As they're making their way down, if you have
a copy of the scriptures before you, you can
turn to Matthew chapter 9. This morning we will
return to our study in Matthew, which we've been
out for about three weeks. Two weeks to the fair,
and of course we had a missionary, Chris Fry,
to Peru. So I like it when the church is gathered
if we're in the study. So we took a little bit
of a mini break and we will pick up the text
this morning beginning in verse 9. As Jesus passed
on from there, this is where he had just healed
the man that was paralyzed and the four men brought
him to the Lord. So Jesus passed on from there.
He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax
office and said to him, follow me. So he arose
and followed him. Now it happened as Jesus sat
at the table in the house, that behold many tax
collectors and sinners came and sat down with
him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees
saw it, they said to his disciples, why does
your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?
When Jesus heard that, he said to them, those
who are well have no need of a physician, but
those who are sick. But go and learn what this
means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice, for
I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners
to repentance. Would you join me in prayer? Father,
this morning would we bow before you, Lord. God,
in this we see great hope. Lord, we see the call
of a very unlikely disciple. Lord, help us to
see our own calling there. Father, I would pray
that you'd give us a deeper understanding of
our own sin and unworthiness. and a greater sense
of your grace and mercy this morning, Lord. Father,
I thank you for your word. It gives light, it
gives instruction. Would you feed us from this
manna on high this morning, Lord? We pray this
in Jesus' name, amen. Let me ask you this question.
If you were a monarch, if you were a king or
a queen, and you had sovereign authority over
those who would be in your kingdom, who would
you choose? Who would you allow to enter into
your personal kingdom? I think most of us, if
we were the ones that were choosing, we were
able to do this. Certainly we would choose the
wise ones. That's going to bless our kingdom.
The noble, the strong, the ethical and kind,
the gracious, the beautiful. We would also want
the talented to enter our kingdom. Well, who
would we reject then? No doubt we would reject
the thief, the traitor, the unskilled who offers
nothing, because that's how the kingdom of man
operates. You choose that which is going to bless
you and enrich your life, and you reject that
which might be problematic. But that is not the
way of God's kingdom. It's not how it operates
at all. In fact, the Apostle Paul told us in
1 Corinthians chapter 1, he said, for you see,
your calling, brothers, that not many wise, according
to the flesh, not many mighty. He doesn't say
no mighty or no wise, but not many. Not many
wise, not many mighty, not many noble are called.
Okay, who does God call? Well, God has chosen
the foolish things of the world to put to shame
the wise. And God has chosen the weak things
of the world to put to shame the things which
are mighty. And the base things of the world,
the things which are despised, God has chosen.
and the things which are not, to bring to nothing
the things that are." Well, why would God do
that? Why would He choose a kingdom like that?
That no flesh should glory in His presence. What
we're going to see this morning is that God chooses
the most unlikely to be part of His kingdom so
that He alone gets the glory. Now we return this
morning to our study in Matthew chapter 9. And
we're going to see a disciple, Matthew, who's
called. And on the surface, it looks like we're
just an ordinary calling. But as we look at it,
we're going to see he was very unlikely to be
called by the Lord. Now, if we're going to understand
this, we have to remember what the book of Matthew
is all about. Matthew is written to show that
Jesus is the Messianic King. He is the one sent
from heaven, from God, to bring God's kingdom
to earth. In fact, in chapter 1 verse 1, Matthew
opens the gospel with these words, the book of
the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David,
the son of Abraham. Now, there are two very,
very important titles in that first verse. Son
of David. The son of David, I should correct
myself. The son of Abraham. The son of David
is referring to Jesus' lineage, his royal line
linking him to King David. and the promise that
God made with David in what is known as the Davidic
Covenant. We read about that in 2 Samuel 7. God
made a covenant with David, the great Israeli
king, that a future son, a future descendant
of David's would be born into his family and
he would serve as a king and he would rule forever
over God's people. This future king would have
an everlasting kingdom. He would sit on the throne
of his father David forever. Matthew lets us
know very clearly, in no uncertain terms, that
Jesus is the son of David. He is the fulfillment
to that promise. He is that messianic, that messiah
king who has come to bring the kingdom to us.
But Matthew also says Jesus is the son of Abraham.
Not just a son of Abraham, but the son of Abraham.
Now this title links Jesus with that patriarch
Abraham. God made a promise to Abraham, known
as the Abrahamic Covenant, that a future descendant,
someone in Abraham's line, would be born. This
seed that's going to be born in Abraham's line
would be a blessing to all the nations of the
world. The entire earth would be blessed through
this one singular descendant. And Matthew says,
Jesus is the fulfillment to that promise. He
is the son of Abraham. And we read that clearly
in Galatians 3. Now to Abraham and his seed where
the promise is made, he does not say, and to
seed. This is not talking about more than one,
as of many. There's one particular seed, and
to your seed who is Christ. The Lord Jesus is
the son of David, the son of Abraham. He's the
true Israel who has come to bring light to the
nations. Now this is important. And it's important
to our text this morning. So he is both the son
of David, King, brings the kingdom, and the son
of Abraham, the Savior who came to bring blessing
to all the nations of the world. So you have
two things here. Very clearly, the Lord Jesus
is God's rightful King, and he is the world's
unique Savior. All those covenant promises, whether
to David or to Abraham, find their fulfillment
in Jesus Christ. Second Corinthians 1, Paul says,
for all of the promises of God in him are yes
and in him, amen, to the glory of God through
us. Jesus is the one we are looking for. So as
the true King and as the true Savior, we find
him in the Gospels calling all people, Jew and
Gentile, to come into his kingdom by way of faith
and repentance. Now let me give you the context,
Matthew 9. The last time we looked at Matthew
is about a month ago now. We did see a paralyzed
man and he was brought to Jesus by four acquaintances
and we assumed to be friends. Now there's a large
crowd gathered in the house where Jesus was so
when they arrived at the house they couldn't
get the paralyzed man into the room with Jesus
so they came up with a novel idea. They take
the man up under the roof they began to open
up the roof and they lowered this man down into
the presence of Jesus. Matthew tells us this,
upon seeing their faith, talking about the four
men who was lowering him down, Jesus looked at
the paralytic and he did not say, be healed.
He looked at that paralyzed man and says, your
sins are forgiven. Now the Pharisees and scribes
were gathered in that room and they were outraged.
They were outraged because they said, this man's
guilty of blasphemy because who does he think
he is? Only God can forgive sin. That's a true
statement, by the way. So the Lord Jesus, he
knows what they're thinking. So in order to prove
to them that he had the authority on earth to
forgive sins, he then looked at the paralyzed
man and he said to him, rise up, basically get
up, pick up the mat, pick up your bed, and go
home. What happened? Verse 7. He arose and departed
to his house. Jesus healed that man on that day
to prove to the religious officials and all who
were gathered that he indeed possessed the authority
to forgive sin. Now that's winging in the air.
That's the context. Jesus has the ability to
forgive sin. Now we come to our passage. Look
at verse 9. As he passed on from there, what
I just said, he sees another man, Matthew. sitting
at the tax office or tax booth, your verse may
say, and he said to him, follow me. Guess what?
He got up and he followed him. There's another
man, not paralyzed, but equally in need of forgiveness.
So Jesus had just left that house. He's walking
down a road and he sees another man, Matthew.
Now Luke calls him Levi. It's the same man. And
a lot of Bible characters had two names, by the
way. Simon Peter, then you also have Matthew
and Levi, Thomas Didymus, also called Didymus.
So you find this quite often. So you have Matthew,
Levi, same man here, and Jesus looks at him and
says, hey, come and follow me. This man here,
Matthew, Matthew 9, he would become one of the
12 apostles, and he is the one who wrote this
gospel. But we're told that he's sitting at a
tax booth when Jesus called him, and that's an
incredibly important detail. For the very first
thing that you're going to learn about this man
is that he was a tax collector. Now when we think
of tax collectors, we're thinking like IRS. Now,
we don't love paying taxes, but we don't hate
IRS agents. But that's not what this is about.
Tax collectors were despised and hated by the
Jews because they were traitors to their own
nation. They betrayed their own people for personal
gain. So here's the situation. Matthew is a Jewish
man. He is working for the Roman government,
which meant he then would take money from his
Jewish brothers and send it to Rome, and Rome
then would subsidize their army with Jewish money.
So in essence, you have Jewish money is helping
to pay for Roman occupation of Israel, and the
Jews hated that. They hated that Rome was in
their land. Moreover, these tax collectors had
a great or sordid reputation. They were infamous.
Why? Because they were greedy and very corrupt.
What they would do, they would exploit and take
advantage of poor countrymen, if you will. Now,
Rome, how did they do this? Rome levied many
taxes on Israel. There were taxes on crops. There
were taxes on imports and exports. You had taxes
on infrastructure like roads and bridges. In
certain places, there was a tax if you were going
to go to a market town. And for certain Jewish
men, there was a tax on the head of Jewish males.
Now, Daniel Doriani in his commentary says this,
tax collectors often had the right to assess
the value of the good they taxed. So they grew
rich by taking the wealth of their own people,
sending most of it to Rome, and then pocketing
the rest for themselves. So basically what you
find here is these men got very rich by overtaxing
their own countrymen. They were corrupt. Now
you see this very clearly with what we know as
the wee little man named Zacchaeus who climbed
up into a sycamore tree, Luke 19. Now behold,
there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief
tax collector. Now notice this little appendage
here. and he was rich. How do you suppose Zacchaeus
made his money? By exploiting his own people.
Now in verse 8, we don't have to turn to Luke
19 verse 8, he even admitted to such because
when Jesus called Zacchaeus down, here's what
Zacchaeus said in verse 8, he stood and said
to the Lord, Lord, Lord, I give half of my goods
to the poor, and if I've taken anything from
anyone by false accusation, I'm going to restore
fourfold. He knew he had taken stuff by false
accusation. See, tax collectors, Matthew being
one of them, they were seen as the scourge of
society. They were not welcome in the synagogue
because they were unclean. Their testimony was
not admissible in court. They were social outcasts.
They were considered ritually unclean. And whenever
we read of tax collectors, we often find their
association with sinners and prostitutes. That's
how the Bible would say it. So what you have
here, you have no good self -respecting Jew would
ever want to associate or be close with a tax
collector. That is no one except Jesus. Jesus
called one of these despised men to be his disciples,
forever showing church that no one is beyond
the reach of God's mercy and forgiveness. Notice
when Jesus called Matthew to himself as he was
sitting at the tax office. He was there doing
his corrupt job. He was being a traitor to his
own people, and that's when Jesus called him.
What we find here, Jesus did not wait for Matthew
to ask to follow Jesus. Jesus did not wait for
Matthew to leave his corrupt job. Jesus did not
wait for Matthew to get his act together or clean
up his life. Jesus came to him. Salvation has
always been by divine initiative. No one on their
own ever seeks for God. no one ever is looking
for God. God is the one actively seeking and
saving sinners. Now Jesus had just healed that
paralytic where? In Capernaum. That's northern
Israel. That's Galilee. Capernaum is where Jesus
would have his home base, if you will. It's not
his hometown. That was Nazareth. But Capernaum
was his home base. Now where is Matthew? He's
on a road outside of Capernaum. So what does
that mean? This means Matthew had heard of Jesus.
It's a small area. Jesus is wildly popular, massively
popular, all over Israel, because even those
in Jerusalem had heard of him, but particularly
in Galilee. So Matthew would have known of Jesus.
He's heard the stories. This man has the ability
to do miracles. This man's doing the impossible.
And then when Jesus tells Matthew to come and
follow me, he arose and followed. I am sure that
Matthew was shocked. when he heard Jesus summon
him. No one of Jesus's caliber or of Jesus's
reputation ever wanted to be his friend. He was
shunned that he was about to meet Jesus, the
friend of sinners. Now what did Jesus mean when
he said, follow me? It was a summons. Matthew,
leave behind your old way of life and embrace
the life of discipleship. And friends, Matthew
embraced Jesus' call, which was evidence of the
work of this God's Spirit at work within him.
We're told in Luke, Matthew left all to follow
Jesus, which meant leaving behind a life of financial
security, a life of wealth. So the days of his
getting rich off the backs of his own countrymen,
well, they were over. Luke 528. It says Matthew
left all, rose up, and followed him. He left
it all behind. Why? Because he believed Jesus.
He believed Jesus when he said, what shall profit
a man if he shall gain the whole world, yet lose
his own soul? What shall profit a man? There's
no profit in that whatsoever. To gain this world
and lose your soul is the worst trade ever. And
Matthew saw that. Now Luke tells us that Matthew
then threw a big, great party after Jesus had
called him. Luke 5 .29. Notice what he said.
Then Levi, same person, gave him a great feast,
big party, in his own house. The fact that he
could hold a big party in his own house tells
you he was rich. And there were a great number
of tax collectors and others who sat down with
him. Matthew says it this way, now it happened
as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that
behold many tax collectors and sinners came and
sat down with him and his disciples. What do
we find here? Matthew had just invited his friends
to this big party. It's one big feast. Well,
who's Matthew's friends? other tax collectors
and sinners because no one else wanted to be
his friend. So Matthew then, and his friends,
all these social outcasts of the day, they stood
by Jesus, and Jesus stood to lose much, a whole
lot, by having dinner with this group. Jesus's
reputation was on the line now. Because all polite
society would have avoided Matthew and his friends,
no one's going to that party. Remember, they're
ritually unclean. But why do you think Matthew
invited his friends? He wanted them to meet Jesus,
too. I suspect that he knew Jesus could do for
them what he had done for him. But why did Jesus
then accept that invitation to a party where
notorious sinners are going to be present? Why
did he do it? We don't have to guess. For the
Son of Man has come to seek and save that which
was lost. That is a wonderful verse. The Son
of Man, what's his purpose? He's coming to seek
and save the lost. You have to understand though,
all Jesus is doing is sharing a meal. You're
like, what's the big deal? In that day, sharing
a meal meant acceptance and fellowship. There
was a united purpose to dying with someone. That's
why you find devout Jews, they had very strict
table regulations about who could come to eat
at their table and who couldn't. Gentiles could
not come. But if you were to eat with those who
were considered unclean, well that was viewed
as a religious compromise, and that's what Jesus
accepting this invitation meant and made it even
more shocking. That's why the Pharisees are over
here and they can't believe what they're seeing.
This man claims to be from God and he's eating
with these people? They were watching Jesus's
every move. Now they would have been absolutely
fine had Jesus gone to Matthew's house to rebuke
those filthy sinners. had he gone to instruct
them or rebuke them, but he had gone to eat with
them. And that outraged the religious leaders.
Here's what they're wondering. How can he claim
to be a legitimate teacher when he eats in fellowship
with such people like this? These are sinners.
Verse 11. And when the Pharisees saw it, they
said to his disciples, why does your teacher
eat with these people? Tax collector sinners.
I mean, Jesus just claimed to forgive sin. He
claimed to be the teacher sent from God. He claims
to be the Holy One. So tell me, how can a holy
man of God, if he's the real deal, fellowship
with such unclean people? Basically, the Jews
saw them, you are so dirty and so corrupt that
if I'm in your presence, you make me dirty. That's
how they saw it. Now you have to understand,
the Jews knew that all people in general were
sinners. They knew that in their theology. But
when they were referring to people as tax collectors
and sinners in this sense, they're referring
to a certain class of people who were so immoral,
so polluted, that to fellowship with them or
have close contact with them would make you ceremonially
defiled. I become dirty by your dirt. So what
they were saying is Jesus, by eating with them,
is now unclean, ceremonially speaking. And this
was just further proof to the religious leaders
that Jesus is a charlatan. He's a fake. Because
they can't reconcile in their mind how could
God, if he sent him, how could this man fellowship
with these people because they are so notoriously
corrupt. But they don't go to Jesus because they're
cowards. They go to Jesus' disciples and they
ask them this question. But Jesus overheard the
question, verse 12. When Jesus heard that, he
said to them, those who are well have no need
of physician, but those who are sick. But go
and learn what this means. I desire mercy and
not sacrifice, for I did not come to call the
righteous but sinners to repentance. Now think
about this. The Lord Jesus, He had just heard
their complaint and He takes them to task. They
are instructors in religion. They're the leaders
of the people. They should have known what he
was doing, and they should have known why he
was doing it. In fact, they should have rejoiced
that you have Jesus going to reach the loss and
to simply teach about God to those who needed
to hear him. But that's not what you see. They
did not like it at all. Jesus was always making
them mad, because if you look in the Gospels,
Jesus did something. Jesus pursued the pain.
He went to where the leper was, the one who's
unclean. We saw him go to where the demon -possessed
man was. He went to where the grieving mother
and father were. Wherever there was suffering,
you'd find Jesus. Why? He went to pursue the
lost and the broken, and with them, he's building
his church, folks. Who needs a doctor? Healthy
man or sick man? It's the sick. Who needs the
Savior? The righteous or the lost? The lost.
What was the mission? Seek and save that which
is lost. Saving sinners was the very reason Jesus
had come. And he says, I did not come to call
the righteous to repent, but sinners. Now, let
me explain that. Jesus is not saying that there
are some righteous people out there who don't
need to repent. You'd miss the point of that.
He's inditing the Pharisees who think they're
righteous. The Pharisees were never able to grasp
the fact that they were just as lost and just
as sick as the sinners who came to Matthew's
house for dinner that night. They couldn't see
it. Paul will later expand upon that in Romans
3 when he talks about there's none righteous.
No, not one. There's none who seeks after God.
They're all corrupt. They're all defiled. But
that was a stumbling block for these religious
leaders. Oh, yeah, Gentiles, yeah, they were
certainly needed to repent. The other pagans
needed to repent. But as we open the Gospel of
Matthew, we have John the Baptist and then later
Jesus. They come on the scene calling the Jews
to repent. God's people. See, the grace of God
is available to everyone. but only to those who
recognize their need will avail themselves of
that grace. If you don't understand your sin,
you will not appreciate grace. You can't do it.
The problem with the Pharisees is that they were
blind, and although they were blind, they thought
they could see. That meant they were self -righteous.
They were unable to see their own need for the
saving mission of Christ. It never dawned on
them. Who were the Pharisees? Well, they're the
ones that thought, if you study God's law and
you apply yourself to obey it, even with the
help of God, well then you can be righteous.
You've got to do X, Y, Z. And the righteousness
that is required before God must be perfect.
For God is perfect. He is absolutely holy. No
one, even with divine help, can make himself
absolutely righteous before God. All of us, the
best and worst of us, need to be rescued. Everyone.
We need someone who is absolutely, pristinely
righteous to stand in the gap for us, and that
is exactly what the word Jesus does for his people.
There is a problem sometimes with religious folks.
There is an inherent problem with moral people
like the Pharisees. Because when you put the
question to them, they cannot see why God would
possibly reject them and deny them entrance into
the kingdom. They assume that if anyone enters
the kingdom, it'll be them, because they're fine,
upstanding, pious pillars of the community. But
they don't get sin. For them, sin is merely external.
It's just a problem with behavior. But that's
not the way the Bible teaches about sin. Sin
is internal. It's a problem with our heart. Our
behavior simply flows from the desires and thoughts
of our heart. See, sin corrupts, but sin corrupts
not just what we do, not just our actions, but
who we are by nature. We're corrupt in the innermost
part of our being. So yeah, sure, you can make,
someone can make their outer behavior conform
to a moral code. Yeah, you can do that. but you
can never, ever change your corrupt heart. See,
the Bible doesn't say you need to be fixed. The
problem with sin, it is so pervasive, so tied
to our DNA that we need a new birth. We need
to be born again. But if you're self -righteous,
you don't understand the gravity or the weight
of your sin, and thus you fail to understand
grace. You talk about it, but you don't get it.
Ephesians 2, for by grace you have been saved
through faith. And that, not of yourselves. Listen
folks, it is what? The gift of God. All of it.
The faith to believe, the grace that you receive,
all of it's a gift of God. Why? Paul said this
in 1 Corinthians 1, that no flesh should glory
in its presence. He says that again here. It
can't be of works, lest anyone should boast in
the presence of God. There will be no bragging
before God. There will only be humble rejoicing
for His grace and mercy. Only those who understand
their sickness will ever come to the doctor.
I mean, most of us don't call the doctor and
make an appointment when we feel well. It just
doesn't happen. That's the problem with Pharisees.
They didn't recognize their need, and they will
not come to the Savior. But they boasted in knowing
the law of God. That's what they boasted, and
they knew. They were great at Bible trivia. They
were great at sword drills. They knew the Word,
but they didn't understand it. So Jesus takes
them back to the Word of God. He says, but go
and learn what this means, and he gives them
a Bible verse. I desire mercy and not sacrifice.
Jesus is quoting from the book of Hosea chapter
6 verse 6, which says this, for I desire mercy
and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more
than burnt offerings. True religion before God
is not about what you do, but about what he has
done for us in Christ. It's not about rituals
and ceremonies. Rituals and ceremonies can be
fine. They can have their place. Liturgy is great.
But it has to be a heart that reflects the heart
of God. It's a heart that reflects what? God's
mercy and God's compassion. This is what's going
to please him. Sproul said this. Christ. has
not commanded us to shake our fingers at every
center and every outcast of our society. He has
called us to a ministry of mercy. That is what
he did and that is what he wants us to do. Amen.
Friends, the world is the world. The world's
lost and lost act like lost people. Now let me
give you a little caveat here. Sproul was not
referring to those within the church. He's referring
to those outside the church. There are two standards.
We have a different standard for those who have
come to faith in Christ. Immorality must be judged.
Outside, they need to be rescued. They need to
be saved. But the Pharisees didn't get it. They
needed Jesus. They could not see it. So Jesus
tells in the shocking statement, I can't imagine
the look on their faces when Jesus said this.
He said, listen, tax collectors and prostitutes
will go into the kingdom of heaven before you
do. Matthew 21, 31. Assuredly. Mark it down.
I say to you that tax collectors and harlots
enter the kingdom of God before you." Wow. And
that's such a strong skating indictment. Jesus
had just quoted the book of Hosea. Why Hosea?
Because the Pharisees were acting just like the
people did in Hosea's time. They were religious,
but they did not grasp the relationship with
God that was necessary. See, their hearts were
cold, censorious, proud. Because of their religious
devotion, they thought they were right with God.
But had they truly valued mercy above sacrifice,
there would have been no boasting, and there
would have been instead great humility, and there
would have been rejoicing that Jesus was reaching
the lost. I want you to listen to these words
that Jesus spoke. He later on, he was so fed
up with them. He speaks a parable to them that
illustrates perfectly Matthew 9. In Luke 18,
verse 9 to 14, it says also He, that is Jesus,
He spoke this parable to some who trusted in
themselves that they were righteous and despised
others. Who are the Pharisees despising in Matthew
9? Tax collectors and sinners, all right? He
says two men went up the temple to pray, one
a Pharisee and, ah, let's just take, for example,
the other a tax collector. It's a parable he's
choosing on purpose. He's contrasting the two.
One, you have this well -respected, zealous follower
of God's law, and the other was a notorious corrupt
thief. Verse 11, the Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself, God, I thank you, that are
not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers,
or even as his tax collector. Let me just say
that would please God. God doesn't want you to
be an extortioner and adulterer. They go on,
I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that
I possess. And the tax collector, though, he
has nothing to offer to God. He stands afar off.
He's not going to draw near. He would not so
much as even raise his eyes to heaven. He knew
he wasn't worthy. But he beats upon his breast
saying, God, be merciful to me a sinner. Now
remember, what did Jesus say that God delights
in or God requires? He desires mercy and not
sacrifice. So then Jesus gives a conclusion to
the parable, and he's looking no doubt straight
at these men. He said, I tell you, this man,
this tax collector, he went down to his house
justified rather than the other. The other is
not justified. The other is condemned. This is
how tax collectors enter into the kingdom before
you. For everyone who exalts himself, you want
to be proud before God? God will humble you,
and it will be a terrible humbling. But if you
will humble yourself before the great and strong
arm of God, you will be exalted. God will justify
you. Friends, there's only two takeaways here.
There are two ways. That's it. You are either
going to seek to earn God's favor through your
self -effort. It's a fool's errand. You can try.
You can fast. You can tithe. You can give. You
can pray. Your heart's far from God. You'll be
cast out and shut out of the kingdom. Or secondly,
you don't lift your eyes to heaven. You beat
upon your breasts and say, God, be merciful to
me, a sinner. This means you cast yourself upon
the mercy of God. given to us in Christ Jesus.
It's what we see in Matthew, an unlikely convert,
the call of an unlikely disciple. No one, friends,
no one in here, no one out there is beyond the
saving reach or arm of God. So what about for
us, for the church? Jesus called Matthew to be
his disciple and we're told that Matthew left
everything. He left a job of great financial
security. His trust could no longer be in this
money. It had to be in Christ. Do you remember
when Jesus called Andrew and Peter and James
and John earlier in Matthew? What were they?
They were fishermen by trade. And when Jesus
walked by and He called them, what are we told?
It says they left their nets and their boats
behind to follow Christ. They left their old
way. Matthew got up from the tax office and he
leaves it. So what about us? You're like, well,
those are special cases. Yeah, those are apostles.
They're disciples. When we come to Jesus, we
leave behind our old life as well. You and I
are called to abandon ourselves to Him and Him
alone. What does that mean? It means seeking
His will and His kingdom above everything else.
Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.
That's what we're called to do. So here's the
cry of the disciple. Lord, do with me whatever
you will. Whatever you want. Because we are not
our own. We've been bought with a price. And
we are to therefore glorify God in our bodies.
It means, friends, everything. We give everything
to Him. Your life, your home, your family, your
job, your security, it all belongs to Him. He
purchased you. But you and I know that He's good,
right? And it's a choir saying He's faithful.
So we trust Him. He only has good plans for you.
Realize this, folks. He is the true King, son
of David, and the true Savior, son of Abraham.
And you and I bow our knees before Him today,
confessing Him as our Lord. This is the message
that Matthew wants you to get. Cast yourself
up on the mercy of Christ. The saving reach and
arm of God is there for you. You humble yourself,
He'll receive you. You in refusal and pride,
He will humble you on that great day of judgment.
Come to Christ today. Let's bow our heads and
prepare our hearts for the table. Father, we
thank you, Lord, for your word. Lord, it is good.
It's so very good. And Lord, I thank you for
the calling of Matthew. Lord, it reminds us of
our own calling. Lord, help us to see ourselves
as him. Lord God, we are the tax collectors.
We are the sinners. Lord, we are the notoriously
corrupt ones, as Paul wrote about in Romans 3.
Lord, we were the ones who were far off in Ephesians
2. Lord, we have nothing to brag. We can't bring
to you our piety. We can't bring to you the works
of our hands, for if we did, Lord, we would be
consumed. Lord, just as Cain was. Lord God, we
come to you casting ourselves upon your mercy.
Lord, we don't want to lift up our eyes to you.
We bow our hearts to you, but we do this. We
confess your son is Lord. He's the king, the
son of David, and he's the savior, the son of
Abraham, and we trust in him. All our hope is
in him. All our security lies in him. Thank you,
Father, that he is faithful. Lord, we know that
he cannot renege. We know that he cannot fail.
He has died and risen again, has ascended to
the most exalted place in heaven, and we trust
him, Lord. Father, I pray for my brothers and
sisters this morning. Some may be going through
difficult trials. Lord, help their faith to grow
to see Jesus. Lord, I pray for them, Lord, who
are just wavering and being tossed about. Lord,
help them to be fully fixed and Lord, firm and
resolute in their trust in Christ, Lord. Father,
may your spirit work, Lord, in those who are
lost. Lord, awaken them. Maybe there's someone
like the Pharisee here this morning that in their
pride, they come to church and they are clean
living and moral and give and they even pray,
but their heart is far from you. Lord, I pray
that God in your grace, you would open their
eyes. Lord, help them to see their need and to
cast themselves. upon your mercy to humble themselves
before you, Lord. For there will not be a proud
man to enter to heaven, for you actively resist
the proud. I pray this in Jesus' name and for
his glory alone.