Dinner With Your Doctor - Matthew 9:9-13

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

Matthew 9 · chapter mention

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.