Let's go first in our reading
to Matthew chapter 9. We propose to begin our reading
at verse 9. and taking us through verse 13. Now before we begin to read,
let us pray. Lord, you have blessed us once
more to gather in this house of worship. We count it wonderful to be present, to have an interest in the God
of the Bible, in the glorious person of God's Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ, And in that absolutely essential presence of God the
Holy Spirit, may we gather in this house this morning. Lord, we beg you to open our
hearts and minds to the meaning of what we read on these pages,
for we have discovered in our religious journey in this world,
to have for many, many years preached a false gospel, a false
God, a false Christ, and a false Holy Spirit, and an even greater moment, false
Christians. We were false Christians. We
thought we knew, but we were totally, absolutely mistaken. Lord, if I'm this dumb, and I
am, I need your help. The words that we're about to
read will be difficult for some to hear, but if you speak, No
man can resist that divine edict. Set this poor sinner free. Bless our time together this
morning. Thank you for the privilege and
the opportunity. We beg in our Savior's precious
name. Amen. Now my reading is fairly
short. and for the most part fairly
simple, but there is one particular lesson as well as others in this
little short passage that we're about to read. And it is simply this, that Christ
only saves sinners. I mean first-class, blue-blooded
sinners. That's what we are. We're born
this way. And for up to 10 years we pretended
to be what we were not because we believed what we had heard
preached and turned around and preached it ourselves. Now that
is utter stupidity, I am sure. Alright, Matthew chapter 9 beginning
at verse 9. And as Jesus passed forth from
there, He saw a man named Matthew. Now nobody had to tell the Lord
Jesus that this man's name is Matthew. You know why? Matthew turns out to be one of
Christ's sheep. And He knows His sheep by name.
What chapter is that in, John? I can't remember right off. Chapter
10. Alright. He saw a man named Matthew. Now remember, Matthew is writing
this gospel. But if you check with a couple
of others like Mark and Luke, You're going to find a little
bit of difference in that his name Matthew is not mentioned
there, but rather his Jewish name, which is Levi. He saw a
man named Matthew sitting at the receipt of custom. These
are Jews that have signed on to collect taxes for the Roman
government, which has Israel under their thumbs. And these
fellows made pretty good money doing it, sitting at the receipt
of custom. And he said unto him, the Lord
Jesus spoke to Matthew, follow me. And he arose and followed
him. And it came to pass, as Jesus
said it, meet in the house. Matthew's not going to tell you
that it's his house, but if you check with Mark and Luke, you'll
find that's whose house it is. came to pass as Jesus sat at
meat in the house, behold, many publicans," a name for the tax
collectors for the Romans that were Jews, many publicans and
sinners, came to Matthew's house and sat down with him and his
disciples." Now ain't that something? And when the Pharisees saw it,
Now this Pharisee tribe ain't dead, you understand. It is by
far the largest group among professing people in the world of Christianity
that are Pharisees. And when the Pharisees saw it,
they said to His disciples, What does your Master eat with publicans
and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, He
said unto them, They that behold need not a physician or a doctor,
but they that are sick. But go you and learn what that
means. I will have mercy and not sacrifice,
and here's the punchline, and I am not come to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. Our Lord is not deceived as to
what we are and what these people are. And he makes it as plain
as plain can be. These Pharisees object because
there are so many unbelievers at Matthew's table and they would
say that Matthew is an unbeliever as well. I came not to call the
righteous. You know why? There aren't any. There aren't any righteous in
the human race on this whole globe. until God works a miracle
of grace in our souls. This man receives sinners. We find another reference, and
I'll give you the reference after I read it because you're going
to try to turn to it. Then drew near unto Christ, all the publicans
and sinners fought a hearing, and the religious leaders murmured,
saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them." Now this
is on a different occasion. This is, what did I say the guy's
name was? Oh goodness alive. It will come to me somewhere
down the road. This man receives sinners. My first question is, who is
this man? This God-man Christ Jesus, who
is he? Who is he? But one thing he's not, he's
not a politician. He doesn't try to go out of his
way not to offend people, he just lays it out. Now today's Jesus wouldn't behave
like that. He wouldn't hurt your feelings
for anything in the world. If you'll drop a little few dollars
in the plate when they pass it by you, you know, that'll satisfy
Him. That ain't the Christ of the
Bible. We have totally lost the gospel itself. It is totally,
totally different from what this book reads. And yet everybody
claims this is our textbook. This is our textbook. Then drew
near unto Christ all the publicans and sinners for to hear him.
And the religious people murmured, saying, This man receives sinners
and eats with him. Who is this man? Number one,
he is God incarnate, the Word made flesh, the exact image of
God the Father, the brightness of God's glory, and he is also
the promised Messiah, God's Christ, the Redeemer of all believers.
He said himself, I and the Father are one. There are three persons
in the Holy Trinity and yet they are one. They're one in essence,
one in purpose, one in everything. I and my Father are one. He that has seen me has seen
the Father. Here's an interesting question.
Who are these enemies? that everywhere Christ went they
dogged His steps, did everything they could to make Him look stupid
in people's eyes, and they never succeeded. Not once. Not once. These people that spoke against
Christ are the devoutly religious, self-righteous moralists of their
day. And that is still the definition
to this very moment. They were men who sought acceptance
with God through their works, their deeds, and their religious
affiliation. Thirdly, what is this charge
that they bring against Christ? It's real simple. This man receives
sinners, associates with sinners, and is the friend of sinners.
And they continually, repeatedly, kept saying these very words.
We've read it in Matthew and we've read it. I forgot to give
you the reference in Luke 15. They called him a gluttonous
man and a wine-bibber. A friend of publicans and sinners. Oh, the guy I was trying to remember,
his name is Zacchaeus. How can you forget Zacchaeus?
I heard of him probably when I was still in diapers. Didn't
you? How could you forget that? Now these enemies of grace fought
to brand Christ with shame by saying he's the friend of publicans
and sinners. So they hold this name up to
ridicule, but what they meant to be shame, they don't have
a clue about this, is the chief glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, if he had a banner, that's
what it should say. This man receives sinners. Now we come in the next place
to begin by saying, thank God the Christ of the Bible is the
friend of sinners, because if that ain't so, we're in deep
trouble. We're all lost and on our way
to hell if Christ does not exercise and show us in so many, many
ways that He is the friend of sinners. Thank God He receives
sinners. This is what makes the gospel
good news. Next, in regard to these persons
now that seem to know themselves, but
don't really know themselves at all. Men who truly know themselves
rejoice that Christ is the friend of sinners, but for those that
do not know Him, they cannot accept Him, they cannot receive
Him, and they will not until God knocks on our door. And then
it's all over. Paul wrote these words, this
is a faithful saying, worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
Jesus came into the world to do what? To save sinners. Of whom, he said, I am chief.
I am chief. Before Paul's conversion, if
you'd have asked him if he was a sinner, he'd have probably
hit you. I mean he was Mr. It in the Jewish religion. And now he's gone 180 degrees
in an opposite direction. My goodness. This is a faithful
saying that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners. This gospel that we speak of
this morning and hope to preach to you this morning is no fake
gospel. This is the real McCoy. It is
a real gospel for real sinners. It is real grace for real guilt. We preach no gospel of reward
for mortals dressed in fig leaf aprons of self-righteousness,
namely Adam and Eve in the garden. We preach no gospel of merit
for phony moralists and hypocrites, but we preach good news of mercy
for sinners who are nothing. We are nothing in ourselves.
We have nothing and we can do nothing. Oh, preacher, you're
just being a little bit extreme on what you're saying. I'm telling
you, if that ain't so, I'm lying. But I believe it with all my
heart. I used to think I was a pretty
good fellow. But that ain't true no more. Fourthly, those who know God
and spoke for him, described this blessed mission of our Lord
Jesus to this earth. The angel said to Joseph, you
shall call his name Jesus. Why? For he shall save his people
from their sins. And that's what he came to do,
and that's what he's still doing. The angel said, I'm sorry, our
Lord said, the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that
which is lost. You'll find that statement in
Luke chapter 19 verse 10. He came to seek and to save that
which was lost. He said, I'm not come to call
the righteous, but sinners to repentance. The Apostle Paul
said in Romans chapter 5, but God commends His love toward
us, in that while we were yet or still sinners, Christ died
for us. And then again, Prior to that
statement, which is in chapter 5 and verse 8, and we go back
to verse 6, and he tells us, Christ died for the ungodly. The ungodly. Some of you, along with myself,
we have forgotten what we would have said about such a statement
had we owned up to the fact that it was in our Bibles. We just
jumped over it or turned the other way. I don't know what
we did. I mean, we must have had volumes of truth Though not meant to be distributed
by those that we heard, but yet it was distributed. But we were
deaf to it. We didn't hear it. Why? Because it takes a miracle of
grace to hear this true gospel. Think about that. Christ died
for the ungodly. God's gospel of free grace is
addressed to sinners just like you and me. There are plenty of people who
are too good to be saved, but there ain't a single one too
bad to be saved. Now preacher, that's dangerous
language. I know it is. God just might save somebody
with that statement. It ain't dangerous the way men
think. Oh my goodness, people will go
out and do anything they want to do. That's what they're doing
anyhow. The gospel is addressed to sinners. Our Lord said, come unto me all
you that labor and are heavy laden and I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me and you shall find rest for your souls. Matthew chapter
11, I forget the verse. One more time, try to say it
a different way. Salvation is for sinners and
for sinners only. There just ain't no people that
aren't sinners, but they don't know it. And if they do know
it, they ain't going to tell you. They're going to keep it
hid. They want people to speak of
them as wonderful, honest, God-fearing people. Yeah, isn't everybody? like that character that went
in that church in Charleston this past week. He's run into religion somewhere. People sometimes say that this
violence can never end. Well, I can't say when and where
and how it will, but I know who it will. It is people that God
saves. They are people that God owns
to belong to Him. And Christ is our commander-in-chief. Salvation is for sinners. Grace
is for the guilty, mercy is for the miserable, and help is for
the helpless. A man will never be filled who
is not first emptied. A man will never be saved who
is not lost. A man will never be healed until
he finds out he's sick. And I'm talking about spiritually
speaking. A man will never be exalted who's
not been humbled, and a man never hears good news from Calvary."
Now listen carefully. Who has not heard the bad news
from Mount Sinai? Have you got a copy of the Ten Commandments? Do you entertain the idea, the
notion that you can keep them? We can't keep one of them, let
alone ten. Honestly. You drive by people's
house and they got a Ten Commandments sign in the front yard. Those
people are hypocrites and they're lost. They don't have a clue. What those simple ten statements
demand of us, require of us, and only one person wearing human
flesh has ever honored them and exalted them and kept them, and
that person is our Lord Jesus Christ. So what am I trying to say this
morning? I'm trying to say that today's
gospel of good works, self-righteousness and reward for good deeds is
not the gospel at all. Not one bit of gospel in all
of that. None. It is another gospel. Therefore it is false and damning
to the souls of men. Let's look at these statements
again in this light. Let's break it down first of
all to look at the matter of the incarnation, Christ taking
on human flesh. His incarnation is proof of His
love for sinners. Why would he do this? What other
reason could move him? Except his becoming a man is
necessary for the salvation of all of his people. And he came
into this world to do what? To save sinners, ungodly people. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. He was numbered with the transgressors. He thought it not robbery to
be equal with God, yet made himself of no reputation, took upon himself
the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men,
in the likeness of sinful flesh. Secondly, here's why we're on
this subject this morning. His association with sinners
is proof of His love. It's easy to say, I love you,
or He loves me, or the Lord Jesus loves me. Ah, but it's costly
for Him. It's not free to Him, it's free
to us. But not to Him. You don't find the Master standing
afar off from sinful men, issuing laws and commandments, but you
see Him coming among them, and walking with them, and talking
with them, and eating with them. And here are some things that
should help us to see why this ministry and work of our Lord
Jesus Christ is absolutely necessary. It was evident from His birth.
He was, after all, born in a stable, not a temple. His office was a carpenter's
shop. not a synagogue. His disciples
were fishermen and laborers. They certainly were not theologians. His followers were publicans
and harlots. He died between two thieves He never spoke more kindly than
when he spoke to a sinner, and never more harshly than when
he talked to a Pharisee. You take that parable about the
publican and, oh gosh. The publican and the Pharisee
in the temple in Luke chapter 18. Now boy, that is a barn burner. It's the second section in that
chapter. We have time in just a moment,
we'll read it. Third thing in regard to what
it is that we're trying to say. Our Lord's preaching, or if you
want to, we'll call them His sermons, prove His love for sinners. I can give you some samples as
to where His preaching took place. In Luke chapter 15, which is
a very famous chapter, shows us that the Lord Jesus indeed
gave this parable That some people call three parables, but it's
really just three parts to one parable. In Luke 15, he speaks
of the prodigal son. And there's another son that
never left home. Ah, but in his heart, he had
left a long time ago. But this prodigal son is the
one that came home. having wasted his substance in
riotous living. Our Lord's prayers prove his
love for sinners. He said to Peter in Luke 22,
in fact, I think we ought to turn, we're not that far over,
let's see, Matthew, Mark, Luke. If you don't know those three,
you've got some work to do then. Luke chapter 22. I'm supposed
to have it marked. I can't find my marker. There it is. No it isn't. I hadn't planned to read this
but I think I should. Luke 22, beginning at verse 32. I often wonder how so many statements
in our Bibles could have... It's like we've got blinders
on. We can't see it. We just can't
see it. Alright, Luke 22, 32. Let me back up to 31. And the Lord said,
Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has desired you that he may sift
you as wheat. But I've prayed for you that
your faith fail not. And when you are converted, or
when you've been turned back again, strengthen your brethren." And naturally, Peter said, just
like we would, he said, Lord, I'm ready to go with you both
into prison and to death. And our Lord said, I tell you,
Peter, The rooster shall not crow this day before you shall
three times deny that you even know me." Now boy, we know ourselves,
don't we? Yeah, Peter didn't have a clue
as to what he was capable of and actually did. But our Lord,
He said, I prayed for you that your faith fail not. And part of that praying, when Judas found out what a dastardly
deed he had done, he went out and hung himself. But for the
grace of God, Peter might have done the same. On the cross, our Savior was
heard to say, Father, forgive them, they know not what they
do. And many in that same crowd were
converted under Peter in Acts chapter 4. If any man sin, We have an Advocate
with the Father. His name is Jesus Christ the
Righteous. Now I want you to turn to Isaiah
53. Verses 4, 5, and 6. Isaiah 53.
Surely He, Christ, has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows, yet
we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he
was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we're healed. All we like sheep
have gone astray. We've turned every one to his
own way." Now watch this. And the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all. Now who is this all? It ain't
everybody on this globe. It's all God's elect. It's all
Christ's church. He certainly bears their iniquity.
How is it that little statement goes in regard to payment God cannot twice demand? First at my surety's hand and
then again at mine? If our Lord pays the sin debt,
it's paid. There's no further contribution
by anybody. And it is wonderful indeed to
read these things and be able to see them and find out how
precious they are to us. Peter made this statement, "...who
his own self bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we,
being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness, by whose
stripes we are healed." 1 Peter 2, verse 24. 2 Corinthians, Christ was made
sin for us, Christ who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5.21. Our Lord's death is a real death
for real sinners. His grace is real grace. for real guilt. His call to repentance
and faith is a genuine call to you and me. This is who Christ
is. This is what He's done. This
is why He's done it. Do we know Him? Can we truly,
truly say that we love him? Well, we can say a lot of things, but just saying it doesn't make
it so. I've asked Craig to... Are you
going to sing a solo? Yeah.