Luke chapter 5 and verse 27. And after these things he went
forth and saw a publican named Levi sitting at the receipt of
custom. And he said unto him, Follow
me. And he left all, rose up, and followed him. 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 them. But
their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying,
Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners? And 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. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. Today, I would like us to notice
how Luke emphasizes the Lord's activity in this calling of Levi,
how he emphasizes the Lord's proactive role in bringing this
man, Levi, to himself. Elsewhere, this man is called
Matthew, and he's the author of the Gospel. And this man,
Levi, we'll call him Levi today, was the son of Alphaeus, and
we find him engaged in his trade. He's a busy man. Levi is busy. He's working at the seat of custom,
which is just a way of saying that he was a tax collector.
It's quite likely that the Lord was here in Capernaum. It's quite
likely that he was a tax collector for traders who used the shipping
route in and out of Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee in order
to transport goods. And it may well have been that
he was sitting there at the water side, down at the docks, waiting
on these ships, coming and going in order to tax the goods that
were being moved around. He was busy doing his business.
He was too busy for Christ. He was too busy while the multitudes
followed the Lord. Here is Levi and he is about
his business. However, what we discover from
these few verses is that the Lord had a higher role for this
man, Levi, than merely collecting taxes. And I like the way that
Luke phrases his comments. He says, after these things,
that is, after the Lord's calling of Peter and Andrew and the great
catch of fishes, after the Lord had healed the man of the palsy,
after these things, He went forth, the Lord went forth and saw a
publican named Levi sitting at the receipt of custom and said
unto him, follow me. The Lord took the active role. He went forth. He saw Levi. He said to him, follow me. Now someone will say to me, perhaps,
this isn't speaking about salvation. It's about being Jesus' disciple. Well, it's both. There's a principle
here that Luke is teaching Theophilus, the man to whom he is writing,
concerning the Lord's gathering of his followers. Earlier in
the chapter, he called Peter, Andrew, James, and John. And
now he leaves the scribes and the priests and the Pharisees,
and he diverts his attention away from the multitude and he
goes to find a certain individual. He goes to find and call Levi. And Levi's not thinking about
the Lord. In John 15, Jesus says to his
disciples, you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and
ordained you. And the choice of these particular
men should not be overlooked. Let us not say that Jesus has
the right to choose his own disciples, but not to choose his followers. Are we not all who are called,
called disciples of the Lord Jesus? And were not these men
called to follow the Lord Jesus? What Jesus does for one, he does
for all. And we believe that being a follower
of Jesus or a disciple of Jesus, call it what you will, it is
a privilege bestowed by Jesus himself, and it is not the fruit
of man's free will. There may have been several tax
collectors sitting there that day at the seat of custom, but
it was Levi who was called to follow. Nor should we neglect the power
of Christ's effectual call. Levi, we're told, at once arose
and followed Christ. There was granted to him willingness
to comply. Just as in Christ's healing miracles
that we've previously been thinking about, here is a spiritual enabling
imparted to overcome the natural obstacles of Levi's reluctance. And that is what brought this
publican under the authority of Christ. I'm so grateful for that power
for myself and for others. It is that power that is the
great encouragement of God's preachers, Christ's preachers.
Belief in the effectual call gives us hope for our otherwise
careless hearers. It gives us hope for our sons
and our daughters and our friends who, like Levi, are too busy
who, like Levi, have no need and are too self-sufficient to
go and hear Jesus preach of their own accord, but to whom we long
that he will go in power and call them to follow him. And
there appears to have been no conscious sense in the heart
of Levi of a need of salvation, And yet, in a glorious act of
mercy, the Saviour found him. And I think that many of us can
identify with this example of free grace. Isaiah, is it not,
who says, I am found of them that sought me not. And here's
the effect of the effectual call. Levi left all, left his job,
left his security, left his profit, left his associates, just as
the disciples who were fishermen left their boats and their nets
and their fishing and rose up and followed Christ. And may
the Lord continue to be merciful and call men and women like Levi,
like us, Men and women such as should be saved to follow him. Levi's first act after following
Jesus Christ is to host a feast in his own house. Jesus calls
Levi and Levi invites Jesus into his house. This is a spiritual
pattern, it's a biblical pattern. First the Lord opens the heart,
then he comes in to sup and to fellowship with his people. The
fact that this was Levi's own house implies that he was a man
of some wealth. Not all the Lord's people are
poor. And such examples teach us that
we ought to use what good we can in the service of the Lord. I imagine in Levi's mind, this
was a show of gratitude for the Lord's calling and the Lord's
blessing. But we also know that Levi took
the opportunity of inviting a large number of his old associates that they should come and hear
the Lord speak. The publicans who were looking,
the Pharisees who were looking on, they were unhappy about this. They wondered why the Lord was
visiting with publicans and sinners, these evil workers, these people
of questionable morals who were a scourge in society. However,
the Lord was pleased to number Levi, one of their number, amongst
his inner circle, and to sit and to eat and to fellowship
with social outcasts and people of low reputation. Are we not
all thankful that the Lord welcomes sinners? I've no doubt that there
was an evangelistic component in Levi's desire to have his
old friends sit in Jesus' company under the sound of his voice.
And this reminds us that while we are convinced that salvation
is of the Lord and faith is God's gift, it is under the sound of
Christ's voice in the gospel that these blessings are imparted. We should therefore, like Levi,
be eager to encourage men and women with whom we have influence to hear the voice of the Lord
Jesus Christ in the Gospel and to hear the message of grace
and salvation by faith in Jesus Christ. The scribes and the Pharisees,
they see things differently. They always have and they always
will. And whether they're criticising
Levi for inviting publicans or Jesus for sitting with sinners,
what they do with their murmuring is expose their own self-righteousness
and pride. There were better people than
these with whom to feast and fellowship, they said. And likely,
this was also a means of distancing the Lord Jesus from the religious
worshippers who were caught up in the excitement of Christ's
ministry. They were trying to marginalise
and isolate the Lord by lumping Him together with these publicans
and sinners. Was such a man worth following
who could not distinguish between sinners like these and righteous
folk like us? And though we're told that they
murmured to the Lord's disciples, it was the Lord who answered
their complaint. We lesson there too. We must
not feel that we always need to be able to answer every criticism
levelled at us or our faith, or indeed against the Lord Jesus
and his gospel. How often we hear people say
they don't like the way Jesus does things. They don't like
the way the Lord does things. Whether that's gathering his
church by sovereign grace or allowing sin to exist in the
world. And just like these scribes and
Pharisees, you And I, we will not convince or convert gainsayers. Suppose we have the wisest answers
and the best replies. The Lord's reply in verse 31
and 32 is a two-edged sword. He tells these men, they that
are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. I came
not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Just as
physically strong and healthy people do not need help from
a doctor, so these religious critics, being free in their
own opinion from any disease of sin in their soul, stood in
no need of Christ the Great Physician. But when it comes to the need
of our soul, It is the Lord only who can heal us. Our Lord Jesus
Christ made a fine distinction here. Many tell us that everyone
must have the same chance to be saved, the same opportunity
to repent of sin. Although evidently throughout
history, this has obviously not been the case. They say that
salvation ultimately hinges on man's free will to choose or
reject God's offer of grace and salvation. And yet it is only
those who are sick, it is only to those who are sick that the
physician comes. That's what the Lord says here.
It is to those who've first seen their need of a saviour that
salvation is given. Repentance and faith is part
of the same work. And spiritual quickening is not
a natural experience. Without divine intervention,
without Holy Spirit conviction, without spiritual illumination,
we never shall know a need of grace. The Lord said to Nicodemus,
marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again. And whether that experience is
hard or easy or short or long in a particular individual's
experience, it is the Bible pattern. The Lord calls sinners to repentance. And as I look around this little
group today, I see a room full of sinners. I don't doubt every
one of us is ready to admit our sinful state and our need of
a saviour. It is such as these the Lord
Jesus came to call, and blessed we are to have heard that call
and to have followed him like Levi. Let me close by reading
a few verses from Joseph Hart. To understand these things are
right, this grand distinction should be known. Though all are
sinners in God's sight, there are but few so in their own. To such as these our Lord was
sent, they're only sinners who repent. What comfort can a saviour
bring to those who never felt their woe? A sinner is a sacred
thing, the Holy Ghost has made him so. New life from him we
must receive, before for sin we rightly grieve. This faithful
saying let us own, well worthy it is to be believed. that Christ
into the world came down, that sinners might by him be saved. Sinners are high in his esteem
and sinners highly value him. Amen.