May it please Almighty God to
bless us together this morning as we meditate in His Word. Let
us turn to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 9, and we'll read verse
13. The Gospel of Matthew, chapter
9, and reading verse 13. But go ye and learn what that
meaneth. I will have mercy and not sacrifice,
for I'm not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. These few verses in this ninth
chapter of Matthew refer to the time when Jesus called Matthew
to be one of his disciples. We read in the 9th verse, And
as Jesus passed forth, from thence he saw a man named Matthew, sitting
at the receipt of custom, and he saith unto him, Follow me.
And he arose and followed him. The Gospel of Matthew, written
by Matthew, refers to Matthew as Matthew. In other cases, in
Mark and Luke, he's referred to as Levi. So when you read
Levi, you'll find that often it is, in actual fact, Matthew. And here we're told what he was.
He was sitting at the receipt of customs. He was, we might
say, a custom officer. and he received money for land
etc and it would seem that he was quite a wealthy man because
in the other accounts we know that he invited all the people
to come and to eat in his house. So we see this referring to Matthew
and what he did was to hear the words of the Lord and he rose
up and he followed him. He rose and followed him. Again
we can read these statements and they very easily just wash
over us and yet here was a very clear statement from Jesus, a
very clear command in simple words, follow me. And this man,
Matthew, he didn't prevaricate about it at all. We're told he
arose and followed him. It's a wonderful example for
us to have before us. And it came to pass as Jesus
sat at meat in the house that's his house Matthew's house behold
many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his
disciples and when the disciples saw it when the Pharisees rather
saw it they said unto his disciples why eateth your master with publicans
and sinners you see the Pharisees were very ready to criticize
every opportunity they had, and yet you see how far wrong they
were in so many things themselves, how hypocritical they were in
their pretended worship. And so they were the ones that
came then and said these, why eateth your master, republicans
and sinners? They didn't think Jesus would
go and eat with such people, they thought he would only perhaps
come and It was them, the publicans, who made a wonderful profession
of their religion of thought. They were doing everything perfectly
right. And what they were doing was
they were relying on their own attitudes, their own works. They
were relying on their own religion. They weren't relying upon the
God-given religion. And so we're told when Jesus
heard that, He said unto them, they that be whole need not a
physician, but they that are sick. They thought, you see,
they were all right. They thought they were whole.
They may have confessed and admitted they were sinners in some small
way, but not really from the heart. We can really conclude
that the Pharisees' religion was really a purely head knowledge. the true work of God had not
gone into their heart and all they were really concerned about
was what other people thought of them they weren't really concerned
about what God thought of them they weren't true worshippers
they were hypocritical worshippers and there are many Pharisees
about today in the day and age in which we live who are more
concerned about an outward performance, how they look outwardly, than
how they are inwardly. Well, we're thankful that the
Lord looks at the heart. What a wonderful blessing that
is. And so, we come down to this
13th verse. following what the Lord has said,
they that are whole need not a physician, but they that are
sick. And when he refers to that, he
really means those who are sinners. Because a sinner is spiritual
illness, spiritual sickness. And that's what we need to be
cured from. It's not natural sickness. It's spiritual sickness. And
that's why the Lord makes this point so very clearly. They that
behold need not a physician, but they that are sick. And then
he says, but go ye and learn what that meaneth. I will have
mercy and not sacrifice, for I am not come to call the righteous
but sinners to repentance. And of course the Lord there
is referring to those who consider themselves to be righteous, naturally,
like the Pharisees did. Not those who are truly righteous,
who the Lord has made righteous, who the Lord has clothed with
that glorious robe of his righteousness. And so the Lord comes and directs
the Pharisees really are to what true religion is and how needful
it is and so he says go and go ye and learn what that meaneth
and how we should all be concerned to have a spiritual understanding
of the great truths of God it's very easy isn't it to just as
we might say learn the law of God just as we might learn things
naturally as at school just learn something but here the Lord is
really referring to you and I learning things in a spiritual way and
if you and I learn things in a spiritual way it's when the
Lord comes and touches our hearts our innermost being and that
is what is real. And that is what we all need
to know. That God is dealing with our
hearts. We might say God is dealing with
our eternal souls. And how often we find we're more
concerned indeed about natural things than we are about spiritual
things. And yet natural things perish
and vanish away. Spiritual things are eternal. And so may we have that desire
to be found with our hearts and affections upon things above
and not on things on the earth. And so, when Jesus heard that,
he said unto them, they were asking the question, why eateth
your master, republicans and sinners? They didn't realise
the Pharisees, the need for salvation. They only were concerned about
an outward performance, an outward sacrifice, and how sad that is,
and how we see many people today still satisfied with just an
outward form, an outward religion. and not actually the true blessed
work of the Holy Spirit. In the book of Samuel, the Lord
speaks to us indeed through Samuel. And in the 15th chapter, it's
the account of Saul and what he was told to do. And you may
remember that Saul said to Samuel in verse 20 of chapter 15 in
the first book of Samuel. And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea,
I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have gone the way which
the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag, the king of Amalek, and
have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the spoil,
sheep and oxen, the chief of the things, which should have
been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal. Now, they'd been told what to
do, and they hadn't destroyed everything. And therefore Samuel
said, hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings. You see, Saul had said, well,
they kept the best things for sacrifice unto the Lord thy God
in Gilgal. And clearly Saul thought that
was a good thing. But Samuel told him, hath the
Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in
obeying. the voice of the Lord. Behold,
to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of
rams. The Lord points out very clearly
that which Saul should have done. And the word goes on in the next
verse to say, for rebellion And that's really what the people
had, and really that's what Saul had. For rebellion is as the
sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the
word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king. how important it is that we're
not found alongside Saul and doing those things which we might
assess to be right. where as you see God had instructed
them what they should do and they had disobeyed the word of
the Lord and that really is what we can see the Lord is referring
to here in this verse to realise the truth of these things but
go ye and learn what that meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice
yes he wanted to point out to these Pharisees what was right
and what was wrong. And they were relying on an outward
form of religion. And they were satisfied with
it. And you only have to remember that little account of that parable
the Lord gave of the Pharisee and the publican. And they were
both praying and have forced the publicans prayer was and
how blessed the Pharisee's prayer was and how blessed the publicans
prayer was. And the difference was that the
Pharisee was praying to himself. The publican was praying to his
God. They were very different prayers.
The Pharisee was proud of his religion. The publican recognized
He was a sinner and needy mercy himself. He didn't point fingers.
You see, the Pharisee pointed fingers, not like that man. But the Pharisee, the publican
didn't point fingers. He looked at himself and he realized
what he was. And therefore, what did he pray?
A very real prayer. God, be merciful to me a sinner. Well, God gives us grace to look
at ourselves, to look at our own hearts. Then we don't point
fingers at other people. It's then we look at ourselves
and we see what a sinner we are. And so here, on this occasion,
we see the Lord speaking to the Pharisees, speaking very clearly,
and telling them, go and learn, go and learn what that meaneth, how ignorant
they were, and yet they thought they were right. They thought
they knew everything, and they thought They were being critical
in a right way. And the Lord says to them, go
ye and learn. What that mean is, I will have
mercy and not sacrifice. And then he comes and tells them,
for I am not come to call the righteous, the self-righteous.
No, but sinners to repentance. Well, what a glorious truth this
is. What wonderful gospel this is. Really, the whole of the gospel
is, you can say in these few words, sinners brought to repentance. Every true, born-again child
of God is a sinner brought to repentance. Again, sometimes
we can just pass over these things. And yet the Lord Jesus said,
when he was on the earth, that one of the first things he said,
after he'd been baptized, and we're told, in a fourth chapter
of this same gospel in verse 17. From that time, Jesus began
to preach and to say, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is
at hand. And this is a true godly repentance. What a blessing it is then when
the Holy Spirit gives us true repentance, not a false repentance. Not something which is just of
the flesh, but something which emanates from the very heart. The Apostle Paul knew what it
was to have godly sorrow and godly repentance. And in the
second epistle of Paul to the Corinthians and the seventh chapter,
And the 10th verse, this is what he tells the Corinthians. For
godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repenting
of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death. There's a big
difference between godly sorrow and just the sorrow of the world. Because godly sorrow is sorrow
for sin before God. Because what that really means
is that we have offended God. Because we have disobeyed God. Saul disobeyed God. The people that we referred to
disobeyed God. But there was no sorrow for it. No godly sorrow. They didn't
come before God and mourn their sins like that publican that
I referred to. who came and cried out. He smote
upon his breast and hung down his head and said, God, be merciful
to me, a sinner. There was godly sorrow. Godly sorrow. And the apostle
in this letter to the Corinthians, he does really home in on this
position and this point. And he tells us this in just
a few verses previous to this 10th verse. He says, for though
I made you sorry, with a letter that the apostle had written
to them, I do not repent, though I did repent, for I perceive
that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were but
for a season. Now I rejoice, not that ye were
made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance. For ye were made
sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us
in nothing. It's very important for us in
the day and age in which we live to recognise the difference between
true repentance and that which is false. and true repentance
can be quite easily analysed by just confirming that it is
godly sorrow for sin. Well, we've all sinned, without
any doubt. But the wonderful blessing is
that when the Holy Spirit of God comes and touches our heart,
perhaps we can say works in our heart and brings about a real
change that real change then produces not just mere words
but it produces godly sorrow we're really sorry for sinning
against God really sorry for doing those things contrary to
the Word of God and that's why we come to the 10th verse which
says, for godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation you see
the very important reference to salvation the saving of our
souls so what do we conclude from that? We conclude this,
that without godly sorrow, there is no salvation. We are not saved. Our souls are
not delivered. We still remain in a lost condition. But what a blessing, what a wonderful
blessing, if God has brought us, as it were before him, We've
stood before Him and we've had to confess that we're guilty. We can't say like the Pharisee,
well I've lived a good life and I do this and I do that. No,
we come before God and we bow down and acknowledge
we are a sinner. A sinner before God and come
and say, We are sorry, really sorry for our sins. And what
a wonderful blessing, what a wonderful favour that is. And we can enter
in then and we can bless God and we can rejoice if God has
given us truly sorrow for sin, for godly sorrow. And that's
what it is. Remember, there's a big difference
between just being sorry and godly sorrow. Because it means
we really mean what we say, and we're really sorry before God.
And if we are really sorry before God, we would desire not to do
the same things, not to say the same things, which have been
sinful. But we desire to do those things
which are right, in accordance with the Word of God. For godly
sorrow worketh repentance, To salvation. To salvation. My friends, that's what we all
need. Our souls saved. Our souls eternally safe. And that's why we all need godly
repentance. It's a word that people sometimes
shy away from. And yet, the word of God is so
full of it. And especially as you read the
gospels and see that the Lord Jesus Christ began his ministry
with those words, repent and believe the gospel. We are without
excuse if we ignored such great and glorious truths. And we need
God to give us grace to repent. You see, you and I are stubborn,
hard-hearted, wretches, and left to ourselves. We do not repent
with godly sorrow. But when the Holy Spirit comes
and touches our heart and shows to us that before a holy God,
we are a sinner, and we may have to cry out, can ever God dwell
here? in such a heart as mine." Well
what a blessing it is then when the Holy Spirit comes and touches
our heart and we're blessed with this true repentance. And the Apostle Paul realised
what it was to be truly sorry for his sin. and to recognise
that he wasn't a little sinner. He didn't look around and say,
well that person's worse than me, and that person's worse than
me. What did he say? Well he wrote
to Timothy, his son in the faith. He wrote to Timothy, and this
is what he says in the first chapter of the first epistle,
in verse 15. This is a faithful saying, and
worthy of all acceptation. Well, it must be an important
statement, mustn't it? To be able to say that this is
a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. What's he
going to say? What's he going to say? That
Christ Jesus, the blessed Saviour, came into the world to save sinners. That was the reason the Lord
came into this world, to save sinners. Now, the Apostle Paul
could have stopped there, but he didn't. He went on, and this
is what he said, of whom I am chief. God had convinced the
Apostle Paul, that he was the worst sinner. Now, that's a wonderful
blessing when the Holy Spirit of God comes to us and, as it
were, churns up everything inside. And we see so many sins which
we'd never seen before. And we may have thought we were
a sinner, We may not have thought we were a very bad sinner, but
suddenly this light shone from the Holy Spirit of God, and we
saw there that there were sins that we'd never seen before. And from being what we might
say a little sinner, a small sinner, now under the searchlight
of God, We realize we're a great sinner. And then we can understand
then what the Apostle Paul said, of whom I am chief. Well, you know, it's good if
you and I can look into our hearts by the aid of the Holy Spirit
and come to the same conclusion and say, well, I understand what
Paul has said. But really, I think I'm worse
than Paul. I've sinned so much. And you
see, sin is not just in actions. It's not just in words. It is also in thoughts. If you and I, therefore, truly
analyse ourselves before God, In thought and word and deed
we will find how many, many sins there are. And what will that
bring us to? It'll bring us to what we read
off here in this 13th verse. True repentance. And what's happened? If that is so, we're told, Jesus
came. He came. I'm not come to call the righteous. He's come to call sinners to
repentance. I want a blessing, therefore,
this morning. If you and I, in our spiritual
life, can look back and see that the Lord has come and he's called
us It doesn't matter about anybody else. He's called us to truly
be sorry for our sin. And what do we therefore say?
For I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Well, this will be good news
to us. We will indeed be very thankful
then that we have such a Saviour. the Lord Jesus Christ. He came to seek and to save that
which was lost, that sinner which had no hope in themselves. What
does it make us do? Well, the Apostle Paul knew very
well what it would make us do. When he wrote to the Hebrews
beautiful book is the Hebrews and when he came to the 12th
chapter He tells us this and well, I'll
read the first two verses in 12th chapter wherefore I And
he's saying, wherefore, because the 11th chapter has given that
wonderful account of all those who were blessed with wonderful
faith to do tremendous things. And he says, therefore, wherefore,
seeing we also are compassed about with so great a crowd of
witnesses, let us, all of us, lay aside every weight, sinful
weights, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, lay it aside,
and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.
And then there's a wonderful secret. To run this race, to
be found looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of
our faith. See, God gives us faith to believe
the Lord will forgive our sins. What a blessing. You see how
the gospel shines forth. Looking unto Jesus, the author,
the one who begins in our soul this blessed work to convince
us of our sin and to cause us To cry to God for mercy. To cry to God that he will forgive
our sins. To bless us with true repentance. Looking unto Jesus, the author. Now the apostle saw the whole
picture. And he knew, therefore, that
if God has begun this great and glorious work in our souls he
won't leave us he won't drop us off along the road he won't
say well I've had enough of you forget about you no he says he
says he's the author and the finisher of our faith you see
God finishes his work there are no failures with God We should
always remember that. No failures with God. There are
failures with men. What a blessing it is to know
then that this is the God that we have. And I hope this is the
God that we adore. And I hope this is the God that
we truly rejoice in. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of our faith. And the Apostle goes on to tell
us some beautiful truths. Who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross. Now there is joy set before all
the Church of God and that joy is that by God's grace one day
being found in heaven with the Saviour forever and ever. And this surely is a wonderful
joy, a wonderful blessing to look forward to. And so we read
here about the Saviour Himself, who for the joy that was set
before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set
down at the right hand of the throne of God. And so the apostle
goes on, for consider him. This will always bring things
into a good perspective. It'll give us a good picture.
It'll give us a good reason for the position we find ourselves
in. To think the Lord suffered like this, who endured the cross,
despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the
throne of God. For consider him that endured
such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied
and faint in your mind." Sometimes we're almost tempted to give
up. And we think, well, can ever God dwell in such a bad heart
as I have? I just don't seem to get any
better. And actually, in fact, I seem to get worse. Well, when we're in that situation,
we are to consider Him, what He endured to save our souls. And remember, there are no failures
with God. Every sinner born of the Spirit
of God will get safe home to glory. Yes, God doesn't have
failures. Thankfully, God rules and reigns. And what a wonderful Wonderful
blessing it is to realize that we have such a Savior. A Savior
who doesn't deal with us indeed, as our sins deserve. When the
Apostle wrote to his son, also, Titus, again a lovely little
epistle, and in the second chapter we're told this. He speaks to
Titus, he says, 11th, 1st, 2nd, chapter 4, the grace of God that
bringeth salvation, hath appeared to all men, teaching us that,
denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly,
righteously and godly in this present world. So wonderful words
there the Lord sets before us through Paul as he writes to
Titus to realise the relevance in our lives today, teaching
us You see, this was necessary. We read here in this 13th verse,
but go ye and learn. Teaching, teaching, teaching
us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, two things that
very easily tempt us. We should live soberly, righteously,
Godly in this present world and then he goes on and then this
you see there's never a vacuum There's never a void in the things
of God. We're not told on one side would
do this and that's the end There's always a fulfillment and this
is what he says looking for that blessed hope and The glorious
appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. So on
the one side There is a denying of the things of the world, the
things of the flesh, which only drag us down. And then the other
side, there's a looking for the blessed hope and the glorious
appearing of the great God and our Saviour, Jesus Christ. And
surely this second aspect outweighs the first by a long way. Well
what a great blessing it is to realise that we have such a saviour,
a great God and our saviour Jesus Christ who gave himself for us. Don't lose sight of that. The
Lord Jesus Christ gave himself. He died upon the cross to take
away all our sins so that we are washed in the precious blood
of Christ, redeemed by the blood of Christ, who gave himself for
us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, all our sins, every
sin, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of
good works. Well, I hope that you and I are
zealous of good works and we desire to walk in the way exhorted
to us here by the Saviour Himself when He addressed the Pharisees
on this occasion and said, But go ye and learn what that meaneth. I will have mercy. And indeed,
mercy is welcome news indeed. Mercy and not sacrifice, for
I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Amen.