PRABHUPADA. PRABHUPADA And he said, you know,
I'm going to give you some money, and I'm going to give you some money, and I'm going
to give you some money, and I'm going to give you some money, and I'm going to give
you some money, and I'm going to give you some money, and I'm going to give you some money, and I'm
going to give you some money, and I'm going to give you some money, and I'm going to give you some
money, and I'm going to give you some money, and I'm going to give you some money, and I'm going
to give you some money, and I'm going to give you some money, and I'm going to give you some money,
and I'm going to give you some money, and I'm going to give you some money, and I'm going to
give you some money, and I'm going to give you some money, and I'm going to give you some money, and I'm
going to give you some money, Good morning. It's great to be with you all
again. We'll go ahead and open with a word of prayer. Our gracious Heavenly Father,
we give you thanks. For all things, knowing that
all things are in your hand, And we give you thanks especially
for saving our souls and being pleased by your grace and mercy
to put us in Christ from eternity. How we rejoice to know that you
are a merciful, loving, gracious, forgiving God. Pray that you
might be pleased to remind us of that again. As we open your
word, please don't let it just be my voice that we all hear.
But please speak to us through the power of your spirit. Show
us Christ within your word and give us great reason to rejoice.
Please be merciful to us. Please forgive us of our sin.
Please let us not meet here in vain, but send your spirit. Open
our hearts, our eyes, our ears that we might see you one more
time. Lord, please bless us and forgive us for Christ's sake.
Amen. If you will turn with me to the
Gospel of Matthew chapter 9. Matthew chapter 9. Matthew chapter 9 and we'll look
at verse 9. And as Jesus passed forth from
thence, from where? What just took place? Look up
at verse one. And he entered into a ship and
passed over and came into his own city. And behold, they brought
to him a man sick of the palsy. Now, this man sick of the palsy
represents all men and women by nature, completely paralyzed. No ability whatsoever. Spiritually,
no ability. Verse two again, and behold,
they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed.
And Jesus, seeing their faith, said unto the sick of the palsy,
Son, be of good cheer. Thy sins be forgiven thee. The Lord Jesus forgave this man
of all his sins. Unlike us, he has the ability.
In salvation, we have no ability. He has all ability. Now look at verse 3. And behold, certain of the scribes
said within themselves, this man blasphemeth. They thought,
who is this man that forgives sins? Who does he think he is
to tell this man your sins are forgiven you? This man blasphemeth. Oh no. This man is the savior
of sinners. He forgives sin. He's earned
it. He's earned it. He is both able
and willing to forgive sins. Verse four, and Jesus knowing
their thoughts. I love that. He knows our every
thought. And in a way that should terrify
us. God knows our thoughts. I hope that shows us our need
of a savior. Someone who's able to save us.
from our evil thoughts, our wicked ways. And Jesus, knowing their
thoughts, said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? Why are you thinking this evil
in your hearts? For whether is easier to say
thy sins be forgiven thee or to say arise and walk? Now, he did not have to do this,
but to show his power and ability to forgive sins, our Lord is
about to make this man walk. And I love this. Look at verse
6 with me. But that ye may know that the
Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, then saith he
to the sick of the palsy, Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto
thine house. And he arose and departed to
his house. But when the multitude saw it,
they marveled and glorified God, which hath given such power unto
men. Our Lord just commanded the impossible. And it came to pass. How? Because Jesus is the Son
of God. He has all power. All power is
given unto him of his Father. He is Lord. Let's always speak
of him in such a way. He is Lord Jesus. He is our Lord. He is the Lord Jesus Christ.
And with him, all things are possible. All things. He speaks. He speaks the word in power and
it comes to pass every time. Amazing. He is God. Now look
at verse 9 with me again. And as Jesus passed forth from
thence, he saw a man. He sees another man named Matthew
sitting at the receipt of customs. Here the Lord came to Matthew. Now Matthew is about to come
to him. But let's be sure we notice the Lord came to him first. We must come to Christ. But we're
only going to come to him if God the Father draws us to him. He must come to us first. This
is fundamental gospel. We don't take the first step.
We don't take the second step. We don't take the last step or
any step in between. Our steps are ordered by the
Lord, ordered and assured. He's directed our steps to him.
My hope is not in that I came to Christ, but in that he came
to me. Praise his name. Praise his name. 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. Here our Lord speaks another
word in power. What do we think is going to
happen? He said, follow me. What a gracious command. His
commandments are not grievous, are they? Follow me. My sins
will be forgiven me." Now, this was no invitation. No invitation. I suppose that Matthew had never
come into contact with the Lord before, and trying to put myself
in his position, I think this would be a bit strange. If somebody
came to me, and I'm sitting here at work, and the man says, follow
me, you think I'm just going to leave everything, get up and
go and follow him? Can we not see this is God? That's what
happens when God says, follow me. We follow him. We follow
him. He makes us willing, does he
not? In the day of his power. And I'm so glad he does. The
end of verse nine says, he saith unto him, follow me. And he arose
and followed him. Luke tells us that he left all.
Left all. That's the only way to follow
him. It's just one thing equal. Either Christ is nothing to us,
or he's all. One or the other. Now, when he calls, we follow
him. Turn with me to Galatians chapter
1. The Apostle Paul had a similar experience. You may recall he
was riding on his horse to Damascus to arrest God's people, perhaps
to kill them, as he had done. And the Lord Jesus spoke to him
from a cloud of heaven, He said, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? It's hard for thee to kick against
the priest. When it's our time of love, he's going to knock
us down. And if God, God doesn't try to
save, if he's purpose to save us, we are going to be saved.
He shall. He shall. Here in Galatians 1,
look with me at verse 15. Paul said, but when it pleased
God, he had just written about his time in false religion. He said, he said in verse 13,
for you've heard of my conversation and time passed in the Jews religion,
how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God and wasted
it and profited in the Jews religion above many my equals in my own
nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of
my father. Paul was a he was a religious man. Oh, he was a
he was a zealous man. He was lost. Verse 15, but when it pleased
God. Is that your hope? That's the only hope there is.
But when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb. You
see, this was long before you and I were ever born. In Romans
chapter 9, he says, Before they'd done any good or evil. Jacob,
Jacob, and he said, before they did any good or evil, God chose
Jacob. Why? That the purpose of God,
according to election might standeth, is not of works, but of him that
calleth. Paul said, but when it pleased
God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by
his grace to reveal his son in me. Now, when this happens. I
hope we can clearly see Paul did not have to sit down and
think about this. He didn't have a decision to make. Well, let's
let's see. Let's see what the logical thing
to do. No, no, no, no. Look at verse 16 again. God called
me by his grace, reveal his son in me that I might preach him
among the heathen immediately. I conferred not with flesh and
blood. I didn't have to sit down and
think about it. He said, follow me, I followed him. And it was
his doing. He drew me with his everlasting
cords of love. And I love when the Lord spoke
to Ananias and he was telling him, you're going to go to this
man Saul of Tarsus. I'm sending you to him. And Ananias,
he was not too excited about this command. He said, don't
you know who this man is? He's been killing your people.
Here's what God told him. He said, you go. He is a chosen
vessel unto me. You see, it doesn't matter how
vile we are. God has a people whom he chose
from eternity, whom he shall save. And here's what he said
about those people. He called them his sheep. And
he said, my sheep hear my voice. They don't hear my voice. I know
them. I know them by name. And they follow me. No exceptions. No exceptions. You see, everything that the
Lord Jesus Christ does is successful. Aren't you glad we worship a
successful God? We have a Lord who does not need
us. We actually need Him. Oh, we
need Him every hour, every moment. Everything He does is a success.
When He calls us, we follow Him. Let's look back at our text,
Matthew 9, verse 10. And it came to pass as Jesus
sat at me in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came
and sat down with him and his disciples after our Lord had
called Matthew. Luke tells us again that Matthew
had him over to his house. He prepared a feast for our Lord
and his disciples. And I love that we're told, behold,
many publicans and sinners. I can't help but think, man,
I would have liked to been there. Would have liked to have been
there. Don't you rejoice to know that sinners were comfortable
in his presence. And guess what? They still are.
You wonder who's seated around the throne? Sinners. A bunch of Jacobs. The 12 tribes of Israel. That's
who. But not everybody was comfortable
Not now, not then. Look at verse 11. And when the
Pharisees saw it, some Pharisees crept in. When the Pharisees
saw this, they said unto his disciples, why eateth your mastery? Republicans and sinners. Now,
before I speak ill of these Pharisees, I just I want us to acknowledge
the fact that by nature, that's exactly what we are. God does
what he does. And we say, well, that's not
fair. Well, how could God do that? Nay, O man, who art thou
that replies against God? It is the Lord. Let him do what
seemeth him good. These Pharisees, these self-righteous
men, they did not like this. They did not like what was taking
place. And the reason is because they
thought they were so much better than everybody else. They saw
the Lord's company and they didn't know him to be the Lord, mind
you, but they saw his company. And here's what they thought.
Is that the best you can do? After the Lord saved Paul, he
said, I am what I am by the grace of God. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? What do we have that we have not seen? You know, it's quite the insult
to say, why is your master eating with them? He's God. He can eat with whoever he wants
to. He saves whoever he's pleased to save. And it's always going
to be for his glory. He has the right. These Pharisees,
they thought they'd found fault with the Lord himself. Let's
not be so ignorant. Professing themselves to be wise,
they proved themselves to be fools. This was all to their ignorance
in the name of religion. In Matthew, chapter 11, Our Lord
tells us that the Pharisees confessed that he is a friend of publicans
and sinners. They thought it was an insult.
I find it to be all my hope. We have a friend that sticketh
closer than a brother and his name is Jesus Christ and he's
delighted to be the friend of sinners. Oh my. While the Pharisees were
ashamed to even be in the same place as these sinners, our Lord was not ashamed to call
them his brethren. You know, I just can't quite
get over the fact that God would not be ashamed to call me his
brother. Is that not amazing? Amazing grace. Matthew chapter
9, look at verse 12. When Jesus heard what they had
said, he said unto them, they that be whole need not a physician,
but they that are sick. Now, in the first situation in
this chapter, they weren't, they didn't speak out loud and the
Lord answered them. Here they were speaking to the disciples
and the Lord answered them again. They just could not understand
why in the world he'd be pleased to dwell with sinners. I can't
either. But I certainly don't have a
problem with it, by the grace of God. So our Lord answered
them by giving them a very, a very clear illustration, and I'll
give you the same one. Now, the key word in what our
Lord told them is this four letter word, need. Make sure you see
this word, need. Here's what our Lord said. He
said, they that be whole need not. There's the problem. They
need not a physician. Do you need a physician? I'm
not the physician. Walter's not the physician. Paul's
not the physician. There's one physician. There's
one physician. Do you need him? You see, my
problem is I have no ability to say I need saving and I can't
save myself. I need God to do something for
me that I could never do for myself. You see, the gospel is good news
and the gospel is only for those who need it. Christ is the one
thing needful. But not everybody needs him. Do you need him? Turn with me
to Luke chapter 18. Here we have a beautiful account
of another Pharisee and publican. And I just love this. Luke chapter
18 and verse 9. The Lord Jesus faked this parable
unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous,
and despised others. Two men went up into the temple
to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The Pharisee
stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I am not
as other men extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week. I give
tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not
lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast,
saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner. Do you see the difference? It
could not be more clear. Well, what was the result? Verse
14. I tell you, this is the Lord
saying, I tell you, this man went down to his house and justified
rather than the other. For everyone that exalted himself
shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." You know what the difference
was? That publican had a need. He had a need. A great, great
need. And he found mercy. Do you have a need? Are you whole
or are you sick? Only the sick need the physician.
You don't go to the doctor and let your sick be. Only the sick
need the physician. Only the needy will come to Christ
and find rest unto their souls. The Lord said, Him that cometh
to me, I will in no wise cast out. Come unto me. Come unto
me. God be merciful to me, a sinner. Turn back to our text. Matthew 9 verse 12. 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. Go learn
what that meaneth. These men to whom our Lord was
speaking were the most well-learned religious men on the earth. And he said, go learn what this
means. What an insult. You know, that's what the Lord
does. He insults our pride. And actually, we don't like that.
We don't like that. You see, these Pharisees, they
were well learned as far as this world is concerned. As far as
most religion is concerned. But they had one problem. They
had not so learned Christ. One thing is needful. There's
just one thing we need to learn. You know, it doesn't matter how
smart we are. If we know Christ, if we've learned Christ, if we
ever learn I'm a sinner in need of a Savior, it is well, it is
well with my soul. You see, Christ is all. Christ
is all. It does not matter what we know.
It does not matter who we know if we don't know him. Oh, that
I might know him. Verse 13, he said, I will have
mercy. Oh, don't you love to read that? Anytime God said I will be gracious,
I will have compassion. I will have mercy. That's good
news. Oh, that's good news. Turn with
me to Romans 9. Romans 9, 15. For he saith to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. You see, our Lord told these
Pharisees, he said, I'll have mercy, not sacrifice. God's not
interested in our sacrifices. He will have mercy. He is the
sovereign God who shows mercy to whom he will. And I just rejoice
to know that he shows mercy at all and beg God, would you please
show mercy to me? Salvation is not by our works
or our will. It says not of him that willeth.
He is the one that willeth. And his will comes to pass. It's
not of him that runneth, worketh. Salvation is his work. that I
will work. Who shall I? Of God that showeth mercy. There's
just one sacrifice, and it's already been made, and we're
going to look at that in the next message. My only hope is this, but God,
but God who is rich in mercy, but God who delights to show
mercy. Oh, what a hope. What a hope. Look at verse 13
again, Matthew 9. 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. Through repentance. You see,
Christ did not come for everyone. We didn't read it, but in Romans
9, verse 13, it said, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
He didn't come to call the righteous. There's only one righteous man.
That's the one who came to call sinners to repentance. He has made himself to be the
righteousness of sinners. That means he didn't come to
call the righteous. He came to call sinners to repentance and
make them righteous in him, in him and through his blood. You
see, that's the gospel. Christ came to save those who
can't save themselves. He shed his blood and everyone
for whom he shed his blood shall be saved. No buts about it. No buts about it. Christ is the
savior of sinners. And we're all saved by grace.
By grace, we are saved. By God's mercy and his everlasting
love, we are saved. Salvation is for sinners and
only for sinners. The reason the Pharisees and
the scribes could never rejoice and be comfortable in our Lord's
presence, because they didn't believe themselves to be a sinner.
They never once saw within themselves a need. If there's one thing
we see, I pray it's emptiness in ourselves. All together at
our best state, nothing but vanity. From the sole of our foot to
the crown of our head, nothing but wounds, bruises and putrefying
sores. Nothing good in this flesh. Nothing. All my works, filthy
rags. If that's what we believe about
ourselves, then I believe this is good news for us. Sinners, Jesus will receive.
The cross receives us sinfully. I'm going to sing it over and
over again. Make the message clear and plain. One more thing. Our Lord said concerning Lazarus,
Lazarus was sick. He whom thou lovest is sick.
Now here's what he said. The Lord said this sickness,
and this is talking about the soul sickness. This sickness
is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the son might
be glorified thereby. Are you sick? It's not always
a bad thing to be sick. Oh, are you sick? Are you a sinner? Do you need a physician? I pray
that God has revealed to us that's exactly what we are. I pray God
has been pleased to reveal to us our need of him. And I pray
that God would be merciful to us. For Christ's sake, that he
might be glorified thereby. Thank you very much.