Matthew chapter 9. I want to read the first 13 verses
of this chapter. And I want you to realize that
whenever the Bible speaks, it speaks to us of ultimate things. We often spend our time talking
about insignificant and trivial and superficial things. The Bible
doesn't do that. Everything has an eternal impact. And that's God's Word. And I
want you to see that when God speaks of ultimate things, He
speaks of our condition. He speaks of our condition and
He speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because what's ultimate is that
we, each one of us, though we don't realize it because of our
significant need, we find the Lord Jesus Christ to be everything
in life, in salvation, in all things. If we find Him to be
all, then we have all. If we don't find Him to be all,
we have nothing. Job said, it's certain that,
no, he says, he said that we brought nothing into this world,
and it's certain we won't take nothing out. That's true of all
of us. And so the Bible speaks of these
ultimate things. In Matthew chapter nine, we're
gonna see something about the mercy of God. the mercy of God. And I want to introduce this
by reading the last verse first, in verse 13. Jesus tells his
critics, his enemies, and those who opposed his mercy to sinners,
he tells them this, In verse 13, 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 what we're going to see here
when we read these verses, there were two meeting places. The first one was a place where
Jesus had met in a house. And everyone was coming there.
It was so full that no one could get in the door. And a sick man
was brought to Jesus in that house. The second one was also
a house of a man named Matthew. Turns out that's the man who
wrote this book of the Bible, Matthew. Now Matthew was a disciple
of Jesus. A little background. Matthew
was a disciple of Jesus. That means he followed Jesus.
He believed him. and followed him, but he was
also an apostle. He was one of those sent by Christ
after he rose from the dead to preach what he had heard to tell
men and women what he had heard and seen. But when Matthew writes,
this is the only thing recorded in scripture of anything that
he said. It seems like he was a quiet man, but he had a powerful
pen. because he wrote what he saw
and what he heard. And when he writes about himself
here, he almost makes no mention of himself, except in this way,
as we're gonna see in this. So these two places that these
people gathered, the first where a man who was paralyzed was healed,
the second where Matthew's house was. And you know who were there
in all these places? A bunch of sinful people. And
they all came to hear Jesus. Well, some didn't. These Pharisees,
these scribes, these doctors of the law, these men who boasted
in their understanding of Scripture. They were put to shame because
they opposed the truth of God. They denied the very revealed
truth they claimed to know, which is stated here in verse 13. Jesus
tells them at the end. He put them to shame. He said,
you go learn what this means. I will have mercy and not sacrifice. Mercy, not sacrifice. It's not
what we do for God. It's what God has done for us
in Christ. And so let's read through this together. Matthew
chapter nine, beginning at verse one. The setting before this
was Jesus had gone to a place called Gennesaret. And there
was a man there who was controlled by devils. He had so many devils
in it that he was called legion. And a legion means a couple of
thousand or so demons possessed this man. And no one could deliver
him from that. This is our case. No one can
deliver us. Men tried to. They bound him
in chains. If he was alive today, they would
have drugged him. Nothing could have happened. Nothing controlled
this man. No one could control the devil.
He couldn't control himself. He was utterly shameful, and
he tried to kill himself. This was his constant activity.
He was in the tombs at night, crying, cutting himself with
stones, and then he would attack people, and everyone was afraid
of him. And Jesus came to that place, and as soon as he saw
Jesus, he ran to him and bowed down to him. And the Lord cast
all the devils out of this man. But when the people of that place,
they were pig herders, they raised pigs. When they heard and when
they saw what Jesus had done and that he cast the devils out
of the man and sent them into the pigs, they begged Jesus to
leave their country. And he did, he left and he never
came back. Now doesn't that cause your hair
to tingle? That the Lord would leave and never come back to
where you lived? I don't want that. I want the
Lord to come. I want him to stay. And so this
is what happens in the next chapter, chapter nine. Look at this. And
he entered into a ship and he passed over. This is talking
about Jesus. Jesus entered into a ship and
Jesus passed over and he came into his own city, which was
called Capernaum in verse two. And behold, they brought to him,
they brought to Jesus, a man sick of the palsy. And the word
in the original is paralytic. He was paralyzed. Lying on a
bed, because he obviously couldn't move and walk. But these men
brought him to Jesus. And Jesus, seeing their faith,
said to the sick of the palsy, notice very carefully what he
says to this man who was paralyzed, carried on a bed to him. If you
read this in Mark's gospel and Luke's gospel, you find out that
they couldn't get the man to Jesus because it was so crowded
in the house where he was, so they opened the roof up. They
were desperate to get this man to Jesus and they lowered him
down where Jesus was in this house. And that's when he said
this, Jesus seen their faith because they were so concerned
about their friend and their friend also obviously was grieved
because of the sickness that he had. He had no ability to
move or do anything. And he left alone, he would die
in that condition. So it says, Jesus, seeing their
faith, said to the sick of the palsy, notice, son, be of good cheer, thy sins be
forgiven thee. Son. What a relation the Lord
speaks to him in, son. Now, who is the Lord Jesus Christ? That's a very important question.
We must have the answer to that. From scripture, he is the son
of God. There is none like God, but God. Jesus is the only begotten
son of God. In his nature, he is God. There
is nothing true about God that's not true of him as God. In Colossians
2.9 it says, the fullness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily. All that God is, he is. Christ
is. And so when he says son as God,
he's speaking to this man, he identifies him what? As a very
child of God. Now that in itself is enough
to give this man good cheer, isn't it? But then he gives him
this other command. Be of good cheer. And why would
he be of good cheer? First of all, because Jesus told
him, be of good cheer. You know, the only one who ever
said this in scripture, be of good cheer, is the Lord Jesus
Christ, or those who took that word to others. Be of good cheer. And notice, the very reason why
he said this was, next, thy sins be forgiven thee. Now the words
be forgiven here, those two words in English is just one word and
it's a verb. A verb does something, it's an
action. And in the Greek language, as
a lot of other languages, each word has a certain tense and
that tense here is a present tense and it means something
that was done in the past that never needs to be repeated. That's
true in the present and shall forever be true. He says to this
man, your sins have been already forgiven, and you now stand forgiven,
and you shall never be condemned for your sins. That's a good
reason for good cheer, isn't it? In scripture, God connects
sickness and sin. And I'll read to you a scripture
in the Old Testament in the book of Psalms that shows this, and
there are many. But in Psalm 103, it has this
small phrase. It says in Psalm 103, who forgiveth
all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases. So the two
things are joined together. The healing of our diseases and
the forgiving of our iniquities. Why are these two things so closely
connected? Because sin is the root problem. The wages of sin, in other words,
the payback for sin, is death. The body, our bodies, are dead
because of sin. Romans 8.10 says the body is
dead because of sin. So sin brings death. No one dies
that isn't a sinner. And sickness is the precursor
to death. And that's why the two are joined together. We have
to have our sins forgiven. That's the real issue here. So
when we feel sick, and we feel bad when we're sick, and sickness
brings this dark cloud of depression over us because we don't know,
are we going to get better? Hezekiah asked that question. When he fell sick, he asked,
would he get better? And the prophet Isaiah said,
you're going to die. And he went into dreadful sorrow,
and he began to cry to the Lord. In Isaiah chapter 38, he said
this, I was like a crane or swallow. So did I chatter. I did mourn
as a dove. Mine eyes fail or fail with looking
upward. O Lord, I am oppressed. Undertake
for me. And this is because he fell sick
unto death. He goes on, what shall I say?
He hath both spoken unto me, and himself has done it. I shall
go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul. O Lord,
by these things men live, and all these things is the life
of my spirit. So wilt thou recover me and make
me to live. And listen to what he says here
in Isaiah 38, 17. He says, behold, for peace I
had great bitterness. Instead of peace, I had bitterness.
But thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of
corruption, for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back."
Hezekiah understood that the problem he had was with his sins. And sickness was just the result
of that. If you go back to Matthew chapter
8, If you read there, it says when Jesus came to Peter's house
in verse 14, he saw Peter's wife's mother laid and sick of a fever. And Jesus, having seen Peter's
wife's mother sick of a fever, he touched her hand, and the
fever left her, and she arose and ministered to them. And when
the evening was come, they brought to him, brought to Jesus, many
that were possessed with devils, and he cast out the spirits with
his word, and he healed all that were sick. order that it might
be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet saying,
listen to these words in Isaiah 53, himself took our infirmities
and bear our sicknesses. So when Jesus spoke to this man
In Matthew chapter nine, we just read a minute ago, son, be of
good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee. He addressed the issue
this man had, the problem, ultimate things. He dealt with his real
problem. He understood what he really
needed. The man came to him hoping, carried
by his four friends, hoping to be healed of his paralytic condition.
Now Jesus looked beyond that outward need and saw the inward
need, the sin sick soul that he had. And so the Lord Jesus
Christ here in Matthew 8, 17 says, according to the prophecy,
he himself bear our, he took our infirmities. What does it
mean to take them from us? It means that he lifted them
like a burden off of us and he put them upon himself and bore
them. He lifted them from us and relieved
us from them and bore them as his own. Our infirmities, our
sicknesses. So when Jesus said to this man,
son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee, it wasn't just
a trivial thing. In order for the Lord Jesus Christ
to heal a man, according to God's holy standard, he couldn't just
say, yeah, be healed, you're fine. I'm gonna take away the
result of your sin. No more death, no more sickness,
nothing for you. Because that would be contrary
to God's holiness. God cannot compromise the truth. And he will not compromise the
truth. So when the Lord Jesus took our infirmities and bore
our sicknesses, when he spoke to this man saying, son, thy
be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee, something had
to happen in the past. He had to already bear those
sins, lifting them from us, bearing them as his own, and taking them
from us, putting them away before God. He had to make an atonement. And the word propitiation that
scripture uses means he had to bring to God a satisfaction for
our sins. He himself is the satisfaction,
the propitiation, the one who by his shed blood removes our
sins before God. He took them from us, bore them
as his own, became guilty for them, and bore the punishment
of them from God's hand. And God was satisfied for us
by our substitute. That's what he's saying here,
you see. So the Lord Jesus doesn't just raise people from the dead
or heal them without bearing the cost for that. As God, of
course, he could have. But as Christ, the one sent from
God to bear the sins of his people in order to heal them, remember,
he heals all, he forgives all our iniquities, he heals all
our diseases because he himself took them. He was wounded for
our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. This is the fundamental truth
of the gospel that Christ became the substitute for his people
to take their sins from them and bear them before God and
put them away so that God now in justice declares his people
to be holy in his sight for what he received from his son. And
so here we have it in a picture form. And notice these four men
are carrying this man on a bed. He couldn't get there by himself.
Nothing is said that what these men did except they carried this
man, their friend, to Jesus. So here we see something very
significant. What is happening here? Christ
is having mercy. He's showing mercy to a paralytic
man. And four friends are showing
mercy to their friend by bringing him to Jesus in a crowded building,
a place where the scribes and Pharisees were who hated Jesus
and wanted nothing more than to discredit him in the eyes
of the people, because they were the only ones important in their
own eyes. Let's read on here. Matthew 9,
verse 3. And behold, certain of the scribes
said within themselves, they didn't say it out loud, They
were not that bold. You know how sin is. We hide in the dark and when
we think ourselves to know something and someone who really knows
Then we speak softly, like that. So these men were talking within
themselves. So behold, certain of the scribes,
the scribes were those who transcribed scripture from the old copy to
the new copy so that it would be fresh, and they were the doctors,
they understood the law of God, supposedly. These men said within
themselves, this man blasphemeth. Now blaspheme means to speak
against God as one who claims what can be true only of God
to be true of them. And so they were saying, by saying
this to the man, son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee.
This man, Jesus, was blaspheming. He was claiming to himself this
right to forgive sins. And so they were speaking against
him in their heart. In Jesus, verse four, Jesus knowing
their thoughts. Now these men didn't know their
own thoughts. They didn't know that they were really sin sick. He had to expose them. He had
to show them what their thoughts were. And that's the way we are
by nature. We don't know what we don't know. We don't know
that we're so proud in our own confident understanding of the
world and things or in our own place. We're like a monk in a
monastery. We're content to think of ourselves
as having this relationship with God and the world be damned,
aren't we? It would be just fine with just
me and God. After all, I mean, I think highly of myself. God
must think so too. That's the way we are by nature.
And so they were so full of themselves, they didn't understand the implications
of their own hypocritical thoughts. They showed by their thinking
and their actions that they were contradictory. and they didn't
recognize it. And so Jesus, who is God, knowing
their thoughts, because who can understand the heart of a sinner
except God himself? It says in Jeremiah 17, verse
9, it says, the heart of man is deceitful above all things.
There's nothing more deceitful than our own hearts, our own
minds. Who can know it? Scripture says
there. The heart of man is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? And
then the next verse says, I, the Lord, try the hearts and
the reins. So the Lord himself is the one
who does know it. And Jesus in Revelation 2.23
repeats that and takes credit for that himself. I am the one
who tries the hearts and the reins to give to every man according
to his deeds. So Jesus Christ knows their thoughts.
And he's going to use their own thinking and their own words
to expose them as being sinful, and contradictory, and proud,
and blind by their pride. Verse five. He says to them,
because they said, you blaspheme because you say your sins are
forgiven, only God can do that. He says, for whether it is easier
to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or, to say, arise and walk. Now this man was completely paralyzed,
he couldn't get up. The Pharisees said, he told the
man, your sins are forgiven. That's easy to say. Anyone can
say that. You know what the Pharisees and
the scribes were used to doing? Saying things they didn't do. They would claim to be good,
but they weren't. They would claim to do certain
things, but they didn't do them. That's the definition of a hypocrite,
someone who says one thing and does another. Well, these men
accused Jesus of just, yeah, your sins are forgiven you, as
if he was trying to attract attention to himself because he could forgive
sins. And they said, no, that's blaspheming. You are speaking
against God as one who takes credit for what only God can
do in order to make yourself somebody in the eyes of men.
That's what they're claiming. But he says, no, I'm going to
answer that question. He says, what's easier? Is it
easier to say your sins be forgiven or to say rise and walk? Well,
for the Pharisees, it doesn't matter. They can say your sins
are forgiven. In fact, that's what the Catholic
priest does. Yeah, tell me everything. Yeah,
you're fine. Good to go. Just go up and down
the steps or walk somewhere long ways or carry a burden or do
something good. Give some money. In fact, give
some money here to the church. You know, and then your sins
are forgiven you. That's easy for them to say because their
words don't have to accomplish anything. For men, talk is cheap. But with God, talk is everything.
Because whatever the Lord says, he will do. Have not I spoken
it, and shall I not also do it? God doesn't say anything that
he doesn't do. He cannot lie, and he cannot
fail to keep his word. He says in the Psalms, I think
it's Psalm 138, he says, he has exalted his word above his own
name. And so, everything that God says,
he has to do. For Jesus Christ to say, son,
be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven you, he had to actually
forgive his sins and he had to do it on the basis of his own
shed blood. But the scribes and Pharisees
had no consciousness, no understanding of that. They just said, yeah,
you're just spouting it off, you're trying to bring attention
to yourself, trying to make yourself out to be God. So he asked them,
what's easier? He's going to entrap them in
their own thoughts. Because he did forgive this man's
sins, only God can forgive them as they believed. And therefore
when he spoke, they were actually forgiven. And they had seen him
heal, which only God can do, because sin and disease are both
connected. They both have the root underlying
reason, sin. And so for him to heal a man
or to forgive a man, both require God's power. But they didn't
understand what it took to forgive sins, so they picked that one
apart. And so he says, well, which one's
easier? And then, in verse 6, since they wouldn't answer him,
they wouldn't dare answer him because they would be trapped,
he says in verse 6, but that you may know that the Son of
Man hath power on earth to forgive sins. Then saith he to the sick
of the palsy, now he looks at the man again, after he had already
told him his sins were forgiven, past, present, and forever, based
on a work done in the past. It never needs to be repeated.
but goes on with its efficacy. He says to this man, arise, take
up thy bed, and go unto thine house. And you know what happened?
He got up. He arose and he departed to his house. So what does that
prove? It was that what he said about
the forgiveness of his sins was also true. It had to be. Because if he was a liar, a blasphemer,
an imposter, there's no way God's going to raise this man up. But
if he is God himself in the body and soul of a man, God and man
come from God in order to save sinners by his own work, then
he has the power both to forgive sins and to raise men from the
dead. and heal them, too. And so it
says he departed. And verse eight, when the multitude
sought, they marveled and glorified God which had given such power
to men. The multitude was amazed that
Jesus could raise this man who was completely paralyzed right
up there, right in front of them. The room was full, just like
this room, and here's a man sitting, and he obviously can't move,
and he gets up. And he goes home, takes his bed
with him on his shoulder. It proved that the Lord Jesus
Christ had the power to forgive sins. And verse nine, and as
Jesus passed forth from there, he saw a man named Matthew. That's the one who wrote this
book, sitting at the receipt of custom. Now, he was a Jew,
and he was collecting taxes in this place called the House of
Custom, or the place where they collected taxes, probably put
on the route between places like Egypt and Syria, where they would
traffic and they would have to collect taxes. And tax collectors
were the most hated of all people, just like they are today. How
dare the government take from me what's mine? I worked for
it. I'm going to take some of it. How much? As much as I want.
And so they hated them. And the fact that this man, Matthew,
who was a Jew, would be in the place of a tax collector, he
would be the most hated of his own people. You slimy beast taking
my taxes. And so here, the one writing
this book is describing himself, isn't he? This is what I was.
I was a publican, a tax collector. And people would put themselves
into this office by paying money. Once you get into this office,
you can enrich yourself. Whatever you have to do, you
grovel, you do what you have to do and give money to get that
position. And once you're in that position, you're a public
servant. You're paid by the public. You're collecting from the public.
He had a big house. He was a rich man. Now, why wasn't
he there in the house where all the other people were when the
paralytic man was lowered through the roof? Why didn't he go there?
No interest in that. It happened in each gospel, Matthew,
Mark, and Luke. This account of Matthew immediately
follows the account of the paralytic man being raised up and forgiven
his sins. Why wasn't Matthew there then?
No interest in Jesus. But now, it says, Jesus passed
forth from there, from thence. He saw a man named Matthew sitting
at the receipt of custom. Here he is. He walks by the tax
collector's house. I mean, the place, his office,
where he did his work. It's like he goes into your office.
There you are, typing away on your computer. He says to him,
follow me. Now that's power, isn't it? He
spoke to him, follow me. He didn't say, would you like
to? Or I invite you to follow me. No, he said, follow me. Now
follow me means you come after me and learn of me and you do
as I do and think as I think. Become my disciple. And he arose,
he obeyed and he followed him. Because with the command, follow
me, came the power that transformed this man's mind so that he was
inclined to follow Jesus. And then in verse 10, and it
came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, the house
of Matthew, again when you read Mark and Luke's account, Matthew
brought Jesus to his house. He was glad to follow him. Come
to my house. And guess who else he brought? It says, and behold,
many publicans and sinners, because these were his friends. Whatever
he was doing before, that's what they were doing. A bunch of publicans
and sinners came to Matthew's house. Why would Matthew throw
a party, as it were, have a big dinner or whatever it was, invite
all of his friends when Jesus said to him, follow me. Well,
this is scripture now. God wrote these words here to
teach a lesson. What was the lesson in the first
part? Mercy to the miserable, the helpless, the incurable by
all human means, the one who would die in his sickness because
of his sins unless Christ had mercy on him. And now we see
it again, doubled. Because the message is doubled
because this is ultimate things. He says here, and it came to
pass as Jesus said it, meet in the house, Matthew's house. Behold,
many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his
disciples. Not only did they hear he was
going there, but I'm sure that Matthew had inclined or invited
his friends to come. I want you to know the one who
showed me mercy. I want you to have the mercy
that's in Christ alone. So here we see something. Christ
shows mercy. The four men brought the man
to Jesus. They show mercy. They're merciful.
They believed him. Jesus saw their faith. These
men who believed Christ were merciful men. And how did they
show that mercy? They brought the man, the paralytic
man, to Jesus. How did Jesus show mercy to the
man brought to him? Son, be of good cheer. Thy sins
be forgiven thee. And how did Matthew show himself
to be a follower of Jesus? He was merciful to his friends,
the publicans and the sinners. And how did Jesus show mercy
to these publicans and sinners? Well, let's read on and find
out. Verse 11, as Jesus is sitting in this house of Matthew with
the publicans and sinners, he says, and when the Pharisees
saw it, these Jews who were the doctors of the law, who knew
everything about whatever God's word said, that's what they claimed,
but actually they knew nothing about, they didn't even know
their own hearts. When the Pharisees saw it, they said to his disciples,
again, they're not talking to Jesus directly, they weren't
that bold, so they talked to his disciples, they tried to
discredit Jesus to his followers. And they said this, just like
people do today, you know, why are you so intent on the gospel
of Jesus Christ? I'll tell you why I'm intent
on this. I'll tell you why this is my entire life. Because this
is the only hope I have of life in all eternity. This is the
only way my sins can be forgiven. The one that I trust is my God
and Savior. He's everything. And so, they
tried to discredit Jesus to his disciples, just like people do
today to Christ's disciples. And they said to them, why eateth
your master with publicans and sinners? Now what are they saying
here, the Pharisees? They're saying if your master
was truly a discerning man, he would know that the people he's
eating with are publicans and sinners, and to eat with them
is to show that you're the friend of them. You don't fellowship
with publicans and sinners, you separate yourself. That's what
Pharisee actually means, a separated one. And so they're standing
off a far away and they look at Jesus and how He's engaging
with these sinners. He comes close to them and they
come close to Him. And there's a purpose in that. And they accuse Him of being
unworthy to follow because He allows these sinful people around
Him. In fact, He wants them to come
to Him and He has a reason for that. but they're accusing him
to his disciples. But Jesus heard, it says in verse
12, he heard that, he said to them. So now the Lord, he steps
between his disciples and their accusers. This is the way Jesus
does. He stands up for his own. He
protects his sheep. He advocates for his people before
the throne of God and therefore against their enemies. And he
says in verse 12, notice, they that be whole, you could say
healthy, but the word is whole, it means strong, not sick and
weak. They that be whole need not a
physician, but they that are sick. And sick here doesn't just
mean like I have a cold or I have the flu or I have a fever. It means evilly sick. Sick because of an evil root. Morally sick. Sick in your soul
and therefore in your body. So people came to Jesus who were
reprehensible and revolting and nauseating to God in His holiness. They came to Jesus. He was the
one who was the mediator between God and men. Both God, who could
represent what God means to God. God doesn't need anything, but
represent what God requires of us to God and provide it. And
also, for men to meet their needs, which was their sin-sick souls.
The mediator. And so he says, when he heard
that, he said to them, they that behold need not a physician,
but they that are sick. Sick, evilly sick. They have,
you know what it means to be sick like this? Like the paralytic
man. You can't do anything about it.
I'm this way and I can't fix it. It's humanly incurable. And it's a sickness that will
lead, it will end in death. And I'll deserve it because it's
because of my sin. My sickness is my problem, it's
my fault. And the one against whom I've
sinned is the one I must face in judgment. And now the Lord
is teaching here that the one we must face in judgment is the
one we must come to in order to be healed from our sin sickness.
He's the only one who can do it, and these people knew that.
They knew they were sinners. They believed He could actually
cure them of this. That's why they were there. These
publicans who were despised of others, and the sinners who were
notorious and shamefully sinners, they came to Jesus, who was holy,
and they had no problem coming to Him. He welcomed them. Why?
Because, He says here, They that be whole need not a
physician, but they that be 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. The Pharisees understood that
these people were sinners, and they were. These publicans and
sinners, they're obviously bad people. Yeah, it's true. You recognize it, but you don't
know the half of it. You see it on the outside, but
if you only knew what was on the inside, you would also be
nauseated by what you know of me. They acknowledged it. They knew they were sick. That's
the reason they came to Jesus. Only the sick come to the physician. Only sinners come to the Savior.
But these men who claim to understand God's law, they look at these
people who were sin sick, and what did they do? I don't want
anything to do with them. In other words, they didn't find
a healing for the sick. They didn't have anything to
give to a sinfully sick person. But yet God himself had said
in Hosea 6, that he desires mercy, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. They came with their sacrifices. They came with their austerity,
their separation from people. It's me and God and us four and
no more. But it's not enough. God's not pleased with a person
who says, well, you know, I'm good to go and I'm happy to have
my relationship with God. That's not why Jesus came. He
came to save sinners. He came to call, not the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. That's what we are. That's our
need. That's why He came. And He sees that need. And the
Pharisees, they claim to be righteous, understanding God's law, but
they completely miss the big point here. They were dividing
up little pieces of cinnamon or cumin or these spices and
putting them in the offering. But there's this guy laying there.
He's a sinner. And what are you going to do
for him? Well, I'm going to get away from him. He might infect
me. Or someone might think that I'm
his friend. Then Jesus comes, the Lord of
glory, who had no sin. He wasn't polluted by being with
sinners. He came near to them in order
to bring them near to him in order to save them from their
sins. And so that's why he tells them,
you hypocrites, you're contradicting what you claim to be. You claim
to be righteous, but you won't help the sinners. You're not
here to heal them. You're here to condemn them, but I came to
heal them. Go learn what this means. I will
have mercy and not sacrifice. It's not what you do for God.
It's what God has done in his son. It's the sacrifice of Christ
that he accepts. All the sacrifices and the religious
activities of all men everywhere throughout time mean nothing
to God. Nothing. There's only one thing
that means anything to God. It's obedience. He says in 1
Samuel 15, 22, has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings
as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than
sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. And what obedience
is God then, therefore, interested in? Not mine, and not yours,
because you cannot obey You cannot keep God's law. You cannot be
justified by your personal obedience to God's law. How then can you
be justified? By the righteousness of another.
By the sacrifice of another. The one sacrifice in which Christ
himself offered himself to God for our sins and that sacrifice
was a submission of obedience that completely fulfilled the
law of God because it fulfilled the law of love. to his father,
to his people, and he glorified God in that. He made known his
perfections in all of his nature, his character. And here these
Pharisees are concerned about their own reputation, they're
envious of Christ, they hate him, they're so blinded by their
own sense of self-righteousness, they can't even see the contradiction
that they are, the walking hypocrisy that they are. That's the way
we are by nature. What mercy, how deep that mercy
must be, therefore, to pluck a man in his self-righteous pride
from that state of mind where he's blinded by his own sin so
that he can't see his need of a savior. What mercy, therefore,
it is that God would remove that blindness in order to show Christ
to us so that we find him to be all that we want and need.
That's when Jesus healed the blind man, that's what he was
teaching us. I'm gonna read this one verse
and we'll close. In Mark chapter 10, in Mark chapter 10, this
man needed mercy and he knew that he could only find it from
the Lord Jesus Christ. It begins in verse 46, his name
was Bartimaeus. It says, and they came to Jericho,
and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great
number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the
wayside begging. And when he heard that it was
Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, only
he had to say it so his voice was heard over the crowd, Jesus,
thou son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged him that
he should hold his peace. This is what people who don't
need a savior do. Be quiet. You're embarrassing
me. No one should cry out like this.
But he cried, the more a great deal. Thou son of David, have
mercy on me. And Jesus stood still. Why? He desires mercy. The Lord Jesus
delights to show mercy. That's his personality, if you
will. That's his character. This is
God in human flesh. He delights in mercy towards
sinners. And Jesus stood still. There's
a man crying above the crowd, Jesus, have mercy on me. And this teaches us something,
that the Lord of glory If you call upon him, he will
hear you. Jesus stood still and commanded
him to be called. Bring him. And they called the
blind man, saying to him, be of good comfort. This is the
same words, be of good cheer. Those were his words to the man.
He calleth thee. And he, casting away his garment,
rose and came to Jesus. And Jesus answered and said to
him, notice, what will you that I should do to thee? What do
you want me to do? Now we should each one take that
question. Here the Lord of Glory asks us this one question, what
do you want me to do for you? What do you want me to do for
you? The blind man didn't hesitate. He said, Lord, that I might receive
my sight. And Jesus said, go thy way. Thy
faith hath made thee whole. When we believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, that's when we hear in our experience the word of the
forgiveness of our sins. That's when our eyes are opened.
God gives us faith. Faith doesn't come from ourselves.
God gives it to us. When he gives us faith, he directs
us to trusting Christ. And in trusting Christ, we see
the forgiveness of our sins. We see our eyes are opened. We
were blind in our self-righteous pride. But in God's grace, he
showed us there's forgiveness even for you proud sinner in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And then we say, oh my, I was
so foolish, so ignorant was I, I was as a beast before thee.
Let's pray. Lord, thank you for the Lord
Jesus Christ, the mercy of heaven sent to earth, fulfilling your
will to lavish your mercy of forgiveness upon sinners like
us. We pray, Lord, that we would
be so merciful to others as to direct them to Christ. This is
the only way God's mercy, the mercy of heaven is known, is
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is the way we show mercy
to our friends who are like us. And Lord, we pray that you would
so inflame our hearts to trust you and love you for your mercy,
that this would be our character going forward. We would not only
believe, but we would walk in this faith and be merciful people. And we would not be quick to
judge. We would not be quick to cut
people off. But we would see that as a sinner,
we have no place to judge. We can't stand in the seat of
judgment. There's one who is the judge, and he's the one who
tells sinners to come. So we pray, Lord, that we would
love the mercy that saved us, love the one who did, and love
those that we delight to show mercy for his sake. In his name
we pray, amen.