All right, brethren, right there in Luke 5, where we were, Luke chapter 5. I wanna pick up right here in verse 29, Luke 5, 29. Now we saw the Lord called Matthew, Levi. He rose up, he left all, he rose up and he followed him. And it says in verse 29, and Levi made him a great feast in his own house. And there was a great company of publicans and of others that sat down with him. He made a feast. Anywhere Christ is preached in truth, it is a great feast. And Levi didn't spare any expense. He made a great feast and invited a lot of people to this because when a sinner is called by the Lord, our Savior makes us see what a great price he paid to save us from our sin.

The salvation of a sinner is free to us. We're justified freely by his grace, but the only reason It was because God the Father gave his only begotten son. And our Lord Jesus Christ came from glory and took flesh and gave everything he could give. He laid down his life for his people. He poured out his blood and died that we might have eternal life freely given to us.

He paid For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, that you through his poverty might be made rich. This is why when David went to sacrifice to the Lord, and he came to Ornan, and Ornan said, I'll give you the I'll give you the cattle for the burnt offerings, and I'll give you the threshing floor, everything you need to build the altar, I'll give it all to you for free." And David said, no. He said, I'll buy it from you. He said, I will not offer to God that which cost me nothing.

That's the heart he creates in his people. Levi invited all these people to his house and prepared a great feast for them because he wanted them to know his Savior. He knew what price Christ would pay for him, and he spared no expense to get the gospel to his friends and loved ones.

In the first hour, we saw the Lord gave him faith. Right here in what Levi's doing, you see the Lord also gives us love in our heart, the love of God. You want to see his people saved. You want to see perishing sinners brought to know our Savior. That's why Levi had this big feast. He wanted all his friends to know him.

Scripture says that when the Lord gives you faith, you won't be ashamed of Christ. One, that means our Savior will never betray your trust for putting all your confidence in him. He'll never betray that trust. He'll never make you ashamed for trusting him. But that also means that when he saved you, you will no longer be ashamed of the Lord Jesus.

You want everybody to know him. You want everybody to know he's your only savior. And we confess him in Believer's Baptism publicly acknowledging that we are nothing but a sinner and Christ is all our salvation. When he died, all his people died in him.

When he was buried, we were buried. Our old man of sin was put away before God, before the law, and when he came out of that grave, we came out of that grave, a new creation, and sat down at God's right hand in Christ. That's what we're confessing. When we go in that watery grave and we come out of it, we're confessing. We were on that cross, we were crucified, we died, and we rose again in the Lord Jesus.

That's all my salvation. What do you contribute? Nothing. Not a thing. That's all my salvation. And I'm not ashamed to tell you that's it. When folks are saying they contribute something, they're still ashamed of it. When he brings you to be not ashamed, you say, I am such a vile wretch, I can't contribute a thing. He is all my salvation. And that's what he's doing right here.

You remember when he saved that Samaritan woman? She ran into town and she got her friends and she said, come see a man that told me everything I ever did. Is not this the Christ? When Philip went and found Nathaniel, he said, come see. We found him, come see. And that's what Levi's doing right here. He wants everybody to come see his savior. But there were some other folks there Watching. These were religious folks. And they were watching to find fault.

It says, verse 30, but their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners? Mark says, they said this of the Savior. They said, how is it that he eateth and drinketh with sinners? These were the scribes and pharisees. There's plenty of scribes and pharisees in our day. They're the heart of the scribe and pharisees, the same today as it was then. These are folks who thought they kept the law, they thought they made themselves righteous by their works, they thought they made themselves holy by their works, and they despised others.

When the Lord gave that parable of the publican and the pharisee, It starts this way, it says, they thought within themselves that they were righteous, and they despised others. That's always the heart of the Pharisee. And our Lord tells us what he thinks of that. In Isaiah 65, five, he said, they say, stand by thyself, come not near to me, for I'm holier than thou, and God said, These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day.

These folks that Levi called, he was a publican. So there was a bunch of publicans, a bunch of other liars and thieves that everybody knew was a liar and a thief. There was probably some harlots that was there. Matthew wasn't hanging out with the best folks. And this was probably a bunch of sinners that everybody knew was sinners. And those scribes and Pharisees stood back and looked at them and said, you wouldn't catch us sitting down at that table. You would not catch us with those people.

Thank God that's the only place you're gonna find the Lord Jesus Christ. Can you say that? He wouldn't have a thing to do with me otherwise. Now, verse 31, the Lord's gonna declare why. He's gonna declare why. He says, verse 31, Jesus answering said unto them, they that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. I titled this The Physician for the Sick, The Physician for the Sick. And in these statements that the Lord makes right here, The Lord Jesus declares why some will not come to Christ and why others do come to Christ. And he declares who he came to call and who he did not come to call. That's what we're gonna see here in these two statements.

Now first, sinners do not come to Christ for this reason. Here's why some do not come to Christ. They do not think they need Christ. They do not think they are a sinner. They do not think they need Christ. Verse 31, Jesus answering said unto them, they that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.

There are churches today using every marketing gimmick in the world to try to fill the pew. They're using every gimmick they can think of to get folks to come and sit down and hear their preaching and stay there. Do you know that hospitals, emergency rooms in particular, they don't ever even have to even advertise. And most time if you go to any of them, they're full. Why are churches using all these gimmicks and marketing everything God said don't market?

He said don't market your prayer. Don't pray to be seen of men. You don't want people attracted to the gospel because of that. Don't do your alms to be seen of men. Don't advertise your humanitarian efforts. That's not why we want centers coming. Don't market the fact that you have 15 different programs and all these things. You want centers coming because of Christ, that's all. Why do churches do all that and still can't keep people coming? And emergency rooms don't have to do that at all.

And they're full because sick people know they need a doctor. Sick people go to the physician because they have a need. And sinners come to where the Gospels preach because they know they're sinners and they know Christ is the physician. He's the Savior. And people that don't know that, people that don't know they're sinners, they don't need Christ. They do not need Christ. That was me and you before He called us. That was Levi before He called Levi. Folks who think they're whole do not need Christ.

What does it mean to think you're whole? Well, you've probably heard this. People think they'll say, I've heard preachers say, every man has a little spark in him left. You just gotta fan the spark into a flame and then you're born again and you can come to Christ.

This is what the Lord said, the scripture says, There is none that seeketh after God. They've all gone their own way. If you think there's a spark of goodness in you, Scripture says there's none good, no not one. If we think there's a spark of goodness and a little life we just need to exercise our will, you'll never come to Christ. You might come to a false Jesus, but you won't come to the true Lord Jesus. There's none good, not one. There's none that seeks Him.

Christ, every sinner that seeks Christ, it's because Christ first sought them and drew them. All right, a man thinks he's righteous. He thinks he's justified by his law keeping, his morality, being good to his neighbor. Scripture says, there is none righteous, no, not one. Not one. Scripture says, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. God gave the law so that when he speaks in power, he makes us hear it and he makes us see we're the sinner, guilty, and he shuts our mouth from boasting that we've ever done anything. As long as a man thinks he's righteous by his law keeping, he will not come to Christ. He doesn't need Christ. He doesn't need Christ.

And this is so of everybody by nature. By nature we come to this world so sinful, so depraved and ruined, that we think we're righteous, and we think we're holy, and we think there's some goodness in us, and we don't think we need a savior. That's how we ought, that is the very proof that we're sinners, is when we think that all we need is a little help. We just need Christ to make up the difference. Me and God got a good thing going. Nope. If it's you and God, you don't have a good thing going at all. It's gotta be all Him. All Him. You try to imagine right now, think of this right now, you sitting there, Young people, listen, you think, I got all my life ahead of me, I'll worry about this later.

If you knew you had a fatal disease right this minute, and that you're gonna die, you just got a very short number of days, and you're gonna draw your last breath, and it's real close, if you knew that, would you be listening to this message? Would you be turning to these scriptures and paying attention to what I'm declaring to you? Well, you have a disease that's fatal.

It's already slain you. It's called sin, and you've got a number of days, and you are going to stand before a thrice holy God, so pure He can't look on iniquity. And if you're outside of Christ when you meet Him, you're going to stay there, because He's going to cast you into outer darkness forever. And here's how depraved you are. Meek, I can tell you that and I can guilt you, I can show you films of hell and try to make you think that, to scare, literally try to scare the hell out of you and it won't do any good. You still won't believe him. Christ has got to call us and to make us know we're the sinner. And we're facing a holy God and we gotta have a perfect, we gotta be as good as God. Now, that's why folks won't come to Christ. They're not sick. They're not sinners. Now, let's hear what the Savior declares. And he tells us right here who he came to save.

This is who he came to save, verse 32. He said, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Do you know what that means? when he said, I came not to call the righteous. The Lord Jesus is declaring here, he did not come to save everybody. That's exactly what he's saying. He didn't come to save everybody. He didn't come to call every person. He told the scribes and Pharisees, you're not my sheep. I didn't come to call you.

And here's why I say that. You know, we come to a place where the gospel is preached and we act like, you know, it's like we're coming and giving something to be there. It's the Lord giving it all to us. We've been blessed to be able to be where the gospel is. And folks will think, you know, I might decide for the Lord.

The Lord might not want you. What makes you think he wants you? Well, that's offensive. It should be. God's sovereign. He don't owe you nothing. He don't owe me a thing. He saves who he will. We are at his mercy. We ought to be on our knees begging him, Lord, please have mercy on me, the sinner. That's what I'm saying. That's what he's saying. And the man that thinks he has something he can give to God, he thinks he's right. He thinks he has something he can give to God.

God said, if I was hungry, I wouldn't ask you. He owns everything. He created everything. If you did everything the law said, you just did what you should have done. See, we're not at zero and trying to get further up in the degree. We're in the negative. We need the Lord to take our sin and put our sin away for us.

And that's what he did for somebody. He came down And he had a specific people. That priest went into that Holy Sepulchre and he had a breastplate on that had the names of specific tribes, specific people. And our Lord Jesus went to the cross with the names of his people on his heart. And he said, I lay down my life for the sheep. And he justified them. He made it so that God is just to have mercy on us. God is a just God and a savior because Christ paid the justice we owe to God. He paid it for his people. Now, because we, here we are in this shape, we think we're righteous.

We don't think we need him. We're dead in our sin. He's got to come to us and do this operation in us. The great physician has got to come and he's first got to kill any goodness that we think we have in us. and at the same time create life in us and give us everything needed to believe him. This is the operation of the great physician. He has to come and make us see his life and give us the faith to believe him.

And he must do it to everybody he died for because he justified each one. See, this is totally different from the message preached by folks that are not sick. The message people are preaching that are not sick, they're putting it all in your hand. They're saying he did it for everybody.

Now it's up to you to decide if what he did, what God did, what the holy God of glory did, and poured out his blood. He was so unwise, he left it to sinners and our fickle will to decide if what he did amounted to anything. Do you think God's that stupid? That's a false God. The God of glory determined the end from the beginning.

He chose his son, and he chose a people in his son, and his son came forth and knew exactly what he was doing. Every step he took was with purpose. He went and called his people, because he knew who his people were, and everybody that wasn't his people, he passed them right by.

And the truth is, they didn't care, because they didn't want him anyway. and he used them. They thought they were doing just what they wanted to do in rejecting him. The whole time he walked this earth during his public ministry, they spent every day trying to get him to do something to justify them before the people for rejecting him. That's what they went about doing the whole time, trying to get him to justify them for rejecting him. to get him to say something, to do something so they could say, that's why we don't believe him. And while they were doing that, thinking they were doing their own will, he was making them do everything they did. They were doing what he determined before to be done. That's how sovereign this God is, and yet they were guilty for what they did. They didn't excuse him.

He said, the wrath of man will praise him, and the remainder, I'll restrain it, he said. If it comes to pass and it's wicked and it's against God and against his people, it's only coming to pass because the Lord is working his sovereign will through it.

And he's bringing glory to his name and he's saving his people. And so a sinner that thinks he don't need Christ and he hates Christ and he thinks he's righteous, and I'm talking about they love their Jesus just like we did, lost as we could be, had a God in our imagination. False religion's doing what he purposed. They're accomplishing his will. And one thing he does is when he saves his child and brings you to see what grace he's shown you to come and reveal himself to you when he passed so many by, one thing he does with the false is he makes you see who he's called. He makes you know the grace and mercy he's shown you because there's a remnant he calls and he made you to know you're one of them while he passed multitudes by.

We're talking about the great physician. We're talking about the one, he's not trying, he's saving. You need him. You need him. Would you go into a hospital, if you were dying, would you go into a hospital and tell that physician how to do his job? We take his word for it. He studied, he knows what he got degrees. I trust he knows what he's doing. And yet, the great physician that came down from glory, we're gonna tell him what he can and can't do. The reason men hate to hear this is because they think they're whole. They think they contribute.

The Lord didn't come call everybody. He came to call folks who are sinners. Sinners, that's who needs repentance. He came to call sinners. And he has to make us know we're the sinner. He has to make us know. Who has need of Christ? Verse 31, they that are sick, true sinners.

In Matthew's account, if you want, look there with me just back to Matthew 9. I want you to see what Matthew said. This is what the Lord said here. Matthew 9, 13, same account. Matthew just includes a little more, another detail. He says, he told them, he said, go, 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. I will have mercy. You know what that means? That means salvation is entirely because of God withholding from you and me what we deserve. I'm gonna, here's how I'm gonna save you. It's not gonna be that you're sacrificing and giving me something. It's gonna be by me withholding from you what you deserve. You deserve condemnation.

And how can God withhold that from his people and be just to do that? because Christ went to the cross and bore the condemnation. He went to the cross and bore the condemnation. And that's how God's just, to withhold from us what we deserve. Truth is, salvation is only of mercy. It's all of grace, and it's none of works. It can't be.

Romans 11.5, Here's what he said, Romans 11, five. Even so, then at this present time also, there's a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then there's no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it's no more grace, otherwise work is no more work.

Mercy and grace can't be given to those who are just, who think they're just. Mercy and grace can't be given to a man working for his salvation. It can't be. Our works are not works. Mercy and grace is only given to guilty sinners who can do no works. That's it. Grace excludes all merit. Mercy prohibits any goodness in us.

Christ is the fountain open For sin, that's for your unrighteousness, that's before the law. And for uncleanness, that's your defiled sin nature. Out of his side flowed water and blood. Water represents the washing of regeneration, creating a holy man in you, and the blood is him justifying his people from our sin. The wages of sin is death, that's what he paid for his people. So he has to be all, he has to be righteous and holy.

When we say we're sick, it has to be, I have no, nothing in me that's pure, I'm impure, I'm defiled, I'm unholy, and it has to be, I'm unrighteous. That's what it is to be sick before God. I don't even have wisdom, no discernment. I can't free myself, I'm in bondage. Everything has to be of him. This is a faithful saying worthy of all acceptation. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.

Now go with me to Hebrews 13.10. I'm just gonna show you a few scriptures and I'll be done.

Hebrews 13.10. I said he has to be your holiness. Hebrews 13, 10. Jesus also that he might sanctify, that is, make holy the people with his own blood suffered without the gate. I have to go to him for holiness.

Here's Zechariah 13. You be turning to 1 Corinthians 6. I'm gonna give you Zechariah 13. Why are you turning there? Here's what it says, Zechariah 13 one says, in that day, there should be a fountain open to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Here's what you need.

For sin, that's cause we're unrighteous, we're guilty. So we need a righteousness. There's one fountain open for sin and for uncleanness. That's cause we're unholy. We gotta be clean, washed within. He's that fountain. Christ is that fountain. Look here, 1 Corinthians 6-11.

Now Paul is dealing with the church of Corinth which was guilty of every sin you could think of. And he gives this long list of sins right here in 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 9. Listen, know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

And such were some of you. Now let me tell you what the Pharisee does. He latches onto that word were. Such were some of you, and he says, I'm not like that now. I'm not that kind of sinner now because of what he thinks he did. But the people he's talking to were guilty of all of that right then. But listen to what he says.

Such were some of you, but you are washed. You are sanctified. You are justified. in the name of the Lord Jesus. That means by the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Christ sanctified you and justified you by his one offering and the Spirit of God entered in and sanctified you within and made you to know it so.

That's the only reason God doesn't see you as what you were. And when he makes you to know that, he makes you to see. You look at yourself and you say, I'm every one of those things he just said. I'm guilty of all those sins he just said. And he makes you know. But in Christ, you're holy and you're righteous by what he did for you and by him coming and revealing it to you in spirit. The word there is not because of something you did, it's because of everything Christ did. You get that? You get that? He will turn you from some of your sins, and He will make you not outwardly at least do some of the things you used to do, but He's gonna make you know. That's not why the worry's there. You were that, but the reason you're not that now is because of what He did.

He's your holiness, He's your righteousness, and He came and made you know it in the new man. Eternal life is given to sick people. Go with me to one more place, 1 Corinthians 1. Here's what I'm telling you. When He makes you know this in the heart, and He makes you know He saves by mercy and not sacrifice, that means Christ is your wisdom, and He's all your wisdom.

It means He's your righteousness, and He's all your righteousness. He's your holiness, and He's only your holiness, Him only. He's your redemption, and He's all your redemption. This is why he makes you to know it, verse 29, that no flesh should glory in his presence, but of him, argue in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. See, Christ is all of those.

He's my wisdom. He's my righteousness. He's my holiness. He's my redemption. So that, according as it's written, he that glories, let him glory in the Lord. I'm glorying in the Lord right now. I'm telling you through this whole message, Christ is all. And you and me don't contribute. Are you that sick? Is that how sick you are that you have to have the great physician to not only do this operation in you, but then to be your wisdom and your righteousness and your sanctification and your redemption?

What a physician. What a physician. You ever had a physician that gave you the cure and then paid your whole bill for you? This physician gives you the whole cure and he is the cure and he makes you to know he's paid it all for you. It's done. What a physician. What a physician. I pray the Lord make you know this. I pray he make you know this and make you rest in him. And I ask you this one last question. Are you whole or are you sick? Are you whole or are you sick?

Every sinner that goes on rejecting Christ is screaming from the rooftops, I'm whole, I don't need Christ. I'm whole, I don't need Him. I'm righteous, I don't need Him. But you know what His people are saying? By believing Him and giving Him the glory and taking no glory for ourselves, we're saying we are the sick sinner and it's only in Christ that we're whole. He's my wholeness, Him alone. Father, thank you for this word. Thank you for your grace and your mercy. Thank you for revealing this in our heart.

Lord, we ask you to continue to reveal Christ in us, continue to operate on us and make us know how complete we are in Christ alone. Don't let us trust ourselves. And Lord, we beg of you to work this in any of your lost sheep, make them see their need, make them know their need. Lord, without you, we are just sick, dead, helpless, hopeless sinners. Thank you for grace. Thank you for having mercy and not sacrifice. In Christ's name we pray, amen. All right, Adam.