to do what?
[00:32:45]  To save sinners.
[00:32:48]  And he saved Paul, who was a chief of sinners, which means that he is able, if he be willing, to save any sinner.
[00:32:58]  That's what Paul knew.
[00:33:00]  And it seems as though Paul is saying that many other New Testament Christians at that time were aware of this, knew this also.
[00:33:08]  So, a simple elementary faith that would cause us, like the people in the region where Jesus was healing the sick, to flock to him eagerly to come to him.
[00:33:21]  A simple faith would be this knowing that Christ Jesus has come into the world and that he came for the purpose to save sinners and that he's able to save the worst of sinners, therefore, he's able to save us also.
[00:33:35]  Do you believe that?
[00:33:37]  Do you have that level of faith?
[00:33:41]  Simple as it is, do you have that level of faith?
[00:33:46]  And it doesn't mean that that faith, again, is robust or perfect or complete.
[00:33:51]  And it doesn't mean that you have that faith without the presence of any doubt.
[00:33:56]  Remember again, the man who says, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.
[00:34:01]  So the question is this do you have any faith, any sense of assurance or hope or belief or trust that there is a God in heaven, that he has an eternal Son who once came into the world, took on flesh, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God?
[00:34:23]  And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
[00:34:27]  The Word, Jesus Christ, incarnate.
[00:34:31]  Do you believe that there is a God?
[00:34:33]  That He is a holy God?
[00:34:36]  Do you believe that His Son, Jesus, actually came into the world?
[00:34:40]  Do you believe that He came for the purpose to save sinners and that He saved even one of the worst of sinners, namely the Apostle Paul, and therefore He can save you also?
[00:34:52]  If you believe that, At all, even with the presence of doubt, even with many, many theological questions still left unanswered.
[00:35:01]  If you believe that at all, then you will come to Christ.
[00:35:05]  And as we see in our text, if you will come to Christ, you will be received by Christ.
[00:35:11]  There are none who come and are ultimately turned away.
[00:35:15]  None who come, that is, in faith.
[00:35:19]  In faith.
[00:35:20]  But here's the last part.
[00:35:22]  And this is key as well.
[00:35:25]  Back to this saying, 1 Timothy 1, verse 15 and 16.
[00:35:28]  This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save, and here it is, sinners.
[00:35:37]  There's one last prerequisite required for salvation.
[00:35:42]  You must trust that Jesus came into the world, that he came to save sinners, that he saved even the worst of sinners, therefore he can save you also.
[00:35:54]  But you also must believe that you are a sinner.
[00:35:58]  Jesus did not come into the world to save people who simply struggle in their ability to communicate with their spouse.
[00:36:08]  Jesus did not come into the world to save people who their real problem is simply a matter of ignorance.
[00:36:15]  There's no real moral hostility or deficiency.
[00:36:18]  It's just a matter of education.
[00:36:22]  They're just missing a few pieces of the puzzle.
[00:36:24]  It's not really their fault.
[00:36:26]  They're innocent.
[00:36:27]  Their innocence stems from their ignorance.
[00:36:30]  Jesus did not come into the world to save ignorance, He did not come into the world to save lack of communication.
[00:36:39]  Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
[00:36:42]  So, the final prerequisite for salvation is.
[00:36:45]  So that you don't spend eternity under the just judgment of God, is this.
[00:36:50]  You must recognize Jesus as Savior, that He came into the world to save, that He's able to save, but you also must believe that the group He came to save are sinners, and you must include yourself in that group of sinners.
[00:37:06]  You don't get to be saved by Jesus, who saves sinners, if you're not willing to admit that you yourself are a sinner in need of His salvation.
[00:37:17]  And that's part of the problem.
[00:37:20]  Many do not come to Jesus for salvation because, one, there are those who don't believe that Jesus is real.
[00:37:26]  They don't believe that He's the Savior.
[00:37:28]  They don't believe He came into the world.
[00:37:30]  But there are others, and I would argue many others, who fall into this final category.
[00:37:36]  For them, it's that they don't believe they need His salvation.
[00:37:41]  They don't believe that they're sinners.
[00:37:44]  They don't believe at the end of the day that they really have a moral deficiency.
[00:37:50]  When you describe them as someone who is hostile to Jesus, who hates Jesus, who is at war with God, they would say, No, no, no, not me.
[00:38:03]  I don't hate Jesus.
[00:38:07]  Well, there is no middle ground.
[00:38:10]  You are either for him or against him.
[00:38:12]  You either bless him or curse him, love him or hate him.
[00:38:17]  But there is no neutrality when it comes to the person of Jesus Christ.
[00:38:22]  Somebody may not be explicit, they may not verbalize it, but the person who doesn't come to Jesus, rest assured, that person, he does in fact hate Jesus.
[00:38:36]  There have been many contexts and many times and many cultures throughout human history these last 2,000 years who, for various reasons, were heavily incentivized to not say out loud that they hated Jesus, but they did hate Jesus.
[00:38:56]  They did.
[00:38:58]  Right?
[00:38:58]  You can be in a place and time and a context that is very outwardly pro Jesus, a culture that is embracing of Jesus.
[00:39:10]  And therefore, you may not be incentivized to express a hatred of Jesus.
[00:39:17]  But if you're not a Christian, if you have not been caused by God supernaturally to go from death to life, from the old man to the new man, a heart of stone to a heart of flesh, then you do hate Jesus.
[00:39:33]  You do.
[00:39:34]  Now, I'm not trying to pick on anybody, but I thought about this in preparation, and I just think that the illustration helps to make the point more clear.
[00:39:42]  Okay, so I'm going to use an individual as an example.
[00:39:46]  Okay, I'm not trying to be particularly rude to this individual, but I think that it makes the point very clear.
[00:39:51]  It's a well known individual.
[00:39:52]  That's why I'm using them, because if I use someone obscure, then nobody would know, and the point would fall on deaf ears.
[00:39:58]  Ben Shapiro.
[00:40:01]  Ben Shapiro is not, at least regularly, he has said a thing or two, but.
[00:40:06]  At least regularly.
[00:40:07]  It would not be fair to say on a regular, daily basis or weekly basis he's saying blatantly antagonistic, hostile things about Jesus.
[00:40:17]  I hate Jesus.
[00:40:19]  Jesus is, you know, the son of a W H O R E. You know, this, that, and the other.
[00:40:27]  Jesus is currently burning in hell.
[00:40:29]  He's a false prophet.
[00:40:30]  I hate him.
[00:40:31]  Okay, Ben Shapiro is not saying that, as I just stated, on a regular basis.
[00:40:37]  But could there be any reasons why?
[00:40:41]  Could it be perhaps that he's living in a Christian nation, nominally Christian, albeit, but still a Christian Western nation, that in a generic sense, in a general sense, is, you know, pretty pro Jesus?

=== Tangible Benefits in America Today (05:27) ===

[00:40:58]  Right?
[00:40:58]  I mean, like, what tangible benefits in America, even in the year of our Lord, 2025, with as much.
[00:41:09]  As much compromise and degeneracy as our nation is currently steeped in, even now, even now, what tangible benefits does somebody garner for themselves by being hostile visibly, audibly, verbally against Jesus?
[00:41:29]  I mean, think about this.
[00:41:30]  Even the progressives who we know hate Jesus, they still don't say it out loud, right?
[00:41:37]  Don't they still take time to do triple axle?
[00:41:40]  You know, aerials, you know, in midair, jumping through 17 different hoops in order to argue.
[00:41:46]  Well, the reason why you need to trans your kids is it's actually really pro Jesus.
[00:41:51]  Why?
[00:41:53]  Why take all that time to make some kind of argument for, well, actually, the will of Jesus is that you don't have a country because you let millions and millions of people from the third world in.
[00:42:03]  Actually, the will of Jesus is that you embrace every sodomite you've ever seen.
[00:42:07]  Actually, the will of Jesus is that you have drag queen story hour.
[00:42:11]  I mean, that's a lot of effort.
[00:42:13]  Right?
[00:42:13]  I mean, it's hard for me to say, well, actually, 2 plus 2 equals 47.
[00:42:18]  Right?
[00:42:19]  It's a lot easier just to say 2 plus 2 is 4.
[00:42:21]  Why do that?
[00:42:23]  Because America is still a Christian nation.
[00:42:25]  That's why.
[00:42:27]  It is.
[00:42:28]  Perhaps Christian in name only.
[00:42:30]  I'm willing to admit that.
[00:42:32]  But you still stand to benefit by speaking positively of Christ.
[00:42:38]  Even if it's twisted speaking, deceitful speaking, insincere speaking, everyone knows.
[00:42:48]  That it does not serve any tangible goals to stand up on a pedestal and say out loud, I'm trying to trans all the youth and facilitate a full invasion from the third world because I hate Jesus and I hate America.
[00:43:10]  Everyone knows that's a bad campaign, right?
[00:43:12]  Everybody knows, I don't think that's going to win an election.
[00:43:18]  That ain't going to work.
[00:43:19]  That dog won't hunt.
[00:43:21]  So instead, what you have to say is it's actually because I'm really, really, really pro America.
[00:43:26]  And everyone knows what's best for America is millions of Somalians.
[00:43:32]  Right?
[00:43:33]  It's actually that I'm really, really pro Jesus.
[00:43:35]  And everybody knows that Jesus really, really loves the trans community.
[00:43:41]  Right?
[00:43:41]  They still take the time to use that kind of rhetoric because there is a tangible benefit.
[00:43:51]  So, my point is this if you're tempted to think of some person that you think might be an example of the exception, well, this guy's not a Christian.
[00:44:01]  This guy is an atheist, but he doesn't seem like he hates Jesus.
[00:44:06]  Or this guy, you know, he's not a Christian.
[00:44:08]  This guy is an Orthodox Jew, but he doesn't seem like he hates Jesus.
[00:44:13]  Or this guy, you know, he's a Muslim, but he doesn't seem like he hates Jesus.
[00:44:18]  Well, consider the context where is he?
[00:44:24]  Oh, he's here?
[00:44:26]  In a country that since its founding has been shaped by Christian thought?
[00:44:31]  Oh, well, that's why he doesn't say out loud that he hates Jesus.
[00:44:36]  But if he's not submitted to Christ as a Christian, then rest assured, he does hate Jesus.
[00:44:46]  So, what does it require for salvation?
[00:44:50]  Simple faith, elementary faith, Incomplete faith, faith even in the midst of doubts, small faith, half faith, but true faith.
[00:45:04]  True faith to believe what?
[00:45:05]  Every tenant of Bob Inc. systematic theology?
[00:45:09]  That'd be great, right?
[00:45:10]  Maybe work up to that.
[00:45:12]  But as a prerequisite for salvation, this saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance.
[00:45:20]  Do you believe that Christ came into the world, that he came to save sinners?
[00:45:25]  And this group that he saves, namely sinners, that you're one of them.
[00:45:32]  That you were once hostile towards Jesus, even if you never expressed it out loud.
[00:45:38]  That you once were hostile towards the law of God.
[00:45:42]  That you once, like Paul, hated the church of Jesus Christ.
[00:45:48]  Even if Jesus saved you as a five year old child on the pew, can you at least still admit that when you were a four year old child on the pew, you despised going to church?
[00:45:59]  You thought it was boring.
[00:46:01]  You did not love Jesus.
[00:46:04]  Whether it's a four year old hatred of Jesus, whether it's a 34 year old hatred of Jesus, whether it's the hatred of Jesus of the Islamic variety or the Jewish variety or the libertarian atheist variety, all of us, myself included, were once enemies of God.

=== Power of Christ Through Ordinary Means (03:07) ===

[00:46:26]  The scripture says, but God showed his love for us in this.
[00:46:31]  While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
[00:46:36]  We were his enemies.
[00:46:38]  Not just ignorant, not just indifferent, not just neutral, hostile.
[00:46:44]  But Christ came into the world to save sinners.
[00:46:49]  These people in Gennesaret, they knew that Jesus could heal the sick.
[00:46:54]  And they knew that they were sick.
[00:46:57]  And so they came to Christ.
[00:47:01]  And he did not turn them away.
[00:47:03]  We know.
[00:47:05]  That Jesus not only heals the sick, but that Jesus saves sinners.
[00:47:11]  And we know that we are not merely sick, but sick with sin.
[00:47:16]  And so will we come to Christ?
[00:47:20]  If so, then we can trust he will receive us, he will forgive us, and he will save us.
[00:47:29]  Second, the healing effected by the mere touch of Christ's garment teaches us that the power of Christ is not confined to outward means.
[00:47:38]  Notice how Jesus heals.
[00:47:40]  We've looked at the what, we've looked at the who.
[00:47:42]  Now let's look at the means.
[00:47:44]  How does Jesus heal in this instance?
[00:47:46]  There are many instances of Jesus' miraculous healings throughout the gospel narratives.
[00:47:51]  But notice that in every single case, the means by which he heals is always an ordinary, simple means.
[00:48:01]  He heals by his word, he simply gives the word and it's done.
[00:48:07]  Or he heals by a garment.
[00:48:10]  A really special Roman Catholic garment that was seamed, you know, four million years previously by this saint in a cape.
[00:48:17]  Nope, just a garment.
[00:48:19]  Just a garment.
[00:48:21]  He heals by word.
[00:48:22]  He heals by garments.
[00:48:25]  He heals even by spitting in the dirt and making mud.
[00:48:28]  Really, really special mud.
[00:48:29]  Nope, just mud.
[00:48:32]  In every case, the power of Christ comes to those who need it most, who trust in Him through ordinary means.
[00:48:40]  And this has application and relevance for us also.
[00:48:45]  The healing effected by mere touch of Christ's garment teaches us that the power of Christ is not confined to outward extraordinary means, nor is it dependent upon the dignity of visible signs.
[00:48:58]  The virtue flowed not from the fringe itself, but from the person of Christ, who uses even the least and simplest things to convey his grace.
[00:49:10]  In this, we are instructed to lift our minds above the sign.
[00:49:15]  To the Lord Himself who sanctifies it.
[00:49:18]  For the true touch that brings healing and the true touch that brings salvation is the touch of faith by which we apprehend Christ as He is offered to us in the Word and sacraments.

=== Salvation Through Foolishness of Preaching (07:05) ===

[00:49:33]  What are the ordinary?
[00:49:35]  Sometimes we wish that it was more extraordinary because then it might mean, I don't know, in our finitude, it might seem to us more convincing, more sure, more promising.
[00:49:49]  But the reason why extraordinary means of grace would seem to us more sure, more certain, more secure is because we would be putting at least some degree of our faith in the means of grace themselves rather than the grace, the person, Jesus Christ.
[00:50:09]  So, what are the ordinary means of grace for the New Testament church by which God, through Christ, forgives sin, strengthens the church?
[00:50:20]  Bolsters our faith.
[00:50:24]  It's bread, it's wine, it's water, it's word, and in his word, it's the exposition of his word, which is found in preaching.
[00:50:37]  And notice that even this means of grace, namely the preaching of Christ's word, what does the Apostle Paul say elsewhere about preaching?
[00:50:45]  He calls it the foolishness of preaching.
[00:50:50]  That God is pleased to save sinners even through the foolishness of preaching.
[00:50:57]  And it's true, although it's certainly not flattering to myself, since I happen to be the one currently preaching, but it is exceedingly true.
[00:51:06]  And I can tell you as a preacher that there is a foolishness of preaching.
[00:51:12]  It is foolish.
[00:51:13]  It is absolutely absurd to think that what I'm doing right now would have eternal ramifications.
[00:51:22]  That what I'm doing, knowing that I am a sinner, the foremost of sinners, That by simply standing behind a stack of wood and opening a book and giving meaning and application for the words on a page out loud, that this somehow would save souls dangling over the flames of hell and usher them into the bliss and glory of heavenly life.
[00:51:53]  It's foolish, and yet it's true.
[00:51:57]  That God is pleased to save.
[00:52:00]  He saves who?
[00:52:01]  Sinners.
[00:52:03]  What is the salvation?
[00:52:05]  Grace.
[00:52:07]  But how does he save?
[00:52:11]  He saves in ordinary ways, through ordinary means.
[00:52:18]  He saves with water, really special water, right?
[00:52:24]  Water that we go behind this curtain, me and the elders, and we say incantations.
[00:52:29]  And if we mispronounce the words, then it doesn't work.
[00:52:33]  No, just water.
[00:52:36]  Holy water?
[00:52:37]  No, water.
[00:52:39]  Wine?
[00:52:40]  Well, what kind of wine?
[00:52:42]  Did you purchase it from Italy?
[00:52:44]  Is it even good wine?
[00:52:46]  No, I regret to tell you, it is cheap, the cheapest of wines used here at Covenant Bible Church.
[00:52:53]  I don't know where it was made.
[00:52:56]  I don't feel like a lot of effort was put into it.
[00:52:58]  I've got to shoot you straight.
[00:53:01]  Water.
[00:53:03]  Ordinary water.
[00:53:05]  Usually cold, uncomfortable water.
[00:53:08]  Wine, cheap wine.
[00:53:11]  Bread, cheap bread.
[00:53:16]  Word, infallible word.
[00:53:19]  Preaching, foolish preaching, but of the infallible word.
[00:53:26]  And you put all those things together and what do you get?
[00:53:30]  Eternal souls saved from hell and ushered in to the glory of God.
[00:53:38]  Ordinary means.
[00:53:39]  Extraordinary salvation.
[00:53:42]  And why?
[00:53:44]  These aren't the means that we selected.
[00:53:45]  I wouldn't have selected them.
[00:53:47]  Right?
[00:53:47]  In a million years, if I was sitting and contemplating, I'm going to start a religion.
[00:53:52]  And there's going to be mechanisms, avenues, means of salvation.
[00:53:58]  I would never think, and they will be water, wine, bread, and a book.
[00:54:06]  I wouldn't.
[00:54:08]  And you can look at all the different religions that we know were created by man, false religions, and their means are pretty extraordinary.
[00:54:18]  Whether it's a black box in the Middle East where everyone's gathered and circled around and peering into it, or whether it's some shriveled up old foot that they splash in water and everybody gets a little drop.
[00:54:32]  I mean, there are multiple different religions with different hocus pocus special mystical means.
[00:54:42]  But the Christian faith, the true Christian faith, God saves extraordinarily.
[00:54:49]  But through simple, ordinary means.
[00:54:53]  And the reason why we know that these means were selected, chosen by God and not by man is one, they're simple.
[00:54:59]  But if we were to beg the question a little bit, why would God choose for the true religion in the worship and salvation of people as we worship the true triune God?
[00:55:11]  Why would he select such ordinary means?
[00:55:14]  Well, I think the answer to that is something that's quite simple.
[00:55:18]  And I think we can all agree, we can all assume, why would the true God choose?
[00:55:23]  Select for himself, for true salvation, such simple, ordinary means.
[00:55:30]  So that our faith would be in him and not the means.
[00:55:35]  So that he would get the glory and not the robes and tassels and not the candles and not the incense and not the special wine that's flown in from Italy.
[00:55:47]  Not just him.
[00:55:49]  That he would get the credit, he would get the glory, that he would be viewed by his people.
[00:55:55]  As the true author and finisher of our faith, as the giver of life, as the savior of our souls, God is jealous.
[00:56:06]  His name is jealous.
[00:56:08]  He is jealous for His glory.
[00:56:10]  He will not share it with any man, and He will not share it with any wine or any bread or any water.
[00:56:17]  He alone gets the glory because He alone does the work of salvation.
[00:56:23]  Lastly, we see in this universal healing all who came.
[00:56:28]  Were healed, a testimony to the boundless mercy of our Savior.
[00:56:32]  None were rejected, none were turned away.
[00:56:34]  All who approached Jesus and touched his simple garment were made well.

=== Jealous God and His Glory Alone (05:52) ===

[00:56:39]  So it is even to this day with the malady of sin.
[00:56:43]  If we come to Jesus truly, humbly, confessing our need, he does not turn us away, but cleanses us completely.
[00:56:52]  I'm reminded of Matthew chapter 11 that we saw a week prior, verse 28 that says, Come to me.
[00:56:58]  This is Jesus speaking to the crowds.
[00:57:00]  Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
[00:57:07]  But again, all the way back to the first point of the sermon today, you must ask the question rest from what?
[00:57:15]  You must come.
[00:57:17]  You must come to Him, that is Christ.
[00:57:20]  But you must be desiring for Him to give you rest for what?
[00:57:25]  I'm just so busy right now.
[00:57:28]  You can pray that God would give you literal rest.
[00:57:30]  I mean, the Psalms even say that he gives sleep to those he loves.
[00:57:34]  So I'm not saying that we can't pray and ask for God to make physical provision, to provide physical rest, to provide physical healing, a physical residence, somewhere to live, shelter, all these things.
[00:57:46]  That's permissible and even commendable because God tells us to ask.
[00:57:52]  But the chief thing that we seek Christ for is forgiveness of sin and rest from sin.
[00:58:00]  And further, we might say, rest from the guilt of sin.
[00:58:05]  Rest from condemnation.
[00:58:07]  Rest from God's judgment.
[00:58:10]  Rest from the punishment we know we deserve.
[00:58:16]  Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden.
[00:58:19]  That is, all who are weary of sin.
[00:58:22]  Again, the prerequisite for salvation is to trust and believe that Jesus came into the world, that he came to save sinners, and that you and I are a sinner.
[00:58:36]  When is the last time that you were weary and that you rooted the cause of your weariness in your sin?
[00:58:45]  When was the last time that you were heavy laden, that you were stressed, and rather than thinking, well, I merely need my circumstances to be bettered and my stress will go away, or I merely need this to happen, this outward, external thing, and all of a sudden I wouldn't be so tired, I wouldn't be so heavy laden, I wouldn't be so weary?
[00:59:07]  When's the last time when you were wrestling, when you were struggling, when you were weary, when you were tired, you thought to yourself and you said to your God, my chief problem is my sin?
[00:59:21]  I need rest from my sin.
[00:59:23]  I'm weary from my sin.
[00:59:26]  I am tired because of my sin.
[00:59:30]  My chief problem, my chief adversary is my sin.
[00:59:37]  God, forgive me, cleanse me, change me, cause me to sin less.
[00:59:46]  Grant me repentance that I might turn from my sin and turn in faith to Jesus.
[00:59:55]  I've said this before, I'll say it again.
[00:59:57]  When we think of heaven and the life to come, there are many things.
[01:00:01]  We started this whole text by saying that we saw in Jesus healing all these people who are sick and coming to him, we saw both the sufficiency of Christ, but also the misery of mankind.
[01:00:14]  There are many miseries in this life because the world has fallen under the curse of sin.
[01:00:21]  Sin entered the world, and through sin, death, death being one of the chief miseries of this life.
[01:00:27]  There are many earthly miseries.
[01:00:29]  The death of loved ones, the sickness of children, the difficulty of work, the difficulty of the cost of living, even if you work hard.
[01:00:41]  There are many earthly miseries.
[01:00:45]  And we can think to the life to come, the heavenly life, and long to be free of death, to be rejoined, reunited with loved ones who have passed away, to be done with no more sickness, no more fatigue, no more hunger.
[01:01:02]  No more work, at least a work that is cursed, where the ground works against us.
[01:01:09]  And all of these are good things to long for.
[01:01:13]  But our greatest longing, in terms of things that we wish to be free of, miseries that we wish to be finished, the greatest thing that we should wish to be free of, the greatest misery that we should wish to be done away with, is the misery of sin.
[01:01:32]  The misery of sin.
[01:01:36]  I cannot wait to be free of sin.
[01:01:40]  And not just the Jews' sin, not just Muslims' sin, not just atheists' sin or James Lindsay's sin.
[01:01:48]  I can't wait to be free of James Lindsay's sin.
[01:01:50]  But most importantly, I can't wait to be free of my sin.
[01:01:56]  No one's sin causes me more trouble than my own.
[01:02:01]  And that's not to say that the world is not filled with other people's sin, and it's not to say that other people's sin don't have real serious consequences.
[01:02:09]  Because they do.
[01:02:10]  And I would like to be free of that sin also.
[01:02:13]  I would like to be free of that sin in the life to come when Jesus does away with it once and for all.
[01:02:19]  I'd also like to be free of at least some of the earthly consequences of other people's sin in this life before Jesus' final physical return through some decent policies.

=== Freedom From My Own Sin (08:30) ===

[01:02:32]  You can actually have people who have sin, but let them sin 3,000 miles away.
[01:02:38]  Right?
[01:02:38]  That's called the great solution of salvation deportation.
[01:02:44]  Powerful.
[01:02:46]  And I would say thoroughly Christian.
[01:02:48]  But, most of all, my sin.
[01:02:55]  Here's the deal it's got to be both.
[01:02:58]  It's got to be both.
[01:02:59]  You've heard me say this, I'm saying it again.
[01:03:02]  We cannot be suicidal here in the West.
[01:03:07]  It's just my sin.
[01:03:09]  And everyone's the same.
[01:03:10]  Everyone's sin is equal.
[01:03:12]  And everyone gets to live here.
[01:03:14]  And everyone can do what they want.
[01:03:15]  And one day Jesus will fix it all.
[01:03:17]  No.
[01:03:19]  If you do that, if you give way to that kind of cultural, political apathy, then your children are doomed.
[01:03:28]  And you are a terrible father and a terrible mother.
[01:03:33]  You are.
[01:03:34]  You need to feel that in your bones.
[01:03:36]  God is angry with you.
[01:03:38]  And your children will rise up and not call you blessed, they will call you cursed.
[01:03:43]  Because, like Esau, you sold their inheritance for a bowl of soup.
[01:03:47]  In this case, maybe it was curry soup and H 1B visas.
[01:03:54]  You're a terrible person.
[01:03:55]  Shame on you.
[01:03:57]  And also, you're a sin.
[01:04:02]  And your kid's greatest threat, even greater than mass immigration and all that, is you being an angry father.
[01:04:09]  You not loving their mother with every fiber of your being as Christ loved the church.
[01:04:14]  You not leading the way with humility and repentance and grace.
[01:04:20]  In other words, it's all the above.
[01:04:23]  In other words, it's a tall order.
[01:04:25]  In other words, the Christian life, maybe John Bunyan got it right.
[01:04:28]  Maybe it is really hard.
[01:04:31]  It's everything.
[01:04:33]  It's fighting for civilization, it's being engaged politically and culturally, but it's also the deep spiritual truths.
[01:04:40]  It's also humility and repentance and faith.
[01:04:43]  It's mercy and intolerance and knowing with wisdom and discernment when is the proper time for which.
[01:04:52]  It's not going to be easy.
[01:04:55]  The mess that we have gotten ourselves into, both individually as sinners and a nation filled with sinners, is a mess that has been in the making for quite some time.
[01:05:06]  And with big messes accrued over long periods of time, you do not solve those messes in a day.
[01:05:15]  It's going to be a lot of work personal work, individual work, collectivist work also.
[01:05:25]  Both are true.
[01:05:26]  When you stand before God, you will stand before God alone.
[01:05:30]  You will not be able to vouch for yourself by your parents or by your ethnic group or religious group or political affiliation.
[01:05:39]  Individual judgment before God.
[01:05:41]  And also in earthly temporal life, there's such a thing as groups.
[01:05:47]  And every single group in the world thinks of themselves as a group except for one Christians, particularly European Christians.
[01:05:58]  Everybody else thinks of themselves as a group.
[01:05:59]  You know that, right?
[01:06:01]  Everybody else, Ilhan Omar, is thinking in a group mentality.
[01:06:06]  She's like, I am leading for what's good for Somalia, I mean America.
[01:06:12]  She says it out loud all the time.
[01:06:16]  She's not thinking, my fellow Americans of every stripe and color, whatever.
[01:06:20]  No.
[01:06:22]  One group, my group, and I serve their benefit.
[01:06:28]  Everybody else, one group, my group, and I serve their benefit.
[01:06:34]  The only people who don't think like this, Western Christians.
[01:06:40]  Particularly white Christians.
[01:06:43]  That's it.
[01:06:45]  You're the only people who don't think like this, and that's why you're losing.
[01:06:51]  And I will say this historically speaking, when you look at nations that are minority white, that minority is not treated with benevolence.
[01:07:02]  When you look at nations that are majority European, the minorities are treated with much more kindness.
[01:07:08]  And so, as a Christian who cares more about religion than I care about color or ethnicity, I care more about Christ and Christianity.
[01:07:17]  But it's because of my Christianity that I want a benevolent society.
[01:07:22]  And I know, statistically speaking and historically speaking, if America remains predominantly majority European, it has a higher likelihood of being kind and benevolent to everyone else.
[01:07:40]  So I want that.
[01:07:42]  I want that for my children.
[01:07:44]  I want that for your children because it is a net positive.
[01:07:48]  And that's just the history.
[01:07:50]  Read a book.
[01:07:51]  You will find that what I said is true.
[01:07:53]  So I desire this because I'm a Christian, first and foremost.
[01:07:58]  And as a Christian, I love people and I want their good.
[01:08:03]  All of this is true.
[01:08:05]  Also, our sermon today I'm a sinner.
[01:08:12]  And if I save the West, what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but forfeits his soul?
[01:08:19]  You can fight for Western civilization and God bless you for it.
[01:08:23]  You can fight to restore America and God bless you for it.
[01:08:27]  You can have courage, political and cultural courage, to say the things that people don't want to hear and to be called a bigot and a racist and a homophobe and everything else and God bless you.
[01:08:41]  But you can do all that and go to hell.
[01:08:44]  You can do all that and always think that the problem is someone somewhere else.
[01:08:52]  But forget that this saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ came to save sinners, of which I am the foremost.
[01:09:03]  True Christian faith, historic Christian faith in the West, throughout Christendom, in Europe, held both of these in tandem.
[01:09:10]  They understood that Western civilization was different and that it was worth preserving.
[01:09:17]  They thought in groups and also they thought as individuals.
[01:09:21]  My sin, I will have to stand before God one day.
[01:09:25]  And Christ is my only hope.
[01:09:28]  My sin needing my salvation and civilization and caring for that as well.
[01:09:35]  It's all the above.
[01:09:37]  We must learn to walk and chew gum at the same time.
[01:09:41]  No one will enter the kingdom of heaven without vigilance.
[01:09:45]  Or, as the scripture says, since the beginning, the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent will take it by force, meaning apathy will not work.
[01:09:55]  You must be diligent, you must press in.
[01:09:59]  You must press in.
[01:10:00]  Let's pray.
[01:10:00]  Father, thank you for your word.
[01:10:02]  I pray that you would bless it to your people, that we'd be strengthened and encouraged by it.
[01:10:06]  We pray all this for your glory.
[01:10:09]  I pray, Lord, that we would be reminded first and foremost every day that we are sinners, that we are sinners, and that we need your mercy and your kindness.
[01:10:21]  Lord, I pray that we would not lose the heart of the Christian faith, which is the gospel for sinners, of which we are the foremost.
[01:10:29]  But Lord, I also pray that we would not truncate the Christian faith and narrow it.
[01:10:35]  With such simplicity that we only care for the life to come while this temporal world around us perishes, leaving no hope or future for our children.
[01:10:46]  Help us, Lord, this church, to be a wise and discerning and mature church able to articulate all these truths with grace but also courage, no matter the cost.
[01:10:59]  We pray this for your glory.
[01:11:01]  In Jesus' name, amen.