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You can turn with me in your 
Bibles to Matthew chapter 9. Matthew chapter 9. I'll begin reading in verse 1. So he got into a boat, crossed 
over, and came to his own city. Then behold, they brought to 
him a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, he 
said to the paralytic, Son, be of good cheer. Your sins are 
forgiven you. And at once some of the scribes 
said within themselves, this man blasphemes. But Jesus, knowing 
their thought, said, why do you think evil in your hearts? For 
which is easier to say your sins are forgiven you or to say arise 
and walk. But that you may know that the 
Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins, then He said 
to the paralytic, Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house. 
And he arose and departed to his house. Now when the multitude 
saw it, they marveled and glorified God who had given such power 
to men. As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man named Matthew 
sitting at the tax office. And he said to him, follow me. 
So he arose and followed him. Now what happened is 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. Then the disciples of John came 
to him, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but 
your disciples do not fast? And Jesus said to them, Can the 
friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is 
with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will 
be taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one puts 
a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch 
pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse. Nor 
do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins 
break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But 
they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved. Amen. Well, let us pray. Father, thank 
you for the written word and thank you for the revelation 
of the gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. God, may 
you bless and encourage the people of God. May we be refreshed as 
we have a glimpse of what Christ does in terms of saving sinners. 
And for those unsaved, we pray that today would be the day of 
salvation, that they would come to know Christ as Lord and Savior 
for the glory of God Almighty, and for the good of their own 
souls. And we ask this through the name of our beloved Savior, 
and we pray that you would fill us all with your Holy Spirit, 
and we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Well, just by 
way of reminder, it's been some time since we were in Matthew's 
gospel. In Matthew chapters 5 to 7, the 
Lord teaches what's called the Sermon on the Mount. And after 
concluding that sermon, people marveled. They saw that he taught 
as one having authority. He wasn't like their scribes. 
He wasn't like those who had no sort of intimate knowledge 
of that word, but he rather taught them as one having authority. 
Well, then Matthew shifts directions to highlight that Christ acts 
with authority. He not only taught with authority, 
chapters 5 to 7, but he also acts with authority in chapters 
8 and 9. And we see that emphasis in that 
first section in Matthew 9, verses 1 to 8. You see the emphasis 
there on power. You see the power of the Lord 
Jesus Christ to forgive sins. Verse 8, now when the multitude 
saw it, they marveled and glorified God who had given such power 
to men. And as Christ goes about healing 
people, as Christ goes about saving people, as Christ goes 
about then raising people from the dead, it is a manifestation 
of the power of God Most High upon Him. And that's an encouraging 
thing. because it is not in our power 
to save ourselves. It is not in our power to make 
ourselves better. It is not in our power to commend 
ourselves to God. But God Most High has power. 
He's able to make men willing in the day of that power. He 
is able to take dead sinners, to make them alive in Jesus Christ, 
and to confer upon them or give to them every spiritual blessing 
in the heavenly places in Christ. Christ and what he offers answers 
to the needs of every man, woman, boy, and girl. He brings forgiveness. He brings that righteousness. 
He brings that holiness. He brings that glorification 
in the future. Every good thing is to be had 
in our Lord Jesus Christ. So let's look at how Jesus deals 
with this man, Matthew. Matthew, of course, is the author 
of this particular gospel narrative. Matthew wrote under the inspiration 
of the Holy Spirit, the book that bears his name. And here 
specifically, he gives us this snapshot or this sort of picture 
of how Jesus dealt with Matthew. And I want to look first at the 
call to discipleship in verse nine. Secondly, the supper at 
Matthew's house in verse 10. And then finally, the confrontation 
with the religious leaders in verses 11 to 13. You see that 
too. Those religious leaders are always 
right there. complaining and whining and grumbling 
and mumbling. But in their whining and grumbling 
and complaining and mumbling, we oftentimes see glorious expression 
of the truth of God's gospel. And the case is that way in this 
passage. But notice first this call to 
discipleship. The man's name is Matthew. He's 
also referred to as Levi in the parallel passages in Mark 2 and 
Luke 5. It's not uncommon. It was not 
uncommon for men to have two names. You had Simon Peter, You 
had John Mark, and in this instance, this Matthew is also Levi. But as well, notice his particular 
job. Verse 9, as Jesus passed on from 
there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. He 
was sitting at the tax office because he worked there. He was 
sitting at the tax office because he was indeed a tax collector. And I just want to tell you how 
the connection is in this particular passage before us. In the previous 
instance, the Lord Jesus Christ healed that paralytic. And it 
was in the healing of the paralytic that it was demonstrated that 
the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. So that's settled 
in the previous account. Now, what Matthew indicates is 
that that power avails for great sinners. And Matthew himself 
was a great sinner. Tax collectors were despised. Tax collectors were hated. Tax 
collectors were loathed. On the one hand, they were traitorous 
or seen as traitorous because they were Jews working for the 
Roman Empire, taking money from other Jews and giving it to the 
Roman Empire. They also trafficked in coins 
that bore symbols of the Caesars, that those Caesars were oftentimes 
looked at in a religious way as lords and saviors. They were 
filthy men, according to the Jews, and they were despised 
men. And so when Jesus comes and calls this man Matthew to 
himself, it shows that his power is in fact there, but it's a 
power to veil with even the greatest of sinners at this particular 
time. It's a wonderful thing that Paul 
the Apostle says. It's a worthy statement a faithful 
saying worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the 
world, sinners to save. And then Paul says, of whom I 
am chief. Now, you might have met those people before, and 
you might be one of them that say, well, I'm so bad that God 
can't save me. That's pride and arrogance. That's 
more sin you need to be saved from. If the Apostle Paul, under 
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, calls himself the chief of sinners, 
and Christ conquered him on the road to Damascus, there is salvation 
to be had for the likes of you. You can come to the Savior. You 
can come to the Lord Jesus. You can, by grace, look to Him 
and live. But in terms of this occupation, 
tax collectors are linked with sinners in Matthew 9-10. Tax 
collectors are linked with heathen Gentiles in Matthew 18-17. Tax collectors are linked with 
harlots in Matthew 21-31. And tax collectors are linked 
with extortionists, unjust, and adulterous men in Luke 18. So 
just so you can see that, these are not a class of good people 
in society. So Jesus isn't just simply helping 
somebody to be a better version of themselves. Rather, Jesus 
is saving Matthew by powerful grace. He is exercising forgiveness 
for a lot of wickedness on the part of this man. R.T. Frantz 
says, This is pretty new in Jesus' 
ministry. He's called the fishermen unto 
himself. He's gone about teaching and 
preaching. He's gone about doing some miraculous 
things, but now he's calling somebody that is a notoriously 
wretched man unto himself. France goes on to say fishermen 
may not have been high in the social scale, but at least they 
were not automatically morally and religiously suspect. Matthew 
was. So the instance before this, 
he wanted them to know that the Son of Man had power on earth 
to forgive sins. Now, if we were to ask the question, 
well, does that power avail for really bad people? Yes, Matthew 
says. It avails for really bad people. 
And Matthew says, I was a really bad people and this grace availed 
for me. This grace conquered me. This 
grace came to me. This grace enslaved me to this 
blessed one who is altogether lovely and chief among 10,000. 
That's the connection. Jesus says to him, follow me. And I want us to consider his 
response. First, note that it's an immediate 
response. He followed him. Think about 
this for just a moment. Jesus says, follow me. And Matthew 
got up and followed him. Now I say that because I don't 
always witness an immediate response. We say follow him just about 
every Sunday, as far as I can remember. And it's not always 
this immediate response. If you have some inkling of your 
sinfulness before a holy God, and the Savior says to you, follow 
me, then follow him. Don't, Terry, as we just sang 
in that heart hymn, venture on him, venture holy. Don't wait 
till you have some feeling or experience, but rather hear the 
reality that God is a holy God, you're a sinful being, and the 
only hope of salvation is through Christ. He follows him immediately. He doesn't play games. The tax 
collector didn't wait. He, like the paralytic, respond 
to the voice of Christ immediately. He doesn't hesitate. John Calvin 
says the custom house, the tax house, has usually been a place 
noted for plundering and for unjust exactions, and was at 
that time particularly infamous. In the choice of Matthew out 
of that place, not to be admitted in the family of Christ, but 
even to be called to the office of apostle, we have a striking 
instance of the grace of God. Now, if it's in your head, well, 
you know, that was Matthew or the Apostle Paul or those people 
that I sit with at the church. It is for sinners. This call 
goes to follow him is what Jesus says. Don't wait. Don't tarry. Don't say, well, you know, when 
I have a convenient time or hour that doesn't work out today now 
is the acceptable time. Today is the day of salvation, 
according to the word of God. When you hear the gospel of our 
salvation, follow him. But notice as well, with reference 
to just a few implications to his following him, there'd be 
some financial ramifications for Matthew. Right? Notice that it says he got up 
and left. Now, perhaps he took the coinage 
and put it in the safe. Perhaps he loaded his pocket 
so that he could give it to the rightful owners later on. He 
got up and he followed him. What would we call that if we 
were the employer? We'd call that dereliction of 
duty and probably fire him, wouldn't we? I don't want to sugarcoat 
it. That's most likely what would happen. See, these fishermen 
who were called to follow Jesus could ultimately return to their 
nets. In fact, they do after the resurrection of the Lord 
Jesus. But Matthew, this tax collector, who leaves right in 
the midst of his business, he's right there at the office. I 
kind of have this picture in my head of these stacks of coins 
right before him. The Savior comes, the Savior 
calls, and Matthew gets up and follows him. There is an immediate 
response, and there is a complete response. Notice what the text 
says. It goes on to say, he arose and 
followed him. Now, Matthew doesn't tell us 
what Luke does. In Luke's gospel, in the parallel 
passage, Luke reports, so he left all, rose up, and followed 
him. He left all. Why doesn't Matthew 
say that? Probably because Matthew doesn't 
want to draw attention to himself. Matthew would have struggled 
with the current situation in Christianity where we virtue 
signal. You see virtue signaling here. 
That's what we call it in the political realm. And virtue signaling 
is essentially what's always plagued the church, self-righteousness. 
Right? That's just the reality. You 
see it plaguing the church in this instance, when the Pharisees 
say, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and heathen? That's virtue signaling. That's 
pride. Well, Matthew will have no part 
of it. When Matthew is penning his own autobiographical sketch, 
he doesn't say, and I left all. Because everybody would say, 
oh, aren't you a wonderful being? Aren't you a wonderful, wonderful 
person? You go to these testimonies and you hear the testimony of 
people and it almost sounds like, wow, you know, I gave up so much 
to come to the Savior. No, you didn't. Coming to the 
Savior is gaining everything. There's no loss coming to Christ. 
There is no short change coming to Christ. You do not come out 
the loser when you come to the one who's altogether lovely and 
chief among 10,000. So Luke tells us that Matthew left all. It's 
a total commitment. It is the whole man, the whole 
soul, the whole body, the whole being coming after our Lord Jesus 
Christ. He doesn't save a part of us, 
He saves all of us. He doesn't save some of us, He 
saves all of us. This was an immediate response, 
it was a whole response, and it was a blessed response to 
the Savior of sinners. Now notice, secondly, the supper 
at Matthew's house. Verse 10 tells us 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. Now this was Matthew's house. 
Luke fills this in for us. It was Matthew's house, and according 
to Luke 5.29, then Levi, Matthew gave him a great feast in his 
own house. Now we might ask the question, 
why would he do that? I would answer, why wouldn't he do that? 
See, there's this idea that religion breeds long faces and lemon-sucking 
mouths. You ever get that? Those people 
in religion, it looks like they have a lemon in their pocket, 
and they suck it, and they just look so terrible and miserable. 
That's not what religion is presented as in Scripture. What's Jesus 
say in the next section in terms of those who are present with 
the bridegroom? They feast, they celebrate, they 
rejoice. For any parent that has ever 
given their children away in marriage, the parents typically 
at the wedding reception will visit friends and family. If 
everybody sitting at those tables looked like they were sucking 
on lemons and were absolutely and utterly miserable, it would 
be shocking and alarming. We're here to rejoice. Or if 
you had been married and you're walking around the reception, 
visiting your guests, and they all look absolutely depressed, 
despondent, and miserable, you'd probably wonder, why are they 
like that? Well, perhaps the Lord God most high, the blessed 
God, the happy God, sees his people walking around like moat 
faces all the time, walking around like there's no joy whatsoever 
in our lives, and it betrays the gospel of the kingdom. The 
gospel of the kingdom produces joy, happiness, feasting, delight. Do you know that Israel was cast 
out of the land of Canaan, the promised land, for a multitude 
of offenses, but one of them was that they weren't full of 
gratitude toward God who gave them the land. And one of them 
was is that they didn't express joy to the God who gave them 
the land. They were supposed to receive 
this gift, enter into the land, vanquish the Canaanites, and 
be happy. They didn't do that. They go 
into the land, they don't vanquish the Canaanites, and they're miserable, 
lemon-sucking fools that don't give any honor and praise to 
God. They show him no gratitude whatsoever, and they walk around 
with moat face instead of rejoicing. So when Matthew throws this feast, 
this is appropriate. This is the way we respond. The 
whole man redeemed by Christ comes out of darkness into marvelous 
light. What does he do? He rejoices in that. He's like 
that pearl merchant back earlier in Matthew 13 who finds that 
pearl of great price. What does he do? Is he sad? Is he distressed? Is he sorrowful? 
Now brethren, I'm not minimizing sadness, distress, and sorrow 
in our Christian lives. I am not minimizing James's admonition 
that at times we need to lament, we need to mourn, and we need 
to weep. But if the constant trajectory of our lives is a 
lack of joy, Brethren, we need a fresh sight of Jesus. We need 
to come to Him again who's altogether lovely. Not like we're being 
saved again, but we need to see Him who is altogether lovely 
and chief among 10,000. So Matthew, having been converted, 
now throws this feast. I would suggest it was, in the 
first place, a time to honor the Savior. See, Matthew knows 
what life is, and when somebody does you a solid, you show expressions 
of gratitude, thankfulness, kindness, love. You say, thank you for 
calling me out of darkness in a marvelous light. Thank you 
for saving me from my idols of mammon. Thank you for redeeming 
me. I want to honor you in the presence 
of others as a result of this. As well, it's a time of celebration 
of the marvelous grace of God. Again, look down in 914. Then the disciples of John came 
to him saying, why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but 
your disciples do not fast? And Jesus said to them, can the 
friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is 
with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will 
be taken away from them, and then they will fast. You ever 
have it where somebody invites you to a wedding or a reception, 
and you might ask, well, what kind of food is going to be served 
at the reception? That's not untoward. That's not ungodly. That's not unholy. What's Jesus' 
rationale or argument? When you gather in the presence 
of the newly beloved, you eat good food, you rejoice, you praise, 
you express gratitude. I have never met anybody, and 
I hope I never do, who has a wedding reception and says, there'll 
be no fish, there'll be no chicken, there'll be no beef, we're gonna 
fast. I haven't met that person. That person shouldn't be. No, 
I shouldn't say that. I'm sure there's somebody out 
there that might wanna call for that. But this just contrary to the 
occasion, right? The occasion is one of celebration 
and joy. What should Matthew do now that 
he's saved from his sins? What should Matthew do now that 
he's heaven bound? Matthew should honor the Savior 
and Matthew should celebrate, but as well, guess what Matthew 
is doing? He's testifying to fellow sinners that they need 
Jesus Christ. It's a beautiful thing. Look 
at who he invites. Look at the guest list. Now it 
happened, verse 10, 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. Spurgeon made the observation, 
the new convert most naturally called in his old friends, that 
they might have the advantage of our Lord's teaching. They 
would come to a supper more readily than to a sermon. And so he gave 
them a feast and thus attracted them to the place where Jesus 
was. So yes, he's honoring the Savior. 
Yes, he's expressing gratitude and celebration in the presence 
of the Savior. But he's also reaching out to these fellow 
tax collectors and these sinners. He is like that pearl merchant. 
He is like those who find that pearl of greatest price and want 
to tell people about it. They want to say, come and see 
a man that told me all things that I ever did. That's the reflex 
of the blood-bought children of God. They want to tell others 
that Jesus saves. Now, that doesn't necessarily 
mean they're going to knock on every door and chillawack. It doesn't 
mean they're going to stand on the museum steps and preach like 
a Whitfield in the midst of everybody. No, that doesn't mean that. But 
there is a sense where the blood-bought, the conquered ones of Christ 
Most High want to tell people, I was dead and now I'm alive. 
I was blind and now I see. I was hell-bound and now I'm 
heaven-bound. That's what the child of God 
wants. He wants others to come and see. 
He wants others to hear. He wants others to be exposed 
to the glorious grace of God Most High as it comes through 
the person of Jesus Christ. So that's why Matthew throws 
the feast. Now notice thirdly, the confrontation 
with the religious leaders. This sort of sets the stage. 
Verse 10 also sort of sets the stage for the confrontation that 
follows. Again, France says, the attentive 
reader of the gospel might recall the vision of the messianic banquet 
in 8, 11, and 12. Here as there, the guest list 
is not at all what most Jews would have expected. Again, Jesus 
is going contrary to the social norms, in that he calls Matthew 
a tax collector, and now that he goes to Matthew's house, and 
then he sits with these fellow tax collectors and sinners. So, 
when we get to the response of the Pharisees, if we know anything 
of our Bibles, and we know anything of the heart of man, it's a no-brainer 
that they're going to complain. This is really offensive to these 
people. And they're the sorts of guys 
that have to tell you when they're offended. You know what I mean? That's another thing common. 
We always have to tell everybody what we're offended about. I'm 
not as old as some of the brethren in here, but even in my generation, 
there was a wisdom expressed in being silent. We've all betrayed 
that. We all show ourselves to be the 
fools we are because we never stop talking. We never stop sharing 
how offended we are. We never let anybody go that 
ever did anything wrong to us. You've got to let some stuff 
go, brethren, or you're going to be like the liberals. You 
don't want to do that because that's not a happy way to live. 
Now notice what we find with reference to these Pharisees 
in verse 11. When the Pharisees saw it, now 
remember back in chapter 9 at the beginning in verses 1 to 
8, notice what happens there. Verse 2 of chapter 9, then behold, 
they brought to him a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw 
their faith, he said to the paralytic, son, be of good cheer. Your sins 
are forgiven you. And at once some of the scribes 
said within themselves, this man blasphemes. That's the kind 
of guys these guys are. I mean, you could hand them a 
$20 bill, and they'd complain. Well, why didn't you give me 
two tens? It's just in their DNA. It's just part of the framework 
from which they operate. I don't think every Pharisee 
was as monstrous as everybody could possibly be. You see some 
decent guys in the gospel narratives. But for the most, they complain 
about everything. They complain in Luke's gospel 
and in Matthew chapter 12, when Jesus heals a man on the Sabbath. 
Well, you know, there's six days you do your labor and your work. 
You come during that time to be healed. Are you kidding me? Jesus just healed a man. Well, 
that woman that was bent over, hunched over, who had that spirit 
of bondage to that oppression or that physical turmoil for 
18 years, this daughter of Abraham, Jesus heals her and they complain. Brethren, if as a rule you complain 
about the good things that happen to other people, that's more 
a trait consistent with Pharisaism than it is with biblical Christianity. 
The mandate from the Apostle in Romans 12 is to rejoice with 
those who rejoice, not say, well, I didn't get a raise, I didn't 
get good things. We need to check our hearts, lest we are Pharisaic. But that's the kind of manner 
of men these are, so verse 11 really doesn't surprise us when 
we come to see what they say. Verse 11 says, when the Pharisee 
sought, they said to his disciples, why does your teacher eat with 
tax collectors and sinners? Now, it's scribes and Pharisees. 
Pharisees are mentioned here specifically, but the scribes 
are there as well. And notice their complaint. When 
the Pharisee sought, they said to his disciples, And notice 
they don't say it to Jesus. Another thing, right? We complain, 
but we don't ever talk to the person. I mean, come on. Why 
would we man up and do what we're supposed to do? We'll talk behind 
their backs. We'll complain about them behind their backs. They're 
within a stone's throw. We'll mention it to everybody 
else around, just like in verse 3. They don't say it to Jesus. 
Who do you think you are saying, I forgive you of your sins? No, 
it's this internal grumbling. It's this internal whining. It's 
this internal spirit of discontent. And that's precisely what they 
do here. They say to the disciples, why does your teacher eat with 
tax collectors and sinners? That's an offense. That's foul. That's polluted. That's wretched. 
If you remember the readings in John's gospel, when the Jews 
come to Pilate to present their case that they would indeed see 
Christ executed by Pilate, they didn't want to go into the palace, 
lest they become defiled. You see, that's the problem with 
self-righteousness or virtue signaling or whatever it is that 
you want to call it. Typically, it majors on minor 
points and neglects the bigger things, right? This is what Jesus 
says to them in Matthew 23, 23. You tithe mint, anise, and cumin. 
Kids, have you ever seen those seeds, the cumin seed? It's a 
little tiny seed. They put it in cheese sometimes. 
Don't know why they do that. Cheese is a wonderful product 
all on its own. It doesn't need cumin seed. But nevertheless, 
it's a tiny, tiny seed. So you have these guys, and they're 
measuring out these tiny, tiny, tiny seeds so that they can present 
their 10% to God. On the one hand, that's not bad. We should want to give what is 
God's. Gary Norris says people like their religion, but they 
like it cheap. But when they neglect the weightier matters 
of the law, justice, mercy, and faith, measuring out cumin seeds 
doesn't seem to be a really good thing. And in this particular 
instance, these men, these men who are foul and polluted, these 
men who would never themselves enter into the house of a tax 
collector, are arguing about and grumbling about the very 
Messiah promised in their scriptures. You see, it's absolutely contrary 
to all that is good and decent and holy. So they make this particular 
complaint, but as is often the case, as the psalmist says, the 
wrath of man shall praise God. In this expression of their disdain, 
they highlight the glory of the Christian gospel. Why does your 
teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? Turn to Luke 15 
for just a moment. Luke 15. This is an interesting 
or a curious thing, that oftentimes the opponents of Jesus speak 
better than what they know. They speak better than what they 
know. Notice in Luke 15, we see a similar, same sort of thing 
going on, a parallel passage to some degree in terms of concept. 
But notice in Luke 15, one, that all the tax collectors and the 
sinners drew near to him to hear him. His fame, his popularity 
was going out. People wanted to hear this man 
who taught with authority, not like the scribes, not like the 
Pharisees, but one who actually taught with authority. So they 
draw near to him. And again, notice the language, 
tax collectors and sinners. Now, sinners there doesn't probably 
mean just your garden variety sort of sinner. It probably means 
really bad sinners. The woman that comes to cleanse 
the feet of Jesus, she's called a woman which was a sinner. Well, 
all women are sinners, all men are sinners, but she was a particularly 
notorious sinner, and I think that's where the accent falls 
here. Not necessarily that they're all prostitutes, but tax collectors 
and sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. Now, notice verse 
2, similar to what we have in our text. And the Pharisees and 
scribes complained, saying, This man receives sinners and eats 
with them. Isn't that the glory of the gospel? Isn't that the 
beauty of Christ? Isn't the blessedness seen not 
in man accepting Jesus into his heart, but God accepting sinners 
in the Beloved? That's a blessed statement that 
they say by way of complaint. This man receives sinners and 
he eats with them. That is a disdainful thing as 
far as they are concerned, but notice how Christ responds. Imagine 
if you were one of these tax collectors and sinners. Imagine 
if you would have heard these Pharisees say, this man receives 
sinners and eats with them. Wouldn't your curiosity be piqued? 
Wouldn't you want to know how he's going to respond? I would. 
If I flocked to Jesus and I was a notorious sinner and I heard 
this complaint about him that he received sinners and eats 
with them, I'd then look at Jesus and say, OK, how are you going 
to answer that? How are you going to respond to that? What are 
you going to say about that? Are you going to be like a politician 
that tries to navigate a middle position? Well, well, I really 
don't, but I do. But no, he affirms their proposition. He says three 
times, you're absolutely positively correct that I receive sinners 
and eat with them. He's like the shepherd who loses 
a sheep. He doesn't say, well, you know, 
that's just the price of doing business in Israel in the first 
century. I've got 99 others. No, he leaves the 99 others. 
He goes out and he finds that one. He puts it on his shoulders 
and he goes back home rejoicing. That's how Jesus received sinners 
and eats with them. Or he's like a woman who loses 
a coin. Again, she doesn't say, well, I've got nine others. No, 
she moves furniture. She gets out the broom. She sweeps. 
She looks. She pursues. And when she finds 
it, what does she do? She rejoices. See that theme 
of rejoicing there, too? Sinners get saved and people 
are happy. And then Jesus says, I received sinners like that 
man who had two sons. And the one son said, Oh, give 
me my share of the inheritance so that I can go out and do what 
I really want. In other words, Dad, you're better off to me 
dead than alive. Just give me what is due me now so that I 
can go out and do whatever it is I want. Well, what does Jesus 
say with reference to the father of that prodigal son? The father 
sees him when he's a long way off and he runs to him and he 
falls on him and he kisses him and he puts a ring on his finger. 
He orders the slaying of the fatted calf and he calls for 
rejoicing. when they complain, this man 
receives sinners and eats with them, he says, I do. Like the 
shepherd, like the woman, and like the father of the prodigal. 
Again, if I was those, you know, the rabble sitting there, I'd 
be like, wow, this is great. I can come to him. I can be with 
him. I can eat with him. I can receive 
him, or rather, be received by him. Now go back to our passage 
in Matthew 9 to see how Jesus responds here. He gives a threefold 
response here as well. It's not parabolic per se, but 
it is powerful. Notice in the first place when 
he responds to their complaint, he highlights his role as a physician. When Jesus heard that, he said 
to them, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those 
who are sick. Now, Jesus uses an analogy. Jesus uses a parable there. I guess it's parabolic to some 
degree. He uses a figure of speech that even his opponents can follow. 
That even these proud-hearted Pharisees, these arrogant scribes, 
could follow and understand. Notice what he says. Those who 
are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. You don't 
go to the hospital when you're well, do you? If you do, they 
have a name for you. It's called weird. None of us 
ever want to go to the hospital, even when we're sick. Who goes 
to the hospital when they're sick? We don't do that. I think 
I have a doctor, his name's in my phone, but I don't ever call 
him because I feel okay. I mean, you get the simple logic. They're there for the sick. So 
as Jesus is sitting there with the sick, he is telling them, 
this is a no-brainer. This is where I must be. Physicians 
minister to ill people. Tax collectors and sinners need 
a doctor. Tax collectors and sinners need 
a savior. Tax collectors and sinners need 
the Redeemer. It's a no-brainer, isn't it? 
Notice what he does then. He appeals to the prophet. Again, 
it's a three-pronged response that he gives them. And in the 
second, Second instance, he appeals to the prophet Hosea. Verse 13, 
but go and learn what this means. Before we sort of look at what 
he says, for Jesus to say to the scribes and Pharisees, go 
and learn. It would be like me coming to 
your place of employment and telling you to learn something 
that was extremely basic. Or saying to a scientist, okay, I have a science 
project and my kid needs to make a volcano with stuff to come 
out of it. Can you handle that? Well, he's 
a scientist and he traffics in real life science. Of course, 
he can make a volcano that whatever pops out of it. Jesus is telling 
men whose job it is to study the law and the prophets to go 
and learn. He's not impressed with their 
religiosity. He is not impressed with their 
learning. Yes, they knew the text, but 
they didn't know the meaning of the text. They knew Hosea 
6, 6. They knew God, Yahweh, saying 
that he desires mercy and not sacrifice. But Jesus tells them, 
go and learn what this means. You can know a lot of scripture, 
but you can also not know it. You can sort of repeat it ad 
nauseum or cite it, you know, according to the written letter 
and not know it. It's the reality that the devil 
facing Jesus in that wilderness setting, the devil himself quotes 
scripture to our Lord Jesus Christ, but he doesn't know what it means. 
He doesn't have the proper understanding. He's got a faulty hermeneutic, 
and that's the way these men are. Jesus appeals to the prophet 
Hosea, and he says, I want you to go and learn what Hosea 6 
and 6.6 is all about. Notice, I desire mercy and not 
sacrifice. And I actually think that Jesus 
is making a larger point here than just for them to readjust 
their mindset in terms of learning mercy. That's specifically there 
to be sure, but I think what Jesus is saying is that the religious 
leadership in the first century is similar to what Hosea the 
prophet faced. Now, for those of you who do 
not know the prophet Hosea, Hosea was called upon to do something 
intriguing in the first three chapters. Hosea was commanded 
by God to marry a harlot. That's a tough one. And yet, 
Hosea does that. Hosea marries a woman by the 
name of Gomer. Gomer is, in fact, a harlot. And Hosea marries her. Now, for 
those of you who are thinking back in the law, the prohibition 
against marrying harlots applied to the priests, not to the prophet. So when God Most High tells Hosea 
to marry Gomer, he does it. Now, what's the point of Hosea's 
marriage to Gomer? It is a parallel or an analog 
to God and Israel. See, God is married to Israel, 
but Israel is like Gomer. Israel is a harlot. Israel is 
a prostitute. Israel is a whore. Israel does 
not know God. They know Yahweh or understand, 
at least cognitively, there is a God. They refer to Him as Yahweh, 
but they don't know the Lord. That's what it says in Hosea 
4, 6. And as a result of that, their society is corrupt. Their 
society is bankrupt. They are full of idolatry and 
lawlessness and wickedness and vileness. And so God, through 
the prophets, calls them to repent. You know how they repent? They 
engage in cultic obedience. That means externalism. They 
do the externals. They go and sacrifice. They go 
to the temple. They pay lip service to Sabbath. 
But their hearts are far from God. That's the context in which 
God, through the prophets, says, I desire mercy and not sacrifice. God's not saying suspend sacrifice. God's not saying don't have temple 
worship. God's not saying no more Sabbath. It's an idiomatic way to show 
what God wants. If you come and you're engaged 
in externalism, but your hearts are still at home or they're 
in the office tomorrow already, you're falling prey to the various 
things that happened to Israel at the time of Hosea. And for 
these Pharisees and scribes to complain in the manner in which 
they do, they are showing their solidarity with apostate Israel 
in Hosea's day and age. So Christ says he is a physician 
for sin-sick souls. Christ says the prophet has spoken 
in terms of what God demands. But then notice, thirdly, Christ's 
statement of his purpose. His purpose. Look at what he 
says there. 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. It's what he does. It's what 
he's about. It's what characterizes the Savior. What is this Jesus about? If 
anybody ever asked you, you know, they're new to Canada, they're 
new to this sort of Western world, they come from foreign shores, 
they've not been exposed to Christianity. What do you say if somebody says, 
who is this Jesus? What does this Jesus do? Now 
there's a lot of answers and a lot of things that you can 
say because the Bible is a big book. 31,000 propositions telling 
us about our Lord Jesus Christ. But what's the sort of main emphasis 
that we want to underscore or highlight? He's a savior for 
sinners, right? Isn't this the point? Isn't this 
what it's all about? We're here today, brothers and 
sisters, because Jesus saved us from our sins. That's it. We're blood-bought. We're redeemed. We've been purchased. We've been 
saved. We were dead, now we're alive. 
We were blind, but now we see. We were once astray like sheep, 
but God has found us. So Christ underscores this. Now 
I want you to understand something when he says, I did not come 
to call the righteous. He's not admitting that there's 
a class of people out there identified as the righteous that have no 
need for the Savior. That's not what he's saying. 
He, in Matthew 11, praises the Father for hiding gospel truth 
from the wise and the prudent, those who are righteous in their 
own eyes, those who are righteous like the Pharisees, those Pharisees 
who were the religious men of their time, who couldn't care 
one bit about Matthew the tax collector, who couldn't care 
one bit about harlots, who couldn't care one bit about sinners. You see it throughout the gospel 
narratives. When Jesus goes to the home of the Pharisee, and 
that woman which was a sinner comes, and she weeps all over 
his feet, and she wipes his feet with her hair. What does Simon 
the Pharisee say? Or think, again, he's not brave 
enough to mention this to the Savior. He says, if this man 
were a prophet, he would know what manner of woman this was. 
He would kick her away. He would shoo her out. He wouldn't 
have talk with her. He would send her packing. See, 
they are complainers, incessant complainers. You see the prevailing 
attitude at the call of Zacchaeus as well. It's not just the religious 
leaders in that instance, though probably they're there. But when 
Jesus looks up into that tree, that sycamore tree, and tells 
Zacchaeus to come down, Zacchaeus comes down. What's the response 
of the audience? Is it praise God that he's saving 
and conquering Zacchaeus? No, they complain, they grumble, 
they whine. It's part of our Adamic nature 
to be upset when good things happen to other people. I don't 
get it. You know, it's a struggle even 
as believers. Why aren't we more rejoicing 
over the good things that happen in people's lives? Why would 
we ever be affronted or offended or upset? Why do we have that 
mindset? Well, if I don't get good things, 
then nobody should get good things. Why is there that pervasive spirit 
of envy that fills the hearts of people? Well, that's precisely 
what they're doing. I didn't come to call the righteous. 
These are righteous men in their own eyes. These are the deceived 
and deluded, the proud and the arrogant, the self-sufficient 
and the independent, the ones engaged in ritual purity and 
in ceremonial cleanliness who will have no concern whatsoever 
for image bearers that are suffering under sin. That's who Jesus says. I didn't come to call that. Praise, 
I thank Thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast 
hidden these things from the wise and prudent, Matthew 11, 
25, but Thou didst reveal them unto babes. That's the next clause. Notice what he says. I didn't 
come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. So they come, they say, why is 
he sitting with these sinners at this feast? He says, well, 
they're sick and I'm the doctor. Also, the prophet said that this 
is the way we're supposed to function and operate. You guys 
need to go and learn what this means. He goes, well, this is the mission. 
This is why I came. I came not first and foremost 
to start a new religion. I didn't come first and foremost 
to set forth morality, though he does those things. I'm not 
diminishing that. But why does Jesus come to this 
world? To save sinners. And notice what 
he says here. I didn't come to call the righteous, 
but sinners, no, to repentance. In Matthew 1.21, the very announcement 
of the coming King, it says, You shall call His name Jesus, 
for it is He who will save His people from what? From their 
sin. He doesn't save them to continue 
in sin. He doesn't save them so that 
they'll continue in sin that grace may abound. He comes to 
save them from their sin. And the same thing is true here. 
He says, I didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners. To 
what? To repentance. They can no longer go on thinking 
their own thoughts. They can never go on raising 
their fists of rebellion against God. They can't go on pursuing 
their own lusts and their own carnality. But rather He has 
called them unto repentance. So it's faith in Jesus Christ 
and repentance unto life. That's the emphasis in the gospel 
narratives. Matthew 4 and the preaching of 
John the Baptist, Jesus and John the Baptist, how do they announce 
the coming of the kingdom of God? Repent, for the kingdom 
of heaven is at hand. And that's Christ's emphasis 
here. He didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners to 
repentance. He came to save them from their 
sins, not so that they'll continue in their sins. Now, there is 
remaining corruption. We still have that battle. We 
still do the things that we ought not to do. There is forgiveness 
with God that He may be feared. But again, the overarching trajectory 
of the life of God's people ought to be one wherein we pursue a 
life that is pleasing in the sight of God. Our lives must 
adorn the doctrine of God our Savior, according to Titus 1. 
That's the emphasis of our beloved Savior in this section. Now, 
I want to close with a few thoughts. A bit broader than just our passage. 
When I preach this, I dealt with discipleship as a whole. I kind 
of want to smuggle some of that in right now. First of all, with 
reference to discipleship, that means following Jesus. That's 
the language that Jesus issues. He says to Matthew, follow me, 
follow me. That means follow him, doesn't 
it? It's pretty obvious in the text. Now in this situation, it meant 
that he left all, he arose, and he followed him. There was a 
physical proximity that Matthew could actually obtain near Jesus. So we don't have that physical 
proximity. It's not that Jesus comes to 
the door and says to this mass, follow me, and then we walk down 
Wellington, we sort of make our way, you know, onto Yale and 
we go down to, no, no, no, that's not the way it is. But following 
Jesus in the first place means we believe the gospel. We hear 
the voice of the Savior and we respond. And if we're going to 
be Matthew-like, we respond immediately. We don't wait till tomorrow. 
We don't wait till this afternoon. We don't wait until we're 50 
or 60 or 70 or 80. We respond by God's grace immediately 
to the Savior we believe. Secondly, discipleship means 
repentance. Again, that's the emphasis that 
Jesus highlights. I didn't come to call the righteous, 
but sinners to repentance. So when we follow Jesus, that 
means we're leaving something behind. When we follow Jesus, 
that means we repented of other stuff. When we follow Jesus, 
that means we're not going the opposite direction if we're supposed 
to go down to Wellington, get on Yale, and then go down to 
Vedder. The way to follow Jesus doesn't mean going this way on 
Wellington, going then, I think, to Asheville and back around 
to Chilliwack Mountain. That's not what it means. Repentance 
means to follow Jesus. That's conspicuous in the passage, 
isn't it? He left all. He arose and he 
followed him. He didn't grab all of his idols. 
He didn't grab all of his stuff. He didn't load down his pockets 
and say, well, I'm going to have this for myself in secret when 
the master's not looking. I'm going to bow to my mammon, 
and I'm going to give it religious worship. He doesn't do that. 
So many of us do that. Part of following the gospel 
of our Lord Jesus, or part of following Jesus, is the faith, 
looking unto Jesus in faith, and repentance, leaving sin, 
leaving it behind. Thirdly, he rejoices in the Savior. You ever notice that in Christianity, 
God commands us to be happy? I don't get that. I don't know 
a lot about other religions, admittedly, but I don't know. 
You see some of these others, they don't look happy. There's 
a particular ritual that is done, and I want to say it's Buddhism. I think it's Buddhism. It's outlawed 
in many places, but in one particular country, it's just a vicious 
vile sort of rite that they practice where they put needles through 
their, like big needles, like what you would do a shish kebab 
on, through their cheeks, and they hang things on this, and 
then they walk however many miles in the heat of the day. That 
doesn't look fun to me. It just doesn't. At all. Whatsoever. The Apostle Paul, 
under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, tells us to rejoice 
always. Again, I will say to you, rejoice! God takes our joy seriously. This is what happens when Matthew 
is converted. I doubt that, you know, when 
he got to the church the following Sunday and the pastor called 
out nine bravo, that's military, it's fanatics, it's so that we 
don't think of B as a C or a D, right? You just kind of mumble 
it out just to kind of get the bare basics in. Open the book, 
stand up, open the diaphragm and sing because God has saved 
us. It's joy, isn't it? Happiness. You're allowed to be happy in 
here. I, you know, have heard in the past that I'm a killer 
of joy. It's not a pleasant thing, but I give you authorization 
to be joyful and happy in the Savior. Don't just go through 
motions. God says, I desire mercy rather 
than sacrifice. I desire the heart. I want the 
external, but I want the internal. So there's a joy. Notice as well, 
he pursues the kingdom first. These all come right out of Matthew's 
gospel. What's Matthew tell us in Matthew 6.33? But seek first 
the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be 
added to you. So when Matthew is writing these things, as Matthew 
is recording the words of the Savior, I would imagine there's 
this sort of, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. Matthew evidences that in his 
own life. He seeks first the kingdom of 
God and His righteousness, and trusts that these things will 
be added to him later. He lost his job as a tax collector. I 
mean, even if, you know, who would want to hire him at that 
point? He comes to your business and say, I'm out of work. Will 
you hire me? No, you used to steal my money. Why would I hire 
you? It cost him everything. As well, 
he sees Christ as altogether lovely and chief among 10,000. 
He's like the father in this. What's the father say concerning 
Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration? This is my beloved son in whom 
I am well pleased. It's an unfortunate reality. 
In the last several years, persons have gone to that Old Testament 
book called the Song of Solomon, and they have turned it into 
a marriage manual. They have turned it into a sexual 
relationship manual. It is a picture of God and His 
bride. It's a picture of Jesus and His 
church. When the bride says, He is altogether 
lovely and chief among 10,000, that's Jesus Christ. That's what 
it is for the blood bot. As well, he follows Christ perseveringly 
until the end. This actually comes out of our 
Wednesday night studies, to be honest with you. Abraham was 
an incredible man. Abraham was an absolutely incredible 
man. Why? Because he served an incredible 
God. How does somebody go through 
the sorts of things that Abraham and Sarah went through? Unless 
God is there. How does Paul the Apostle go 
through what he goes through according to 2 Corinthians chapter 
11? Unless God is with him. There is this perseverance. There 
is this determination. We're not led astray by every 
wind of doctrine. We're not led astray by the absence 
of religious frames. We're not led astray by anything. 
We focus upon the Lord Christ by the grace of God and we're 
tenacious. We're like a dog with a bone. 
We're not going to let go. That's just it. We're not going 
to let go. I think it was Luther. If Christ 
pointed a sword at me, I would still come to him. It's like 
the disciples in John 6. After all the people that had 
eaten their belly's worth of food had heard the hard teachings 
of Jesus Christ, it says that many fell away. Many stopped 
following him at that point. And then Jesus looks at his disciples 
and says, do you also want to stop following me? And what does 
Simon Peter say? Lord, to whom shall we go? You 
have the words of eternal life. In other words, you can't get 
rid of us that easy. Lord, we are with you. Now, in terms of challenges facing 
disciples, I want to be honest. If you're not a believer here 
this morning, notice what I have not said. Come to Jesus and everything 
will be rosy in your life. Your bank account will grow. 
You won't get sick. It's amazing because the colds 
and the flus that are going around now are like three months. You're 
still going to get that as blood bots. You're still going to get 
that. There's challenges facing the disciples of Christ. There's 
hardships, there's afflictions. There's an instance in Matthew 
chapter 8 where the disciples are in the boat with Jesus and 
a storm comes, a storm that threatens their safety. These are experienced 
fishermen who had been on the Sea of Galilee on a number of 
occasions, and yet this particular storm was so nasty that they 
feared they would be thrown off and die. We think, well, Jesus 
is in the boat, there's not going to be any storms. Jesus is in 
the boat and there's storms. It is a faulty mindset to associate 
temporal blessedness as believers. There is, God's good, we work 
hard, he blesses, there's a lot of niceties that he gives to 
us, but the fundamental purpose for which Jesus came was to save 
us from our sins. We consider David a few weeks 
ago in 2 Samuel 12. He repents, God forgives him, 
but what happens? The sword never departs from 
his house. He still knows temporal consequences associated with 
his sin against the living and true God. So in terms of discipleship, 
it's not the case that if you come to Jesus today, you're gonna 
only ever smile, you're only gonna be happy, you're only gonna 
get good reports from your doctor, you're only gonna get raises, 
you're only gonna get new cars, you're only gonna, that's just 
a life from the pit of hell. It's unfortunate that so many 
people like that message or want that message, but there are troubles. He not only experiences trials, 
even though he is with Jesus, but he still even struggles with 
sin. It's an interesting thing. I 
did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Yeah, 
He does. He saves us by His grace. He 
forgives us. He cleanses us. He gives us a 
righteousness that avails with the Father. But there's still 
this struggle. There's still this remaining 
corruption. There's still Romans 7. There's still Galatians chapter 
5. There's still Simon Peter in 
Matthew chapter 26 denying his master to a slave girl. I don't 
say that to encourage you to go out and sin, but brethren, 
there is struggles in the Christian life. But he will never be in 
this life, or he will never be in this life what he ought to 
be, but he should always be thankful that he's not what he once was. 
This is Newton. John Newton, that hymn, Amazing 
Grace, you've all heard it, you've all sang it, hopefully you all 
love it. John Newton was a pretty bad dude before he got converted. 
I think we just have this idea, you know, in Luke 15, then all 
the tax collectors and sinners came near to him. Well, what 
are the sinners there? They're like us. You know, John 
Owen, Volume 6, probably the most excellent Puritan treatment 
on sin and temptation and all that sort of stuff. Do you think 
Owen learned all that by watching all the subjects in his church? 
Do you think Paul came to the conviction of Romans 7 and Galatians 
5 because of the rabble around him? We have remaining corruption. We aren't what we ought to be. 
We're not the sorts of persons that do adorn consistently the 
doctrine that we believe. But Newton, that man who was 
a wretch, that man who was saved, at one point in his life says, 
I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, but 
I am not what I hope to be, or I am not what I hope to be in 
another world. But still I am, I'm sorry, I 
butchered this. Let me start again. 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. That's where we find ourselves, 
isn't it? That's where we find ourselves. And we praise God 
Almighty for that. If you're not a believer here 
this morning, I know that if you attend this church, you hear 
this hopefully every week, Please hear this this week. Hear the 
words of the Savior himself. You're sick and you need a doctor 
and Christ is that doctor. God Almighty upbraiding his own 
people says, I desire mercy. Perhaps you've been exposed to 
that kind of teaching where God is just this hard tyrant that 
nobody can ever come near. I desire mercy, God says to the 
people of Israel. So the prophet Ezekiel, he says, 
why will you die? Turn and live. And Christ is 
a Savior for sinners. Again, any preaching that would 
diminish the power of Christ's words at this point is bad preaching. Because the Savior says, come. Do you notice that in the prophet 
Isaiah? Over and over and over and over 
again in Isaiah 55, is God through the prophet say, stay, don't 
come near me. I'm holy, you're wicked, I don't 
want you near. He says, come. Come, come, those who have no 
money, come buy and eat. He prescribes everything good 
for the needy soul. He says the water of the gospel 
is refreshing. The milk of the gospel is nourishing. The wine of the gospel is exhilarating. Everything a sinner needs is 
in that gospel. Don't tarry, don't wait, don't 
stay, but rather, with Matthew, rise up, leave everything, and 
follow Jesus Christ. Well, let us close in a word 
of prayer. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for 
the gospel of our salvation. We thank you for the Lord Jesus, 
that great physician for souls, that one who expresses and evidences 
and shows forth the mercy of God Almighty, and that one whose 
mission was to save his people from their sins. I pray, God, 
that as this gospel goes out throughout the world today, it 
would be attended by the power of the Holy Spirit and that many 
would come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Do that as 
well in our place here. We pray for your blessing upon 
sinners and open their hearts and open their eyes to the truth 
that Christ is altogether lovely and chief among 10,000. And we 
pray this in his most blessed name. Amen. We'll close by singing 
praise to our God on page