Calling Sinners to Repentance

Introduction: The Significance of Jesus' Mission Statement

0:03 The community-wide services that are being sponsored by the Second Presbyterian Church of Yazoo City. I'm Will Thompson, and I'm a ruling elder in the Second Presbyterian Church. We'd also like to welcome those who listen to us over the radio station WJNS tonight. Our minister of the Word of God is Reverend Pastor Al Martin, who is from Essex Fells, New Jersey, where he's the minister in the Trinity Baptist Church. Mr. Martin stands

0:32 upon the authority, the inspiration, and the inerrancy of the Holy Scriptures, and has been used by God in this country and even across the world as he proclaims God's truth to men. We do welcome Pastor Martin into our community and do eagerly await the messages that he has for us tonight. Since we are met to study the Word of God together, to hear the proclamation of that Word, may I urge you, if you have not done so tonight, to bring your Bibles with you if you are to be present with us in future meetings together during these next few days. And I would urge you even now to follow as I read from the

1:16 Word of God as found in the Gospel according to Luke, Luke's Gospel, chapter 5, and beginning with verse 27. Luke's Gospel, chapter 5, beginning with verse 27. And after these things he went forth, that is, speaking of our Lord Jesus Christ, and beheld a publican named Levi, or, as we read in the parallel passage in Matthew 9, a man by the name of Matthew, sitting at the place of Tov. And he said unto him, Follow me. And he forsook all, and rose up

1:58 and followed him. And Levi made him, that is, for the Lord Jesus, a great feast in his house. And there was a great multitude of people, and there was a great multitude of publicans and of others that were sitting at meat with them. And the Pharisees and their scribes murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with the publicans and sinners? And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are in health have no need

2:27 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

3:00 with cotton fields and corn fields all his life surely would know the difference between the two. And yet it's an amazing fact that there are men and women, fellows and girls, probably some sitting here tonight, who have been brought up with cotton fields and a corn field as ourselves. They have been brought up with cotton fields and cornfields, and that's not a reason to have any illusions about what they are going to find. They have been brought up with cotton fields and corn fields. Well let me give you a very

3:43 simple example. I have made the subjective question. A lot of young citizens at this time – I remember I was studying everything. Some of them were very happy.

3:47 Some were extremely pleased. But if you'd take a look at the hermitage of those backsides, I might explain to some of them. special way, those passages in the Word of God, in which the purpose and mission of the Son of God is brought together in a simple statement of a few words or a few sentences, and such passages ought to be especially dear to all of us, and ought to be passages to which we turn again and again. And it's just such a passage to which I direct your attention tonight, because in it, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself tells us why He came. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself tells us

4:30 the significance of His presence amongst men. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself tells us who it is that He brings into a vital and saving relationship with Himself. And our attention will, of course, be focused particularly upon verses 30 and 31. But these words of our Lord Jesus, they that are well or healthy have no need of a doctor, but they that are sick, they were not spoken as the Lord was just walking down the street in Jerusalem one day and all of a sudden stopped and said, oh, by the way, did you know that they that are whole have no need of a doctor, but they that are sick? He did not speak them as it were in a vacuum.

The Circumstances of Jesus' Words: Calling Levi (Matthew)

5:12 And I want you to notice with me, in the first place, as we study this passage of the Word of God together, the circumstances in which Jesus spoke these words. Those circumstances are described for us in Luke 5, 27 and 28, and then into verse 29. The Lord Jesus is going forth, and as He goes forth, He beholds a man named Levi, or Matthew, who is sitting at a place where taxes were collected. Now, Matthew was a publican, that is, a man who collected taxes for the Roman government.

5:53 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

6:24 foreigners who are collecting your taxes by the hands of your own countrymen, it's obvious such people do not become those who win popularity contests. So these publicans were despised by their fellow Jews, not only because of their connection with the Roman government, but for the most part, because of their connection with the Roman government. And so, they were despised by their fellow Jews, not only because of their connection with the Roman government, but for the most part, they were notorious for being a little less than honest with the collection of the taxes. Their philosophy was, two for Rome, one for me. One for me, two for Rome. And so, these tax

6:57 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

7:27 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

8:00 talk to her about himself and what he had come to do for sinners. And she's all ready, as we would say in current terminology, to make a decision when Jesus said, woman, call your husband. And suddenly she realized she was not dealing with an ordinary man. She was dealing with a man who was a man. She said, sir, I perceive thou art a prophet. You know things about me that only God

8:22 could impart to you in the way of knowledge. Well, in the same way, Jesus knew all about this man, Levi. And yet, knowing all about him, knowing his sin in every detail, the Lord Jesus stands by that place where Matthew sits, collecting his taxes, and he says these very simple words, follow me. In other words, he calls this man, Matthew, into a relationship of absolute trust and unreserved submission to himself. Now, we do not know how much Matthew had heard about the Lord Jesus prior

9:05 to this event. In all likelihood, being a public figure, he had no doubt heard about this person who performed unusual miracles, this one whose reputation was so great that he was able to make a name for himself. And yet, knowing all about him, she says, woman, call your husband. And yet, knowing all about him, she says these very simple words, follow me. And yet, knowing all about him,

9:27 she says these very simple words, follow me. And yet, knowing all about him, she says these very simple words, Jesus fell upon the ears of Matthew. Those words which said, follow me, there was a putting forth of divine power that reached the deepest recesses of Matthew or Levi's heart. And without any negotiation, he was able to make a deal with Matthew. And so, in the same way, he was able to

9:48 without any discussion, without any questions asked, our passage tells us in verse 28, and he forsook and rose up and followed him. He forsook, he rose up and he followed him. In other words, when the words of Jesus, follow me, came to this man Levi, they came as the words that ooze with a message of grace. For this one who knew what was in man was saying, Levi, I know all about you.

10:30 I know all about your dishonesty. I know all about your thievery. I know all about the sins that you think only you know about. But in spite of all of that, Levi, you are just the kind of person I have come to call to myself.

10:48 But not only did Levi perceive in the words of Jesus that which spoke of the grace of God, he perceived the very authority of God. He didn't say, now wait a minute, wait a minute, it's all right for you to call me to follow you, but remember, I've got a business, I've got a wife, I've got a family, I've got career plans, and I've got my retirement to think about, and I've got my friends, let's sit down and negotiate. No negotiations. The text says he forsook all, he rose up, and he followed him.

11:20 In other words, the words of Jesus, not only came as words of grace, but they came as words of government. And in the word of Jesus, you have both divine grace and divine government inseparably joined together.

The Feast and the Pharisees' Murmuring

11:38 Now, when the Lord Jesus had shown his grace and exercised his government over Matthew, in his newfound love for the Lord Jesus, Matthew does what was very natural for him. He's obviously a wealthy man who has a large house, and apparently a large banquet room in that house, and many servants, and we read in verse 29 that Levi made for him, that is, for the Lord Jesus, a great feast in his house. He didn't say, now, I'd love you to come home and just share a cup of coffee, a cup of tea. It says he made a great feast.

12:15 It was no ordinary three-course meal. I mean, this thing started probably with fancy hors d'oeuvres right through to all kinds of classes, classy desserts, probably a seven-course banquet. It was a great feast. But he didn't want just to have the Lord Jesus there.

12:31 He was having the feast in honor of the one who had just called into himself, and so he invited all of his business associates and his friends. It says there was a great multitude of publicans and of others that were sitting at meat with them. Now, can you get the picture? Here is, no doubt, the Lord Jesus, at the place of honor.

12:56 Whatever place was given to the honored guest in that culture, there was the Lord Jesus in the center of it. And no doubt, Matthew sitting on his right. And then throughout that banquet hall or large room in which they were meeting are all of his fellow publicans and others. And the others were not the ordinary others.

13:17 They were those who were known to be of the same kind with this man, Matthew, or Levi. And in that particular situation, suddenly, this crowd that hawked and followed every step of the Lord Jesus, listened carefully to every word, trying to seize upon his words and twist them, they happened to pass by and look in the window. There are these Pharisees. Now, you remember who the Pharisees were.

13:46 Perhaps some of you have never heard the name before. Well, the Pharisees were the official religious leaders of Jesus' day. And they promised, they prided themselves in being the ultra-holy ones, the most separated of the separated ones. But their problem was, you see, all their religion was on the outside.

14:05 Jesus said they were like whitewashed graves.

14:09 Someone just takes a bucket of whitewash and they splash some over a gravestone and people say, oh, doesn't that look lovely? Jesus said, take the gravestone away and what do you find underneath? Dead men's bones and rotting flesh. He said, that's what you Pharisees are like.

14:25 Now, this crowd was constantly following the Lord Jesus as I've already intimated, seeking to pick fault with him, seeking to seize upon his words. Well, this is all they needed. They look in the window and here is the Lord Jesus right in the midst of the Palestinian mafia and the local 506 of the call girls.

14:50 And so they either call through the window or sneak through the door. How they get to the disciples, we don't know. But they get hold of a few of the Lord's disciples, and call them aside. And they ask this question.

15:02 Now, notice. Notice the question in verse 30. Their question was this. And the Pharisees said unto them, Why does your master, or why do ye, and then in Matthew's gospel, why does your master eat and drink with publicans and sinners?

15:23 Now, you see, you must understand that in Eastern culture, to eat and to drink with someone was more than just an expression of social kindness. It was the way you said to someone that you were opening your heart to them. And so when they see the Lord Jesus eating and drinking with sinners, it unhinges them. Now, had he been standing on the center table preaching, hurling out fire and brimstone and telling these people they were going to hell, oh, they'd have been the amen corner.

15:58 They would have stood outside saying, give it to them, that crowd needs it. But he's sitting there eating and drinking with them. And this disturbs them. And so they ask the disciples, why do ye, and in the parallel passage in Mark 2, why does he, your master, eat with publicans and sinners?

Jesus' Answer: A Common Observation and Glorious Proclamation

16:21 What's the reason? Now notice the answer of our Lord. And now we've come to our text. Having looked at the circumstances in which this event occurs, the question that is raised by the scribes and Pharisees, now notice the answer of Jesus in verses 30 and 31.

16:39 I'm sorry, 31 and 32. And Jesus' answer has two parts to it. First of all, a common observation. And then secondly, a glorious proclamation.

16:51 Notice the common observation. Something that is evident to anyone that's got his head screwed on right, whether he's seven years old or 70. Listen to his words. Jesus answered them, and said, Those that are healthy do not have need of a doctor, but those that are sick.

17:13 Now is there anyone here who would debate that statement? Had sin never entered the world, there would have been many occupations, but there'd be no Dr. Will Thompson leading the meeting tonight. There would be no police.

17:29 There'd be no judges. There would be no doctors. There'd be no morticians. No funeral directors.

17:38 No undertakers. Had sin never entered the world. There would be gardeners. The first son God made by creation was a gardener.

17:46 Never forget that. In a day where we glorify people other than those who work with their hands, God had a son by creation. He has his own eternal son who became incarnate, and both were those who worked with their hands, forever sanctifying hard labor with one's hands. Never forget that.

18:06 Adam was made a gardener, not the head of a think tank in the Garden of Eden.

18:13 And God's own dear son, the Lord Jesus, the eternal Word made flesh, was a carpenter who worked with his hands.

18:24 Now this passage tells us that Jesus answers their question by saying, look you Pharisees, you see and understand and are convinced every day of your life that people walking around healthy don't walk around healthy. They don't need a doctor. You understand that? You live in the light of it?

18:47 It's the presence of sickness that necessitates doctors. All right, then he moves from that common observation to this glorious proclamation. Look at it in verse 2. I am not come to call the righteous, but to repentance.

Jesus as the Great Physician of Souls

19:05 Now do you see the connection? Jesus is saying, I have come as the great physician of souls, not to people who are well, or to people who can heal themselves. I have come to those who are sick, and I have come to bring them not primarily physical salvation or healing, but spiritual healing. Let me paraphrase it this way.

19:33 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.,

19:55 and you look in the window, and there you see a man bent over a body, stretched out on a couch. And as you stand there and look at that scene, it's evident to you that the person stretched out on the couch is burning up with a fever. They're moaning, and they're groaning in pain. And as you look at the situation, it becomes evident to you that the person bent over that fevered body is one of the local physicians.

20:24 Now you Pharisees, answer me. Would you get upset if you saw the local doctor getting close enough to a sick man to help him? Would that get you upset? Well, what's the obvious answer?

20:37 Of course not. What, just to hang up a shingle and impress people? Will Thompson, M.D.?

20:46 With no office where sick people can come? And have a thermometer stuck under their tongue? Have a thermometer? Have their pulse taken?

20:52 And have somebody rudely push down the tongue and peer into the back of the throat and do all the other things that doctors do to try to find out what's wrong with us? Do doctors exist just to have a sign hung out to impress people? No. They've gone through all of their training in preparation for what purpose?

21:10 To get close enough to sick people in order to administer healing. And Jesus said to these Pharisees in this glorious proclamation, I have not come be set up on a pedestal at a great distance simply to be admired. I've come all the way from heaven's glory to a sin-cursed earth for this very purpose. To get close enough to sinners to do them good.

21:41 To get near enough to sinners to apply to them my saving power and my saving grace. Listen, you Pharisees. You wouldn't get upset if you walked by the house of your friend A.B.

21:55 and saw the doctor sixteen inches away bent over him laboring to administer healing. Why should you be upset that I've passed by the place where Matthew sat collecting taxes and got close enough to say to him, follow me and by my grace enter into his heart and change it and bring him into a relationship of faith and obedience to me. And why should you be upset that in his life love for me and in his desire that others know the joy and the peace that he has come to know he has now spread this banquet and invited all of his friends. Why?

22:33 Because he knows that they are sick as he was sick. He knows that when he sat by that seat of custom as it's called in the scriptures he was a man under condemnation. His sins were on him like a great weight pressing down down, down and would have pressed him into hell. And I have come and taken the weight of his sin from him.

22:59 And in the joy of sins forgiven he knows that all his fellow publicans are under that same weight of sin. He knows that they like him are under the wrath of a holy God. And he has come to know that I have been sent from heaven to save such sinners. And in his love to me and in his love to his fellow sinners he's this banquet that what I have done for him I might do for them.

Truth 1: Only Those Who See Themselves as Sinners Will Be Saved

23:30 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. That's the meaning of our Lord's glorious proclamation. Now having spent these moments opening up the passage now consider with me three or four wonderful truths that this passage contains. All we've been doing is trying to understand the passage.

23:54 That's all. We've just been opening up the word of God in your presence. Now the first great truth that this passage teaches us is this. Only those who see themselves as sinners will ever be saved by Jesus Christ.

24:12 Only those who see themselves as sinners will ever be saved by Jesus Christ. How do we know that? Listen to his words. I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.

24:34 Christ himself declares that he has no message no ministry for those who do not see themselves to be sinners. As surely as a healthy man has no felt need for a doctor so those who are righteous in their own eyes have no felt need for the Lord Jesus. That was the basic problem of the Pharisees. Now notice they felt a need to be religious.

25:06 Most religious people around in that day about religion my friends felt a need for religion and followed them from the time they woke up in the morning until the time they went to bed. They had rules and regulations for every single aspect of their lives but they had no sense of their sin.

25:41 And I would be greatly surprised if I were not speaking tonight to many of you to many in this auditorium and many who may hear us on the radio as I speak who have religion.

25:55 You were carried to Sunday school before you can remember anything. Gone to church Sunday after Sunday year in and year out. You've sung in the choir. You may be a deacon may be an elder but my friend let me ask this simple question.

26:10 Where?

26:13 By what means were you brought to feel the death of your sinfulness?

26:25 By what means were you brought to own the great reality of what you are as a sinner in the sight of Almighty God? For the word of God is clear that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is not a just man upon the face of the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. All we like sheep have gone astray.

26:50 We have turned every one to his own way. The great tragedy of sin is that it blinds us to its very presence. That was the problem with these Pharisees. You see they thought that sin could be understood exclusively in terms of externals.

27:08 They had never come to understand that sin is primarily a matter of the heart. Not exclusively but primarily. And you remember Paul Saul of Tarsus he was a Pharisee and he walked around according to his own testimony thinking he was healthy. You read about it in Philippians chapter 3 and again in Romans 7.

27:27 He said if ever there was a healthy religious man it was me. I was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. I did this. I was this.

27:34 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.

27:42 You know what God did with it? He said God blasted my heart open. I had not known sin except the law said thou shalt not covet and suddenly by the power of the Spirit working through the law of God he came to this discovery. What do you think?

27:57 What do you covet with? Do you covet with your feet? Do you covet with your ears? Do you covet with your hands?

28:04 Covet is to long after that which it is not the will of God for you to have. And God says covetousness is idolatry. And here this man Paul who thought he was a great worshipper of God came to the discovery he was an idolater. Why?

28:21 Because he came to the discovery that sin is primarily a condition of the heart. That's why Jeremiah said the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. That's why Jesus said for from within out of the heart of men proceed and then he describes all forms of sin that proceed out of the heart. My friend young or old let me ask you tonight and I'm not just doing this to fill up time I'm dead in earnest.

28:49 Where? When? By what means did you come to some understanding of what you are as a sinner?

29:00 Where? When? By what means? By what means did you come to see that though you may have been protected from many external sins because of your training and upbringing and religious influence that your heart was a veritable cesspool of iniquity?

29:18 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 feel

30:02 to own the reality of his sin have you ever been brought to feel to own to sense the reality of your sin so that sin is not just a word that has to do with some bad people that end up in jails sin is that ugly foul wretched reality of your own heart sin is your own pride your own lust your own covetousness your own rebellion against the God who made you well this is this passage tells us according to the words of Jesus only those who see themselves as sinners will ever be saved

Truth 2: Only Jesus Christ Can Meet the Need of Sinners

30:47 by Jesus Christ oh you say but Pastor Martin that's a very narrow perspective I didn't Jesus said I'm quoting his words to call the righteous but sinners to repentance then there is a wonderful truth in this passage a second great truth and it is this that the sinner that only Jesus Christ can meet the need of sinners notice his language am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance and leaving out the negative we could properly read it this way

31:30 I am come to call sinners to repentance and in those words Jesus is telling us that only he is the true physician of the souls of God men if the problem of men's sin could have been solved any other way we would never have these words I am come you know what's bound up in those words I am come bound up in those words is the great mystery of what we call the incarnation that is the great mystery that the second person of the Godhead the eternal word

32:14 whoever was God and ever was with God whoever was God who knew nothing for all eternity but the undiminished worship and praise of all terabim and seraphim and all the intelligent host of heaven that one in the language of John 1.14 the word while still being the word losing nothing of what he is as God the word became flesh he did not cease to be what he always had been very God a very God he began to be what he never had been he took a true humanity to himself think of it the God

32:59 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

33:44 for sinners to be healed of sin surely God would not subject his own eternal son to the limitations and humiliation of nine months in the dark confines of a little virgin's womb to a normal birth to a normal development think of it kids Jesus had to learn his ABC's he had to learn how to tie his shoes he had to learn that the food belonged in his mouth and not his ear you remember some of you have seen your brothers and sisters when they first begin to sit in their high chair and reach into their bowl for their food and it goes in the eyes and the ears and

34:28 and it goes in the eyes and it goes in the ears and it goes in the ears and it goes in the ears Jesus came through every normal stage of development why why should this one who is the embodiment of the wisdom of eternity have to learn his ABC's learn how to tie his shoes I am come he says to call sinners to repentance the only way sinners could be healed is if the second person of the Godhead becomes a true man and as a man subjects himself to the very law which we broke and then finally the climax of his life goes to that frightening that awesome that impenetrable mysterious experience

35:12 of the cross in which the scripture says God spared not his own son and when Jesus hung upon that cross the agony of agonies for him was not the mockery of the religious crowd it was not the rejection and the forsaking of his disciples you remember the great agony of Calvary as expressed in these words from the sixth hour to the ninth hour from high noon to three o'clock the heavens are shrouded in darkness and toward the end of that time Jesus cried my God my God

35:54 why have you forsaken my friend he was forsaken of the father because that's the wages of sin the wages of sin is death and the essence of death is separation from God and Jesus felt the very pangs of hell upon that cross and that's all bound up in these words I am come I am come I am come I am come and it's only this Christ who can do sinners good there are all kinds of self-help home remedies a little bit of religion a little bit of church a little bit of the sacrament a little bit of this a little bit of that

36:38 but oh dear friends hear me tonight Jesus said 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 but thank God he came this Christ who was forever with the Father he has come he has lived he has died he has been raised from the dead he has gone back to the right hand of the Father where he sits tonight mighty to save but there is a third wonderful truth in this passage you're keeping them all together now

Truth 3: Jesus Christ Meets the Need of Sinners by Bringing Them to Repentance

37:22 only those who see themselves sinners will be saved by Christ only Christ can truly save sinners but notice in the third place Jesus Christ meets the need of sinners by bringing them to the Lord by bringing them to repentance listen to his words I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance what is the great remedy for sin according to Jesus it is by bringing sinners to repentance notice he doesn't say I am come to call people to get a little religion

38:03 my friend you can get a little religion and go to hell you can get a lot of parish in hell you can get a lot of parish in hell he didn't say I am come to call people to make a profession of faith or to make a decision he said I have come to call sinners to repentance and what is repentance well we just had a wonderful example of it in what happened to Matthew here was a man who was wrapped up in himself his thoughts about God were low thoughts he didn't keep the law of God that said thou shalt not steal his attitude was well everybody does it as long as you're polite and don't do too much of it and take too much of it too much advantage oh I know God says

38:47 thou shalt not steal but I like what my money gives me so I'll steal I'll do my own thing he was a man who had low thoughts of God and God's law and God's salvation but what had Christ done he had called him to repentance in other words he called him into a total change of mind about God about sin about himself and most of all about the Lord Jesus and he had a hundred and eighty degree turnabout listen to the language again and he forsook all and rose up and he followed him oh you say that's just for some super duper extra special hyper spiritual people oh no my friend listen

39:30 Jesus said whosoever he be of you that forsake it not all that he hath cannot be my disciple and if you'll look up that passage in Luke 14 it says he turned and spoke those words to the multitudes he said those words to the whole crowd and he said if you're not prepared to forsake all that you have now does that mean that I must literally if I own a home sign over the title to my no no no no no no no no Matthew still had his house he forsook all that he had and yet it says in the next thing that he made a great banquet in his house so he obviously didn't go down to the local bank

40:15 and sign over his house to the Lord Jesus this is speaking of that attitude of heart that says in the presence of God oh God I am your creature I was made to know you I was made to hold communion with you I was made to obey you and thereby to bring glory to you but I confess that I've had low thoughts of you I've dishonored you by my selfishness in my life of disobedience but I see that in spite of your anger that it could have consumed me you've loved sinners and you've sent your own people you've sent your son to call sinners and seeing my sin in the light of your holy law seeing my sin in the light of your cross

40:58 oh God I turn from my sin I'm willing to go out of the God business no longer to sit on the throne of my own heart running my own life doing things I turn my back on all of that and Lord Jesus I give myself to you to follow you to do your will to be yours without any reservation that's repentance a change of mind about God about sin about self and above all about Christ my friend Jesus Christ meets the need of sinners by bringing them to repentance has he brought you to repentance do you know anything of repentance not the word but the reality

41:42 as you sit there tonight whether on the back row right down here to the front row including this preacher let the question come home to your heart

41:54 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 he had a rather long nose

42:37 it wasn't shrunk to half its size his eyes were the same color he looks in the mirror he's the same man but he's not the same man every other morning when he went out the door and kissed his wife on the cheek if that's what a Hebrew man did went out to his place of toll what was full what was full what was his mind full of how to make a buck by hook by his mind was full of this world full of things full of greed full of covetousness full of himself but when he goes out the door that next morning his mind is full of something else it's full of this great burning passion how can I please that one

43:20 who knowing me in all of my sin in all of my wretchedness called me to himself and said with gracious and loving words follow me how can I please him how can I honor him how can I glorify him that was the passion of his heart and my friend that's the fruit of repentance the fruit of repentance is that desire that God shall be God in every area of our lives and until you've been brought to that place in the light of God's grace in the Lord Jesus don't talk about being a Christian one of the greatest blights upon the Christian church is the many who name the name of Christ

Truth 4: Those Saved by Christ Long to See Others Saved

44:04 who are strangers to repentance who've got just enough religion to make them comfortable but not to transform them my friend that may get by here but it won't in the last day when you stand before the living God for Jesus said except ye repent ye will perish but then there is another great truth in this passage and with this I close tonight this passage teaches us that the Lord is God those whose need is met by Christ will long to see the need of others met by the same Savior you see no sooner does the Lord Jesus say to Matthew follow me he forsakes all rises up to follow him then what do we find him doing

44:48 we find him going out gathering in all his old publican friends and his old sinner friends having a banquet in honor of the Lord Jesus isn't that amazing nobody had to give him a ten week course on why you ought to be a soul winner why you ought to be a person of God why you ought to be a personal witness six rules and seven rules you see love is a very enterprising thing a very enterprising thing love cuts its own channels to find expression and there is something so fresh about this passage he is no sooner called into this relationship to the Lord Jesus but what we find him longing that others will come to know him and oh my friend as you sit here tonight listen to me carefully

45:32 I am not standing here to say that it is the will of God for every Christian to be an evangelist no there is no basis in the Bible to say that I am not saying that God gives to every Christian the same degree of gift in being able to speak the gospel to someone you meet on the street or to a friend or to a neighbor I am not saying that but what I am saying is this if the Lord Jesus has found you as a sick a needy a dead condemned hell bound sinner and in great grace if he has found you and saved you and cleansed you then in your heart there is a longing that you might see others brought to the knowledge of that same Savior

46:15 you may not know how to give vent to that longing you may feel frustrated you may be very conscious of your failures but if you dig down through all of that there is beating in your breast tonight a longing that others shall come to know him and that is what has driven many of you in these past days to your knees to cry to God that his blessing would rest upon this modest effort made by this church to proclaim the gospel in this community and that is why I am here not because I have nothing else to do God knows my hands are full of enough work back home to do this is no ego trip for me but it is because the same Christ who has put that passion in the heart

46:59 of the pastors and elders of this congregation into the hearts of its people it is that God who has put something of that passion into my heart and that is why I am speaking to you plainly and simply and directly tonight that is why I am pressing upon your conscience questions why? because dear friend we stand we sit those of us who have been found by the Savior not as Pharisees saying we thank God we are not like the rest of people we sit we stand here tonight conscious that we fell in our first father Adam and that when we were conceived in our mother's wombs we were conceived as sinners

47:43 and from the time we came forth from our mother's wombs we were sinners in disposition and attitude and thought and word and deed we stand we sit with this passion to share the knowledge of Christ because we gladly say with the Apostle Paul we are what we are by the grace of God and by the grace of God alone there's only one reason I'm not in hell tonight and it's bound up in one word grace and there's only one reason you're not in hell and it's grace either grace that has already saved you

Call to Repentance and Faith

48:28 or grace that is even now coming towards you in the overtures of the gospel saying to you children saying to you teenagers to moms and dads regardless of background and lack of religious experience or the presence of it none of these distinctions matter this is the great issue do you know that you've been found by a seeking Savior brought to repentance for your sins brought to faith and loving attachment to the Lord Jesus Christ oh hear these words as I read them in closing these words of the Lord Jesus they that are well have no need of a doctor

49:10 but those that are sick I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance may God write them upon our hearts and if you sit here tonight as one who says look I've heard something more than the voice of that preacher I've heard preachers all kinds and shapes and colors and everything else but sitting here tonight a voice more powerful than any preacher's voice has found me and I see that I'm a sinner that beneath that veneer and that facade of religiosity I have a heart that is foul and unclean and I see that I have never

49:54 embraced the Lord Jesus for myself I have never forsaken all to follow him what shall I do oh my friend listen though Christ will not pass by physically as he did in the case of Levi he passes by now in the gospel he passes right by where you are and he says in the gospel follow me he says in the gospel repent and believe and listen Paul in Romans 10 says the word of faith we preach is nigh thee in thy mouth and in thy heart if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved

50:38 my friend Christ passes closer now to you that he's gone back to heaven than he ever passed in the days of his flesh he comes near in the gospel as near as your heart that's the teaching of Romans 10 and he says if you will own your sinfulness acknowledge your undone-ness lay hold of me and all the grace and forgiveness and pardon that is in me I am yours if you will have me on my terms oh my friend if we thought Christ was at the front of this building I'd do anything to get you down here to get to him but he's nearer than the front of this building that's why we're not going to ask you

51:23 to get up and walk down here if we thought he was at the end of your fingers we'd ask you to raise a hand but he's nearer than that isn't that wonderful he's nearer than hold of him by the hand of faith he'll drink of him by the mouth of faith as it's described in John you have the promise you will be saved but you say Mr. Martin I understand some of that but I'm confused and I've got questions and I just feel I need more light and more help from the scriptures oh my friend if that's what you need we're here to be of help after the meeting before the meeting during the day we're here to be of help

Closing Prayer

52:08 but listen we're not priests you don't need to go to God through us there's a great high priest who already offered himself on behalf of sinners go to him and find that he has come to call sinners to repentance let us pray our heavenly father how grateful we are for the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ what thanks can we render to you for the clear words of our Savior we thank you for these words which together

52:51 we have joyfully studied this night his own name he's faithful and merciful and we're grateful and everything that was said by him by his own words I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance and we pray that even as he made his own word effectual in the heart of Levi oh Lord Jesus make that word effectual in the hearts of some in this place tonight and those who may be listening on the radio oh make it effectual in their hearts we pray to meet in this place and to sit with our Bibles open and to hear Your Word proclaimed. Seal that Word to our hearts, we pray,

53:36 through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.