Calling Sinners to Repentance

The point: Bring your Bibles to future meetings and follow along as the Word of God is read.

Martin uses the analogy of someone living in the Mississippi Delta not knowing the difference between a cotton field and a corn field to illustrate the spiritual blindness of those who grow up with religion but don't understand their sin.

of a physician, but they that are sick. I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Can you imagine someone living? Living for 25 or 30 years in the Mississippi Delta, and not knowing the difference between a cotton field and a corn field? Why, you say, impossible. Anyone who is brought up

2:27 - 3:00 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin details the context of Jesus' call to Levi, a despised tax collector, highlighting the social and moral standing of publicans. He explains that Jesus' call, 'Follow me,'…

He explains the historical context of tax collectors (publicans) being despised by their own countrymen due to their association with Roman oppressors and their notorious dishonesty, setting the stage for understanding Matthew's social standing.

Now, try to put yourself in the position of the average Jew in that day. You loved your country, you loved your nation, but your nation was in subjection to a foreign power, the Roman government. Now, what is a more rubbing reminder of the presence of that foreign government than the sight of the Roman government? Now, what is a more rubbing reminder of the presence of that foreign power than the sight of perhaps its soldiers, its military presence, or its tax collectors? Now, tax collectors are never popular in any society in any age. But when they are

5:53 - 6:24 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin details the context of Jesus' call to Levi, a despised tax collector, highlighting the social and moral standing of publicans. He explains that Jesus' call, 'Follow me,'…

Martin vividly describes publicans as the 'Palestinian mafia' and associates them with 'harlots' to emphasize their low moral standing in Jewish society, highlighting the kind of people Jesus associated with.

collectors had earned the reputation of being the epitome of dishonesty. We might even say they were sort of the Palestinian mafia. And so, if you wanted to use a term by which you describe somebody that really was out of it morally and ethically, you used the term, a publican. You remember in the Gospels, again and again, the word publican is joined with sinners and with the word harlots. So, if you bring together the local union of streetwalkers and

6:57 - 7:27 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin details the context of Jesus' call to Levi, a despised tax collector, highlighting the social and moral standing of publicans. He explains that Jesus' call, 'Follow me,'…

The story of Jesus and the woman at the well (John 4) is used to illustrate Jesus' supernatural knowledge of individuals' sins, showing he knew everything about Matthew before calling him.

the local expression of the Palestinian mafia, that's what you have when you think of this particular crowd that come into the picture in this passage. Now, the Lord Jesus has passed by the very place where Matthew is sitting, collecting his taxes. As the Son of Man, we read in John's Gospel, chapter 2, he knew what was in man. He knew everything about this man, Matthew. Remember in John's Gospel, chapter 4, there was a woman at a well. And Jesus began to

7:27 - 8:00 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Matthew, in his newfound love for Christ, hosts a great feast for Jesus and his fellow publicans and sinners. The Pharisees, the self-righteous religious leaders, are scandalized…

Jesus' analogy of whitewashed graves is used to describe the Pharisees' external religiosity that covered internal corruption, emphasizing their hypocrisy.

Jesus said they were like whitewashed graves.

14:05 - 14:07 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains Jesus' analogy, portraying him as the great physician of souls who draws near to sinners to bring spiritual healing. He contrasts this with the Pharisees'…

Martin creates a scenario where the Pharisees see a doctor tending to a sick friend, asking if they would be upset. This illustrates the absurdity of their anger at Jesus, the Great Physician, ministering to sinners.

It's as though the Lord Jesus turns to the Pharisees and says this. Now listen to me, you guys. You went from this place where you're all upset because you see me sitting here eating and drinking with publicans and syndicates, and on the way home to your house, you happen to pass by the home of your friend A.B.,

19:33 - 19:55 Read in full sermon

The point: Examine yourself: By what means were you brought to feel the depth of your sinfulness and own the reality of what you are as a sinner in the sight of Almighty God?

Paul's testimony (Romans 7) about the tenth commandment, 'Thou shalt not covet,' blasting his heart open is used to illustrate how the law reveals the deep, internal nature of sin, even for a self-righteous Pharisee.

I was this. I was that. But he said you know what happened one day? He said God by the Holy Spirit took the tenth commandment thou shalt not covet.

27:34 - 27:42 Read in full sermon

The point: Reflect: Where, when, and by what means did you come to understand your heart as a cesspool of iniquity, despite external protections from sin?

The parable of the Pharisee and the publican praying in the temple (Luke 18) is used to contrast self-righteous prayer with genuine, humble repentance, emphasizing the publican's deep sense of sin.

Have you ever been able to take the posture of that publican as recorded later on in Luke's gospel? Who when he came into the precincts of the temple unlike that Pharisee who strode as it were right into the presence of God lifted up his eyes to heaven and began to pat himself on the back and say I thank thee God I'm not like other men I do this I'm this I'm the other it says the publican standing afar off would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven and he cried out beating upon his breast God be merciful to me not a sinner but the sinner be merciful to me the sinner God brought him to fee...

29:18 - 30:02 Read in full sermon

Driving home: I am come to call sinners to repentance not my church primarily not my ministers not my sacraments I am come and until you have one-to-one dealings with the Son of God you'll never be healed of the sickness of your sin

Martin describes Jesus' normal human development, learning his ABCs and how to tie his shoes, to emphasize the profound humiliation of the Incarnation and the lengths God went to save sinners.

who spoke worlds into being out of the womb of nothing galaxies leap into existence when he speaks that one is encased in a little virgin's womb think of it think of it think of it spends nine months going through all the normal prenatal development is born amidst the size and groans of Mary's birth pangs and needs to be washed from his birth blood and wrapped in rags and laid in a manger my friend listen if there was any other way

32:59 - 33:44 Read in full sermon

The point: Ask yourself: Have you been brought to that place where you've had a change of mind that has affected every aspect of your life with regard to God, his law, and Jesus Christ?

He describes Matthew waking up the morning after his conversion, looking in the mirror, and realizing his physical appearance is unchanged, but his heart and priorities are radically transformed, illustrating the fruit of repentance.

have you been brought to that place where you've had a change of mind that has affected every aspect of your life with regard to God and his claims over you with regard to his holy law and its demands upon you and above all with regard to Jesus Christ and the claims and the provisions of his gospel do you know anything about repentance do you you see this man Levi he was the same person he got up the next morning went in to shave or trim his beard whichever one and he looks in the mirror and lo and behold if his nose was this long it wasn't stretched out like Pinocchio the next morning or if h...

41:54 - 42:37 Read in full sermon