All right, open up your Bibles to Luke chapter 15 and verse 2, and kind of mark your place there, because we're gonna read a couple of other passages before that. But Luke 15 too is the main verse of our text for the message this morning. The title of the message this morning is, This Man Receives Sinners, and oh, praise the Lord that he does. This man received sinners. So if you found Luke 15.2, go ahead now and find Mark chapter 16, verse one, and from there we'll read Mark's account of Resurrection Day and about how the disciples began to discover that Jesus indeed had risen again. But this man receives sinners. On this Resurrection Sunday, I want to address the issue of true gospel versus false gospels. Because let me tell you, there's a lot of false gospels out there, a lot of false teaching. in some cases by well-meaning people who have been misled themselves along the way and don't truly understand what the gospel is all about. And then intertwined with this is the idea that people put out there that the gospel does not divide people, it unites all people. At the center of this, of course, is Jesus and whether he should be seen as someone who loves and accepts everyone as they are, or whether he puts justice first and holds people accountable for sin. Now, I believe that the scriptures teach that Jesus is both love and justice, savior and judge. And so there's no dividing there, but people tend to, as we do, we tend to take sides and choose this side over that side and whatever, and we tend to divide up somewhat on these things. And the gospel does have that effective division on people. It's very quickly you can get into what does the scripture say versus what does man say. And whatever man starts saying, inevitably, is going to stray away, okay? Because we don't know all there is to know from the Scriptures. We don't have God's knowledge and His perfect word. We have access to it, of course. We have our Bibles, and the more we stay in our Bibles, the more faithful we're gonna be. And the more we stay in the Bibles, the Bible itself for, with the aid of the Holy Spirit in prayer and meditation, when we do that, then we can truly discover the truth of the Bible. But whenever we start listening to other people, we get in trouble. We've got to be careful about that. That's why I always say, I'm sure Brother Jeff would agree, that everything we say, a preacher says, pastor says, you need to check that against what the Bible says, okay? Because the Bible is the final word on these things. Now, so I'm just kind of setting the stage here. Let's go ahead and read Mark 16. It says, when the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome had bought sweet spices that they might come and anoint him. And very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they came into the sepulcher at the rising of the sun. And they said among themselves, who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulcher? And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away, for it was very great. And entering into the sepulcher, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment, and they were affrighted. And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted, ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified. He is risen, he is not here, behold the place where they laid him. And I'm gonna read Romans 8, 34 next, it's just the one verse. It says, who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Hallelujah, Christ indeed is risen. He did die on that cross, he died for an atonement, as an atonement for our sins, but then he rose again. And that is a great truth. When you read through the book of Acts, that's the one thing they always come back to in their sermons, I'm saying the apostles and those who read about it in Acts, they always come back to this. Jesus is risen again. He died, but he is risen again. And what great hope that gives to us. Before we continue, let's bow our heads for prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, O Lord, we thank you so much, Lord, for your word which you have given to us. And we ask, Lord, that you would just open our eyes, our ears, so that we can see and hear, our minds, so that we can understand what you have for us here this morning. May your Holy Spirit just speak to our hearts, O Lord, and edify us, draw us to you, convict us of sin, whatever, Lord, the need may be, and you know those needs so well. Lord, we just ask these things in the name of Jesus and for his sake, amen. All right, now for the text, Luke 15.2, so if you were holding that, go to that. This is going to be the basis for the message as we go forward now. Luke 15.2 says this, and the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, this man receiveth sinners and eateth with them. And you can almost, just sensed the scorn with which they said that, right? Just dripping off of them as they said those words. Who are these Pharisees and scribes? The Pharisees were the so-called religious people, the scribes too, of the Jews of that day. The Pharisees in particular prided themselves on how well They obeyed the commandments and how righteous they were. And they also were very good at looking down on others that they thought weren't at the same place that they were. And so we find them here murmuring. There's always murmuring going on and to me it seems like the volume of that murmuring of late is just increasing more and more as more people are speaking out or are just taking outright rebellious action against God. And I can't help but think about this particular weekend. Normally, the tradition is that the White House recognizes Easter, I prefer Resurrection Day, as a, in the past, as a religious holiday. But the Biden White House has forbidden that forbidding any kind of religious connection to it. Apparently, I don't understand fully the story, but apparently National Guard children get to send in eggs that are decorated for the Easter egg hunt. The White House, which is a whole separate deal, I don't believe in Easter egg hunts, but anyway, that happens. And the White House has basically told them that they can't put any kind of religious reference. on those eggs at all. So they're basically saying this is a secular holiday, not a religious holiday. But at the same time, they have announced that today is, well, I'm trying to remember the exact phrase, trans holiday. What's? Gender visibility. Visibility day, that's the word I couldn't find. Trans visibility day, bringing recognition to that. And if you don't think that was deliberate on their part to deliberately try to walk away any kind of religious connection to this day, and superimpose upon it their will about this whole trans agenda thing, then I don't know, I don't have any hope for you to understand what's going on in this world today. I mean, this is very blatant, and that is very loud murmuring, in my opinion, by people who think they know better. which is the problem the Pharisees had. And so what they described with scorn, they being the Pharisees in this verse, and what the public outcry is around this also describes with scorn anything that has anything to do with Christ, and belief on Christ and accountability to God, what they all talk about with in scorn is really a most beautiful thing. This man receiveth sinners and eateth with them. So in the text, Jesus is being reproached by Pharisees for doing something that they would never do, visit and eat with sinners. Now know this, Jesus received sinners before they receive him. We came in towards the end of a wonderful Bible study this morning that I think this connects to what I just said. There are Christians who get the cart before the horse in the sense of When does the sinner come to Christ? When does Christ come to the sinner? Well, Christ comes to the sinner first. Christ receives the sinner first, and then through the power of the Holy Spirit, through regeneration, through eyes being opened, the blind being made to see, a person comes to realize that they need Jesus, and they receive Jesus, okay? And I'll get very leery when I hear that term used in Christian circles today. You need to receive Jesus in your heart. I, again, think that ties into putting the cart before the horse. What a person needs to recognize is that Jesus has received them, okay? And through regeneration, now yes, we believe in faith, we repent of our sins, we respond to that, and that is a part of our conversion experience. But anyway, that's one thing. Secondly, Jesus does not receive sinners for any worthiness on their part or for their good intentions. He receives them in mercy and grace and love. He receives them because of what he has done, not what they have done, right? We were talking, you were talking about the imputation of righteousness. Where does that righteousness come? It comes from Christ. It's His righteousness, not ours. I would say the same about faith. That faith that we receive as a gift from God is the faith of Christ that he demonstrated during his walk here on earth. That is given to us and we in turn then exercise that faith and believe on him. So it is a work of God, not of man by any means. All right, so here I have two main points for the message. One, number one, it is a false gospel that teaches that Jesus loves every sinner and accepts them in their sin. Now, on the surface, that sounds really good and wonderful, and it makes people feel good, even in spite of their open rebellious sin against God. What set me on this train of thought for this message is an ad that ran during the last Super Bowl. This ad's message was, and y'all, I don't much watch the Super Bowl, you know, I might a little bit. I'm not a big professional football fan at all, especially anymore. But the Super Bowl is a big deal. Ads for the Super Bowl, a 30 second ad costs millions of dollars, okay? It's incredible. Well this group, that message of this particular ad was he gets us, it's estimated that they spent $17.5 million to run that ad, I think twice during the Super Bowl. It was paid for by a group that goes by that same name, He Gets Us. And I understand at least some of those people are Baptist. When I saw the ad, I just had this real cringe feeling come upon me. So I looked them up. to try to understand where they were coming from. Their website says things like, no matter who you are, where you're from, or what you believe, we invite you to discover the world's greatest love story, the story of Jesus. Now again, there's nothing necessarily wrong with that. I mean, we should be sharing Christ's gospel the best we can with every person we can every day. The problem that I had with the ad was in how they portrayed this being done. You see in the ad, they portrayed person after person after person after person. It was actually like a pair of people. One was washing the feet of the other. The other was very obviously associated with some sort of sin. Transgender. There was someone that the setting was an abortion clinic with these mean Christians protesting in the background, okay? And you've got this one Christian who is washing that person's feet as they accepted them, okay? And the idea was that they were following the example of Christ, that Christ accepts them as they are, that it's okay that they are a sinner. And that they, and here's the kicker, that they continue in that sin. There was no obvious change in these people. They were doing what they do and he gets us, he gets them. Christ understands them and accepts them in that condition. And I say no, that's not the way it works. Now we should minister to everyone, we can. We should be prepared to share the gospel with them. But we should never condone sin or condone what God himself abhors. The many examples in the ad that were given were intended to teach that Jesus accepts people in their sin and that he gets them. In these ads, Jesus is merely an example. And there's no mention made that he is a savior. So the homosexual, the person guilty of abortion, all the other examples were people being received as they were with no repentance on their part and no change in their lives. Well yes, he received the woman caught in adultery, we have that in scripture, the woman that was brought to him with that charge. But let us not also, or let us not forget that he told her to go and sin no more. He called her into repentance. I think this idea that Jesus will receive you just like you are with no change is a false gospel. That's comforting to a lot of people who want to continue in their sin. There are certain segment of people out there that I want to be able to sin and have Jesus too, okay? It doesn't work that way. Now yeah, listen, we, as long as we're on this earth, we're gonna commit sin. That's not the point. The point is, is there a change in a person's life? Once you've been born again, once you've been regenerated, you're not comfortable with sinning against God. You won't be. He won't let you be. because he's working to change that in your life, okay? Two, the true gospel. The true gospel will teach that Jesus is Savior. So back to our text, and the Pharisees and scribes murmured saying, this man receiveth sinners and eateth with them. So the people whom Jesus sought out, those whom he drew around him, were indeed the burdened, the bowed down, the disconsolate, the poor, the friendless, the helpless, the ignorant, the weary of that day. In a word, they were sinners. They were the very people that the self-righteous Pharisees looked down on. By the way, Those descriptive words that I just used describes every one of us. The scriptures, in fact, say this. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter six. 1 Corinthians chapter six. We're gonna read verses nine, 10, and 11. 1 Corinthians chapter six, verses nine, 10, and 11. This is a message that the world doesn't want to hear. This is a message, sadly, that some Christians don't want to share. It says, know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you, it says. But ye are washed. What's the difference there? Something's happened. All of us fit into that category at some point in our lives. There are those that stay in that situation who will never inherit the kingdom of God. There are some, though, that get changed by the regenerating power of God, by the wonderful work of His Holy Spirit. They're changed, verse 11, but you are washed but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified. There's that legal term again. In the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Jesus during his ministry on the earth loved to lavish upon such people as we've been talking about the fullness of his benevolent heart and to exert upon them the skill of his wonder-working power. As Jesus moved around the countryside preaching, and yes, healing, and yes, demonstrating his power as God, okay, that made an impact on people. People saw something there they'd never seen before. They saw demonstrated before them that amazing power of God to work in the lives of people, not just to heal them from a disease, but to heal them from the worst of diseases, the disease of sin. They saw in him the capacity to forgive sin and to change lives. Weary people from every walk of life reached out to his arms for shelter. The world's ignorant and despised clustered around his feet to be taught and blessed. Sinners of every character were attracted by his fame and reputation, and they pressed upon him from every side. Such were some of you. Such was I. As I began, as God opened my mind to understand who Christ is, I was drawn to Him. I was attracted to Him because I saw in Him, even though I may not have understood it very well, I still saw in Him a power to change who I was into who He wanted me to be. and who I could become. That was a difference maker for me. I would imagine it was a difference maker for you as well. This man received sinners was the name and the character by which he was known. And it was new, and it was very strange to these people to hear this. I dare say it's strange to people to hear it today. People who have been fed with the lies of Satan and this world and to thinking it's all about them. It's all about what makes them happy. That is not the gospel. It's about what makes God happy. And what makes God happy is to regenerate a people for his son. to step into a situation they could not change for themselves and change it, to give life where there was only death. That's what's pleasing to God. When this man received sinners was uttered by the lip of the proud and disdainful Pharisee, it was an insult of reproach and an expression of ridicule. But upon the poor and wretched outcast, the sons and daughters of sorrow, ignorance, and woe, it fell sweeter than the music of all the ages. It passed from lip to lip. It echoed from shore to shore. This man received sinners. It found its way into the abodes of misery and need. It penetrated the dungeon of the prisoner and the cell of the maniac. And it kindled an unearthly light in the solitary dwelling of the widow and the orphan, the unpitied and the friendless. Thus, It fulfilled prophecy. The prophecy that had predicted that Jesus would be the plant of renown whom Jehovah would raise up. Thousands came to Him, faint and weary and sad, and they sat down beneath His shadow. And thousands more since then have pressed to their wounded hearts the balm of the blood that He shed on the cross for their salvation, and they have been healed. Back to that Super Bowl ad for a moment. So the more I considered it, the more troubled I was about it. And later that week, I stumbled upon another ad that someone had released for free on the internet. In response, this ad shows a former witch, a former drug addict, a former drag queen and prostitute, a former transgender person. Note how I keep saying former, because in this ad, these people were obviously changed. The transgender is probably the most visible and recognizable in that they weren't dressed as a transgender. They were the gender that God made them to be. And they were happy, and you could see it. So it mentions, it shows person after person after person, similar to what the other ad had done. And then the closing is this. Jesus doesn't just get us. He saves us. Amen, He saves us. Luke 19 10, for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. This man receives sinners. Are you a sinner? Then do what the sinners in the text did. Take your guilt to His blood. Take your vileness to His righteousness. Take your sins to His grace. Take your burdens to His arm. Take your sorrows to His heart. Romans 1.16 says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God unto salvation. To everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, it is the power of God unto salvation. It doesn't stop with he gets us. It continues through with he saves us. He changes us, He transforms us. And someday we're gonna be given that glorified body and we're gonna spend all the rest of eternity with Him in His presence, no more sin. And we're gonna glory in the presence of God. All because of what Jesus does for us. So wherever you are, Whatever sin you are in, go to Jesus. Be transformed by His love, His mercy, and His grace. This man received sinners as he received you. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we come into your presence amazed at what Jesus has done for us and for our sins. Amazed that he loved us enough to die the cruel death of the cross. to shed his blood that our sins might be atoned for. And then he rose again to give to us evidence and assurance that we too could have eternal life. What an amazing thing that is. And oh Lord, we come to you thankful that you don't just get us, you save us. You save us. And we cannot give You enough praise to bring the warranted adoration that we should to You for that. I just pray every person here this morning knows that Jesus has received them, and then that they too receive Christ through faith and repentance, that they follow Christ in baptism, that they unite with the church, and that they grow in grace every day of their lives. Lord, we love you and we praise you, and we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.