Well, welcome to Redemption Church North Ogden this morning.
Glad to have you here. My name's Eric.
I am glad to get to continue walking in this series in the
book of Matthew. If so, if you have your Bibles,
we're in Matthew Chapter 9, and we will be in verses 9 through
13, nine through 13. And I have titled this message
Dinner with Your Doctor. Now I was thinking about this.
I had a dentist appointment last week and he was a really nice
guy. And I was like, wow, normally
they're not as nice as this guy was, but wouldn't it be nice if
you had a close relationship with your doctor or your
dentist, right? Often times it feels like
they're getting you in and getting you out, you know, to
keep the keep the thing turning. And some of them are really
caring and some of them are loving and, and knowledgeable
and we, we, we need doctors and dentists in this, this world.
But it's rare that you actually have a close relationship with
them so much to know that you'd have them over for dinner.
Maybe there were times like that in the past, but in this day and
age, that's probably not a reality anymore.
But Jesus is a doctor. The Bible calls him a great
physician, and you can have him at your house.
You can have him in close relationship with you.
In fact, as we take the Lord's Supper communion, that's a
picture of us communing with him, with with his people and
with him. We are having supper with our
great physician. Now in this text I want to read
to you where we get to this place that He's the great
physician. So I'm going to read this to
you. I've got 3 points and we're
going to break it down together. So in Matthew 9, starting in
verse 9, it says as Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man
called Matthew sitting at the tax booth and he said to him,
follow me. And he rose and followed him,
and Jesus reclined at table in the house.
Behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining
with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this,
they said to his disciples, Why does your teacher eat with tax
collectors and sinners? But when he heard it, he said,
Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who
are sick. Go and learn what this means.
I desire mercy and not sacrifice, for I came not to
call the righteous but sinners. Now the first part of this I
want to look at is the first verse where Jesus meets Matthew.
We're now into the 9th chapter of of the book of Matthew and
Matthew is the author of it. Although the Holy Spirit is
working through him to to write it down and dictate in such a
way that there are no errors and it's all the Word of God.
We've talked about that a lot. I just want to reiterate that.
But as we see this call on Matthew's life, Matthew adds it
in there, writing about the first time he he meets Jesus.
And so I want to start out with a call to a new life.
Looking at that verse again, it says as Jesus passed on from
there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth
and he said to him, follow me and he rose and followed him.
A little bit about Matthew. He's a tax collector.
He's sitting at a a tax booth. What is a tax collector?
Now? It's not the same thing in our
Western era of the world, in the modern day where we have the IRS
that collects taxes from us and does all the accounting for the
government. It's not necessarily like that.
What's going on in the 1st century is that Jerusalem and
Israel is being occupied by the Roman government.
And so they've come in, they're kind of taken over.
They're allowing the Jews to still live in this area, but yet
they in ruling want to exact taxes from the people.
And so they employed some of their own people, some of the
the Israelites, the Jewish people to get taxes from the
farmers, from the, the merchants, from from different
ways of commerce. And Matthew is one of those
guys. It says he was positioned in in,
in a booth and in context there, there's an international highway
that goes from Syria to Egypt along the Sea of Galilee where
they would position these booths in such a way when when goods
came in, they would get taxed because the farmers needed
certain things and and the farmers would would again have
their stuff shipped to other regions.
And as it passed through this, this Israelite who was working
for the Romans would tax his own people.
Now you can imagine how this felt to an Israelite or a Jewish
person at the time. They were viewed as sellouts.
They were, they were considered like dogs to the people they
were, they were unclean. They were hated by their people
and classed as equal to murderers because they were they
were selling out and and they were doing this, making great
gain. Not only were they getting a
wage from the Romans, but they were also encouraged to pocket a
little bit more money as well. So they would they would up the
tax a little bit so that they could pad their own pockets.
They were covetous, they were idolatrous, they were dirty,
they were shameful. They extorted their fellow Jews.
And so they were not tolerated in the synagogue when they they
were kicked out of basically worshipping their God.
And they had chosen money over God.
This is a tax collector in the 1st century.
So you can imagine Matthew sitting there and it's
interesting he, this is in context with what we read last
week, where Jesus hears heals a paralytic.
In all the accounts of the story, Jesus heals the paralytic
right before he calls Matthew. And so Matthew would have heard
about Jesus and all the commotion that he caused and the
miracles that he was doing. And in the teachings he would
have heard preaching from Jesus himself.
And so here comes Jesus and it says a man called Matthew here.
This is what's interesting about this is because the other two
gospels call him Levi. Luke and Mark both call him Levi
the son of Alpheus. And James by the way is the son
of Alpheus as well. So he must have been a brother
to one of the James's of of the Jesus day, Matthew.
The the name Matthew must have been a new name that Jesus gave
him, kind of like Simon Peter, God, Jesus himself names that
give Simon a new name Peter, which has a meaning just like
he, he renames Saul to Paul in the Old Testament, God renames
Abraham to Abraham. God renames people that follow
him. And, and part of that is, is, is
to get us to look at when God calls someone to follow him,
he's giving them a new identity. So that's why I've called it a
call to a, a new life. Matthew.
The the word means gift of God. That seems like a pretty
gracious thing for our Savior to do.
When everybody else hates this guy and they see him as a
burden, as a curse, Jesus comes along and says you are a gift of
God. Now come and follow me.
Now, we may not all be given new names, but I want us to see
ourselves in this guy Matthew because we're all sinners.
All, all. Often times the Bible will say
tax collectors and sinners. It's just really saying Sinner
and Sinner, you know, a dirty, shameful person and a Sinner,
which is the same thing. And the reality is that's all of
us. When Jesus came to us and called
us to follow him changed our hearts, we we heard the
teaching, we heard the preaching, and we wanted to to
give our lives to the Lord. We were sinners, we were
Matthew, we were this tax collector and Jesus is inviting
all of us to a new life. To trust in Jesus doesn't just
mean this one time thing that you pray a prayer and now you're
good, you've got fire insurance, you're going to heaven.
You keep living the same life you've always lived.
It's a call to a new and and radical life.
Now more on that just in just a minute, but I want to point out
this part. He saw Matthew in that verse.
He saw him. There's a lot in in just those
two words. Jesus saw.
Now we know that Jesus is God in the flesh.
And so it wasn't just this physical happenstance that Jesus
glanced, oh, there's Matthew. I didn't know he was there.
You have to keep these things in mind.
We have to understand theology when we are interpreting
Scripture and we don't want to miss things.
This is why we love to dig deep into the Word and go through it
verse by verse because what we see here is God from from from
eternity past has always known that Matthew was going to be
there. He's always known.
He knew Matthew's heart. He knew everything about this
guy and still chose him to follow him.
Again, that's like you and me. Some of us come to church.
You've always heard it before, like some people.
Maybe this was you. I will never darken the doors of
a church because I just am not holy enough to go there.
If they only knew about my life. If God only knew, Well, God
knows. And we're not surprised when a
new person walks in that they may have a past of some kind.
We all have that, including your pastors have that as well.
Jesus saw right into this guy's heart, right into his soul, and
he's basically saying you need to follow me.
If you have any hope for any joy in life, any significance, any
purpose, you are as good as dead.
You are a dead dog as, as the, the, the Jewish people
rightfully do think that you are a traitor.
You are. And so the only way out of this,
out of your sin, out of the choices that you have made, out
of the the greediness and the idolatry is for you to come and
follow me. I've got a new life for you, a
new purpose for you and a new identity.
It kind of, it reminds me of, you know, when a criminal, you
know, some kind of great criminal, you know, gets, gets
in a lot of trouble, a lot of charges, but but they have to go
into hiding and they get a new name.
What's that called? What's it called?
Witness protection, right? Like witness protection.
He's got some information that might be valuable.
That part doesn't really matter at all.
But but it's like Jesus is offering this guy a new life, a
new lease on life. After all the mistakes you've
made, there's still a chance for you to have life.
But not just any life, not a life in hiding, not a life where
you can't go out and do anything, but a life abundantly,
as Jesus tells us in the book of John.
Now, what is he doing when he says follow me?
There's so much in that statement as well.
He's saying, you're going to be one of my disciples.
What's a disciple is, is, is someone who submits to the
teaching of another, someone who wants to give up their old life
to follow Jesus and his way and not their own way anymore.
That's what a disciple is. And this disciple is, is, is his
new identity. Now, Matthew, the disciple of
Jesus, he's no longer labeled Sinner, traitor, tax collector.
That's you and me as well. The command here is a present
tense, demanding, continuous action.
As I said, it's not just a one time thing that we do.
It's a thing that that our whole life points to, that we were on
this trajectory of life that was headed to hell and all the
sudden there's a change in our direction.
That's what repentance means is to turn around.
By the way, there was a change. God.
Does that change though? Don't worry, often times you
hear this, repent and believe, call and you might not
understand. Like what does that mean?
Do I have to clean myself up to come to God?
No, He does the work. He does the work in your heart,
in your mind, and He draws you and he brings you along this
path and He teaches you. And that's what it being a
disciple is, is we're learning the whole way.
We never arrive at all the right knowledge, but we continue to
follow Jesus. We continue to hear his words,
we continue to gather with his people.
And so the church is the greatest place where
discipleship happens, by the way, with God's people.
And this is where we get to follow his teachings and hear
them and break them down and talk about them and understand
them. But another thing is then he
forsook his old way of life in the Luke's version, Here's what
it says and leaving everything, he rose and followed him.
He didn't, he didn't covet his old life anymore.
He said this is worth giving up. He saw the glory of Christ.
He saw the value of Jesus and he weighed him in the balances and
he said, we've got this, which is basically hopeless.
There's maybe some fleeting pleasure in being this tax
collector or Sinner where I think I have control over my own
life. But really it's just led to
shame and bondage. And he sees but Christ on the
other side, he's glorious and gracious and loving and
powerful. And yeah, there might be some
sacrifice to this, to following him, but it is worth it.
That was what happened in Matthew's life.
Now, he didn't become perfect, right?
I love what John Newton, the guy who wrote Amazing Grace, the
hymn Amazing Grace explains this so well, what the Christian life
is as a follower of Jesus, remembering that we're not who
we once were, but we're not quite where we want to be yet,
but God's grace is there sufficiently for us.
I love this quote. I'm going to read it to you.
It says I am not what I ought to be.
I am not what I want to be. I am not what I hope to be in
another world, but still I am not what I once used to be.
And by the grace of God, I am what I am.
This Is Us. We can be honest about it,
right? We, we're not where we want to
be, but praise God, I'm not where I used to be and God's
going to do the work in me to get me to be that glorified
person in another world one day so I can see him face to face in
heaven. By the grace of God.
We see that in Matthew's life now.
Being a tax collector though, means that he did have some
skills in his old life. He didn't get rid of everything
about himself. OK, he was good at recording
data. This was something he was good
at. And so praise God that he left
his booth and the sin with it. But he kept his paper and pen to
write for us the things that he heard and saw from Jesus.
Now, this is a good thing for us to consider.
We're always thinking about the gifts of God, right?
Like the spiritual gifts. You know, if you've been a
Christian for a while, you've probably done a study on the
spiritual gifts. Which one do you have?
Which one do you have, you know, maybe taking a test about it,
right? But there's also these natural
talents and abilities that aren't listed in the spiritual
gift lists that are still gifts from God.
Matthew was able to use his person and his personality for
the glory of God. God didn't eradicate that.
Now he can use his ability to write things down and to be
accurate with his his recording along with the power of the Holy
Spirit. Yes, but he used Matthew.
And I want to maybe ask you the same thing.
What are your natural talents that you can use for the glory
of God like Matthew now he's a peculiar guy too.
I don't know if you knew this, but Matthew is never actually
recorded of saying anything in the Bible.
None of them quote Matthew said this Now they they say it a lot
about Peter. We learned last week at Easter,
John was sure made sure that we knew he was faster to the to the
tomb and that he was the one in whom Jesus loved.
And there were the other disciples who were like, we want
to be on your right hand and your left hand.
Their mother was speaking for them, you know, but but Matthew,
he's a man of few words. Maybe he was humble, maybe more
humble than John was. At least there's it's just a a
nice little nugget of information there.
To get into the mind and life of Matthew, even if I know, I don't
think he was mute, by the way, you know, I'm sure he talked,
but but maybe he was a little bit peculiar.
He didn't try to make a name for himself or stand out.
He doesn't bring this up until Chapter 9 of his book.
There was a man named Matthew. He says that about himself.
Even so, there's some humility in him, and there must be
humility in us as we follow Jesus.
But if you are a peculiar man or woman, just know I'm sure
there's still gifts in you that God wants to use as well.
Matthew also seemed to pay attention very well to Jesus's
confrontations with the Pharisees.
And so he takes some time in this story.
We see we're going to see a Pharisees questioning him.
And actually in this chapter we see several challenges of the
religious leaders to Jesus. And Matthew loves to record this
specifically, maybe because he was so sick of the religious
people making him an outcast that he was like, let's get him
right. Maybe you feel like that I,
maybe you, maybe you sense that in me a little bit.
You know, I, I grew up in, in, in Utah.
And so when it comes time to debate theology and faith and
religion, I love it. Like, let's get this, you know
what I mean? Because I was an outcast in my
growing up in Utah my whole life.
And now since the the Lord has called me to be his disciple,
I'm like, I don't care what they think about me anymore.
The Lord Jesus, the the God of the universe has called me to
follow him and do his will. Shouldn't we be like that?
Who cares what they think out there?
The people who believe other things, the non believers are
the people who have this religious systems that we know
are foolish and made-up. Who cares what they think about
us? In fact, we should correct their
their theology and Matthew takes time to to point out these
debates where Jesus corrects their bad theology with the
prophecies fulfilled in Scripture.
Matthew's big on these fulfilled prophecies in the Old Testament.
And I want to move then to my next point, which is this
hospitality for the sake of mission.
Now let me let me get there because maybe you're like, what
does that mean that that that, that that kind of comes up
abruptly here? Well, let's go to the next
verses. It says and Jesus reclined at
table in the house. Behold, many tax collectors and
sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples.
So this new life that Matthew had called, that been called to
was not him just becoming a disciple and follower of Jesus,
but to also help others become followers of Jesus or become
disciples through his gospel narrative.
Yes, through the the gifts that he had writing this all down,
but also his personal efforts after he was saved.
We know when it says in the house in Matthew, you've got to
go to Luke to find out whose house it was, Luke 529, it says.
And Levi made him a great feast in his house.
And there was a large company of tax collectors and others
reclining at table with him. So he threw a banquet at his
house. He got saved.
And he was like, I got, you know what?
This is so amazing that I have other people like me that I want
to meet Jesus. So I'm going to throw a party at
my house. I'm going to have all kinds of
food and it's going to be welcoming and warm and fun and
Jesus is going to do his thing. I just want to get them around
Jesus. Now the word isn't in there, but
the word hospitality. I said hospitality for the sake
of mission. Hospitality, the word means
being willing to open up your home or or being welcomed,
welcoming to strangers. We had for a long time and still
have a hospitality team at the church and that includes like
providing coffee and the welcome table and we had food for a long
time. Food is is a big part of
hospitality. Now we've decided that as we
grow, we can't continue to provide a whole meal at the
church for everyone. But this is a good opportunity
for me to tell you how it's biblical that we should be
willing to now open up our homes for people to get to know them,
invite them over for food, a meal, a drink, a coffee,
whatever it is, and start to have some discipleship,
fellowship. And the Bible says where two or
three are gathered in, in a sense, when believers are
gathered in a room and you've got other people there, Jesus is
right there with you. And you have Jesus's words right
there with you on the coffee table or the dinner table.
And you can have this wonderful experience of telling them how
Jesus has changed your life and how you think that he could do
that for them as well. And really this is the mission.
And we see in Scripture all over the place that this is what they
did in the 1st century church. They gathered in each other's
homes and broke bread all the time.
There's something that happens when you have a meal with
someone that it becomes more relational, more of an intimate
thing. And so that's us loving on
people and sharing people, sharing Jesus with people.
In fact, the Bible says first Timothy and Titus says that's
one of the qualifications for a pastor is that he would be
hospitable. It says willing to open up his
home for other people to do counseling for meals, to get to
know people, invite the new people over.
That's one of the things that if and so a pastor and all the
qualifications of pastor and Scripture.
It's not like well, all that's just for them.
I don't these are all things that everybody, all Christians
should aspire to, to be like Christ.
You know, the pastors are the under shepherds.
Pastor means shepherds, the same word.
But all Christians are supposed to be like their shepherd, to
become like him. The Bible says that that's God's
will for our lives and so we should seek to be hospitable.
Romans 12/13 by the way. And I could bring all kinds of
verses to contribute to the needs of the Saints and seek to
show hospitality. The book of Romans is a
wonderful book. It's all this just wonderful
theology. One of the greatest books to
take somebody through the gospel and to to understand, you know,
justification by faith alone and all of these things.
And then all the way to Chapter 11, it's just deep rich
theology. And then like a lot of his
letters, it'll go theology and then hits the chapter and now
it's practicality or how to put it into practice.
Here's what you're supposed to go do now with all this
knowledge that you have, go do this.
In chapter 12 is the chapter where Romans shifts and he tells
us how to be good Christians, how to live out our faith and
one verse says contribute to the needs of the Saints, the
believers and seek to show hospitality.
So do you have a crowd of people that are kind of like you that
share commonalities with you that you could think about
inviting over to your home for the sake of the mission?
Now I don't want to go too far with this hobby horse that I
have and I'll admit that, but our mission as a church isn't
necessarily to be the the place where if I can just get you to
invite all the non believers into this room, hopefully I can
entertain them enough and and they'll like they'll like Jesus
because we're super, you know, relaxed and very simple and all
of that, like being seekersome. Learn to get discipled, to be
filled up spiritually so that they can now go out and make
disciples, right? So you'll see that sometimes
they get it backwards. And why is it though, And I've
heard from many of my pastors friends, it's because they'll
say because the people won't do what they're supposed to do to
go share the gospel and make disciples.
So they've just given up. They're just like, instead of
leading them, I'm just going to get them to just bring me more
people then and, and I'll do all the work the pastor does, all
the work of the teaching and the sharing.
And that's how churches get to where they are like that, where
they become more watered down and worldly to try to to get
more people. But this is one of the greatest
ways that I see in Scripture all over the place is that at church
you learn we meet with Jesus at the table and then we go out the
rest of the days of the week and we go meet with people and we
tell them how wonderful he is. And then when they come to
faith, it's like Kay, join the family, come to the dinner, you
know. So moving on the next verse, it
says, when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his
disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and
sinners? The weak Pharisees decide to
question the disciples rather than Jesus to his face.
Rarely, by the way, will they, they be disrespectful or
completely direct to Jesus. It's always kind of indirect or,
or they're trying to, to get the disciples kind of away from him,
you know, isolated from him and ask these questions and plant
doubts in their head. And, and, and, and in this you
can kind of see trying to get them to be shamed.
Your rabbi, your teacher hangs out with such filth and you
follow him. What's wrong with you?
That's what they're trying to do.
And you know, in scripture, there are cases where when you,
as I said, when you eat with a person, there's an intimacy
there, there's a closeness there.
And eating with a person is basically saying that you are in
close fellowship with them. And so there are there are cases
in Scripture where in First Corinthians there was this huge
thing going on with a guy that was sinful in the church doing
some terrible things. And and he says, now I, I write
to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name
brother if he's guilty of sexual immorality or greed or is an
idolatry reviler, drunkard or swindler, not to even eat with
such a one. And this is the New Testament.
That's not the Old Testament. This is Paul saying there are
times when you shouldn't be communing or fellowshipping with
someone. But in this passage, he goes on
to say, it's not those. He says, what do I have to do
with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the
church room? You're to judge God judges the
outsiders, he's saying. And he, he also says in this
passage, I'm not talking about unbelievers, since then you
would need to go out of the world to not have any contact
with them. In evangelistic purposes, you
can have have close contact and relationships to try to help
people understand the love of Jesus.
But yes, there are times in in discipline or, or if a person
says they're a believer, but they're living in such sin and
they won't come back. There's a time for where you're
supposed to just say, OK, I'm going to leave you to sin.
Then you know, I can't keep enabling you to do this.
But in our purposes, Jesus is eating with the tax collectors
and sinners because of his humble character and his
merciful heart. These are outsiders, outcasts.
These are the lost. These are the people who he's,
he's come to save. And and we all are given this,
this Commission to go and do likewise to try to seek and save
the lost. We're not supposed to become
like them, though. We don't try to act like them
and do the things that they do to try to get them to Jesus.
No, we reveal the truth to them and the Holy Spirit does the
work, but Jesus here is loving and merciful.
He's not like the Pharisees who who doesn't want to be around
any sinners, otherwise He would have never been able to come to
the earth because even the Pharisees are disgusting
sinners. They just don't know it.
The thing about us or sinners is that we at least know that we're
sinners. We see here He reclines at table
with them. By the way, back then when they
were eating dinner, they were laying down.
So it was like at the table, their feet would be extended out
this way and, and they would have one hand on their, their,
their elbow on the ground and one hand on their face.
And with the other hand, they're, they're eating kind of
shoveling in the food. You know, they're all laying
down in kind of a circle. So the painting of the the Last
Supper, I don't really think that that's what it looked like
with a table. I don't think we all had, they
all had tables like we have in the Western world back then with
chairs and everything. This is very close quarters.
And this is when, this is the picture of when Jesus, this was
how Jesus was able to with his disciples get up and go around
the table and wash all their feet because they were laying
sideways. And so he was able to come down
to them and and wash all their feet and go around the table.
This is close quarters with sinners for the sake of the
mission. Now he didn't become a comrade
of their evil, nor is he he phased by the saying, birds of a
feather flock together because that's what the Pharisees were
trying to imply. Like if he's going to be eating
with them, he's going to become like one of them.
But what they don't get is that He is their physician come to
operate on them, and He can do so because He's holy God who
will not get contaminated by their sin.
Like the healing of the leopard. He's the great physician and
only He could heal their disease.
It was only Him that could satisfy what they suffered from.
Only Jesus could take away their sin, and He broke the religious
barriers and did so by touching the leper or coming to eat with
the sinners. Because He was a compassionate,
gracious God, He was getting intimately close with the ones
who needed saving. What an honor for these hated
outcasts to be graced with the presence of the Most High God.
He's not. He had not just come to be with
the the prim and proper, but the sinners, poor and needy, weak
and wounded, sick and sore. This is who he came for.
And it just makes logical sense that in order for a doctor to
operate on his patients, he's got to get pretty close, right?
Close enough to touch. My last point is Jesus came for
sinners only. Is that a statement that some
people could have trouble with? He only came for sinners.
Let's look at this. When he heard it he said those
who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are
sick go and learn what this means.
I desire mercy and not sacrifice.
For I came not to call the righteous but sinners.
He didn't come to call the righteous.
The people who are well don't need a doctor.
Doesn't it just doesn't make sense right?
If you are well, why would you go waste the money?
Now I know all of us have insurance or some of us do, and
you get a couple check UPS a year, but we even hate doing
that, right? It's those who know that they
need the power and the loving touch, the grace and mercy of
Jesus Christ that He came for. Those who know they need him.
Those, those literal words where He says those who are well
literally means those who are strong or or I didn't come to
call the righteous those who are holy, those who are strong in
the original Greek or those who are holy in their own eyes.
Because we know because of theology, we know because of
doctrine, we know because we have to interpret all of
scripture with Scripture that no one is righteous.
No, not one. Romans 310 As it is written, no
one is righteous, no, not one. No one understands, No one seeks
after God. All have turned aside together,
they've become worthless. No one does good, not even one.
Verse 23. All have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God. So what's he saying here?
The reason I can say Jesus came for sinners only #1 because
everybody's a Sinner, right? If you are not a Sinner, then
you're not welcome at this church.
There are no perfect people allowed because you'll mess the
rest of us up. I know that sounds bold.
I know it sounds harsh. Maybe you're sitting here and
you're like, I have no clue what he's saying.
And that felt really harsh. But the reality is, is you are a
Sinner. If you're listening and you're
confused, you're a Sinner. You've broken the law of God.
You've gone your own way. You've made yourself the God of
your own life. You've put yourself on the
throne of your heart in your mind.
We have broken all of his laws. We've we are like that list that
the Pharisee read. Thank you God, that I'm not one
of these murderer, extortioner, adulterer, tax collectors.
And he was wrong. Because He trusted in his own
righteousness, and none of us have our own righteousness.
That's the the doctrine of total depravity.
Like Ephesians 21 says that all humanity and we were dead.
In your trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following
the course of this world, following the Prince of the
power of the air, the spirit that is now at work.
In the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived.
In the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the
flesh and the mind. And we're by nature children,
children of wrath like the rest of mankind.
What does that mean? It means that all people from
all time who've ever been born after Adam and Eve and them
included, are dead in their trespasses and sins, not only
sinning against God. But that passage says we've been
following Satan. And how many times does Jesus
tell the Pharisees you are the sons of your Father the devil?
So just know the most religious people that you know that aren't
Christian, that don't follow justification by faith alone,
they are following after their father the devil as well.
And they hate to hear it. But before you get too prideful,
you were following the devil as well.
That's what this says. Jesus will operate on those who
know that they need a heart transplant.
The hearts of the Pharisees were prideful and arrogant.
They thought salvation was in themselves following the law,
not understanding that no one could ever measure up because
the heart is deceitfully wicked. Now why is it that Christian
churches are filled with all kinds of messed up people,
Liars, cheaters, criminals, addicts, Alcoholics, thieves,
gluttons, lazy, insecure, prideful, selfish, obsessed,
greedy, frauds, betrayers, backstabbers, rebellious, I
could go on and on. You're saying calm down
preacher. Why is the church filled with so
many of these type of people like this picture of Jesus
eating and dining with these sinners?
Why? Because we are who He came for.
And if you don't think you fit in that category, then just
spend some time in the Word and learning God's Word because He
includes you. You are included in the sin list
of the Bible. And if you have a problem
finding out that you're a Sinner, please come and talk to
one of us and we will tell you. But praise God that we don't
stay that way, right? As John Newton said, I'm not
what I want was we don't stay that way as Matthew.
He left everything and he's, his life changed dramatically.
For the people that he's healed so far in chapters 8 and 9, he
heals them and changes them. Praise God that we can see our
sin and our need for him. That's a gift of God too,
because we must be humble about that.
We can't just say this person next to me, they're so prideful.
But I, I got it. I don't know what it was.
It must have been a gene inherited from me or my
education, my background, whatever it was made the
difference for me to come to. Does that sound, does that sound
humble to you? Do we really think that that's
how salvation works? Be careful because then you
start to become like the Pharisee.
Thank God that I why don't we thank God that I just know and I
don't know how I know, but I know.
But it's a gift from God because the Bible says it praise God
again that passage in Luke about the prayer of the tax collector
and the Sinner and or in the Pharisee it says forever, it
ended forever. Who exalts himself will be
humbled, but one who humbles himself will be exalted.
I am very comfortable with the theology that says, OK, God, you
get all the glory. I did nothing.
I don't know how I was in my booth of sin and you came along
and I don't know what caused me to get up and follow you, but
praise God that it happened. Praise God that I got to hear
the teaching, that somebody invited me, somebody had the was
willing to have the conversation, to take the time
out of their busy life to meet me for coffee, to do
discipleship in my own life. Praise God, He says I require
murder, mercy and not sacrifice. I desire mercy and not
sacrifice. That's a Old Testament quote
from Isaiah 66. I desire steadfast love and not
sacrifice the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
Don't you get what he's what he's saying here is it wasn't
about this religious system. It was all pointing to me, and I
desire to show mercy. Two sinners I want.
And what that word means is to withhold what you deserve.
We all, as Ephesians 2, says that we deserve wrath like the
rest of mankind. But He desires to withhold that
wrath for you and for me, so that we can have eternal life
and only He can save us. And He started the mission of
salvation by coming to us and dining with us.
It's a beautiful thing. As I think about how we took the
Lord's Supper today, don't forget where he says I came to
call sinners. You cannot have salvation
without understanding. It's not just about knowing who
Jesus is. It's about understanding that he
came to die for sins. That's why it's always said
repent of your sins and believe. Know of your sins.
You don't know you need Jesus until you accept the fact that
you are a Sinner. And the beautiful thing about
the Lord's table, the communion with Jesus Christ as it reminds
us why says for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured
out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
His blood was poured out for our sins in the last verse.
And I'm closing, I promise, the righteousness of God going back
to Romans 3 that I quoted. And I want to tell you the good
news about it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus
Christ for all who believe. There's no distinction, not, not
just for Jews but Gentiles also, for all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God. I wish the Pharisees would have
got this. And all are justified by his
grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be
received by faith. That word propitiation.
We can't remember what we got saved from and and what we got
forgiven of. It's our sins.
That word propitiation means a turning away of anger.
By the offering of a gift, you're appeasing the wrath, and
in this sense God's wrath was on all of mankind.
But God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son as
a gift on the cross. Blood spilt, sacrifice of all
sacrifices so that we could be made right with God.
I'll leave you with this. You must know you're a Sinner to
need the great Physician and I plead you to do so because He is
merciful and gracious and He's willing to come to the worst of
the worst. For the Christians today, I
would say continue to remember what He has done in your life,
but go now and do likewise with other people.
Be like your Savior, Invite sinners into conversations, be
hospitable. And one more little nugget, if
you want your relationships to be better in life, just in
general, we could all use a little bit more humility, not be
like the Pharisees. Let's pray, Father, Thank you,
Lord, that You have given us the gift of Jesus Christ and the
ability to know that we need Him.
So many times in Scripture and so many times in our lives, we
see people that we're blind or are blind and they can't see it
and we don't know why. Maybe we've had several
conversations. Maybe we've tried everything,
but Lord, we know that it's only you that can go in and do that
heart change that you did in us. So we pray you do that right now
to all of our loved ones and our family members, our friends, the
people that we have in our minds right now.
Those names, Father, do the heart change, the surgery that
only the great Physician Jesus can do.
Lord help us God to use our natural talents and gifts and
abilities to bring you glory in Jesus name, Amen.