Well, as I said, my subject is
the friend of sinners. Ever since creation, and of course
in Genesis chapter one, we have a record of the creative glories
and wonders of our God. Ever since creation and ever
since God made man, man was distinguished above all
other creatures. Because only of people can it
be said we have reasoning abilities. We have the ability to think
things out, to draw conclusions, to hear of a subject and then
dwell on it. And Adam, in his unfallen state,
he had that reasoning ability to know about the things of God,
to know that which God demanded, to know that which God ordained.
But then something awful happened and Adam sinned. And Adam, as
we know, was our federal head. He was our representative. And
ever since Adam fell and we became sinners, we still have reasoning
abilities. But our reasoning abilities and
our thought processes are limited to natural things and what we
would call carnal things. And we have no spiritual ability
to reason and think about and meditate upon and consider in
depth spiritual things. the things of God. We lost that
reasoning ability in Adam's fall. That which we readily understand
and grasp are things agreeable to nature. Things that are agreeable
to our carnal senses. And the only way we will ever
submit to spiritual things, the only way we will ever submit
and believe and embrace the things of God, is for God Himself, through His
Word and by His Spirit, to quicken us, to make us living creatures
in Christ Jesus, and then, once again, We will have the ability
to reason and think and meditate and ponder and greatly consider
spiritual things. In our fallen Adam, we lost that
ability. I want you to understand that.
We lost all power to grasp, to lay hold of things that God demands. and spiritual things that we've
got to have. We lost that. We lost it in the
fall. You see, our message is really
quite simple. There is salvation, there is
deliverance, there is righteousness, there is forgiveness, there is
everlasting life in one Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and His
work of redemption by himself. I had a couple of ladies stop
by my house yesterday and they wanted to talk to me about a
memorial service and she held up a piece of paper and she said,
you know who this is? I said, is that Wild Bill Hickok? She said, no, that's our Savior. I said, well, you know, the Bible
says don't make a likeness of anything in heaven. She said,
it does? I said, yes, ma'am, in Exodus
chapter 20. Then I began to talk to them
about the Lord Jesus, about salvation in Him. and that the Lord has
to give us understanding of who Christ is. He's the Son of God. And He's the one who came down
here and robed His deity in our flesh in order that He would
suffer and bleed and die and satisfy the demands of God. The demands of God is death for
sin. So Christ died for sinners. And
she said, well, I guess that means that everybody's going
to be okay. I said, well, everybody he died
for. And everything I said to those
dear ladies, they were nice. I don't get upset with people.
They just hadn't been instructed by the spirit of grace. Don't
get mad at people. But it was all going right over
their heads, and I said, I pray that God give you understanding
of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what's got to happen to
anybody who's ever going to believe the truth of the gospel. How
can a holy and just God accept people like us when God is thrice
holy? Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
God Almighty. That's what it says in Isaiah.
That's what the seraphims were singing to each other. Holy,
holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. Well, you know and I know we're
anything but holy. We're sinners. Well, then that
begs the question, how can us sinners be right with God when
God is holy and we're sinful? We're the opposite from God. Everything God is, we aren't.
And everything we are, God isn't. So how can people like us, people
like myself, how can this sinner be welcomed into the presence
of God, to stand before Him accepted and holy, washed of my sins. How can that ever happen? And
the answer, and this is what I told those ladies is through
the Lord Jesus and His once for all sacrifice upon the cross
of Calvary. And bless their hearts, they
didn't understand anything I was talking about. And I said, I'll pray for you
ladies. I said, stop by anytime. Stop by anytime. And it's interesting,
I guess this is the time for these things to happen. Friday,
I had two men stop by the house. I had little name tags on. And
I asked them, why did Christ come? And they said, to give
all of us life. I said, well, did He give all
of us life? They said, well, yeah. I said,
well, He didn't give life to Judas. And one of them said, no, I guess
He didn't. And I said, the fact of the matter
is, our Lord Jesus, He gives us eternal life. He gives us
everlasting life. But He gives us, first of all,
in our experience, spiritual life. That is what's needed. That's what's required. The reason
that people readily grasp natural things, natural reasoning, they
have natural understanding, The reason that they have natural
understanding but they don't understand the things of God
is because people are dead in trespasses and sins. And that
which is needed is a miracle. Don't hear much talk about the
need of a miracle today. You say, is God still in the
miracle working business? You better pray he is. Otherwise,
you'll never believe. See, I'm a living, breathing,
preaching example of somebody that God came to me in creative
spiritual power. And He gave me new life to grasp
the way that God can be just and justify the ungodly. See the people of our Lord's
day, the ones who crucified him. I know the Romans carried it
out. But the people who despised him
the most were the Pharisees. They were the religious leaders
of all of Judaism. The Lord, in the Old Testament,
he published the gospel. of the crucified, buried, risen
Savior. He published it through shadows,
pictures, and types, right? The sacrifices of the animals,
they all pictured the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then
the Lord gave them more information through the words of the prophets. And they all said, somebody is
coming. He's the seed of the woman, Genesis
3.15. He's the only Savior of sinners. He's coming. And in the book
of Isaiah, Isaiah talks about the forerunner of Christ, that
is, John the Baptist. He spoke of Him who would announce
the coming of the King. Hundreds of years went by. The
prophets kept preaching. And then Christ came. And when he came, the main body of people, with
the exception of those in whose hearts God and the Spirit worked,
everybody else turned thumbs down on Jesus of Nazareth. They said, we don't want him.
They thought that he had come to run the Romans out of Israel
and reinstitute the glory days of David. And then they found
out that his kingdom was not of this world. Thumbs down on him. What are
you gonna do with Jesus of Nazareth? They said, let's kill him. Let's
crucify him. And they did. Even the death of the Lord Jesus,
that was purpose before God ever made the world. Because the solution
to our dilemma, the cure for our disease is in that one who
was lifted up to die on a cross to satisfy the demands of God. That's the cure, that's the remedy.
But who will believe and embrace the remedy? Nobody by nature, because it's
too simple. See, here's what the natural
man, the natural woman, here's what, this is the way we reason. Remember, our reasoning abilities
about spiritual things, about God, that's all messed up due
to sin. Here's the way the natural person,
this is the way they reason. The more I do for God, the more
God's gonna do for me. And the more obedient I am, the
more grace He'll show me. Well, that sounds real good. And the reason that sounds real
good to the natural man is because it's altogether wrong. See, we
lost that ability to reason. You got that? You understand
that. And what God has to do is quicken
us by His Holy Spirit and with that give us spiritual reasoning
ability. And then we think about who Christ
is and what He did and why He did it to save poor sinners. Our Lord had been speaking about
John the Baptist. And he asked the people three
times, when you went out to sea and hear John the Baptist, what
do you think you'd see? Do you think you'd see a reed
swaying in the wind? A man who would bend over backwards
to make you happy with his words? Is that what you think? Oh, he's
not a reed blowing in the wind, he's an oak tree. He stood firm
for the things of God. Our Lord said of those born of
women, he says in verse 11, he said, there's not risen a greater
than John the Baptist. Notwithstanding, let me point
this out to you. He that is least in the kingdom
of heaven is greater than he. Let me see if I can give you
a little bit of understanding on that. Who was least in the
kingdom of heaven? Well, let me ask you this, who
left heaven's glory? who got off his throne in heaven
and descended down to the earth to become the least, to become
lower than the angels. He was made lower than the angels. Though he thought it not robbery
to be equal with God, he made himself, what does it say? Of
no reputation. He who was the greatest became
the least. Why did he become the least?
To save sinners. To save sinners. And then he gives to these people
an illustration of little children playing. And these little children
are imitating the adults. Because they had seen the adults
at weddings And they always played flutes or like pipes. And at
a wedding, very festive, very happy, playing the instruments,
dancing, singing, and having a grand old time. They said to
their playmates, they said, you know, we've played happy music,
but y'all are not happy. And then we played sad music
like they do at a funeral. You're not happy with that either.
No matter what kind of music we play, y'all are not happy.
And the illustration our Lord gave was of two different kinds
of preachers. The preaching of John the Baptist
was more like a funeral. He was a very strict, austere
man. He wasn't cruel. But he was tough. I told you last week that he preached out in the wilderness.
He dressed differently, he ate differently. He was a very peculiar
man. But he had the message. He wasn't one that said, hey,
I'm gonna come over and have cake and coffee after the service
this morning. I'd be glad to come over to your
house and visit with you anytime. He just wasn't that kind of guy.
He was very standoffish, but he had the right message. Our
Lord said, you didn't like him. Oh, he's too weird. He don't
go to our wedding feast. He doesn't go to this kind of
festival. He just, he doesn't do that.
Then the Lord Jesus said, and then I've come along. Because
John the Baptist was a forerunner of our Savior. Christ said, I
come along and I go to your banquets. I go to your wedding. Hey, his
first miracle, where'd that happen? It was a wedding feast. That was the very first one.
Changed the water to wine. Everybody's happy. Oh, we're
having a great time. But he said, you don't like me either. You
don't like John's preaching, he's too austere, he's too serious. You don't like me. I go to your
wedding feast and what'd you say? You said I'm a gluttonous
man and you said I'm a wine beaver. But he said, I'll tell you this,
wisdom is justified. Wisdom is justified of her children. That is, the children of God
will appreciate whoever God sends to them to tell them the truth. Tell you what, when I get hungry,
and I'll just tell you this right off the bat, I don't like, I
don't like them, what's in plastic plates you break? Styrofoam,
that's what I'm trying to think of. One of them long words I
can't remember. I don't like eating off styrofoam,
I'll just be honest with you. But when I get hungry, I don't
care whether I eat off styrofoam or if Nancy wants to pull out
some of her fine china, which she never does, because we're
saving that for Susanna. No, not the fine stuff. But when I get hungry, it don't
matter to me whether it's styrofoam, a paper plate, or fine china. It's the food I'm after. And
if you ever get hungry for the things of God. When God gives you a desire to
hear of Jesus Christ, him crucified, buried, risen, exalted on high. If God ever makes you hungry
to find out and learn how God can be just and holy and righteous
and save a poor sinner like myself, if you ever learn that, it won't
matter who the message comes through, won't matter who the
voice is, you'll be thankful. That's what our Lord's talking
about. Of John the Baptist, the people
said, well, he's got a devil. Of our Lord Jesus, they said,
he's a gluttonous man. He eats too much and he drinks
too much. But there's some people that
see the wisdom of God in the gospel message. And it doesn't
matter to them whether the voice is that of John the Baptist or
our Lord Jesus Christ or even this fella preaching to you right
now. The Savior came. He lived and he died for sinners.
So what was the problem with all of these people? Well, they readily submitted
themselves to natural things, see, to their human reasoning.
But the things of God, they wouldn't have them. And that's the way
it will be unless the Spirit of God is pleased to teach the
truth. But our Lord Jesus, he says in
the 19th verse, he said, He's speaking, referencing himself
when he said, they say behold a man gluttonous and a winebibber.
A friend of publicans and sinners. That's who he is. He's a friend
of sinners. Somebody said, Many a true word is spoken in
jest, and many a tribute to virtue
has been unwittingly paid by the cruel lips of malice. The enemies of our Lord tried
to brand him with dishonor and derision and to cause his name
to be put to everlasting shame when they called him a friend
of publicans and sinners. But their scandal just published
his reputation. Sinners are welcome in his presence. And to this day, Our Lord is
honored by the title, Friend of Sinners. And I'm glad, because
that gives me hope. What is a sinner? Well, a sinner
is one who has violated, transgressed God's law. That's what the Bible
says sin is, transgression of God's law. But he welcomes sinners. to come to him. Now, you may
be like this. I preached a funeral one time.
I preached many funerals, but one particular time, a lady came
up to me afterwards and she said, I'll have you know I'm not a
sinner. I said, well, I'll have you know
the Bible says you are. She said, what kind of Bible
you got? That's what she asked me. I said, well, it says Holy
Bible on the front. It's the word of God that says
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And I said, I hope that God will
teach you that you are a sinner because if you're not a sinner,
you don't qualify for mercy. See, who needs mercy? Not somebody
who isn't a sinner, but somebody who is a sinner. Does that make
sense? See, that natural reasoning,
that's what gets us in trouble. But the only one who can overcome
that is our Lord. He's a friend of sinners. Let
me give you several things. Evidence is that he's a friend
of sinners. Behold his friendship with the
sinners in his genealogy. We don't have time to look, but
in Matthew, the very first chapter, you read of our Lord's genealogy. Now in him is no sin. He did no sin. But if you look
at the roll call of his earthly lineage, Why, there are sinners in it.
His own mother was a sinner. Come on now. She was a sinful
woman. She said, My soul doth rejoice
in God my Savior. She was a sinner. And in the
genealogy of our Lord Jesus Christ, you have several women mentioned.
Three of them were harlots. Sinful women. Now he was not
contaminated with that sin, but Tamar and Rahab and Bathsheba,
those three women bring to mind shameful acts. But our Lord had
their names put down in the Word of God that endures forever.
These are the kinds of folks that He could look back on and
say, these are my great, great, great, great, great, great grandparents
and kinfolk. He wasn't ashamed to be associated
with sinners in His genealogy. And behold, His sermons His sermons. In the parable of
lost things, all of you remember that? It's found in Luke chapter
15. Well, he talked about, first
of all, sinners came to him and they said he's a friend of sinners.
In derision, they said that. Then he illustrated what he does
for sinners. A sinner is like a lost sheep. What did our Lord do? He went
out and found the lost sheep, put it on His shoulders. That's
what the Lord does. He finds lost sinners. And sinners
are like the lost coin. Lifeless, in the dark, in the
dust, no hope. The Spirit of God comes, turns
on the searchlight of the gospel of the grace of God, and that
finds us. It finds us in our sin, and the
Holy Spirit brings us out, gives us life, washes us in the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and robes us in His righteousness.
That's what He does for sinners. And then the prodigal son, one
who wasted his living. That's us wasting our life on
the treadmill of sinfulness, and we get nowhere. And then the Lord brought that
young man to his senses, and he runs home, prepared his little
speech of how sorry he was, and the father sees him afar off,
and the father runs out there and hugs him and kisses him.
See, this is what the Lord does for sinners. He makes you aware
that you're a sinner. He finds you in your lost condition. The Spirit of God has searched
and found you in the dust, cold and lifeless. He gives you life
and then the Spirit of God draws you to come to Christ, to come
to the Lord. And the Lord welcomes you and
He smothers you with kisses. That's what He does. No wonder
we read in the Song of Solomon, let Him smother me, let Him kiss
me with the kisses of His lips. Tell you what, a lost sinner
come home to the Lord. He smothers you with love. That's
what he does. Our Lord, he saved a man by the
name of Matthew. He was a publican, a tax collector. And then Matthew invited the
Savior to come to a meal. And Matthew had invited others
of his tax collecting group to come. And there they are, and
the Pharisees said to our Lord's disciples, do you have any idea
who he's sitting down with? Your master is eating and drinking
with sinners. The Savior basically said, yeah,
you need to learn some things too. I came to save the sinners. Oh, and his messages. That proves
he's a friend of sinners. And then he gave several illustrations
of people that he saved by his grace, people who were sinners. Zacchaeus. He was a fellow who was up a
tree because he was short and he couldn't see the Savior. He
was too short. So he climbed up in a sycamore
tree. The Lord Jesus came along near Jericho. And our Lord just stopped underneath
that tree and looked up, said, Zacchaeus, see, he knows his
own sheep by name. Zacchaeus, come down, for today
I must abide at thy house. And I tell you what, Zacchaeus
came down so fast that he peeled the bark off the sycamore tree. And you know what the people
said? Doesn't He know who this man
is? Doesn't Jesus know? Told the
Lord's disciples, He's gone home to eat with a man who's a sinner.
Yeah, that's what He does. He fellowships with sinners. You see, the self-righteous Pharisees,
they despised Him. But real sinners were welcomed
in His presence. A hymn writer, and I can't remember
his name right now, he said, a sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost hath made him
so. And if the Spirit of God shows
you this morning, and me too, that we're sinners, that's special. Because who needs mercy? Me. Who needs saving grace? Me. Who needs a work of God done
in the heart? Me. And you folks too. Behold his friendship in his
association with sinners. And I'll tell you this. He goes
and sets down on a well called Jacob's Well. And he sat there
and he waited. Along come a woman. That's the
one he was waiting for. And she was a Samaritan woman. He talked to her for a little
bit about living water. She didn't know what he was talking
about. See, she still had that natural reasoning. Follow me? Still got that natural reasoning.
Our Lord talked to her about the living water. She said, well, let me go home.
Yeah, you want to go home and talk to your husband? You got
five husbands. He said, I know who you are.
And the man you're living with now, you're living out of wedlock. And she went back to town. She
said, come see a man who told me all I've ever done. He knows
me inside and out. He knows I'm a poor, wretched
sinner. But you know what? He welcomed me into His presence. That's what I'm trying to tell
you this morning. Come to Christ. Sinners are welcome. Self-righteous, you need not
approach to them because you're going to come on the wrong basis.
Do not try to approach Him on the basis of merit. Approach Him on the basis of
mercy. You'll be received. But merit,
that'll get you turned away there. Because that's self-righteousness. And say, who did he die for?
In due time, Christ died for the ungodly. He died for sinners
so that sinners would be justified with God. His death upon the
cross shows that he's the savior of sinners. He's the friend of
sinners. You read about Him dying on the
middle cross. Who's on either side of Him?
Sinners. And one of them, the Spirit of
God woke Him up from His spiritual death and He said, Lord, Lord,
remember me when You come into Your kingdom. What happened to
that man? He got spiritual reasoning. See? God gave him spiritual understanding. Our Lord died for sinners, here
in his love, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us. He died for the ungodly. Our Lord, having died, was buried,
went back to heaven where he's seated on his throne. And He proves He's the friend
of sinners because He represents us right now in heaven. He's praying for us in heaven.
For us? Let me tell you something. Those
sinners who have been made spiritually alive by the Holy Ghost, He has
loved us with an everlasting love. We're His people. And we're
never off His mind. He always bears this upon His
heart. And He proves He is the friend
of sinners every day. You who know Him, you who believe
Him, you who are the sheep of His fold, has He ever forsaken
you? Doesn't He lead you and guide
you every day? Does not He watch over you every
moment of every day all through your lifetime? Doesn't He love you unconditionally? When you mess up, does He stop
loving you? No. When you sin against Him, does
He mark you off and say, well, my patience has expired on you? No. Having loved His own, He
loves Him to the end. and he will yet prove he's the
friend of sinners. When his people die, you know
what he does? He takes us home to be with him.
What do you think about that? He takes you right into his holy
presence and he's gonna hug you and kiss you and he's gonna say,
welcome home. Oh, what good news. Now, if you
haven't been given spiritual understanding, That's contrary
to your reasoning because you still think that the more you
do for God, the more God will do for you. That's wrong. That's
nothing but human pride. And that'll ruin you forever.
Lord, break our wills. Show us what we are and show
us who He is, what He did for sinners. All right, let's sing
a closing song Just one standard.