Matthew chapter 9, we'll be looking
at verses 10 through 13 this evening. Matthew chapter 9, verses
10 through 13. The title of the message tonight
is, The Effect of Grace and the Message of Grace. The effect
of grace and the message of grace. Matthew chapter 9 and verse 10
begins like this, And it came to pass, as Jesus said it meet
in the house, Behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down
with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it,
they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your master with publicans
and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he
said unto them, They that behold need not a physician, but they
that are sick. But go ye and learn what that
meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. For I am not come
to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Now last week
we saw that the call of God in salvation is an effectual, irresistible
call. That when God the Holy Spirit
comes in power to a sinner, That call that is personal to that
sinner is also powerful to save. When the Lord Jesus Christ came
to Matthew, He said to Matthew, follow Me, and Matthew followed
Him. And so it is with every elect
child of God, those for whom Christ died and agreed to be
their surety, the Holy Spirit has agreed to call, and they
shall come, every one of them. Jesus said, They that the Father
hath given Me, I should lose nothing, nothing, but raise it
up again at the last day. And this man Matthew, he was
one of God's elect children. He was one for whom Christ had
come to live and to die for. How do we know that? Because
He was called. He was called. And He came, according
to that call, to believe on Christ for the forgiveness of sins and
believe on Christ as all His acceptance. Now this call of
the Spirit is a powerful one. We saw that it's like the power
of a resurrection. It's not something that's natural,
but it's something that's supernatural. God must raise the souls of His
people from the dead. And when He raises them, they
believe on Christ. They embrace Christ. This Spirit that God sends is
powerful. We by nature are unable and unwilling
to come to Christ, and yet by His grace and power, He has made
us willing. Remember that these Pharisees,
and also remember these Pharisees, when they came to the Lord Jesus
Christ, they didn't come for mercy. They didn't come seeking
mercy. Why? Because they didn't hear
the call. They didn't hear the call. They come and they killed
the Lord of glory. And you know what they thought?
They thought when they killed Christ, they did a service to
God. They thought when they killed Christ and killed His apostles,
that they were actually doing the will of God. They thought
that they were called of God to do that work. Well friends, that's not our
calling. Our calling is not a militant, bloody calling to where we try
to force people to come. We try to force people into believing
the gospel. I had a conversation with a friend
of mine who is a lost man. And he had made mention, he said,
I really enjoy your company because you're not trying to force me
to believe. I said, I can't force you to
believe. I can't force anyone to believe. If I could force
you to believe something, someone else would come along and force
you to believe something else. I'll tell you of Christ, but
it's only by the Spirit of God that you'll ever believe. This man Matthew was a sinner
called by Jesus Christ, called to life, and he followed Christ.
He followed Christ. And I'll tell you, there's many
that hear the call in a general way. But the Scripture says that
many are called, but few are chosen. And this man Matthew,
he was chosen. He was chosen of God, and he
followed Christ. Now tonight, I want us to see
three things. Three things from these verses
that might encourage us, strengthen us, and cause our hearts to rejoice. First of all, I want us to see
the effect of grace. The effect of grace. This man
Matthew, when he was called, he was not only called by the
Spirit of God, by the Word of Christ, but he was also, this
was an effectual call and it had an effect on him. Everyone
who is called by the Spirit of God, if their calling is true,
if their faith is true, it will have an effect on them. Second of all, I wanted to see
the effect of works religion as it is seen in the Pharisees.
And third, I wanted to see the effect of the mission and message
of Christ on sinners. The effect of the mission and
message of Christ on sinners. Now, first of all, the effect
of grace. Paul, when he writes to the Thessalonians, He says
this of them, he had noticed this of them, how they turned
to God from idols. But what did they turn to God
to do? To serve the living God. They turned to serve. They turned
to God from idols to serve the living and true God. When the
effectual call of the Spirit comes to the sinner, God calls the sinner from his
sin and self-righteousness. He calls a man from his inability
to please God to turn to Christ so that he might please God.
The only way a man can please God is if he turned to Christ
by faith. Christ is the only one that has
ever pleased God. And it's this effectual work,
This real powerful work that moves a man to turn to Christ
for forgiveness, and by this effectual work, God gives us
a new heart to serve Him. Look in our text. Go to our text
and look at verse 10. And it came to pass as Jesus
said it meet in the house." Now, Matthew does not mention it,
but go over to Luke chapter 5. Look at this from Luke chapter
5. Luke chapter 5 and verse 29.
This is Luke's account of this history right here. In verse
29 it says, And Levi, which is Matthew, made him a great feast
in his own house. Now Matthew didn't mention that,
did he? He just said, in the house. And he didn't even say
it was a great feast, he just said he sat at meat. He didn't make a big deal about
it. But Luke said, hey, this was a big deal. This man invited
Christ into his own house. His own house. And that's the
first thing I want us to see about this effect of grace on
Matthew, is that Matthew not only left his crooked position,
He not only left his crooked job, but he also opened his home to
Christ. He opened his home to Christ.
Let me ask you this, how many people profess faith in Christ
so long as they're at church? How many people believe on Christ
and serve Christ and may even have an office in the church
and do diligent work in the church, but in their homes and among
their families they serve themselves? But I'll tell you this, we who
have been affectionately drawn by the loving call of Jesus Christ,
we know that we must surrender more than just a crooked job.
We must surrender all to Christ. including our homes and those
nearest to us. We must exalt Christ in every
place, not just here, not just among the saints, but also among
the sinners. We must also we must lift up
Christ and open our homes to him. Believer in our work, as well
as our play, we must not forget that both of them are of the
hand of the Lord. Now, God has made all things
for us to enjoy, hasn't He? I enjoy my home. I enjoy the
things in my home. I enjoy my family. I enjoy my
friends. But I must know this and recognize
this, that they are a gift of the hand of Jesus Christ. They're
a gift. And I can enjoy them. I do enjoy
them. But I must also serve Christ
with them. I must exalt Christ with them. So among our family members,
if they're bringing something in our homes and among us that
does not honor God, we must not condone it. We must not condone
it. If we see our friends or loved
ones living in sin, we may love them, we may take care of their
needs if they have needs of food or shelter or anything like that,
but they must recognize that we do not endorse or condone
sinful actions. We don't condone sin in any way.
I remember as a young man, one of my family members was an open
hater of God. She hated Christ. in anything
to do with Him. She lived in overt sin, open
sin, and unrighteous relationships. She had horrible relationships. Now, I know this, my parents
loved her. They did. They cared for her. And every opportunity they witnessed
of Christ to her. And if she were to come and have
need of shelter, she was allowed to come into our home. She was
welcome. But what was not welcome was
her ungodly relationship. She could not bring that into
the home. She couldn't bring it in. We
couldn't bring it in because that would give our consent. My parents understood that would
give consent, their approval to it. And when we open our homes
to Christ and people, we should. We should not open it to their
sin. We should not condone it. Our home should be a place where
Christ is exalted, a place where Christ is honored, but where
sin is not condoned in our homes. It should be a place where sinners
are welcome. Sinners are welcome to come into
our homes if they desire to hear of Christ. Matthew opened his
home to sinners, didn't he? He opened his home to sinners
so that they might hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that's what
we should do. We should open our homes to sinners
in need of Christ. We should not open our homes
to sin. Friends, sin is a very deceptive, subtle thing. And the moment we let the slightest
little fox in, it ruins the whole thing. And I'll tell you what,
our testimony, the devil cannot get to your soul, but what he
can do is get to your testimony. He can get to your witness. And
I know of many men who have let little sins come in and destroyed
their witness before Christ. And so we should guard against
that. We should protect our home so that Christ is welcome in
our home, but sin is not. Number two, I noticed that Matthew
served Christ as a witness. When Matthew was given the grace
and love of God in his heart, he could not contain it. He couldn't
hold it in. He had to let it out. He had
to tell others of the grace of Christ. I'll never forget the saying
that I was told of the woman that came to Ralph Barnard. And
she said, Ralph, the Lord saved me, what do I do? I need to tell
somebody. He said, don't worry, it'll get
out on you. And it will. It will. You can't contain it.
You can't control that wonderful grace that God has planted in
our hearts. We have to tell sinners. We have
to tell sinners of the grace that God has given us. You see,
Matthew, he was a sinner. He was a publican. He was a thief. He knew what it was to be a sinner.
But I'll tell you this, he also knew what it was to receive grace. He knew that if Jesus could call
such a sinner as He was, surely He could call other sinners.
And so He gathered all the sinners He knew. He invited all the sinners
He knew. And they came and sat around
to hear Christ. Even so, believers, we are to
be witnesses of the grace of God that is given to us by Jesus
Christ. We must have a heart for sinners. We must have a heart for sinners. I'll tell you, if we don't have
a heart for sinners, we are no better than these self-righteous
Pharisees. If we don't have a heart for the lost, something's wrong. Something's wrong with our view
of ourself or our view of Christ if we don't have a heart for
the lost. We were lost and dead in our
sins and Christ raised us. If He raised us, who then can
He not raise? Who then can He not save? If
He saved us, are we better than others? Well, He can't save him.
He saved me because I'm a little bit better than him. Is that
how we think? Not if we know grace. Not if we know grace. We were enslaved to our sins
and children of wrath even as others. We know that we by nature are
no better than any other sinners. And I'll tell you, I know that
some of us here, we may have been more moral than other people. But who did that? Who caused
that? Was that our own? No, that was
the restraining hand of God keeping us from many pains of sin. I recognize that in myself. When
I was growing up, I may have been, in the eyes of men, somewhat
moral. Compared to my brothers or my
sister, I may have been somewhat moral. But who did that? God
did that. God saved me from a multitude
of pain that they had come in. But am I better? No, by no means. The only reason I didn't go into
the depths of sin that they did is because of God's restraining
hand. That's it. It's not that I didn't
desire to go into that depth, it's that He kept me. We're no
different. None of us by nature are different. And it should be our witness
that Christ has come to save sinners. It should be our witness
because it happened to us. I'll tell you this, you can't
tell a man of a place you've never been. You can't really tell him. You
can tell him what you read in a book, but you can't tell him
by experience. I was thinking of this. If you
had a man on the witness stand and the lawyer comes up and says,
Sir, what did you see? And he says, Well, I feel that
man's guilty. You say, No, no, what did you
see? I didn't see anything. He wouldn't
be a very good witness, would he? He'd say, sir, you got to
step down. I ain't got no use for you. I
want somebody who's experienced it. I want somebody who was there. And friends, when we experience
the grace of God, we are witnessing of what Christ has done in us. Sunday, I was talking about having
that testimony within us. Every believer in Christ has
a testimony within themselves. And what's that testimony? It
is the Spirit of God testifying with our nature that I know that
Jesus Christ can save sinners. How do you know? Because I was
a sinner in need of mercy and He had mercy on me. That's how
I know. I'm a witness. And you're a witness. And friends, what good is a witness
that keeps his mouth closed? What good is a witness that keeps
their mouth closed? It's of no value. Friends, we
are to be witnesses. Matthew, he opened his home,
but he also opened his mouth. And he invited those that were
sinners to come. I'm sure that not every sinner
he invited came. But some did. Some did. And I'm sure that some of those
knew Christ. Now, number two, the effect of
the works of religion. So the first effect is the effect
of grace, and the effect of grace is that it leads to service to
Christ, giving all we have to Christ and our witness of Christ. Now, number two, the effect of
works religion. Look at that in verse 11 in our
text. And when the Pharisees saw it,
they said unto His disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans
and sinners? I think it's very interesting
to note that these Pharisees did not go to Christ on this
one. They went to the disciples. I think they've gotten tired
of getting beat down by His wisdom, and so they thought that they
would go to the weaker link, which was His disciples. Now, these Pharisees, they went
and had a tradition that taught If anyone were to converse, in
other words, if you were to have a known sinner in the town, and
you were to sit down to eat with him or to converse with him,
even in saying hello, niceties, just common pleasantries, if
you were to engage in that with a known sinner or a publican,
you were declared by their law to be defiled, and a sinner with
that person. In other words, that sin rubbed
off on you. Their sin rubbed off on you.
And so when they saw Jesus eating with these sinners and publicans,
you can imagine how surprised they were. Well, hey, He was
supposed to be the Christ. He's telling people He forgives
sins. And look at Him. He's defiled Himself. He's sitting
with sinners. These Jews looked down on anyone
that did not meet their moral or religious standards. They
looked down on men who were not learned, did not attend the right
schools, and who were just common men. These guys looked down on
sinners. They thought themselves to be
superior. And friend, that's exactly what
works religion does to the natural man. It makes him feel superior
to another man. If you remember in Luke's Gospel,
those two men that went up to pray, the Pharisee and the publican,
the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank
You that I'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers,
And listen to this, even as that publican. See, he thought that
publican was worse than any other sinner. He said, thank God I'm
not like that guy. I fast twice in a week, I'm sure
he doesn't. I give tithes of all I have,
I'm sure that that man doesn't. All false religion Believes that
there is something good in man and it always appeals to pride. Friends, if any religion appeals
to your pride, it's a false religion. It's a false religion. I read this in a book just today
and I was appalled by it. I was appalled by it. I've got
some books in there that I wouldn't want you guys to even look at.
I'd have to run through and just pick out certain people that
write in them, but they got everybody in there and it's just horrible. This is one of the things I read.
It says, you cannot bring out the best in a man unless you
believe the best is somewhere in him. Each human soul is like a cavern
full of gin. That's what that man said, but
what does God say? What does God say? I don't know. God says we're dead in trespasses
and sins. God says of the religious man,
he is a whited sepulcher. He's painted on the outside,
but inside is full of dead men's bones, not gems. God says that there is none righteous,
no, not one. All men by nature are not full
of gems, but full of sin. That's what God says. False religion preys on the pride
of men and it teaches them that by their religion, by their works,
and by their sacrifice, they can raise themselves up above
other men. You see, false religion always
wants to bring men up to their level. You notice that? They
want you to be up with them. So they try, they give you a
list of rules, they give you a list of ceremonies, they give
you a list of traditions to follow, so that you can work your way
up to them. But God's witnesses do not say,
come up with us, but rather come down with us. Those who have
experienced grace, we say, come down with us and bow down before
the feet of Christ. We compel men and beseech men
to beg for the mercy of God. You see, we've taken our place
as sinners in need of mercy. And we tell others to come down
with us. Scripture says that in Lamentations
3, it says, He brings us down to the dust, if so be there might
be mercy, there might be hope. You see, there's only mercy down. There's no mercy for those who
stand and pray thus with themselves. But like that publican, we go
down and we bow down and we beseech God for mercy. Mercy. Jesus told us that these publicans,
if they took their place and they found need of mercy, and
Jesus said of that publican that prayed, he went home justified
rather than the other. Why? Because he came down. He
brought himself low before Christ and needed mercy. And that's
the effect of religion is it brings men up. But the effect
of true religion always brings men down before Christ. Number three, the effect of the
mission and message of Christ on sinners. Look at that in verse
12 and 13. But when Jesus heard it, I know
the disciples were happy that He heard it. I'm sure they couldn't
answer that question. He heard it and He said, They
that behold need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go
and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice.
For I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. These self-righteous religious
fellows, I'll tell you, they were sick.
They were just as sick as the sinners and publicans. The problem is they thought they
were whole. The problem is they thought they
were whole. Jesus said in another place,
He says, you are blind, and yet you say we see. If you'd recognize
you're blind, you'd see, but you won't. You think you see,
therefore you're blind. These men think they're whole.
They don't have any need for a physician. And so Jesus tells
them, they that believe, that they're whole, they don't need
a doctor, they won't seek a doctor. You know, if you're not sick,
you don't need to go to the doctor. That just makes sense, doesn't
it? A little child can understand that. I kid with them sometimes,
they'll call for something and I'll say, oh, you're sick, you've
got to go to the doctor. They'll say, oh, no, I don't,
I'm not sick. They can understand that. You
don't have to go to the, you don't go to the doctor when you're
sick. Those that go to the doctor are
sick. Jesus confesses Himself here
to be the great physician to heal the sin-sick soul. Jesus was talking in spiritual
terms. They were sick in their soul,
but they didn't know it. They thought themselves to be
well. And I'll tell you, all men are
infected with sin sickness. This one man wrote four things
about the sin-sick soul. He said, the sickness of sin
brings pain and torment to the soul. The sin-sick soul is spoiled
of beauty. When God made that soul of Adam,
it was beautiful. But when Adam sinned, it marred
the beauty of a man's soul. The sin-sick soul has chains
of spiritual death. In other words, it's a terminal
disease. It's a terminal disease. The soul that sinneth, it shall
surely die. And number four, he said, the
sin-sick soul is not one that's physical, but spiritual. It is
a spot on the souls of men that defiles them before God's holy
justice. And sin reigns over a man, and
he is free from all righteousness so that he cannot please God.
That's what a sin-sick soul is. What then is the cure? There's
only one. The great physician now is near
the sympathizing Jesus. He is the great physician. He is the only cure for the sickness
of sin. And Jesus says to all that are
sick of this disease, come and find the cure. Come to Me. If you're sick, come. If you're
not, don't. Don't. If you're whole and you
don't need a physician, don't come to me because you won't
come to me. But if you're sick, come and
welcome. I have the cure. I have the cure. And the cure is His own blood
and righteousness. Look what He tells these Pharisees.
I love this. He says in that middle part, he says, but go
learn what this meaneth. That word that's in italicized.
I would rather use the word this because he has reference to this
text here, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. He's referring
back to Hosea. If you'll flip back over there,
if you want to put a reference there, you can. Hosea chapter
6 and verse 6. The Lord is referring them. He
says, you go back to this text and you learn what this means.
And you'll understand what I'm saying. Hosea chapter 6 and verse
6 says this, For I desired mercy and not sacrifice. Learn what that means. What does that mean? I desire mercy and not sacrifice. The Lord Jesus Christ is telling
them, I do not desire the sacrifice of your self-righteousness. I don't want that. I don't want
any part of that. There's nothing in it that I
would desire. The only thing I desire is mercy. I desire to have mercy. He desires to have mercy. Scripture
says it's not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take
away sin. These things were only a type and a shadow to picture
Christ. Friends, the only way to have
favor with God is if God shows mercy. And God says this, I desire
mercy. Now, I'll tell you this, to a
person who needs mercy, that is a wonderful sound. To a person
that doesn't, it doesn't make any difference. It doesn't make
any sound. They don't care. But to a person
that's sick, it makes all the difference in the world. Oh, that sinners would hear the
gracious message of God, I delight to have mercy. I do not delight
in self-righteous men, but I rather delight and have mercy on worthless,
vile wretches. That's who God would have mercy
on. To those who think themselves
to be without sin and their works to be accepted with God, to those
who confess that salvation is part their work and part Christ's
work, learn what this means. He doesn't want your works. Your
works cannot save you. Mercy is what you need. Mercy. Christ came not to call the righteous. And the message of God's sovereign
grace in Christ, I'll tell you, is of no value to a self-righteous
man. It's of no value. You see, a
self-righteous man sees the need of mercy always in someone else. Well, that person, you know,
he might need mercy, but I'm doing all right. That person
over there, he's really a bad sinner. I'm sure he needs mercy. Self-righteous man sees that
he has no mercy, he needs no mercy, but thinks that by his
obedience he can still serve God. What a fool! What a fool! You know why? Christ said it didn't come for
the righteous. What a fool! If any man is okay without Christ
and in religion, Christ said, I did not come to call you, but
I came to call sinners. And I'll tell you what, these
sinners that sat at the feet of Christ, they had a great need,
didn't they? The Pharisees, they didn't have
a need. But sinners had a need. And they came and found peace
at His feet. And so it is. Jesus tells us
that He come to call only sinners to Himself. Are there any sinners here? Because that is the most joyous
thing to a sinner. Jesus said, I came to call you
to repentance. Thank God He didn't call me to
leave me in my sin, but He called me in repentance from my sin
to turn to Him and believe on Him and to trust Him. This is a faithful saying, Paul
said, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ came into the world
to save whom? Sinners. Sinners. Oh, that sinners would
not wait till they're better. That sinners would not wait till
they're fit to serve Christ. If they wait till they're better,
they won't come at all. Christ didn't come to call better
sinners. He came to call sinners. And if there's any who confess
to be a sinner and question how it is that God can save them,
how God can be just and still have mercy on the sinner, I tell
you, it is only by the blood of Jesus Christ. You see, God
had mercy on us, not at the expense of His justice. You see, His
justice was satisfied so that He could have mercy. And He did that by Christ. He did that by His blood. Believer
in Christ, was this not the message you heard when you came to Christ? Is this not the message that
still thrills your heart? Are you not still in need of
mercy? I find myself every day recognizing
more and more my need of mercy. If this is our message that we
heard, Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect, and whom
my soul delighteth. Is that what you heard? That's
what I heard. Did you hear? Behold the Lamb
of God that taketh away the sin of the world. I heard that, didn't
you? If we heard that, then this should
be our witness. That there's mercy at the feet
of Christ. for sinners. Let me ask you this, believer,
is there any time in our life that you think you'll ever be
above mercy? Any time you'll be above the
need of mercy? I don't think so. Not for a true
believer. Not for a true believer. All
I am and all I'll ever be is a sinner saved by the grace of
God. And this is why we call sinners
to come. Because that's our experience. That's what we found when we
came to Christ. And friends, that is exactly
what every sinner in need of mercy, when they come, they'll
find the same thing you found. They'll find mercy. They'll find
mercy. I pray that God bless this to
our hearts. Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer.