Good evening. Can we stand and
turn to hymn number 258? Hymn number 258. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord. A wonderful Savior to me He hideth
my soul in the cleft of the rock where rivers of pleasure I see. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life
in the depths of His love, and covers me there with His hand. And covers me there with His
hand. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord, He taketh my burden away. He holdeth me up and I shall
not be moved. He giveth me strength as my day. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. in the depths of His love, and
covers me there with His hand, and covers me there with His
hand. With numberless blessings each
moment He crowns, And filled with His fullness divine. I sing in my rapture, O Lord,
to God for such a redeemer as mine. He hideth my soul. The cleft of the rock that shadows
a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of his love. And covers me there with His
hand. And covers me there with His
hand. When cloaked in His brightness
transported I rise to meet Him in clouds of the sky. His perfect salvation, His wonderful
love, I'll shout with the millions on high. Hideth my soul in the
cleft of the rock, that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of His love. And covers me there with his
hand. And covers me there with his
hand. Thank you. Can we turn to hymn
number 314? him number 314. I am thine, O Lord, I have heard
thy voice, and it told thy love to me. But I long to rise in
the arms of faith, and be closer drawn to thee. Draw me nearer, Nearer, blessed
Lord, to the cross where Thou hast died. Draw me nearer, nearer,
nearer, blessed Lord, to Thy precious bleeding side. Consecrate me now to thy service,
Lord, by the power of grace divine. Let my soul look up with a steadfast
hope, and my will be lost in thine. Draw me nearer, Nearer, blessed Lord, to the
cross where Thou hast died. Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer,
blessed Lord, to Thy precious bleeding side. Oh, the pure delight of a single
hour that before Thy throne I spent. When I kneel in prayer and with
Thee, my God, I commune as friend with friend. Draw me nearer,
nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to the cross where Thou hast
died. Draw me nearer, nearer, Nearer,
blessed Lord, to Thy precious bleeding side. There are depths of love that
I cannot know Till I cross the narrow sea. There are heights
of joy that I may not reach till I rest in peace with Thee. Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer,
blessed Lord, to the cross where Thou hast died. Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer,
blessed Lord, to thy precious bleeding side. Good evening. If you will open
your Bibles to the book of Psalms. I want to read Psalm 139. Psalm
139. Psalm 139. O Lord, thou hast searched me
and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting
and mine uprising. Thou understandest my thought
afar off. Thou compassest my path and my
lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is
not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and
before, and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful
for me. It is high. I cannot attain unto
it. Whither shall I go from thy spirit,
or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up
in heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold,
thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning,
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall
thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say,
surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light
about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not
from thee, but the night shineth as the day. The darkness and
the light are both alike to thee. For thou hast possessed my reins. Thou hast covered me in my mother's
womb. I will praise thee, for I am
fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works, and
that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from
thee when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the
lower parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance. yet being unperfect, and in thy
book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned,
when as yet there was none of them. How precious also are thy
thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them!
If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I wake, I am still with
thee. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God, apart from me,
therefore, ye bloody men. For they speak against thee wickedly,
and thine enemies take thy name in vain. Do not I hate them,
O Lord, that hate thee? And am not I grieved with those
that rise up against thee? I hate them with a perfect hatred.
I count them mine enemies. Search me, O God, and know my
heart. Try me and know my thoughts,
and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the
way everlasting. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we come
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We come seeking to worship,
seeking to praise your holy name, seeking to bless you, seeking
to learn more about you. seeking to be drawn closer to
you. Pray that you'd increase our
faith. Bless this body of believers, dear Lord, if it be thy will.
Cause them to hear from you this night. And pray for the ones
that's traveling, pray that you'd bring them back safe. And we
pray for the ones that's sick, dear Lord, you know who they
are. Pray that you'd be with them, comfort them, give them
grace. We pray, Lord, I pray for my
children, my wife, my children, I pray for my grandchildren.
Pray that you'd cause them to have a need, cause them to come
hear the gospel. Forgive us, Lord, of our sins.
Pray that everything said and done here this night be for your
glory. Pray for Brother Cody that you'd
cause him to tell us again this evening about Christ. Open our
hearts to him. Leave us not to ourselves. In
Christ's name I pray, amen. We turn to hymn number six in
our hymnal. Come Thou Almighty King, help
us Thy name to sing, help us to praise. Father all-glorious,
O'er all victorious, come and reign over us, ancient of days. Come thou incarnate Word, gird
on thy mighty sword, our prayer attend. Come and Thy people bless
and give Thy word success, Spirit of holiness on us descend. Come, Holy Comforter, Thy sacred
witness bear in this glad hour. Thou who almighty art, now rule
in every heart, and ne'er from us depart, Spirit of power, to
the Great One in Three. Eternal praises be, hence evermore. His sovereign majesty may we
in glory see, and to eternity love and adore. I'd like to thank Brother Cody
Henson for being here again this evening. We appreciate him for
coming, and I know everybody knows him. Cody, if you'd come
on. Good evening. I invite your attention
tonight to Mark, Chapter 2. Mark chapter 2. Look with me at verse 1. And again, he entered into Capernaum
after some days, and it was noise that he was in the house. And
straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there
was no room to receive them, not so much as about the door. And he preached the word unto
them." What a blessing. I love thinking about this. I
don't know how big the house was, but clearly it wasn't big
enough. And I look around, it would be
nice to have that problem here in our midst, wouldn't it? But
nonetheless, we know we're just two or threes gathered together
in our Lord's name. He said, I'm right there in your
midst. And what a blessing that is. And my prayer for us tonight
is the end of that verse. Verse two, it said, he preached
the word unto them. May God be pleased to preach
the word unto us tonight. I know I'm standing here, but
I need him to preach to me while I try to preach to you. Verse
3 says, And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy,
which was born of four. There's this man sick of the
palsy, and he had four men carrying him here. Now this man represents
you and me. This man represents all of us
fallen in Adam. We're sick. Not just sick. The palsy was a disease that
meant he was completely paralyzed. It means he could do nothing.
That's what spiritual deadness is. We're completely paralyzed. We can't do anything. And this is to show us our utter
inability, all right? And verse four says, and when
they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered
the roof where he was. And when they had broken it up,
they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay. Again. I love reading this. I'm trying to picture it. I can't fathom anybody actually
doing that. But when I get to thinking about the urgency we
face with our eternal souls standing before holy God, I can't help
but wonder, would we be willing to tear the roof off to get our
loved one to our Lord? Would you? If the Lord's done something
for us, I believe we'd rip the roof off in a heartbeat if it
meant the Lord might save our children. Our sickness and our
inability is crucial. It's most urgent. We have got
to get to the Lord Jesus Christ. We have got to get to him. I
need to be laid at his feet. And I must acknowledge what loving
friends this man had. You know, how easy would it be? One, the fact that they carried
him. He's on a bed or a couch, and
it takes some strength to do this. They carried him. They
get to the front door of the house, see all the people, realize
they can't get in. Did they just lay him outside
or turn back around and go home? No. We are getting you to the
Lord. We have got to get you to Him.
I love that. Wouldn't you turn around? In
our flesh, would we not just turn around and go home? How
hard do you think it must have been for them to even get on
the roof in the first place? And yet they get up there, and they're
determined. They start tearing that roof off, and they drop
Him down to our Lord's feet. And that blesses my heart just
to think about. And how they must have loved
Him. You talk about good friends. Oh my soul, what good friends
they were. Look at verse 5. Now to this point, we've read
nothing about that man being sick of the palsy having any
interest in having his sins forgiven or even having a need of his
sins being forgiven. We just read he was sick of the
palsy. And yet, when he wound up at our Lord's feet, that's
what our Lord said. He said, your sins be forgiven
you. You see, brethren, whatever infirmities
we have, there's just one need that we truly have, and that's
for our sins to be forgiven us. That's the one need we have. We have a sin problem. That's
our problem. Verse six, but there were certain of the scribes sitting
there and reasoning in their hearts, and here's what they
reasoned. Why doth this man thus speak
blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God
only? Now they were right in the sense
that who can forgive sins but God only, but they were sure
wrong when they accused our Lord of speaking blasphemies because
that was no mere man forgiving sins. That was God himself. That was the Son of God come
down and praise His name. He's both able and willing to
forgive sins. Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad? Verse 8, And immediately when
Jesus perceived in His Spirit that they so reasoned within
themselves, He said unto them, Why reason ye these things in
your hearts? And I always love acknowledging
this. It said they were just reasoning non-verbally. And he answered them. Again,
shows you who it was, doesn't it? God hears the thoughts, he
knows our hearts. Why reason ye these things in
your hearts? Verse nine, whether is it easier
to say to the sick of the palsy, thy sins be forgiven thee, or
to say, arise and take up thy bed and walk? Which one's easier? Well, clearly, anybody can say
anything, right? but not anybody can make a paralyzed
man take up his bed and walk. Our Lord certainly did not have
to, but to prove his power to forgive sins on earth, our Lord
is gonna make this paralyzed man do the impossible. Verse
10, but that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on
earth to forgive sins. He saith to the sick of the palsy,
I say unto thee, arise and take up thy bed, and go thy way into
thine house. And immediately he arose, took
up the bed, and went forth before them all, insomuch that they
were all amazed and glorified God, saying, we never saw it
on this fashion. Our Lord commanded the impossible,
and it came to pass. Again, this was no mere man. This is the God man. This is
God incarnate, God himself, God come down. With him, all things
are possible. All things. Does that amaze you? I love how, was it verse 12?
I love how verse 12 ended. They were all amazed and they
glorified God. We never saw it on this fashion.
We've never seen anything like this. If we have ever heard his
voice, brethren, we know we've never experienced anything like
this. Perhaps you've heard a lot of religion. Perhaps you've heard a lot of
men get up and stand and open the Bible and talk about God,
talk about Jesus Christ, heaven. Until one day you heard a man
sin of God, preached Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and you too
were amazed, glorified God, and thought, I've never heard anything
like this before. Astonished at His Word and how
He speaks it in power to the hearts of His people, speaks
life, speaks faith. I don't know about you, but when
I read this, I just want to glorify God. I just want to shout His
praises. I just want to get to His feet.
That's what I want to do. I want to find myself at His
beautiful feet. Verse 13 right here says, And He went forth
again by the seaside, and all the multitude resorted unto Him,
and He taught them. I love that too. How often our
Lord would go somewhere, He would preach to people, He would save
somebody, and He usually did both, and then He'd leave one
place, go to another place, and droves of people just followed
Him. They just couldn't help it. They just followed Him. Clung to Him. I like to think
that that might have been us, by His grace, that we just, why
would we ever want to leave Him? Why would we ever want to leave
our first love? And I confess this, if we're
honestly amazed by our Lord and truly, sincerely desire to glorify
God in Him, we too will follow Him and desire to hear Him continually
again. People have such an awful misconception
of what heaven is. Well, they're not suffering anymore. First of all, that's a great
misconception according to God's word for many. But not only that,
heaven's not a continuation of life on earth. We don't continue
there sinning like we do here. There's no sin there. It's getting
dark outside. There's no darkness there. And
there's no need of the S-U-N there because the S-O-N is there,
the Lamb, He's the light thereof. And we simply are gathered around
His throne, seated at His feet, worshiping Him. Now, by God's
grace, we have that here. And if we have that and we rejoice
to have that, I can't tell you how blessed we are. Our Lord
told His disciples, blessed are your ears for they hear, blessed
are your eyes for they see. Oh, how blessed. are God's people. These people followed our Lord
and he graciously taught them. Verse 14, and as he passed by,
he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the receipt of custom
and said unto him, follow me. The Lord came to Levi, that's
Matthew. Our Lord came to him. Now, as
a result of our Lord coming to him, he is going to come to the Lord.
Our Lord came to him, and then he's about to come to the Lord.
He's about to follow the Lord. Now, I just wanted to say this
again because it needs to be said. We don't take the first
step. You know this. But perhaps somebody
somewhere doesn't know this. We don't take the first step
when it comes to being saved. God doesn't react to us making
a decision or doing something or stopping doing something by
which he in turn saves us. No, he came to Levi. Levi was
sitting there collecting taxes and the Lord came to him to collect
Levi to himself. Okay, this is fundamental gospel. The first step is God's, the
second step, the last step, every step in between, it's all his.
His work from start to finish. My hope is not in that I came
to Christ. I'm sure I've told you this before,
but it absolutely crushes me and breaks my heart when I'll
get online and I'll see that one of my cousin's children or
one of my cousins has made their decision, they've gotten religious,
they started going to church and doing the whole deal. Doing something for God. Listen,
my hope is not in that I came to Christ, but in that Christ
came to me. I listened to this song on my
way here tonight. He included me from eternity. No room to boast have I. The
law said die, but God in wonder's grace came and took my place.
Thank God he included me. Thank God he included me. He
said unto him, follow me. That's a gracious command. It's
not an open-ended invitation, no. Our Lord calls us. He effectually means powerfully
and successfully calls us and draws us in His time and according
to His will, according to His good pleasure. He chooses us
and causes us to approach unto Him, makes us willing to come
to Him, follow Him. And as a result of his call,
we follow him. Look right here, the end of verse
14, he said unto him, follow me, and he arose and followed
him. Luke tells us in his account
that Levi, Matthew, he left all. He left all and followed him.
Kind of like Peter, Andrew, James, and John, they left everything
immediately and they followed him. How will a man or a woman
leave all and follow the Lord? Am I asking you to just sell
everything and go home? Well, no, don't go home. You
can sell everything. You have no home. No. We leave all and
follow the Lord when he reveals to us that he is all and that
we have nothing but him. When Paul said, I count everything
done, I threw it all out that I might have him. That's what
we're talking about. We leave all and follow Him. Nothing else matters anymore
because we have Him. Now, I wrote this. I want to
say this. There are a lot of things we
could lose that I hope we don't lose, but that we could afford
to lose as long as we don't lose Christ. I'm going to name you
a few. First, and one I would pray,
God forbid, I don't lose more than anything else temporary
in this life, would be my family. God forbid we lose our family.
I love my family. God's given me a precious family.
So thankful for them. But I could lose my family and
be OK because I have Christ. Job did. I could lose my health. I care a great deal about health.
I try to be healthy. I want to take care of the body
the Lord has given me. I could lose my health. Just
heard about a brother who's losing his health. Declining quickly. I could lose my health and be
okay. Job did. And many others have. But they
have Christ and they're fine. They're well. I could lose my
wealth, what little bit of wealth I have, I could lose it. Pretty easy to lose it, isn't
it? Again, Job did, and many others have, and that's all right,
because if we have Christ, we have all. I know I've mentioned
him twice today, but I love thinking about Peter and Andrew and James
and John and how when they left everything and they followed
the Lord, I truly don't know where they slept at night. I
really don't know. I know our Lord had no place
to lay his head, tells us that. But they did not go home. They followed the Lord. Zebedee
went home. They didn't go home. They followed
the Lord. They had all. Do you understand?
I pray I understand. I pray we understand that we
have everything if we have Christ. I want to show you this. Turn
to Galatians chapter 1. Galatians 1. The best thing that could ever
happen to us is for God to call us to follow Him and enable us
to do just that. It's the best thing that ever
happened to Saul of Tarsus. Look here, Galatians 1 verse 15. He
just got done telling us about how he was so steeped in false
religion Thought he was saved. He was working the works of God.
He was as sure of heaven as if he's already there. But look
at verse 15, Galatians 1. Paul didn't have a decision to make. That day on the Damascus road
when he was going to arrest God's people, that was Paul's decision. All right? That's just like this
morning. What was our decision? Crucify
him, crucify him. Our Lord spoke, and he said,
Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? All right? He was no different
than the rest of us, persecuting the Lord himself. No desire for
him. Religious as could be, but no desire for the true and living
God. The decision to be saved wasn't his. The decision belonged
to God. Here's what the Lord said to
Ananias. That's who the Lord sent to go
preach the gospel to Paul, all right? Here's what he told him.
He said concerning Saul of Tarsus, the apostle Paul, he is a chosen
vessel unto me. Who made that decision? It wasn't
Paul. It wasn't me. Brethren, it wasn't
you. It's Christ. God makes the decision. It's
his decision. Back in our text, verse 15. Mark 2, 15. And it came to pass that as Jesus
sat at meat in Levi's house, many publicans and sinners sat
also together with Jesus and his disciples, for there were
many, and they followed him. Luke tells us that Levi made
a great feast for our Lord and his disciples, and we're told
right here that many publicans and sinners came to this feast. Now, some of them very well may
have been Levi's friends. He was a publican. He was a sinner,
okay? But I love this. We read it time
and time again throughout the scriptures. Publicans and sinners
were comfortable in our Lord's presence. They were very uncomfortable
in the Pharisees and scribes' presence. And likewise, the Pharisees
and scribes were very uncomfortable in their presence. But sadly,
the Pharisees and scribes were uncomfortable in our Lord's presence. I desire to be in His presence.
I do. I really do. And God forbid I
look down my nose at anybody else who might also be in His
presence. Who am I? Who are we to look down upon
another? Verse 16, and when the scribes
and Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they said
unto his disciples, how is it that he eateth and drinketh with
publicans and sinners? They did not like the fact that
our Lord ate with and received publicans and sinners. Are you
okay with the fact that he does? Is that all right with you? They
thought they were much better than our Lord's company, whom
he chose to keep. Wanting to think we ever know
better than our Lord proves just how ignorant and foolish we are.
Oh, I'm so thankful our Lord receives sinners. Sing it over
and over again. Christ receiveth sinful men. Praise the Lord. The Lord Jesus
Christ, the scribes and Pharisees, they accused him. of being the
friend of publicans and sinners. Isn't that terrible? He's the
friend of publicans and sinners. No, that's my hope. That he would
be willing to be my friend. Me, who I know from my mother's
womb, I've been his enemy. As we saw this morning, I nailed
him to the cross and was proud to do it in my shame, in my sin. And yet, He chose to be my friend. He is the friend that sticketh
closer than a brother. He truly is. While the Pharisees
were ashamed to be in the same room as these publicans and sinners,
our Lord was not ashamed to call those publicans and sinners not
only his friends. I got one better for you. his
brethren. It wasn't a shame to call him
his brother. Can you imagine, can you imagine God, God whom we've
sinned against, not being ashamed to call you his brother or sister? Oh my, what a thought. Verse 17, when Jesus heard it,
He saith unto them, they that are whole have no need of the
physician, but they that are sick. Our Lord gives a simple
illustration here of the whole and the sick. And you know what
the key word in that, what we just read was? Four letter word,
need, need. I'm telling you, any time we
come into this place, if we walk out these doors, with no need. We weren't any the better for
coming in than we went out. Oh, but if we go home tonight
with a need, you know what that means? That means not only do
we have a need, that need has been met. God has supplied all
our need, singular, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you need
a physician? Are you a sinner? Do you need
a Savior? Do we need God to do something
for us? Seriously, do we need Him to
do something for us? You see, the Gospel is for those
who need it. The Gospel means good news. If you don't need
good news, then the Gospel ain't for you. But if you need it,
here it is. Turn to Luke chapter 18. Luke
chapter 18. Very familiar account. I want
to read a few verses here. Luke 18. Luke 18, verse 9. Now again,
in all these scriptures, we will see someone who's not saved,
and we'll see someone who, by God's grace, is saved. And it's
a good time, every time we read the scriptures, to consider ourselves
and think, which one am I? Which one am I? All right, Luke
18 verse 9. And our Lord spake 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'm 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. Well, one was just proud and
one was humble, but they were both surely saved. I mean, he
fasted, he gave tithes of all that he owned. Hey, they're in
the temple, surely they must both be saved. You know, we're
all just folks on the same wheel, doesn't really matter what you
believe, doesn't matter if you're a little more arrogant than me, that's fine.
We're all God's children. I'm telling you, the world thinks
that. I hear stuff like this all the
time, but what does verse 14 say? I tell you, this isn't Cody
telling you, this is God telling us, alright? I tell you, this
man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone
that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth
himself shall be exalted. All we can say to that is amen.
And I pray that for both of us and for my family and yours,
that we might be able to relate to that publican here who cried,
God be merciful to me, a sinner. I'm unworthy of you. But would
you please condescend and save me according to your mercy? Do we have a need? Are we sick? Do we need a physician? The sick
do. Oh, the sick do. Only the sick
do. Only the needy are gonna come to Christ for rest, and
they're gonna find it. They're gonna find it. Our Lord
said, him that cometh to me, I'll in no wise cast out. He said,
come unto me, all you that labor in a heavy laden, I'll give you
rest. God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Based on this account,
I can confidently tell you that is a cry that God will hear. This man went home justified,
rather than the other. The other didn't, this one did.
God be merciful to me, a sinner." Now, we won't go back to our
text, but turn to Matthew chapter 9. Matthew tells us one more
little detail here that Mark did not tell us, and
I want to consider this in closing. Matthew chapter 9. And it's never a little detail,
it's always something we can glean from. I pray we'll glean
something from this. Matthew 9, verse 12. But when Jesus heard that, he
said unto them, they that behold need not a physician, but they
that are sick, but go ye and learn what that meaneth. These
Pharisees were well-versed, highly educated religious leaders, but
there was something that they had not learned. the only thing
they needed to learn, and that's Christ. But ye have not so learned
Christ, the one thing needful. They had a lot. but they didn't
have Christ. Therefore, all their knowledge
was vain. It was useless. It profited them
nothing. Absolutely nothing. It does not
matter what we know if we don't know Him. All knowledge will
do is puff us up, but we need to be broken. We need to be laid
low just like that publican in the temple. That's what we need. This is life eternal that we
might know Him. the only true God, Jesus Christ,
who was sent. Verse 13 again here, but go ye
and learn what that meaneth. I will have mercy and not sacrifice. How do these words sound to you?
I will have mercy. You know, that would sound pretty
good to me if I was standing before a judge and I knew I was
guilty of committing a terrible crime. How much more hearing
that from God who, according to His justice, would be perfect
and right to send me to hell forever? To hear Him say, I will
have mercy. I was going to turn, but for
time's sake I won't. In Romans chapter 9, We read
that the Lord said, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. We're told it's not of him that
willeth nor of him that runneth. It's not up to us making our
decision and running around, working the works of God, trying
to please God. It's of him that showeth mercy.
Salvation is of God that showeth mercy. That's it. God will not
have our sacrifices. There's one sacrifice for sin,
and that sacrifice is Christ. That sacrifice has already been
made. The price has been paid. And through that sacrifice, God
has been pleased to show mercy. Through the sacrifice. Apart
from the sacrifice, no mercy. If it's the sacrifice plus my
sacrifice, no mercy. It's either mercy or it's not.
It's either grace or it's works. It's one or the other. Oh, it's
all His mercy, brethren. But God. We were dead in sin,
but God who is rich in mercy. Is that your hope? I'm getting
excited to drive home tonight just thinking about God's mercy. Verse 13 again, 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. Christ came to save sinners. That's the faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation, isn't it? Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners, of whom I'm chief. Not those who've saved
themselves. Not those who are just ready
to walk straight into heaven because of all the good they've
done. No, no. No, those who could not be any
less worthy to walk through heaven's gates. Everyone that walks through
heaven's gates knows they were unworthy of the least of his
mercies. Again, after God saved Paul,
he told us he was less than the least of all sins. He said he
was nothing unworthy of God's goodness to him. But our Lord
has made himself to be the very righteousness of sinners. He
came to call sinners, not to self-righteous. He came to call
sinners to Himself, to repentance. And again, looking at Christ
at the cross, we see that. The substitution, how He took
our sin upon Himself, was made sin to make us righteous, to
make us Him. He became us. What did we become? Him. one with Him, in Him. When God looks upon us, what
does He see? He sees Christ Himself. That,
I'm telling you, that is what I need. I'm so glad the scriptures
have verses like this, I shall be satisfied when I awake with
His likeness. God has conformed me to His image. When I see Him as He is, I'm
gonna be just like Him. Do those verses not Just warm
your soul to know that we're truly one with Him and all that
that means, all the glory that comes with that. All God's people
are sinners, yes, but we're sinners saved by the blood and righteousness
of our Lord and Savior. Salvation's for sinners and salvation's
only for sinners. The reason the Pharisees could
never rejoice in His presence and always had to try to find
some fault with Him is because they never needed Him. What a
sad place to be to have no need of God, no need of Christ, no
need of Him to do for us what we could never do for ourselves.
No need of Him. They never saw themselves to
be sinners. I pray God would show us. It's no fun looking
within and seeing what we are. Oh, but it's joyful looking at
Him and beholding Him in all His glory, in all His goodness.
Sinners need the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you a sinner? Do you need
a physician? If so I know this Our Lord said
this this sickness the sickness of sin is not unto death But
for the glory of God that the Son of God might be glorified
thereby if we're truly sick brothers and sisters if we're honestly
helpless sinners at the mercy of our Savior If we find ourselves
calling out to our great physician to save us, here's what that
means. It means he already has. It means God has been merciful
to us sinners. I pray we can go home rejoicing
in that, rejoicing in our Lord and his goodness, his mercy to
sinners like us. All right, let's have a word
of prayer. Oh God, our Savior, we thank you so much for delighting
to show mercy to all who need it. How amazing that you've recorded
passages like this for us to read about how you so willingly,
so readily, and so ably save sinners. Lord, you heal that
man with the palsy. You save so many that heard you
speak as you walk this earth. Lord, would you enable us to
hear your voice? It's such a blessing to hear your voice. If we hear
you, Lord, we know it's you. The voice of a hireling we won't
hear, we're gonna hear our shepherd and follow him. Enable us to
hear you and follow you. Enable us to cry out for mercy
like that publican in the temple. Enable us to leave all and follow
you like Levi and all your disciples before. enable us to truly rejoice
in our Lord. Bless us, forgive us of our sins,
save us for Christ's sake, and keep us. Be with the sick, be
with all those in this congregation, Lord, keep them, keep your hand
on them, bring Brother Donnie and Shirley safely home. Bless
us and keep us, for Christ's sake, in his name we pray, amen. Can we turn to hymn number 199?
199. Sinners Jesus will receive Sound
this word of grace to all Who the heavenly pathway leave All
who linger, all who fall Sing it o'er and o'er again, Christ
receiveth sinful men. Make the message clear and plain,
Christ receiveth sinful men. Come and he will give you rest. Trust him for his word is plain. He will take the sinful list. Christ receiveth sinful men. Verse three. Now my heart condemns
me not. Pure before the law I stand,
He who cleansed me from all spot, Satisfied its last demand. And four, Christ receiveth sinful
men, Even me with all my sin. Purged from every spot and stain,
Him, with Him I enter in, Sing it o'er and o'er again. Christ receive us sinful men. Make the message clear and plain. Christ receive us sinful men. Thank you. Thank you for being on your own.