The Bible's open there to Matthew
chapter nine. This could be our text this morning. I've titled the message, Why Does Your Savior Eat With
Sinners? Our text begins Matthew chapter
nine, verse nine. As Jesus passed forth from thence,
he saw a man named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom, and
he saith unto him, follow me. And he arose and followed him.
And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold,
many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his
disciples. Now, our Lord, I love how he called Matthew. The way the scripture makes it
sound like the Lord just walked up to Matthew and he told Matthew,
come follow me. And then the Lord started walking.
He never looked back to see what would Matthew decide to do. Matthew was going to follow the
Lord, wasn't he? Now, Matthew was a publican. And to the people
who lived at that time, publicans were considered to be the worst
kind of sinner. You know, both the Jews and the
Romans despised publicans. They both thought publicans were
the worst kind of sinners because they were so greedy that they
were willing to collect taxes for the enemy and then overcharge
and cheat their countrymen while they were doing it. You know,
they were just despised. They were both a traitor and
a cheat. That's pretty despicable, isn't it? To be a traitor and
a cheat. What a sinner. But that's exactly who the Lord
called to follow Him. I wish we'd ever learned this.
The Lord saves sinners. Sinners. Not good folk. Sinners. The Lord calls sinners to follow
Him. Genuine, real-life sinners. And
as soon as the Lord called Matthew to follow Him, Matthew left his
ledgers, He left his money and he got up and he followed Christ.
Now that's a picture of the irresistible call of God the Holy Spirit.
And I'm glad it's so, aren't you? Aren't you glad when the
Holy Spirit calls you can't hang on the pew, refuse to come, you
know? God the Father, before time began, elected the people
to save. The Son became flesh, came in time, and he redeemed
those people with his precious blood And in time, God, the Holy
Spirit, calls those people. He calls them to come to Christ.
He gives them faith in Christ so they can't do anything but
trust Christ. They can't do anything but follow
Christ. When the Holy Spirit calls us,
He makes us want to come to Christ, doesn't He? He makes us want
to come to Christ because we need to come to Christ. The Holy
Spirit drags none of God's people against their will to come to
Christ. He makes them all willing in the day of His power so that
they willingly come to Christ because they need him, they love
him, they believe on him. Now that's what the Lord did
for Matthew. Well now, Matthew the publican is changed man. And now he wants other people
to know Christ too. So Matthew decided what he's
gonna do is he's gonna have a dinner party at his house to honor the
Lord Jesus. And he invited folks to come
to his house to have this, be part of this dinner to hear the
Lord speak so they get to know the Lord like he got to know
the Lord. But you know, the only people that Matthew knew to invite
to his house, the only people who would come to his house are
his old cronies, other publicans and other sinners. Matthew invited
publicans, those people who are despised by both the Jews and
the Romans. They were despised by all of
society. That's who Matthew invited to come to his house for dinner.
And he also invited sinners to come to his house for dinner.
And that word sinner, it means someone who's devoted to sin. I mean, they don't just sin,
they're devoted to it. They're especially sinful, they're
preeminently wicked. That's the crowd Matthew ran
in. So that's who he invited to come to his house and sit
down and eat with the Savior. And he invited them to this dinner.
Now, you know, when we go to a dinner together, we're sitting
around the table together, we're breaking bread together. I mean,
you know, we're not just eating. We're not just warding off starvation,
are we? No, we're fellowshipping together. We're talking to one
another, enjoying one another's company. Publicans and sinners
came to sit around the table with the Savior and hear Him
talk, have fellowship with Him. Now, the Pharisees saw that And
they didn't like that guest list. Verse 11. And when the Pharisees
saw it, they said unto his disciples, why eateth your master with publicans
and sinners? The Pharisees wondered, how can
a man of God eat and have fellowship around the table with the worst
of sinners? These publicans, the worst, these
sinners who are devoted to sin. This man is supposed to be holy.
How can he bear to rub elbows with these sinners? These open
vile sinners? How can he do that? Well, that's
the question I want to answer this morning. Why does our Savior
eat with sinners? Number one is this. Christ eats
with publicans and sinners because that's who Christ came to save.
You know, the whole Bible tells us this. Christ saves guilty,
helpless sinners. Isaiah told us Christ is coming
to loose the guilty prisoner from the prison house of sin.
He's going to do it by taking their place. It's not going to
be a jailbreak. It's not going to be something illegal. Christ
is going to loose the guilty sinner from the prison house
of sin by taking their place and suffering their sentence
for it. The writer to the Hebrews told us that Christ came to do
what all those animal sacrifices under the law could never do.
Christ came to take away the sin of His people by His one
sacrifice for sin forever. And then He sat down on the right
hand of the Father because the work was finished. Salvation
was complete. There's no more need for another
sacrifice for sin. The angel who announced the birth
of our Savior said, you call His name Jesus. That's the New
Testament name for the Old Testament name, Joshua. You call His name
Jesus for He shall save His people from their sins. Not maybe, not
he's gonna try, not he's gonna give it his best effort. He shall
do it. And that's exactly what he did.
Christ came to save sinners. And remember now, we're talking
about real sinners. The most vile of sinners. People
who are dedicated to sin. They're devoted to it. People
who can't do anything but sin. Christ came to save those sinners
from their sin and to make them the righteousness of God in Him.
He came to make them what they're not. He came to make them righteous. Christ came to save His people
from their sin so they could never be condemned by any sin
because Christ took all their sin away from them, put it away
by His sacrifice for them. Christ came to save the guiltiest
of sinners and to make them holy, unblameable, and unreprovable
in God's sight. Now since that's how God sees
them, that's how they really are. and not someday. Not someday when you awake in
glory. Right now, if Christ died for you, that's the way God the
Father sees you. Holy, unblameable, and unapprovable. That's what Christ made His sinful
people to be. Christ came to save the filthiest
of sinners and to wash them white as snow. They are completely
stained and defiled with sin. After they're washed in the blood
of Christ, there's not a trace of sin left on them. Christ came to save the chief
of sinners. He came to save those people
that all of creation would agree these are the chief of sinners.
And you know why God did it that way? So that all of creation
will praise him in awe and wonder. How God could love sinners like
this. How God could have mercy on sinners
who are his natural born enemies. Only God could do something so
marvelous. Only God would do something so
wonderful. And you know, only Christ can save sinners. Christ
came to save sinners and he's the only one who can. He's the
only one who will have anything to do with sinners. I mean real
sinners. They're sitting around the table
with him because the Pharisees wouldn't sit with them. But the
Savior would. Now remember I said eating together,
that involves fellowship, talking to one another, enjoying one
another's company. Publicans and sinners were comfortable
in the presence of the Lord Jesus. They weren't comfortable being
around the self-righteous Pharisees, were they? No, they're too judgmental. They just couldn't be comfortable
with the Pharisees. But they were comfortable in
the presence of righteousness personified. The Pharisees weren't
comfortable in the presence of Christ. I mean, they're just
nervous. They're just two-footing it all the time in the presence
of the Savior. But sinners were comfortable
in the presence of the Savior. You know why? Because He came
to save them. He came to save them. All right,
number two, our Savior eats with publicans and sinners because
they're the ones that need to be forgiven. All those notorious
sinners, they were comfortable enough to come to Matthew's house
and stay there, sit down at the table and eat with the master. Now you think about that. All
of their sin was against him, but he didn't make them uncomfortable.
Now he never condoned their sin, did he? But he didn't make sinners
uncomfortable to be around him. because he came to forgive their
sin. You know, the Pharisees felt like they were not sinners.
They didn't need to be forgiven, but they were so uncomfortable
when they were in the presence of the Lord. But these sinners
were comfortable. What's the difference? Christ
came to forgive the sin of sinners. Look over at John chapter nine. John chapter nine. Verse 39. And Jesus said, for judgment,
I'm coming to this world that they would see not might see. I came to those that are blind
that they might see and they would see those who think they
see might be made blind. Now, some of the Pharisees which
are with him heard these words and said unto him, are we blind
also? They knew who he was talking about. They knew what he was
saying. Jesus said unto them, if you were blind, you would
have no sin. But now you say we see, therefore
your sin remaineth. What the Lord is saying here
is this. If we confess, we're spiritually blind. I mean, I
don't see how God could save me. I don't see how a sinner
can be just with God. I'm blind. I cannot, I can't
see the light. I can't see Christ. I can't trust
him. I'm blind. The Lord will give
that person spiritual sight so that they see Him. If we confess
our sin, if we confess what we are, our sin, He's faithful and
just to forgive us of our sin. But if we say we don't have any
sin, if I say I'm not that bad, Christ will never forgive me.
Christ came to save sinners who know they're sinners. And here's
an amazing thing, amazing truth of the gospel. Christ came to
forgive the sin of His people. How did He do it? How did He
do it? Well, it wasn't by ignoring their sin. It wasn't by pretending
their sin didn't happen. It wasn't by saying, you sin,
but it's all right. You know, that's what we have
to do. We forgive one another, right? Somebody did you wrong,
but okay, you did wrong, but I forgive you. I won't break
it up again. That's not how God forgives sin. Christ forgave
the sin of His people. by being made sin for them. By
taking their sin away from them and making it his, taking it
into his own body upon the tree and then putting that sin away
by the sacrifice of himself. Holiness died for the sinner
so that the sinner could be forgiven. The creator died for the creature
so that the creature's sin might be forgiven. When the Holy God
forgives sin, He forgives sin because there's no sin left for
Him to be angry about anymore. Because the blood of Christ took
it away. Christ came to save sinners who
need saving. He came to forgive sinners who
need forgiveness. You see what the issue is? He
didn't come to save the Pharisees who have no need of forgiveness.
He didn't come to save the Pharisees who don't have any sin, Christ
came to forgive the sin of sinners who need to be forgiven. What's
the issue? Between those two classes of
people, what's the issue? It's need. It's need. This thing of salvation and forgiveness,
the issue is need. Publicans and sinners need Christ. I need Christ to save me. I need
Christ to wash me. I need Christ to make me righteous. I can't do it because my sin
is so great. I need Christ to save me. I need him to forgive me. And
Christ freely forgave all their sins. He forgives sinners who
need forgiveness. So here's the question for you
and me. The question for you and me is not have we memorized
the right doctrine? The question for you and me is
not are we morally straight enough? Here's the question. Do we need
Christ? Do I need Him to forgive me? Do I need Him to take my sin
away? Do I need Christ to make me righteous
because I cannot do it by my own deeds of the law? If we need
Christ the Savior that way, God will forgive our sin. You know
how I know that's true? That's what the forgiver said.
The forgiver said that. Alright, number three. Christ
eats with publicans and sinners because that's who he came to
seek. You know, one day the Lord was walking through Jericho,
very wicked city. As he was leaving that city,
passed by a certain tree and the Lord just so happened to
look up in that tree and sitting up in that tree was a little
short fella named Zacchaeus. He was also a publican, just
like Matthew. And the Lord saw Zacchaeus sitting
up in that tree and he told Zacchaeus, you come down. I'm going to your
house for dinner today." Now, why did the Lord do that? Why
did the Lord pass by that tree, look up where Zacchaeus is and
tell him, come down, I'm going to your house today. Why did
he do that? Well, look at Luke 19. Let's let the Savior tell
us why he did it. Luke chapter 19. Luke 19 verse nine. And Jesus said unto him, this
day is salvation come to this house for as much as he also
is a son of Abraham for the son of man is come to seek and to
save that which was lost, that which was lost. Christ is the
great shepherd. And you know what shepherds do?
They seek and they find all their lost sheep. They never let one
of them go. And here the Lord sits at dinner.
Nobody would deny, nobody would look at that scene and nobody
would deny that all the people in Matthew's house that day were
notorious sinners. Yet here they are sitting around
the table with the Savior. The shepherd sure found all those
lost sheep, didn't he? The shepherd found all those
lost sheep and brought all of them to Him to sit down and have
fellowship with Him. Now, I'm telling you, that's
gracious. That's salvation by grace. See, these publicans and
sinners, they were lost and they knew it. They would never claim
that they're as righteous as the Pharisees. They would never
claim that they kept God's law. They would never claim that they're
any account. They're sinners and they knew it. And you know
who never sought one of them? The Pharisees. You know who never
one time invited them to come to a service? The Pharisees. The Pharisees never pointed them
to Christ. The Pharisees never opened up one of those scrolls
and said, here, let me show you Christ. There's somebody coming
who's going to save sinners like you. Let me tell you about it.
The Pharisees never did that. They were spending all their
time trying to get away from sinners like that. You know, they said,
don't touch me. Don't come near me. I'm holier than thou. If
you touch me, I got to go through all this ceremonial washings.
You know, we do. The only one who sought them ever was the
only one who could do anything for them, the Lord Jesus. He was the only one who cared
enough to do anything for them. It was the Savior. It was the
Lord who they all sinned against and he found them. He found them
and he saved them. That's what God does for every
lost sheep. I don't care how far you've wandered,
how long you've wandered, how rebellious you've been, How dirty
that you've gotten yourself rolling around in the mud and being out
in the wild. I don't care who you are, if
you're one of God's sheep, the shepherd's gonna seek you and
he's gonna find you. He's gonna put you on his shoulders.
He can bring you all the way home. The Savior came to seek
and to save that which was lost. Now the Father chose the people
to save, they're God's sheep, but how'd they get lost? Well,
they were born lost. They became lost in Adam. They fell when Adam fell, and
when they were born, they were born with Adam's nature. They're
a natural-born sinner. And they live lost. They live
lost in their own sin. They live lost in their own man-made
religion. They were so dead in sin, they
didn't even know they were lost. I mean, they're so lost, they
didn't even know they were lost. But the Lord knew it. So the
great shepherd of the sheep came seeking. And he found them. He
laid down his life as a sacrifice for those sheep so that those
sheep would live. And he rose again. So he would
go find all those lost sheep and bring them to himself. And
he goes to those sheep through the preaching of the gospel.
And he calls them by name. Not audibly. But through the
preaching of the gospel. This is faith language. It's heart language. In your
heart, you don't hear the preacher. The shepherd calls you. He calls
you by name, just like he did Matthew, just like he did Zacchaeus,
and you follow him, and you're gonna follow him till he brings
you all the way to glory. The Lord calls out his people
by the preaching of the gospel, and he uses that same gospel
to feed his sheep, to comfort his sheep, to teach his sheep,
to lead his sheep, and to bring them all the way into his presence.
God's elect are all born lost, but not one of them is gonna
die that way. They're born lost, but they're gonna die found because
the Lord's gonna seek and find every last one of them. It has been my earnest prayer
this week that there's someone here this morning the Lord's
seeking. Here's why that's my prayer.
If the Lord's seeking you, He's gonna find you. And He's gonna
bring you to Himself. He came to seek and to save that
which was lost. All right, number four. Christ
eats with publicans and sinners because of His compassion for
sinners. In verse 12, Matthew chapter nine. 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. I will have mercy and not sacrifice. I'm gonna have
mercy, not your works of religion. For I'm not come to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ just
named himself the Great Physician. The Great Physician of Sin Sick
Souls. And he's come to heal those,
all those who have need of healing. The only people who need a doctor
are sick folk. Now, the Lord says He came to
heal the sick. You know, He's telling us what
sin really is. Sin is not something I did that was kind of wrong.
Well, you know, I broke the rules. I broke the rules. You know,
call a foul on me. I was watching football yesterday.
They broke the rules and they throw a flag, you know, throw
a flag on me, but now, you know, Then we'll get back to playing
the game. I broke the rules. It's not that big a deal. I mean,
I shouldn't have done it, but you know, come on. That's not
what sin is. Sin is an awful disease. It's a terminal disease that
always kills. Always. Sin is a gross disease
that rots us from the inside out. It breaks out big, ugly
tumors all over us. Sin leaves us covered with wounds,
open wounds and bruises and putrefying sores that haven't been closed
up or modified with ointment because there ain't no treatment
we can find for it. If we could really see what we are because
of our sin, we'd gag. I heard someone say one time,
the Lord just gives us a glimpse of the filthiness and the defilement
of our sin, just a glimpse. because if he showed us the whole
picture, we'd go stark raving mad. We couldn't handle it. But
Christ says he's come as the great physician. Jehovah Rapha,
here he is in the flesh, the Lord that healeth thee. Christ
takes his people and he heals all of their sin sickness, all
of it. He does it by pouring in the
sweet balm of Gilead, the wine and the oil of his precious blood
that cleanses us, that heals us from all of our sin sicknesses. Now I'm telling you, to those
who are sin sick, you can trust your soul to this physician.
You can trust him. The great physician, you know
he only takes terminal cases. He only takes cases where all
hope is lost. Matter of fact, he only takes
cases where the patient's already dead. Not half dead like in the
parable. He only takes patients who are
all the way dead. And he gives life. He gives life
to his patients by suffering and dying in their place and
giving them his life. He takes their death and he gives
them his life. And this physician has a 100%
cure rate. 100%. He always gives eternal
life to his sin sick patients. And unlike earthly doctors, you're
never going to get a bill from him. He saves and he heals his
people freely. And listen, he does it with compassion. It's not just clinical know-how.
He does it with compassion. Christ came to show mercy to
the miserable. He came to heal them. And he
came to be merciful, to show mercy to the miserable. I've
been around enough doctors and nurses to know this. The best
ones have real compassion for a patient who's suffering. It's
not just a science fair project, you know. Their symptoms are
not just a science fair project. They have compassion. And their
compassion makes all the difference in the world. I'll give you an
example. A few years ago, I was in the
hospital. And I was suffering. Oh, my soul, I was suffering.
It was so bad. Jan was just right there with
me all the time. And we would frequently pray. And one day we were praying,
and oh, Lord, would you please give us something. Oh, any relief. Just something. Lord, something. Don't even know, but oh, it seems
like it's more we can bear. Would you give us something?
And no sooner did I say amen than the door opened. And in
walked a nurse named Annie. And Annie, she took a liking
to me and Janet. We reminded her of her parents,
is what I think. And she took a liking to us.
Oh, she had compassion. She turned, that one woman by
herself, turned a bad situation just almost all the way around.
It just made me feel so much better. Now, she had clinical
skills. I mean, this woman, boy, she
knew her stuff. But her compassion made her not miss a thing. I
mean, she didn't miss a thing. There was one day I couldn't
eat all day long because they were trying to fit me in for
surgery, you know. I couldn't eat all day long.
I mean, my mama started me out on a four-hour feeding schedule.
And I pretty much stayed on that for nearly 59 years, almost 60
years now. And I couldn't eat all day. This was a struggle,
you know. And it got to be 8 o'clock, and
they said, Frank, it's too late. We can't do surgery today. We'll
try again tomorrow. And Annie came in. And I said,
well, they can't do surgery. Would it be possible for me to
get something to eat? And she said, the kitchen's closed, but
I'll get you something to eat. What do you want? She went down
there and got them and fixed me a hamburger and fries and
ice cream. Yeah, I mean that food, I mean it didn't do anything
really to heal me, but that compassion. I'll never forget her. She did
everything a person could possibly do. But now she is just human. Nurse Annie could only do so
much. Now you imagine the eternal, omnipotent God being your physician
and taking compassion on you. Your symptoms are not a clinical
study to him. He takes compassion on you and
he heals you of every wound and bruise and putrefying sore that
your sin has caused you. And he heals you in compassion. I think about that poor leper
that came to our Lord and said, Lord, if you will, you can make
me whole. And the great physician said,
I will. Be thou clean. And he touched him. This fellow was full of leprosy.
Even other lepers wouldn't touch this guy. And the Lord touched
him. Oh, can you imagine what that
hand of power and grace and compassion felt as he knelt and the Savior
touched his face. If the Savior has compassion
on you, He's going to heal you. So I come back to the question
for you and me. Are you a sinner? The Lord came to save real, genuine
sinners. The chief of sinners. Not those
who know that's a good biblical catchphrase. But those people
who really feel of themselves, I'm the worst sinner. Christ
didn't come to save people. He said, of course I sin. I mean,
everybody's a sinner. Of course I sin. But now, you
know, I'm not that bad. I'm not a prostitute. I'm not
a traitor to my country. I'm not cheating people in my
business. I mean, I'm not the worst sinner in the county. There
are plenty of people worse than me. Yeah, I sin, but you know,
there's a lot of people worse than me. That's not who the Lord
came to save. The Lord didn't come to save
some people who need some help. The Lord came to save people
who are helpless, who can't do anything to save themselves.
The Lord came to save sinners. People who are devoted to sin. They're so helpless, they can't
do anything but sin. They're helpless, they can't
pay any of their sin debt. They're helpless, they can't
cleanse themselves of any of their sin. They're helpless and
hopeless. Does that describe anybody here? If it does, I got good news for
you. The Lord came to show mercy to helpless, hopeless, dead sinners. He'll do it with compassion.
You never read of a time that a sinner came in contact with
the Savior and he didn't have time for him. He had time for
every one of them. He had forgiveness for every
one of them. He had healing for everybody
that had need of healing. The Lord has so much mercy and
grace. He had enough mercy and grace
for the many. the many that came down and sat down with Him at
dinner. So the question is, are you lost? So that you need to be found.
You can't find your way back. Are you lost? Do you need to
be found? Is your sin so great you need Christ to save you? Do you? If you are, He will. He will. That's the good news of the gospel.
Like I said earlier, I know that's so because that's what the forgiver
himself said. Oh, God, give us grace to trust.
All right, let's bow together. Our father. There are no words, no human
words to express our thanksgiving. For a savior who would sit in
need with vile, notorious sinners such as we are. There's no words
to thank you for your forgiveness of sin. There's no words to properly
thank you for seeking and finding and saving lost sheep like we
are, Father, how we thank you. Father, I pray you'd bless your
Word, that you'd bless it to the glory of your Son, that you'd
cause each one of us here to see in your Word the glory of
Christ our Savior, the glory of the great shepherd of the
sheep, the glory of the great physician, to cause us to run
to him, to awe and wonder who he is, run to him for salvation
and forgiveness. Father, we ask this for our good,
but we especially ask it for the glory of Christ our Savior.
Would you get glory to your name in saving sinners like us. Father,
it's in Christ's name, for his sake we pray. All right, Sean.