I'd like for you to turn back
in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 11. Charles Spurgeon once said, Many a word spoken in ridicule
has paid tribute, has paid tribute, and many times honor has been
paid by the lips and tongues of hatred. In Matthew 11, verse
19, the enemies of our Lord, thinking that they would brand
him with shame, thinking that they would hold him up to ridicule,
thinking that they would hand his name down to everlasting
scorn, called him a friend of sinners. In verse 19, the Master
said, the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, with
their lips of hatred, with their tongues of reproach and ridicule,
and they say, a gluttonous man, a wine-dibber, and a friend of
sinners. How short-sighted were these
religious leaders, how short-sighted they were, their slander only
published and proclaimed his blessed reputation. Their slander
only brought him more glory, for he is adored as the friend
of sinners. They meant it to be slander,
they meant it to be shame, they meant it to be reproach, but
it proved to be his chief glory, the friend of sinners. Paul rejoiced in that title.
He said, this is a true saying, this is a faithful saying, and
it's worthy of acceptation by all men that Jesus Christ came
into this world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief. The publican in the temple felt
free to call on Christ, the friend of sinners, for he came and lifted
not up even his eyes to heaven, but smote on his breast and cried,
God, be merciful to me, the sinner. And even the thief on the cross
felt bold to call upon Christ to remember him. He said, Lord,
remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. Out of my bondage,
my sorrow and night, Jesus, I come. Into thy freedom, gladness and
light, Jesus, I come. Out of my shameful failure and
loss, Jesus, I come. Into the glorious gain of thy
cross, Jesus, I come. Out of unrest and arrogant pride,
into thy blessed will to abide, Jesus, I come. Out of my sickness,
into thy health, and out of my want, into thy wealth, and out
of myself, to dwell in thy love, and out of despair, into raptures
above, and out of the depths of ruin untold, into the peace
of thy sheltering fold. Ever thy glorious face to behold,
Jesus, thy friend of sinners, I come." And they say, a friend
of sinners. There's no sham gospel that our
Lord gave us to preach. It is the good news that Jesus
Christ is the friend of sinners. He gave us not a message of reward
for mortals dressed in their fig leaf aprons of self-righteousness,
but he gave us good news to proclaim to sinners, sinners who have
nothing, sinners who are nothing, sinners who know nothing. Turn
with me to the book of Luke. In chapter 4, Our Lord Jesus
Christ had been out preaching, and he came back to his hometown.
The Scripture said he came back to Nazareth, the place where
he was brought up. And he entered the temple on
the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And our Lord selected
this passage from Isaiah 61 to describe his ministry. Our Lord
used this passage from Isaiah 61 to describe his task. his mission. He said, The Spirit
of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me, verse 18,
to preach the gospel to the poor. Now brethren, that's not the
poor in this world good, because many a poor man is a proud man.
But as Arthur Pink said, this is the spiritually poor, the
man who is nothing, has nothing, and knows nothing. He hath sent
me to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal
the brokenhearted. He hath sent me to preach deliverance
to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, and to
set at liberty them that are bruised." And then in Matthew
chapter 9, our Lord again describes his ministry. In Matthew the
9th chapter, verse 10, And it came to pass, as he sat at meat
in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down
with him and with his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it,
when the religious leaders saw it, they said to his disciples,
why does your master eat with publicans and sinners? Why does
your master associate with the lowest kind of people? But when
Jesus heard that, he said, They that behold, they that be well,
do not need a physician. It's sick people that need doctors.
Go ye and learn what that meaneth. This is his ministry. This is
his mission. You go learn what that means.
I will have mercy and not sacrifice, for I am not come to call the
righteous, those who think themselves righteous, and those who think
themselves holy, and those who think themselves acceptable,
I am come to call sinners to repentance. The name that they
gave him which they felt was a name of shame was the name
of his very mission, friend of sinners. The name that they gave
him to reproach him and to bring ridicule to him was the name
which portrayed his very glory, his very mission, Jesus Christ,
friend of sinners. Now brethren, I'm not here tonight
to prove our Lord's love for sinners. I'm here to declare
it. God did not send me into the
world to prove the Lord's mercy to sinful men and women. He sent
us to declare it. Our Lord needs no human lawyer. His words and his actions are
sufficient. I'd like to give you this evening
six reasons why I believe that Jesus Christ is the friend of
sinners. First of all, he proves his friendship
and he proves his love for sinners. I'm talking about real sinners
now. I'm talking about people who
are guilty before the law. Guilt in thought, guilt in nature,
guilt in word, guilt in attitude, guilt in motive. He proves his
love for sinners by his very incarnation. What better proof
could he give than coming from the majesty of his father's house
to the humble manger of Bethlehem. He who was robed in the glory
of God himself who shared the glory of the Father, he said
from the beginning, left that glory and came into this world
and lay in a manger, surrounded by shepherds, horses, cows, and
poor people. What better proof could he give
of his love for sinners than coming from the Holy House of
Heaven to our miserable, wretched, dark, sinful world. What better proof of his love
could he give than being made in the likeness of sinful flesh? He wasn't made in sinful flesh,
for he was the virgin-born Son of God without sin. He had no
earthly father. He did not partake of Adam's
fall, and of Adam's guilt, and of man's sin. But he came down
here and made himself in the likeness of sinful flesh, being
born of a sinner, having a sinner for his reputed father, subjecting
himself to trial, and to thirst, and to hunger, and to the scripture
says, every temptation, and yet without sin. What better proof
can our Lord give for his love for sinners, of his love for
sinners, than to be identified with a family of sinners. With
a family of sinners. Turn to Matthew chapter 1. Here
in the first chapter of Matthew, we go back and trace the family
tree of our Lord. Now sometimes if you're in my
study, you'll see on the wall of my study my family tree. I
have an uncle down in Alabama who is very proud of our ancestors. He checked and went through the
family tree. I don't know where he got all
his information, but it goes back to my great-great-great-grandfather. I have the names of all of them
on my family tree in the study on the wall. Here is the Lord's
family tree. the Lord Jesus Christ. It starts
here in verse 1 of Matthew 1. This is this book of the generation
of Jesus Christ, the son of David. Well, we start off right there.
David was the great, great, great, great, great grandfather of our
Lord, and David was a sinner. Sure, he was a man after God's
own heart, but none of us would want to lay claim to some of
the deeds of David, would we? A man schooled in the art of
adultery and murder, And yet he was in the family tree of
our Lord. You come on down to Abraham,
the son of Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac. Go on down
until you get here to verse 3, and you read about a woman named
Tamar. And she was the great-great-great-great-grandmother
of our Lord, and she was a prostitute. She had twin sons by her father-in-law,
playing the part of the harlot. You come on down, you'll find
in verse 5 And Simon begat Boaz of Rahab, who was Rahab. She
was the lady who had the house on the hill in Jericho where
the spies went, and she too was a harlot. But she was the great,
great, great, great grandmother of our Lord. And you come on
down to verse 6, and you'll find Jesse begat David the king, and
David the king begat Solomon of whom? Bathsheba. the wife of Uriah, who engaged
in an adulterous affair with David. So you see, our Lord Jesus
Christ proves his love for sinners by his incarnation. He came down
here from the holy house of heaven and identified himself with sinful
men and women. His whole family tree was a family
tree of sinners. Men and women of faith, yes.
Men and women of trust, yes, in God. but men and women who
were sinners. Our Lord loved sinners. He came
down here and identified himself with them, made himself of no
reputation, clothed himself in the likeness of sinful flesh.
That proves his love. Secondly, he proves his love
for sinners not only by his incarnation, but he proves his love for sinners
by his association. You don't find the Savior standing
at a distance, issuing laws and commandments and statutes and
orders to people. You don't find our Lord writing
prescriptions and sending these prescriptions for healing to
the people by the hands of his disciples. But you find our Lord
coming right down among the defiled. You find our Lord coming right
down among the sinful. You find our Lord sitting at
the table with them. You find our Lord with his arms
about them. You find our Lord eating with
them. You find our Lord up to his neck
in guilty, guilty men and women. He loved them. He loved them. Our Lord sits at the Pharisees'
table. And he was so identified with
sinners and so associated with sinners that a woman of the street
was not afraid to come in and kneel at his feet and bathe them
with tears and dry his feet with the hair of her head. You find
our Lord sending his disciples on into town, into Samaria, and
he sits down on a well And here comes a young woman who had been
married five times and at that time was living with a man who
was not her husband. And our Lord Jesus, instead of
being repelled, instead of pulling his coat up around him and lowering
his eyes to the ground and sneaking away to keep him being seen with
her and keep him being identified with her and keep him associating
with her, sat on the well and asked her to give him a drink
of water. Would you give me a drink of
water, please, ma'am? And she said, How come you, a Jew, ask
me, a Samaritan, for a drink of water? Don't you know that
the Jews don't have anything to do with folks like me? And our Lord said, If you knew
who it is that's asking you for a drink of water, you'd ask me
and I'd give you the water of life. Our Lord loves sinners. He calls to Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus
who made his living cheating foes. Zacchaeus who sat down
to figure out a man's tax and put in a 40% deal for himself. Zacchaeus who prayed on the poor. Zacchaeus who climbed up the
tree out of curiosity to see the Lord. We find our Savior
stopping under that tree and calling out, Zacchaeus, you come
on down. And this shocked the religious
people. I'm going to have lunch with you today, Zacchaeus. Doesn't
he know who that is? He knows who it is very well.
That's the kind of folks he came to save. It's in that very chapter
that Christ said, the Son of Man has come to seek and to save
the lost. Our Lord didn't come to call
the preacher. Our Lord didn't come to call
the priest. Our Lord didn't come to call the Pharisee. Our Lord
didn't come to call the righteous. He came to call sinners to repentance. Our Lord stooped by the woman
taken in sin. The Pharisees were always out
looking for somebody who had fallen, somebody to exercise
their discipline upon. And finally they found one, and
they brought her, and Jesus Christ was standing there. And they
threw her on the ground, and they said, this woman was taken
in the act of adultery. Moses lost his stoner. What do
you say? And the Lord Jesus Christ stooped
down beside that poor sinful woman, And he began to write
on the ground without saying a word. I don't know what he
wrote. Some people say that he wrote some names and places that
these fellows had recognized. I wouldn't know, that might be
it. But I'm telling you this, the scripture says, beginning
at the oldest, clear down to the youngest, they all strangely
found somewhere else to go at that particular time. They found
some unfinished business somewhere else. And when our Lord got through
writing there on the sand, whatever he wrote, some names and some
dates and some places and some sins and some guilt that had
been committed in secret, this woman, yes, openly, this woman
in public, but theirs in secret, he stood up and they were all
gone. And he looked down at her and he said, Woman, where are
the men who were accusing you? Does no man accuse you anymore?
She said, No, Lord. But he said, Neither do I. Go
and sin no more. Our Lord erected his cross between
two thieves! And that's where he died. And
that's where he redeemed this world. And that's where he came
down and accomplished his Father's task, between two thieves! Not on the altar of a church,
and not in a sacred, holy place. But between two thieves, and
then he made his grave, the scripture says, with the wicked and with
the rich. Our Lord never preached so sweetly. Our Lord never uttered words
so kind than when he was speaking to a sinner. A sinner. And let me tell you, he never
spoke more sharply than when he was speaking and rebuking. speaking to and rebuking a self-righteous
man or woman. Our Lord's words cut like a sword. Our Lord's pierced to the very
marrow of the bone when he was talking to a religious hypocrite. But, oh, when he was talking
to a sinner, his words were sweet as honey. He was kind. He loved him, and he proved his
love not only by his incarnation but by his association. And then,
thirdly, He proved his love for sinners by his sermons. Listen to him as he tells the
story of the man who had a lost sheep. He said there were ninety
and nine in the fold, and the man went there and there was
one missing. And the man left the ninety and nine in the fold,
and he went out on the hillside, and he walked through the rain
and the storm and the wind and the cold, and he found his sheep,
and he picked it up and put it on his shoulder. and rejoicing
he bore it home. And he cried out to his friends
and neighbors, Rejoice with me, I found my she. And he said there's
joy in the presence of the angels over one sinner that repents.
He tells the story in his message about a woman who lost a coin
and she swept the house and she got a light and she looked around
and finally she found her coin and she put it with the rest
of them and she called in her neighbors and said I found the
coin that was lost. with me. Then he told the story
about the lost son. He said the boy came to himself
down on the rail of the pigpen eating the husk, and he said,
How many servants in my father's house have plenty to eat and
a good place to sleep and plenty to wear? I'm going home. I'm
going to say, Father, I've sinned against heaven and in thy sight,
and I'm not worthy to be called thy son, just make me a hired
servant. And when the Father saw him coming
a long way off, he ran with open arms and greeted him, and he
called his neighbors and friends, and he said, Kill the fatted
cag. My son was lost, and now he's found. And Christ said there's
joy in the presence of the angels over one sinner that comes to
repentance. And then he stood on the mountain
overlooking that city of Jerusalem, and he said, O Jerusalem, how
oft would I have gathered you unto myself as a hen doth gather
her brood, but you would not. Come unto me, all ye that labour
and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest. That last day of the
feast he stood on Solomon's porch and watched the people going
away from their religious ceremonies empty, and he said, Everybody
that's thirsty, come to me. If you're thirsty, if you're
weary, if you're heavy laden, if you're naked, if you're miserable,
if you're poor, if you're blind, come to me and I'll give you
rest." And then he proved his love fourthly by his prayers.
He proved he loved sinners by his incarnation. He proved he
loved sinners by his associations. He proved he loved sinners by
his sermons. He proved he loved sinners by
his prayers. Turn to John 17. Our Lord went
to the Father in prayer, and you know what he talked about?
He talked about you and me. Aren't you glad? He said, Peter,
I prayed for you. I prayed for you. The Lord took
our polluted names on his holy lips. Our Lord is not ashamed
to call us brethren. Our cause is his cause. Look
at John 17, these words speak. Jesus, verse 1, lifted his eyes
to heaven and said, Father, this is the Lord in prayer. The hours
come, glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee, as
thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give
eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life
eternal. that they might know thee the
only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified
thee on the earth, I have finished the work you gave me to do. And
now, Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the
glory which I had with thee before the world was. I have manifested
thy name unto the men which thou gavest me." Verse 9, I pray for
them. I pray for them. Verse 15, I
pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world. verse
20, "...neither pray I for these alone, but for them also, which
shall believe on me through their word." I pray for them. I pray
for them. You know, my friend, you'll testify
to this, I think. If you really love somebody,
you'll pray for them. And if you don't love them, chances
are you won't pray for them. Our Lord prayed for sinners,
and then in the fourth place he proved his love by his death.
Having loved his own, he loved them to the end. And the end
was the horrible, terrible, suffering, agony of Calvary's cause. Herein is love, not that we loved
him, but he loved us and gave himself for us. He is numbered with the transgressors. A man has committed a murder.
He's killed a man. And then after he killed a man,
he took a knife and cut his throat. And he falls bleeding and dying. And someone calls the police
and they also call a physician. And the policeman and the physician
are both on the scene quickly. The policeman comes in the interest
of the law, which has been broken. The physician comes in the interest
of healing. And the policeman says, man,
you're my prisoner. And the physician says, my friend,
you're my patient. Trust me. And the physician kneels
down beside the man. The policeman stands with the
handcuffs in his hand, and the gun in his hand, and the warrant
in his hand. But the physician kneels down
with the tools of healing. He lays his hand on the wound,
and he sews it up. And he gives blood, and he gives
medicine. And he takes the man to his clinic,
and he puts him to bed, and he pulls the white sheet up under
his throat, and day after day he goes to see him. The law says
he's a criminal, leave him be. The physician is not concerned
with the man as a criminal, he's concerned with the man as a sufferer. The law has come to condemn,
Christ Jesus has come to save. He said, the Son of Man is not
coming to the world to condemn the world. The world is already
condemned. The Son of Man has come to save,
to save. Our Lord is the physician of
souls. Our Lord is the one who stoops
down beside the guilty and says, trust me, trust me. I'll supply your need. I'll heal
your wound. I'll make you well. I'll clothe
your nakedness. I'll heal your blindness, I'll
heal your lameness, I'll raise you up, trust me, trust me."
I heard the voice of Jesus say, come to me and rest, lay down,
thou weary one, lay down thy head on my breast. I came to
Jesus just as I was, weary and worn and sad, and I found in
him a resting place, and he's made me so glad. I heard the
voice of Jesus say, Behold, I freely give the living water, thirsty
one, stoop down and drink and live. I came to Jesus, and I
drank of that life-giving stream, and my thirst was quenched and
my soul was revived, and now I live in him. Our Lord proves
his love by his prayers. In the sixth place, our Lord
proves his love for sinners by his intercession. Turn to Romans
chapter 8. What's he doing now? He proved
his love by his death. What's he doing now? Where did
he go? He went to the right hand of the Heavenly Father. And Romans
chapter 8 verse 34 says, Who is he that condemneth? It is
Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even
now, this moment, at this very time, at the right hand of God. And he's making intercession
for whom? Sinners. I'm glad I'm a sinner. You say, Preacher, that's a pretty
bold statement. It's not bold when you read chapter
5 of Romans. Look at it. Chapter 5 of Romans
says this, verse 6, When we were without strength, Christ died
for the ungodly. In verse 8, God commended his
love toward us in that while we were yet sinners. Christ died
for us. Verse 10, when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son. I'm not
glad I've sinned, but I'm glad I'm a sinner. I'm not glad I've
broken God's law, but I'm glad I'm a sinner. I'm not glad I've
offended his holy nature, but I'm glad I'm a sinner. I'm glad
one day that God stripped me. I'm glad one day that God broke
me. I'm glad one day God crippled
me. I'm glad one day God smote me. I'm glad one day God brought
me to the dust. And like Saul of Tarsus on the
road to Damascus, he unhorsed this proud sinner and broke his
spirit and put him in the dust and left him one way to look,
and that's up. I'm glad. You can boast of your
righteousness and boast of your merit and boast of your works
if you want to, but I boast of one thing, a Savior slain. Suffer a sinner whose heart overflows,
loving his Savior to tell what he knows. Once more to tell it
would I embrace. I'm a sinner saved by grace. Nought have I gotten but what
I receive. Grace hath bestowed it since
I have believed. Boasting, excluded, pride of
our base, I'm only a sinner, saved by his grace. I'm glad
he loved sinners. If he didn't, he wouldn't have
loved me. And Charlie, he wouldn't have loved you. And H.B., he'd
never met you. If salvation were for good people,
none of you'd be saved. If salvation were for good people,
none of you'd stand a chance. And the last of all, turn to
John 14. In the 14th chapter of John,
Christ proves his love for sinners, not only because he died for
them and not only because right now he's interceding for them,
but he says in John 14, he's coming back to get them. He says
in John 14, to his bereaved, broken-hearted, sorrowing disciples,
let not your heart be troubled. Do you believe in God? Believe also in me. In my Father's
house are many mansions, and if it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you,
and if I go and prepare a place for you, I'll come again, and
I'll receive you unto myself. But where I am, there you may
be also." Paul found great satisfaction in that. He said, I am persuaded. that to depart from this body
is to be with Christ. And I'm in a straight betwixt
the two. I have a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is
far better. He's coming back, and he's coming
back for me. And he loves sinners with an
everlasting love, a love that will cultivate in his eternal
marriage to every one of his own. O love that will not let
me go, I rest my weary soul in thee. O light that follows all
my way, I yield my flickering torch to thee. O joy that seeks
me through my pain, I cannot close my heart to thee. O cross
that lifts up my head, I dare not ask to fly from thee. I lay in dust, life's glory dead. And from the ground there blossoms
red life that shall endless be. Friend of sinners, that's what
he is. They thought that they were bringing
shame to him, but bless God, they brought glory to him. Sinners,
friend of sinners, friend of publicans and sinners, they thought
to ridicule him, but instead they praised him. They thought
to reproach him, but instead They made him to be adored by
every empty-handed sinner in this world. Thank God for Christ. Thank God for Calvary. Thank
God for his love and his grace. Our Father, by the power of thy
matchless Spirit, bless the message to the hearts of sinners. We
have no good news for those who are free. We have no good news
for those who are clothed in their own righteousness. We have
no good news for those who feel satisfied in themselves. But
Father, if there's an empty-handed, broken, naked sinner, if there's
somebody out here tonight guilty, who's broken God's law, who's
wandered far away from God, give them the good news in their hearts,
not just in their head, but in their hearts that Christ died
for sinners. And all they have to do is look.
All they have to do is believe. All they have to do is cast themselves
at the feet of Christ, like the woman who was a sinner. And as
tears of repentance fall from their eyes, Christ will say,
Go in peace. Thy faith hath made thee whole.
In his blessed name we pray. Amen.