Alright brethren, let's turn
to Mark chapter 2. Speaking of our Lord, it says,
As He passed by, Mark 2.14, As He passed by, He saw Levi,
the son of Alphaeus, this is Matthew, He was sitting at the
receipt of customs. And he said unto him, follow
me. And he arose and followed him. Let's go to the Lord. Our God and our Father, we thank you for your holy, wise
hand guiding us, protecting us continually. Thankful, Lord,
that you give us boldness to come to you in your holy high
throne through Christ your Son. Lord, we ask you now to teach
us, send forth your Spirit, speak to our hearts, and Lord,
if you're willing, we ask you to Increase our faith. We ask You to subdue our sin
nature. We ask You, Lord, to call out
one of Your lost sheep. Lord, work it for Your honor
and glory. Magnify Christ. It's in His precious
name we ask it. Amen. The Lord Jesus Christ, Son of
God, is the Great Physician. He's the Great Physician. Jehovah
Rapha, Jehovah Rapha, I am the Lord that healeth thee. That's
who He is. I am the Lord that healeth thee.
He's the God-Man. God came down here in human flesh,
and as the mediator between God and His people, He reconciled
His people to God. He purged our sin, put it away,
and reconciled His people to God. And He comes to us and speaks. He comes to us and He speaks.
And He heals us. When He speaks, He speaks the
Word into our heart. The living Word. The incorruptible
seed. And He creates life. And He keeps
calling us. And He renews us. And He strengthens
us. And He protects us and keeps
us. He's the great physician. The great physician. He unites
us with Him in spirit so that in that new man, there's no sin. We're united with Him. We're
one in Him. We're one spirit in Him. That
hidden man of the heart, which Peter said is incorruptible.
Can't be corrupted. It's where He abides. And where
He abides, there's righteousness. Where He abides, He sanctifies. And he's the life of that new
man. He's the healing power that makes life and keeps life and
sustains life within. Now Levi here, Matthew, he was
a publican. He was a tax collector. Very
covetous sinner. Probably he was a wealthy man.
He probably had made his living oppressing people. probably in crooked ways. But he's dead in sins, dead in
sin. And with two words, just spoke
two words, follow me. And the Lord made him whole.
Follow me, and he gave him life, spiritual life, and made him
whole inwardly. He granted him repentance with
those two words. Follow me, and he granted him
repentance. We can preach and preach and
preach and say all these things in our words. It's this word. It's his word. And it's him speaking
his word into the heart. And he grants repentance, a total
change of mind. Levi saw himself in a totally
different way. He saw himself a thieving, sinful
tax collector in need of salvation. And he changed his mind. He granted
him repentance. He changed his mind concerning
Christ. He saw Christ as all is salvation. Just two words. Follow me. And so right then, he began following
Christ from that new man that had been created within him.
And he made a feast at his house. He invited all his friends, all
his co-workers and friends. He invited them all. He wanted
them to meet Christ, his Savior. Verse 15, and it came to pass
that as Jesus sat at meat in Levi's house, many publicans
and sinners sat also together with Jesus and his disciples,
for there were many, and they followed him. The Lord Jesus
was so lowly and so meek, so merciful to sinners. He came
into this house, he sat down, and there's many publicans and
sinners sat down together with him and his disciples. Many of
them it said, there were many, and they followed him. Verse
16, 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? I wonder how they
said this. I wonder how they said this. Well, they said it to the disciples,
but the Lord heard. Verse 17, and when Jesus heard,
he said 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. The reason that sinners do not
come to Christ is because they think they're whole. The reason
sinners don't come to Christ, they think they're whole. He
said, they that are whole have no need of the physician, but
they that are sick. Whole people don't need a physician.
Sick people need the physician. And every person born in this
world is a sinner. Everyone is sick, but very few
believe they're sick. Very few believe it. It's not
sin that's keeping a sinner from Christ. Sin doesn't keep a sinner
from Christ. If God makes us, if He grants
us repentance and changes our mind to see what just, what something
of the sinfulness we are and the sin we are, we'll flee to
Christ. He shows us Christ, we'll flee
to Christ. The reason men do not come to
Christ for mercy is they don't think they have a need of Christ.
I don't think they have a need of Christ. Only true sinners
need mercy. They that are whole have no need
of the physician, but they that are sick. The great physician
didn't come to heal the whole. He didn't come to call the righteous.
Listen to what he says here. I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. Christ says, I came not to call
the righteous. He said this to the scribes and
the Pharisees who thought they were righteous. He's saying to
them, I did not come to call you. That's what he's saying to them. They didn't want him
to call them. They didn't think they needed
him to call them. What does he mean here by the righteous? Well,
he does not mean that any are truly righteous of ourselves.
That's not what he means. There are none righteous, no
not one. He doesn't mean that there are some that are righteous
and they don't have a need for him to call them. That's not
what he means. Nor does he mean that he does
not call some who vainly imagine they are righteous. That's all
of us by nature. Saul of Tarsus is an example.
He said, I was blameless. Nobody could accuse me of sin.
I was blameless. But when the Lord made him know
what the law said about him, made him see himself, then he
saw he didn't have any righteousness. He didn't have any righteousness.
His very nature was sin. So who are the righteous? The
righteous that Christ called, who are they? Who are the righteous
that Christ said he didn't come to call? The righteous are sinners,
but they imagine they're righteous. They think they're righteous. The righteous compare themselves
with others worse than themselves to make themselves feel righteous.
It's a common practice. Remember Luke 18, 11, the Pharisee
stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I'm not
as other men. That's not really thanking God,
is it? I thank you, God, I'm not like other men. They're extortioners,
they're unjust, they're adulterers. I'm not even like this publican.
We're talking about a publican here that Christ called. We dare not make ourselves of
the number or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves,
but they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves
among themselves are not wise. The righteous imagine they can
give themselves spiritual life and believe on Christ whenever
they get ready, whenever they choose. Christ told Nicodemus,
you must be born from above. just flat out spiritually dead. You must be born from above.
Our Lord said, no man can come to me except my Father, which
is in heaven. Draw him. And everyone he draws,
he said, they're coming. And I'm not casting them out.
It's of his own will that he begat us with the word of truth,
with the incorruptible seed, the living word. That's when
He makes us willing by His power. That's when He makes us willing.
The righteous imagine they can make themselves holy by changing
their outward behavior and keeping the law outwardly before men. They can clean up the outside
and that'll make them righteous. That'll make them justified and
it'll make them accepted of God. The righteous only need a Jesus
that makes up for their shortcomings every now and then. Because every
now and then they fall a little short and they need Christ to
take up the slack when they fall a little short. But that's not
the great physician. The great physician does all
the saving. He does all the saving. It's
a person's sin, sin of thinking himself righteous. that keeps him from Christ. It's
the sin of thinking ourselves righteous that keeps us from
Christ. When God really makes us know
we're sinners, we'll run to Christ. We'll flee to Christ. We have
to have him. We have to have him. It's our
imaginary righteousness that keeps us from him. Thinking we
can bring some sacrifice to contribute. This is so common that after
A while, men think they bring something to Christ. Christ said
in Matthew 9.13, He said, Go ye, learn what that meaneth.
Speaking to these Pharisees, He said, Go ye, learn what that
meaneth. I will have mercy and not sacrifice. For I came, I'm
not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Mercy
means salvation's entirely of God. Mercy means it's entirely
of God. I will have mercy. not sacrifice. There's nothing we can sacrifice
to make the Lord receive us. He's not interested in our sacrifice.
Our Father sent His Son, who is the sacrifice God's pleased
with. He's the sacrifice that accomplished
everything the Father was pleased to accomplish and made His people
pleasing to God by His sacrifice. So salvation, beginning to end,
is all of grace. But if it's of works, then it's
no more grace. Otherwise, works not work. If it's works, it can't be grace.
But if it's grace, it can't be works. It's got to be one or
the other. And salvation is all of grace. Here's the good news.
Here's the good news for us. Every sinner, every sinner, this
is the good news, Christ said, I came to call sinners to repentance. That's the good news. The Apostle
Paul was an aged believer, been in the faith a long time, and
he rejoiced that that was so. Why? He said, this is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came in the
world to save sinners of whom I am chief. That's why he rejoiced
in this. After all those years and after
being used of God like he was used, he said, I'm thankful God
sent his son to save sinners because I am the chief. I am the chief. What does Christ
mean by a sinner? We see what He means by the righteous,
what does He mean by a sinner? What's a sinner? A sinner is
one that Christ, now everybody's sinners, we know this, everybody
fell in Adam, everybody's a sinner, but we're talking about sinners
that Christ calls. What is He referring to here
as a sinner? A sinner is somebody Christ has
made to see himself as he really is. As he really is. Seen himself as he really is.
Christ has granted him repentance. Christ has changed his mind about
himself. About himself. He was thinking
he was righteous. His mind has been completely
changed. He don't see one righteous thing about himself. All he sees
about himself is he's a sinner. He's a sinner. That's what Paul
meant all those years later when he said, I'm the chief. He said,
this is what I see about myself. I'm a sinner. A sinner is somebody
who sees that he's entirely ruined by Adam's transgression. So He came into the world ruined.
He came into the world guilty. He came into the world conceived
in sin. He came into the world under the curse and condemnation
of the law as far as He knew it. And He came into this world
conceived in sin with a sin nature that is nothing but sin so that
all He did is sin and all He does is sin. It comes from His
sin nature just like pouring water out of a glass. He's entirely in need of Christ
to be all salvation. Entirely in need of Christ to
be all righteousness. A sinner is somebody who's unrighteous. In himself, he's unrighteous.
To say I'm a sinner is to say of myself, in myself, I'm unrighteous. Except I be found in Christ,
I am unrighteous. Guilty of breaking the whole
law of God. Guilty. Guilty in Adam, but guilty
in myself. Guilty. Guilty. Caesians never kept God's law. Never kept God's law. Only broke
it. Only broke it. In thought. The thoughts of the sin nature
are only evil continuance. Never kept it. Never kept it. He needs Christ to make him righteous.
He needs Christ to be his righteousness. He needs Christ to justify him. To make him righteous. To make
him justified. To make it so when God looks,
when He opens the books, they're turned to pages. There's not
any record of sin, past, present, or future. That's the only way
God can have anything to do with us right now. That's the only
way He can receive us into His throne is if there is no record
that we've ever sinned, past, present, or future. We have to
be righteous. We have to be justified. Holy
God can't have anything to do with us otherwise. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. A sinner
It's somebody who knows his nature that he got from Adam is unholy. It's unholy. And as long as he
lives in this body, as long as he goes through this life, it
will always be a sinful nature. Nothing is done to his sinful
nature. The Lord doesn't do anything
to his sinful nature. It's just a sinful nature. that
the Lord is going to save him from with no help from him. The Lord is going to give him
the power and the new man. He is going to create a new life
in him. Give him power. Give him faith. Give him strength.
And give him all by pointing him to Christ. And all by making
him see Christ. And when he sees Christ, there
is the power. What is he called? The power
and wisdom of God. And that is the power. That is
the strength. Christ is our strength. He needs Christ to be his sanctifier. He needs Christ to be his sanctification. He needs Christ to be his holiness.
In his heart so that he looks to him at his right hand. A sinner
needs Christ to purge his conscience. He needs Christ to free him from
the guilt of his conscience. Purge his conscience to make
him know he is accepted of God. To make him know Christ has accomplished
his redemption by his precious blood. This is what Christ, when
Christ said to Levi, follow me. Those words came in spirit and
purged his conscience. Purged his conscience. By his
own blood he entered once into the holy place having obtained
eternal redemption. He obtained eternal redemption
for every single person He laid down His life for. He redeemed
us from the curse and condemnation of the law. And when He speaks
and says, follow me, it's the blood of Christ who through the
eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God who purges
our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. To make
us start following Christ and really following Christ. A sinner
sees he deserves nothing but condemnation. He sees that. He
knows that. He doesn't deserve anything but
condemnation. He needs Christ to cast out the
fear and the torment that's in his conscience. The Pharisees
here operated on fear and torment. That's how religion operates. False religion. On fear and torment.
They catch you and make you fearful and torment you. But listen to what the Lord does.
Listen to what the Lord does. That's not how the Lord saves.
That's not what the Lord does for His people. This is how He
saves us from that. This is how He saves us from
that method and that means. This is how He saves it from
us. Perfect love casteth out fear. He's that perfect love. He comes. He's the perfect love.
God is love. Perfect love enters in and He
casts out fear of making you know as He is, so are you in
this world. You are complete in Him. That's what He makes you know.
Love makes you want to love. Perfect love in laying down His
life for His people when we didn't love Him. Perfect love that come
to us when we didn't want Him to call us and we didn't want
Him to have anything to do with us. Perfect love that wouldn't
take no for an answer. Perfect love that enters in and
casts out the fear and the torment and makes you see the great love
wherewith He loved us. He makes us know That there He
sits at God's right hand, and there we sit at God's right hand
in Him. Perfect as He is, perfect. Righteous
as He is, righteous. Accepted as He is, accepted.
Though we're in this world, though we still have this sin nature,
though we still see our sin, and hate it, mourn it, and long
to be freed from it, we see Him. And when you see Him, and you
see Him as He is, every time He gives you a glimpse of Him,
That casts out the fear and the torment. You have somebody that
you want to see brought to Christ and you want to see them submit
to Christ and you want to see them believe on Christ. Don't
make them fearful. Don't try to make them do it.
Love them to Christ. Perfect love casts out fear. You can't make somebody love
you. You can't put love in the heart. But He can. He can. If we're true sinners,
there's good news for sinners. Christ said, I came to call sinners
to repentance. God is exalted in saving sinners. He's exalted in saving sinners.
Listen to Hebrews 8.12, I will be merciful to their unrighteousness
and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. You
see how His mercy is exalted? He is exalted as a merciful God. I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. Aren't you thankful He is merciful
to our unrighteousness? I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. Their sins and their iniquities,
I will remember no more. I'll remember them no more, he
said. God saving the guilty sinner
exalts the grace of God in Christ. The law entered that the offense
might abound. That it might abound to us. That
we might see what we are. That's why the law entered. Where
sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Grace much more
abounded. When he brings you to see just,
I mean, how undeserving and how deserving of wrath we are, grace
is just magnified to you. Grace is magnified to you. Grace
did much more abound. That as sin reigned under death,
even so grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life
by the things we do. No! By Christ Jesus our Lord. He's exalted. He's exalted as
the Great Physician. The love of God is exalted in
saving a sinner. And this was manifested, the
love of God toward us, When we hated God, our nature is enmity
against God. Have you ever hated God? If we've
never hated God, we don't know a thing about the love of God
yet. How does hatred of God manifest
itself? I don't hate God. That's how. It calls God a liar. But I've got something I've got
to do. That's how. You can't tell me none of my
works don't count for something. That's how hatred manifests itself
to God. And this was manifested, the
love of God toward us, because God sent His only begotten Son
into this world that we might live through Him. There's only
one way you're going to live. That's if you're made perfectly
righteous as God. And that's what he did, that's
what he accomplished, that's what he accomplishes in his people.
When he creates you, the body is dead because of sin, the spirit
is alive because of righteousness, his righteousness. The righteousness
of God is exalted in saving a sinner. Because Christ manifests his
righteousness in justifying his people by satisfying God's holy
law. You see the righteousness of
God. You see the righteousness of God. God didn't just He didn't
just ignore our sin, He sent His Son and paid the full penalty
that was owed. The full penalty that was owed.
He paid everything His people owed. He satisfied God for His
people. God says, they're righteous. God says of you believers, you're
righteous. You're righteous. and it's done
in a righteous way. God did it. God did it. God satisfied
his own justice. Salvation by mercy excludes all
merit in its object. Salvation by mercy takes away
any merit from us. It's by mercy, not merit. Christ
is the great physician who alone heals. This is the thing. It
exalts Christ. It exalts His Son. It makes us
see He is the Great Physician. Christ is eternal life. He is
eternal life. He is righteousness. He is wisdom. He is redemption. He is the power. He is the holiness. He is God
who came and healed His people. and comes in power by his gospel
and says, follow me and he heals you. And here's the thing about
this now, this is the paradox of being made whole. When we
weren't whole, we didn't see ourselves as sinners. We were
whole, we thought. But when he makes you whole and
there's a new man in you that's whole, now you see I constantly
need the great physician. If we weren't whole, we wouldn't
see it. If we didn't have this new man, we wouldn't see what
we are by nature. Do you struggle with it? Do you
really feel like you're carrying a dead body around? You ever
just sit and say, I'm going to go one minute and I'm not going
to have a sinful thought? If you put that law on yourself,
that restraint on yourself, it won't be 20 seconds. Some men don't have that problem.
Some people don't have that problem because they're whole. They don't
need the physician. If you've got a new man in you,
you're struggling with sin every day. Let's be honest about this.
It's so. He never stops calling his child
to repentance. He never does. He's constantly
having to purge us and cleanse us in the inward man and make
us see, this is sin. This thought's sinful. This act's
sinful. This word's sinful. How does
he do that? Turns you from you to him. We
go, we compared ourselves to, well, I, but I don't, that's
not as bad as this such and such did. I know they did. He turned
to him, here's righteousness. Oh, I'm nothing but sin. I'm nothing but sin. And that,
with that is the bomb. What's the bomb of Gilead? It
is the great physician. It's his word. It's his righteousness. It's him speaking into the heart.
That's the power. At the end, you can mortify your
flesh, but you can't until the end. What is it? What is it to confess your faults to one
another? When a brother is in error, it's to know what you
are about yourself, the sin you are, so that you can come alongside
and say, brother, I know. I'm the sinner. I know. Look
to Christ. Look to Christ. Don't look to
yourself. Don't look back at your works.
Don't try to do some deed to mend yourself and reform yourself. Cast all that away. Look to Christ. It's the only way we can be kept. It's the only way we won't be
back in fear and torment. We have to experience that perfect
love ourselves to see we're nothing. Scott Richardson said, let me
offend some sensitive ears. Scott Richardson said we're a
bucket of warm spit. That's what we are. Just nothing. Nothing. I can't preach us down
low enough. But that's where we got to be
if we're going to be. It's broken hearted. It's really
broken hearted. Until then, it's a bi attitude. Why does your master eat with
publicans and sinners? We wouldn't do that. He should
be eaten with us. That's what they were saying.
He ought to be with us, not with them. That's what God has to
keep saving us from all the time. Ishmael's way older than Isaac.
He always will be as long as we're in this body. So God has to... He has to keep
calling us out of the grave and saying, loose him, let him go,
take the grave clothes off of him. And we're gonna be shedding
grave clothes the rest of our days. Until finally we just cast
this dead body off by his grace and he makes us perfectly whole. A true sinner saved by grace
needs Christ to continue showing mercy and granting repentance
by renewing us daily, daily. I don't think there's a day go
by that he doesn't bring me to cry out and say, Lord, create
in me a clean heart, renew in me a right spirit. I need the inward man to be renewed
day by day. Well, Christ called Levi because
he was a sinner. Made him know he was a sinner.
And he's called many others, and he's still calling sinners
today. Are you one? Oh, I am a sinner. I need mercy. I need new mercy. I need mercies
on mercies. But thankfully, brethren, if
you need Christ to do all and to be all, and you cry out for
mercy to Him, He shows mercy. He just keeps showing mercy.
You think, surely I've exhausted His mercy Don't ever exhaust
it. He keeps showing you mercy. And oh, aren't you thankful.
It makes you go to Him, rejoice in sin. He only is my rock and
my salvation. He's my defense. I shall not
be greatly moved. He's the great physician. Amen. Father, thank you for this word.
We ask you to bless it to our hearts. Lord, thank you, thank
you for, thank you for relieving your people, taking the burden
off of us. Thank you for, Lord, keeping
joy in our heart. Lord, keep this work ongoing
in your people. Keep renewing us. Keep making
us whole. Lord, we ask you, would you be
pleased to call one? Call one of your people. Call us. Call each of your people
you've already called. Call us right now. We ask you,
Lord, call us again. Lord, we pray that you always
have the glory. Thank you for your mercy. Thank
you for your righteousness, Lord. Thank you for all the unsearchable
riches you've given us in Christ. Thank you for making us whole.
In Christ's name we pray, amen.