Can you all hear me okay? If
you will open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 9. Matthew chapter 9. You know, coming here in a hurricane
was one thing, but Rachel and I both like snow really well,
and we haven't really seen any yet this year, so certainly don't
mind. But it's good to be with you
guys today. It's an honor to be here. Let's read our text
together in Matthew chapter 9, starting in verse 9. And as Jesus passed forth from
thence, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the receipt of custom.
And he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose and followed
him. And it came to pass, as Jesus
sat at meat 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 be whole 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 here we have one of our Lord
Jesus' many encounters with the Pharisees. You read the New Testament,
there are many times where the Pharisees came and made a show
for themselves. Here we have Matthew, the Lord
called Matthew. At the receipt of custom, Matthew
had the Lord and his disciples over to his house for dinner.
And the Pharisees decided to crash the party. And the Pharisees
typify religious people. They typify every single one
of us by nature. They were the most religious
people in their day. And they thought. They thought many things,
but more than anything, they thought that they were saved. They thought that they knew God.
They thought that they had made their decision. They thought
that they were living for God. But notice that in verse 13,
the Lord told them they were clueless. Here they come and
say, why is He eating with them? And what did He say? Look at
it. But go and learn what that means. He told them, you think
you know God, but you've got to learn what this means. He
said, you don't know. You don't know God. And you know,
I suppose that when he said that, that these religious people,
these Pharisees, I suppose that they were probably offended.
You know, being in North Carolina, I think of Billy Graham. If someone
went to Billy Graham and said, Billy, you don't know God from
a hole in the ground, I imagine he'd be pretty upset. He'd be
pretty offended. And so these Pharisees were. Someone who spends
their whole life thinking they're devoted to God. I went to seminary. I got a master's in Bible study.
And you tell them you don't know God. Everything you've done is
a waste. You don't know God. Be offensive. You remember in John chapter
6 when the Lord talked about, I am the bread come down from
heaven. You must eat my flesh and drink
my blood. Some of the people who followed Him because of the
miracle He performed, they said, this is a hard saying. Who can
hear it? And the Lord said, does this offend you? Does this offend
you? You know, the Gospel is offensive. It's very offensive. The offense
of the cross. The Gospel is offensive to natural man. I'm here to tell
you that the Gospel, and the word means good news, but it's
not good news to everybody. It's not good news to everyone.
Just like the Gospel, the words of the Lord Himself, just like
they were hard sayings to those people who were religious but
lost, They were words of life to His disciples, to His people. Words of life. And today I'm
here for one reason. I'm here to tell you what the
Word of God means. We'll say, you go learn what
that means. I'm here to show you what the Word of God says
and I pray God would be our teacher. We must be taught of God. I pray
He would teach us what it means. The title of my message is, Go
Learn What That Meaneth. Go Learn What That Meaneth. And
the message has three simple points. The first being, why? Why did he say go learn what
that means? Why are we to learn? And the reason is simple. Because
we don't know. We're ignorant. We don't know.
Man by nature does not know God. We think we know God. You find
me anybody, just about anybody thinks they know God. I work
with very religious people who let you know that not a day goes
by they don't talk about church. I mean, I'm sure we all have
these encounters. Everybody thinks they know God.
But the sad reality is we don't. We do not know God. God is holy. God is just. We
are sinners. Sinners. I want to show you something. Turn over with me to 1 Corinthians
2. 1 Corinthians 2. We'll be looking at 1 Corinthians
2 verse 14. We think we know God. Well, what
does God say? What do the Scriptures say? That's
us, by nature. But the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him. And see this, neither can he
know them. Because they're spiritually discerned.
We all by nature think we know God. God's my buddy. He's there.
He's there for me. I know Him. He knows me. We hear
it. We hear it. Scriptures beg to
differ. We do not know God and we cannot
know God. Not on our own. because these
things are spiritually discerned. So first, we're to learn because
we don't know. We don't know God. Second, we
don't know God's ways. We don't know His ways. What
did they say? Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?
Why is He doing this? They didn't know that the Lord
Jesus is the friend of publicans and sinners. They didn't know.
They didn't know. In Isaiah 55, we read about His
ways, God's ways, are not our ways. His ways are not as our
ways. They're much higher. As the heavens are higher than
the earth, so are His ways, higher than our ways. God's ways are
not our ways, and we don't know His ways. Foolishness unto us. Foolishness. But you know what?
We're so stubborn in our pride. Fallen man is so proud, but we're
lost. That every way, every way of
a man, every way to us by nature is right in our own eyes. Every single way. And there's
a way which seems right unto a man, but you know what the
end thereof is? Destruction. Destruction. That's our way.
You remember the Lord gave two examples in Matthew chapter 7. Two ways. The way to heaven and
the way to hell. The broad way, the wide gate,
which leads to destruction. And we read that, many there
be which go in thereat. And you know what that way is?
It's the way of man. It's the popular way. Well, it
don't really matter what you believe. We're all good Christian
folks, right? Many there be which go in there
at." And that's the way that leads to destruction, everlasting
destruction. And then the Lord taught us about
another way, a straight way, a narrow gate. And He said, few
there be that find that gate. There's few that find that one,
and it's because they find it by the grace of God. And that's
the way that leads to life. Do you see the difference? Man's
way, God's way. We don't know God's way. And
third, we don't know God's Christ. We don't know God's Christ. Now
we know Christ is the way, that straight and narrow way. It is
Christ Himself. And we don't know that way. I want to show
you this. Look over in John chapter 4. John chapter 4. You've all heard about the Samaritan
woman, right? This woman of Samaria that said,
the Lord, He must needs go through Samaria because He had a lost
sheep there. This is one of my favorite passages
of Scripture. Look with me here, John chapter 4, let's start in
verse 10. Jesus answered her and said, If thou knewest the
gift of God..." We don't know the gift of God. "...if you knew
the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee..." It's the
Lord speaking. "...if you knew the gift, and
if you knew who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou
wouldst have asked of Him, And He would have given thee living
water." She didn't know that this is the Lord Jesus Christ
talking to her. He was thirsty. He said, give
me to drink. She said, the Jews have no dealings
with the Samaritans. Why are you asking me for water?
He said, if you know who it was that was talking to you, you
would have asked of Him. And He would have given you rivers
of living water. Now look down at verse 19. The woman saith
unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet." She thought
he was a prophet. Here he is talking to her and
he said, you go call your husband. You tell him to come here. She
said, I don't have one. He said, you've had five husbands.
And he who you have now, he's not your husband. Can you imagine
how shocked she must have been? How did he know this? It's just
this stranger that I find sitting at my will. How did he know this?
I perceive you're a prophet. We don't know God by nature.
Look down at verse 22. He said, you worship you know
not what. I'm here to tell most of the
religious world, you don't even know what you worship. We live
in many churches. I'm not familiar with Spring
Lake, but I suppose there's a few church buildings around here. Many churches
worship in the know not what. Coming from the Lord himself,
this woman says, we worship in that mountain. God says, you
worship you know not what. And the Lord said, we know what
we worship. We know whom we worship. For salvation is of the Jews.
And look down at verse 25. Here we see it. We do not know
God's Christ. Verse 25, the woman saith unto him, I know that Messiah
cometh, which is called Christ. When He is come, He will tell
us all things. She said, I know that when Christ
is come, he'll tell us all things. But then look at the next verse.
Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. I that speak unto thee am. You're
looking at the Christ. Isn't that glorious? And you
know what he told her. She said, I know when Christ
has come, he'll tell us all things. If you read on down, she goes
out into the city and she tells, come see a man. You come see
this man. He told me all things that ever
I did. And do you know what he told her? We didn't read it.
But he pointed her sin out to her. He said, you've had all
these men and the guy you're with, he's not your husband.
He told her, you're a sinner. You're a sinner. And that's,
told her all things that ever she did. We do not know God by
nature, we do not know God's ways, and we do not know God's
Christ. That's the first thing. But not
only do we not know God, not only do we not know God by nature,
scriptures tell us the carnal mind, that's us, by nature, Not
only does it not know God, it is enmity with God. We're friends
of the world, all of us by nature. We get into this world and we
just set our eyes and set our hearts on everything we can see
and everything we can gain, everything we can become. God says the friend
of the world is the enemy of God. No, you not. Friendship of the world. Enmity
with God. We hate God by nature, brethren. We hate His ways. We
hate His Christ. Did you know the Lord Jesus Christ
established a perfect righteousness for sinners? And yet we cling
to our own righteousness, our fig leaf righteousness. Nothing
but filthy rags. We go about to establish our
own righteousness. That's pretty good proof that
we hate God by nature, is it not? So we see why we are to
learn. Because we don't know. We're
ignorant of the things of God. Well, how are we to learn? Very
important. How are we going to learn the
things of God? Well, first, it's not going to
be on our own. You can mark that down. It's
not going to be on our own. You're not going to sit down and just
have a moment where, well, I know God now. You know what the Scriptures
say about man's wisdom? Everybody thinks they know God.
Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? Yes, He
has. Yes, He has. Everybody tries
to use the scriptures and say, this is what I believe. You find
a verse and say, now that's what I believe. I'm here to hold up
this whole book and say, this is what I believe. Not a verse
here and there. From Genesis 1 to Revelation
22, it speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ. This book is a hymn book. It speaks about Him. It's all
about Him. Man's wisdom is not going to
give you a saving knowledge of Christ. It's life eternal that
we might know Him and be found in Him. We're not going to come
to that on our own. No man has and no man will. And
not by our searching. Job said, canst thou by searching
find out God, the Almighty? Of course not. We're not going
to find out God on our own, brethren. It's not going to happen. Listen
to this. Romans 11.33 says, Oh the depth, oh the depth of the
riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. It's so deep. How unsearchable are His judgments
and His ways past finding out it. How are we going to find
out something on our own that's unsearchable? If we can't even
search for it, how are we going to find out something that's
beyond finding out? It's not going to happen. I am
my own Savior. No, sir. No, we're not. No, we're
not. Last time I was here, I brought
a message on, but God. We're dead in our trespasses and sins,
but God. How is a dead sinner going to
find out the Almighty God? The true and living God? It's
not going to happen. It's not going to happen. Now I hope by
saying this I'm taking away any glorying in ourselves that we
may have. If we trust that we're saved,
I'm hopefully showing it's not of us. It's not of us. Not unto
us, but unto thy name be glory." Unto the Lord Himself. Now we
must learn, not on our own, we must learn from God. We must
learn from God. He must be our teacher. And do
you know how God teaches a sinner? How God reveals Himself to a
sinner? I think we know the answer. It
pleases God by the foolishness of preaching. to save them that
believe." That's the only way in our day. That is the only
way. The Lord isn't going to show up at your house and reveal
Himself to you. Through the foolishness of preaching
is how He's ordained to save His people from their sins. Do
you remember Philip and the eunuch? Philip comes by and he hears
this eunuch reading the prophet Isaiah. And he said to him, he
said, do you understand what you're reading? Understandest
thou what thou readest? And I love what he said. He said,
how can I? How am I going to understand
this book? His ways are past finding out. It's the unsearchable
riches of Christ. How can I understand this? Except
some man should guide me. And the answer is you won't.
You won't. It's not going to happen. It's not going to happen.
We must hear from one of God's preachers. Now, I just mentioned
many churches, many preachers, popular in the eyes of men. But
did you know the Lord warns us time and time again about whom
we hear. He said, take heed how you hear.
And in Matthew 7, He also talked about, take heed whom you hear.
Beware of false prophets. You'll know them by their fruits. People want to be fruit inspectors.
You'll know the false prophets by their fruits. That's what
the book says. A man comes and tells you, you make your decision
and you repeat this prayer and you're saved. Don't let anyone
tell you otherwise. No one ever told me that, but I hear it.
I know that happens. That's just not so. That's just
not so. We must hear from the man sent
by God. A God sent preacher. We read
about the Lord calling His disciples. The Lord called 70 men and sent
them two and two to preach the Kingdom of God. the Lord sent
them." In fact, later in our text here, I believe it talks
about this at the end of the chapter, look at verse 37, showing
the importance of a man called by God to preach. Look at it,
verse 37 of our text. Then saith the Lord to his disciples,
the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers, the preachers,
the gospel preachers, God's ministers, The laborers are few. They're
few. This shows us the importance.
Here you are without a pastor. And it breaks my heart to know
it. But you know you need a pastor. You need a man to guide you in
the Scriptures. To guide you to Christ. So what
are we to do? Look at verse 38. Pray ye therefore
the Lord of the harvest. You pray to God that He will
send forth laborers into His harvest. This matter of gospel
preaching is so important, brethren. It's crucial to salvation. You
know what the Philippian jailer asked Paul in Silas? He said,
Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And you remember what he said?
Believe. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Well, how am I going to do that?
How am I going to do that? I want to show you something.
Look over in Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. God's Word tells us over and
over, if we have any hope of eternal salvation, we must believe
on the Son of God. He that hath the Son hath life.
He that believeth on the Son hath life. And he that hath not
the Son of God, he hath not life, but the wrath of God abideth
on him. This is how important this is. We must believe on the
Son of God. Now look here at Romans 10. It says, "...for whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." How then shall they call on Him
in whom they've not believed? How are you going to call on
somebody to save you in whom you have not believed? And not
only that, look what it says next, "...and how shall they
believe in Him of whom they have not heard?" How are you going
to call upon and believe on the Lord that you don't know who
you haven't heard about. How are you going to do it? It's not going to happen. And
look what it says after that. And how shall they hear? You must hear. How shall they
hear without a preacher? You're not going to open the
book up You can read through the Bible all you want and still
be lost, still be dead in your sins. You must hear the Gospel
from a man sent by God. Look at verse 14. I'm sorry,
verse 15. How are you going to heal without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? I'll tell you this right now,
I would not dare stand here and open God's Word and try to show
you Christ in the Scriptures if I did not trust that the Lord
sent me here to you today. And that's not for my glory.
I'm here for the same reason as you, to hear from our God.
I'm here for the same exact reason. I need God to speak to me. It
don't matter if I'm the one speaking or sitting there in the pew.
We need God to speak to us. That's how He speaks salvation
to our souls. Let's read verse 15. How shall
they preach except they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. We must hear the Gospel. We must hear the Gospel from
one of God's messengers, from one of God's preachers. It won't
do us any good to hear a false messenger. If we could be saved under a
false message, why would the Lord warn us time and time again
from hearing them? He wouldn't. He wouldn't. Go
on and read verse 16 and 17. But they have not all obeyed
the Gospel. For Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed, I'll
report. And we know the answer to that, to whom the arm of the
Lord has been revealed. That's who's going to believe
God's report. But look at verse 17 here. This is how important
this is. So then faith cometh by hearing. Faith cometh by hearing. Hearing
what? And hearing by the Word of God. I grew up, as some of you are
aware, under Pastor Don Fortner. My wife grew up under Donnie
Bell, and I suppose many of you have been here under Rupert for
many years. I never enjoyed going. When I
was a kid, I despised having to get ready and go to the house
of the Lord. There was never any interest
there. We all understand. We were all there. But the Lord has done something
for this sinner. Why do we desire to be here?
Because the Lord has given us a new heart. We have that old
sinful nature that hates God with every breath, but we have
a new heart. We have a new nature that God has put in us. Partakers
of the divine nature, the nature of God, the mind of Christ that
desires the things of God. We desire the things of God,
brethren. And you know why? Because God spoke to us through
His Word, through the preaching of the Gospel. That's why. That's
how faith comes. And I love this. Brother Gabe
talked about this a few weeks ago. You want God to increase
your faith? Oh Lord, I'm of such little faith. Increase my faith.
You know how it's going to happen? Come hear the Gospel. Hear the
Gospel. Faith comes by hearing. You want
God to increase your faith? Come hear the Gospel. It is written
in the Prophets, they shall be all taught of God. We must be
taught of God. It doesn't do you any good just
to hear from a man. Every time I hear the Gospel
preached, I must hear God speak through that man. Is it so for
you? Or are you just interested in
hearing a man? We need to hear from God. Every man therefore
that hath heard and that hath learned, we're talking about
learning here, of the Father, He cometh unto me. You hear from
God. You learn from God. You're going to come unto me,
Christ said. You're going to come to Christ.
Now let me read you something else. Another very familiar passage
in Matthew chapter 11. You don't have to turn there.
But the Lord Jesus said, Come unto me. Come unto me. It's not an option. This is a
commandment. Come unto me, all you that labor. Where you labor from? In John
chapter 6, those men that departed, they said this is a hard saying.
They had said to the Lord, they said, what shall we do that we
might work the works of God? Come unto me all you that labor
and are heavy laden from trying to please God. Are you tired
of trying to work up your salvation? Are you tired of trying to save
yourself? If you are, come unto me, come unto Christ. He said,
take my yoke upon you. He said, learn of Me. Go learn
what that means. Learn of Him, brethren. Now,
I know people in religion will say, look to Christ, He's an
example that we're to follow. He is. We should strive to be
like Him. In trying to be Rachel's husband,
how do I know how to be? Well, look to Christ. He's the
husband of the bride. How is He to His people? That's
how I'm to be. But we're to learn of Him, brethren.
He said, I am meek. He endured such contradiction
of sinners against himself. He humbled himself, made a little
lower than the angels. Learn of me, I'm meek, I'm lowly
in heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls. Come to
Christ, brethren." We're ignorant of God by nature.
We cannot learn who He is and how He saves on our own. God
must speak to us through His Word, through His servant, His
preacher. And we must. Do you remember
Martha and Mary when the Lord came to them? And he came into
their house and Martha was cumbered about much serving and she said,
Lord, beseech her that she'll come and help me. I got so much
work to do. It's a good picture. Do you know what Mary was doing?
She sat at his feet. You want to go somewhere, you
go to the feet of Christ. You go to the feet of the Savior.
She sat at His feet and she heard His Word. And God, the Lord said
that that is the one thing needful. She hath chosen that good part,
that one thing needful that shall not be taken away from her. May
God enable us to come, like Mary, sit at His feet and hear His
Word. We must learn from Him. Now lastly,
what are we to learn? Why are we to learn? How are
we to learn? What are we going to learn? What
did the Lord command us to learn here? Look at it again in verse
13 of our text, Matthew chapter 9. He said to the Pharisees, He
said, but go ye and learn what that meaneth. I will have mercy. Have you ever read anything as
miraculous as that? I will have mercy. God, speaking,
says, I will have mercy. Oh, how glorious. How glorious.
What blessed words. I will have mercy. You're a sinner.
I'm a sinner. God says, I'll have mercy. That's
good news for a sinner, Craig. That's great news for a sinner.
Let me read you this verse. Micah 7, verse 18 says, Who is
a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity? You got any iniquity?
Job said, we drink iniquity like water. Who is a God like unto
thee that pardoneth iniquity, and that passeth by the transgression
of the remnant of his heritage." Talking about God here. He retaineth
not his anger forever. Because he delighteth in mercy. Is that good news to you? Is
that good news to you? Are you a sinner? Do you need
God's mercy? Oh, He's a God of mercy, but He's full of mercy. You know, I heard someone compare
mercy to the ocean. It's never going to run dry.
It could never run dry. It's so big. One drop into that
ocean, mercy after mercy after mercy. That's how full of mercy
God is, except infinitely more than we could ever imagine. Do
you remember Moses when he asked the Lord, Lord show me your glory?
I love thinking about this and reading this. You remember what
the Lord said to him, right? He said, Moses, hear me now. I'll be gracious to whom I'll
be gracious. And I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And we read that again in Romans
chapter 9. Children being not yet born, neither having done
any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth." He goes
on to say, "...Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated." What
shall we say? Is there unrighteousness with
God? That God can love one and hate another? God forbid. "...So
then it is not of him that willeth." Your will ain't going to do us
any good. Your will ain't going to save you. Neither will mine.
It's not of Him that willeth, nor of Him that runneth. You
can run all you want. You can try to do all the works of God you
want to. It's not of Him that runneth. It's of God. But of
God that showeth mercy. God is a God of mercy, brethren.
And I hope that God will put, if He hasn't yet, I hope that
He will pierce our hearts with a need for mercy. Now, I would
do you a great injustice if I didn't tell you how God can show mercy.
Because someone might say, well, how can God do that? Well, first
of all, He's God. That's how. You and I are man. What is man that thou art mindful
of Him? Well, He's not mindful of every man. He didn't send
His Son to die for everybody, or else everybody would be saved.
Wouldn't be a hell if there wasn't going to be people there. How
does God show mercy? That blood that religious men
and women trample under their feet every day right now. People
trampling the Son of God under their feet, they count that blood
a common thing, an unholy thing. That blood, that holy blood of
God bought mercy for sinners. Now there's a hymn we sing, nothing
but the blood. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the
blood of Jesus. Under the blood. Put me, Lord,
put me under that blood. Every sinner for whom that blood
was shed. You know, there may be lost religious people who've
suffered for what they thought was the cause of Christ. They
thought they suffered persecution, thought they were servants of
God. People talk about Christians
overseas, ISIS beheading, which is a terrible thing. Don't get
me wrong. But if we don't know Christ, the shedding of our blood
is not going to put away a single sin. The blood of bulls and goats,
our blood, that never took away a single sin. He never took away
a single sin. The blood of Christ put sin away. As far as the East is from the
West, so far has He removed our transgressions from us because
His blood was shed. And He shed that blood on purpose.
Now look at verse 13 again of our text. It said, But go ye
and learn what that meaneth. I will have mercy. Do we see
that? Do we see that God will indeed
have mercy? Let us rejoice. Now look what
else he said. I will have mercy and not sacrifice. What does that mean? Do you know
people sacrifice for God? Lord, we've done many wonderful
works in Thy name. We prophesied. We've done them,
preached, gone on mission trips. We've done all these things in
Your name, Lord, in Christ's name. I'm sacrificing for God. People
think they sacrifice for God. What have you and I ever sacrificed
for God? Anything? Have we given anything? Sacrificed anything to God? I'm here to tell you there's
one sacrifice God's interested in. This is My beloved Son in
whom I'm well pleased. Hear ye Him. There's one sacrifice
for sin, brethren, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the Lord Jesus Christ. Look over at Hebrews chapter
10 with me. Hebrews chapter 10. Again, a familiar text. And look with me at verse 11
of Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10 verse 11 says, And
every preacher standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes
the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. Obviously this applies to the
Old Testament when priests would literally stand all day and sacrifice
and sacrifice and sacrifice and read all of Hebrews 10. Those
sacrifices never put one single sin away. They were all a picture
of Christ, a shadow of things to come. But as it is in our
day, preachers standing telling you this is who God is. God loves
you. God wants to save you if you'll just let Him into your
heart, if you'll accept Him. If you'll live for Him, if you
just live for Him, they offer the same sacrifices which can
never take away sin. But this man, you see it? You
see that verse 12? But this man, After He had offered
one sacrifice, just one, for sins forever, He sat down on
the right hand of God from henceforth expecting till His enemies be
made His footstool." There's one sacrifice for sin. We try
to add something to what He did, to what God did, to what He cried,
it is finished, and we're going to say, well, I made my decision.
You're going to add to what He did? Anything we try to add to
what the Lord Jesus Christ did, if we try to take any of His
glory, we're going to take it all. If we try to add to what
He did, I keep saying it because it's so dangerous. We add to
what He did, we take it all away. If any of it was because of me,
if I'm saved in the least amount because of myself, what good is Christ? Bodily exercise
shall profit little. That's all about adding your
works to the picture. We can't add our works to the picture.
Christ did it all. Look at verse 14. For by one offering, by that
one offering, the Lord Jesus Christ hath perfected forever
them that are sanctified. Brethren, the Lord Jesus Christ,
every sinner for whom He died, He perfected them forever. There's nothing for us to do
to make ourselves more holy, more righteous, more acceptable
inside of God. We're as perfect as God Himself. Aren't you glad
He has mercy? But these Pharisees, these Pharisees,
back in our text, these Pharisees the Lord was talking to, He told
them, I'll have mercy and not sacrifice because they were offering
their sacrifices. They said, God, I've done this,
I've done that. Back in verse 12, The Lord told them. When they
said, Why is he eating with publicans and sinners? He heard them, and
He said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician,
but they that are sick. Have you ever gone to the doctor
when you woke up and you felt so good? Man, I'm going to go
to the doctor today. I feel great. How foolish. If you're well, you don't go
to the doctor. Well, I guess we do it for checkups, but you
know what I mean. When you're sick, You go to the
doctor when you're sick, when you have a problem, when you're
helpless, you can't help yourself. You need a physician to say,
this is the problem and this is what we're going to do to
fix it. Well, there's a physician. His name is the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's the great physician. But as He told these Pharisees,
they that are whole, if you're whole, if you're already righteous,
you don't need Him. You don't need Him. The whole
are not going to come to the physician. You need Him, but you don't know
you do. The problem is not knowing your sickness. People can get
all torn up over, only the elect shall be saved. Dennis is my
best friend, he says this all the time, I'm sure you've heard
it. The problem isn't am I elect, it's am I sick. Am I sick? There's a physician
if you're sick. There's a physician for the sick, but only for the
sick. These Pharisees, these religious
people, They weren't interested in the glory of God. We know
salvation is all to God's glory. Christ is going to get all the
glory in our salvation. But the Pharisees weren't interested
in that. The Scriptures tell us they sought the praise of
men more than the praise of God. All their works they did for
it to be seen of men. The Pharisee and the publican
go up into the temple to pray. The Pharisee says, God, I thank
you that I'm not like other men, that I'm not like this publican.
I fast twice in a week. I give tithes of all that I possess.
It's all about me. Is that what it sounds like to
you? It's all about me? Glorious me? Mighty me? The Pharisees,
religious people, man by nature, not interested in the glory of
God. They sought their own glory. They didn't need the physician.
They didn't need His mercy. He says, I don't have mercy.
They say, well, I'm just going to keep on sacrificing. That publican cried for mercy.
He said, you know what, everything that Pharisee said about me,
that's true. I'm a sinner. I'm the sinner. So what am I going to cry? Lord,
look what I've done. God, be merciful to me, the sinner. That's my only hope. That's my
only hope. You know, I love the verse where
the Lord said, Paul had the thorn in his flesh, and God said, My
grace is sufficient for thee. Do you know that by nature we're
not interested in that? The Pharisees, it didn't interest them at all. They were sufficient on their
own. They didn't need God's grace. They would talk about it. Oh
sure, they'll talk about it. I'm so blessed. God's been so
gracious. But mighty me, look what I've
done. Do we need God's grace? Do we need God's grace to suffice
for us? That's all my sufficiency. I
hope I'm not trusting in myself that I'm righteous. I need God
to be gracious to me. Whatever these Pharisees had,
whatever these men had, they thought they earned it. They
thought they did something for it. They weren't sick. That's what it all comes down
to. They weren't sick. The Lord said, they that be whole, they
don't need a physician. But they're sick. Are you sick? Are we sick in
our soul? Are we nothing but sin? Do we
need our sin to be put away and justly forgiven? Do we need to
be made righteous by the blood of Christ? In Luke 9, we read that the Lord
healed them that had need of healing. All of them. Follow
me. If you needed healing, Christ
would heal you. If you need healing, Christ will
heal you. Oh, hear me. There's a physician
for sinners. Look at verse 13 again. He said,
Go learn what that meaneth. I'll have mercy and not sacrifice,
for I am not come to call the righteous. Those who think they're
righteous, the 99 just persons in the wilderness which need
no repentance, not come for them. I'm come for that lost sheep.
I'm come for that lost sheep. I'm come to call sinners to repentance. The Son of Man came to seek and
to save that which is lost." Are you lost? Are we lost? You know, the best
thing that could ever happen to us is for God to show us we're
lost. Because if God ever shows us
we're lost, we're going to cry, God, save me. God, find me. Be gracious to me. Oh Lord, save
me. God, be merciful to me. I spoke on the parable of the
Pharisee and the Publican last Sunday. I just love, by the grace
of God, we'll be a sinner begging God to have mercy on us. And
we read that that Publican went home justified. Oh, isn't that
wonderful, brethren? That Publican cried for mercy
and he went home justified. Are you a sinner? Or are we sinners? Do we need God's mercy? This
is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. This is to
be believed by all. That Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners. At the beginning of the message
I said this is good news, not to everybody. but to sinners,
to those who are sick, to those who need God to do something
for them that we can't do for ourselves. There is a Savior
for sinners, but only for sinners. Are you a sinner? If so, come
to Christ. Believe on the Son of God. Come
to Him. Come, sit at His feet, beg for
mercy, and you'll find rest unto your soul. Amen.