If you have your Bibles open
to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 9, I'll read beginning with verse
10 and read through verse 13. And it came to pass as Jesus
said at meet in Matthew's house, Behold many publicans and sinners
came and sat down with Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees
saw it, they said unto His disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans
and sinners? And 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,
for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Now to set the scene here this
morning in our text, we see that our Lord Jesus has went to Matthew's
home to have dinner. And while he was there, there
were many that came in and sat down with him and his
disciples. And one translation says that
these that came in, there was among them several notorious
swindlers. They were spoken of here in the
King James as many publicans and sinners, tax collectors,
notorious swindlers. But this was the company of the
master as he sat in Matthew's house. And when the religious
folks of the day, the Pharisees saw it, They were quite offended
and they said unto his disciples, why does your master eat with
publicans and sinners? Why is he allowing them to be
in his presence in this house? And when Jesus understood what
they were saying, he said to them, they that behold need not
a physician. Those that are well, they do
not need a doctor. They're not looking for a doctor.
They need no doctor. But, he says, they that are sick,
they that are sick need a physician. They need a doctor, implying
that these people that had come in to meet with him, that they
needed, they needed a doctor. They were sick. They were sinners. And they needed healing. They
needed the Master. And then he says in verse 13,
and I hope we will listen to these words this morning. But
go, he said, ye, and learn what that meaneth. You go learn what
I'm talking about. You go and learn this. Because
this is essential that you understand what I have just said to you,
that you know what I'm saying." And then he said, I will have
mercy and not sacrifice. He said, I'll have mercy upon
the guilty. I'll have mercy upon those who
are sinners. I'm not looking for anyone who
can make a contribution to me anyone who can make a contribution
toward their salvation. I'm not looking for a sacrifice
for anyone to come who's able to minister to me. For I have
not come to call the righteous. I've not come to call the moral. I've not come to call those who
are self-righteous, but sinners to repentance. I've come to call
sinners to repentance. Now let me ask you a question.
My subject this morning is grace for the guilty. Grace for the
guilty. And the question, the first question
I want to ask, and I will attempt as I go through this message
to answer this question, and that is, when does a person,
when does the son of Adam take his first step toward eternal
life, when does the son of Adam take his first step toward God's
salvation and toward heaven? Is it when he has his first interest
in the scriptures? Is it when he starts to believe
the Bible? When he says, well, I believe
that the Bible is true and that it's the Word of God. And then
maybe it might be someone would suggest in present day terminology
when they receive Christ and when their attitude changes toward
the church and toward the things of God. Well, I say to you, my
friend, that none of the above are correct. When does a man
move, when does he move toward eternal life, to God's salvation. Well, a man or woman, boy or
girl, takes their first step, I think, toward eternal life
when they understand that they're sinners and that they need a
Savior. Now, that's what our Lord is
telling us here in this scripture. When they understand their alienation
from God and understand that they deserve the judgment of
God and the wrath of God and when they would feel that God
would be absolutely unjust if he did not damn their souls to
an eternal hell. Sick people need a doctor. They need a doctor. And you start
looking, you get the yellow pages and you start looking for a doctor
when you get sick. Now I do not plan to go to a
doctor tomorrow, God willing. There may be some of you who
are going to see a physician tomorrow. And that would be because
you judge yourself or deem yourself to be sick. And that you need
to visit a physician. Sinners need a savior. Lost people
need a Redeemer. Guilty people need the grace
of God. The well, the righteous, the
good, the moral have no need of a Savior. They have no need
of anyone to assist them, anyone to provide for them what they're
lacking. Let me illustrate this to you.
I want to use three illustrations out of the scripture. If you
have your Bible there, just look back to chapter 1, or chapter
8, that is, of Matthew's gospel, verse 1. Chapter 8, verse 1,
And when he was come down, that is, the master from the mountain,
great multitudes followed him, and, behold, There came a leper,
and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make
me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand,
and touched him, saying, I will be thou clean. And immediately
his leprosy was cleansed. And so there you have the first
illustration. The second is found in the book
of Luke, chapter 8. The book of Luke, chapter 8. And in verse 43, a woman having
an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living
upon physicians, neither could be healed of any, came behind
him and touched the border of his garment, and immediately
her issue of blood stanched. And Jesus said, Who touched me?
When all denied Peter, and they that were with him said, Master,
the multitude thronged thee, and pressed thee, and sayest
thou, Who touched me? And Jesus said, Somebody hath
touched me, for I perceive that power of virtue is gone out of
me. And when the woman saw that she
was not hid, She came trembling and falling down before him.
She declared unto him before all the people for what cause
she had touched him and how she was healed immediately. And he
said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort. Thy faith hath
made thee whole. Go in peace. And then the third
is found in the book of Mark, St. Mark chapter 10. verse 46 through 52. And they
came to Jericho, that is, Jesus and his disciples. And as he
went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number
of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the
highway side begging. And when he heard that it was
Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, Thou
son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged him that he
should hold his peace. But he cried the more a great
deal, Thou son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood
still and commanded him to be called. And they called the blind
man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise, he calleth thee. And he casting away his garment,
rose and came to Jesus. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? And the blind man
said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Jesus saith
unto him, Go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately
he received his sight and followed Jesus in the way. Now I have
a question for you. And you think on this, if you
will. What is the one thing that all three of these people in
the illustration had in common. What is the one thing that they
had in common? Someone might suggest that they
had all heard of Christ. Well, that is true. They had
all heard of Christ, and we know that the Bible says, how can
you believe on someone whom you have not heard? And how can you
hear without a preacher? Now, they undoubtedly, somewhere
along the line, had heard of the fame of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, someone else might say,
they all came to Christ. They all came to Him, and that
is true. Our Lord said, come unto me,
all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. All three of them did come, to
the Lord Jesus Christ. Someone else says that they all
three recognized the power of Jesus Christ to heal them. The woman, she recognized that
our Lord had virtue in him and that if she could just touch
the hem of his garment that she would be healed. The leper, He
knew that Jesus could heal him, and he said, if thou wilt, thou
canst make me whole. And blind Bartimaeus understood
also that no man, no mere man, could do his case any good. No
mere man could heal him. They all three recognized the
sovereignty of God over their case. They all recognized that
only God was able to heal them. But back of it all, what was
the one thing that was necessary, that chief thing that they all
had in common? What was that? Well, beloved,
it is evident that that one thing is that they all three had a
need. They had a need and felt desperately
that need, and that need drove them to the Lord Jesus Christ. They needed Christ. They were helpless and hopeless
in their inability, and they were unable to assist themselves. They were unable to heal themselves. They needed what Christ Jesus
the Lord could do for them. Now what we want to say is, what
we are saying is that leprosy is what brought the leper to
Christ. What we're saying is the issue of blood brought the
woman to the Lord Jesus to touch the hem of his garment, and blindness
is what brought Bartimaeus to Christ. Well, what brings a man
to the table normally three times a day? Is it not hunger? that
brings him to the table? What brings a man to the well?
Is it not thirst? What brings a person to the doctor? Is it not sickness? What brings
a person to Christ? It's his sin that brings him
to Christ and his need. In Luke 19 and 10, the Bible
says the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which
was lost. Christ came to save lost people
And if you've never been lost, then my friend, you are not now
found. You may feel that you are, but
you're not found until you know yourself to be lost. Did he not
go in search of a lost sheep? Our Lord went in search of a
lost sheep. 1 Timothy 1 and 15 says that
this is a faithful saying and worthy of acceptation by all,
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom
I am chief." Those were the words of the Apostle Paul. I ask you
this, where are the people today who are seeking the Lord? Where
are they? Do you know of anyone that is
seeking the Lord? Where are those like the publican
of long ago who cried out, God be merciful to me, the sinner? Where are these people that have
been so disturbed and brought to the realization of their own
condition that they're crying out like the thief of long ago?
Lord, remember me when thou comest into your kingdom. Where are
these people? Well, where are those like the
Greeks in John chapter 12, who Pat was singing about this morning,
who said, Sirs, we would see Jesus. Where are these people? Where are those who, like the
Philippian jailer, cried out, What must I do to be saved? Has anyone asked you that lately? Anyone that you know of going
about asking, What must I do to be saved? Well, my friend,
we can't find them, and that is because men have no need. They're not sinners. They're
not lost. They're not undone. They're not
in need of what Jesus Christ can give them. Ask them, if you
will. Just ask them. Do you have any
great spiritual need? No, no. No, no, I don't have
any. And the evidence is they do not
seek the Lord. They do not seek God. Now, beloved,
the Bible says that there's none among natural men that seeketh
after God. And what that tells us is that
if you ever lay eyes on anyone that's seeking the Lord, you
know it's because God Almighty intervened in their life. And
that God visited them and showed them their great need. And therefore,
they became seekers after God. A genuine sinner is hard to find. A genuine, bona fide sinner is
hard to find. The Bible teaches that these
sinners, until they're stripped and brought low and made to know
and understand their need of the Lord Jesus Christ, they will
not come. Someone well said that a sinner
is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so. Until he's taught of God, he
will not know himself. And I say to you this morning
that only those who are taught of God will cease to justify
themselves before men and begin to search after the Lord Jesus
Christ that they might be justified before God. You know, the Lord
Jesus accused those Pharisees in His day and He said, you're
those who justify yourself before men. But you're not right in
the sight of God. Your heart is not right in God's
sight. Well, why do the young people
of our day have no interest in God? No interest in the things
of the Bible. No interest in the things of
the gospel. They have no need. That is the
reason. They have no interest in the
Bible. And your co-workers, they have
no interest in your gospel. And the reason for that is they
don't want your Savior. They don't want your gospel.
They don't want to hear it. It's not good news to them. And
the reason it's not good news for them is because they're not
sinners. They don't feel themselves to
be in need of the things of God. It is difficult, I say, to find
a self-confessed, undeserving, hell-deserving sinner. Do you
know one? Do you know one? Is there any
among your acquaintance that know themselves to be wretched,
poor, blind, and in need of the redeeming grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ? If you find one, You have such
good news for him because you can tell him that Jesus Christ
has died for him. If you ever find a sinner, you've
got good news for him. Now we wonder about old people
in our day and time who are on the verge of death, on the brink
of eternity, and they have no need of Christ. They don't talk
about eternal hope, through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus.
No word about grace for the guilty coming out of their mouths. We
see them indifferent. We see them living for to eat
another meal. Living to make another visit
to one of their friends. To make another trip. They're
not interested in that which heals the soul. They are not
sinners. They do not feel themselves to
be in desperate need of the Redeemer, the Lord Jesus. churches and
preachers of our day. No gospel? Well, why? Why is
it that people are content to allow their preacher to get up
and just maybe tell a few stories and maybe possibly to give a
little message on some social issue and never preach the gospel? Why is that? Because the preacher
know of the people know anything about the desperate need of the
sons of Adam for the redeeming grace, the regenerating power
of our Lord Jesus Christ. They know nothing about that.
And that's the reason why that they do not preach the gospel. No need of the gospel. They're
all good people. You see, they don't need the
cross. They don't need the blood. They don't need regeneration
by the Spirit and a robe of righteousness woven from top to bottom by the
Redeemer Himself. But, you know, the Redeemer said,
that he did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to
repent us. I preached a sermon a while back
about people being too good to be saved. Some of you might remember
that. About people being too good to
be saved. Have you ever met anybody that was too good to be saved?
Well, whenever you meet somebody that does not understand their
need of a Savior, you've met somebody that, in their judgment,
they don't need what you've got. They don't need what you're peddling.
They don't need the gospel you're preaching. They don't need that.
Well, Jesus said, I didn't come to call them. I didn't come to
call them. to repentance. I come to call
sinners to repentance. These folks are not going to
repent. Well, the well have no need of
a physician. He said go, learn what that means. Grace is for the guilty. That's
what it means. Mercy is for the miserable. And
Christ died for the ungodly. That's what that means. Well,
there's one thing, I think, that keeps the average religionist
from genuine repentance towards God. And you must have it, my
friend. That is repentance toward God. You must have it. Except you
repent, Jesus said, you will perish. You must have repentance
toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. One thing keeps
the average religionist from a heart love for Jesus Christ,
and you must have it. I say you must have a heart love
for Jesus Christ. The Bible says that if a man
loved not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha. Let him go to hell when Christ
comes back. if he has not love, a heart love,
if he has not affection toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Heart
love for Christ will affect all that a man says, all that he
does, and all that he thinks. A heart love for Christ. And one thing keeps him from
a vital saving union with the Lord Jesus Christ, and he must
have it. A man must be in union with the
Lord Jesus. He must be in Christ and Christ
in him for him to be saved. He may be joined to a church.
He may be joined to a denomination. He may be joined to a program
or to a society. But beloved, this one thing is
that he must have his that he, the reason he doesn't have and
is not in this position that we've just described is because
he's never been broken. He never has seen himself as
a sinner before God and brought to depend upon Christ for mercy
and grace. He's never really been brought
to that position. Now if you've never been lost,
You have never been found. And we said that earlier, but
I want to press it upon you. I'm trying to help you to see
that this is what Jesus was talking about when he said, Go ye and
learn what that meaneth. If you've never been lost, then
you've never been found. If you've never been dead in
sin, then you've never passed. from death unto life. And John
said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word,
and believeth on him, that sent me hath everlasting life. And he that believeth not shall
not see life. The wrath of God abides upon
him. Those that believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, they have passed from death unto life. You cannot
be saved apart from knowing your sinnerhood. If you've never been
separated from God, how can you be reconciled to God? How can
you ever be reconciled to God unless you deem yourself to have
been separated by your sin from God? I asked a lady one time,
a preacher's daughter, how long she had been saved. And she said,
well, I've been saved all my life. And I said to her, that
is entirely too long. It's too long. If you've been
saved all of your life, that's too long. Now you know this song,
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like
me. I once was lost, but now I'm
found, was blind, but now I see. John Newton's hymn. Are these
just words of a song? Or do they describe the experience
of God's elect? I say to you, my friend, this
morning, they describe the experience of the elect of God. God commendeth
his love, the Bible says, towards us that while we were yet sinners. Paul said also in that same chapter
that Christ died for the ungodly. The ungodly. These are not flattering
terms. Sinners and the ungodly. Christ
died for those kind of people. For those who need salvation. If when we were enemies, Paul
said, whose enemy? Somebody says, well God's enemy. We were God's enemy by nature.
We were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. Now you
say, I've never been an enemy of God. Never in my life. Well my friend, if you're breathing
God's air in this world, and if you're wearing God's clothes,
and eating God's food, and enjoying God's creation, on this earth,
and if you're not in Christ, and if you're not praising God
and giving glory to God and worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ as the
only salvation, and giving Him all the preeminence in your salvation,
then my friend, You are an enemy of God. You're at enmity. Your
very nature is at enmity against God. And as old preacher Richardson
would one time say, well, I think he said it more than once, didn't
he, Pat? He said that you'd stick a butcher knife in God's back
if you could get to Him. And men by nature would do that.
They would do that. The old nature of man. The old
nature that we were born with. Well, has your mouth ever been
stopped before God? Cried out, guilty, guilty, guilty? You know, the Bible says what
things the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law
that all the world may become guilty before God. I remind you,
it is the guilty that receive the mercy of God. The righteous
are sent away empty. Christ did not die as an example. He died as a sin offering. Don't ever forget that. He did
not die as a martyr. He died as a substitute for sinners. That's what he did when he died.
If our sin was not worthy of hell, then Christ would not have
suffered hell on that cross. Do you believe he suffered your
hell? in your room instead, in place, on the cross? I believe
that with all my heart. This is where, beloved, a saving
relationship with Christ starts. And do you know that many, many
preachers and churches, they have bypassed all this that we're
talking about this morning. Just bypassed it. And do you
know that we have made people Christians who have never been
lost? Never been lost. Told them that
they were all right. Told them that America was a
Christian nation and anybody born in America were all Christians
and everybody going to heaven. Everybody going to heaven. Well,
my friend, this is wrong. And not only that, but we have
weashed Jesus Christ off on a whole lot of people that did not feel
their need of Him. And that's why a whole lot of
people, years afterwards, sometime, there's a lot of people that
I've known in my experience that have finally got saved later
on in life. Because they had, Mama, we sent
Jesus off on it. Well, Grandpa, he said I needed
to believe. And so I went through the motions. Because Grandpa said that's what
I ought to do. Well, my friend, you must have
an experience of grace wherein God teaches you and that you
might understand your real need and your real condition in order
that you might truly seek the Lord. Well, let me answer very
quickly and I'll let you go. How did we become sinners? You
see, you've been talking about us being sinners. How did we
become sinners? Number one, quickly by identification. By identification with Adam.
That's how we became a sinner. By one man, the Bible says, sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men, for when Adam did what he did, we all did too. That's
exactly it. We became sinners by identification
with Adam. You know that the Bible says
in Adam all die. When are you going to come to
life? You say, well, I've never been born again. I've never been
born. Well, then you're not alive.
You're dead in sin. Somebody told Aaron last night,
said he was born right the first time. He didn't have to be born
again. My friend, that individual is blind. He's blind to what
I'm talking about this morning. He's blind to what our Master
was teaching in this gospel reference and text this morning. He's blind
to that. You must be born again, the Word
of God teaches. And so by identification in Adam,
all died. Whole human race are sinners. Number two, we're sinners by
birth when we come into this world. David said, in sin did
my mother conceive me. We are born with the principle
and nature of sin in us. That's the truth. I'm telling
you the truth. You say, Preacher, you sound
like you believe in original sin. I do believe in original
sin. I do indeed. And then we're sinners
by nature. The scripture said this is the
condemnation that light has come into the world and men love darkness
rather than the light because their deeds are evil. Now what
in the world would a scripture like that mean? Well it means
that people that are outside of Christ, that are lost, dead
in their sin, that these people they love darkness rather than
light. They love the dark things of life. And you know, I heard
it said the other day that one of our past presidents, and I
understand in what light they were talking about it, that he
had no dark side. Well, who was our friend that
was down on the Missouri River? What was his name? Ah, come on, way back. Well, anyway, he made the statement
that all men are like the moon. They all have their dark side. Mark Twain said that. Mark Twain. They all have their dark side.
And Brevin, they're right about that. What's that? Somebody say
something? Well, they all have their dark
side. Man has his dark side. And you know what all that means?
It means it is easier to lie than tell the truth if it's going
to cost you something. That's what it means. And we
know that people living in this world today are blind to what
it is that drives them and makes them hate what they ought to
love and love what they ought to hate. Well, it's because they're
sinners by nature. And then also we're sinners by
choice. You've heard it said, well, everybody
ought to have a choice. Well, My friend, might I say
that you had your choice. You've already had your choice.
You chose to do what Adam did when you were in him. You made
your choice in Adam. You say, well, I think I ought
to have a choice as to whether or not I live or die. You have
your choice and you've already made it and you're dead. And
you'll remain that way until a sovereign Christ until he says,
live, live, until that happens, you're going to be dead in sin.
Salvation is of the Lord, my friend. Christ only can bring
a sinner out of eternal death. Now Christ said you had your
choice. He said to men in his day, you will not come to me
that you might have life. He said, if I come in my own
name, he said, I come in my own name, you have none of it. But
if a man will come, well, I'm sorry. He said, if I come as
the Savior, and I am, you have no part of it. But if a man will
come in his own name, not in the name of God, you will have
him. You will have him. Words to that
effect. Now then, He said, you will not come to me that you
might have life. You won't do it. That's your
choice. Dead in sin, you won't come.
You won't come. Why haven't you come already?
You say, oh, I can come when I get ready. No, you're never
going to get ready. That will not happen until the
Lord is pleased to really make you feel deep down your need
and make you so desperate that you will not that you will not
stay in your condition. You will seek the Lord and come
to Him with all of your heart. And then also, we're sinners
by practice. And you know, here's where you
have trouble with a lot of people. Sinners by practice? You say,
I'm a practicing sinner? You are indeed. You're outside
the Lord Jesus Christ. All the sons of Adam are practicing
sinners. But thanks be unto God, some
are saved sinners. and others are lost sinners.
In 1 John 1 verses 8-10, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins,
our sins, our sins that we practiced, if we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness. And if we say that we've not
sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. His word is not in us if we say
that we are not practicing sinners. No, the Bible says in Romans
3 that there's none good No, not one, either in the pulpit
or the pew. None good. We're all sinners
before God. The gospel is good news for sinners,
and there is grace for the guilty, thank God. Have you ever felt
yourself to be guilty, and have thought that God would be unjust
if he had damned your soul to hell? My friend, those who truly
exercised in these matters feel that it is only through the merits
of Jesus Christ that they have eternal life. There is a balm
in Gilead that will make the wounded whole, and that balm
is the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. I hope that we
have learned somewhat about what that means for the whole not
to need a physician, but the sick. I hope we've learned something
about this this morning. And if you're here and you're
outside of Christ and the Lord has dealt with your heart, then
look away from yourself. Look away from yourself. Agree
with God. Take sides with God against yourself. Admit that you're the sinner
that you know yourself to be. and look to the Lord Jesus Christ
and never take your eyes off Him the rest of your life. Look
to Christ and trust Him for the salvation of your soul. May the
Lord be pleased to use these remarks this morning for His
glory and His honor. We prayed earnestly that He would,
and I trust that He will. Pray for us all in our afflictions
and our trials and troubles and tests. Pray for us. Pray for
each other. May God bless you. And may the
Lord keep us all from becoming gospel hardened. That we might
be moved when we hear the glorious grace of God talked about, preached. That God would move our hearts
toward Him. Father, in the name of Jesus,
we thank you for this time this morning. for this meeting. We
ask the blessing now to go with us as we go our way and pray
for the salvation of any lost soul in our midst here this morning. In Jesus' name, Amen.