I got that all out of the way. Turn back to Matthew chapter
9. Matthew chapter 9. The title of the message, The
Effectual Call and Saving of Sinners. The Effectual Call and
Saving of Sinners. The word of God teaches us that
all men and women are born lost. We, I include myself in the we,
we come into this world in darkness and ignorance. We do not know
who God is until God reveals himself, until he calls us out
of darkness into his marvelous light, and He makes Himself known
to us. We naturally have no interest
in God. We have no interest in the Lord
Jesus Christ. We have no interest in salvation.
Not as the Bible gives it to us. We naturally will not come to
Christ that we might be saved. He said, you will not come to
me that you might have life. Most people already believe they
have it. You know, the Pharisees did. The Pharisees believed that
they were just fine. They said, God is our father.
And the Lord said, no, Satan is your father. He did. He said,
you're of your father, the devil. They don't come to him for life
because they believe they already have it. Therefore, since we are born
lost, we have no interest in God, we have no interest in being
saved from sin. Sin is what I am. Lord, save
me from myself. Therefore, if we are to be saved,
it will be all of grace. It will be grace greater than
our sin. And God will have to call us
out of darkness into His marvelous light. the whole work of salvation
will be of God and God alone. Someone said before, I did the
sinning, God did the saving. That's the way it is. And we
have before us this morning the call of Matthew, the one who
wrote this book, this epistle, or a gospel rather. We have the
call of Matthew, the publican, And we have Christ sitting down
in his house. You know, when he sits down in
the house of these publicans and sinners, he's sitting down
in Matthew's house. Matthew invited him home. You know, we've been going through
Matthew here, and everyone whom the Lord saved, they wanted to
go with him. Like that demonic, he said, I wanna go with you.
They all wanted to go with him. They wanna be with him. Our greatest
desire is to be with the Lord. It is, is to be with the Lord. And Jesus passed by, passed forth
there in verse nine, and Jesus passed forth from thence. He
saw a man. He was looking for him. He was
looking for him. He didn't just happen to see
a man. He was looking for Matthew. He saw a man named Matthew sitting
at the receipt of custom, collecting taxes. They would have at each
gate, they would have a booth and a Jew, Matthew was a Jew
collecting taxes for the Roman government and he was despised. And most of the time they were
just extortioners. But he's sitting at the seat
of custom and he saith unto him, follow me. And here, this is, it's like the message this morning,
in verse six in Genesis 15, there was so much there that you don't
see until you get over to the New Testament. And Paul, my what
was in that verse, that one verse. In here, it says, Christ said
to him, follow me. And He arose and He followed
Him. Here we have the effectual call
of the Redeemer, calling one of His sheep. He's calling Him. He's calling
Him and telling Him to follow Him. Look over in John chapter
10. Look at verse 16 first. "'And other sheep I have which
are not of this fold.'" Who's He talking about? You and me,
whom He has called. "'Them also I must bring, I must
bring, I must get them, I must fetch them, and bring them into the fold. There are some sheep here. And I believe there are some
lost sheep still out here in this community. And I pray through
the radio and through the preaching here that the Lord is still bringing
in lost sheep. And they shall hear my voice.
They shall hear my voice. I remember the first time when I heard the Gospel, and
I say I heard the Gospel in power. I heard it. I heard it. And I heard it and it was so
clear to me. It became so clear. What my pastor Henry was preaching
matched what I was reading. And I heard, listen, I heard
the Master's voice. The Lord Jesus Christ. It just gripped me. It drew me. I had to go hear it. I had to
go hear it. My sheep hear my voice. And there'll
be one fold. There's not two folds. There's
not Jew and Gentile. There's not. There's one. We
are one in Christ. No matter what nationality one
is of, If that person is a believer, we are one in Christ. Wherever
they're from, we're one. One fold, and there's one shepherd. Look in verse 27. Well, let me go to verse 25.
See, they got upset about this. Jesus answered them, I told you,
and you believe not. You do not believe. This is very
straightforward. Now, this is the Word of God.
This is not a Calvinistic doctrine. It's the Word of God, even though
Calvinists preach this. But we didn't come up with it.
This is the Word of God. I told you and you believe not.
The works that I do in My Father's name, they bear witness of Me.
But you believe not, and here's why you believe not, because
you're not of My sheep. You can't hear My voice. You
want nothing to do with Me. As I said unto you, listen, My
sheep hear My voice. And I know them. I know them
by name. You know, in October 11th, 1955,
I was born and my parents named me Jonathan Darryl Chapman. But
you know, God named me that long before they did. Long before
they did. My sheep hear my voice. I know
them and they follow me. What did he say to Matthew? Follow
me. And what happened? He got up
and he followed him. He got up and he followed him.
Now who was Matthew? Matthew was a publican. He was
a tax collector. This man, no doubt, he loved
money more than anything else. And if he was a tax collector
at that time, he would have been an extortioner. When people would
come into that gate where he sat, where his booth was, he
would tax them on the food they would bring in, whatever they
brought in, he would tax them on it. And then he would charge
them a little more. He'd charge them a little more. He was one
hated, he was hated. He was hated. And just by reading this, It's
evident he was not seeking the Lord. He was just sitting there
collecting money. He was not seeking the Lord.
He seems to have had no concern for Christ at all. He seems to
have had no concern for salvation. You know, Matthew didn't seem
to experience this guilt of sin. I'm sure he
did later. Now, he did later. You can't
be saved and not experience that. But he wasn't concerned about
Christ, about being saved from his sin. He just sat in there
collecting money. And the Lord called him. He called
him. And as a result of the Savior's
call, there was a real change happened in Matthew. And the
result of that call, he got up, left what he loved, and followed
Christ. He followed Christ, but he left
everything there. I don't think he picked any of
the change up or anything, you know, tried to take something
with him. He got up and he followed the Lord Jesus Christ. Like when
he called Peter and James and the other disciples, some of
them were fishing, and he called them, they jumped out of the
boat and left their father. James and John left Zebedee, their
father, just jumped out of the boat. Because with that call
comes the power to do exactly what the Lord said to do. And
that is, follow me. Follow me. The call was effectual. Matthew
got up from his seat, left his occupation and followed the Lord
Jesus Christ and followed Him the rest of his life. When God
effectually calls a sinner, that sinner follows Christ, that sinner
comes to Christ, and that sinner follows Christ the rest of its
life. Whether it be a short life or
a long life, Christ is our life. Lord, what would you have me
to do? It's not what do I want to do, what occupation do I want
to have, where do I want to move. I think I'd like to move to here.
Lord, what would you have me to do? I'm His. I'm bought with a price. I don't
belong to myself. I don't belong to myself. I belong
to Him. And we follow Him. We follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
And as I said, that call, when God sends it, when God sends
a call to a sinner, it's effectual. It gets the job done. It just
gets the job done. You're gonna come to Christ.
That's why I, and I back in my 20, 21, 19, 20, 20, 21, 22, somewhere
there, the place I used to go to at the end of every service, Somebody, well there was two
or three people there, at the end of every service, if somebody
came in that door that had never made a profession, they were
going to go back there and they were going to hound them and
hound them and hound them until they got them finally down to
the altar. I mean, I had it happen to me when I was a teenager. I held out. I thought I was strong. I was holding out. I did. I thought I was just going to
resist. It was my oldest brother, James. Him and another guy. They
cornered me in the front room one time. Boy, they worked on
me hard. But I loved what I was doing.
And I didn't want to give it up. But finally, I did make a
false profession. I made a profession. I got religious. Then I heard the gospel. Then
God called. And that was an effectual call.
And it was a call out of darkness into His light. The call is effectual. He didn't give Matthew a choice. He didn't give him a choice.
He just walked up to Him and said, follow me. Now when God
says that, when God says that, you're gonna do it. If He, in
power, speaks to your heart and He says, follow me, you're gonna
do it. You're gonna do it. The command came and obedience
followed. And this call was particular.
It was particular. A man named Matthew. A man named
Matthew. A man named Doug or Ed. I can go through here and just
name names. And man, it was a particular
call. Christ spoke to Matthew. And
the call was unexpected. Matthew wasn't looking for Him
at all. It may be. It may be. And this is what gives
me hope in preaching. It may be someone came in here
this morning, not expecting to hear from God, here for whatever
reason. Providentially, I know why. God
brought you here. There's nobody here by accident.
You never hear the gospel by accident. Never. And it may be
that God will come. It may be that God will say,
in power, follow me. Follow me. Your life is mine.
You are mine. Follow me. Matthew wasn't looking for Christ,
but the Lord Jesus Christ was looking for Matthew. And the
call was unsought. It says in Isaiah 65, 1, I am
sought of them that ask not for Me. I am found of them that sought
Me not. I said, Behold Me, behold Me
unto a nation that was not called by My name. And then this effectual call
was from the Lord. It was from the Lord. And this
is what makes all the difference. It's when God calls you. When
God calls you. I can tell everybody here, look
to Christ. I tell everybody here, come to
Christ. Come unto me, all ye that labor and heavy laden, and
I'll give you rest. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. But until God makes that happen,
you will have no interest. You will have no interest. we are shut up to the mercy of
the sovereign God of heaven and earth. And I cannot think of
a better place to be shut up than there, because He delights
to show mercy. Now we see the effect of the
call, this call of grace. Christ went home with Matthew,
and it says in verse 10, and it came to pass as Jesus sat
at meat in the house, and that's Matthew's house. Behold and give
attention to this. Many publicans. He knew all his
other tax collectors. They'd get together, they'd hang
out at the same pub. But they knew each other. And he called
on them. All his old buddies, all these
old friends, all these old Comrades. He called him. Matthew called
him and said, you got to come here. Come to my house. I want
you to come to my house. I want you to hear this man.
This man's God. I want you to hear him. Matthew invited the Lord to his
home for supper. Blessed, I tell you, I can't,
I cannot put this into words, but blessed is the home where
Christ dwells. Blessed is that home where Christ
is the head, where the Lord Jesus Christ is the head. Blessed is that home. He invited him home for supper,
and he invited other sinners to eat with him. Matthew wanted
others to know the Lord Jesus Christ. What Christ had done
for Him, He could do for the others that He knew. He believed
that. You believe that? You believe
what Christ has done for you, He will do for others? I know
this, Jesus Christ is in the saving business. And I know He
saves sinners. I know He saves sinners. And
that encourages me, that encourages me to invite people to come and
hear the Gospel. Grace opens a man's heart first. It will open his home. It will
open his pocketbook. Everything he has belongs to
the Lord. He or she. Everything that sinner
has belongs to the Lord. Paul says, what do you have that
you did not receive? Every believer here will say,
I have nothing. I have nothing that I did not
receive from God. Every blessing I've had, every
blessing I have, I have received from God. My home, my family,
my intelligence. What intelligence I have to be
able to even make a living, what we call make a living. God's
given it to me. God's given it to me. I recognize
that. I am what I am by the grace of
God. I am what I am. Everything we have, everything
belongs to God. You know, one day, one of the
disciples was talking about, one of them was talking to the
Lord about paying taxes. I think it was one of the Pharisees. They were actually talking to
him. He was talking about paying taxes, whether it was legal,
rightful, pay taxes. They were going to try to trip
him up. And he took that pen, he took his, I call it denarii
or whatever you call it. He said, whose image, whose subscription
is on this? And He said, Caesars. He said,
I'll tell you what you do. This is the wisdom of God. Give
to Caesar that which belongs to Caesar. Okay? And now give
to God that which belongs to God. Well, everything belongs
to God. Everything belongs to Him. All
of it. Grace in the heart. You see,
our Lord goes and He sits down to each with publicans and sinners. Grace in the heart is not ashamed
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and Christ is not ashamed of sinners. I've told this story before.
I don't know if I've told it here, but back when I was in
my early 20s, I lost my job. The place went out of business.
It went out of business. I had a good job. I had a real
good job. But they went out of business. And I had to go for
the first time in my life to the unemployment line. And I
was standing in line in the unemployment office, and I was embarrassed. I felt embarrassed. But as I
stood there, because I'd already heard the gospel, and I understood
the gospel then. But as I stood there, I thought of that scripture.
He's not ashamed to call them brethren. Now why would I be
ashamed to stand here in this line with these people just like
me? And I felt, I really, that came
home to me. That Scripture came home to me.
He's not ashamed to stand in line with me and you. He's not ashamed to call them
brethren. Matthew was not an influential
person to have follow you if you want to get a following.
You don't call a tax collector to be part of your company if
you want to have a following. But our Lord was not here for
a following. He came to save sinners. He came to save sinners. And He identified the sinners.
He ate with them. He healed them. He fed them.
That's what He did. He sat down with them and He
ate with them. I hope he does that this morning.
Really, I'm serious. I hope the Lord is pleased to
do that this morning. I hope the Lord is pleased to
sit down with publicans and sinners this morning and fellowship with
us. Here is the true physician of
the soul. The Pharisees in verse 11 said,
and when the Pharisees saw it, when they saw, it when they saw
him. When they saw him, but when they
saw it, they said unto his disciples, why eateth your master with publicans
and sinners? They were offended that the physician
of souls would eat with his patients. That's what it comes down to.
Offended. that the physician of souls.
You know, my doctor that I had back in Ashland, not one time
ever came over to my house and I was never invited to his house
to sit down and eat. I always met him at his office.
But our Lord came to, he makes house calls. This is one physician
that makes house calls. And he went to Matthew's house
and he sat down and the great physician of souls sat down And
he fellowshiped. That's what he did. He fellowshiped
with publicans and sinners. Their reply shows that, their
reply shows, listen, it shows what religion without Christ
will do for you. It will make you mean. It'll
make you mean. You look at history. There have
been no meaner people than religious people. Slaughtered. They've slaughtered
people. It'll make you mean. It will
make you prejudiced. It'll make you look down on others.
And everyone, everyone will be beneath you. Absolutely everyone. Grace doesn't do that. Grace
enables you to look up to everyone. It enables you to look up. It enables you to see one another
and prefer one another before yourself. It takes grace to do
that. That's not natural. That's just
not natural. And our Lord states His mission
here. When Jesus heard that, when He heard... See, He's God.
He hears everything. No thought can be withheld from
Him. No thought can be withheld from Him at all. He knows the
secrets of the heart. He knows it. And they're over
there talking to the disciples, complaining, and probably saying
it in just a very negative way, why does your master eat with
publican sinners? He's a teacher. If he were a
teacher, he'd be over here with us and not over there with them. But when Jesus heard that, he
said unto them, they that behold need not a physician, they that
are sick. He sets himself forth here as the great physician.
This, this one is the balm of Gilead. That's who he is. Christ came to save the lost.
He's gonna save the lost. The sick, the spiritually sick,
the whole need not a physician. If you're not sick of sin, He
didn't come for you. He came to save the sick. Now,
I know this. I know this. The Lord will have
to make you sick. He'll have to make you sick of
yourself. He'll have to make you sick of sin. And then you'll
turn to Him, the true physician. Because the Lord has to bring
us to that point. We don't come there naturally. Christ came
to save sinners. This is His mission. You take
a company, especially your bigger companies, they have a mission
statement. They've got this mission statement written on the wall. Paul gives the Lord's mission
statement here. Go over to 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy 1, verse 15, this, this is a faithful saint and worthy of all acceptation
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom
I'm chief. That's his mission. Right there. I came to save sinners. Are sinners
going to be saved? Absolutely. Absolutely. And then he says in closing here,
he says, go learn what that means. Go learn what that meaneth. And
I'll have mercy and not sacrifice. I am not come to call the righteous. If you're righteous, if you are
righteous, you don't need Him. The problem is there's no righteous.
There's none righteous, none good. He said, I didn't come to call
the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And what he's, you know, he's
quoting Hosea 6.6, I'll have mercy and not sacrifice. And
in doing this, he is showing that he is Jehovah Roshi, the Lord that healeth thee. That's
who he is. He's the Lord Jehovah that healeth
thee. And he says, go learn what that
means. Charles Spurgeon wrote this. I'm not going to read it
all, but Charles Spurgeon wrote, Our Lord, having gloriously defended
himself from the insinuations of the proud Pharisees, now carries
the war into the enemy's territory. He says to them, go ye and learn.
That alone was beguiling to them because you can't tell a know-it-all
to go learn something. I thought that was so good. You
can't tell a know-it-all, go learn something. If you want
to make a man mad, if you want to make a know-it-all mad, I
mean mad, just tell them to go learn something. These men spent
years and years and years being instructed in the law. And the
Lord says, go learn what this means. And he said, nothing could have
been more offensive to the know-it-all crowd than for the master of
said, go ye and learn what that means. Like most, he said, these
men never shut up long enough to learn anything, because they
presumed that they knew everything. The Lord Jesus told them that
they did not even know the meaning of the scriptures they claimed
to believe and defend. They didn't even know what he
was saying. They didn't know what he was saying. To have mercy
upon sinners is a work of God and is well pleasing to God and
is more pleasing, listen, than sacrifices and offerings. All
those offerings that they've made, all those sacrifices, he
said it's more pleasing for God to show mercy. To show mercy. Come you weary, heavy laden,
bruised and mangled by the fall. If you tarry till you're better,
you will never come at all. Not the righteous, not the righteous,
sinners Jesus came to call. If you're a sinner, run to the Lord Jesus Christ.
He'd delight to show mercy to sinners.