Thank you, John and Ty and Sherry. Go with me now to Matthew's Gospel,
chapter 9. Matthew 9. Lord willing, Wednesday night
we'll be in Matthew 9 also. We're going to look at a dinner
for sinners. Wednesday night. If you're a sinner, Come to dinner. Title this message, The Sermon,
with two words. The Sermon, a two-word sermon. Look at verse 9 with me. As Jesus passed forth from the
fence, 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. The Lord Jesus Christ was a preacher. He spoke mostly in one and two
syllable words, yet no man spake like this man. He spoke as Paul
said, not with excellency of speech, not with enticing words
of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. With two words, he called a man
from death to life, from darkness to the kingdom of God. Two words. That's the word of his power.
And here in this one verse, there are only 32 words. Only one of
them has more than two syllables. There are nine or ten two-word
phrases in this word of God's power. And may he be pleased He can, but only if he's willing. It says, As Jesus passed from
thence. Jesus passed. Who? Jesus. That's the Greek name
for Joshua. This is the Savior of God's people. This is God manifest in the flesh. This is Emmanuel, God with us. This is God come to earth. That's
who this is. They didn't ask for him to come. He was sent. They didn't call
him to come. He came to call. Why? God said, Call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people. from their sin. This is a faithful
saying. And it's worthy of all acceptation
because everybody is a sinner. But Christ Jesus came into this
world to save sinners. He passed. He passed. He passed by many places. He
came to this one. He passed by many people. that
He came to this man. See, He has a mission. He has
a purpose. And He has a particular people
that He's come to. And verse 9 says, He passed.
Jesus passed from thence, from Capernaum. Do you remember how
He was in Capernaum before this? And He told His disciples, Get
in a ship. He didn't ask them. we're going
to pass over. And he did that to meet a devil-filled
man dwelling in the tombs, to cast out those demons out of
him and bring him in to the kingdom. And then he told his disciples,
get back in the ship. We're going back to Capernaum. And he passed back over that
sea to meet another lost sheep. this man named Matthew, or Levi. But before that, he had a man
sick of the palsy brought to him on a bed, whom he found and
whom he saved. The Lord came to do a work, and
he did that work. His mission was accomplished.
And then he passed from there. See, he comes to places, and
then it passes. He has his particular sheep.
Look at verse 9. It says, So Jesus passed from
thence, and he'll pass from here some day if he doesn't come back
to earth. And he saw, he saw a man. That man didn't see him. He saw. Matthew didn't see him coming.
He saw Matthew. If Matthew did see him coming,
there was no beauty in him that he desired. There was nothing
in him to interest Matthew at all, because Matthew was interested
in one thing. He sure wasn't interested in
the Lord Jesus Christ. But bless God, Matthew would
later say, bless God. He saw me. He looked on me. The Lord saw him. The Lord looked
on him. The Lord set his eyes on him.
One man. Imagine that. One man. The Lord made that one man the
object of his sovereign mercy and saving grace and infinite
love. One man. The Lord saw him. Salvation is of the Lord. It's
His choice. It's His will. It's His call.
It's His power. What did He see that He saw? What did He see? A man. Now, you and I look at men and
women, and we may be impressed. We may look at great men and
great women and smart men and smart women and beautiful men
and beautiful women and big men and big women and we may be impressed. We might be impressed. You think
God is impressed with one single human being on the face of this
earth. You know what they look like to Him? A worm and no man. He saw man. He saw a wretched,
miserable, Matthew didn't see himself like this, but the Lord
saw him as he is. A wretched, miserable, he might
have thought he was something. Not knowing he's wretched, miserable,
poor, blind, naked, dead, helpless, hopeless, a creature. A pitiful creature. David said,
What is man that thou art mindful of him? A worm. I told you about
all those worms I bought. And until you observe that, a
mass of worms in your hand, you'll not really know what mankind
looks like to God. Try it sometime, if you can stand
it. The Lord looked down from heaven to see if there were any.
that did understand, if there were any that did seek after
God. He said, they all together become
filthy, stinking worms, a mass of filthy humanity. But the Lord looked on them. David said, Who am I that you
should look on me, such a dead dog? But the Lord saw a man. out of the middle of this crowd,
out of a vast number of people. They all looked alike. There's
none different. There was nothing in this man
to distinguish him from anybody else. He was no better than anybody
else. In fact, he's the chief of sinners.
But the Lord looked on this man, a man, a single man. The Lord saves individuals. The
Lord comes and calls individuals. Oh, blessed is The man, the woman
whom thou choosest and causes to approach unto you,
who says, follow me, named Matthew. Jesus passed from thence, and
he saw a man named Matthew. Now his parents found out they
were going to have a baby. And they came up with names,
male and female. Before ultrasound, they didn't
know. And so when this baby was born,
this child was born, and they found out a son had been given. And they named him Mattathiah. That's the Hebrew name. the Greek
name is Matthew, and the Hebrew name means gift of Jehovah. Now the Lord had given these
people, this man and his wife, this man named Alphaeus, by the
way, four apostles were this man's But the Lord had given this child
to this man and this woman, but this son had been given to the
Lord Jesus Christ long before the world began. Long before
this child was born, the Lord foreknew this man named Mattathiah,
the gift of Jehovah. and gave him to the Lord Jesus
Christ. And Christ said, All that the
Father giveth me shall come to thee. And Christ came to this
earth to seek and to save his own that the Father hath given
me. And in the end he said, Those you gave me, I have kept them.
My sheep, the sheep you gave me, I have lost none. None of
them is lost. They follow me. In the name of
Matthew. The lot was cast into the lap,
but the whole disposal was up to the Lord. Named Matthew, sitting
at the receipt of custom, in his customary seat. Matthew was sitting where he
always sat, just like you. We're creatures of habit, aren't
we? You're sitting where you sat when I first came here. Sitting where he always sat in
his customary seat, day in, day out, as he was accustomed to
doing. Doing what he always did. Living
for what he lived for. Dying for what he lived for. Counting his money. Not counting the costs. Saving
his money. Losing his soul. Sitting. We found him sitting. The Lord
saw a man sitting in the seat of the scornful. I remember some
of you coming and sitting for a long time in the seat of the
scornful. Sitting with fellow publicans.
Counting his money. But soon he's going to be sitting
among princes, counting his blessing. Now picture this with me. This
is a true story. This man, this publican, this
man who lived for money, for making money, this world was
his life. It would have been his death
had the Lord not come to him. But this man is sitting there
where he always sat. doing what he always did and
would be doing that until the day that he dropped over dead
with his face in his money. He's not going to change. He's doing what he loved to do,
what he lived to do, make money. He had no interest whatsoever
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't know who he is. He
doesn't care. I had looked out in this crowd
as we were singing hymns and reading and all, and I could
see the faces of a few that were not interested. And that's it. And nobody will be. I was not. But God. This man was rich. He had a nice
home. He had horses and chariots. He had savings. He didn't have
life. He had no thoughts of God. He
never thought of eternity. He had no interest in religion,
and he has no idea who's looking at him. But bless God, somebody was. The Lord God of glory had come
for him. People argue against election. They don't know God. If the Lord
hadn't chosen him, he wouldn't have been saved. If the Lord
hadn't come to him, he wouldn't have come to the Lord. If the
Lord hadn't spoken to him, he wouldn't have called on the Lord.
If the Lord hadn't given commandment, he'd be sitting there until he
died. But this is his day of salvation. He didn't know it. But this is
his day. Like that child laying out in
that pool of his own blood and his own pollution. The Lord said,
this is your day. The day I pass by. The day I
speak. When I say live, you live. Not
until then. This is not the day that Matthew
made a decision. This is the day the Lord decided
long before. This is not the day he lets Jesus
into his heart. This is the day the Lord Jesus
gives him a new heart. This is not the day he accepts
Jesus as his personal Savior. This is the day the Lord came
to save his wretched person and make him understand he is accepted
and beloved. Salvation is not something we
get. People say that all the time. I heard someone say to her, I
got saved the other day. And she said to that man, I'm
sorry to hear that. And he was shocked. I like that. That's boldness.
Sorry to hear that. He was shocked. And she told
him, because you don't get saved, the Lord saves you. He said,
oh, but you said no. She said, no, that's what you
said. That's what came out of your mouth. He said, I got saved.
I, I, I. When the Lord saves a person,
that's what they say. The Lord saved me. Let the redeemed
of the Lord say so. Say what? The Lord redeemed me.
The Lord saved me. Had a man leave here. Was coming
here for a while. Who said to me, my grandson got saved. And I didn't jump up and down
excited. He got offended. You don't get saved. The Lord
saves you. It's not something we get. It's something we receive. I
give unto them eternal life. It's not something we do. It's
something that's done for us, to us, by the Lord. Salvation
is not an offer. It's an operation of God. Salvation
is not our choice. Salvation is not our works, it's
His. Salvation is not our righteousness,
it's His. Salvation is not our will, it's
His. That Ephesians 1, 9, I don't
know how many times we've read Ephesians 1, but when Ty read
it, that verse 9 struck me as if for the first time. He said,
He's made known unto us the mystery of His will. It's a mystery to
most that salvation is by the will of God and not the will
of man. You know, most people think that
salvation is by the will of man, and it's a mystery to them, but
not to us. He's made known the mystery to
us. What is that? It's by His will. It's according
to His will. We work with all things after
the counsel of His will. When He says, I will, you shall. This is not our will, it's His. It's not our faith, it's His.
Salvation comes to us, then we come to Him. Salvation comes
to us in the form of the hearing of the Word, like Matthew. All right? Two words. The Lord
came. The Lord came. The Lord saw.
Now look at this. In verse 9 it says, He saith, the Lord spoke. Salvation is when God speaks
to a person. Oh, we have this treasure in
earth and vessel. Please God, by the foolishness
of preaching, save them that believe. We have this treasure
in earth and vessel, but the excellency of the power is of
God and not of man. The Lord spoke. I'm leery, very
leery of religious people who talk so much. Scripture says God is in heaven.
Here the Lord is a beginning of wisdom. God is in heaven.
We're on the earth. God is infinite, one past finding
out. We're so finite. We don't know in part. We don't
know anything yet as we ought to know. Spend a lifetime trying
to learn one thing and still don't know one thing as we know. We don't master anything. God
is in the heaven. We're up on the earth. He said,
let your words be few. Talking to a young man this week
on the phone. He sounded interested. But he wanted to talk. And talk. And talk. And talk. And he wouldn't hardly listen
at all. And what he wanted to do, apparently
he had come through some kind of drug problem and went to somewhere
and he got religion, got saved from his drugs got religion,
like so many do, and he had been going to these groups
and all, and he wondered what kind of, if we all got together
and talked. That's what he asked me. Did
you all get together and talk? I said, no, mostly we get together
and they listen and I talk. Right? our fellowships with the
Father and with His Son. I kept telling him, this is what
we do here. We come and we sit and we listen
as a man opens the Word of God. We shut our mouth and we hope
that God speaks. But if God doesn't speak, anything we say is of no profit
whatsoever. Modern religion has done away
with preaching. Modern religion has their share
sessions, you know, group therapy and so forth, where every fool
can speak his mind, and they do. They quickly reveal it, what
fools they are. It's known by a multitude of
words. You can't hear from God with your mouth open. When the Lord speaks, the first
thing he does, as a matter of fact, is shut your mouth. Job and his friends met together,
and they talked for a long time, didn't they? Talked for a long
time about a lot of things, until finally God spoke. And God, through
one question, shut their mouths, all of them, to a man, even Job.
God said, Who is this? Who is doing all this talking?
Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? And
Job, who knew the Lord, who feared the Lord, said, I have spoken
things too wonderful for me. Once have I spoken, yea, twice.
Not any more. Cornelius and his family heard
from God through Peter, didn't they? So what did Cornelius say?
He said, We are here to hear. And they sat down and shut up.
And the Lord spoke through a man, mind you, to a man. He saith to Matthew, to where? He saith. If he doesn't say it,
he won't get a thing. To Matthew and to him. The Lord speaks. I serve in here. I will." Unto Matthew. He spoke to Matthew. My, my. Matthew thought, well,
he knew. He's speaking to me. Not vague when the Lord, I believe
the Lord's working on him or her. No, no. No, because they'll follow. This thing of long, drawn-out
affair doesn't happen that way. It doesn't happen that way. It doesn't matter. It's been
around a long time. We've discussed this very thing.
It doesn't happen that way. Oh, the Lord may wait. A long
time a person may sit and sit and hear and not hear and have
ears to hear but don't hear and sit and sit and sit, but when
the time comes, in the fullness of time when God sends forth
that gospel of His precious Son in power, you hear. And you think I'm the only one
in here. Bless God. To Him you are that day because
He comes to individuals. Now look at this, a two-word
sermon. Follow me. Follow me. He didn't ask him anything. He
told him. He didn't make a request. He
gave a command. Thou hast given commandment to
save me. I bet you that was Matthew's
favorite verse after that. Thou hast given commandment to
save men. If men talk about a God who's trying to save, it's the
wrong God then. God doesn't try anything. He's
not God. A God who's trying to tell men
something, wrong God. God doesn't try to tell anybody
anything. He tells it, and they hear it.
If a God who wants to save and can't, dare pray unto a God who
can't save. It's not God at all. A Jesus
who's trying to get in their hearts, that's another Jesus. You've got the wrong Jesus and
they're lost. They don't know the living and
true God and the Jesus Christ sent for a particular people. They haven't met the God of the
Bible. I was hoping that young man would be here this morning,
but he's not. But you are. I am. This is the God, this is
the Lord who came to this world, who chose whom He would before
He came, and in His good time comes to that particular person.
He didn't ask Matthew to let Him be Lord of his life. He made
an announcement that, I am now the Lord of your life. He announced His salvation. It's
an announcement, not a question, not a request. It's when the
Lord comes to you and says, I am that I am. That woman at the
well didn't know Him, did she? And she said, when Messiah has
come, He'll tell us all things. Christ said two words, I am. And he was. And she was. I am. He came to make an announcement. I am your Lord. You will follow
me. I am your King. You will bow
to me. I am your Master. You are now
owned by me. I am your Redeemer. I have bought
you with a price. I am your sovereign. I am your
Lord. I am your ruler. Not will you
let me. I am your ruler. I am your Messiah. Didn't even know you needed one,
but I am. I am your prophet. I am your priest. I am your king. I am your intercessor. I am your
mediator. I am your surety. I am your wisdom. I am your righteousness. I am
your sanctification. I am your Lord and you are mine. Now follow me. Heroes. Two words. Follow me. Heroes. And you. Happy Quicken. And we're dead. Lazarus. Two
words. Come forth. He came forth. He arose. To walk in newness
of life, to walk by faith, to walk before the Lord, holy, unblameable,
and unreprovable in God's sight. And look at this, verse 9. It
said, He arose and followed him. The Lord said, follow Me. He arose. and followed Him. How do you know who the Lord's
people are? They're following Him. They're
not following the crowd. They're not following the masses.
They're not following the religion. You know, in the end, after the
Lord said many hard things, it says many so-called disciples
went away and walked no more with Him. With him, where did
they go? I guess they went back to their
law, religion, back to Judaism, didn't they? That's where they
went back. They didn't follow him anymore. How do you know
his disciple? They follow him. Follow him. Not the crowd. Not where everybody else was
going. Not Broadway religion. They follow him. And you know, St. Luke's account
said he left all. That's two words. Left all. To follow him, you have to leave
all. And the same chapter, remember
when the Lord raised the man sick of the palsy, but the first
thing He said to him was what? Be of good cheer. Thy sins be
forgiven. and left him lying there for
a little while. But his sins were gone. And then they argued
with him, and he asked this question, which is easier? To say, thy sins be forgiven thee?
Or to say to a man who has never walked, rise up and walk? Which is easier? Neither is easy. Both are impossible. Which is
easier? to tell a man that his sins are
forgiven, give him interest, or make him leave his money,
leave the world. Have you ever tried to convince
anybody of the truth? You can't do it, can you? Men and women are in love with
this world, in love with themselves. And with man, it's impossible.
You can try as you may. You can't do it. You can't convince
anybody of anything. You can't get anybody to leave
religion, leave where they're happy, leave what they love. You can't do it. Only one person
can. And that's the only time when
they're going to. He left off and followed him. You know, Matthew, being a publican,
a money man, money people, pretty much think they own the world.
And he was once a leader, wasn't he? He's used to having his way. Can you tell a man who's used
to being a leader to follow? The Lord did. He did. Now he's a follower. He used
to be a leader. Now he's a follower. He used
to be a talker. People who have lots of things, you know, think
there's something and like to talk about it. He used to be
a talker. Now he's a listener. He once was lost. Now he's found. He once was blind. Now he sees. He once was deaf. Now he hears. He once had no interest in Jesus
Christ. Now he's lying. Why? Why? Well, it wasn't in him. It was
because the Lord came. The Lord saw a man. The Lord said to him, follow
me. He raised him, and he walked. And that's why we pray, Lord,
speak. Lord, speak. Our brother prayed
that the Lord would speak. And sometimes he's pleased to.
We still have some people we need to talk to. They're not
going to call. They're not going to call. Oh,
Lord, turn us, and we'll be turned. Come. Come, Lord. Save my loved
ones. Speak, Lord. Speak. Alright,
Brother John, you come. That's all I'm saying in terms
of number.