Matthew chapter 9. My text will be found in verse
9. Matthew 9 and verse 9. And I've
entitled this message, A Call That Cannot Be Refused. A Call
That Cannot Be Refused. In Matthew 9, 9 it says, And
as Jesus passed forth, From thence he saw a man named Matthew sitting
at the receipt of customs and he said unto him, follow me. And he arose and followed him. Now tonight I want to preach
on the effectual call, the effectual call of God toward the sinner. And we're going to use Matthew
as an illustration. Matthew here is a pattern. He is an example of every one
of us who have been called by the Holy Spirit. He's a pattern
for all those called to faith in Christ. Now, I'm going to
start out by stating this. There is a call that can be refused. There is a call that can be refused
and this is what we term a general call. A general call can be refused. And we're going to see this in
our text in these few words here. And as Jesus passed forth from
thence. In other words, Jesus was somewhere
and He left. He left. He just passed by group
of people in order to get to Matthew Now this is not the only
place I remember if you remember the Story of Zacchaeus the scripture
says he passed through Jericho Now Jerry there is not one word
recorded of what the Lord did in Jericho He did as far as we
know he did nothing in this great city. He passed through all the
way through Jericho, because there was a man on the other
side of Jericho that he was getting to. Same thing is happening here. And the preceding verses, we
learn this, that Jesus did a miracle. These people saw a great miracle,
the healing of this man sick of the palsy. And they heard
the power of Jesus Christ to forgive sins. And yet none of them bowed. None
of them believed. The scripture says in verse 8
that when the multitude saw it, they marveled and glorified God. Listen what they glorified God
for. Because God had given power to a man. They glorified God for the miracle
of the healing of the man sick of the palsy. But what was the
real miracle? What was the real miracle? That
was just, when the Lord does miracles, He's not doing it to
show off. He's doing it for a purpose.
In every miracle, it is a gospel message that is being preached.
He is revealing something about Himself to these people. Now
what is the miracle of this that's greater than the healing of this
man? It was this. It was that Jesus Christ forgave
his sins That a man Looked at another
man and said son be of good cheer Thy sins be forgiven thee I think
of this man, you know, we often think that he wanted to be healed
of the palsy. I Really don't believe that he
this man came for a better purpose he came to him for forgiveness
and he received it and as a byproduct he did get healed but that was
not the main thing Jesus Christ is revealing in this miracle
in this miracle forgiveness that there's only one mediator between
God and men there's only one 1 Timothy 2.5 For there is one
God and one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ
Jesus. In other words, no other man
has authority or the right to forgive sins but this man. This man is the only one. It
is blasphemy for men to Forgive sins or or say they're
capable of forgiving sins is nothing these these guys were
right They don't win in verse 3 when they heard him say that
they said this man blaspheme and if he was only a man He would
be blaspheme But he wasn't just a man He is the God man Mediator
he has the right and ability to forgive sins. He has the authority
Now all men We can and must forgive injuries done to ourself, but
in truth we have no power to mediate between God and other
sinners. Preachers, now we preach a gospel
of forgiveness, don't we? I preach them. I'm going to declare
to you a message of forgiveness of sins. That's what we preach.
We preach that Jesus Christ by His death burial and his resurrection
that all who believe in him shall be forgiven all their sins we
declare it but in my declaration I'm not forgiving you of anything
I have no power or authority to forgive you of any of your
sins I'm just declaring what this man who can forgive sins
I'm declaring him to you This is an outward, therefore this
message here that he preached of his ability to forgive sins
is nothing more than a gospel message. It is an outward call. But this does not give any power
to forgive sins, other men to forgive sins. Now, the Roman
church, They take the passage of scripture, go to Matthew 16,
this is what they would use because the Roman church believes that
they're capable of forgiving sins. That men are able to mediate
and to forgive other men's sins. Go to Matthew 16, and they say,
well this is our authority right here, Matthew 16. They say, Jesus
answered and said unto him, blessed art thou, Simon son of Jonah,
For flesh and blood hath not revealed this to thee, but my
Father which is in heaven. Now Peter confessed Him to be
the Christ. And so every one of us who believe
like Peter, listen, we are blessed. You got that? Blessed art thou, Joanne Burns,
flesh and blood hath not revealed this to thee, but my Father which
is in heaven. You can say that to about any believer you want
to. Any believer. Blessed art thou. You're blessed.
And he tells Peter he's blessed. And then he gives Peter a name
here. He says, Thou art Peter. You're no longer Simon. I'm going
to call you Peter. And you know what this word means?
It means pebble. Little rock. Small rock. You don't build anything on a
small rock, do you? No. He said, you're Peter. Now you're
just a little pebble. And he says, that's about us.
We are living stones. Isn't that what he said? Living
stones. You're Peter. Listen to this. And upon this rock I will build
my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
He tells his disciples, look, this guy's blessed. He's blessed,
the Father revealed this to Him, but He's just a little stone,
He's just one of many stones. But upon this rock, Christ is
pointing to Himself. Upon this, listen, massive rock,
that's what this word means. This massive rock. I will build
my church. In the Old Testament we know
this is speaking of Christ because the scripture says in that vision
He is the mountain made without hands. That's who He is. A mountain,
a massive rock upon this rock. Scripture says over in Isaiah,
he said that, behold, I lay in Zion a stone, a tried stone,
a precious cornerstone. He that believeth shall not make
haste. Who's that speaking of, Peter? No, speaking of Christ. He's the rock upon which the
church is built. I found it upon Peter. And notice
this, these next verses here. In verse 19 he says, I will give
you the keys to the kingdom of heaven and whatsoever thou shalt
bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou
shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Aha, see, we
can bind things, we can take a man's sins and we can loose
them. That's not what he's talking about. Not what he's talking
about at all. He's talking about the gospel.
The gospel that was given to them. Listen, the gospel that
we preach and we believe, this is the gospel that binds and
loosens. It binds and loosens. Listen,
you that believe you are loosed, I can declare that to you, you
are loosed from the curse of the law. You're loosed! Set free! And no man could bind
you again to that law. What's over this gospel loose?
It can't be bound again. You'll never be bound to that
law again. And listen, what this gospel does also is it binds
us. Binds us to Christ, doesn't it? And when this Gospel binds
us to Christ, who can loose us? This has nothing to do with forgiveness
of sins, as these men suppose. And so this passage does not
have the authority to bind or loose souls from sins. It does not allow men to substitute
or usurp the Word of God for traditions. That's not what it
does. This is a great evil and blasphemy
for men to oppose the word of God and believe that there are
many mediators, because Christ here is declaring himself by
the forgiveness of sins. Listen, that he is the only mediator
between God and man. He's the only man capable of
forgiving sins. Why? Because he is God and man. He alone, he alone is only one
mediator. Jesus does not only declare he
is capable of forgiving sins. What does he do then look at
that in verse 5? He says wherefore is easier to
say thy sins be forgiven thee arise and walk which is easier Well, can you see his sins being
forgiven No, you can't see that. It's easy to say these like I
said the Roman Church say it every day they say it every day
It's easy to say But to say, arise and take up
your bed and go home, now that's hard. You can't do that. Nobody can
just say that, only he can. He said in verse six, but that
you may know the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins.
He turns this man with the pause and he says, arise, take up your
bed and go home. And you know what he did? Picked up his bed, he went home. Jesus by this was displaying
his deity, his power to these people. So he was displaying
a message of forgiveness. He was preaching the gospel to
these people. He not only declared his right
to forgive sins, what a wonderful thing. If you believed him and
you were a sinner, would that not be a wonderful thing? Man,
he forgave that guy. There's hope for me. There's hope for me. He preached
the gospel to them. And yet, even this demonstration,
none of them recognized His deity. Now, they were amazed at this,
that a man could do it. All they saw was a man. They didn't say, wow, He can
forgive sins. No, they said, oh, glory to God
that a man is able to raise somebody up. That's all men want to do
is see miracles. Signs and wonders. Therefore, we can we can understand
this. That by this general call Christ
had made. He passed. From. Dance. He left them. Where they were. Left. This is always the case when
the gospel is preached. General call surely may be rejected
But he passed from Vince because he had a purpose another purpose
He passed because he had an appointment with this man named Matthew Jesus
has his eyes set on an object of grace that he must call to
himself and that man was a publican tax collector named Matthew In
verse 9 it says, Jesus passed from thence and he saw a man
named Matthew. I like this, he saw a man named
Matthew. I want you to understand this
is not the first time Jesus saw Matthew. Not the first time Jesus saw
Matthew. He knew Matthew as he did all of his elect children
before the foundation of the world. Was this happenstance that Christ
came to this man at this place at this time? It was planned,
ordained. He saw this man Matthew, listen,
in the eternal covenant of grace, he saw this man. Jesus did not
see him for the first time, but as he has his eyes on him from
all eternity, because Matthew was an object of effectual grace. This man, Matthew, listen to
his name. Names in scripture, they have
meaning, they're good. It means gift of God. That's
what it means, gift of God. Truly, this man was a gift of
God. Listen, to Christ. God the Father
gave Matthew to Christ. He was a gift of the Father to
Christ. Jesus said this, I know my sheep. He said my sheep hear my voice
and I know them and I give unto them eternal life and they shall
never perish. The Father which gave them me is greater than
all. What's true of Matthew, again
this is True of you who are believers, you are the elect of God. God
knew you before He called you. God knew you before He called
you. He knew you in a covenant of grace and He gave you to Christ.
Go to John chapter 17. John chapter 17. Look at verse 2. Verse one is
at the end. It says glorify thy son that
thy son may also glorify thee as thou has given him power of
all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as thou
has what given him Given him verse verse six I have manifest
thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world thine
they were and thou gavest them me and I have kept and they have
kept thy word look at verse 9 I pray for them I pray not for the world,
but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. Verse 11. Now I am no more in
the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee, Holy
Father, keep them through thy own name, those whom thou hast
given me, that they may be one as we are one. You see, in Matthew,
his name means gift of God. That's true of all the elect.
That's your name, Matthew. You were a gift of God. Listen,
not to your mom and dad. I'm sure that's maybe what they
thought when they named Matthew, but that's not that's not the
intention here. Listen, you are the elect. You are a gift of
God to Christ. God gave you to Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ saw him
as well as all of his elect from eternity because our names were
written in the Lamb's Book of Life. This book of God's election. God the Father from eternity
and sovereign grace chose us for himself. Chose us to be a
peculiar people. And in an eternal covenant of
grace, he gave us to the son so that he should be our savior,
our redeemer, our surety and our mediator. He gave us to Christ. Blessed be the God and father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. It blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he had
chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that
we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having
predestined us on the adoption of children by Jesus Christ. You see, not the first time he
saw Matthew was he saw him in a covenant of grace. He gave
him to Christ. And this is true of all of the
elect of God believer. Let us mark the beauty then of
this covenant. When I preach the gospel, I'm
preaching to you a covenant, a covenant of God. A covenant
that is free from any merit of the sinner, any works of the
sinner, a covenant of salvation. That is free. A free grace and
love of God. A covenant whose success is completely
dependent upon Christ. The success of this covenant
is totally dependent upon Christ. You know, in David's dying words,
he could have this comfort on his deathbed. He said, although
my house be not so with God. Now this is David's house was
full of sin and shame and disarray. I can identify with David's house. He didn't keep his house pure,
yet this was his hope. Yet he hath made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all and sure, for all my salvation and
all my desire, although he make it not to grow. God had made
a covenant with David that the Messiah should come from his
line, that this is an everlasting covenant. But listen, this covenant
was made for David. David heard this covenant, God
confessed this covenant to him, but this covenant truly was made
with David's seed. It was made for David, but it
was made with David's seed. In Isaiah, I'm sorry, Psalm 89,
verse 2, he says, For I have said, Mercy shall be built up
forever, thy faithfulness shall thou establish in the very heavens. I have made a covenant with my
chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant. Thy seed. I have made a covenant
with my chosen. Now, who's the covenant made
with? My chosen. And listen, I have sworn to David.
You see, he made the covenant with the chosen, but he swore
unto David. And what's the covenant? Thy
seed shall I establish forever and build a throne, build up
thy throne to all generations. Mercy is built up forever. It was made a covenant with the
chosen of God, Jesus Christ, the seed of David. And this covenant
was made for the elect. But it was made with Christ. So that Jesus was to become our
surety and representative. So as our Lord saw Matthew from
all eternity in a covenant of grace, As He agreed to be the
mediator in surety for him, even so it is with us. This is our
comfort, isn't it? When I say He saw Matthew, you
know who else He saw? He saw me. He saw me. My name is written in that covenant. And Christ is the mediator of
that covenant. Now secondly, I want us to see
this, that Christ became the servant of God so as to redeem
and reconcile us who are named in that covenant. In Isaiah 42 it says, Behold
my servant whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. I will put my spirit upon him
and he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall bring
forth salvation. And that verse 4 in that He says
this, He shall not fail nor be discouraged. Christ came into
this world to be a servant. He became a man so that He might
be subjected to the law of God as our representative. In meekness and lowliness He
came into this world Jesus as the mediator of a better covenant,
ordered in all things insure, has by His own being our sponsor,
He has glorified God, He has honored God's law, He has established
righteousness, and by His death He has accomplished redemption
that God had purposed for all of His elect. This is the only
way He could save Matthew. He had to fulfill the covenant. He had to fulfill the covenant. In Hebrews 12, 24, it says Jesus
is the mediator of a new covenant and the blood of sprinkling that
speak of better things than the blood of Abel. What is Abel's
blood speak? It demanded justice, didn't it?
But you see what the blood of Christ demands. The blood of
Christ demands pardon. It demands forgiveness. Why? Because his blood forever has
satisfied the justice of God. He has fulfilled the covenant. Of God's grace. Go to Hebrews chapter 10 Hebrews
chapter 10. See the fulfillment of this.
Look at verse 7. He said, Then said I, this is
Christ speaking, Lo, I come. In the volume of the book it
is written of me to do thy will, O God. Above when he said, Sacrifice
and offering and burnt offering and offering for sin, thou wouldest
not, neither had pleasure therein. He's saying this, there's no
pleasure in our obedience to the law. There's no pleasure
in those sacrifices. Those sacrifices could not take
away sin. They only pictured Him who was
to come. The volume of the book is written
of me. Those lambs and those sacrifices
were speaking of my sacrifice, my offering, which were offered
by the law. Then said He, Lo, I come to do
Thy will. He take it the way the first
that he may establish the second. By the which will. How many times he mentioned the
will of God, I lo I come to do that will oh God lo I come to
do that will oh God listen by the will of God by the which
will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ. How many times you've been sanctified? What does it say? How many times
have you been sanctified? How were you sanctified? I was
sanctified by the will of God. And the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ. Once. Once. Every priest stands at daily
ministering offering the same times and sacrifices that can
never take away sin. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever sat down on the right hand of
God from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool for by his one offering he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified sanctified by the will of God sanctified
by the blood of Christ and he says to us who are sanctified
listen by his one offering you're perfected you're perfected Perfected
and listen what he does to all who are named in this covenant
and all who are Perfected by the blood of Christ in this covenant.
Listen what he does He normally saw Matthew What if he just saw
Matthew and just kept on going that's what he did with the others
He saw them but he passed them by they were not in that covenant,
but Matthew listen called this man Matthew. Go back to your
text now. He passed forth from thence,
he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the receipt of customs. And
he saith unto him, Follow me. Follow me. This then, my friends,
is an effectual call. Notice Matthew was not seeking
Christ. Isn't this true of all of you?
You and I were not seeking Christ. Doesn't Romans chapter 3 tell
us that no man seeketh after God? Isn't that... I'm amazed when people say, well
that's your interpretation. I want to say, are you retarded? You don't have to be a Greek
scholar to understand, no man seeketh after God. There's none
good, no not one. There's none that understandeth.
You got that? Matthew was not seeking after
God. He was doing what he did every single day. He was robbing
people. He was robbing people. He was
a thief. He was a legitimate government
tax collecting thief. That's what he was. I imagine this might be censored
on YouTube. I just said tax collector. Government
might censor it. I don't care. But he was a, they're
not new at that. This is not a new job. It's been
around a while. Matthew, he was not looking for
Christ. He was sitting there. He was sitting at the customs
at a tax office. This man was a publican. Now,
in that day, there was no more horrific name that you could be called
than a publican. A publican was a Jew that worked
for the Roman government and collecting taxes. But these guys,
they were given a lot of leeway because they were traders to
their own people. They were given a lot of leeway
by the Roman government. The government says, look, you
give me, you get our money, right? And whatever you get on top of
that, you can keep it. That's what they said. You can
extort them as much as you want to as long as we get our share.
That's what Matthew was. Now, the Jews, they hated the
Gentiles. Man, they hated Gentiles, called
them dogs, every name in the book. But what they hated worse
than a Gentile dog was a Jewish tax collector. They hated them
the most. These publicans were not noble
men. They were thieves and extortioners. All those that consulted with
them and ate with them were considered unclean. In the next verses,
you read this in verse 11 that the Pharisees, when they saw
he was eating with Matthew and his friends, they said, why does
your master eat with publicans and sinners? It was a blight. for them. And Matthew was an
outcast. He was a thief, a traitor to
his people. And yet he didn't seek the Lord,
but rather Christ found him. Christ found him. Jesus set his eye on Matthew
from eternity, and now was the appointed time of his calling.
Now was the appointed time of grace. Now is the appointed time
of regeneration, the time of the new birth, the time of a
new heart. And that was promised from eternity. Listen to this covenant in Jeremiah
33, listen what God promised. God promised in the company said,
Behold, I will gather them out of all the countries where they
have driven them in my anger and in my fury and great wrath,
and I will bring them again to this place and I will cause him
to dwell safely. This was true of all the elect.
They're scattered. We were scattered among this
the people. There was no difference. You
couldn't tell the difference between us and anyone else. We all had the same evil nature. We were all under the condemnation
of God. We were all sinners, not seeking
God. But God swears, He says this,
I'm going to gather. I will. And listen, they shall
be my people and I will be their God. Does that sound vague or ambiguous? Sounds like a very solid statement.
They shall be my people. I will be their God. And listen,
I'll give them one heart and one way. It gives us a new heart. What do we find? There's only
one way Christ. That they may fear me forever.
for the good of them and their children after them. And I will
make an everlasting covenant with them, and I will not turn
away from them to do them good. But I will put my fear in their
hearts, and they shall not depart from me. When God declares He's
going to do something, listen, He will do it. And this is true
of Matthew. Matthew did not want it. Matthew
was not looking for it. But Christ came to him, and He
was purposed to save Matthew. He purposed to save him. Now
is the time. All God's people are sinners
by nature. We are made of the same lump
of humanity and no difference in our desires and our thoughts
of God. But Christ, as he said his love
on Matthew, Christ sought out Matthew, Christ then called Matthew,
and even so does he call all of his people with the same effectual
calling. Notice in our text, he says this,
Matthew, follow me. Is this a question? Is it an invitation? Can you
somehow make that an invitation? Follow me? I don't know. It's not what it says. Not a question. It's command.
God comes to the center to save him. It's not a question. It's
command. In the general call, we say this
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and now shall be saved. Now. To the lost, to those Christ
passes by, that's more of an invitation. But to the sinner
God saves, it is not an invitation, it is a command that must be
obeyed. And what did Matthew do? He arose
and followed him. This testifies to all men of
the irresistible power of Christ's call to life and salvation. When the appointed time of love
comes to the elect chosen vessel, he commands him to come forth
from the lips of the Holy Spirit and believe on Christ. And we
believe the moment he calls. The moment he says to my heart,
believe, I say, Lord, I believe. Help down my unbelief. I believe. 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 13, We
are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you
to salvation. Here's the means, through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth. Where unto, listen, called you by our gospel. Now listen, I'm
preaching here. You're hearing my voice. But
that day he called you, you did not hear the preacher's voice.
You heard him call you. And you believed. Was there anything
else you could do? Today, right now, is there anything
else you can do but believe? Will that go away also? Will
you go away? You have been called. Will you
leave? I've got no place else to go. You have the words. Eternal life. And I am sure that you are the
Christ, the son of the living God. I'm not sure of much. and
circumstance and providence. I don't know. I'm not sure what's
going to happen next. I have no clue. But I'm sure
of this. That weren't the Christ. And there is nothing else I can
do but believe. When my belief fails, my cry
is, Lord, please help my belief. I never want to be without faith
in Christ. Do you? No. Why? Because his call is effectual. That word just means powerful.
That's what it means. It means powerful. Someone said it gets the job
done. So when he called him, it was effectual. Some believe that God may call
a man without preaching. Now, this
is the means preaching, isn't it? There's plenty today to say
preaching just just old. You know, we need to find a different
method. And they're trying religions,
trying all sorts of methods. And even their preaching segment,
they're really not preaching the gospel. So they're trying
all sorts of things, entertainment and so forth. But we know this,
that it's the it's the chosen means of God. Romans 16 25 but
now to him to God. That is of power to establish
you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ
according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret
since the world began but now is made manifest and by the scriptures
of the prophets according to the commandment of the everlasting
God made known to all nations for the obedience of faith. I preach this gospel, I tell
you this, it's my gospel. Is your gospel. Gospel of God's
free grace and mercy in Christ, your gospel. But who established
you? It was a power of God to reveal
the mystery of Christ under you, and when that mystery came, it
could not be refused. I think another illustration
of that was Lazarus. That's just a beautiful picture
of the effectual call of we were dead in trespassing and sin just
as Lazarus was dead in that tomb. Lord left him there for four
days. You know why? Just to make sure that everybody
knew he was really, really dead. There was no way that people
would say, well, you know, he's probably just in there pretending.
No, when they open that tomb, he stinks. That's right. No pretending here. When Christ
said, Lazarus, come forth, he was bound hand and foot and yet
he still came out. What a miracle. Must have floated
out. I don't know. But he came out.
Isn't that us? Isn't that a miracle when God
calls you to life and you come? You're bound. How can you come?
Your nature is bound. You can't believe by nature.
And yet you do. Why? Because now you have life. Now you have a new nature that
does believe. We preach not ourselves, Paul
says, second Corinthians four or five. We preached on ourselves,
but Christ Jesus, the Lord and ourselves, your service for Christ's
sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
has shined in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. When Christ
God calls a man, it is the same as him calling forth the light
in the beginning. When God said, Let there be light.
He was not asking the light anything. commanding. And that's exactly
what happened to our heart. He commanded the light to shine
in our heart. And all of a sudden you saw the
glory of God. Where? Where'd you find? Where's
the glory of God in your works? In your religious exercise, is
that what glorifies God? No, I found the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ. That's where God is glorified
in Christ. That was the command of God. Therefore, then, who gets all
the glory? Who gets the glory for Matthew's
calling? God does. He commanded Matthew
to come forth and follow him, and Matthew followed him. Matthew believed him. Matthew
trusted him, and so does everyone that is called of God. As many
as received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons
of God, which believe on his name, which were born, not of
blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man,
but of God. Does this message of God's sovereign
election, Christ's redemption, this irresistible call to the
Spirit, Can you identify with this? Can
you identify with Matthew's experience? I can. I wasn't looking for God,
but he found me. When he called me, I could do
nothing but come. And notice this, Matthew followed
Christ. And so does everyone who believes
on Christ. You who believe on Christ. What
is it to follow Christ? It is, first of all, to believe
on him. You're not going to follow somebody you don't believe. Matthew
followed him. Matthew, he got up out of that
tax collector's chair immediately. He didn't sit and reason how
he's going to make ends meet. He didn't sit and reason and
say, well, man, Lord, you know, I could do a lot of work sitting
here at this tax office. No, Christ said, Get up and follow
me. And he got up and followed him. He did it out of faith.
And so it is with us. We follow Christ, not by sight,
but by faith. We trust his word. We trust his
grace. And listen, we trust his providence.
We trust his sovereign ability to rule and govern this world
for our good. And Matthew. He followed Christ,
he left all, and so does all who believe in Christ. Look at
that. He followed Him. He followed Him. He got up and
left everything. You who believe in Christ, we
are also to forsake all and follow Christ. Forsake all and follow Christ.
This man who was a thief, he was caught up in this life. He
sought only the pleasure of the world, but when Christ said,
follow me, he left it all. Just as Peter, James, and John
left their nets, they left their jobs, they left their families,
and they followed him. Can you process that? They left
everything for him. They did not question anything.
They didn't try to reason it. Same with Abraham when he asked
to offer his son. You know what Abraham, rose up early in the
morning, saddled his ass, and took his son to go kill him.
This is how the faith is faith trust Christ regardless of what
we see or think and faith forsakes all. Now I'm saying that you
have to give up your jobs or your family. But I'll tell you
this if God calls us to we should. Now listen I know this there
are many people right now that believe this gospel that live
in faraway places and they They won't leave their jobs to find
a place to worship. They won't leave their families. I'll tell you, that's a that's
a shame. That's a shame. We should take Matthew as an
example. He got up and left his left everything.
And follow Christ. And not only this, he witnessed
of Christ. You who follow Christ, he witnessed
of him. Notice the next thing here, and
I'm gonna close, here it is. He said in verse 10, it came
to pass that Jesus sat at meeting at the house. Behold, many publicans
and sinners came and sat down with him. In other words, he
got a bunch of his thieving friends. He got a bunch of his thieving
friends to come over to his house and meet this man. He wanted
to testify of the power of this man. of the deity of Christ,
of the salvation that he had experienced. He wanted his friends. Now listen, after this one meal,
I imagine he might not have been so popular. I imagine many of his friends
left him and never wanted to be his friend again. I don't
know. But the point is, Matthew asked them to fellowship with
Christ. He asked them to be witness of
Christ. And so should we. We should witness
of Christ. Testify of him. And notice this. Christ freely ate with publicans
and sinners, you know why he tells those those Pharisees,
they said, man, your master, he would probably consider. And
Jesus says, have you not heard this? That they that are holding
me not a physician, but they that are sick Well, that's your interpretation
Okay, you sick you sick of sin You're not sick of sin he didn't
come for you You need righteousness or you got enough Came for sinners
Go learn what this means I will have mercy and not sacrifice.
I don't want your works. I don't want your sacrifice. I will have
mercy. You know what you need? You need
mercy. He said, I came not to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance, and Matthew was an excellent
example of that. Excellent example. So we see
this, that there is a there is a call that can be refused, it
is a general call. I preach Christ and the forgiveness
of sins. And yes, you can reject me. But God has a people. They're given to Christ in a
covenant of grace, and Christ has saved them. And everyone
he saved, he's going to come to them just like Matthew, and
he's going to call them with an effectual call. And when they
hear it, there is nothing else they can do but believe And those
who believe it, they follow Christ. They forsake all and follow Christ. And they testify of Christ. And
what is our testimony? He has not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. The
Paul say, of whom? I'm chief. I'm chief. It's faithful, saying worthy
of all acceptance. Jesus Christ came to the world to save sinners.
And you're looking at one. I pray God will bless this. I'm
so thankful this call is effectual, aren't you? I'm thankful there's
no option. I'm so thankful there's no no
part that I've got to play. In this. That he's done it all. Start to finish, we are saved.
Salvations of the Lord. Salvations of the Lord. Let's
stand and be dismissed in prayer.