My, my, feelings mutual, Brother
Darwin. Good to see you all. It's an
honor to be asked to preach the gospel. Just to preach the gospel
is a great honor, isn't it, Brother David? But when a man asks you
to preach in his pulpit, he's showing some measure of confidence
in your message, and I don't take that trust lightly. I don't want to betray that trust.
I am going to, by God's grace, preach the gospel. And let me
say again, and last time I was here I said this, but how much
I love your pastor and appreciate him. We do go back a long way. I was looking at some old photographs
and I found one of him and myself. I took a snapshot of it and sent
it to him. Well, he blew it up, an eight
by 10, and sent me a copy, and you've got a copy at the house.
Yeah, and what amazed me is how old you have become, and I haven't
changed. But boy, that's an eye-opener,
isn't it? Look at that picture. That was
yesterday, wasn't it? I remember standing there talking
to you at a Bible conference, I believe, or something. But thankful, and I know you're
thankful for him. What a gift a true, faithful
preacher of the gospel is, pastor. I see you nodding your head.
I'm glad about that. And he is a right good preacher. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
9. Matthew chapter 9. Brother Darvin and I attended
church together where my father was pastor. We both went through
a school, as you probably know, a preacher's class. Darvin, do you remember Dad saying,
you need to write at the top of your notes, K-I-S-S. Remember that? K-I-S-S. Keep it simple. Stupid. Keep it simple. Stupid. You remember
that? Well, I hope to make this simple. I hope this should be very plain
and very simple. The gospel is very plain. The
truth is very plain. Salvation is not something simple
though. It's an amazing, marvelous, miraculous,
supernatural, takes the all-powerful work of God. John Newton one
time called it the greatest stroke of genius ever, the gospel, the
salvation. Not simple, but it can be simply stated.
I can do it in five words. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. There
are five words. Foreknown, predestinated, called,
justified, glorified. And the Lord does all that. I
can do it in three words. Christ is all. Very simple. In this text, Matthew
9, did I tell you to turn to Matthew chapter 9? Matthew chapter
9. In this story, very plain, very
simple, 32 words, one verse, 32 words, mostly one and two
syllable words. That's the way our Lord spoke,
didn't He? One and two syllable words. Look
at verse 9, Matthew chapter 9, verse 9. And this is Matthew's
story, and this is my story, and this is salvation. 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. I've entitled this a two-word
sermon. There are nine, I think, nine
two-word phrases we're gonna break this down into. Brother
David one time preached an even simpler message. One, one, great
message. Salvation is one, one Lord, one
faith, one baptism, one hope of your God, one. It's in one
person and one. But I'm gonna use two words.
All right? Very simply. Verse nine, it says,
as Jesus passed forth from him. Jesus passed. Who is this? Who is this that passed through
this land, who walked this planet? Jesus? That's his earthly name,
isn't it? But he existed long before he
came here, long before a body was given to him. This is the
God who made this earth. He walked on his earth. on this
planet. He was in the world, John 1 says,
the world was made by him and the world knew him not. Most
just thought of him as a man then and now, don't they? That's why they refer to him
simply as Jesus. God's people refer to him as
he is, the Lord Jesus. One time he said to his disciple,
you call me Lord and Master because they knew who he was. They didn't
until he revealed himself to them, and no one does until he
reveals himself to them. But this is Immanuel. This is
God with us. God Almighty walked this earth.
He walked this planet. He passed through this planet.
He came with a purpose. He came with a preordained will
and purpose to this earth, sent by his father to save his people. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into this world
to save sinners. He came, this is the God who
made this earth, who came into this earth to save a lost people. This is the great shepherd of
the sheep, who came into this world, sent by the Father, given
a people, given a sheep, who were chosen by him before the
foundation of the world. He said, I have come to seek
and to save my lost sheep. He said, my sheep are going to
hear my voice and follow me. This is Matthew's story. This
is my story. This is every one of God's sheep
story. This is your story, right? This
is your story. This is how he saved you. He called you by his grace. He
passed. He passed. Look at the next two
words. From thence. Verse nine. Jesus passed from thence. He passed through. He came. And
he left. Now, up in verse, well, chapter,
yeah, verse one. This was Capernaum. Came into
his own city, it said. Came into his world, his own
world. And his own received him not,
his creature. But he came to Capernaum and
spent so much time there. What was Capernaum? Where was
Capernaum? Do you know where Capernaum is?
I bet you don't know where Capernaum is. You'd have to look at the
map, wouldn't you? It's such a small, insignificant
place. It's like Louisville, Arkansas. It's like Rocky Mount, Virginia.
Like Sylacauga, what did you say Sylacauga meant? Buzzard's
Roost. Buzzard's Roost. An insignificant place in Galilee. That's what people say, there's
nothing good. Nazareth, he grew up in Nazareth. God came to this earth. Where
did he choose to dwell? To whom did he go to live with
and to reveal himself to? Capernaum, Louisville, Arkansas. Wasn't that gracious of him?
What a blessing. How blessed is this little place
of Louisville, Arkansas, isn't it? Not Little Rock, Louisville. Roanoke, Virginia, large town
just above us. As far as I know, there's no
gospel there, but he came to Rocky Mount, Virginia, a little
two-bit place, 4,500 people. Aren't we blessed that the gospels
come here? But he doesn't stay. He passed from there, right? All those churches in the Revelation,
they're gone. There you go. Don't take this
for granted. A little while later, he said,
woe unto thee, Capernaum, didn't he? Woe unto thee, Capernaum. He left. He passed from then. Don't take this for granted.
Let us not take this for granted. All right, here's Matthew's story,
and here's my story. This is what happened to me.
This is what happened to all of God's people. Look at it,
two words. It came to pass, verse, Now, Jesus passed forth from
thence and he saw, two words, he saw a man. Who saw who? Who's looking for
who? Matthew wasn't looking for him.
Matthew's got his head down counting his money. Matthew's a publican. His money was his life. Making
money was his life. He wasn't looking up, he's looking
down. Somebody's looking at him. He
saw him. When did our Lord first see Matthew?
Before the world began. He had his heart set on, his
mind, his will, his covenant, everything about Matthew was
preordained before he had any existence. The Lord Jesus Christ
sent his love and affection on this fella. Well, who is this
fella? He's a publican, not republican. just as bad, or Democrat, worse. When they talked about the worst
people on earth, they talked about publicans first, and sinners. I mean harlots and lowlifes,
okay. Nobody looked like a publican. Cheat his own mother. Hmm. He laid, the Lord Jesus cried,
chose this man before the foundation of the world and came to this
earth looking for him. And he finds his sheep wherever
he puts them. He found a woman at the well. He found a man, another puppet,
up a tree. One of the brethren preached
the message, up a tree on purpose. He put old Zacchaeus up a tree.
Had that tree planted years before that? Somebody tried to cut it
down? He wouldn't let him. Why? He's gonna have a fella
sitting up in that tree waiting on him to pass by. He saw. He saw this man. The Lord Jesus Christ laid his
eyes on this man. It was a big crowd. Big crowd,
lots of people. Probably several more publicans
there. Rowdy crowd. Son of God fixed
his eyes on one man. He saw a man. One man. Matthew didn't see him. You could
say, and this was my salvation, you could say, Matthew would
say, I never saw it coming. He wasn't looking for him. I
wasn't looking for him. Bless God, he's looking for his
people. He finds them. They came to seek
and to save the lost. They're not looking for him,
but he's looking for them. Oh my, Matthew, oh, this is his
favorite. This is Matthew's favorite verse
in all the Bible. This is his story. This is how
the Lord came and found him and called him from darkness to light.
This could be said like the child in Ezekiel 16. You know that
story, the child in Ezekiel? That child was thrown out, polluted
in his own blood and his filth and all that, and the Lord said,
when I pass by, I saw you. I looked upon you, polluted in
your own blood. This was a time of love. This
is Matthew's time of love. Matthew didn't love him, but
the Lord loved Matthew. And he had his affection set
on Matthew. And he said, this is the time
he's gonna live. This is when Matthew's gonna
start to live. This is his new birth. He's gonna
be born again. He saw a man, two words, a man. Now when you and I look at some
people, we might be impressed, all right? You might be impressed.
You look at beautiful people, you know, a handsome man or a
beautiful woman, you might be impressed. Or a seemingly wise
man or wise woman or a big strong man. What does God see when he
looks at mankind? Psalm 14 says, the Lord looked
down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there were any
that he'd understand, if there were any that he'd seek God.
He said, there's none, none, none that doeth good, none righteous. He went on to say they're altogether
what? Filthy, stinking, rotten. That's what God says about mankind
by nature, by nature. I may have told you this story,
It meant something to me. Back several years ago when I
was gardening a lot, I had raised beds like Brother Darvin, I heard
that worms were good for the soil, you know. So I sent off,
I paid $49.95 for a big bag of worms. You think I'm crazy? I paid good money for worms. This is a good illustration.
They're not worth purchasing. I got 2,000 worms. And it came in a little gunny
sack, you know, and I opened it up and it was a despicable
sight. They were all crawling and writhing all over me. You
wouldn't put them in your house. Well, I did. I picked them up.
And I immediately thought, that's the worm. That's what God said,
writhing and wriggling, a mass of corruption. You know what
worms are? Dirt! They live in the dirt. They eat
dead things. They hate light. I made them
a house. A wormhouse. I was really good
to them. Paid for them. Made them a house.
Went and checked on them. Boy, that's mercy. That's grace,
isn't it? Put them in this house. And every
time I'd open up the lid, they hated the light. Died for darkness. That's mankind, isn't it? Light
came into the world, men loved darkness rather than light. Creator
came, he said the ox knows his owner, the ass knows his master
crib, but my people don't even know me. Don't consider, don't
care. We're a despicable creature,
aren't we? The rest of the creation doesn't sin. They groan because
of man's sin. Man's a despicable creature.
God ought to wipe him out, but God. Rich in mercy. He saw a man. He set his eyes
on this one man. Amen. How many people were there
that day? Is this not sovereign election?
He set his eyes on a man, one man. Is he gonna get him? Is
he gonna come away with him? Yes, sir. Amen. All right, look
at the next two words. named Matthew. He's named Matthew. This is significant. Nothing insignificant in God's
Word. He saw a man named Matthew. Then
the word Matthew, the name Matthew comes from the Hebrew word matatias,
okay, which means a gift of God. That's what it means, okay? Years
and years, 30, Matthew's 30 or 40 years old or maybe older,
we don't know. 30 or 40 years before this, Alphaeus
and his wife were expecting a child. And they had a baby boy, and
they were so thankful, and thankful, and perhaps Alphaeus was a believer,
but they named him Matthew, Mattathias, a gift of God. God has given
us this child. Well, long before God gave this
child to Alphaeus and his wife, he gave this boy to Jesus Christ
in a covenant before the world began. He named him. God named him, gift of God. Gift
of who? Christ. Christ said, all that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. Wait, you'll see, he's
coming. Christ came for him, came to live for him, came to
die for him, He ever lives now for him? And he's gonna call
him, he's gonna call this man, just like all of the people that
God chose, all the sheep that God gave to Jesus Christ, they're
gonna hear his voice and they're gonna come when he calls. They're
gonna come. Matthew's mighty thankful for
a sovereign election. Like I said, he didn't see it
coming. He wasn't looking, wasn't calling, counting his money.
God had him written on the palms of his hand, a gift of God, long
before the world began. Bless God for his sovereign election.
People argue against sovereign election, don't you? If I believed
that, you'd what? You'd thank God, wouldn't you? And why preach? That's exactly
why we preach. Because we know he has an elect,
and we know he's chosen by the foolishest of preachers, and
he said, my sheep gonna hear my voice. They're gonna follow
me. Like this man. Matthew, his elect. All right, he saw a man. Now
look at the next two words. Actually, more than two, but
I'm gonna break them down into two. Verse nine. Sitting at the
receipt of custom. He's sitting at the receipt of
custom, meaning he's counting money. That's what he's doing. He's counting money. Or you could
say he's sitting in his customary seat. This is where you'd always
find him. In his customary seat. Every
day. Day in, day out. He came here
to count that money. It was his life. Just like Simon
and Andrew and James and John, those boats and those nets were
his life. Their life. Weren't they? They
loved the sea, they loved the boats, they loved the net, they
didn't love God. They had no interest in God.
You can't preach the gospel, brother Darwin, without saying,
but God. Ephesians 2, and you, verse 4,
but God. There it is, there's the gospel
in two words, isn't it? And you, hath he quickened who
were dead and trespassed in sin. You walked according to the course
of this world like Matthew, but God, rich in mercy, chose you
and came for you. sitting in his customary seat.
If Christ hadn't come this day, he would have sat right there
till he died. Maybe died of a heart attack, his head fall over in
that money. It's happened many times. I know
a man who was playing poker with a bunch of his friends. This
was a son of members of the church where I grew up, okay? He never
came to worship there. sitting there playing poker with
all his buddies, you know, and just having a big old time, and
his friend right beside him dropped dead. His head fell on his card,
right there. And it shook this man up. Well, you know what happened?
He started coming to church. It didn't last. It didn't last. But if God hadn't come for me,
I'd have died doing what I was doing. Some of you are in the
business world, some of you are in the whatever. Various things
were your life, but God came and called you by His credit,
called you. His customers see. Now picture
this. This is a true story. And it's
my story. Here's this man, public, and
he's sitting where he always sat. doing what he always did,
day in and day out, what he loved to do, make money. He's rich. Republicans got rich. Rich. He has a nice home. He has horses,
chariots perhaps, all the finest clothes, savings perhaps. He has no thought of God, no
thoughts of eternity. And he has no idea who it is
looking at him at this moment. He has no idea. The Lord of glory has come for
this despicable man. David said, what is man that
thou were mindful of him? What is man that God would even
think on him, let alone visit him? You know, when the gospel
came to you, when Christ came and called you by the gospel,
when the gospel came to this place and you came here, it wasn't
of your own will or choice. The lot is cast into the land,
but the whole disposing is there of the Lord. You came and God
called you by his grace, called you by the gospel. Do you understand
how blessed you are among women and men and women, if you believe
this gospel, that Jesus Christ chose you? to call you by his
gospel, to call you out of darkness into light. Oh, how blessed,
how blessed. Now this was not a day, Matthew
didn't say a word here. Did you notice? Christ didn't
ask him a question and Matthew didn't say a word. In fact, Matthew
doesn't say anything through all the gospels. There's not
one word quoted by Matthew. I think Matthew thought he was
such a sinner, publican. Don't quote me, Lord. Quote Simon,
not me. Nothing. Matthew didn't say anything
here. The Lord did all the speaking.
The Lord did the calling. This was not the day that Matthew
made a decision. The Lord had made this decision
before the world began. This was not a day that Matthew
lets Jesus into his heart. This is a day the Lord gives
him a new heart. This is salvation. This is how
it happened. This is a day the Lord comes
to him and calls him. Not the day that he accepts him
as his personal savior. This is a day he finds out he's
accepted in a beloved. That God came for him. My, my. Matthew never says a word. The
Lord, the Lord didn't ask him anything. The Lord doesn't ask.
Kings don't ask anything. They give command. I bet you
Matthew later on had one of his favorite verses was, thou hast
given commandment to save me. Almighty love arrests that man.
Go after that man. Knock over my fibbership. Fetch
him. Fetch him. All right, look at that. Look
at the next two words. Verse nine. He saw him sitting
in his customary seat, and he saith, Christ spoke. The Lord Jesus
Christ spoke. If he doesn't speak to you, you
won't live. If you don't hear the gospel,
you won't be saved. It's the call of the gospel.
Paul thanked God for the Thessalonians, he said, I'm bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto he called you by our
gospel. Nobody's saved apart from hearing
his voice. And the voice of Christ is the
voice of the gospel in it, the preaching of the gospel. Nobody
is saved apart from hearing the gospel, nobody. And Christ speaks
to every one of his sheep. He speaks to them. He said, this
is the one, as I said in the beginning, God, this is the one
in the beginning that created the heavens and the earth. And
it says, God spoke, God said, let there be light. Is there
any possibility there won't be light? Did he ask the light to
be light? Let him be light. He spoke, he
said, let there be light. Now he's gonna be speaking to
this man. And he's gonna see the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's gonna know as he'd been
known. He saith, two words unto him. He said it, look at it, two words.
He saith, he spoke to Matthew. The Lord's gotta speak to you,
doesn't he? And to him, and him. I grew up, it's hard to remember
where you tell all your stories, you know. But that's okay, this
is my story. Matthew, Matthew went around
telling this story all the time, this is my story. This is Matthew,
this is my story, this is my story. I wasn't looking for him,
bless God he wasn't looking for me. I wouldn't call him, bless
God he called me. I didn't choose him, I rejected
him, bless God he chose me. I heard message after message.
I grew up, I'm a preacher's kid. I've heard more preaching than
anybody in the world. Just about, I've told you this,
we took our vacations from birth, took our vacations to places
like Padua, Arkansas. I didn't want to go. That's the
last place on earth I wanted to go on my vacation. But we went
there. My dad would preach and various
men would preach. Barnard and Griswold and all these fellows.
We'd go to Silicon, Alabama. That's the second last place
I wanted to go. And on and on. Madisonville. They took me there.
They took me there. They took me there. Why? Is that
cruel and unusual punishment? No, it's mercy, it's grace. They
knew that the scriptures alone are able to make me wise unto
salvation, hoping, praying that God will speak through His Word
to this dead sinner. I have no privilege because I'm
a preacher's kid, although I'm more accountable for things I
heard. Salvation is by mercy and grace, and He spoke to me. I rejected it, thumbs down. I'm
the prodigal son. I left. I want out of here. I renounced everything my dad
was preaching when I was 18, 19, 20 years old. Renounced it,
told all my friends. I can disprove all that. You're
looking at an object of God's mercy. And then one day, he brought
me back. and sat me down under the gospel
again. He spoke to me. I remember. I remember. Everybody can't remember, but
you don't need to remember, do you? But I do remember. Dad was
holding a meeting in Danville, Danville, Kentucky, before Don
went there. He's holding a meeting there, and a couple from the
church was going there, and their son, who we were good friends,
and they said they were going to a steakhouse before that,
and they asked me if I wanted to come. Yeah, steakhouse, great.
So I went with them. Walter, as my dad up there preaching,
about halfway through that message, it wasn't my dad speaking. It
wasn't my dad speaking. like Samuel." I said, Lord's
speaking to me. He said to him, he spoke to him. He spoke to Matthew. We know
a Matthew that we sure hope and pray the Lord speaks to him,
don't we? That's his only hope, isn't it? Spoke to him. What'd he say? What'd he say? How much do you
have to hear to be saved, to be born again, huh? Two words. Look at that, two words, look
at it, verse nine. Follow me. That's all he said to Simon.
That's all he said to Andrew. That's all he said to James.
That's all he said to John. Follow me. Where the word of
a king is, there's power. I know he said much more after
that. But there's so much in this,
in those two words. Follow me. Follow me. Matthew was following the world.
Matthew was following his dreams. Matthew maybe was following whatever. But our Lord said, follow me. Follow me. What is a Christian? What is a Christian? It's someone
who follows Jesus Christ. It's someone who's been called
by his gospel and believes and trusts and hopes and looks to
Christ as his all and in all. Looks to his blood as his sin
payment, his righteousness as his righteousness before God.
He looks to Christ as his only hope of acceptance with a holy
God. He follows Christ. He believes
Christ. She believes Christ. She loves
Christ. She follows him. That person
is a disciple, a student in the school of Christ. They follow
him. They don't follow the world.
They don't follow man. They're not listening to man.
They're listening to Jesus Christ. They don't follow their dreams.
They don't follow their tradition. They don't follow man. They don't
follow the world. They don't follow the denomination. They
follow Jesus Christ. He's the one that bled. He's
the one that bled. Follow me, follow me. Look at that, verse nine. He
arose. Two words, he arose. He got up from that, where all
that money was. How much money was saved? In Mark's, Luke's gospel is this
account, different, it says, same account, but it says, he
left all, two words, left all. He arose. We're dead in trespass
and sin until he calls us into life, calls us to follow him. Matthew was dead and trespasses
in, and Christ, this is the living word of God, the word of Christ,
the voice of Christ, and he called and he arose, like old Lazarus,
no less than Lazarus, he arose when Christ called. He arose,
left all. Now this is a miracle. Who could
get a man to leave all his money to follow a penniless preacher? Huh? The whole world said, that's
a rabbi. You know, if Matthew had seen
him before, Matthew wasn't looking, Christ looked, but if he had
seen him, this thing wasn't done in a corner. Everybody heard
of this Jewish rabbi named Jesus of Nazareth. If he had seen him,
there was no beauty in him that he desired. He may have heard
him on the Sermon on the Mount, but it didn't impress him. He's
interested in money. But buddy, when Christ came finally
and spoke to him, he left everything. He left everything. Like James
and John had left their father, left their boats, left their
nets. Christ is their life now. Who follows Christ? It's those
that leave father, mother, husband, wife, son, daughter, houses,
land. Nobody or anything is worth Jesus
Christ. He becomes yours. Life, what
does that mean? It means the worship of Christ,
the people of Christ, the kingdom of Christ. Someone claims to
believe Christ and they don't come hear the gospel, they don't
believe Jesus Christ. Wherever Christ was, that's where
Matthew was. Wherever Christ's disciples were,
that's where Matthew was. That's who the follower of Jesus
Christ is. He arose, left all, and did what? One thing. His
whole life consisted of one thing, two words. Followed him. Where
are you going? Followed him. Followed him, right? Oh, my. Thank the Lord. You know, wherever
the Lord was, Matthew was. That's where he wanted to be.
He used to follow the crowd. Now he's following the crowd.
He used to follow the stock market. Now he has treasures in heaven.
Oh, he used to love the world and thing, now he loves and long
for the Lord Jesus Christ. He used to be a companion of
thieves and fools, now he's with them that love his Lord. He's
happy, he's content, he's at peace. I want to show you something
in closing. Turn to page chapter 10. This is Matthew's story. This is my story. This is your
story. This is what he did for you,
called you. Matthew never got over what the
Lord did for him. He never lost sight of where
the Lord found him, what he was. He never lost sight. Chapter 10 is when the Lord called
his 12 disciples. Now look at this, verse 2. This
is Matthew's account. Are you with me? This is Matthew's
account, verse 2. Now the names of the 12 apostles
are these, the first Simon, called Peter, Andrew his brother, James
the son of Zebedee, John his brother, Philip, Bartholomew,
Thomas, and Matthew the publican. He's ashamed of himself as a
public and a sinner, but he's glorying in the fact that Jesus
Christ came to save a sinner like him. He never lost sight
of the fact of who he was, what he was, and how that Jesus Christ
came, set his eye on him, and called him by his name. Just
an old public. Who are you, an apostle? No,
I'm a public. Amen.