everybody out this morning. Looks
like some people made some decisions. Made the decision not to come. But too much Thanksgiving dinner,
I reckon. But I hope everybody had a nice
Thanksgiving. I sure had one. Loretta and Arlene
made some serious vittles. And I ate a lot of them. So it
was really good. Thanks for the invite. And we'll
observe the Lord's table this morning after the worship service.
And then we'll not have an afternoon service, nor will we dine. So other than that, I can't think
of any announcement except for Cliff Coffman, who's Fred's brother,
has been diagnosed with leukemia. and he's going for a PET scan
tomorrow and that will light up where the leukemia is on the
pictures. Remember him and the Cochran
family in your prayers and also the Pender family. Patricia Tramper
doing better? Other than that, I can't think
of anything so let's begin our worship service with hymn number
six. Come Thou Almighty King Help us, I need
to sing Help us to praise Father, all-glorious, o'er all victorious,
come and reign over us, ancient of days. Come thou incarnate Word, gird
o'er thy mighty sword, our prayer attest. ? Thy people bless and
give thy word success ? ? Spirit of holiness on us descend ? ?
Come holy comforter ? ? Thy sacred witness bear in this glad hour
? Now rule in every heart, And
ne'er from us depart. Spirit of power, To the great
one in three, Eternal praises be, It's evermore. ? His sovereign majesty ? ? We
in glory see ? ? And to eternity love and adore ? After scripture
reading and prayer, we'll sing hymn number 209. Grace greater than all our sins.
If you have your Bibles, turn with me to Matthew chapter nine. I've been reading with verse
nine. I'm gonna take my text from verse 12 this morning. Matthew chapter nine and verse
nine. And as Jesus passed forth, or passed 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. And when the Pharisees saw it,
they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your master with publicans
and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he
said unto them, They that behold need not a physician, but they
that are sick. Go ye, and learn what that means. I will have mercy and not sacrifice,
for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven,
we come in the name of Jesus Christ, our majestic Lord, who
sits at thy right hand, ever living to intercede for his people.
he is there because he accomplished the salvation of the elect by
his blood sacrifice whereby he put away our sin by the sacrifice
of himself when he alone as our substitute bore our sins in his
body on the tree he alone offered the perfect
sacrifice the death that was due every
one of us He paid that debt for his people and satisfied your
law and justice. We are so thankful in the depths
of our soul and our hearts to be able to speak of such things
with clarity and confidence. Not in ourselves, for we have
no confidence in ourselves. Our confidence does sit at thy
right hand. Father, we pray for those who
are sick, those who've lost loved ones, those who are going through
trials and tribulations, which is the lot of the child of God
in this world. Remember especially Brother Cochran's family. With
Cliff being diagnosed with leukemia, we pray that you'd be with them
as they must minister to him, and we pray you'd be with those
doctors. We pray it's the type of leukemia that can be treated.
Help us, Lord, to remember each other in prayer. And as we've
gathered here today, this day, let us worship you in spirit
and in truth. Lift us up to see Christ. We know our headquarters are
in the dust. But you have humbled us, Lord, and you have told us
that you will raise up those who have humbled us. Help us
now to worship you as you ought to be worshipped. We pray in
Christ's name. Amen. I thought you was going to be
in Alabama. Okay. Good enough. I'm glad. I'd rather you be here,
too. Hymn number 209. Grace greater than all our sins. ? Marvelous grace of our loving
Lord ? Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt ? Yonder on
Calvary's mount aboard There where the blood of the Lamb was
spilled Grace, grace, God's grace Grace that will pardon and cleanse
within Grace, grace, God's grace our sin. Sin despair like the sea waves
cold. Threaten the soul with infinite
loss. Grace is greater, yes, grace
untold. cross. Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace and pardon and cleanse
within. Grace, grace, That is greater than all our
sin. Dark is the stain that we cannot
hide. What can avail? Wash it away. Look, there is flood. ? Whiter than snow you may be today
? Grace, grace, God's grace ? Grace that will pardon and cleanse
within ? Grace, grace, God's grace that is greater than all our
sin. Marvelous, infinite, matchless
grace, freely bestowed on all who believe. you this for what is great. within grace, grace, God's grace,
grace that is greater than all our sin. Stan, I'm gonna have
you receive the office this morning, please. Is Steve okay? Oh my goodness, bless his heart.
Let us pray. Our Father, come again in the
name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, our Master, our elder brother,
our dearest and closest friend, who died in the room instead
of his people, gave us the gift of eternal life, abundant life.
We know that what we have, you have given to us freely. We don't
deserve anything of your favor. But you've highly favored us
to the point that you've actually adopted us and given us birth
into your kingdom and your family. Thank you, Father, for such kindness
and mercy towards sinners. Help us now to render unto thee
that which you've given us. It belongs to thee. Let us do
so with joy. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. the the I guess my favorite arrangement. There are certain passages in
scripture that warm the heart and the mind of wretched sinners. who know that in and of themselves
there is no hope. We find in scripture what went
on in this passage of scripture that our Lord drew because of
the kind of man he was among men. He drew sinners and publicans
and the worst kind of people to himself. while the religion of the world
looked on him with disdain and despised him and those who gathered
around him." This is one of those passages
that speaks sweetly to the heart of the believer. The words of
our Lord here are the language for what he spoke of in Isaiah
61 and Luke 4, that he came to heal the brokenhearted, the language
for the sick and sickened soul. They are, as Jeremiah said, there
is a balm in Gilead. There is a physician there. And this bombing, Gilead, is
for the one who has and does experience the pains and awareness
of his own sinfulness and depravity. These words are for those who
know what God requires of humanity and knows full well that they
can never, to any measure, produce it. They are hopeful sinners because
the gracious Lord they know and feel in their own soul, their
own sinfulness. They hear their Lord refer to
them as sick and needy. Nothing but grace and mercy could
view sheer rebellion as such a piteous infirmity.
None but the gracious God. This is one of the many astonishing
things about the grace of God. Our Lord spoke the words of Matthew
chapter nine and verse 12 in the house of Matthew. Matthew
was a publican which was rated lower than a sinner. It's worded
in scripture publicans and sinners. not sinners and publicans, but
publicans and sinners. The publican was a tax collector
that overtaxed and took the overage for himself, and he did it for
Rome. He was a Jewish man who did it
for Rome. The most despised man in Israel
was a Jew who robbed the people under the authority of Rome,
and that's what they did. The first obvious error, according
to the wisdom of religion, was that the Lord had called this
publican to follow Him. Religion said, there's something
wrong here. This fellow asked this publican to follow Him.
And after he had Matthew to follow Him, Matthew invited our Lord
to his house for dinner, for thanksgiving and for fellowship.
Matthew evidently invited some questionable characters from
the neighborhood also, some of his compadres, who were the same
kinds of men that he was, sinners and publicans. And the Pharisees
were ever vigilant, as religion is, always on the lookout for
lawbreakers, unless they're doing it, in which
they cover themselves. I've told the story many times
of up in Iowa how the Dutch Calvinists are such legalists.
They have rules and regulations and what you can have and can't
have. One of the things you can't have in your house is a TV if
you remember the certain churches up there. They go around checking
on you, make sure you've got a TV. But they sort of give the
word out that they're going around on their inspection tour for
righteousness. And when they do, the people
hang a towel over their TV. And they walk in and walk, why
buy that towel? And since they don't see the
TV, they say, well, you're a righteous household. That shows you the suspicion of false religion. The Pharisees were always looking. for lawbreakers, always standing
by. That's how they're pictured in
scripture. Rubbernecking, lookie-loos were watching for any behavior
that they deemed not to meet their standards of righteousness
and propriety. They would have nothing to do
with sinners. They wouldn't walk across the
street to give them water if they were thirsty. They hated
sinners and the reason they hated sinners was because they felt
that they were not. They believed that they were not sinners. What they saw this day shocked
their moral sensibilities. They were appalled at the sight
of this Nazarene, this itinerant preacher, this son of Joseph,
this Jesus sitting down to eat in fellowship with the offscouring
of the universe. breaking bread with the unwashed
and the vile and the unrighteous, and they were righteously indignant at what they saw. To the Pharisee,
this gathering was a spectacle, a spectacle, an embarrassment,
a thing that revved up their righteous ire. They were mortified
by the sight of it, yet were unable to turn their eyes away
from it. what they considered to be a societal and ethical
train wreck right before their eyes. In truth, it actually whetted
their religious appetite. This was an opportunity to abase
Christ and exalt themselves. Legalists, though seemingly appalled
by obvious evil, actually needed They need it to thrive on. They
thrive on it and cannot keep from observing it because it
is a chief manner by which they build up their own self-esteem
and pad their righteous and religious reputation. They can say, I'm holier than
they are. And the Lord said, those who
stand by and say, I am holier than thou, or smoke in my nose. It said of the Pharisee who prayed
in the temple thus with himself, that he esteemed his own righteousness
and despised others. In this verse, verse 12, it says,
But when Jesus heard them, that is the Pharisees, heard that,
He said to them, they that behold need not a physician, but them
that are sick. In the verse that follows our
text, our Lord dismisses these Pharisees, discounts them, disowns
them, sets them out of the way as if they are nothing. One thing that religion cannot
abide is to be ignored, to have their words and notions lightly
esteemed or completely discounted. Tell a believer he's false and
he'll probably agree with you, but tell a religionist he's false
and you're in for a fight. Our Lord disavows the religion
and the religious activities by saying that he neither needs,
wants, cares for, nor considers their sacrifices by which they
presume to be found in God's favor, he said they are of no
value whatsoever. Religion speaks a lot about sacrifice,
not about THE sacrifice that actually matters, but their sacrifices
they believe that if they suffer then God will recognize and pay
attention to them but human suffering is simply what humans are due
in every situation and it does not do anything except for the
child of God his suffering does a good thing it drives him to
the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ these people our Lord categorically
aversed that He did not come to the world for them and has not and will not call
them to Himself. I came not to call the righteous
but bring sinners to repentance. He didn't say I called sinners
to repentance, He said I'm going to bring them I m going to pick
them up and take them there. He came to look for and to seek
out and to save the worst of fallen humanity, for He had chosen
them before the foundation of the world. When He speaks of
repentance, He s not referring to the legal kind that people
feel sorry when they get caught. That was the area of expertise
which these Pharisees practiced continually, often reforming
themselves and making their outward changes to be broadcasted in
the streets, for they did what they did to be seen of men. They
broadened their phylacteries and the borders of their garments
and such. Our Lord dismissed such notions with the words,
He says, I will have mercy. I'm gonna have mercy. and not
sacrifice. Well, you see, that's God's glory.
That's His glory. He said that when the only time
He was actually asked to show His glory, He showed it. He said, I'll make my goodness
pass before you, and we know it's the goodness of God that
brings men to repentance. He said, I'll proclaim the name
of the Lord before you, and we know it's the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ that shows men what repentance is. And he said, I
will have mercy. And I will have mercy. And I will have compassion on
whomever I choose to. I will. And some will say, well,
God doesn't have to show mercy. I disagree. If he said he would,
he has to, because he's got not a man that he should lie. God
has to show mercy, and he will. because he is ordained to do
so. The Pharisees despised it. Our
Lord would bring sinners to true repentance that was not based
on a change of behavior, but rather was the catalyst for change
of behavior, the radical change of mind born of God-given faith. A change in attitude and behavior
is not true evangelical repentance. I can't tell you how many reformations
I made in my life before I ever met Christ. But a change in attitude
and behavior is not the true evangelical repentance. It is
the result of true evangelical repentance. In our text, the
Lord declares Himself to be a Physician. He's the King of Kings. and Lord
of Lords, God manifest in human flesh, and he calls himself a
physician. Why? Because he looks at his
people, his patients, sick and in need of help. However, the
subject being addressed in the area in which his medical prowess
is here declared is not physical illness. The waiting room in
this physician's office is filled with sinned, sick souls, People
who see themselves as well and whole are not in the office,
but standing outside watching the sick go in. They are not
in their minds suffering the affliction of those inside, and
therefore they'd have no need to enter into the Savior's hospital.
In truth, they believed that any contact with those inside
would be a virulent, contagious contaminant to them. You can't
hang around sinners that's liable to rub off on you. They themselves
are the ones with the incurable disease. Read what our Lord says
about them in Matthew chapter 23 verses 25 through 28 when
he talks about the Pharisees. He said, you're like an open
grave. Painted white on the outside, you look good, but the sepulcher,
you open it up, nothing but dead men bones. He says, What comes
out of you is what defiles you, not what goes in you. These Pharisees
don't need the services of the physician. They'd rather like
to stand outside viewing the infected group and reveling in
their lack of infirmity. These whole folk are described
throughout Scripture as bystanders and watchers and accusers who
have all they need and have no need or desire for Christ whatsoever. The remarks of our Lord are directed
toward them, and spoken in reply to their remarks about who has
gathered around him. Verse 11, it says, when the Pharisees
saw it, they said to his disciples, why eateth your master? Republicans
and sinners, what's wrong with him? Why does he do this? Why does he do this? Now you
see, they didn't mind him for the miracles that he did. Everybody
likes to be healed if they're sick. Everybody likes the blind
to see again. People are kind of amazed when
the dead is raised from the grave and the Pharisees are all in
for that. You see, you just can't hang around with the wrong kind
of folks. We have adages that say things like, lay down with
dogs, you'll get fleas. You know them by the company
you keep. How was Christ known? He was
known to be in the midst of a mess of sinners. And they felt comfortable
about the most holy man that ever walked the face of this
earth. Evidently the righteousness that the Pharisees had didn't
actually draw men to them, it repelled men. So if your righteousness
repels men, it's not God's righteousness, it's not the Lord Jesus Christ.
He was the most righteous man that ever lived upon the face
of the earth, and sinners just couldn't hardly wait to get near
Him. Often a printed phrase did not
suggest the tenor of that which is spoken. These words of those
standing by may seem innocuous. After all, they spoke truth.
These who had come to this dinner were indeed sinners and publicans. The Pharisees said, that bunch
of sinners and publicans, they were right. The translators wished
to convey the calumny, the libelous motive of their statement, so
they interjected the word it when they saw it. Look at that. When they saw it,
they were astonished. The word reveals that what they
saw to their holy mind, a horrible pageant of putrefaction, It was
totally repulsive to their sanctified sensibilities. To this our Lord
answers, the whole need not a physician but them that are sick. The physician's
word were an indictment against those who had no need of him
and a melody of mercy to those who sat at his feet. Those who
sat at his feet were the sheep and the lambs, the lost ones.
those who stood outside with a ninety and nine who needed
no repentance but Christ will search and seek until he finds
that lost lamb and lay him upon his shoulders and bring him safely
home and there will be enroyed rejoicing in heaven in the face
of God for one sinner that repents. How blessed it is that our healer
categorizes the conditions of these public and sinners these
rebels all as sick and in firm and in need of help. Sin, we
know, is rebellion against God. Sin, we know, is the heart of
enmity against God. Yet in the elect it is viewed
as that which produces compassion and pity from God. We have but
to think of numerous physical healings of our Lord that He
performed to see this. Every malady of our Lord healed
pointed to a particular aspect of the debilitating nature of
sin, whether it be blindness or deafness, insanity, withered
limbs, or even death. None of these conditions gives
rise to anger and indignation. None of them do. If you see a
blind man, you don't get mad at him because he's blind. You
see a deaf person, you don't get mad at him, though I did
read the other day about this woman and her husband. He was
hearing, but she was not. She was a deaf person, and they
talked in sign language. And she was in a restaurant,
and her and her husband were talking. She was talking with
her hands. And some lady, some Karen, got
up and walked across to her and said, I wish you'd quit doing
that. You're disturbing everybody. And her husband says, she's talking
to me. This is how she talks to me. She's deaf. She said,
I can't stand that. I don't want to see it no more. And the woman
actually called the police on those people. What a world we
live in. What a world we live in. But
only a fool would look at a deaf person and be mad at him because
he's deaf. Only a fool would do that. Those
who are whole looked on these gathered around Christ with disdain
and saw them as pariahs. Our Lord saw them as patients
at His hospital. In this statement, our Lord states
very plainly why sinners and publicans come to Him and also
why the whole do not. It's a matter of need. The whole
need not a physician. One thing a child of God knows
from the day that the Lord gives him new birth into the kingdom
and faith to see his own condition and how God has saved him is
he realizes it his whole life and as he gets older he realizes
it more. I need Christ. I need Him every
hour of every day. The reason men and women do not
come to Christ is not answered with a theological treatise on
the will or the nature or understanding or readiness, but is reduced
to the least common denominator. All who come to Christ need to
come to Christ. All who refrain from coming have
no need to come to Christ. The sick come to Christ. the whale stand by and look as
sick or profited by coming to Christ. Christ is no profit whatsoever
to the whale. The whole mock the believer is
weak as is needing a crutch to lean on. People like to say that
you'd use that as just a crutch. Yeah, because I'm humbled and
I'm crippled and I need a crutch to help me stand. Julie's progressed to a cane. We're so happy to see that. Today
she's got her wheels, but generally she's with a cane. She's hobbled a bit, so she needs
some help to steady herself when she walks. That's what we are
all. Christ is our crutch. I have
no problem with that. The sick, the healed believer
agrees to it gladly. The needy, the sick, the weak,
and the helpless believer is actually truly whole. That's
what scripture says. We have the fullness of Christ.
We are complete in Jesus Christ, though we in ourselves feel our
need every day. Some have said the word whole
used to describe the self-righteous is a homonymic. That's a tool
of language. It replaces a word with another
word that sounds the same and is metaphorically derisive. Such
describe the whole as actually a whole. H-O-L-E. They are an empty pit. Their
righteousness is nothing but vacuous, groundless vanity. They
are vessels made to destroy, unto which no mercy will ever
be introduced. They are black holes that suck
the life out of men and women needing help. They do not need
Christ because they believe that they are in themselves full when
in fact they are straight as a shotgun, barrel, and just as
empty. To Christ they are a pit. To
the believer they are a pitfall. But when Jesus heard, He said
unto them, They that behold need not a physician, but them that
are sick. The believer is a resident patient in the hospital of mercy.
He offers no sacrifice to shroud his infirmity. His medicine is
always the same. It always comforts and consoles
and heals the heart. He has administered the gospel,
not in small increments or mixed with some other ingredient. Pure
and powerful doses administered by the great physician. No other
doctor attends the believer. He, as long as he is given life, trusts Christ. He no longer trusts
Dr. Law or Dr. Self or Dr. Feelgood
or Dr. Works or Dr. Band-Aid or Dr. Tithe or Dr. Church Attendants.
He lives because he's been touched by the One who heals the sick. He heals the sick and raises
the dead, which is a description of what he has done for you if
he has saved you. Sinners. Sinners are those who
need Christ. And if they need Christ, they
know they need Christ. You know when you need something. I'm sure you do. I'm going to
take the Lord's table now. Harley, are you up to help stand? Only sinners are welcome to this
table. Self-righteous have no knowledge
of what it means and care not for what it means. This table
of the Lord was instituted the last Passover the Lord had and
wanted to give to the heavenly people. He took the elements
of Passover, the unleavened bread and the wine, and declared that
their hope was built in nothing less than His blood and righteousness.
He declared that his death was what was going to change everything.
And his death was what glorified God. His death. Honored God's law and justice.
Satisfied God's demands for righteousness. And as the sinner comes to this
board, he comes with thanksgiving in his heart. For he knows that
his entire Eternal hope is based on the fact that Jesus Christ
gave his body to be broken and his blood to be shed for his
sin. So as we take this table, let's
do so with thanksgiving in our hearts. We do a wondrous thing
this day. I had a little group here on
Big Gold Road in Cherokee, North Carolina. We do a wondrous thing. We do show forth his death until
he comes again. What a thing. Let's ask the Lord's
blessings upon the elders. Father, as we partake of this
table this day, let us do so with an understanding and appreciation
of the fact that you came into this world to save sinners. And
we, as Paul, feel that we are the chief of sinners. And we
know, Father, that when you came to seek and save that which was
lost, you found them and you brought them home. You died in
their room and shed your blood to wash away their sins and gave
your body to be broken for them to suffer the punishment for
the sin that they would do. And we do celebrate this day
in commemoration of that wondrous day some 20 centuries ago when
our Lord hung on that lonely wooden tower on Golgotha's hill. And there finished the work of
salvation. How great a story is his story. Help us to memorialize it today
by remembering and showing forth his death till he comes again.
In his name we pray. you On the night our Lord was betrayed,
he took bread and break it. He said to his disciples, take,
eat. This is my body broken for you. As often as you do it, do
it in remembrance of me. On the same night, he took the
cup. And after he had blessed it,
he said, this cup, this wine, is the new covenant. in my blood,
ratified by my blood. As often as you eat this bread
and drink this cup, you do show forth my death until I come again. Do this in remembrance of me." And they stood and sang a hymn,
and our Lord went out and was betrayed. Now Judas Priest, let's
stand together. Would you be free from your burden
of sin? There's fire in the blood, fire
in the blood. Would you or evil a victory win? There's wonderful power in the
blood. There is power, power, wonder-working
power in the blood of the lamb. There is power, power, wonder-working
power in the precious blood of the lamb. God bless you. I love you. Thank you for the
love you show to me. And there's me.