Luke chapter 15. Let's read the
first two verses of Luke chapter 15. him unto Christ, all the publicans and sinners
to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes
murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with him." I doubt very seriously if we
will ever have an overflowing crowd in here. I may be wrong. I hope I am.
I'm pleased with the number that's here this morning. But I don't
foresee having to build a bigger building any time in the near
future or add on to this building to hold all of the people that
will be coming out to hear the gospel. for my pessimism are many. And I jotted down a few here
because, first of all, and this is the way it is, most so-called
churches are built upon a man. They center around the man, the
pastor, the leader. But the reason for my pessimisms
are that I don't have great charisma. And I don't speak with brilliant
oratory. I don't have many credentials
beside my name. I don't have dazzling looks,
not by any means. I don't have a wonderfully appealing
personality and a way with people. And we don't have here too many
gifted musicians. We don't have choral groups or
gospel sings or quartets and the like. We don't have a bus. We don't go out with a bus and
come to sea and land to bring in three children to add to our
number. We don't have a bus. We don't
have a lot of programs, such as women's prayer breakfasts. I wouldn't mind having that one
day, but most of our ladies work, and they're unable to attend
such a thing, but we don't have youth groups. We have so few
children, and their ages are so different. We don't have offices. We don't
assign special duties and offices such as elders. We have a few
deacons, but we don't have women's missionary societies, and we
don't have a minister of music that we pay. We don't have a
pulpit committee. We don't have a bus, minister.
Don't have a bus. Don't need to have a minister.
And we don't have many outings. We don't go on many trips and
so forth and have great outings. We have a very small income here.
We don't use gimmicks. We don't use special tactics
such as dynamic speakers coming in. We do have some dynamic speakers,
but not in the way that the world would consider them. We don't
have notable people. We don't have former athletes
and politicians, and we don't have special days and events.
All of these things we don't have to attract people. These things attract people. We don't gimmicks, put $10 bills
under the seats and so forth. and special days to see who can
bring the most in the Sunday school. But most of all, the
reason why I don't believe we'll ever have a large overflowing
crowd is because really the only thing we do here is preach. That's about all we
do here. That's what this whole thing
revolves around. This right here, what I'm standing
up to do. And if you go to some of these
places, and some of you have been very recently, most of the
time in that service is devoted to these other things. You were telling me about that,
Terry, weren't you? Reading a man's bulletin and the whole thing
was devoted to this and that and the other. And one little
small sentence down at the bottom gave the title to the man's message.
And the message was probably about 15 minutes long and not
anything worth hearing anyway. But most of what we have is right
here. This is what this whole thing
is all about. This is why we have come to this
place, to hear preaching. Right? To hear preaching. And
people just aren't interested in hearing too much preaching,
especially the message we have to preach. They may come out
in droves to hear interesting subjects such as prophecy and
ecclesiology and this and that and the other, but we won't get
anybody by preaching merely the gospel. But there's some people
here, by God's grace and by God's mercy, there's some people here
who seem to delight, who seem to delight in coming out to hear
this very thing. We sung the song, the old, old
story. I believe there's some people
in here this morning, by God's grace, that truly delight to
come out and hear the same message they heard last Sunday. If I
stood up, I believe, and started preaching on Mephibosheth, I
believe you'd delight in it just as much as you did last Sunday. I don't think we'll have a big
crowd. I just don't think, I just don't see it in very many places
when there's only preaching to be heard. Well, someone may say
out there in the world, they may say, these people must be
awful simple-minded, ignorant people. They are. I'm included. We are. Yeah, we
are. Not very worldly wise. Really
not. I don't see many doctors and
lawyers and so forth in here, professional people. I don't
think we ever want them. Well, they say they must not
be very career-oriented or goal-minded people. They like to have their
intellects stimulated and so forth. It's true. It's true. We don't have very many great
career-minded people in here. We have people that operate service
stations and drive trucks and hammer nails work on trucks. That's about it. That's about
all we have in here. There are not very many career-oriented
people, but they do have a goal. I do take issue with somewhat
on that. They do have a goal, but it's
not after this world. The world is not their goal.
They do have a goal, but their goal is to win Christ and be
found in Him. They don't have here any continuing
city. Their stakes, their interests, their desires are not in this
place. You can have it, give it to the lawyers and the doctors
and so forth, and they've got it. But we, we want to win Christ
and be found in Him. But the biggest reason I see
why we'll never have a huge crowd, listen to this, the biggest reason
I see behind this is because the message that we
preach is only for sinners. Sinners. I mean, in the true
sense of the word. And there aren't many sinners,
are there? No. I mean, people will say it
in general terms. Yes, we are. Yes, we have sinned. But I'm talking about sinners.
People who feel themselves, know themselves to be what they are
before this holy God who sees all, knows all, who knows the
heart, knows every wicked thought and imagination of the heart.
This God. that we preach, and a sinner is somebody who knows
what they are inside, that there's nothing good in us, that this
holy God is displeased, angry with us. And there aren't many
to be found that know that and feel themselves to be guilty
before God. Well, back in the Lord's day,
here in our text, there were many people, many people that
followed him. Look at verse 1 again with me.
It says, "...then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners." Christ had a large following. Everywhere he went, he attracted
a huge crowd. Multitudes of people followed
him everywhere, but they weren't the notable people. They were
the notorious people. They weren't leaders, they were
losers. They weren't lawyers, they were
laborers. They weren't religious people,
they were irreligious, non-churchgoing people that followed Christ.
They were the lowest of the low, people that even we, perhaps,
may look down upon today. They were drunks, they were harlots,
they were thieves, they were publicans, and you'd have to
know what a publican was to these people to realize how lowly they
were in the people's eye. They were outcasts, they were
low-life, despised, low-class people. And when they sum these
people up, what they would say is, they're sinners, and these people They followed
Christ. They drew nearer to Him. They
drew nearer to Him. They couldn't get close enough
to Him. They followed Him around like little dogs, little puppy
dogs, everywhere He went. They followed Him around. They
hovered around Him. Sinners, you name it, they've
done it. Sinners. But yet they couldn't
tear themselves from this man. They had to be with this man.
Why? Let me ask you, why? Why did people draw near to Christ? What was it about Christ that
made these people want to be around Him? And I wish that I,
I wish this could be said of me. I think it was, I forget
who it was, somebody said that true godliness, true Christ-likeness
is when the low life, lowly, people on the streets, anybody,
sinners, like they call them here, that anybody could be in
your presence and feel comfortable, feel comfortable around you.
Isn't that Christ's likeness? Huh? Why did people like this
draw near to Christ? Why? Well, first of all, I'll
tell you why not. They weren't drawn by his appearance.
He didn't dress. or look like the Pharisees, the
scribes, the Sadducees, religious folk. He didn't dress like a
clergyman. He didn't wear his collar around
backward. He didn't wear a silk robe of purple or gold or a crimson. No robe, no collar, no silly
grin, you know, that put him apart. He's just a man, just
a man, plain, ordinary man. He ate like they did, ate with
them, ate what they ate, drank what they drank, walked with
them where they were, met them where they were. It wasn't his
appearance. He worked like they did. He worked
with his hands. He wasn't sheltered. He didn't
live a sheltered life in some seminary and then come in and
try to tell them what they were doing wrong. No. He walked among
them, was identified with them, grouped with them. They said,
He's just like them. Just like them. A carpenter. Isn't this the carpenter's son?
He's just an old carpenter. Aren't they just fishermen? Yeah. Yeah. And the people were
drawn to him. He's like us. He's with us. But they saw something different. They weren't drawn to him because
of his high oratory. Not only did he not need a robe
to separate him, any more than any true child of God does. His
dignity was he himself. Not only did he not need a role,
but he didn't need great and effective speech. He didn't speak
as one in a voice such as that. Not at all. We don't hear him
using long and eloquent terms and words and sentences, mostly
one- and two-syllable words, and little simple stories that
everybody could understand. And he doesn't speak, like I
said, in high oratory, but he does speak, they said, as one
having authority. You know what they meant by that? They meant, this man speaks like
he knows what he's talking about. They said that about George Whitefield.
I think it was Benjamin Franklin said it about Whitefield. Mr. Franklin, you don't believe what
George Whitefield believes. Why are you going to hear him?
He said, I'm going to hear him because he believes what he preaches. A lawyer once told my dad, an
actual lawyer told him, he said, if I could present my cases like
you do, believe my cases such as you do, I'd never lose a case.
And they said, this man spoke as one having a priority. He
sounds like he wrote the book. He did. Very dogmatic. There's nothing people hate worse
than dogmatism. But when this man spoke, he said,
I want to tell you something. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
you better hear me. If you got ears, you better listen
now. And they listened. Sinners listened. Oh, he did
have some things to say to the Pharisees. He put them to shame. The lawyers. He put them to shame
in his own way. He did have some things to say
to these doctors and lawyers that tried to catch him up and
try to catch him in his words. He'd usually have a very short
and curt reply. Snake. Hippocrant. Woe unto you. You don't know
the Scripture. That's what you think what they
felt like staying spent their whole life studying the scripture
said you see scribes. He'd say you don't know the scripture
and turn away from and talk to us and begin explaining things
the same. Oh they got red in the face and
they wanted to kill him. But these low life common folk. They didn't come to hear a sermon
on ecumenicalism in the first century, or soteriology, or superlapsarianism. They came to hear him, though.
They came to hear him. It says they drew nearer to hear
him, and they didn't come because he made them feel good about
themselves. What they heard from him was not, God has a wonderful
plan for your life. Turn your scars into stars. You are somebody. You are loved. God loves you, and so do I."
He didn't say things like that. On the contrary, he said very
striking, very convicting, heart-piercing things like, you've heard it
said. Everybody here has heard it said not to commit adultery. He said, I say unto you, if there's
any man in here, or woman, that looks upon somebody of the opposite
sex, you've committed adultery already, and God Almighty will
judge you. Send your soul to hell for adultery. He said, you've heard it said
of them of old time, thou shalt not kill. He said, I say unto
you, get angry with somebody, you're in danger of hell fire. Doesn't sound like he's mentioning
words to me. Doesn't sound like he's trying to make people feel
good about themselves to me. Doesn't he? No, his preaching
was convicting, heart-piercing. He didn't pull punches, didn't
mention words. He said it like it is. God sees
your heart, he said. He knows what you're thinking. And they weren't drawn to him
because he ranted and raved and was a great pulpiteer. Very charismatic
in the pulpit. He didn't have a pulpit. He didn't
preach from the pulpit. He sat on a rock and taught them. The power was in the Word, the
same as it is now. The power is not in my ability,
it's in the Word. What was it then? What was it
about this man that drew people to him? What was it that he said
that came to hear him? To hear him. Then drew near unto
him public all of them. I like that. All sinners were
drawn to him, and they came to hear him. What was it that he
said that made anybody who was somebody turn thumbs down on
him, reject him, and everybody who was nobody receive him gladly? What did he say? What did he
say? Look at verse 2. The Pharisees
gave the answer. The Pharisees and the scribes
murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners. There's the answer. He receiveth
sinners. They meant that in jest. They meant that in derogatory
fashion. This man receiveth sinners. But
that's his greatest glory. And that's the reason sinners
came to hear him. He accepted men and women for
what they were, sinners. Come unto me, he said. Come,
as you are, just as you are, he said, in all their wickedness.
And he didn't make demands of them to get right with God. He
didn't say, you better clean your life up. He didn't say,
repent, so long and so much. and submit for examination to
me later on?" No, he didn't say, do this or that or the other,
and God will bless you. No. He didn't say those things. He didn't say, do this and God
will bless you. You know what he did say? He said, I've done
it all. I've done it all for you. He
didn't say, do this and God will bless you. He said, it's done.
Therefore, God will bless you. He didn't say, clean up your
life. He didn't say, clean up your life. He said, though your
sins be as scarlet, I'll make them white as snow. I'll clean
it up. All you need is to feel dirty.
He didn't say, God helps those that help themselves. Did he?
He said, I've come to help the helpless. Anybody out there like
that? Anybody that cannot help themselves? That's who God helps. He didn't say, get right with
God, did he? You need to get right with God.
He didn't say that. He said, I've come to make you
right with God. I've come to be your righteousness
before God. I've come to establish a life
that God will accept. All you need to do is come to
me. I'll take care of it. You don't need to do anything,
Henry. Just me. That sound pretty good
to you? You want to hear that? He didn't
say, take the first step and God will meet you halfway. He
said, no, I'm going to pick you up and carry you all the way.
No. All you do is lay back and rest. Does that sound pretty
good to you? Nothing? You mean I don't have
to do it? No. Rest. I'll take you all the
way. You don't have to quit my drinking
to be saved? No. No, you don't. It doesn't
say that anywhere in Scripture. He will quit your drinking if
he saves you. But you don't quit your drinking
to be saved. You come to him to be saved.
You take care of the problem. You don't clean up the outside
of the cup and then come. No, you come to him to be cleaned
on the inside. Outside, take care of yourself. He didn't say, join the church
and change your life. He said, I've come that they
might have life. Not just change it. To give it
is a big difference. Big difference. You see, he was
a real man. He received sinners. He was a
real, and Edith with him. Edith with him. I told you this
story, I know, about a little girl that came home one day and
said to her daddy, who didn't go to church, she said, Daddy,
I heard the preacher call my name today. My name's in the
Bible. Her name was Edith. He said,
No, I don't think Edith is a biblical name. She said, Yeah, it is.
I heard him. He said that this man received
a sinner and Edith with him. Well. The story is there that
your name's here if you're a sinner, your name is here. If your name
is sinner, this man receiveth sinners. I'm not talking about
just in word only. I'm talking about sinners. You
know that story about the two men that came to the temple,
one a publican and one a Pharisee? You know the story. And the Pharisee
lifted up his eyes to heaven in such a religious and pious
way and came down front so that everybody could see him. And,
God, I thank Thee that I'm not like other men. I tithe and I
fast and so forth. Not even as this publican. In Jesus' name, Amen. And then
that old publican sinner, hated, outcast man wouldn't come up
front, wouldn't so much as lift his eyes up to heaven, the scripture
says, but smote on his breast. And all he could get out. He
couldn't, he didn't know much to say. He didn't know many words
of, many religious words to pray to God. He didn't know what righteousness,
justice, all that. All he knew he needed was mercy. And all he could say was, God
be merciful to me. I'm such a sinner. Would you? You know what Christ said? He
said, I say unto you, to me, who's the I? God. He said, I
say unto you that this man, this publican, this lowlife, no good,
outcast sinner who's lived all his life in wickedness and rebellion,
he's justified. I accept him. I love him. I gave my son to die for him. He's going to heaven. He's one
of my children. Why? What did he do? Nothing.
I did it all for him. All he did really was ask me
to do it. Mercy. That's what mercy means. Spare
me. And this other man, this Pharisee
who lived such a good, moral, holy, upright life before men,
rejected it. Went to hell. That's what the
Bible said. That's what it said. And he didn't
say you need to live the victorious life, did he? On the contrary,
he says to us, you can't lead the victorious life, can you?
You can't do the things that you would, can you? Huh? I'm
talking to you right now. He's talking to us right now.
You can't do what the things you would do, can you? You only
feel hypocrisy, don't you? Got a hypocrite? You only feel
sin and wickedness, don't you? A struggle with sin. Can't lead
the victorious life, can you, Roberta? He can and did. Can't do the things you should
or would, can you? Seems like you only do the things
you would not. The things you want to do, you
don't do. The things you do not want to do, that's what you do.
Can't do it, can you? He did for you. Can't drum up faith, can you?
No matter how you'd like to believe, you can't seem to believe, can
you? Can you? Can't drum it up, can you? He
was faithful. He was. He could. Can't understand all the Bible
doctrines, can you? Can't understand it. It seems
like a mystery to you, doesn't it? He's the Word. He is. In Him are hid all the
treasures. of wisdom and knowledge. Your
conscience bothers you, your attitude, your life convicts
you. You feel so hopeless and helpless, don't you? Is that
you? That's me. He says, come unto me. He says,
you've come to the right place. If anybody in here feels that
way this morning, you've come to the right place. You come
to hear the right message. And I'm not going to tell you
to get right with God. I'm going to tell you who will make you
right with God. I'm going to tell you that there's
nobody to condemn you if you come to Christ. Nobody or no
one. No one will lay anything to your
charge, not even God Almighty, if you simply ask Him. to forgive you. Got the Word
of God on it. Who is he that who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Remember that story? Two men,
this man hadn't done a thing, and on the contrary, he'd done
everything wrong, sinful, evil, lived his whole life in evil. And Christ said, I accept him. This is so contrary to modern
religion. He said, I accept him. How can you do that? Because
I'm God. It is God that justifies. He
saves whom he will, not who wills to let him. That's the good news. My will is only bent toward me
and this world and so forth. But if God wills to save me and
take me home, I am saved. God justified. Now, who is he
that condemneth, he said. Goes a little further. Christ
died, sent his son down here to pay the price, pay the penalty,
the judgment, the condemnation that that old rebel deserved.
Me. And now, there's nothing on my
record. If God opened up the books against
us today, The Scriptures speak of the record being against us. If God opened up the books, if
he opened up a screen here this morning and a movie projector
of our whole lives from the time we were born up until now, we'd
run out of here, wouldn't we? If everybody's life in here was
projected on a screen for all to see, your thoughts, not only
your actions, but your thoughts, even right now, your thoughts,
If it was on a projector, you'd run out of here as fast as you
could, wouldn't you? Oh, it's a shame. Well, God says that
in Christ, it's destroyed. There was a film, a record, a
book against you, Deborah, but Christ came and ripped it up,
tore it up. They can't find it. Somebody,
the devil, tries to bring it up. That's what he says, the
great accuser of the saints, of the brethren. He said, I don't
remember, Lord, what she did back just yesterday. Don't remember. Don't recall it. Look at her
now. Can't see her. Blood. That's good news to me, folks.
I need it right now. I need it this morning. Well, it says, look back at Luke
chapter 7 with me, look at this, and I'll hurry. Luke chapter
7, look back at this. This is a key verse of scripture.
Luke chapter 7, verse 29. Luke 7, 29. And all the people
that heard him, that is sinners, all the people that heard him
and the publicans justified God. You know what that means? If
you know what that means, you've got a good grasp of the gospel.
All that heard him, the publicans and the sinners, all that heard
him justified God. Well, do you remember over in
Psalm 51, when David said this, Lord, now David knew what he'd
done, committed adultery, had a man killed, knew that God was that God saw him and he was in
danger of judgment. That's what he knew. And here's
what David said in Psalm 51. He said, Lord, you're going to
be justified when you speak. If I stand before you someday,
before you and all the hosts of heaven and earth and everybody,
and you say, you are guilty. What David would say, you're
right. You're just when you speak. You're going to be clear, David
said, God, you're going to be clear when you send me to hell.
You're going to be doing the right thing. That's exactly what
I deserve. That's what it is to justify
God Almighty. Lord, you're right. Everything
you said about me is right. Everything you said I deserve
is right. Except grace. Everything you
say, and look at verse 30, but the Pharisees and lawyers, it
says, rejected the counsel of God against themselves. They
rejected it. We won't have that. I don't like
that. I don't like that. God's word. I don't like it. You know, God's word. Listen
to me. God's word, God's son, Christ,
really, it only has bad things to say about good people. If
you think you're pretty fine feller or lady this morning,
I got nothing but bad news for you. You're on your road to hell. But, you know, it has mostly
good things to say to bad people. You know that most of the promises,
if not all of the promises in the scripture are to bad people.
bad people. I'm ashamed of the past life
I've lived, the life I've lived. I'm ashamed of the life I live
now. But I thank God that He let me
go through some of the things I went through. Because there's
no mistake in what I have been. And even now, to think some of
the thoughts I do, and do some of the things, acts I do do,
it just makes me sick. But I'm thankful, really, that
he lets me continue to see what I am. You know why? Because it
says right here, this man received the sinners, and I am one. Am one. Paul said this is a faithful
saying. He said it's a true saying from
God's Word, and it's worthy to be heard, especially if you're
a sinner, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Not make religious, but to accept
eternally. Save them. Oh, you will become
religious, but not in the way that the world thinks so. Not
an outwardly fakery, hypocrisy, open, ridiculous religious piety,
but it will be an inward strength and peace and hope and comfort
that you have, know and cry, and your life will change. Thank
God. It will change. You see what I'm saying, or what
the Bible is saying, that salvation is for the lost. It's for the
guilty. Pardon is for the guilty. It's
for the guilty. Pardon is for sinners. Mercy
is for the guilty. Good people, like old Charlie
Payne preached one time, he said, good people need not apply here.
They'll not be accepted. Go into a place and apply for
a job, and the fella says, what are your qualifications? Don't
have any. Well, where have you worked before? Mostly in the
gutter. Gutter snipe. A little drunk.
Oh, wait a minute. If you ever worked anywhere,
you got a stove for my employer. Stole everything I could get
my hands on. Oh, man, I don't want you. You know, that's the
only people God receives, employees. Huh? What have you done? Nothing. Who'd you work for? Supposed to work for God. Stole
all his glory. Sinned against him. Spit in his
face. I accept you. You're going to go to work for
me. Apostle Paul, you're going to go to work for me. Lord, what
do you have me to do? He changed him, all right. But
it started on the inside. Good people need not apply. Everyone
that labors in the heavy laden with sin come to Christ. Christ
said, I've not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. Yeah, he called them to repentance,
yes. The scripture says, this man receiveth sinners because,
you see, he gets all the glory in this. You know why he does
it this way? Because he gets all the glory.
He gets all the glory. They were lost. They needed to
be found. They couldn't find themselves.
Somebody had to come get them, and he gets all the glory. They
were hopeless, and he becomes their only hope. Right? They
were rejected by God. He becomes their acceptance,
their righteousness. They were dead in trespasses
and sin, and he becomes their life. Because I live, you shall
live also, he said. And like I said, to be sure a
man or a woman will be created in Christ Jesus on two good works,
they will be changed now. They don't stay in their sin.
God doesn't save a man so he can just live like he wants to.
No. His want-tos will be changed. He won't want to live. I don't
desire to live like I used to live. I desire to serve Him out
of love, out of appreciation. But anything you do do after
he saves you will not be you. It'll be Christ in you. It'll be Christ in you. Because he'll never be anything
but a sinner. There's nobody in here ever being
anything better than an old sinner. That's the reason this church
is full of no-goods. We're not religious pious folks.
Sinners. Still sinners. Not openly, actively
trying to commit sin and so forth. But we're still just sinners.
We know what we are, don't we? Huh? We'll never be anything
but a sinner if you ever do do anything worthwhile. It's Christ
in you that does it. But sinners keep coming to Christ.
They keep coming to Christ. That's the reason we need to
remain sinners. I mean, that's the reason we
need to know we're sinners constantly. Because sinners keep coming to
Christ. They keep appealing to Christ. If you ever cease to
be a sinner, you don't need Christ, do you? Huh? Let me illustrate
this and I'll close. There was a king long ago in
a country where they had absolute monarchs. He was a king. And
the judicial system back there was According to the king, he
said, cut a man's head off, and his head rolled. Whatever the
king said went. And needless to say, their prisons
and their dungeons, for whatever a man did, they went to prison.
And those dungeons were horrible, despicable places, just holes
in the ground, damped out. Most people died in the dungeon.
Well, this king one day, he up and just decided to have mercy. He up in one day and said, on
a special day of the year, he said, I'm going to show my kindness. I'm going to show what a benevolent
and good king I am. I'm going to go, and this is
much the way God does it. The only reason he shows mercy
is to show how great he is. He doesn't have to. He said,
I'm going to show mercy. I'm going to pardon someone. So this is the way he decided
to do it. He decided to disguise himself. I'm going to disguise
myself as a common criminal, and I'm going to go down into
that dungeon, into that prison, and walk among these people and
find the one that I feel is most deserving to be pardoned." So
he did. He put his old rags on, his old
clothes on. He looked just like an old prisoner.
He had about two or three days' growth on his face. And they
put him, they came one day, the guards, he made the guards throw
him in the prison like he was a prisoner. And he sat there
for a little while. Finally, he began to talk to
one of the men beside him. A man sitting there beside him.
He said, sir, he said, why are you in here? Pray tell me, why
are you in here? The fellow said, oh, I was framed. I didn't do it. I was with some
guys there, and they didn't want to do it. They robbed a man and
beat him over the head and took everything he had, and I was
the only one that got caught. Well, I was healthy. I was just
along for the ride. I didn't want to do it. I told
them I wasn't supposed to do this. I'm innocent. Oh, I'm innocent. I wish somebody... The king in
disguise said, oh... He walked around a little bit
and saw another fellow sitting there, and he came up to him
and he said, Why are you in here, bud?" He said, oh, he said, I
grew up in a poor family, and we didn't have much to eat, and
one day I was so hungry that we had to have something to eat,
and I stole it. But, you know, there can't be
anything wrong with stealing, can there? Really, I didn't deserve
to be in here. Didn't deserve it. The king said,
oh, I see. He walked up. He saw another
fellow. There was a bunch of people. There was one fellow
sitting over in the corner weeping. Had his head in his hands like
this. Sobbing and weeping. And he walked up to that fellow
and he said, Sir, excuse me. He said, excuse me. What's wrong? Why are you weeping? The man
said, because I'm sentenced to die tomorrow. I killed a man
and I'm guilty. He caught me red-handed, and
I killed him. I'm sentenced to die, and I'm
getting what I deserve. I'm so sorry, though, but I'm
getting exactly what I deserve. King said, No, you're not. You're going free. He said, Come
on out of here. You're too bad to be in here
with these good folks. And the king ushered him right
out the door, set him free. Because why? He was guilty. He was guilty. This man receiveth
and pardoneth sinners. Sinners. And it seems so simple,
doesn't it? It seems so simple, doesn't it?
But all we need to do is acknowledge it, and come to it, and say,
Lord, I'm guilty. Help me. Please help me. Forgive me, Lord. Would you please
forgive me for Christ's sake? Make the blood of Christ propitiation
or covering for my guilty soul, Lord, please." And he's promised. Now, if you're all right, if
you're a goody, a nice girl, you've cleaned up your life,
or a man, and everything's all right, and you feel pretty good
about yourself, forget it. Forget it. Forget it. Let's sing number 199 and close
in. 199. Christ received a sinful man. Stand with me and we'll sing
a couple of verses of this. Sinners Jesus will receive Sound
this word of grace to all Who the heavenly pathway lead All
who linger, all who fall Sing it o'er and o'er again. Christ, receive a sinful man. Make the message clear and plain. Christ, receive a sinful man. Verse 3 is the last. Now my heart
condemns me not, pure before the law I stand. He who cleansed me from all spot,
satisfied its last demand. Saying it over and over again,
Christ received a sinful man. Make the mess, it's clear and
plain. Christ receive us and forgive
us.