In the sermon titled 'Our Gracious And Sovereign Savior' based on Luke 5:27-32, Connor Stearns explores the transformative power of Jesus' call to Levi, a tax collector, underscoring the theme of grace and repentance. The sermon highlights the societal scorn for tax collectors, viewed as the worst sinners, and contrasts this with Jesus' radical act of calling Levi to follow Him, demonstrating that no sinner is beyond the reach of grace. It discusses the nature of true repentance, marked by a complete and continual turning from sin and following Christ, as seen in Levi's immediate response to Jesus' call. The sermon contrasts Levi's heart, transformed by grace, with that of the Pharisees, who are depicted as self-righteous and blinded by their legalism. Stearns emphasizes that salvation is not based on human virtue but entirely on God's grace, with the Holy Spirit's role in convicting hearts and drawing sinners to repentance. The sermon concludes with a call for believers to rejoice in God's mercy and for unbelievers to recognize their need for salvation and respond to Christ’s invitation to follow Him.

Well, it certainly is an honor and a privilege to be up here to be able to preach the word of God to you this morning. It's a great text before us, one that God has just glorified all over. Just a couple of quick remarks as we get going. The preaching style this morning is going to be a little bit different of a format than Jason normally does. So you know Jason, he's exposit, application.

You'll see the application scattered throughout. There's final charges at the end. This is in no way at all, do not think of this. Oh wait, hang on a second. I knew I was going to forget something.

This is in no way anything bad about the way Jason preaches. It's just a different style. He is my greater in every way and I'm so thankful for his help and feedback as I prepared this. The other thing is that you will hear as we look at different translations to try to get a clearer understanding of the text, you'll hear me reference the LSB or the Legacy Standard Bible. This is simply, I mean, not to belabor the point, this is simply just an update of the NASB that was done by the Master Seminary staff.

I love the translation. It's one of my favorites right up there with the NKJV. You'll hear me reference it a lot, so just know that's what it is. So in last week's sermon, Jason quoted J.C. Ryle when talking about the leper.

His quote was that there's no case of spiritual leprosy too hard for Christ. You know, this was followed up, you know, so we have this healing happening, especially with the paralytic. His paralysis was healed, but the deeper issue was even healed. And that was his sin, his need for grace. His sins were forgiven and this week we are brought to another spiritual leper, a tax collector, one who would probably consider the worst of the worst in society.

Some people might think, I think I found the case that's too hard for Christ to save. I think I found the spiritual leopard that's too much for Christ to heal. The thought that someone, like a tax collector, would be saved and called a disciple, would send shockwaves. And that brings us to the meaning of the true text. This text is not about Levi.

This text is not about the Pharisees. This text is not about Jesus breaking stereotypes, crossing lines that have never been crossed. No, this text is about our great high priest, our great God, who can save the chief of sinners, draw them to himself, give them a new heart, let them see their sin, and call them to repentance. It's a wonderful, wonderful text. Isaiah 59.1 says, Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save.

We serve a great God whose power is not limited. Another key thing we have to keep in mind as we begin to check out this earth, begin to examine this text, is we want to keep ourselves from a man-based salvation. The idea that the saving virtue here is the inter-disposition of your heart. Are you humble enough? John 16, 8, this is the in the upper room discourse, Jesus says, And when he, the helper, the Holy Spirit, has come, he will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.

The Holy Spirit's all over this text He's behind the scenes. He's working Because we'll see two hearts on display one that is redeemed by God and Another heart that is left to itself And what is the difference between the two? Like what separates them? It can't be man, can't be our inner dispositions. It's all of God.

Christ is that dividing line, that gate. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. That's what we'll see today. So let's pray as we begin our time.

Our God, I thank you for this text. Thank you for your grace on display. I thank you that you call sinners to repentance. You show us our need. You show us the cure.

You show us the remedy. So God help us this morning. Help me God as I preach. Give me words, give me strength. And I pray God also for those in the audience, God, that you would, oh God, please those brothers and sisters, God, help us today to hear what you want us to learn from your word.

May we glorify you in your mercy more. And God, those that don't know you, again, God, we ask that you would save them. Convict them of sin and show them the cure. Call them to yourself today. Listen to your sons, let me pray.

Amen. All right, so keep your Bibles open. We're going to be digging into the text. I really want you to just see every part of it. I want you to see all of it because it really is a great text.

So keep your notes in your Bible, whether it's on your smartphone or a printed Bible, just keep your notes in it. One of the points Jason came up with last week, or didn't come up with, but he mentioned last week from Robert Stein, was that there's now, we're kind of entering, there's a series of these conflict stories. This is another episode of that. Christ calls Levi, but then there's a confrontation with the Pharisees. Christ wasn't the sinner here, obviously.

But the Pharisees, They bring their accusations, they bring the conflict. Because again, someone considered the worst of the worst was just called. And now they're having a banquet. So this would be shocking. So kind of to understand the shock of this text, we have to understand what a tax collector is because the reputation of a tax collector then is a little different now than how we think of IRS agents.

When you understand the dark backdrop of tax collectors, or I should say the dark backdrop of any sin, the gospel just grows so much brighter. Like a flashlight in the night. I turn a flashlight on this room, you probably wouldn't notice it. You put a flashlight on in a pitch black room, everybody sees it. So the gospel just goes so much brighter when we consider what is it that Matthew was being called from or what Levi was being called from.

He does have two names, Levi and Matthew. This is not uncommon. We just experienced this a couple of weeks ago with Simon Peter. He has two names. Thus, you'll hear him in this text called Levi, and I believe in Mark as well, he's called Levi.

And in Matthew, he calls himself by his name Matthew. I'm actually greatly thankful to John MacArthur for just kind of the history of like how did the tax system work? What are the kind of different tax collectors at the time? So in the Roman system under Herod Adropus, who was the leader of this region, he would have like this tax farming system. The tax farming system, people would buy into it.

They would buy a franchise. They would sell it out to whoever the highest bidder was. And obviously there was much room for extortion. There was much room for theft, greed. Whoever was the highest bidder, you got it.

And what they would do is they would spend their time collecting these taxes, bringing everything in, and then when the bill was called, they would go to Rome, hand over whatever they asked, whatever the bill was, and they would get to keep the rest for themselves. So as you can see, a lot of incentive to try and get as much as you can because whatever's left at the end of the day or at the end of the bill you kept. And There were two different types of tax collectors. There are what they call, I think I'm pronouncing this right, the goodbyes and the moaks. The goodbyes were your standard tax collectors.

These were the tax collectors collecting things like poll taxes, income taxes, property taxes, that kind of stuff. There was still obviously room for theft, there was room for thievery, not as much because these were tied more to standardized assessments. But then there was this other type that were called the moaks, and the moaks were almost like a custom tax. They just taxed on everything you could think of you're going down this road you're going down that road you have this produce that produce you got this kind of a cart you got this kind of a donkey I mean you get the idea Just taxing on absolutely everything they could think of and taxing whatever they wanted because again, whatever they kept, they got to keep in their own pocket. And with the moaks, there were two different types even than that.

There were two different subsections. There's a greater moak and a lesser moak. So the greater moaks are the ones that are kind of like the managers of these tax franchises. So they would have multiple tax booths and they themselves would kind of live in the background. And they would have these people, you know, just running the tax booths.

The guys actually running the tax booths, they were called the lesser moaks. The lesser moaks, they were the ones actually sitting at the tax booths, they were the ones, they were the face to face. Now we can think of with business in our day, The first person you meet from a business, whether it's a salesman, whether it's a receptionist, that's gonna give you your first impression of the business. You could form your opinions really, really quick. So think of it in a lot of that same way.

People had very much of a distaste for tax collectors, or I mean just absolute anathema for tax collectors, because these are the people they're meeting. These people that they know they're stealing from me. They're charging ridiculously high taxes. Not only that, but if you couldn't pay your taxes, they were bringing a bunch of loan sharks as well because they would charge you a loan, give you an exorbitantly high interest rate, and if you couldn't pay it, they would come find you. People did not like these lesser moaks.

They were definitely considered, it seems in my estimate, just reading the history of it, they were definitely the worst of the worst. If people didn't like tax collectors, they especially didn't like these kinds. Based on this one phrase in Luke chapter 5, it says that Jesus, when he went out, he saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office. So in all likelihood, this is who Levi was. Levi was a lesser moke.

Now that begs the question, okay, so was he the al Capone of tax collectors? The whitey bulger if you're from Boston. Was he the worst of the worst? The text doesn't say. Was he just, you know, maybe just take a few extra bucks off the top a little bit, as if it's just a little sin.

The text doesn't say. But we'll see later, and it's interesting. He joins himself to this reputation. This is who I was beforehand. So furthermore, categorically speaking, people consider tax collectors in just, like if there was a category, they're considered, you are the worst.

You're just the worst of the worst. We don't like you. The Talmud even goes as far, let's see, yeah, I mean the Talmud would even consider that, I mean, or I should say, the Jews would consider these people to be traitors because they were Jewish people, now you're working for the government, you're taken from us, you're a traitor. They were cut off from the synagogue. They were considered defiled.

I mean I saw, you know, in the Talmud they actually said that it was fine if you wanted to deceive them. You could, you know, don't deceive people, but you could deceive them. I actually was reading this week in the Mishnah, which is just a part of the Talmud. It said that if a thief walks into a house, the part he walks in is considered defiled. If a tax collector goes into the house, the whole house is considered defiled.

And John MacArthur noted that even some Jewish writings, they actually went so far as to say that these people were beyond forgivable. Was that the common view of the day? I'm not sure. But it's tough to say that, yeah, there were probably some writings out there that were very much taking that extreme position. No, no, these people are beyond repentable.

They're beyond forgiveness. God can't possibly save these people. So now you'll remember a couple chapters back, just to give you more of the biblical insight here of tax collectors, you'll remember a couple chapters back with John the Baptist, when the tax collectors came before him asking him, not in a workspace salvation, what do I have to do to be saved? But what does my repentance look like? Like if I'm truly saved as a tax collector, what does this look like?

How does this go out into my daily life? And John the Baptist answers, he says, collect no more than what is appointed for you. In other words, be honest, stop stealing, only collect what you're supposed to collect, don't be a thief. And this is the reputation that Levi Matthew had. And then if you go to Matthew 9, which is his parallel account, you don't have to turn there, but if you'd like you can.

Matthew just a demonstration of his genuine humility, a genuine demonstration for this is who I was and this is what God has made me. He records his own conversion almost verbatim. And he also names himself saying, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And then he mentions himself again in the next chapter in verse 3 When he's naming off the 12 apostles, he gets to himself and he says, Thomas and Matthew, the tax collector. So understand this, if Matthew writing to a Jewish audience, Luke, undoubtedly there's some Jewish people probably reading this.

They would have seen these phrases, tax collectors sitting at the tax booth, they would have thought, I know what you're talking about. You were that guy. This is what the author intended to convey and this is what the people would have understood it. Oh, you were that guy. You were the guy stealing from us.

You were the guy doing, I mean, he just joins himself to his reputation. Again, we don't know the details. We don't know how bad in a criminal sense or just in an earthly sense. We don't know how bad he was. Again, we don't know if he was the gang leader here or if He was just lower on the totem pole.

We don't know what he was. But it is reasonable to conclude or infer from the text that whatever the reputation was for a tax collector, Matthew saying, that's me. Or I should say, That was me. Before Christ came to me, before Christ called me to follow Him, before by His grace I saw my sin, I rose up and followed Him. That was me.

I was that tax collector. I was that person. I was that sinner. I was the worst of the worst. He's not afraid to speak of himself in that way.

So praise be to God that he comes to save such sinners. It would be easy for us to think that a sinner like that, how could God save him but God? We serve a great and mighty God a powerful mighty Savior who can save the chief of sinners because Matthew here is I mean he's having you can almost read this and think he's having the same attitude Speaking of still of Matthew and writing, you know, penning his gospel, he has the same attitude as Paul in 1st Timothy 1.15. I am the chief of sinners. I am the worst of sinners.

Because when we come to God, we see ourselves, especially as we go through this life, we see ourselves more and more sinful. We see ourselves more and more in need of God's grace. We see ourselves and say, yes, I am the chief of sinners, and God saved me. All right, so now diving back into the text here. So you notice it says, after these things, so after the healing of the leper, after the calling of the first disciples, the fishermen, after the forgiving and the healing of the paralytic, we now come to Christ and after these things he went out and saw a tax collector.

He's out walking, but this is not a random meeting. This isn't Jesus walking the landscape and going, oh, I haven't seen him before. He looks good. I guess I'll just, you know. No.

This is a divine appointment. This is God ordering in his providence all things that as Christ is going out, Who is there to cross paths with Christ? Levi. The day of salvation has come for Levi. And it says here, and just notice here that, I should say this, is repentance and faith required for salvation?

Yes, absolutely. But even that is a gift of grace. Even that is a gift from God. Because what you notice in this text here is that Luke, or I'm sorry, is that Levi, he's not the one making the first moves here. Christ doesn't look out there and go, you know what, he's making an attempt for me.

He's starting to walk my way. I'll meet him in the middle. No, he's in the middle of his sin-filled life and Christ comes and he sees, or the LSB renders it, he noticed. Which the Greek there just simply means that God looked at him intensely. Christ looked at him intently.

Almost as if to say, he saw him, he knew who he was looking at. He knew, this is Levi, I am going to call this man. The day of salvation has come for Levi. This broken, wretched, tax collector sinner, he is going to be an instrument, a vessel of mercy today. He is going to have forgiveness.

He's going to receive it. You know, I would think that if Oh Happy Day was written in these days, Levi would be singing that today at this moment. Oh happy day, I fixed my, now of course The lines escape my head. But you get the idea. And then, so once Christ, he goes out, he's looking for Levi, he sees Levi or he notices Levi, And then comes the call.

Levi, follow me! Not a harsh call. Not from a cruel taskmaster. Not a drill sergeant. You follow me!

No. This is a gracious call. His whole life is changing. Was he convicted of sin? Well, yes.

The text doesn't say though. The text doesn't say, was the Spirit working in his heart all week? Was the text working in his heart all day? Was it working in his heart just that hour? We don't know.

But we know just from later on, like how God calls sinners repentance, We know he realizes and he's convicted of his sin and when Christ gives the call follow me He responds his life is changed. In fact his eternal destiny is changed. He goes from a hell-bound sinner To a child of God. Eternal life began today for him. It's a miracle.

It isn't a miracle. So Christian, just as an application, be amazed at this text. All of us in this room that know the Lord, God came and He rescued us out of a sin-filled life. I believe it was Gary and I'm always awestruck at the way that we have so many great brothers in this church and between the call to worship, between the exhortation to prayer, even the scripture recitation, it all just kind of flows together as if, you know, it's just we have one great God who's providentially working out all things and it's just wonderful when that happens. But notice here, he, if there isn't a waiting of like, clean yourself up, and when you clean yourself up, then we'll talk.

No. Christ goes out, Christ sees the man sitting at the tax booth. He sees sinners sitting in the middle of their sin blind. By His grace they see their sin. They see their need for a Savior and Christ says, follow me.

That's His mercy on display. He calls wretched sinners to Himself and He calls them to Himself when they are just in the middle of the pond or in the middle of the mud. So then as we get to verse 28, this is the example of true repentance. What does it look like when Christ says, follow me, because we know that there are general calls. We're at the abortion clinic.

We may be on the street corner. You may hear it from the pulpit. There's a general gospel call. What does it look like when the Holy Spirit is really working in someone's heart and he's really drawing them to himself? It says here, so he left all, rose up, and followed him.

So in Luke, notice what's absent also from this text. There's no follow-up questions. There's not extended time for thought. Jesus give me a moment. Give me a moment to think about this.

Can I ask you some follow-up questions? Where exactly are you going? What's going to happen? Where are you leading me? It was none of that.

He said he got up and he just went and followed. Luke chapter 9, I want to be careful here. You'll hear me reference other passages in Luke. I don't want to get too far ahead, preaching up ahead, but I just want to make a couple comments. In Luke chapter 9, when Christ is talking, answering various excuses, When he says to follow me and someone says, let me go bury my father.

That's just another way of saying, wait, let me get my inheritance. And then he also says, they say, well wait a minute, let me go bid farewell to my friends. Let me go bid farewell to my family. And Christ gives at the bottom of it all, he says, no one having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of heaven. The result of the Holy Spirit's working and Christ says follow me is this text.

Anything else, anything else of putting the hand to the plow and looking back and having second thoughts, that's not it. That's not it. It's answering the call right away. Because even the Greek here, now I'm very thankful for commentaries in Blue Letter Bible when it comes to the Greek in these. Because the Greek does open up a lot of things that sometimes cannot be conveyed in our English language, just with an English translation.

I believe I've heard Jason say it before. If we tried to translate every Greek word with the fullest possible meaning, I mean, we'd probably have a Bible about this big. Because the Greek here, when it says he left all, it indicates a full complete break. Like when he leaves all, I mean the LSB renders it, left everything behind. Full complete break.

Everything that was before him, gone. Done. I'm turning my back on it, it's done. It's gone. I'm leaving it all.

And this is serious, especially for someone who's a tax collector. I believe it was, I've seen it in a couple of commentaries, it was brought up at men's meeting. Yes, I did get the notes. Fishermen can go back to fish. Tax collector leaving his tax booth, that changes everything.

His whole livelihood, his way, I mean, how he brings in money changed forever. He cannot go back. So him leaving all is a demonstration of this repentance. I'm putting it all behind me. It's more than just his tax collecting.

It's his sin. I'm leaving all my sin, myself, all of it being left behind. Why? Well, the second phrase, so we could rise up or rose up and followed him. Now the way the Greek is constructed here, there is an heiress, which just simply means a point in time, mixed with an imperfect, which basically would just render the verse as saying, rose up and began to follow him.

In other words, what it's indicating is that there is not only a full and complete break, there is a marked beginning to his rising up and following him, and there's also a continuing of that following him. Meaning I rose up and I began to follow him and that following continues and continues and continues. Because repentance, brothers and sisters, we know this, repentance, when God calls sinners to repentance, it's not a one-time event. Oh yes, I repented years ago. I don't need to repent anymore.

Oh, no, no. The evidence that true repentance has happened, and that, I mean, yes, there is a marked beginning, but when repentance happens at that marked beginning, the evidence of it is that there's a beginning point and it continues. We are still repenting today. As God exposes more sin, as He brings more things to our attention, we continually go to Him for grace and we continually repent and we continually turn and we run to him. We continually follow after him.

Because repentance is a two-sided coin. Because sometimes you'll see in various passages they'll just say repent and in some cases they'll just say faith. And sometimes they say them both, but they both are needed. And depending on the circumstance in those texts, you know, they might say one or the other. But they are always together because true repentance is not just turning away, but it's turning too.

We see it in this text. He left dawn rose up, he turned away, and he followed him, turned to this great God. This great God that had just called him. That had just called him out of his sinful life. He says, I'm going to follow him.

I'm going to follow this great God. My sins are forgiven. I'm forgiven. This is great. And again, it continues.

Philippians 1.6, he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. God calls us, he begins the good work, and he continues to work in it. He makes the marked beginning, and he continues it till this day. So Christian, I just ask you, are you daily repenting? Are you daily following after God?

Some of us, our testimonies, we don't have this stark beginning. Some of us it's over time, especially if you're growing up in a Christian home. You're a second generation Christian. But the question is, did you begin to follow him? And are you continuing to follow him?

So now we get to verse 29. And this is, you know, so let me just read the text. And Levi gave him a great feast in his own house, and there were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with them. So now we have a feast or a banquet. A joyful banquet, a joyful occasion.

He has been saved. He is rescued. And the response is, I'm going to host a banquet and Jesus is going to be the guest of honor. And I'm inviting all these tax collectors and sinners, not for a party. I believe I've seen that on these He Gets Us campaign ads, just moralism.

Jesus partied with tax collectors and sinners. No he did not. This was not a party. This was a gospel opportunity. This is hospitality on display.

Welcoming sinners into his home to say, as if to say, God saved me. I'm the chief of sinners. God saved me. He can save anyone. He can save anyone.

I've been shown this mercy. I want them to experience this mercy. I'm going to bring them to Christ. I'm going to bring them to Christ. I'm going to bring them to Christ.

I want them to see this grace on display. This is the man that changed my life. This is the man that changed my eternal destiny. I was a sinner, But he has saved me. I was a sinner and he called me to repentance And notice here At the end there it says and others who sat down with them.

Now the LSB renders this as they were reclining at the table. So understand, this is not just a quick snack. This isn't a party where they're just serving hors d'oeuvres and everyone's just kind of like, you know, just standing around, just, you know, like talk to us for five minutes, talk to us for five minutes. Like they're reclining at the table. This is an extended meal.

This is a picture of Christ receiving these lost wretched sinners and is giving them the gospel. Levi welcoming them in their home to give them the gospel. These aren't wretched sinners that we need to, we'll see in a minute, I need to stay away from them. They will defile me. We should be not of this world, But that doesn't mean that we take it to the point of, they're not worthy of me preaching the gospel to them.

Instead, Levi says, come into my home, you're gonna hear the gospel today. Were some saved? The text doesn't say, unfortunately. Given what Christ's purpose is and Christ was there, I'd like to think that some were saved. I'd like to think that there are some tax collectors and sinners that were at this banquet and we're going to see them in heaven one day.

But I can't be dogmatic about it because the fact doesn't say. But it is good to think about. We know he can do it. We know he can do it. So I mean the application for this little section here is, is this your heart's attitude?

Do you see yourself, because when you see yourself as a great sinner, I needed mercy. Christ commanded me to follow Him. I was shown grace. Does your heart's desire you want to see that mercy extended to others? This same gospel that was preached to me, this same God that called me to repentance, a sinner, I want to see him call other sinners to repentance.

We don't know what God's going to do. I believe it's one of the Psalms that says, He is in the heavens, He does what He pleases. But we know what our call is and what our hearts desire should be. That our fellow countrymen that don't know Christ, that they would also experience this mercy. They would also experience this grace.

And that attitude of Levi and of Christ, excuse me, is directly contrasted with the Pharisees and the scribes in the next verse. This is going to be the second bullet point on your handout which says, Pharisees and scribes, the natural state of the human heart. Verse 30, and their scribes and the Pharisees complained against his disciples saying, why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? So we have the second contrast here. So we had the heart that was redeemed by God.

Now we got this heart of the natural state of man. They're being contrasted and Christ is going to provide that bottom line or that infallible commentary of what's going on here when we get to verse 32. But I just want to make a couple of notes here about translation because some of you, I know pretty much everyone in this room is looking at an NKJV. You may notice here that when the quote is given, complained against his disciples saying, why do you notice there what's what's capitalized? The why.

We're all good Bible students in this room. We know when we see the Y capitalized or we see a pronoun capitalized, we're referring to God. But it can be a little confusing because when you read the preceding phrase, He complained against his disciples saying, why do you, so wait a minute, why the sudden change to Christ? So if you read the LSB or even the ESB, they actually leave the Y lowercase. And when you get into the Greek, it's actually a second person plural.

And the King James Version actually picks up on this. This is one of the blessings of the King James Version when you're comparing translations. Older English actually does have a plural form of you. These days we don't. If you're from Boston, it's you guys.

If you're from the South, it's y'all. But we don't actually have a formal way of saying you. We just have to infer it from the text and who's talking about here. Okay, complained against his disciples. So he's talking to multiple, so you is referring to multiple.

The King James version actually says, why do ye eat? So there's the plural. So that's a, if you're ever doing, you know, kind of just looking at different translations, the King James version, that is actually one of the reasons why it is very helpful and even though the older English, yes, it can be hard to read. It is helpful because it does point out these subtle things that you may not catch in modern English translations, but you will catch in a King James version. So now after that we come to the scene.

So the Pharisees and scribes, they're entering the scene here. Now you can remember what we said at the beginning, just a quote from the Mishnah, that when a Pharisee enters the house, the house is considered defiled. They're cut off from the synagogue because they're considered defiled. They don't want to associate with these people because they are defiled. And I cannot be morally defiled because I need to stand far off.

I need to be holy and separated. So you can imagine the shock when you come to a scene. Not just one tax collector. There's a house full of tax collectors and other sinners that are probably in the same category as the tax collectors. So then they lodge their complaint.

They go to the disciples and they lodge their complaint. So, why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? This is an inquiry, a clarifying question. You know, We've had this thought of what we should do with eating with tax collectors and sinners, but we see the Lord of Glory is doing it differently. Please tell us.

Please tell us. What are we getting wrong? No, no, that's not what's happening here. This is an accusation wrapped up in a question. Getting a little below the surface, it's actually highlighting what their hard attitude is while also lodging the accusation.

Why do you do this? Getting them to think a little bit. It actually reveals a couple of things about them. First, this reveals how they see themselves and how they see others. The Pharisees viewed themselves as abundantly righteous.

We keep the commandments. We keep the ceremonial law. We tithe mint and cumin. We do everything correctly. We do it by the book.

Big thing is they missed the heart. They missed that it's not about the external. Yes, we want a heart that loves God, and that heart that loves God should flow out into obedience. But if all you have are I sacrifice, I give this and that, all these externals, you try to justify yourself on your own righteousness and obedience. Woe unto you is what Jesus says.

Again, not to get too far ahead, but Luke chapter 18. Again, you can jump over there if you'd like. I'm just making a couple quick comments. This is a parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. When we get there you'll see that actually this parable is very helpful with just thinking through this text.

Like how do we, I mean, aside, I mean, leave alone for the fact that, okay, the two characters that are in our text are in this parable. But Christ also puts the fine point of the matter here too. Because when he's speaking of the Pharisees, he says about the Pharisee, well first he actually says in verse 9, also he spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous. So this is an indictment and he says in verse 11, the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself and so now you're gonna see kind of the attitude of the Pharisees. God I thank you that I'm not like other men.

Yikes. We are off to a bad start. If that's how your prayer starts, that's check your heart. Check your heart. And he goes on to list them extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.

And that guy that's standing over there far off. And then he goes and proceeds to give his resume to God. God, I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess. Aren't I such a great person?

But then you get to the bottom line of it and Christ says, one person went down to their house justified that day and it wasn't the man giving his resume it was the man that came beating his breast saying God be merciful to me a sinner So that just highlights kind of what's behind the Pharisees. That's Christ's own commentary. What's going on behind the Pharisees here? They pride themselves on this external, the ceremonial, I've got to be totally not defiled by these people so keep them away. No pity, no desire for mercy, not surprising because they didn't have it themselves.

They didn't know God. Because it's again this is contrasted with Levi and Matthew. Or, I'm sorry, yeah, Levi and Matthew. He received grace and he desired that grace to be shown to others. The Pharisees, keep them away.

Cut them off. Their traitors, cut them off. So to get back to our Sorry, I lost my place here. So that's the first thing. They just see them as, I'm up here, you're down there, we can't associate with you.

But then the second, and definitely not the least, I would say actually this is the most important but it's second the order because you have to understand what they think of themselves and then see what they attribute to God. So even though it is the plural form, why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners, undoubtedly this is a plural form, even though it's spoken to the disciples, Christ is in view here. Why do you, like Christ, why do you and all your disciples, or actually specifically I should say, why do you disciples, why do you and him, why are you guys eating with tax collectors and sinners? They don't fear God. God is with them in the flesh.

This is just an example of the natural state of the human heart. This is where we all come from, blinded. Christ is right before them. They saw the healing of the paralytic. They probably have heard about all the other things that have been done, all the miracles.

But they won't. But they keep denying. You are not the Son of God. You don't have authority to forgive sins. And now They're questioning the holiness and purity of God.

Wait a minute. The rules say you need to do this. But Christ, you're doing that. We're supposed to stay away from these people. We're not supposed to defile ourselves, but you're going right into it.

Very similar idea to what we saw last week with the leper. A leper was seen as, stay away from a leper, don't be defiled. But what does Christ do? Puts out his hand and declares a new reality. Clean, cleansed, you're healed.

Because yes, with mankind, as Jason said last week, with mankind what's unclean makes us unclean. But with Christ, the unclean are made clean. But to ascribe this questioning of the purity of God, like God you're impure because you're Stop. God, you're impure. Say no more.

You are wrong. Repent. Don't question God. And honestly, their conscience does actually come out a little bit in this text. I mean, later on when we get to the crucifixion of Christ, You know, the conscience is so seared that they would go to the lengths that they did with the crucifixion of Christ.

But you see here, their conscience does come out a little bit because they don't go directly to Christ and lodge the argument and make the case. They go to his disciples. Last week, they reasoned among themselves. This week, they're not reasoning among themselves, they're just going to his disciples. But in both cases, Christ knows what's going on.

Last week, Christ pierced right through them. Why would you think this? Why would you reason like this amongst yourselves? And in this week's text, it doesn't say it in Luke, but it does say it in Mark and Matthew that when Jesus heard these things, So when Jesus heard these things, he then gives his response. So to the unbeliever, I just want to ask you, do you see this heart in yourself?

Do you see this heart that it's especially true for, or I should say it's especially the case and it's a danger if you're coming to church, you're in a Christian home, it's very easy to just turn sermon after sermon after sermon into self-righteous hypocrisy. I go to church. I read my Bible. I pray every day. Meanwhile your heart is far from God and you despise other people.

I go to church. That pagan, he doesn't go to church. He's out shopping all day Sunday. I go to church. I keep the Sabbath.

Beware. Are you making those arguments in your head? You won't go to God, but you make those arguments in your head. No, I don't think God's righteous here, but you won't go to God. Beware.

Beware lest this is... And there's hope. There's hope. But beware of being a whitewashed sepulcher. Clean all on the outside.

I mean what if you've young ten-year-olds in the room and on under. A sepulcher is a fancy word for a grave or a tomb. Oh it's all fancy and pressure washed on the outside but on the inside it's dead man's bones. Fearless that be the case for you. And so now we get to our last section.

I know I'm looking at my time. Looking at verse 31 and 32. Jesus answered and said to them, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. So This is the last bullet point before the final charges.

The last bullet point in our handout says Christ our gracious Savior who calls sinners to repentance. Because now we've had the two pictures. We've had the heart that is redeemed by God in Levi. We have the heart that's left to itself in the Pharisees. We have the heart that's been drawn towards God out of its sin and to him, and he's following after God, this great God.

And then we have this heart here of the Pharisees, just the pictured, this is what the natural heart looks like. And the question could be asked, so what are we to make of these two things? Again, as I said in the introduction, What is the dividing line between these two? Why is one heart saved and the other heart not? Well, it comes to this text here.

Christ giving the infallible commentary on what has just been seen, lived out. He starts off by using a physical picture, a medical analogy. Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Yes, in our modern age we have checkups, but when you are sick you really need a doctor. If you're well, I don't need a physician.

I'm okay, I'm healthy. So Christ is setting up a parallel here that we're going to see in verse 32. But first, Matthew 9 adds an interesting phrase that actually helps us as we tie it into the ending. So in Matthew 9, verse 13, he begins, I mean, again, almost verbatim when you get to the end, but it says in the beginning of verse 13, but go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice.

This is a quote from Hosea 6. Christ hears their arguments, he hears what they're saying, and His response is, here's the medical analogy and you go and learn what this means. Now, understand, that is a bit of a stinging rebuke. These are Pharisees and scribes. These are people who pride themselves that, I know the law.

I know the Tanakh. Faintly way of saying the Hebrew OT or the Old Testament. We know the Torah. We know the law of God. We know the Neveem.

We know the prophets. We know the Ketavim. We know the writings. And now Christ is saying to them, You need to go back and learn again. You missed something big.

You got all through the ceremonial laws, you got all that, but you missed Deuteronomy 6, you missed Micah 6.8, And you missed Hosea 6.6, which is what he uses here. In other words, I don't want your sacrifices, your hypocrisy, your external righteousness. I don't want it. I want a heart that loves God. I want a heart that loves God.

I want a heart that loves mercy. I want a heart that, as a result of being loved by God, of having this grace, again, verse 27, fueling all of this. A heart that loves God, a heart that has experienced this forgiveness, this grace. Go love mercy. Go love goodness.

Go Love loving kindness. Desire that. I don't want the sacrifices. You missed the point. They were pointing to something bigger.

I mean you see this in other texts. They're pointing to something bigger and that is Christ. If all you've made, if you just brought the whole Old Testament down and all you've got is there's some sacrifices, you missed the point. Love God. And yes, that obedience again should flow out of this love for God.

We saw that with Levi. It resulted in true repentance. But God here is saying, no, I desire mercy. I don't desire sacrifice. Put your external hypocrisy aside.

We're bringing the gospel to sinners. That's what we're called to do. So then after that Jesus gives the conclusion of the matter and again setting up the parallels. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. In other words, you know, So again, who are the well here?

The righteous. Who are the sick? The sinners. But Christ here is not setting up this category. There are some that are actually righteous in and of themselves.

We know that that is clearly not the case based on what we've seen so far in parallel passages. No, no, no, that's not the case. There are some that are righteous, some that are sinners. Romans 3, 23, just to put a fine point on the matter. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

All. There is no, and it actually says further back in Romans 3, there is none righteous. No not one. So what Christ is communicating here is, in a sense, he's actually, you know, like, alright, I'll give you, I'll give the Pharisees, I'll give you the premise. You're righteous.

I have nothing to say to you then. You see yourself, In other words, you see yourself as righteous. You see yourself as not needing salvation, not needing mercy from God. I got nothing to say to you. Devastating.

For the Lord of glory to say to you, there's nothing, I got nothing for you. Revelation 3.17 speaking to the lukewarm church Christ says to the church, because you say I am rich, I have become or have become wealthy and have need of nothing and do and you do not know that you are wretched miserable poor blind and naked this this is them I'm rich I'm closed I'm good no you're not you're poor you're miserable you're blind and it is the ultimate state of blindness that not only do you not see your sin, but you actually think your rags are clothing. These filthy rags you have, these are sufficient for clothing. These are sufficient. And sadly some of them that are in this way, they're going to see on the Sermon of the Mount one day, Lord, Lord, have we not done all these things?

We've not prophesied in your name and cast out demons. And Christ's answer to them is, depart from me, I never knew you. I never knew you. So then we get to the glorious contrast though. And This is the final sentence, but it's so glorious here.

Kids in the room, give your attention for just a moment because this is important. This is important. The parallel here then of these are people that see themselves as righteous, so who are the sinners? Those that see themselves as sinful, wretched, and needing a Savior only by the grace of God. Remember John 16, 8, the helper, the Holy Spirit, he comes and brings the conviction of sin.

These are the people that God saves. God does not save people that say, I don't need God, I've got the righteousness, I'm good. I'm closed, I'm rich, I'm fine. No, he saves the people that by his grace see, no, I'm poor, I'm miserable, I'm wretched, I'm blind, I need salvation, I need mercy. And Christ says wonderfully, I call those sinners to repentance.

The grace of Christ here. Yes, I've shown you the problem, but now I'm showing you the cure. Come. Come to me. And that attitude doesn't stop.

We don't at one time see ourselves as sinful, and then we go on. No, we continue to see ourselves as sinners. We continue to say, no, I still need this mercy. I still need this physician. I don't just need you once and I'm good.

I need this physician. And it's the grace of Christ to say to those poor sinners that maybe are heavy-laid and weak and he looks at them and says, Come to me. Follow me. The call still goes out. Follow me.

Repent of your sins and trust in me and follow me. He's a wonderful high priest. Follow me. He's not a cruel task master. Follow me.

Your life today could be changed. Follow me. And when Christ gives that call and the Holy Spirit's working, even like all sinners are saved. Any sinner that God is calling effectually are saved because of the work of the Holy Spirit. Some will walk away, you know, they'll be like, You know, in the parable of the seed, plant takes root, grows up in the rocks, sun comes down, burnt.

There will be those. But the evidence that God is working and that the Holy Spirit is working and that Christ calls effectual is that the sinner comes and he tastes and sees that the Lord is good. And he tastes and sees this mercy that's been given to him. And he sees all my sins are gone. All I know is grace.

All I know is grace. So final charges. To the believer, we have all the reason in the world to rejoice in our great High Priest. All the reason in the world. We were in our sin.

We were once lost in darkest nights, as the hymn says, But Christ calls us and he says, follow me. I've come to call sinners to repentance. We've experienced this grace. We've experienced this mercy. And because of the work of the Holy Spirit, we did rise up and we did follow.

And we did so cheerfully. God's calling me. My life has changed. My eternal destiny has changed. I'm now a child of God.

I was once a hellbound sinner, and now I'm a child of God. We have all the reason. Just sit and rejoice for a second, and just enjoy this, and remind yourself of this. Yes, I sinned this week. Yes, I sinned this month.

But God has shown me mercy. God has shown me grace. And we continue to repent every day. We continue to see our sins and we repent, but it's all fueled by this love for this gracious God. Verse 27 fuels verse 28.

He called me to follow him. He showed me grace and the strength of God is going to carry me on, and it's going to carry me on to show mercy to others, or to seek for this mercy to be shown to others. To the unbeliever, the one who is Maybe hard-hearted and content in your own righteousness. You may think to yourself, I'll never have the attitude on that much of a display as the Pharisees. I wouldn't have the audacity to do that.

But are you content? Do you sit there and are you content in your own righteousness? Do you sit there and go, well, I'm at church, aren't I? The fact that, you know, fear, because The fact that you're content with that is showing you where your heart is. That you're content with, I got the gold, I got the clothes, I'm good.

But there's hope. Because Revelation 3, the next verse in verse 18, so we just read the verse, you know, about, you know, you think you're rich, you think you're clothed, but you really are, you know, blind, naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire that you may be rich and white garments that you may be clothed that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed and anoint your eyes with ourself that you may see." In other words, the call is there. The call is there. Yes, you who think that you're fine, let me counsel you.

Come to Christ. You think your filthy rags are sufficient? No. You need the spotless, seamless garment of Christ to cover you so that when God looks upon you, He doesn't see your sins, He sees the sins of another and He could declare innocent. Innocent.

My mercy is on display. You are innocent because of the righteousness of Christ. And finally to the unbeliever. I can't see the hearts of people in this room. None of us can.

Only God can. But the unbeliever who may be feeling their conviction of sin. We don't know, again, we don't know where the Spirit's working. The wind blows where it wishes. John 3, Spirit comes and goes.

He blows where he wishes, sovereign. You're feeling the conviction of sin. See the great remedy in this passage. Your sins today are as red as scarlet, but they can be as white as snow because of Christ. If you're feeling your conviction of sin, run to Christ.

Hear the call of Christ that still goes down through the ages because it's in the Word of God. Follow me and come. Come to this great God. He's not a cruel taskmaster. He's not a harsh dictator.

He's called later on in chapters the friend of tax collectors and sinners. He calls the chief of sinners to himself and shows them mercy and grace. So don't leave here without thinking, with just pondering that phrase, but sinners, I call sinners to repentance. That call still goes out. Again, it still goes out.

I'm going to end here with Matthew Henry. There is no heart too hard for the Spirit and grace of Christ to work upon, nor any difficulties in the way of a sinner's conversion insuperable to his power." Let's pray. Our God, we Thank you and praise you, that you are a great and merciful high priest. God, I pray that those in this room today, God, that maybe there are some that are weak and heavy-laden, God. They're feeling the weight of their sin.

When they need salvation, God, because you are bringing this conviction of sin upon them. Oh God, call them to yourself today. Please God, use this text. Call sinners to yourself today. And God, those of us that know you, God, that know of what was spoken of here with Levi.

Oh God, give us such a thankfulness, God, that you called us to follow you. You drew us to yourself. You gave us new hearts. God, give us a desire, God, to continue to see that mercy shown to others, or want to see others experience this mercy. Thank you, God, it's in your sons and we pray.

Amen.