Calling Sinners to Repentance

Let's pray together. Father, we thank you so much for the cross of Jesus Christ, the cross that saves us from our sin. Thank you, Lord, for the penalty that your son bore on our behalf. We pray that today as we understand your word, your call to sinners to repent, that Lord we realize the greatness of the gospel as well as the great compassion of our of our God toward lost sinners. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen. If you have your Bible, turn with me to Luke chapter 5.

Luke chapter 5. We have been studying Luke's gospel for way over a year now and trying to understand more and more of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. And Luke, like the other gospels, portrays for us the significance of our Savior, the greatness of our Lord. And as we've had a great time studying the word of God together and realizing who Jesus Christ is and all that he has accomplished or that he did accomplish while he was here on earth. And if you have enjoyed our study thus far, you will continue to enjoy this study in Luke over the next several years as we spend time going through it verse by verse.

It's a great challenge to me as a pastor to be able to study the life of Christ. Today's lesson gives us a very profound yet very simple lesson. And it's almost as if I don't even have to say anything because it's so clear. But because we have lots of time left, I have to say something this morning about the passages I'm going to read. So let me read to you Luke 5 verses 27 to 32 and talk about how it's our Lord who calls sinners to repentance.

Verse 27, and after that he went out and noticed a tax gatherer named Levi sitting in the tax office. And he said to him, follow me. And they left everything behind and rose and began to follow him. And Levi gave a big reception for him in his house. And there was a great crowd of tax gatherers and other people. Who were reclining at the table with them. The Pharisees and the scribes began grumbling at his disciples saying, why do you eat and drink with tax gatherers and sinners. And Jesus answered and said to them, it is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick.

I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. That verse, verse number 32, is one of the most clarifying statements our Lord ever made. As to why the incarnation, as to why the crucifixion, as to why the resurrection, the glorification. Why is it our Lord came to this earth to die? And it tells us that he came not for the righteous, but for the unrighteous. Not for the moral, but for the immoral. Our Lord came to call sinners to repentance. God never saved a good person. He only saves bad people.

God never saved a righteous person. He only saves the unrighteous. He never saves those who believe that they are morally good. He only saves those who know they are immoral. That statement in and of itself caused our Lord many, many problems throughout his ministry. Because, as you recall back in Nazareth, when our Lord began to preach that sermon, how he told him that the Spirit of the Lord was upon him to preach the gospel to those who were poor, to those who were imprisoned, to those who were downcast and trodden, to those who were desperate.

And the people of Nazareth didn't like the sermon. Self-righteous people never like sermons that call them into account for their sin. And the Jewish people believed that they were rich and not poor. They believed that they were good and not bad. They believed that they were free and not imprisoned. They believed that they were upbeat and not downtrodden. And so when Christ preached that sermon in Nazareth, and it was a sermon that he would preach often because he came to call sinners to repentance.

As he began to explain more of what he meant out of Isaiah 61, the crowd became furious with him. Those who he grew up with, those who were his friends, lifelong friends, those who were a part of his family, were in the synagogue that day. And they became so angry with him that they decided to take him out of the synagogue to a cliff to try to dispose of him. There's a place in Israel today called the Mount of the Precipice. You can go there today, and it overlooks the Jezreel Valley. It's quite a scene.

It's quite a cliff. You can imagine them taking Jesus to this place, wanting to rid themselves of this man who called them into account. Who told them that they really weren't who they thought they were. But they truly were sinners in dire need of a Savior. They were spiritually bankrupt and needed someone to infuse spiritual life in them. They hated him because of it. And so they took him to this cliff to throw him off, but he would escape through the crowd because it was not his time to die. But it was the message in which he spoke to the Pharisees about in Luke 5.

He did not come to call the righteous, but he came to call sinners to repentance. In this room today, there are people who are born again. The people who are born again know they are wretched on the inside. Those who do not believe they are wretched are not born again. They're not saved. How do we know that? Because the closer you walk with God, the greater you see your sin. And realize how unworthy you are to receive the free gift of eternal life. Maturity in Christ always helps you understand your depravity.

Helps you understand your iniquity. Because the closer you are to God, the more you walk with God, the more you see his holiness, and the more you see how holy he is, the more you see how unholy you are. The mark of a mature man is one who knows his unholiness. The mark of a mature man doesn't pass judgment upon other sinners because he knows he himself is a sinner. It is a desperate need of the grace and mercy of God. And being a recipient of that grace, and being a recipient of that mercy, listen, helps you be merciful to others.

That's why Jesus said in the Beatitudes in Matthew chapter 5, Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. That's why the Pharisees were so upset with Christ, because the Pharisees had absolutely no mercy. And the reason they had no mercy is because they had never obtained mercy. Those who obtain mercy from God are merciful to sinners. But those who have yet to receive mercy from God are not merciful towards sinners. They're self-righteous, egotistical, thinking themselves better than others.

But yet, these people, these people in the synagogue in Nazareth, really believed that they truly were God's special people. That they were friends of God. But they weren't. The man in the previous story that we have spent a couple of weeks on, the paralyzed man, he was a friend of God. Jesus said to him, friend, your sins are forgiven you. Jesus said, I forgive you your sins. Jesus didn't say God is going to forgive your sins. He says, I forgive your sins, because Jesus is God. And so Jesus forgave this paralyzed man because of a sin.

And you can imagine the crowd that day in Capernaum wondering what it is about this man that that would bring Jesus to a point of forgiving him of his sins. There was no conversation that took place between the paralyzed man and Jesus. The only conversation that was taking place was what Jesus was saying to the people all around him before the roof began to cave in and they, his four friends, led him down through the roof and there he was. And no conversation between Jesus and the man. But Jesus saw his heart.

Jesus saw his faith. Jesus knew this man was in desperate need of salvation. Jesus knew this man saw his desperate condition and Jesus said, my son, my friend, your sins are forgiven you. And he he knew that the scribes and Pharisees would reason in their mind who can forgive sins but God alone. He could read their minds because he's God. And so he told the paralyzed man to take up his bed and walk. Because it's easy to say your sins are forgiven. It's not so easy to say take up your bed and walk.

So to prove that he was God, he said take up your bed and walk. The man did. He walked out of the house, the room, wherever they were, glorifying God. This story about Matthew follows that incident in every gospel. Why? Because it begs the question. What kind of sinner does God forgive? Who is it that God forgives? Does God just forgive everybody? We have a misconception of God's forgiveness in the evangelical church today. We believe that God's forgiveness is unconditional. It's not. His love is, but his forgiveness is not.

His forgiveness is conditional. It's conditioned on repentance. No repentance, no forgiveness. The love of God is absolutely unconditional because God loved us even while we were yet sinners. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. But the forgiveness of God is absolutely conditioned upon a heart that sees itself as wretched before God, as in desperation before God. A heart that is truly repentant of a sin, that wants to turn from the error of his way and follow God, but knows it cannot do anything in and of itself.

So it cries out and begs God for mercy. It pleads for God to be merciful unto him. And God never despises a broken and contrite heart, and God reaches out and saves that kind of sinner. So each gospel follows the story of the paralyzed man whose sins were forgiven, with the story of Matthew, Levi. We'll talk greater about him in in weeks to come as we go through all the all the Apostles. But remember the Apostles are the true heroes of life. And when we get to the list of the Apostles, we will tell you why every Apostle is the most ultimate hero in life.

And now your children need to emulate one of those men. Because they are the true heroes of life. Their names are written in the golden city of Jerusalem, to be there forever. Because they are great men of God. But before they were great men of God, they were great sinners before God. And every one of them knew it. And yet God would save them. I want to talk to you today about the conversion of Matthew. Then I will talk to you about the celebration that Matthew has because of his conversion. And then I will talk to you about the criticism that Christ receives because of his ministry of converting the sinner.

Okay, three points. The conversion, the celebration, and the criticism. Let's begin with the conversion and begin with the concern of the Master. The Bible says, these words are verse 27, And after that he went out and noticed a tax gatherer named Levi sitting in the tax office.

The phrase he saw or the phrase he noticed is not that Jesus was on his way out of the house wherever they were with the paralyzed man. He was on his way out of Capernaum, that city, and there was this man named Levi that he noticed. It wasn't that he happened to glance by Matthew or Levi, whatever you want to call him. Matthew is the name we know him by the most, which means gift of Jehovah. Levi means harmonious. God would see him and it wasn't a casual glance. It was the, it's the same word used in Acts chapter 1 as as the disciples gazed up into heaven and and the angel would say to them, Why is it you stand gazing up into heaven?

They looked with intent. Jesus would see Matthew. He would look at him and maybe their eyes would connect.

But this one who was a gift of Jehovah had yet to receive the free gift of eternal life. This one whose name Levi means harmonious was in disharmony with his name. And Jesus was going to rectify that. Jesus was going to change this man's condition. We have no record of Matthew ever saying anything. And again, we have a conversion of a man who never said a prayer. Just like in the paralyzed man. Because it's not the prayer you say that converts you. It's the condition of the heart that recognizes his need and God bestows mercy on.

That's what salvation is about. So like the paralyzed man who never said a word, but was converted and forgiven. So too Matthew never says a word. In fact, he wrote a whole gospel and never said a word. His name was only mentioned twice in his own gospel. That is in this story in Matthew 9 and in the list of the apostles where he mentions his name. But Matthew is the only Apostle who always mentions his occupation with his name. And that in and of itself is significant. Why? Because Matthew knew how despicable his job was.

How sinful a man he was. And in his humility he always wanted there to be a record of what God does when he saves a sinner. If the question is who is it God saves? What kind of sinner does God forgive? The answer is God forgives the lowest of all sinners. The worst of all sinners because Matthew was a publican. He was a tax gatherer. In fact, he was a notch below the prostitutes. He was the worst of all sinners in the mind of a Jew. They were excluded from the synagogue because of their lifestyle.

So they could never enter a synagogue. They could never give testimony in a court of law because they were known as liars. That's why in Luke chapter 3 when John the Baptist came baptizing people for the repentance of their sin when the tax gatherers would come and ask him and say what must we do to prove ourselves as repentant, John the Baptist said you need to be honest people because you're dishonest. These tax gatherers were supremely dishonest. They were liars. So let me talk to you about a tax gatherer for a moment just so you understand who these people are.

Because Matthew wants you to understand who he was before he became a converted man. You know, this story is a great story because it shows you what God does in the life of a man who's a wretched rotten sinner. This man would be given a pen. He'd write the first gospel of the new testament that would portray to us the king of Israel in all of his glory.

And he would want us to see that and God would save him and use him in a great and mighty way because listen carefully when God saves a soul he wants to use that soul for his glory. And when God does save a soul he will use that soul for his glory. Don't think that God's going to save you and then not use you for his glory. Because salvation is all about God. It's all about the glory of God. So when he saves a soul he's going to use that individual for his glory some way somehow. No soul ever saved remains stagnant.

No soul ever saved continues to digress. A soul that's saved always progresses in maturity. And I'll show you that with Matthew. This man was a tax gatherer. Yet God would save him and use him in a great and mighty way. He was a traitor. He was an extortioner. He was a thief. He was an outcast. And he knew it. That's why he was saved. He knew exactly what kind of man he was. You see Rome would impose all kind of tax laws upon Israel. And there were two kind of tax collectors. There were the Gabais and the Moccas.

Zacchaeus was a Gabai. Matthew was a Moccas. And there were little Moccas's and great Moccas's. Let me help you explain that because you need to understand why Matthew was so despised and so hated.

Gabais were those who would impose the property tax. They would impose the kind of taxes that we understand well. Taxes that dealt with the poll tax or the income tax. They were not nearly as despised as the Moccas's. And the great Moccas's were ones who were had enough money they could hire others to do their dirty work for them. But a little Moccas would be one that would sit at the crossroads in Israel. And they would tax you for anything that they wanted to tax you on. They had the freedom to do that.

And if you did not obey, they would send their thugs and they would break your legs. They were like a modern-day mafia. That's the kind of men the tax gatherers were. And Matthew was a little Moccas because he would be at his tax table. He would be at the crossroads and they would tax you with the... If you had a donkey, they would tax your donkey. If you had a cart, they would tax your axle as well as your wheel as well as your cart. They would tax your letters. If you were carrying a letter, they would tax that.

They would tax anything you had on you and they had the freedom to do so. But you see, they worked for Rome. And to work for Rome, you had to buy into the system of Rome. So Matthew, a Jew, was a traitor. He had turned his back on his people to take money from his people so that he could become rich. When Matthew became an apostle, he was probably one of the richest of all the apostles. Because of the money he collected from his own people. He extorted from his own people. He was a traitor. He was despised.

The Jewish Talmud tells us that if you wanted to lie to a tax gatherer, you could and be cleared by God. Because tax gatherers were such filthy rotten liars. They were traitors to their own people. They were the lowest of the low. They were the scum of the earth. They were the dregs in the bottom of the bottle. They were the worst. Everybody hated a tax gatherer. Everybody hated a publican. No one liked them. Matthew knows that. Matthew knows he's despised. Matthew knows he's a traitor. Matthew knows that he's an extortioner.

Matthew knows that he is the worst of the worst. He knows that. But he's got money. Lots of it. He's got power. Lots of it. He was the kind that would interact with people face to face. If you were a great mochist, you didn't have to do that. You'd hire other people to do that. But because he was a little mochist, he would interact with people face to face. You say, how do you know that? Because the text says that he noticed a tax gatherer named Levi sitting in the tax office. That means he would be sitting by the side of the road with his little office gathering tax.

He was a little mochist. And Jesus would see him. And of course he would see Jesus. And Jesus had great concern and compassion for him. So you ask the question, what kind of sinners does God save? He saves the worst of sinners. He saves those everybody hates. He saves those who hate themselves. He had money. He had power. But he was a lonely man. I mean, he didn't have very many friends. The only friends he had were other tax gatherers. That's all he had. He didn't have any righteous friends, any holy friends.

Just had sinful friends. They were associates. And so Matthew, sitting at the tax office, would get a glimpse of the Lord Jesus. Maybe he'd turn his eyes away. But Jesus never turned his eyes away. He noticed him. And you go from the concern to the command. Jesus says, follow me.

Follow me. Follow you. Jesus says, you're the exact kind of man I want in my kingdom. You're a traitor. You're an extortioner. You're a hypocrite. You're a liar. You're deceitful. You're a villain. You're a murderer. And I want you in my kingdom. Follow me. Say, wow. How can Jesus do that? Because Jesus knew his heart. He knew he was desperate. He knew he saw himself as a sinner. And like Jesus saw the heart of the publican, I mean the paralyzed man, so he sees the heart of the publican and realizes that this man is in desperate need of saving grace.

This man in his heart is crying out to God. Never has to say a word because his heart is broken over its sin. Never has to say a word because in the inside he has a repentant spirit. Oh, if there would be someone who would come and save me from this wretched lifestyle that I'm in. If there could be someone who could free me from the bondage I find myself in. If there would be someone who would come and all of a sudden here comes Jesus. And I'm sure he'd heard about Jesus. I'm sure after a year's work of ministry in Galilee, everybody had heard about Jesus.

And Jesus catches his eye and Jesus says, follow me. Follow me. Can you imagine how he must have felt? Can you imagine what mess he was going through? Can you imagine what everybody else thought? They're walking with Jesus and Jesus says, follow me.

They're thinking, what's wrong with Jesus? I mean, he might have saw the heart of the paralyzed guy, but how can he see this guy's heart? This guy's heart is wretched. Exactly. This guy's heart is vile. Exactly. And he knows it. Pharisees, they sell their hearts as good, kind, sweet, loving, and innocent. God doesn't save those people because they don't recognize their sin. But Matthew recognized his sin and God saved him. Follow me. He saw the wretchedness of his own heart. Matthew wanted deliverance.

Matthew wanted cleansing. Matthew wanted forgiveness. You say, how do you know that? It doesn't say anything about what Matthew would have said. How do we know? How do we know? That Matthew was converted. How do we know that Matthew had a repentant heart? How do we know that Matthew desperately cried out to God in his heart? How do we know that Matthew would be saved when the Lord said, follow me? Just like we know you're saved. Or we know you're not saved. How? Simple this. The commitment. Verse number 28.

He left everything behind and rose and began following him. That's how you know. He left it all behind. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things have become new. He could not maintain his past lifestyle and be born again. You can't continue doing the villainous, vile things of life. Lying, deception, extortion in living as a traitor and be saved. When God saves you, he changes you. Right? And this man, Greek text tells us very clearly that he made a decision to leave it all behind and to continue to follow the Lord God.

And we know from the story of Matthew, we know from the story of the apostles that that's exactly what took place. That's what he did. You see, if you were a little mochus and you left your tax station, you could never return to your tax station again. Because they would have another little mochus to take your spot. Somebody else would be there the very next day or the late in the afternoon. Somebody else would be there. You'd be gone. You could not go back. If I'm a fisherman, and I decide I want to follow Jesus and then decide, you know what, maybe this is not what I want to do, I can always go back to fishing.

Because there's plenty of water to fish on. And no one's going to keep me off the lake. And you know what? That's what happened with Peter, James, and John. They went back to fishing after the crucifixion of our Lord, didn't they? I'm going back to what I used to do. I'm going back to fishing. It was a lot easier on the on the Sea of Galilee casting out the nets and bringing in the fish than it is following Jesus. Matthew couldn't go anywhere else. He had no place else to go. Couldn't go back. It was over.

It was, he made a decision. He made a commitment. How do you know Matthew was saved? He made a very clear break from the past. How do we know you're saved? You've made a clear break from the past. You haven't made a clear break from the past. Guess what? You're not saved. Now you can try to convince us who you are, but the Bible is very clear. See, there's no conversation between Matthew and Jesus. Matthew never speaks a word in any of the Gospels. Because I believe he stood in awe of Jesus. I believe he stood back and completely was awe-stricken by the magnitude of saving grace.

He wasn't worthy to speak a word. He just listened, followed, watched, and did what he was told. But he made a clear break. A clean break. It wasn't like get up and left and oh, gotta get the money back. We're gonna do that. No, okay. Oh, we get the names of those people that I want to extort some more money from. Oh, I gotta go back and get this now.

See, it wasn't like that. It was a decisive break. Because he was cleansed. He was changed. He was transformed. See, a lot of people today in churches always go back. And we want to say, well, you know, one day they walked the Nile and one day they said a prayer. I heard him say the prayer. Matthew never said a prayer. The paralyzed man never said a prayer. But their hearts cried out to God. Because you see, salvation is not about what I say. Salvation is about what has happened in me. It's evident to all who see.

Clearly evident to all who see. That's why the parable of the sower and the soil is so profound. Because there's only one soil that's saved and it brings forth some 30, some 60, some a hundredfold fruit, right? A bumper crop in Israel is 10 percent. A bumper crop in Israel is 10 percent. And Christ says when you're saved, you bring forth some 30-fold, some 60-fold, some a hundredfold.

It's not like they got to go looking under the branches to figure out what kind of tree is this. I wonder if it's an olive tree. I wonder if it's a orange tree. What kind of fruit does this tree have? No, it's clear, man. It's clear. Some 30-fold, some 60-fold, some a hundredfold. Christ makes it very clear that people in my kingdom leave no question about whose they are. That's just the whole, that's just the cold facts of the truth. That's it right there. And Matthew is that hero. Matthew is that man who makes that clean break and continues to follow his master.

And that's his conversion. You can see it in his commitment. He received forgiveness. And therefore he was no longer a traitor, an extortioner, an outcast, a sinner. He became a disciple and he became an apostle. He became an evangelist for God. Well, this is point number two.

That's a celebration. Oh, by the way, verse number 32 is the commentary on Matthew's conversion. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. He was one who had repented of sin. That's what repentance is. It's a turning about, right? Turning from sin to God. It doesn't mean that you don't sin because as long as you are on earth, you will sin. But the habit pattern of your life is to turn from sin to God. And because you are turning to God and following God, you are now more aware of your sin than you ever were in your unconverted state.

That's the mark of a believer. He knows his sin. That's why he's humble. That's why he confesses his sin. That's why he's broken over sin because he knows he's a sinner. He knows he has violated the holy God. He knows he has hurt his God and grieved the Spirit of God. He doesn't want to do that. So this man has a celebration. That's point number two.

Two things I want you to see. The enthusiasm of Matthew and the extent of his influence. Look what the text says. Verse 29. And Levi gave a big reception for him that is Christ in his house. This is the enthusiasm of Matthew. When you're saved, you want everybody to know who saved you. When you are born again, you want others to be able to hear and experience what you heard and what you experienced. So Matthew wants to have a big reception. Well, if you're going to have a big reception, that must mean you have a big what?

House. Right? Can't have a big reception at your house if you got a small house. So he's having a big reception. That means he must have a big house. He's going to invite a lot of people. But there's enthusiasm behind this. Matthew is converted. That conversion leads to a celebration. I got to tell my friends about Jesus. I got to let them know what has transpired in my life. I got to let them know that I have turned for the past and followed my God in the present and into the future. There's a celebration that takes place.

He's a new convert. He wants others to understand his transformed heart. And he wants his friends to know who transformed his heart. He wants his friends to know that he didn't do it. He wants his friends to know that Jesus did it. That Jesus turned his life around. And so he wants Jesus to come to this reception. It says in verse 129, and there was a great crowd of tax gatherers. A mega crowd. I mean, who else is he going to invite, right? Those who are his friends, other publicans, all other little mocuses.

So we got a little mocus invitation that went out into all the community to send all these tax gatherers to come to my house so they can they can see and experience what I have seen and what I've experienced. And the text says this, not only were there other tax gatherers, there were other people. Matthew says there were sinners. See, Matthew makes the clear distinction between a tax gatherer and a sinner. Because a tax gatherer is worse than a sinner. Matthew, in his gospel, Matthew 9, tells us there's a difference between a tax gatherer and a sinner.

There are other sinners that came, but the lowest of the low. We were all there. The Bible says they gathered together and we were reclining at the table with them.

They had dinner together. There was a there was a, I mean, this was a day event. I mean, this was not some small thing. You know, we go out to dinner in 20 minutes. We're done. We're out of there. We're gone. Okay. Takes us two hours to wait for dinner to get in line to get into dinner and we eat in 20 minutes and we're gone. But these people, they reclined at the table. They sat back and they imagine the conversation that must have taken place. You know, all these tax gatherers whose legs did you break this past week?

Oh, man, you should see the guy who didn't want to pay me. I sent my boys out there and we just destroyed him, his family and everything. It was a great day. This is the conversation at the table. And the prostitutes are talking about their business and how things are going in their town, in their city. And the drunkards are talking about the best places to get drunk. And that's the conversation at the table. I mean, that's all these people know. They're sinners, they're tax gatherers. Matthew didn't know any believers.

He didn't invite them. Didn't know any. But he wanted somebody to be able to explain to his other tax friends, to the other sinners, how does they could get saved? Because you see the heart of a believer is that he wants his unbelieving friends to experience what he's experienced in the saving grace of God. There's no doubt about it that Matthew's born again. There's no doubt about it that Matthew's life has been changed. It's completely evident in his conversation. It's completely evident in his mannerism.

It's completely evident in how his desire is to tell other people about Christ. That's who he is. That's what he wants to see happen. So that's what he does. He has this big celebration. He's enthusiastic about the fact he's been saved from his sin. See, I'm convinced that a lot of people aren't enthusiastic about their salvation experience because they haven't been saved from a sin. How is it those of us who are on our way to hell bound for eternal damnation and born again can be humdrum about our walk with God?

How does that happen? How can that possibly be? Matthew says, man, it's not that way, man. You've got to tell people about Jesus. You've got to bring them together. They got to be able to hear the truth. They got to be able to know what I know now.

That's the way it should be with us, right? There should never be an empty seat in the auditorium. Because everybody's bringing their friends to hear the truth. There should never be an evangelical church that preaches the gospel that has an empty seat in it. It should be filled week after week after week because everybody is dying to bring their friends to hear the truth of the gospel. They want them to hear it. They can't go another week without them hearing it. They'll go pick them up. They'll take them home.

They'll do whatever it takes to get them there because they need to hear what you have heard and what transformed your life. That was Matthew. Got to bring him in. They got to hear. And the extent of his influence is just to other unsaved people. He brings them all. Drunkards, criminals, thieves, thugs, prostitutes, tax gatherers. Anybody who's a sinner, they got to hear. They got to hear. Which leads us to our third point.

And that is the criticism. This was an evangelistic dinner, by the way. This was a celebration of the death of the old life and the beginning of a new life. That's why it was so celebratory in nature. The old life is dead. The tax gathering life is over. Whatever Jesus has for me, I know I had the foggiest idea, but I'm going to do it. That was Matthew. So now you have the criticism. Verse number 30. The pharisees and the scribes began crumbling at his disciples saying, why do you eat and drink with the tax gatherers and sinners?

There's a question. Then there's an answer. People who are pharisees are always those who quick to criticize. Those who want to win their unsaved friends to Christ. And they begin to grumble. They begin to mumble among themselves. What is Jesus doing now? They hated him anyway, I mean they didn't like him. I mean after all he said to them if you're unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and pharisees you'll never enter the kingdom of heaven. Well that right there set him at odds with the pharisees.

Who does he think he is saying that people's righteousness must exceed ours? We are the most righteous people. How can he even begin to voice that argument? So they already hated him. And now they're looking for ways to indict him. These are probably the same pharisees and scribes that were at Capernaum when the paralyzed man was healed and forgiven and they were still mumbling and grumbling about that. Now they've got one more thing to mumble and grumble about. You know, who does Jesus think he is?

Eating with these people. See they had this belief system that if you didn't agree with their theology, you were a heretic. If you didn't believe in their righteous system, you were a horrible sinner. If you didn't follow their set of rules, you would blaspheme God. So they had this whole system set up and that if you didn't follow their system, then you were against them. And if you were against them because they were righteous, then you must be against God. That's how they saw themselves. And so they began to grumble and complain.

They were outraged. They were shocked. The pharisees were the moral majority. God's not looking for a moral majority. He's looking for a holy minority. That's who he's looking for. He's not looking for the moral people. He's looking for the wretched unholy sinners whose life he can transform to make them like himself. Because the moral man's not going to come with a broken and contrite heart. The self-righteous man's not going to come and fall on his face before God and beg that God would be merciful to him a sinner.

Because he sees himself as worth something. Jesus only saves the worthless. Doesn't save those who believe they're worth something. The pharisees believed they were worth something. They began to grumble. Saying to his disciples, This Jesus of yours, eating with these people. Look who he's eating with. Now they weren't in the house because they wouldn't dare go into the house of a tax gatherer. That would be unclean. That would be filthy. They couldn't, they couldn't lower their standards to enter into a house like that.

That would be horrible. So they would begin to condemn Jesus because he would recline at the table with these people. Their whole impetus would be the fact that righteous people would never hang out with this kind of crowd. So Jesus gives an answer. To help them understand what it is he's doing. He says, it is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. Now think about that. That's a true statement. Those who are well don't need a physician. Those who are sick are. And in the pharisees theology, who are the sick people?

The tax gatherers, the thugs, thieves, the prostitutes, the drunkards. All the people in the house. Have at the party. Have the celebration. They were the ones who were the lowest of the low. In the mind of a pharisee, which would be right. And Jesus says, you know, if you're, you're sick, you need a physician.

If you're well, you don't. And these people are sick. They, they, they have a need. And they recognize the need. But you, you believe you're well, and don't see your need. And so Jesus gives them an analogy about the people who were the sickest. But the pharisees don't admission. They, they, they have a need to see a physician. And he is that chief physician. And over in Matthew's account, in Matthew chapter 9, listen how Matthew records the incident. He says, it is not those who are well those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.

But go and learn what this means. That phrase but go and learn is a rabbinical term that means figured out. Are you so dumb and ignorant that you do not understand this? It's used in rabbinical writings to, as a rabbi would rebuke his students for their stupidity. But go and learn what this means. He quotes Hosea 6, verse number 6. I desire compassion and not sacrifice, for I did not come to call the righteous but sinners. Christ says, I'm not looking for the externals.

I'm looking at what's on the inside. That's an indictment against the pharisees, because they always examine people by what was on the outside, how they looked and, and how they acted. And Jesus says, you know what?

I desire compassion, not sacrifice. I desire the heart's condition that cries out and longs for need. I look to people who need answers to their difficulties and I will give them answers. And very clearly he states with his own authority, I had not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And that bites deep and hard into a pharisee. He's saying, I didn't come to call you. I came to call them. I came to call those who recognize their sinners. I've come to call those people who are desperate in a need of a healing.

If you're here today and don't recognize your desperation, God says to you, I haven't come to call you.

I've only come to call the, the unworthy, the worthless, the vile sinner. Those who recognize they have a need. I'll save those people, God says.

Let me share with you just a word of testimony from the apostle Paul, 1st Timothy chapter 1. Paul says, but we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully. Realizing the fact that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for those who are lawless. Unrebellious. Paul says the law is good because the law is about the standard of God. The law depicts for us the, the, the, the completeness of, of who God is and describes for us his nature, his character. The law is good. The law in and of itself is not bad.

The law is good because it shows us who God is. And if it shows us who God is, it shows us who we are. And Paul says, realizing the fact that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching. God's law was given to those kinds of people.

God's law is good because it saves those kinds of people. Paul goes on to say, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted. Paul says this is the great gospel because it saves the perjurer, saves the liar, it saves the prostitute, it saves the idolater, it saves the drunkard, it saves the immoral man, it saves the adulterer, it saves the wretched man, it saves them all. All of them. And the law is that which does so. And Paul goes on to say, these words, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has strengthened me because he considered me faithful.

He saw my faith. He saw my belief in him because he granted me that faith. He put me into the service even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor and yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was more than abundant with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners among whom I am foremost of all. I am the chief of all the sinners.

Poor Paul, he needed to go see a therapist. He had a bad self-esteem. He had no self-worth. You know, a true believer has no self-worth. A true believer has no self-esteem. Because he's nothing. But his God is everything. And his God saved him, put him into his kingdom, transformed his life. Now he's a child of the living God. That's something. See, that's what Paul says. He says, was Paul the worst of all sinners? No, but he saw himself as the chief of all sinners. Why? Because the closer he walked with God, the more he saw his sinful condition.

He was completely humbled by the fact that he was so vile and God so virtuous that God would save him. He found mercy. Have you found that kind of mercy? Have you found the grace of God that's over abundant and it's willing to wrap you and save you from your sin? Think about it on this day. On this day when we come to celebrate God, that it's our God who saves us from our sin. What a great thing to know. The Pharisees, you see, didn't know that. They never got it. Because all they could see was their own self-righteous style, that they were good.

And they did good to people. And God would accept them because they were good. God would accept them because they were kind. God would accept them because they, in their own minds, were righteous. God would accept them because they were law keepers. God doesn't accept people like that. He accepts the broken and the contrite. Those who recognize their sinful condition and realize they cannot do anything in and of themselves. Guys like Matthew, the tax gatherer, who desperately recognized his condition.

The paralyzed man who knew he was a sinner and Jesus forgave him. Has Jesus forgiven you today? Have you recognized your sinful condition, repented of your sin, and come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord? I trust that you have. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for today. And how you call sinners to repentance. What a great thing to know. That you save us from our sin. I pray for every man and woman, boy and girl in the auditorium today. If there be one who doesn't recognize their sin, may your spirit convict them of their sinful condition.

That they might come to a point of repentance and cry out for your mercy to be bestowed upon them. They might experience the transforming grace as Matthew did. As the paralyzed man did. As many others in the New Testament, as well as many in this room, have experienced. Because of your love and grace and mercy. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.