The difference between a need and a want

Isaiah please, chapter 53. I pleaded with Murray to go first and now I know why he wanted to go first. He wanted to steal my message.

Isaiah chapter 53 and we'll read just the last part of verse number 6. Isaiah 53 verse 6, and with his stripes we are healed. And with his stripes we are healed. Gospel of Luke please.

Luke chapter 5 verse 30. Luke chapter 5 verse 30, but their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples saying, why do you eat and drink with publicans and sinners? And Jesus answering said unto them, they that are whole need not a physician but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.

And now to chapter number 9 verse 10. Luke 9 verse 10. And the apostles when they returned told him all they had done and he took them and went aside privately into a desert place belonging to the city called Bethsaida.

And the people when they knew it followed him and he received them and spake unto them of the kingdom of God and healed them that had need of healing. And the Lord will bless to us the reading of his word and what we've listened to already. Lots of times in a conference most of the audience are young people that were raised in a Christian home or had have come to gospel meetings a long time.

I'd like to look tonight maybe the reason that you're not saved. We read together that they that are whole need not a physician but they that are sick. And I'd like to look at the difference tonight between a need and a want.

A need and a want. If I'd ask you tonight if you wanted to be saved certainly you would say yes I want to be saved. But what I've seen here in Luke, the gospel of Luke is they that need, they that are whole need not a physician but they that are sick.

And I'm wondering tonight is your salvation of your soul, is your eternal destiny whether you're going to be in heaven or going to be in hell, is it an absolute necessity tonight? Or is it just a want? Just a want. One of the kids come home from school a couple weeks ago maybe three weeks ago and she said something that was music to my ears. She said daddy I'm not going to ask for anything that I don't need anymore.

I'm not going to ask for wants, only my needs. So somewhere the teachers doing their job and they're teaching the difference between a need and a want. A need is something that's necessary for life isn't it? A want is the Skittles that are still stuck in the in the dispenser.

Those are wants. Those aren't needs. What about your soul? Do you need a physician? Do you need one? They that are whole need not a physician but they that are sick.

Last week I talked with a man his name is Doug and I've been working on Doug for years. Murray knows Doug and Scott knows Doug and he came to some meetings this spring and Doug has got a blood issue and he's got health problems and he went to the doctor Monday, Monday and before he was even home the doctor had called his wife and said have Doug call us right away. Doug still hasn't called him.

You see as long as there's a little hope, as long as you, as long as sinners think there's a little chance that they're going to avoid hell, as long as they think there's a little chance that they can figure out salvation on their own, there doesn't seem to be the need to run to the physician. My friend Doug is more likely going to go out into eternity. And you know how it is.

Well I don't feel just right but I'm not going to go to the doctor. I don't feel a hundred percent but I don't really need a physician. In the meantime that problem inside you is growing and growing and growing and then all of a sudden you can't walk or you can't get out of bed or you can't eat and now all of a sudden you need a physician.

And I'm just wondering tonight is there someone in the audience and if salvation is still just a want, it's not a necessity. There's things in life that maybe are more important, that maybe are more entertaining, more things to stick our energy into than God's salvation. Remember this text.

They that are whole need not a physician but they that are sick. Then we come to chapter 9 and it says this, He healed them that had need of healing. He healed them.

Why did He heal them? First of all He wanted to heal them. The Lord Jesus wants to save souls tonight. He's interested in this meeting.

He's interested in the soul of every single person here and He wants to save. He wants to heal. He healed everyone that needed it.

Do you need salvation tonight? I mean really need it. I don't mean just want it someday. It would be nice to be saved before I die.

In fact I want to be saved before I die. But friend, salvation doesn't come. It really doesn't come until a person understands this, that I need salvation tonight.

I need it now. Why is it that sinners need salvation now? It's that red place here in the corner of this chart. It's the wages of sin is death.

It's eternal punishment for sin. And when that really grips a hold of the soul, it's not that I want to be saved somewhere. But Lord I need to get this settled tonight.

I need to be saved. I need it. If you're saved you can remember as you look back in your life the time that God showed you your need.

You maybe heard the gospel your whole life and you wanted to be saved since you were old enough to understand. But I remember expressly the night that God showed me that I needed to be saved. If you would have asked me that if I was a sinner I would have said yes, I'm a sinner.

And if you'd asked me if I died that night where I'd be I would have told you that I would be in hell. And a lot of us have all the right answers. And if you would have asked me why would you be in hell I would say because of my sin.

And those are all right answers. But the night that God spoke to me he showed me this. That I deserve to be in hell.

And I could be in hell tonight. Tonight. Do you know that you deserve to be in hell? You say you don't even know me man.

How can you say that? Just for this reason. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And I'm no different than you.

And I deserve to be in hell. And if I got what I deserved I'd be in hell tonight. But that night that God showed me that I was a sinner that was on my way to hell.

My thinking changed. Something took place in my little pea brain that now all of a sudden instead of wanting it I absolutely had to have it. And it wasn't worth the risk of going without it.

And there was nothing in this world that I needed more. I didn't need sleep. I stayed up all night.

I wanted to be saved. I didn't need food. You can go three days without food.

Most of us could probably go three weeks. Needed it more than food. Needed it more than sleep.

It was a need. It was a need. When people are sick.

Been visiting some ladies with cancer. And I'm amazed. And Mary has said this before.

When it comes time to die make sure all you have to do is die. These dear ladies. Gisela's one of them.

They're on the edge of eternity. But there's no need. There's no need.

And it blows my mind to think that they know that they are so close to death. And yet there's no need to know where they're going to be when they die. And there's no need to understand or want to understand the forgiveness of sins.

And where there's no need there's no healing. And where there's no need there's no salvation. And so I'm wondering tonight.

Be honest with yourself. You've always wanted it. You've always wanted to be saved.

But do you need it? Do you need it? Is salvation worth more to you than your paycheck? Is it worth more to you than your job? Or your friends at school? Do you need salvation? We didn't take time to read it but we could have looked in Luke chapter 15 and verse number 7. How there was rejoicing over one sinner that repents more than over 90 in nine that need no repentance. Why is it that souls need to repent? Why is it that we need to change our mind? Change our thinking? Agree with God against ourself? We need it. We don't want to.

But we need to. We need to agree with God what He says about us. And what does He say? He says that our sins have separated between us and God.

And that our sin is the problem. And there's nothing that we can do to put away sin by our own merits or our own works or our own deeds. I was thinking last week of the sacrifices.

When you come to Leviticus chapter 1 and verse number 4 it says, and you shall kill the sacrifice. Shall kill it. And I've just been appreciating that.

It wasn't the life of that sacrifice that brought any merit or any forgiveness of sins. It wasn't the dedication of that sacrifice to God that brought the satisfaction to God. It wasn't the labor that that sacrifice could have done for the offerer that brought any satisfaction to God.

But that sacrifice had to be killed. The blood had to be shed. That life had to be given as a substitute for the offerer.

Then you come to Christ. Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. This man has offered one sacrifice for sin forever.

Was it the life of Christ that satisfied the throne of God? No, it wasn't the life of Christ that satisfied God's throne as far as sin is concerned. Was it the labor and the miracles and all the work that Christ did? That was what God found pleasing and could forgive sinners on that ground. No, it wasn't the miracles that he did.

Was it the teachings that he taught? No, it was his death. It was his death. The death of the sacrifice was absolutely essential.

And friend, think about it tonight. If you're looking for the forgiveness of sins, do you think God is going to accept your life? Or how about your labor, the things that you're doing to show God that you're sincere? You think he will accept that? He wouldn't accept it out of the sacrifice of the Old Testament. He couldn't accept it out of Christ.

How can he accept it from us? The death of Christ is absolutely essential. Salvation is essential tonight. The death of Christ is essential.

And our text in Isaiah is this, by his stripes we are healed. We are healed. If you have a need of healing, you can find healing in this text.

By his stripes we are healed. I'd like to look at them words very simply for just a few minutes. They're simple words, aren't they? There's nothing complicated about that phrase, by his stripes we are healed.

Maybe a two one, two syllable word, maybe. But they're very simple words. There's words that we can all take in that we can all understand.

They're exceedingly simple. By his stripes we are healed. By his stripes we are healed.

Healed from what? Healed from our great disease of sin. Healed from that awful problem that's coursing through our body. The sin that has separated us from God.

The sin that is working death in us. Healed from sin and all the consequences of it. That which is taking us to a lost eternity.

That of our sin. They're simple words. I think sometimes we complicate the Gospel.

It was Paul's greatest fear, wasn't it? He feared that by the wisdom of words, the cross of Christ would be made of none effect. And so he preached simply to the people, didn't he? He was determined not to know anything other than Christ crucified. And there was a reason for that.

Paul understood everything about church truth that was revealed to him. And about baptism, it was revealed to him. And about the breaking of bread, it was revealed to him.

Paul could have taught those things, but that's not where salvation is found. And Paul's determination was to preach Christ. Because that's what the unconverted soul needs.

That's what the sick sinner needs. By his stripes we are healed. And Paul was preaching Christ to the Corinthians.

He preached Christ everywhere he went. Simple words. Words that even the youngest that is able to understand tonight can take it in.

By his stripes we are healed. We look in the context of this and they're sorrowful words, aren't they? It's mentioned at least twice that there was sorrow involved. He was despised and rejected of men.

He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. A man of sorrows. These are sorrowful words.

What does it say? It says he's borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. When you think of what's taking place here, in my heart there bubbles up joy because it was for me. But on the other hand, there's sorrow.

Because when I think of what the spotless one had to go through to forgive a sinner, to satisfy God. What the Lord Jesus Christ had to suffer. The wounds as you've been hearing.

He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. And the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed. You think of the sorrow that was involved.

The reproach has broken his heart. And he looked for some to take pity and he found none. And for comforters but there was none.

And there the Savior, the sin bearer, suffered at the hands of Almighty God. The stroke of justice and judgment that my sin deserved. And by his stripes I am healed.

But that's not what the text says. It says by his stripe, with his stripe we are healed. Are you healed tonight? Are you forgiven of your sin? Has there been a time in your life's experience when you've trusted the Savior as the one that died on the cross as your sacrifice? As your substitute? They're simple words.

They're sad words. To think that one so beautiful would be so marred. One that was so lovely to God had to be forsaken.

I wonder friend tonight, can you see that on the cross he was forsaken so that you wouldn't have to be. And that he was wounded and bruised so that you would never see one stroke of God's wrath. Not one.

But I want to look at these words as satisfying words. Some of us here have been to doctors with bad diseases, grave illnesses. And there's nothing more satisfying than coming away from the doctor.

And he comes into the little room. There's really nothing more horrifying the first time you go in, and he says what you have is very serious and very scary. But then the regimen is over and the treatments are over.

And you go and you meet with the doctor and he says you're healed. You're healed. Can you think of anything more sweet and more satisfying than that? I want you to think about who is saying this here by his with his stripes.

We are healed. This is God saying this. I love that.

Because you know what that says for me? It says Brandon, you're healed. You're healed. That's satisfaction.

Never to suffer for my sin. Never to be separated from God. Never, ever.

Never. Never to be in hell. Never to be in the lake of fire.

Never to hear the awful weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth in that place that burns with fire and brimstone. Never. Why? Because he was wounded for our transgressions.

He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed. We are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. It's all on him.

Larry will remember a dear girl, Tasha. Tasha wanted to be saved and we were there for a visit. And this verse was read, verse 6, laid on him the iniquity of us all.

And Tasha was there at the on the tall chair, the little table. And the tears started coming down her face. The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

And I'll never forget it. Larry said this. He said, Tasha, how many of your sins were laid on him? And he turned her to 1 John 1 and 7. The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

And she just exploded in tears. Remember that? And she said, all my sin, all my sin was on him. The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

And it's the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, that cleanses us from all sin. All sin. Do you need healing tonight? Now, I'm not talking in a physical sense.

I'm talking in your soul. Healing from the disease and the plague of sin. You can want it for the rest of your life.

But when you need it, it's a difference. There's a difference. He was wounded for our transgressions.

He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes, we are healed.