If you are listening to this
program for the first time, if you are someone who does not
regularly attend a church somewhere, I want to ask you something. What do you think about church? What are your first thoughts
when you think of going to church? I'm quite sure that the average
person thinks of church as a place where only good people go, where
decent, moral, respectable people go. I believe that's the impression
that most so-called church people have given, that it's a place
where you must look a certain way and talk a certain way, a
place where you go after you clean up your act or turn over
a new leaf, kind of a country club for the moral majority. Is that what you think of church? I want you to listen as I read
from the Gospel of Matthew chapter 9. We'll be looking at Matthew
chapter 9 in just a minute. I wonder, is that what you think
of church? Is that your first impression
about going to church? But I'll be honest with you,
I would like to put a sign up over our church house. I'd like
to put a sign which reads, No Good People Allowed, Sinners
Only. Do you know that's what the Lord
Jesus Christ said when He walked this planet? One day Christ was sitting in
a group of people Notorious people. People that were looked down
upon as being sinners. Christ sat right in the midst
of one of their feasts or parties. He was eating their food, drinking
their wine. That's why the Pharisees, or
that is, you might call them the church-going fellows, men
and women, were so upset I am reading from Matthew 9, verse
10, ìIt came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat, or sat eating in
the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down
with him.î Many, that is, sinners. It says harlots, winos, thieves. At that time, there were opium
dealers, drug dealers, wild-talking construction workers, sailors. That was his disciples. He sat
down with these sinners and his disciples, which were, most of
them, nothing but a bunch of old, rough, gruff fishermen,
formerly rough, gruff, cussing, drinking, carousing sinners.
That's what they were. And it says there were many of
them, not just a few. Now, do you picture this scene?
There's a whole room full of notorious people. And they followed
Him, and they sat down with Him, and they loved to hear Him speak.
Now, that's the kind of crowd that the Lord Jesus Christ attracted. These are the people that followed
Him and were drawn to Him. And now let me tell you what
this was, this meeting here. Believe it or not, this was the
first meeting of the church. Can you believe that? Well, it
says in verse 11, and the Pharisees saw it. Now, who were the Pharisees? Scribes and the Pharisees. Who
were these scribes and Pharisees? Well, I'll tell you who they
were. These were the town's finest. These were the good Baptists
and Methodists and Episcopalians, the good church-going folk, outstanding,
good, decent, moral, religious people of that day, the town's
finest businessmen and women of the day. A Pharisee was a
man at his best state. while they were in the church
house every Saturday or Sabbath day. They wore their clerical
robes or collars and their lapel pins while they prayed in restaurants. And they wouldn't be seen in
one that sold liquor, by the way. They talked the talk, they
walked the walk, and they looked the look. But every time they
saw Christ, every time they spotted Him, He was with those people,
with those sinners. talking to them, mingling with
them, drinking their wine, attending their feasts. And they said privately
to one another. Here's what they said in verse
11. When the Pharisees saw him eating with all these people,
they said unto his disciples, or they took one of his disciples
over to the side and said, Why eateth your master, your teacher,
with publicans and sinners? And I can see the scowl on their
face when they say that. Why is he eating with these people? Why, a good Christian would never
be seen with these, would never be seen in a place like that.
How could he do such a thing? Doesn't he know what these people,
who these people are? Yes, he does. He knows them all
right. He knows everything about every
one of them. He knows them better than they
know themselves. He knows their thoughts. He knows
all about them. He knows their deeds. He knows
what they are going to do before they do it. He knows what they
think. He knows what they will be in the future. He knows them
all right. Scripture says God foreknew His
people. Foreknew, foreloved, forechose,
forelected, covenanted with the Father to become their surety.
and come down and dwell with these people and do what was
necessary to save them. That's why He's here, to save
them, these awful sinners. That's who He came to save. He
knows them all right. And do you know He knows these
Pharisees too? Scripture says He knows them
afar off. That is, He doesn't love them,
but He stands at arm's length from them. In verse 12 it says,
"...when Jesus heard that." Now, they said this privately. They said it to His disciples.
They didn't say it to Him. They took His disciples over
to the side and said this to them. Why is He eating with these
people? But it says, "...when Jesus heard
that." He heard them. Now, can you imagine the noise
and all the talking and laughing the tumult that was going on.
Yet Christ hears these fellows mutter something. How? Because He's the all-seeing,
all-hearing, omnipresent, omniscient God. That's how. He knows these
Pharisees. He knows everything about them. He knows their thoughts, too.
He knows their hypocrisy. He knows their trickery. He knows
their lies, their deceit, their religious airs, their fake prayers,
their fake smiles, their greed and corruption. He knows them
all right. He came to condemn them, not
save them. He came that they might have
no covering for their sins, he said, that they might be exposed. And that's all that religion
is for most people, a hypocritical covering. a facade to hide behind. And that's what Christ uncovers.
Yeah, He knows them all right. And when He heard that, it said,
when Christ heard what they said, He said unto them, He looked
right at these scribes and Pharisees, these decent, moral, religious,
holier-than-thou saints, not sinners. They were just saints.
Well, they weren't sinners anymore, like these publicans and harlots. And when he heard that, he said
unto them, he looked them right in the eye and he said, verse
12, I read, they that be whole need not a physician, but they
that are sick. You all don't need anything.
You have everything. While you can't learn anything,
you know everything. You don't need any help. Well,
you're alright. You're just fine. You don't need
a doctor. You're healthy, wealthy, and
wise. While you don't need Christ's righteousness, you have one you've
made up. You don't need mercy, you're
not guilty. While you're a saint, you're
no sinner, and so you don't need Jesus Christ, do you? That's
what he's saying to them. They that be whole don't need
a physician, but they that are sick. Verse 13, I am reading what our
Lord said. He said, Go ye and learn what
that meaneth. Go and learn what it means to
need a physician, to need a Savior, to need mercy, to need grace,
to need a sacrifice, to need a righteousness imputed to you,
to need blood shed for you. Go and learn what that meaneth.
And He added this, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. I will have mercy and not sacrifice. Mercy is for guilty. Mercy means
not getting what we deserve. That is, all of us are guilty.
All of us, from the preacher to the pew, all are guilty from
the day we are born until the day we die. We never cease to
be guilty of sin. We never cease to be sinners. And our works, we're all guilty,
and our works don't save us. They don't commend us to God.
We are saved by God's mercy, by God not giving us what we
deserve, by God giving Jesus Christ what we deserve. And this
mercy is for sinners. Mercy is for the guilty. He came
not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. That's
what he says here. I am not come to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. I came to call sinners. Now,
who are the righteous he's talking about? Does that mean that after
a person Get saved, as people like to say. They no longer are
sinners. They are now righteous and they
have nothing to repent of. God forbid such talk. That's foolishness. That's ridiculous. That's the ignorant talk of a
self-righteous Pharisee. Christ is talking to these self-righteous
Pharisees. And He said, I didn't come to
call you. Well, you wouldn't answer if I did. I didn't come
to call you to repentance. You don't have anything to repent
of. You quit your sinning. I've come
to call sinners to repentance. And repentance, people, is a
lifelong thing. It's not something you do when
you get saved, so to speak, and then you quit your sinning, and
from there on you have no need of repentance. Well, that's foolishness. He's talking to the self-righteous.
And let me tell the self-righteous who may be listening to this,
and I'll be reading from 1 John chapter 1 in a minute. 1 John
chapter 1. Let me say this to the self-righteous
who listen to this, but perhaps a preacher, so-called. If you think you have quit sinning,
then you're calling God a liar. You're deceiving yourself and
you don't have a clue. what the gospel is about. You
don't have a clue why Jesus Christ came to this world and where
he is right now and what he's doing and who he's doing it for.
You don't have a clue. That's what John says here in
1 John 1, verse 8. If we say that we have, present
tense, have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not
in us. The gospel. is not in us. The light is not in us. We're in darkness. Christ does
not dwell in us. We're self-righteous Pharisees
like these fellows that he was talking to. And verse 10 says,
if we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar. We're calling
God a liar. And his word is not in us. Folks, The fact of the matter
is we need mercy till the day we die because we are sinners
till the day we die. And this is what the Apostle
John writes to us, to sinners. My little children, he says in
chapter 2, verse 1, my little children, these things I write
unto you that you sin not. Don't do it. Just like Christ
said to that woman caught in adultery, go and sin no more.
Did she sin anymore? If she's a human being, she did.
She didn't go back to her former lifestyle, but buddy, she sinned. And here's what John says, if
any man sin, and you will, we will, we have an advocate with
the Father. He's Jesus Christ the righteous.
Only sinners need Him. And He only represents sinners.
I hope someone heard this message this morning, and I hope you
will come to Christ because He receives sinners and eats with
them. Until next Sunday, may the Lord
reveal this truth to you. Amen.