Good morning. Let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number 110. 110. Alas, and did my Savior bleed,
and did my Sovereign die? Would He devote that sacred hay
for such a worm as I? Was it for crimes that I have
done He groaned upon the tree Amazing did He grace unknown
And love beyond degree Well might the sun in darkness
hide, And shut his glories in, When Christ the mighty Maker
died, For man the creature's sin. But drops of grief can ne'er
repay The debt of love I owe. Here, Lord, I give myself to
thee, Tis all that I owe. Be seated, we'll sing hymn number
145. 145. Hail Thou once despised Jesus
Hail Thou Galilean King Thou didst suffer to release us Thou
didst free salvation Savior, bearer of our sin and
shame. By thy merits we find favor,
life is given through thy name. As for Lamb, thy God appointed,
all our sins only were lame. ? My almighty love anoints you
? ? Thou hast full atonement made ? ? All thy people are forgiven
? ? Through the virtue of thy blood ? ? Opened is the gate
of heaven ? ? Jesus filling throne in glory
? ? There forever to abide ? ? All the heavenly host adore thee
? ? Seated at thy father's side ? ? Therefore sinners thou art
cleaning ? ? There Thou dost our place prepare ? ? Ever for
us interceding ? ? Till in glory we appear ? ? Worship God in
power and blessing ? ? Thou art worthy to receive ? ? He spread out season ? ? Need
it is for us to give ? ? Help me guide angelic spirits ? ?
Bring your sweetest, noblest slaves ? ? Help to sing our Savior's
praises ? ? Help to change Emmanuel's praise ? Mark chapter 2. Mark chapter 2. Start at verse 13. And he went forth again by the
seaside, and all the multitude resorted unto him, and he taught
them. And as he passed by, he saw Levi
the son of Alphaeus sitting at the receipt of custom, and said
unto him, Follow me. And he arose and followed him.
And it came to pass that as Jesus sat at meat in the house, many
publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus and his disciples. For there were many, and they
followed him. And when the scribes and Pharisees
saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples,
How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners?
When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole
have no need of the physician, but they that are sick I came
not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Our great and glorious God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's in his blessed, holy, righteous
name that we come into your presence. Come into the holiest of holies.
Come there where the blood's been applied, where the blood's
been shed and put on your altar there by our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, Lord, we come into the presence
of an infinitely holy and righteous God. And we come, Lord, boldly,
not because of us, any merit we have, any rights we have,
or any power we have, any merit we have. We come because He has
all the righteousness. He has all the power. He has
all the merit. And so, Lord, we come in his
blessed name. Father, we thank you for the
day you woke us up this morning, clothed in our right minds, with
a desire to come worship the Lord God, in our hearts to come
and honor him and glorify him and exalt him, and also to acknowledge
our need of him Lord, we need you in our presence today. We
need your power. We need you to come among us,
visit this vine, come visit the trees of righteousness of your
plenty. And Lord Jesus, now we pray for
those among us whose bodies are weak, those who are not with
us because their bodies are very weak, sick, and we ask that you
would meet the needs of them and save sinners in this place,
cause the gospel to run well. Have mercy, O Lord Jesus Christ,
upon our lost loved ones. We ask these things in our blessed
Savior's name. Amen. Let's stand together as we sing
the hymn of the day in the bulletin. Complete in thee, O work of mine,
Take, dear Lord, the place of thine Thy blood has pardoned. and thou complete in thee. Complete in thee, no more shall
Thy grace has conquered grave, Within Thy courts we'll bid the
tender leave. shall stand complete in Thee. Complete in Thee, each need supplied, to me denied. Since now my portion, Lord, shall
be, I ask no more. Dear Savior, when before thy
bar All tribes and tongues assembled are Among the chosen Life incomplete in Thee. What do you say, dude? What we have, and what I read
to you just a little while ago here in Mark, is a call of a
publican. Our Lord Jesus, as He passed
by, saw Levi, there in verse 14, the son of Alphaeus, sitting
at the receipt of custom, and said unto him, Follow me. And
he arose, and follow him. You know, a publican was one of the most hated, despised,
maligned people by the Jews. The Jews hated them, and they
were Jews that had done it because they were tax collectors for
the Roman government. And of course, all of them got
well. They charged a little extra, you know, to take up the taxes. You remember Zacchaeus was the
chief publican. He was one of the wealthiest,
and our Lord Jesus, He said when He called him, He said, I'll
restore four-fold anything I took that I shouldn't have took. So,
you know, he owned up to what he was, and these fellas got
wealthy. They enriched themselves, and
most of them became very, very wealthy. And this Matthew was
also the one that wrote the book of Matthew, but here s the first
time he s called. Here s when our Lord Jesus called
him, and our Lord said, Follow Me, and let me ask you this. Could Matthew have said, No? Could Matthew say, No, I m not
following you, I m not going to do it? Could he have said,
No? Huh? I'll tell you this, if He
COULD have, He WOULD have. And if you can fall away, you
WILL fall away. If you can leave the gospel,
you WILL leave the gospel. There's no ifs, ands, or buts
about it. When God starts the work, He FINISHES the work. And
if salvation, I'll tell you this, if salvation is not of grace,
you know what it ends up being? something by humanity, something
that man has to do for himself. It s either altogether of grace
or altogether of man. You can t mix the two. You can
t mix the two. But look, it says there in verse
13, let s go down through these verses together. And He went
forth again by the seaside. This is after He forgave the
man of his sins and told him to get up and walk out, and so
He left there and went down by the seaside, and a great multitude
went down there where He was. And as they was gathered around,
He taught them. Our Lord Jesus was a preacher,
our Lord Jesus was a teacher, and that's the thing that He
done the most of all. And then all of a sudden as He
passed by, as He passed by, and I thank God He passes by,
You know how many times it said, and he passed by? He passed by
when Bartimaeus started crying out. He passed by when the woman
had her son in a casket on his way to bury him. Our Lord passed
by and gave that young man life again. When our Lord passes by,
He passes by for not just any reason, He passes by. He got
a reason. Something's gonna happen when
He passes by. And if He ever passes by here and passes by
you and does something for you, He'll do it like Matthew. He'll
give you a call. He passes by and He just, you know, we think
of somebody just walking along, passing by, but our Lord don't
do things like that. When He passes by, there's a
purpose in Him passing by. He knows exactly where He's going.
He knows who He's going to deal with. He knows what He's going
to do. But he uses these words to make
you think, well, he's just walking along, and all of a sudden he
looks over and sees this fella. He said, I think I'll do something for him. And he saw Levi, and
he saw Levi. And Levi was sitting. He was
sitting. And as he passed by, the Scripture
says, he saw. He saw. First thing I want you
to notice about Him calling Matthew here, or son of Levi, Matthew,
as He was sitting there, and He called him and said, Follow
Me, and he arose and followed Him. First thing I want you to
understand that it was a call of grace. It was a call of sovereign,
free grace. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, Follow
Me. He didn't ASK him to follow Him.
He didn't BEG him to follow Him. He didn't INVITE him to follow
Him. He didn't say, If you WANT to, you can follow Me. He said,
FOLLOW ME! And the fellow was sittin' and
he was workin'. And he is callin' one who is
HATED by the Jews. He's callin' one who's DESPISED
by them. One who is REJECTED by them.
One who is CURSED by them. And that's who he calls. HE CALLS
PEOPLE THAT'S THE LEAST LIKELY TO BE CALLED. HE SAVES THE LEAST
LIKELY TO BE SAVED, and that's the way this man was. But look
what it says, He saw him. He saw him. You know when our
Lord first saw Matthew or saw Levi? You know when our Lord
first saw him? In eternity. He first saw Him in eternity.
He saw Him as one of His elect. He saw Him as one of His chosen
one. And you know why He brought by,
come by and called Him? You know, He knew who was going
to write the book of Matthew, so He was chosen, He was elected,
and He was started out as a publican, and He ended up being one of
the apostles. And He'd been the one who wrote
the book of Matthew. So our Lord, you reckon why He
went by there? Because He's one of His own. He's one of His elect, one of
His chosen. And thank God He elects. If God
didn't choose us, there's no way in the world we'd ever choose
Him. If God didn't call us, we wouldn't call on Him. If Christ
didn't come to us, we'd never go to Him. That's just the way
it is, ain't it? That's why He says, In the day
of His power, in the day of His power, and that's what's going
on here, the act of the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
power of Christ Himself said, Follow Me. And when Christ said,
In the day of His power, His people are made willing, you
reckon He did something He didn't want to do? No, no. And I tell you what, And you
know, our Lord didn't beg him, didn't invite him, and didn't
compromise with him. Didn't compromise him. Christ
has the power, and the only one who has the power to call men
out of this world. And without a call, without a
call from Christ, without a call from the Holy Spirit, without
a call, no soul can ever be saved. Nobody can. Nobody will. Matthew was working, he was sitting,
he wasn't doing anything but just doing his job and getting
wealthy doing it. But without this call, no one
can be saved. This idea that I can accept Jesus
anytime I want to is as foreign to the scriptures as anything
that could ever be. And I tell you what, he's called
He was called according to God s purpose. Do you know God saves
men on purpose and calls men on purpose? And when it said
here He passed by, He passed by on PURPOSE. He had a PURPOSE
for this man. He has a PURPOSE in calling someone. He doesn t indiscriminately call
people. And here our Lord Jesus Christ
acts as a SOVEREIGN, as an OMNIPOTENT I tell you what, and you know
why He acts as a sovereign? Because He IS a sovereign, and
He doesn't call or save somebody on any reason other than His
own grace, other than His own grace. The only reason He does
anything for anybody, you have to find it in Himself. You cannot
find it in YOURSELF as to why He calls you. You can't find
it in YOURSELF as to why He'd save you. You can't find it in
your mind why He'd do anything. You can't find it in your heart.
There's no reason for God to save a man and call a man other
apart from the free grace of God in Christ. And I tell you what, do you know
one of the things that helps me in my preaching after all
these years? Is that I know that God will
do what He does on purpose. In spite of me, in spite of you,
in spite of our lack of praying, in spite of our lack of devotion,
in spite of our lack of commitment, in spite of our lack of faith,
I tell you Christ will do for, in spite of anybody, He'll save
His people. And He'll call them on purpose.
There's no accidents with Him. Now, we may call what's an accident,
but Christ has no accidents. He passed by, He passed by. And I tell you what, you know,
the only people He calls is, He don't look at the rich and
say, I'll call him, he'll do a good job for me. That's the
first thing a church, you know, when somebody, a big businessman,
they want him to, most social clubs, churches, they go, oh,
if a businessman comes in, oh, listen, he'd take care of our
business for us. He's got some power. He's got
some authority. He can do something for the Lord. God said, if I asked of you,
if I was hungry, would ask you anything? If I needed anything, what'd
I ask you? This whole earth and everything that's in it belongs
to me, but that's the way the world looks at things. Oh, I
remember, and I'll tell you this, and it hurt me, hurt me so bad
to hear her say this, but a young couple, the reason they went
to a particular church And they gave two reasons. I want to go
to people that own the same social and same economic level as we
are. That's a good reason to go in,
huh? Well, I tell you what, they'd be in business to come
here, uneducated. Oh boy, I tell you. That's a sorry reason to go,
but folks will find any reason to go and feel good about it,
thinking they're doing the right thing. But I'll tell you what,
our Lord Jesus Christ saves people by grace. God saves people by
grace. And I'll tell you, grace is powerful. Grace has got might to it. Grace
has got strength to it. Grace has got all the power of
God behind it when he wills to do something. It's like our Lord
Jesus Christ. He said, Zacchaeus! Come down. And you know what he told him?
He said, today I MUST abide at your house. I must. I'm not waiting for you to ask
me. I'm not waiting for you to invite me. I'm not waiting for
you to welcome me. He said, today I MUST abide at
your house. I'm coming home with you. Why,
Lord? Because salvation's come to your
house today. just told him, he just told him
what he was going to do and what was going to happen. Oh, what a Savior, what a Savior.
And then look out, Matthew or Levi, look how he responded,
look how he responded. And it says there in verse 13,
And he arose and followed him. He got up, got up out of his
seat, walked off and left his job. In Luke chapter 5, I'll
show you that in a little while, the scripture said he left all.
He was working, sitting there collecting taxes. There's no
telling how many people was lined up to pay their taxes to the
Roman government. And he got up, and there's money
on the table, He's working, he's sitting there, and he gets up
and walks off. Leaves all the money on the table.
Walked off from his job. Walked off from everything he
was doing. He left all, and they arose, and he said, follow me.
And Lord just kept going right on by, and he got up and fell
right in behind him. That's what happens to people
when Christ calls you. He says, follow me, you get right
up and start following behind. Oh, he had no idea that he'd
be called this day. He didn't know what was going
on. He didn't know Christ was going to call him today. Only person is surprised was
him. No doubt. I was no doubt in the
world that he didn't know who the Lord Jesus Christ was. He
knew who Christ was. He had HEARD of Him, He had heard
all the TALES about Him, heard of His MIRACLES, and He seen
that there was a CROWD FOLLOWING Him. Everywhere our Lord went,
there was a CROWD FOLLOWING Him, and there was a CROWD FOLLOWING
our Lord Jesus Christ, and Matthew looking up, and he sees that
CROWD FOLLOWING Him, and our Lord Jesus Christ just looked
at Him and SAW Him, saw one of His elect, saw one of His chosen,
and said, FOLLOW ME! He didn't go, oh boy, man, what
am I gonna do now? No, he just got up, got out of
his seat, walked off from his job, left everything that he
had, and followed Him. You reckon that, you reckon anybody
can know Christ when He says, follow me, that you don't follow
Him? Oh my, when I tell you what,
HE HEARD THE VOICE OF AUTHORITY, HEARD THE VOICE OF POWER, HEARD
THE VOICE OF MERCY, HEARD THE VOICE OF GRACE, AND I TELL YOU
WHAT, OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST SAID, MY SHEEP SHALL HEAR MY VOICE,
AND THEY THAT HAVE HEARD, THEY HEAR MY VOICE, AND THEY FOLLOW
ME. HE HEARD THE VOICE OF HIS MASTER,
HE HEARD THE VOICE OF HIS SAVIOR, HE HEARD THE VOICE OF HIS LORD
THAT DAY. And you know, you look at, he's
already called four men. Remember that? All of them were
fishermen. Every single one of them was
fishermen. And he passed by and two of them was fishing. Simon
and Andrew, come on, come on, come on now, follow me. They
dropped everything they had and left their nets and got out of
their boats and followed Him. He went on down the way a little
while and there's James and John, the sons of thunder. Our Lord
said, follow me, come on. And you know what they said?
Father, we're leaving now, we're gonna go, we're gonna follow
this man. And his daddy didn't say a word. And they followed
Christ. They followed Christ. Now I'm
asking you, can you know Christ and not follow Him? Can you not know Christ and follow
Him? And you know, when you're following somebody, you know
what you gotta do when you're following them? Keep your eye
on them. If you're following somebody,
keep your eye on them. You know, years ago, we used
to follow one another in cars going off to conferences and
stuff like that. And you always was anxious about the best of
the people in the back following the person going. They'd say,
well, I hope he stops pretty soon. I need to go to the bathroom. I hope he stops. Well, I hope
he stops and we get something to eat in a little while. And
you know, but you're following them and you get it. But listen,
you follow Christ and you keep your eye on him. Looking, looking, looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Keep your eye on
Him. If you're gonna follow somebody, keep your eye on them. Huh? Keep your eye on them. And I
may, I tell you, Abram, here's a fella, a man, he dwelt
on the other side of the flood. He was an idolater, him and his
daddy and his daddy's brother. God appeared to him and said,
Abram, leave your country, leave your family, leave everybody,
and go on to a land that I'll show you. And the scripture said
he went out, had no idea where he was going, but he went out. And you know why he went out?
Because a God of glory appeared unto him. And when the God of
glory appears unto a man and says, come out, you're coming
out. He didn't even know where he
was going. But we know where we're going. He didn't even know
where he was going, but he left. And then look what Matthew did
have. There in verse 15. I said 14
is where I was at, wasn't it? Yeah, he arose and followed him.
And it came to pass, and again it said it came to pass, that
as Jesus sat at meat in his house, whose house? Matthew's house. He left everything and he went
home, and you know what, look over, I want you to look in Luke
chapter five. Let's look together in Luke chapter
five. I want you to see the story of
it over here. He made him of great feast. He
set at meat in his house. But look here in Luke chapter
5, in verse 27. And after these things, he went
forth and saw a publican named Levi sitting at the receipt of
custom. And he said unto him, follow
me. And look what it says there. He left all, left all, and rose
up and followed him. And listen to this now, and Levi
made him a great feast in his own house. Over there it just
said, he said it me. Here it said he made him a great
feast. I like going to feast, don't you? I like feast. And here he was,
he made a great feast in his own house, in his own house. And you think about this, our
Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, being fed by a publican, going
into a publican's house. That's one of the worst things
you could ever possibly do. And this man was feeding the
Lord. This man made a great feast for the Lord Jesus Christ. But
you know, as he was feeding Christ and all those people that were
with him, our Lord was feeding HIM. Our Lord was feeding HIM,
what was He feeding Him? Mercy. What was He feeding Him? Grace, love, His love, His power,
His kindness, His compassion, His understanding. Oh, and I'll
tell you something, He has a supper prepared for us. You know, He
had a great feast prepared for Him, but He's got a great peace
prepared for us. It's called the Marriage Supper
of the Lamb. Marriage Supper of the Lamb. And oh my, but you go back over
here now in Mark chapter 5 and verse 15, it said, It came to
pass, as Jesus said at meat, in his house, in Simon Levi's
house, look what it says, many publicans and sinners, and over
in other places it says, a vast company, and many publicans and
sinners sat also together with Jesus and His disciples. And
there were many, and they followed Him. You know what this tells me?
That where Christ goes, The only people that felt comfortable
in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ were sinners. The only
people that felt comfortable and enjoyed being in the presence
of the Lord Jesus Christ were sinners. Religious people don't
like to be in His presence, but oh, these folks were publicans,
and that's what the Pharisees called publicans. They called
them sinners, they called them harlots, they called them Gentiles. I mean, THEY were hated! And
they sat together, I love this, they sat together with the Lord. You know, I believe right now,
I personally believe, this is what I believe, when Christ comes
into our services, or whether we're privately at home, whether
we're on our job or wherever we're at, that when we're with
Christ, we're together with Him, and He's together with us. I
believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is here this morning, and He's
with us together, and we're together with Him. It says we were together
when He lived. We were together when He died.
We were together when He rose again. We are together as we're
seated at the right hand of Him on high. And oh my, you're talking
about a place of hope. setting together with the Lord
Jesus Christ, these publicans and these sinners, with His disciples,
and it says they were many, and oh, to be where He is! Sinners
want to be where Christ is, and they want to be together with
Him, be together with Him, and I'm so thankful that He saved
sinners. But look what happens now, In
verse 16, look at this old self-righteous and proud, look at the self-righteous
and their pride. And when the scribes and Pharisees
saw him, Christ saw Zacchaeus, saw Zacchaeus, saw all of his
disciples, saw Simon, Levi sitting there, and then it says, when
the scribes and Pharisees saw him, listen to this, eat, eat
with publicans and sinners, They said unto his disciples, and
they asked him a question. How is it, how is it that he
eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners? That just bothered them to no
end. How is it? How is it? Here is supposed to
be your Savior, you're following Him everywhere He goes, and He's
sitting eating with a bunch of publicans. and he's sittin' and
eatin' with a bunch of sinners. But if you go through the Gospels
and look at what they said our Lord Jesus Christ did, and you
got exactly the Gospel because everything they accused him of,
that's what he did. He eats with publicans and sinners. Oh, I tell you, whatever they
had given, whatever the gospel, everything they charged him with,
that's his glory. But look what it went on to say
here now. Oh, my, they asked this question. Why didn't they
ask the Lord? Why didn't they ask the Lord
Himself? Why didn't they say to Christ, Why are you eating
with these publicans and sinners? You know that if you're a law
keeper and you know if you keep Moses and you know if you understand
the law, you can't do that. You're dwelling among unclean
people. You're dwelling against people that'll contaminate you.
And oh my, me and old Steve Dishman know a lot of folks back over
the years, years and years ago, the last thing they want to do
is be contaminated by a sinner. They had to dress a certain way,
they had to talk a certain talk. and they couldn't go certain
places or certain things they couldn't do. But oh my, but I
tell you this, how is it? Our Lord knew them and He knew
what they was. And let me tell you something,
self-righteous, what are they going to plead? When our Lord
Jesus Christ told them one day, He said, Republicans and harlots
will go into the kingdom of God before you'll know what's going
on. Republicans and harlots is going to enter the Kingdom of
Heaven, going to enter the Kingdom of God, and you yourselves will
be cast out. What are they going to say then
when those very ones that they hated and despised in their self-righteousness,
our Lord said, Listen, you know the ones that you hate? THAT'S
the ones going into the Kingdom of God. The ones you make fun
of, THAT'S the ones going into the Kingdom of God, and you're
not going to get in! You're not going to make it!
Huh? What are they going to plead
then? What are they going to say? You know what pride does? It
blinds men from themselves. That's the first thing it blinds
them of. The first thing pride does, and self-righteousness
does, it blinds them first and foremost to themselves. They
could see what's wrong with everybody else, but they couldn't see what's
wrong with them. They can see what everybody else is doing,
they couldn't see what they was doing. It's like our Lord, he
said, there was a fellow one time, he said he saw this little
thing right in the corner of a fellow's eye, right in the
corner of his eye, a little bitty tiny moat, you know, that just
barely was there. And this fellow said, listen,
let me get that moat out. Here, let me get. And our Lord
said, you think you're gonna get his moat out? He said, You
can't get His mode out because you've got a beam in your eye.
You can't see clearly yourself. You can see what's wrong with
the other fellow, but you can't see what's wrong with you. And
that's the way self-righteous people are. And I tell you, the
first person it deceives is themselves. Pride makes a fellow think more
highly of himself. Oh, he thinks highly of himself.
And I tell you what, it blinds them to grace. Don't blind them
to works, don't blind them to merit, don't blind them to church
membership, but it blinds them to grace. And it especially blinds
them from seeing Christ and seeing the Lord Jesus Christ. There
were sinners there and there was faithfulness there in our Lord
Jesus Christ. Well, look what our master said
now. in verse 16, and when the scribes and Pharisees saw him
eat with publicans and sinners, how is it? And then listen to
what our Lord said, now why didn't they ask him? But when Jesus
heard it, he said unto them, he spoke to them, spoke to them,
you want to know why I do this? He said, when he heard them,
he heard it, he said unto them, they that are whole, need to
have no need of a physician, but they that are sick. I came
not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Who needs
a physician? Now I've been to a lot of doctors
in my lifetime. And the only time you go to a
doctor is when you have a need, when you have a need. And that's
what our Lord Jesus Christ, you fellas don't need a doctor. There's
nothing wrong with you. You're not poor, you're not needy,
you're rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing.
And he heard. This is the answer that Christ
gave to the self-righteous, the proud religionists. Nothing wrong
with you all, nothing wrong with you at all. Everybody else, something
wrong with them, in your estimate. You're higher than anybody else.
Who could possibly have anything to do with the sinner? But one
of his most glorious offices is as a physician, as a physician,
as a physician. He heals by his stripes. We've been healed from our disease,
our disease of sin, from our blindness, from our deafness,
from our deadness, And oh, I tell you what, we continue
to go to our physician every day. You know why we go? Because we need him, we need
him, we need him, we need him. And look what our Lord's blessed
response was, blessed purpose, I should say blessed purpose.
He said here, they that are whole, not a physician, but they that
are sick, sick, sin sick, Sick of self, sick of self-righteousness,
just sick of self. Lord, I came not to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance. I want you to look with me in
Matthew chapter nine and verse 13. Matthew chapter nine, verse 13. Well, really look at verse 11
to get the context of it again as we talk about our Lord's best
blessed purpose. I come to call sinners, not the
righteous. And when the Pharisees saw it,
they said, Undisciples, why eateth your master with publicans and
sinners? But when Jesus heard that, He
said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician, but
they that are sick. And listen to what he says, but
he said, Go ye and learn what that means. I want you to learn
what it means. You thereof need not a physician.
Listen to what he says, Now I'll have mercy. It's my will to have
mercy. I don't want anything you got.
I don't want your sacrifices. I don't want anything you got,
don't bring me nothing, for I'm not come to call the righteous
but sinners to repentance." Our Lord Jesus Christ said, I'll
have mercy, I will have mercy. Paul prayed for Ephesus, he said,
over in Colossians, he said, Oh, I pray that he'll obtain
mercy of the Lord in that day. When Moses said, Lord, show me
your glory, do you know what his glory was? He called His
goodness to pass before Him, and He said, I'll have mercy
on whom I'll have mercy. I'll have compassion on whom
I'll have compassion. And our Lord has mercy, mercy. Go learn what that means. What
does it mean to be sick? What does it mean to have mercy,
need mercy? What does it mean for somebody
to not need a physician? And He says, you go and learn
what that means. Bartimaeus, Have mercy! O thou son of David,
stop Christ dead. That woman brought her daughter,
that Syrophoenician woman brought her daughter to the Lord Jesus
Christ. You know what the first thing
she asked said? Lord, have mercy upon my daughter. Have mercy
upon my daughter. And I tell you what, I need mercy every day of our,
oh my, I need mercy. I need mercy. And let me say
this, don't bring your self-righteous rags. Our Lord says, don't bring
anything to me but your need of mercy. Don't bring anything
to me but your sickness. Don't bring anything to me but
your emptiness. Don't bring anything to me but
your sin, sick, sorry soul. Bring it to me. And I, Lord,
said, if I was hungry, would you ask you? Cattle on a thousand
hills is mine. But he passes by. And if he ever
passes by you, and I pray that he'll pass by you, I pray that God will pass by
you and that when Christ sees you, He sees you right now. He
sees you. He sees where you are. He sees
what you are. He sees what you think you are. He sees what we think you are. But He sees what He knows you
are. He sees. One day He saw me. HE SAW ME BEFORE I WAS EVER BORN. SAW ME BEFORE MY DADDY WAS BORN. SAW ME BEFORE MY GRANDDADDY WAS
BORN. HE SAW ME BEFORE GOD CREATED
THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH. HE SAW ME BEFORE HE PUT ADAM
IN THE GARDEN. HE SAW ME And one day, one day, I was about 22 years
old, one day, he saw me. He saw me. Thank God he saw me. And bless his holy name, he called
me. And I'm gonna tell you how I
reacted the first time. I'll tell you this, how I reacted
when he called me. And I bowed down before him. And I said, Lord, why in the world would you do
anything for such a sorry, sorry dog like me? I know, and this
is God's truth. I'm telling you exactly what
I said. I said, Lord, why would you look upon someone and say,
sorry, sorry, dog is me. I know you absolutely owe me
nothing. I mean, I've seen my sin so black,
so dark, so miserable, so wretched. I said, Lord, I know you don't
owe me nothing, but if you will, if you will, Show me mercy. Please have mercy
on me. And you know how many times I've
prayed that since then? God only knows. God only knows. It's like Mephibosheth before
David. Oh, why you won't look upon me? For your father's sake. For Jonathan's
sake. God, for Christ's sake, looks
on His people. May He look on you, and when
He sees you, whether you're passing by, give you a call. Speak to you. And you know what? If He speaks to you, you'll be
the only one to hear it. I won't hear it, but you'll hear
it. The only one that got up that day and followed Christ
was the one He called. Nobody else got up and followed
him, just him. And I won't hear that voice when
he calls you, but you'll hear it. You'll hear it. Our father, the blessed name
of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for allowing me to
preach the gospel again this side of eternity. Thank you,
oh Lord, to bless me with the blessed privilege to be numbered among the living,
to be called of you, to be one of your sheep that heard your
voice one day. Lord, make it to be so in this
congregation. Make it to be so among those
who never heard your voice. Lord, you speak. Oh, they'll
hear. If you call them, they'll follow. And Lord, forgive us of everything
that's unlike you. Bring glory to yourself through
us in this congregation of believers. We ask it for Christ's sake.
Amen. Amen. 318, I think it is in this book. I
think that's what I'm looking for. Ain't that, I need thee? Yep, let's stand together and
we'll sing this and then you'll be at liberty to go. I need Thee every hour Most gracious
Lord No tender voice like Thine Can peace afford I need Thee,
oh I need Thee ? Bless me now my Savior ? I come
to Thee ? I need Thee every hour ? Stay
Thou nearby ? Temptations lose their power I need the area Enjoy your pain Come quickly
and abide Or life is vain I need thee, oh I need thee Oh, bless me now, my Savior,
I come to Thee. I need Thee every hour, most
holy one. O make me Thine indeed, Thou
blessed Son. I need Thee, O I need Thee, Every
hour I need Thee. O bless me now, my Savior, I
come to thee. See you tonight, six o'clock,
God willing.