Good morning. If you have your Bibles, let's turn in our Bibles to Mark chapter two, we're going to look at Mark chapter two, verses 13 through 17 today. This is a sermon entitled The Lord's Supper with Sinners, and we're going to look at Mark two, verses 13 through 17. This passage shows the love of God in Christ and how far that love extends. It extends, it's a love that extends even to the hardest cases, those hardened hearts and notorious sinners like some of us used to be. And as there are many still out in the world today, this passage reminds us that the love of Jesus is a call to come and a call to sup with sinners, to dine in fellowship with them in order that they might know repentance and faith in Jesus. who is the only hope for sinners. So this passage here today is summed up in the last line that Jesus said did not come to call the righteous. He came to call sinners. And so let's read beginning in verse 13. Jesus speaking or speaking of Jesus when says he he went out again beside the sea and all the crowd was coming to him. And he was teaching them. And he passed by. He saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, follow me. And he rose and followed him. And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. But there were many who followed him. And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners? And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, those who are well have no need of a physician. But those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous. But sinners. Our Father and our God, we pray that you'd help us to understand this passage better, that you would come by your spirit, spirit of the living God, spirit of Christ. Come and teach us. Come and open our ears to hear, our hearts to receive, our minds to understand. Come and change us so that we'll be different. Call us to have great hope in Jesus today. Let us be reminded of his great love for sinners. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. I want to look at this passage in three ways. I want to look at three points. The first is a scandalous choice. The second is a scandalous table fellowship. And the third thing I want to point you to is a scandalous kind of grace. So the first is a scandalous choice. And we think of scandal and we think of something scandalous. We in our modern culture might think of the evening news. We might think of one of our favorite athletes being accused of some great sin. We might think of a politician who's been caught doing wicked deeds, it might be something that the news media refers to as something gate. But a scandal is something that becomes public and it's offensive to others. It's literally in the Bible, a scandal is from a Greek word, scandalon, that means it's a stumbling block or it's an offense to those who are looking on. And it's interesting to note, and I want to do this up front, that Jesus himself is called a scandal. He's called a scandalon. He's called a scandalous. teacher. In first Peter two, eight, we're told that Jesus in his person and work for those with natural eyes, those who have not had the work of grace in their hearts, those who just are looking on to Jesus, his person and work, they see him as a stumbling block. They see him as someone who causes them to stumble. And it's particularly true that the cross of Jesus Christ is called a scandal line. It's a scandal to those who don't understand it. That that is where God in our flesh was taking the wrath of God upon himself, shedding his precious blood for sinners to be saved. But it's a scandal. It's something that causes men to stumble. It's a stumbling block for those who have no faith. And so Jesus, shows us the kind of scandal we want to be guilty of as a congregation. Not a scandal because of wickedness and because of sinfulness, but a scandal because we display holy hearts and holy compassion to sinners. And we're scandalous because we offer forgiveness and tell people of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, even if it may offend others. We want to be scandalous as a congregation and that we want to tell the truth and speak it in love and make it known to our community around us, but to know that it will be offensive to ask for the Holy Spirit to make these things clear. I want to remind you, Jesus is teaching in Capernaum right now, and as we read earlier, Capernaum is the place where Jesus says that if Sodom had had the kinds of signs and wonders, if Sodom had heard the message that you've heard, Capernaum, Sodom would still be here. Sodom would not have been destroyed. He's saying, Capernaum, you have failed to repent. And so I want to remind you that it's it's very easy to have the word of God, to have the son of God himself, to teach you, to hear the word of God, to hear clear teaching. And yet at the end of the day, to be condemned and damned because you did not believe it. You did not hear. You did not go and live it. And that's very important to note. So we the passage opens here. with these crowds again gathering around Jesus, showing his popularity. But again, the crowds, many of them will not believe. They're just interested in what Jesus is doing. It's a curiosity, perhaps we could say, more than the Holy Spirit that's causing them to come around and listen to Jesus. But Jesus, note this, he's teaching them. And that's something very important. Jesus is teaching them. He's out at the seaside. He's in the area of Capernaum. The crowds are around. And as he has a chance, what does he do? He teaches. He tells them the truth. He trusts in the Holy Spirit for change in the hearts of men. But he's faithful to do his father's will in calling sinners. He's faithful to do his father's will in declaring that the kingdom of God is at hand. And I am the king. He's faithful. That's his gospel message. Remember, we learned from the first chapter, verse 15. Jesus is saying the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the good news. And he's entrusting himself to his father. In the midst of this, we see him make a scandalous choice in the eyes of other people. He walks along and he sees a man named Levi, it says in verse 14, the son of Alpheus, who also is our Matthew. He's the Matthew of the Gospels. He's the Matthew of chapter nine of Matthew that tells us more clearly that his other name was Matthew. It was not uncommon for someone to have two names just like Peter is also Simon. And so Matthew or Levi is being called by Jesus Christ. And we will have a chance in Mark 3 to look particularly at the apostles and disciples as we get to chapter 3. We'll see the organization that Jesus brings about as the apostles of the church. But this passage is not about the apostolate yet. This passage is about the background of one of those apostles. His name is Matthew. His name is Levi. This tax collector. is called by Jesus. What a scandal that the Lord Jesus, the king, the great one, the one calling sinners to repentance and faith would call a tax collector to be a follower of Jesus. And we have to go back into that time period and get a get a better understanding of what what tax collectors were were about. Tax collectors were not merely something like today we might say, well, they're like IRS people, right? No, not necessarily. No, no, they could be perhaps. But the tax collecting job in and of itself was not a bad job. It wasn't an evil position. But the people in it tended to be evil. And this is why. What was happening in that time is that as Rome ruled over this territory in Judea, there were also kings who ruled on behalf of Rome, particularly at this time, Herod Antipas. And so they would farm out their taxes to these guys like tax collectors who would then take the taxes. They would kick it up to the king over them and then they would kick it up to Rome. Anything that they'd like to skim off the top was no concern for the king or for the ruling emperor. They could take whatever they wanted. And that's what they did. They were very covetous, greedy, self-centered people. When you spoke of a tax collector, you spoke of them looking down your nose, speaking along with usually sinners, as we see in the passage, and we'll talk about in a moment, but also prostitutes, also criminals, crooks, murderers. They were the lowest of the low in that society. That's what they were considered. They were those who Although they were Jewish, like Levi, like Matthew, were considered traitors because they were filling Rome's pocket with the taxes of God's people. And so they were despised. They were outcasts. They were notorious sinners. And they were so shameless, if I could put it that way, that they didn't mind the fact that when they walked down the road, No one would make eye contact with them. They just had gotten to the point that they just didn't care what people thought. Furthermore, they were the type who'd say, I'm not the religious type. You know, that's for the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Let them work this God thing out. They were in no way associated religion. Well, one of the reasons they weren't is because if a tax collector came in a Jewish house, he would make it unclean. in their estimation and in the estimation of the Jews, the laws of the Pharisees. So they were contagious. They were simply contagious, not according to God's word, but according to the interpretations of God's word that the Pharisees had. And that was very popular at the time that ruled many of the Jewish leaders. And that's important to make that distinction. So this Matthew, this Levi, A shameless man, you know, a guy who skimmed off from one brother, another brother has made himself fat and rich off other people's hard earned money. He's at this tax collecting booth. And remember, remember that in Capernaum, it is a it's a road. There's a there's a road, a main road that goes through Capernaum that goes from east to west. And there were tax collectors at those roads to take from them export tax. import tax, lots of fish, lots of fishermen would have known these tax collectors because the minute that they had their fish, their catch, they would have needed to export those fish immediately. And that's when they would have gone to the tax booth and given them the money for those fish before they could be exported. So it's very likely, and this is something interesting to think about, it's very likely that you had an inner conflict in the apostolate. With the main disciples of Jesus, you had a potential inner conflict. You had, if you will, some things from the past that were like baggage. For some of them, like Peter and John, they would have had to work through these things. They might have had to go to the Lord Jesus and say, Lord Jesus, I have a hard time with you inviting Matthew along here. He's our worst enemy. I have a hard time with Levi. And you can see the Lord Jesus saying, embrace them, embrace him, love him. I love him. You love him. That's what a tax collector was, a notorious person listed along with sinners. and prostitutes and what the culture would have said at that time, the lowest of the low. And you know, it's scandalous. Jesus chooses him. Jesus puts his powerful finger upon this man, Matthew Levi, and he says, follow me. And with the authority that we've seen Jesus used before, with the authority where a lame man went walking, where with the authority that he's used in forgiving the sins of a paralyzed man and healing the paralyzed man, with that same authority and the power of the Spirit, this notorious criminal, this sinner, this covetous man learns, learns the power of the Almighty God in the person of Jesus. Because what does he do? rises up from his former commitment to worldliness and covetousness, and he follows Jesus. He leaves everything for Jesus. He leaves everything that was important to him for Jesus. He lives that position, that place he had in the world to follow Jesus, and it's all because of the almighty power of God. God had done a work in his heart. God had taken this hardened of sinners and had turned him into a disciple, one who would Beloved, write one of the Gospels of the Lord Jesus. And it's no surprise that in his genealogy, he has several centers who are part of Jesus's genealogical line. I think that's important. What we want to notice is even the hardest of people can follow Jesus if Jesus gives them the ability to do so. If they look up and they see Jesus and they desire to follow him, that desire has been given by God. But what's emphasized here is he follows him because he sees in the Lord Jesus what he's been looking for in his covetousness. I love it in Psalm 119, verse 36. And this is a wonderful picture of Psalm 119 in Psalm 119, verse 36. The psalmist says, incline my heart to your testimonies, O God, and not to selfish gain. Is this picture of Levi not a picture of that? God, by his authority through the Lord Jesus Christ, is inclining, inclining Levi's heart not to selfish gain, but to the love of the Lord Jesus. Now, some of you have been hardened people. Some of you have been those who've been far from the covenant. And you've come to believe. Do you still believe that the Holy Spirit is the Lord and giver of life? Do you still believe that even the hardest of sinners, the most notorious of them, can come to faith? Do you pray for your unbelieving relatives and your friends, or have you given up on them? Have you, in essence, said, I don't believe in the same Christ anymore functionally because I don't believe there's any way possible that they could ever come to faith? That's what many would have said about tax collectors. Don't you see here that what we're being taught is about the grace of God and the power of God and beloved, if you are if you are tempted to say or think such a thing, get on your knees immediately in repentance because you're forgetting the grace that drew you. You're forgetting about the grace and the forgiveness of God the Father to you. You're forgetting about the grace and the mercy of the Father to you. Do you think you deserve it? You think some sort of social standing you have or the amount of money you have in the bank somehow makes you more liable to accept the gospel, more perhaps That you are, well, perhaps going to be more willing? Do you make those kind of categorizations? It's very easy. I just don't see how these people could ever come to faith. When you listen to unbelieving artists, musicians, actors, actresses, do you pray for them? Do you wonder that something might change in their hearts through the power of God, through the gospel? That's what this is. One reason this passage is here is to remind us that God is powerful. He calls wicked people to follow him. In one sense, that includes all of us, even if we've been raised in the covenant, we're all sinners in that sense. But this is a special category of sinner. This is not Jesus's category. This is the Pharisees category when it says tax collectors and sinners. That's why some of your translations will have the marks around sinners. Because it's not merely that they're sinners like all of us under God's law. It's that they are particularly a kind of sinner. So he makes a scandalous Call Sandalus choice for who will be one of his apostles and disciples struggle against your tiredness. I see many of you going to sleep. I'm just encouraging you. I as minister of word, I have to tell you to be reminded of that. I love you, but watch yourself attentive. This is God's word. OK, this is important. I love you, but attention. OK, second point. The scandalous dinner party, the scandalous table fellowship. Now, you have to understand something about table fellowship, beloved. In the ancient world, this was not merely that Jesus is going to somebody's house for dinner. It's not merely showing hospitality. No, there is a subtext here that was known in that community. Oftentimes, table fellowship was a place where there was covenants made, formal covenants. In this table fellowship, what is being offered is a permanent friendship. Jesus is extending friendship. He's showing a friendship to those who are tax collectors or sinners and tax collectors. And we're told that one of the ways that Levi responds to this great grace is he begins to serve. He opens up his house to fellow tax collectors and sinners. He invites Jesus to be the host and to come and to talk with them. Many of them are interested in the way of salvation. Many of them are interested in hearing more about Jesus. And so we're told in verse 15 that Jesus reclined a table in his house. Now, when you hear that, don't merely hear that as Jesus going to get some supper to make him full. Hear that as Jesus is reclining, He is as Rabbi, as Son of God, as King, extending friendship to those people. He is, if you will, formally and in a parabolic act, if I could put it that way, at table fellowship, extending a hand of grace to them who will receive Him. And so here's the way it would be set up at a table fellowship. You would have a semicircle, you would have like a U shape and the host would sit at the top of the table and to his right would be the one invited. And in this case, it was Jesus Christ of Nazareth. It was the son of God himself. And so in this passage, we're told in verse 15, Jesus reclined at table in his house and many tax collectors and sinners. Again, sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. There were many tax collectors and sinners that were beginning to see glorious, beautiful things in the Savior, especially in the way that he was willing to receive them. In other words, they were intrigued by him. Do you think we should turn down the heat a little bit? Is that the problem? I'm just going to keep on this because I think this is important. All right. I mean, it's just more than one or two. It's like, you know, the whole place here. All right. I'm ready to put on the clown outfit, OK? All right. Let's not do the clown today. All right. Let's just sit up. All right. All right. Do that. All right. You got it. I'm tired, too. I'm liable to fall asleep up here myself. You'd get pretty upset if I did. No clown outfits. All right. Back to the word. Look. So what's going on here is he's eating with these centers and tax collectors and the people outside know what that means. This is a rabbi. This is the one who claims to be the son of God. This is one who's sent from God. He's claiming it's the one who claims to forgive sins and and what's being seen outside the scandal. That's putting a stumbling block in the way of the Pharisees and the scribes is that they see Jesus befriending. These people. And so the Pharisees or the scribes of the Pharisees are concerned. Why does he eat? With centers and tax collectors. Now, who were the Pharisees? Well, the Pharisees were the Hassidim. They were a sect in Judaism or Israel, particularly formed in the intertestamental period, the time between Malachi and Matthew. And listen, beloved, they were committed to conservative politics, conservative understanding and memorization of God's word. They were those who wanted to memorize Torah, even in the Hebrew language. These were men who were had the word in them, who sat before the word, who talked about the word. And yet they're also the ones that Jesus reserves the harshest rebuke for in the Bible. Jesus calls them hypocrites. Jesus calls them lawless. Lawless. How could they be studying the five books of Moses? How could they be studying God's word and be lawless? They're the ones, Jesus says, your mouths are always talking about God's word, your mouth is always talking about God, but your heart is far from me. Here's how they can be lawless. First, let me say something that's very important for us to understand. A Pharisee is not someone trying to uphold God's law. That's precisely what Jesus did. Jesus calls us to uphold God's law. Upholding God's law is not a Pharisee. The Pharisees didn't get God's law. They didn't get God's word. Everything for them was external. It was outward observation of certain laws. It was that they would take the law and they would add six hundred and thirteen extra laws to the law of God. They added to Holy Scripture, you see, and they would add these things to Holy Scripture, these traditions, these interpretations. And then they would say, it's this way you can keep the law. And so they had a righteousness that was made of their own making. It was through their interpretation of God's word. It was through their seeking to have these traditions based on God's word. It was not based on God's word. Again, it's important we'd never call someone trying to uphold God's law a Pharisee. Now, you can summarize by saying a Pharisee was one who added to God's word and completely misunderstood the word that they did have. They are Christless people, the Pharisees. So what happens here in this interaction is they want to know based on their categories, based on their understanding and interpretation of God's law, why Jesus would be breaking their law, their interpretation of God's law. There are two ways. You see, they thought in their law, in their interpretation, that to get near a tax collector or center would be contagious, that they'd catch something from it. They would kick them out of the synagogue if they came close because they knew that if they touched it, they'd make unclean a whole house. That's not what God's word says. It's not what God teaches about his steadfast love and his mercy to sinners who repent and come to him in faith. That's not what God's word says. That's a tradition of the elders. That's a pharisaical addition to God's word. They thought that because they didn't tithe in a way that honored the ceremonial law that they interpreted in their way. Outwardly, externally, that they were unclean. And so they had nothing to do with them whatsoever. The Pharisees put themselves out as those who had it all together, those who were outwardly were religious, those who outwardly were keeping God's word. But inwardly, Jesus says, they were full of dead men's bones. They were dead, dead, dead, dead. Jesus is doing something that's contrary to the Pharisees in his parabolic act here, in his action of having table fellowship with sinners. He's showing two very important things that a disciple must have a holy heart. Coupled with holy compassion. The Pharisees did not have holy hearts and they had no compassion. They just categorized people. You know, here's where the extortioners go. Here's the murderers, prostitutes, sinners, anybody else, any outcasts that we don't like that don't go according to our interpretation, the non-church, the non-religious folk, sinners. Those who won't have anything to do with submitting themselves to our tradition, sinners. They had no compassion. Jesus is showing holy heart and holy compassion. You notice what He's doing? When He's inviting these sinners, He is with a holy heart, set apart His heart to God alone. Jesus Christ is living the law of God. He's being obedient to the Father in every moment of His life. He's being faithful to His mission. He's being faithful to His mission, beloved. He's got a holy heart. These centers are not going to contaminate him because his heart has been reserved for God alone. He has no struggle in his heart. He's showing us a holy heart that needs to be coupled, coupled with holy compassion. To reach out, to extend our hand to those who are sinful. And to invite them into the kingdom, to open those doors wide in front of our church building, to invite sinners in holy hearts and holy compassion. You know, if you love Christ, if he's doing a work in your heart, his heart is yours. You belong to him. And yes, you have to be wise and you have to be careful in your interaction with others, but you're not called merely to preserve yourself. You're not called to merely withdraw yourself from the culture. You're called to be holy in the culture. You're called to preserve the purity and the holiness of Christ in your daily life and communion. You're called to that holy heart in Christ Jesus. As John Flavel says, that it is the hardest thing to win the heart for God. It might be even harder or it's at least as hard to keep the heart with God. And so Jesus is showing that a right kind of outreach that's being shown here is an outreach where there are holy hearts, separated hearts, those who love God above all else by faith, imperfectly and weakly, but by faith, knowing their sinfulness, knowing their temptation to sin, but at the same time being wholly compassionate to those who are different, to those who are particularly wicked. Now, how can we be Pharisees, beloved, right here, right now? Let's think about it for a second. Functionally, we could be Pharisees when we are just merely thinking that sinners will contaminate us if we get near them. Yes, there's a right way that we need to remember to be holy as God is holy. Separate your heart, not merely your outward man. It may call for that sometimes. But remember, the problem of the Pharisees was merely that they were separating themselves externally, but their hearts were far from God. The first call is to separate your heart unto God. To have a holy heart before him that only Jesus Christ can form and make to have such love for God. You see, it's very easy. to have this kind of thinking that other sinners are going to contaminate us. Sure, it's right to say bad company corrupts good character. Very important to remember, yes. But no, at this moment, it's important to understand also that holy hearts means reaching out and being compassionate to those who are hurting and those who are particularly needy and those who are caught in a web of sin and who are on their way to condemnation and damnation. Do you honestly, honestly before God, do you think people will contaminate you? Do you think people contaminate your church, your family? You need to get down and ask God to help you, to forgive you for such thoughts. A second way we can be farcical that we want to be careful of is that we can categorize people so easily, beloved. We can do just the same calling people sinners. Well, those Hollywood people, You know, those Hollywood people. Have you prayed for the Hollywood people? Have you asked God to have mercy on them? Have you witnessed when you got a chance to those hard hearted people, if you've got a chance to, not necessarily with Hollywood, because you'd be getting a signature. I know. You know, sign this movie photo. Thank you. I don't like you. You're sinful. I hate the whole thing you stand for. But sign my book, please. Hollywood people. We categorize people. What's the one in our culture? Let's do it. Let's say it. Gay and lesbian. When's the last time you had table fellowship with a gay and lesbian? That's what we'd say about tax collectors. Okay, maybe not gay and lesbian first invitation, but how many of you are daily interacting with wicked sinners? When's the last time you had a table fellowship with a sinner? You know, our friend Rosaria Butterfield, she was part of the gay and lesbian community, and it was through table fellowship that someone extended the hand of grace to her. Have you read her book? It's very helpful. It'll really help the second point. Do you know what it is to be caught in sin? and have no one to go to. And because you're categorized by the Christians, they just think you hate them. But they're to blame, they're culpable, no doubt, they're sinning. And they know it, Romans 1 says. But where's the compassion? That's what I'm pleading for. We can categorize people in such a way that we think, OK, this uncle, he'll never come to Christ. This brother, this friend, this person never come to Christ. The way we can be Pharisees very easily beloved unintentionally is by categorizing people unfairly. You remember, as we read in Luke earlier, a beautiful passage that Elder Davis read to us, you remember the problem with the Pharisees, the categorization of other men, not seeing them as needy sinners who through faith and repentance can be forgiven. But do you remember how he says it? The Pharisee said, I thank you, God, I'm not like extortioners. Unjust. Adulterers. I thank you, I'm not like that, even this tax collector. Do you think that way? Another way to be a functional Pharisee is to forget Christian liberty, as we learned a bit this morning in the wonderful class by Elder Rick. We can so identify ourselves with a particular political party, with a way of schooling, with a way of drinking and having feasts. We can be those kind that send a text, a message, a subtext, I should say, or a message to the world that says this is the only way you can school your children. We can say this is the only way you can drink. You know, if you're against drinking, you say don't drink. If you're for drinking, you say, yes, you can drink. You can have a political position that you hold to and you think everybody should hold to it. That's being like a Pharisee. Because Christian liberty says, yes, with your schooling, make sure that the parents are teaching their children, make sure they're being brought up in the word of God. But it doesn't tell us particularly specifically how we're drinking. It says be sober and be self-controlled. But it doesn't say not to drink. And with politics, it says, be merciful, show justice, defend the widow, defend the fatherless. Help the orphan. But it doesn't say what political party to belong to. So can you imagine a sinner coming to the door and finding immediately that the subtext of this congregation would be, we do it this way and it's an issue of Christian liberty. Whether it is we drink or we don't drink. Whether it's we school this way and no other. Whether it is that we hold this political position and no other. Can you imagine that? If something's going to offend them, let it be Jesus and his gospel, beloved. If it's going to offend them, let it be Jesus and his gospel. Don't you dare be a scandal on. Don't you dare. Don't let me be a scandal on. Don't you? Don't you let me. Let us not be, that's better than don't you dare. I love to say don't you dare, don't I? Let us not be Pharisees functionally. Okay? Okay? That's hard stuff. But that's what this passage would teach us. Table fellowship with sinners. I've tried to make it a point with a couple of sinners in the neighborhood. I don't call them that. But since we're... But I've made it a point to try to eat regularly with a couple of them. And it's good because they ask questions and it builds a relationship. I'm not condoning their sin. I'm trying to have a holy heart because I know my own propensity to sin. But I'm also trying to be holy in my compassion. Jesus, you notice, he holds those two things together. He has holy hearts and he has holy compassion. That's what we want to learn from this. Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners? You know, I would love for us as a congregation to be that kind of scandal to the Christian community. Did you know that they had like a party, a birthday party for a prostitute and her friends and the gospel was clearly made known? Did you hear that? Oh, my. I understand that when Rosaria wrote her book, there were some parts that someone said, oh, I'd leave that one out, that part out. You don't need to tell all that, sister. Well, there's definitely a need to be discerning and wise, don't you, in what you say. Beloved, if it hadn't been for someone with a holy heart and holy compassion, your preacher wouldn't be standing here right now before you. I was far worse than a tax collector. And I couldn't get in the door, in my estimation, at the time. But the hand was extended to me to take in a Bible study. And I took it. And the rest is history, by God's grace. Love the sinner. Don't love the sin, hate it. If your heart is holy before Christ, you have no problem in that sense. You'll hate the sin because you'll see it in yourself. You'll see it in yourself. If you've done your proper log removing from your eyes, it will just be a speck in your brothers and sisters. I compared to what you deserve before God. You know, one of the problems with the Pharisees, I'm not up here trying to be offensive here. I'm just trying to be faithful. This, I hope, is offensive in a good way. You know, so hard to think about our holiness before God as if that was being a Pharisee. It's just not true. A holy person is one who knows that they're undeserving, that everything that you have is because of the righteousness of God in Christ for them. And they just want to be thankful and live obedient lives for Jesus. That's holy. You know, the Pharisees, one of their problems was that they were deserving. They thought they deserved that if they put their nose in Scripture, if they memorized enough of it, if they did enough good deeds, that God would justify them. You see, they were deserving. You read the documents of the time. They're all talking about when when God comes and the righteous will be here, the the righteous will be received by God as those having read and understood the scriptures. That's how they talk. You want to have that kind of thought thinking before God? No, we do not. So the scandalous choice that he makes of Matthew, it's a scandalous, scandalous table fellowship. And finally, it's a scandalous kind of grace, beloved. Listen, let me take you at the end here to the cross. Let me remind you that that was the glorious Son of God. He who was equal with God the Father and God the Spirit. He who was all glorious, considered equality with God not something to be grasped at, but made himself nothing. who came to be obedient unto faith for us where we failed, who came to make himself a servant unto us, unto mankind, not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. He who was obedient even unto death because his love was so great for us. He who laid down his life on a cross that looking with natural eyes didn't make a bit of sense. How can a king be crucified? How can Messiah go the way of the cross? That's the scandal, isn't it? That we who deserve God's wrath and condemnation. Get his grace and his mercy and his love. And he who did not deserve it. but took it upon himself willingly as his lot because he loved you and I took all of our condemnation on himself. He said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Can we live beneath that cross, looking up at Jesus Christ and seeing God manifested in the flesh, dying for sinners? Knowing that he's extending a hand of grace to us, and not respond in mercy, not respond in thankfulness, not respond in in seeking and saving the lost. Listen, our mission, beloved, our mission is is in the shadow of the cross. It is that he calls us to take up our cross and follow him. He tells us to take up our cross and follow him to die to sell and go out on this mission to seek and save the lost. When you think about it, honestly, And you go before the throne of God and you go before the cross honestly before God. Do you think like the Pharisee or the tax collector? Do you think like the one who in his head says, thank you, God, I've done all these things for you this week and I thank you, I'm not like this other one or like the tax collector? Do you say beating your breast humbly? Lord, have mercy on me. I'm a sinner. You see, if you know what it means to be redeemed from your sinfulness, if you know what it means to be redeemed from hell and condemnation and the judgment of God, then let your heart break for those who are still under the judgment of God and need to hear the message, need a friend, need someone who will come close to them and talk to them, who will have a holy heart to witness the truth in love, but who will have a holy compassion that's displayed in table fellowship. This holy, this scandalous grace of God is something we should be scandalized by. Listen, in your closets with Jesus, do you think before him honestly about what you deserve? We should be a house of mourners, we should be a house of those who are seeking repentance constantly. Do you ever get to the place where you think, well, I've done the repenting and now I'm through? You haven't really understood repentance. Repentance is standing before a holy God in Christ Jesus, constantly telling Jesus, thank you for taking my sins and thank you for the grace. Now help me, Lord, to give you myself in holiness. Take my heart. It's yours, Lord. And then, Lord, give me compassion because I don't have it. And Lord, forgive me, because I don't care about them. They're dying and going to hell. And I am not thinking about it much. Would that rip your heart out? That's what should get us. It got me this week, beloved. I said, Lord, I don't do much at all. For you. Do I really care? Do I really do I understand compassion? Do I understand what it means? I have the truth be known. I have to confess that it's hard for me to be compassionate of those who are in Christ. It's weak, but true. You have compassion for the lost. Let's ask for it. Jesus says He'll give it to us. Don't you see your Savior at table fellowship? You're about to be invited to table fellowship with Jesus. Will you come broken? Will you come knowing you're not deserving? Will you come asking him for a holy heart and holy compassion? Will you come telling him to break you truly before him so that you can be useful instruments in his hands? Will you do that? Jesus says, come, come, come. And I'll give you rest. My yoke is easy, my burden is light. Levitt, if you think you're well today, you're not going to get any house calls from the Great Physician. You need a house call? He's always available. He always stands at the door and knocks. He says, if centers will open up, I'll come in and sup with them. But you know who he knocks at the door? He knocks at the door of centers. You a center? Not the notorious kind under a category of the Pharisees, but a sinner. That is, one in need of grace. Do you hear Jesus knock? Open up. He'll come in and he'll suck with you. But remember this, OK? Jesus says, I didn't come to call the righteous. That's a kind of holy have a good day, isn't it? But for those who are interested, those who are needy. I have come to call sinners to repentance. Isn't that glorious? Let's thank him. That's glorious. Oh, what a Savior. What a Savior. Hallelujah. What a Savior. What a friend of sinners. Lord Jesus, we still have pharisaical tendencies in us. Or the natural man is naturally religiously a Pharisee many times. Oh, often, how often do we do our duties just merely because we think that somehow we'll get something from you? Oh, let us see them as privileges. How often do we read the law for someone else or read our Bibles for somewhere else or even sit under sermons wishing somebody else would be here to hear it? Oh, how easily we categorize people. And we don't even know it. We want to do good before you, Lord, but then we make it a law, an addition. Oh, the Pharisees, they weren't guilty of holiness. No, they were guilty of lawlessness. And part of that lawlessness was adding commands. Closing doors. To what your word had said. They were guilty of adding to your word rather than preaching your word. and understanding your word, they were guilty of closing doors that your gospel was to open. Lord, thank you that you've opened doors in our hearts. You still stand and knock. Would you come in and change us as a congregation? Would you help us? Lord, the truth be known, I can pray as a pastor preacher here that we all would admit to you that we're not as compassionate as we like to be and our hearts are not holy enough. We oftentimes withdraw ourselves from others. We oftentimes have functionally think that we're going to get contaminated or contagious. We oftentimes will make things laws that are not laws. We'll turn convictions that we have into something that we think is your word. We'll turn conviction into command. Forgive us and Lord, help us to be part of our community. And the life of our community, let us this week even say, I'm going to I'm going to go and reach out to someone, whether they're a Christian or not. I'm just going to get to know him. I'm invite him to table fellowship. I invite him to be part of a Christian family. I invite him to church. Would you grow us that way, Lord? Because it certainly wouldn't be through our strength. Would you be glorified through our weakness because we admit we have it. Would you be glorified in us, we pray. Thank you for the forgiveness of sin in Jesus name, we pray. Amen.