Open your Bibles, if you will, to Mark chapter two. Today we study verses 13 to 17. Mark chapter two, beginning at verse 13. Listen now to God's holy, inerrant, and life-giving word. Mark writes, he, that is Jesus, went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. And as 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, for 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. May God be praised through the reading and hearing of his holy word. Amen. Father in heaven, we now pray you would bless us as we study this remarkable passage. and that we would see Jesus as he is, that we would know ourselves as those who need to be forgiven. And there he is, your own son, how full of grace he is. We give you blessing in his name, amen. Now my calendar typically has a red circle on the date, April 15th. And it is not there for a birthday. Oh, I pity you if your birthday is April 15th in America. It's not an anniversary. It's not a happy day at all. It's the day that my tax paperwork has to be filled in and my hard-earned money has to be handed over to a government that does not ask my permission to spend it. And it's not a tax day, it's not a happy day for any of us. And yet how much more severe it was in the ancient world under the Roman Empire when essentially every day was tax day. That way in ancient Judea, you did not fill out a bureaucratic forms on a certain day of the year. No, you were preyed upon on an almost daily basis by malicious tax collectors. who took your money often at force. Well, the Roman government in Jesus' time imposed two types of taxes on their subject peoples. The first kind was administered by the Romans themselves, and it generally occurred on a certain day of the year. There was a tax day, and that was for the poll tax, and that was for the property tax, and the Romans did that directly. But generally speaking, when we hear about taxes in the Gospels and tax collectors, it's the other kinds of taxes that are due, namely the custom taxes on goods and the transportation of goods, in which case the rate could be as high as 20%. Now the way this worked was the Roman government contracted out to tax collectors, it would be a regional tax collector, he would hire his tax collectors and they had an agreement that they would provide, they committed that they were going to provide X amount of money from the goods. And so there you were in Capernaum where Jesus is ministering and There's a main highway there. It's a trade route. And they're the tax collectors. They're stopping the carts and they're inspecting your goods. And 20 percent of it goes to Caesar. In fact, they were so malicious that they were known to even tax. There's writings of them taxing the number of spokes on your wheels. And so, you know, you had 22, 24 spokes on those wheels. It's a shekel each or something like that. And they would impose it upon them. And so it would be all kinds of trade groups, one of which was fish. And so Capernaum, a fishing town along that great ancient fishery, we've talked before about how it was really one of the great fisheries of the ancient world, there was a tax station. And clearly this is the kind of tax collector that Levi, the son of Alphaeus is, because we meet him while Jesus, verse 13, was teaching beside the sea. Now, I suppose in any society there are people who are deemed lesser or greater sinners. And among the Jews of the first century A.D., at the very bottom was the tax collectors. They were the worst. And that's for a number of reasons. One was their violence, their extortion, their greed. They contracted a certain amount of money for the Romans. They got to keep the rest. Imagine if the tax collector you had to deal with, he got to keep, if he could only get you to give more than you deserve, which they are able to do, then he would keep it himself. It was fraught with corruption and violence. But what was even worse is they were collaborators with a hated enemy. The Jewish people are under the occupation of the pagan Roman army, and these are Jewish men who are collaborating with the Romans to fleece their own people. They were the lowest of the low. Kent Hughes says they were not only hated for their extortion, but also because they were the lackeys of the Romans, much like the French hated the Nazi collaborators during World War II. And because of this, Jewish records of the time show that a tax collector was forbidden to provide a witness in a courtroom. They were excommunicated from the synagogue. And moreover, in the eyes of the community, the disgrace of tax collectors extended to the whole of their family. So if your family had a person who was a tax collector, you were all placed in disgrace. Now it's against this backdrop that Mark is going to make his point in the gospel of Jesus. Because Jesus is going to come up to a tax collector, namely Levi, the son of Alphaeus, and he's going to call him to be a disciple. And he does this to highlight, as it's already been highlighted, that forgiveness of sins is the reason that Jesus came. This is a great example that Jesus came to save sinners. And this is a source of controversy that begins now and will grow all the way until his crucifixion between Jesus and the legalistic religious authorities, the scribes and the Pharisees. It was bad enough in the previous passage. that he spoke of forgiving sin, but now Jesus is actually forgiving sinners. Well, what was bad news, what was an outrage to the legalistic Pharisees is the best of good news to us. Mark brings this message that Christians celebrate in song. Jesus, what a friend for sinners. Jesus, lover of my soul. Well, first we have the calling of Levi, the tax collector, who we learn from in the Gospel of Matthew, we learn that it is the man who becomes the Apostle Matthew. Matthew 9, 9 tells of his own conversion. Here, it's the calling of Levi, the tax collector. And this shows both the forgiving grace of Jesus, but also his saving power. This is a sovereign act of Jesus by He calls the tax collector. And that sovereignty, I think, is only highlighted by the brevity of the text. Listen to verses 13 and 14. It's so brief, it's so direct. He went out again beside the sea and all the crowd was coming to Him. And He was teaching them. And as 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. Now, Mark has already noted that Jesus centered his meeting, his priority was on the preaching of God's word. And sure enough, we find him back in Capernaum. He's beside the Sea of Galilee, and he's preaching to a large crowd. And while this is going on, at one point, he comes upon one of the tax collectors who are taking a portion of the catches as the boats came in from the sea. And Jesus goes over to him, Levi, the son of Alphaeus. He says, follow me. Immediately, the hardened member of the worst class of sinners, verse 14, rose and followed Him. Well, Jesus' calling of Levi provides a classic example of what theologians refer to as the effectual call of Christ, the effectual call of the gospel. And there's a distinction made between the effectual call and the general call of the gospel. Of the general calls, what I do, what you do, as we witness the gospel, Jesus has us proclaim forgiveness in his name and through his blood to everyone who can hear us. It's a call sincerely inviting sinners generally to come to Jesus and be forgiven. And as they come, they will be forgiven. But there's a problem with the general call. Namely, it cannot succeed. It cannot succeed. Why? Because man in sin does not possess the ability, certainly not the inclination, but not the ability. Do you realize that the sinner in unbelief is not able to come to Jesus on his own? Jesus said in John 6, 44, no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him. And so man in his natural state, men and women, are not inclined to listen to the gospel. They are not willing, they are not able to believe and be saved. When Jesus speaks of the Father drawing them, now that's a reference to the effectual calling. And here's what happens. It happened in the case of Levi. The general call goes forth from Jesus, but then by the Holy Spirit and the power of God, he changes the sinner's heart, and he sovereignly makes the general call effectual, and the sinner rises in faith and salvation. This effectual calling occurs whenever a sinner comes to Jesus in saving faith. Consider this brief presentation of Levi. We've already pointed out that he is so hardened but sinner that he's willing to sell out his countrymen to their bitter enemies so that he can enrich himself with money. Moreover, in his case, he's actually doing it in Capernaum. While Jesus, he's actually doing his tax collecting and all the nefarious activities involved in the very city where Jesus has been turning the whole place upside down. Already Jesus has performed great miracles. He's preached with authority. He's cast out demons. Now we're told that all the crowds, the crowds of people, they were all going out to hear Him. Well, not all of them, because Levi the tax collector was not doing so. It's interesting, many of the commentators, some of them at least, make the comment that, you know, this conversion must have been at the end of a long process. He'd been thinking about it. He'd been feeling guilty about his sins. He'd been sort of listening to Jesus. By the way, that does happen sometimes, and God's sovereign when that happens. All that work in our hearts prior to coming to faith is God's sovereign work as well. And yet there's not a shred of evidence in this case that that's what was going on. In fact, the biblical language suggests that it was a radical conversion of a person who hadn't given any thought to it before. I say that because he's sitting at the tax collector's booth. You think of Psalm 1. The person who's seated and scoffing, he's seated in his sin. He is confirmed in his iniquity. He is a money grubber who could care less about Jesus and his healings and people being excited about forgiveness of sin. He was a hardened reprobate. He was settled in greed and malice. He's the kind of person that Paul describes. By the way, Paul is describing all persons outside of Christ. in unbelief when he says they are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the hardening of their heart. Now the point is, if Levi was going to be saved, only Jesus could save him. And Jesus would have to supply all the power in doing so. And that's the very thing that he does. Jesus offers forgiveness, but he does so in a way that that gospel invitation is made effectual by the power of the Holy Spirit. The sinner's heart is changed. You think of John Wesley, when he spoke of his own conversion, he said, my heart was strangely warmed. Oh, strangely indeed, supernaturally changed to believe in Jesus. Levi rose and followed him. Now briefly, there's a couple of things we should draw from the doctrine of effectual calling. It's one of the doctrines of grace, one of the biblical doctrines that emphasize the sovereignty of God and all of salvation. The Bible says that God chose certain persons to be saved. Jesus said to his disciples, you did not choose me, I chose you. Jesus went up to this tax collector and not others, because that was God's will. He had chosen this man, but then he He calls him in the grace of the Holy Spirit. He brings him to salvation. I think this is all proof of the great doctrine of Jonah in the belly of the whale. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is the work of God from beginning to end. We contribute only our sin, only our depravity, and he saves us by grace through faith. All the glory belongs to him. But you know, contrary to the way that many people think, if that's the case, if only God can make it effectual, what difference does it make to what we do? Well, the answer is that he uses our labors. He uses our witness. We do the general calling. And you go, look at someone like me. I've devoted my whole life to engage in a labor that cannot save anyone. I'm a professional general caller. And you're semi-professional general callers. And we know the general call can't work, yes, but it's the general call that Christ uses. And it's the preaching of the word, it's the witness of a Christian talking to a neighbor or a coworker that Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, he enters in. You see, as we look at the conversion of the Levi, we say there is no one who can't be saved. I think there are times when it seems to us that no one's gonna believe. It's incredible to believe that these people are going to repent and turn to Jesus Christ. But then Jesus said in John 10 verse 27, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. Notice the order of that. He has a people given to him in eternity past by the father and he knows them. And as the gospel goes forth, they are discovered to themselves and to us. What a thrill it is. to preach the gospel, to be a witness of the gospel. And my friends, if Levi the tax collector can be converted in this dramatic way, we despair of no one's salvation. No, not even yours. Oh, you hardened sinner. We will preach Jesus to you. Now for Levi himself, the account of verse 14 is not merely a theological matter, it is an intensely personal matter. He rose and followed him. This is one of those cases where I would dearly love to see the original manuscript on which the Apostle Matthew gave his rendering of this account because I think the text The Greek text actually written on by Matthew himself, it would probably be smudged where a teardrop had fallen on the text because it's his own conversion that he's relating and his thoughts surely would have gone to a distant place in a previous time. Jesus called me, he writes, I rose and followed him. That is a testimony of every sinner ever saved. Now, these words rose and followed highlight that when you're called to Jesus Christ and he changes your heart and you believe that a dramatic change has happened in your life and it sets a new trajectory for your life. He was following in the way of tax collectors and now he's going to follow in the way of Jesus, particularly in Mark's Gospel, Matthew, Mark, Luke. The primary idea of discipleship is you follow Jesus. And that's what he does. It's a new life. He's going to follow the Lord. It's a path that leads to increasing holiness. It leads to a deepening knowledge of God and his word. And it's a path that leads to our public witness so that others may hear, believe in Jesus, and also be forgiven of their sins. That's what we see in Levi's case. If you've been present when a baby was born, I've been there five times, my own five children, nobody else's children, my own children, I've been there five times. And what do you want to hear when the baby comes forth from the mother's womb? You want to hear the cry of new life, right? You want to hear those little youngs barking out. Everybody rejoices, oh, the baby's crying. All is well. Well, so it was with Levi the tax collector. What is the cry of new life? It's that desire for other people to see Jesus and to know that they too can be forgiven of their sins. Well, Levi's so excited that Jesus called him, here's how Luke records that same event, that he made a great feast at his house. And he invited to this feast a large company of tax collectors and others. You see, Levi's so grateful that Jesus called him to salvation that he wants to celebrate it. And he wants to be with Jesus. Jesus, would you come to my house? I'm gonna have a meal. And he wants his friends. Yes, those other tax collectors and sinners and gangsters and prostitutes, the whole bunch of his calling, he wants them to meet Jesus, that they too can be forgiven. And for their part, Jesus and his disciples, they were glad to attend. Mark tells us that they reclined at table. In fact, the same word is used both of Jesus and the tax collectors and sinners, that they were reclining. That's the idea of intimacy. He didn't just stop in and have a chicken wing and get out of the house as soon as he could. He's sitting there among, he's part of the fellowship. And this is what Jesus is doing. He is gladly fellowshipping among them with many tax collectors and sinners. Now, let me say that this event is sometimes taken today wrongly as endorsing the idea that for the sake of evangelists, we should join the party. If the world, if they're drunk in this, well, we'll be a little drunk ourselves. You know, we're doing evangelism. If we're committing sexual sin, well, we'll do that too. And nothing could be more mistaken. Let me put it this way. What we're seeing here is not a party for sinners to which Levi invited Jesus. It's a party for Jesus to which Levi invited sinners. And what a great difference that is. We can be sure that this feast is centered not on sinful indulgence, No, it's centered on Jesus. Jesus came, and I have the slightest doubt that he taught God's word, and he offered through himself the forgiveness of sins. Now, this term in verse 15 of sinners, he says, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. This term sinners actually has a specific meaning in Jesus' time. When we read the word sinners, we mean, yeah, you know, everybody. which is true, of course, but that's not what they meant. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law used this to describe someone, not who just happened to be violating God's law, but who was flagrantly disregarding their rules, their agenda for holiness, and in that way was violating the law of God. And so under the term sinners would be certainly tax collectors and other gross outlaws, prostitutes, people like that, but also common laborers. One writer puts it this way, people who were too busy, too poor, or too ignorant to live up to the rules of the religious authorities. And here we are, Jesus, he is freely and gladly associating with people like this, and it makes an important point to Christians. I think many of the people in Levi's house would not have been conscious of pursuing a lifestyle of sin. By the way, most people today, I think some are, but not many, are saying, why are you doing this? Well, I want to sin against God. I'm in rebellion against God. They are in rebellion against God, but in their own way of thinking, they're just living the way Americans live. They're just doing what the culture models for them, and they're not even thinking about God. Undoubtedly, that's the case of most of these people. And Jesus freely goes into their midst. He reclines at table with them. He takes a personal interest in them. He, no doubt, asks them questions, answers their questions. He explains his ministry of God's word. And if Jesus did that, so should we as well. I like how Daniel Aiken described Jesus. He says he embraces fellowship with the seemingly unlikely, the socially undesirable, and the spiritually unhealthy. These are all the people invited with a gracious offer of forgiveness from God's Son through faith in his gospel. I want to make this point particularly for those who are the sinners. Maybe you're the kind of person you feel looked down upon by those, you know, cleaned up religious type of people. Well, if that's you, then understand that Jesus offers the love of God to you. Not only is he willing to accept you if you will come, but he seeks you. The Son of God seeks for you to have fellowship with Him. Through faith in Him, Jesus wants you to be restored to the blessings of God. He wants you to be forgiven of your sins. And I suppose it's true that there are times when churches look down upon sinners in order we want them only to stay away. But Jesus' example teaches us to think and act differently. Now, we certainly are to be cleaned up from sinful habits and practices. But Christians are to love those who are caught up in an ungodly lifestyle. We want them to come to hear God's word. We want you, we want them to come to church. We want them to meet Jesus so that he can save them. Kent Hughes tells an illustration that gives a sad example. He tells of a poor woman in 19th century England who attended a church women's meeting and she was living at the time with a man out of wedlock and she brought to the church meeting her mixed race child who she'd had illegitimately. And she went to the meeting and she was touched by the teaching of God's word and the prayers really spoke to her heart until the pastor came up afterwards and asked her never to attend again. Well, the problem was the other women said that they would not return if a woman like that was allowed to be there. Well, the woman asked the pastor, she said, Sir, I know that I'm a sinner, but isn't there anywhere a sinner can go? If you feel that way, rightly or wrongly, but if you feel that way, the answer is yes, the sinner can go to Jesus, can come to Jesus Christ. And for this reason, sinners should be able to come to our church and feel a welcome of love. And they may stand out. They may look differently. They may have some circumstances that are different than Christian circumstances, but they should feel loved. They should feel a welcome. They should feel and embrace. A friend of mine recently spoke about a fairly long trip to France. And he said, at no time in France did I feel like I was French. And there's nothing wrong if people come to our church and go, there's something different between me and these Christian people. It's actually a good thing. He said, but my hosts made me feel welcome. And I was an American in France, but I was a welcome one. And that made all the difference. It's nothing wrong. We shouldn't make the church secular so that they feel that there's no distance. No, it is true. People who are awash in ungodly lifestyles, it's not wrong for them to come to church and go, well, this is a different place. But but I feel loved and welcomed. What a difference that will make. And that is our calling in Jesus Christ. Well, Jesus' example at Levi's banquet gives a great example for our attitude and actions as a church. But Levi himself is a sterling example of what we tend to call friendship evangelism. Oh, how valuable friendship evangelism is. Most Christians today, when they're asked, how did you come to Jesus? That story is going to start with a friend. I had a friend. I had a family member. They talked to me. They witnessed to me. They prayed for me. They invited me to church. And tax collector though he is, Levi opens up his home once he's converted and he reaches out in his existing relationships. I think we can imagine Levi saying to a fellow tax collector, I want you to meet Jesus. And then he says to Jesus, Lord, here's a tax collector. He's a friend of mine. And that's what we call evangelism. We introduce people to Jesus. We do that by telling them what the Bible says about Jesus, who he is. He's the son of the living God. What did he do? He came into the world, dying on the cross, shedding his own blood so that sinners can be forgiven. We introduce people. There's nothing better we can do for anyone than to tell them that good news. But then we introduce them to Jesus. How do we do that? In prayer. Lord, I want to talk to you today about my new neighbor. When I've got a family member, when I've got a colleague at work, oh, would you take an interest in him? Would you savingly move into her life? Would you encourage me? Would you embolden me to actually give that witness I'm supposed to be giving? And Lord, would you do what only you can do? Would you save the sinner? Well, it's the cry of new life when Levi the tax collector opens up his home and he tells people about Jesus. It shows that he really was saved. Well, if the point of Jesus' desire to forgive sinners has not been made clearly enough, it's been made very clearly. When Jesus goes to a tax collector of all people and makes him a disciple, that shows that Jesus came to forgive sinners. And then when he goes to a party, a banquet held for sinners like tax collectors and other people, that shows that he came to forgive sinners. But if it has not yet been made clearly enough, it is really made when he responds to the criticism of the Pharisees that comes afterwards. Now, we've already met the scribes, but now the Pharisees come into Mark's gospel and they are going to criticize Jesus. Pharisees were considered the spiritual elite of their day. No one wants to be called a Pharisee today, but back then you wanted to be a Pharisee. They were the most rigorous and most observant of all the Jews. They were the spiritual elite. And so zealous were the Pharisees to keep every commandment in Scripture that they erected their own rules. We call it fencing the law. Here's God's commands, but we're going to add our rules. Why? To make sure you don't break the law of God. A couple of problems with that. One was they believed, ultimately, that by keeping rules that they themselves had met, that they were righteous before God, when in fact they were sinners like everyone else. And Jesus would, we will see in the gospel, Jesus will condemn them strongly for that, and also for laying burdens on the backs of people. Now, the idea of the Pharisees was that holiness comes through separation. You ever heard that before? In fact, the name Pharisee comes from a Hebrew word, the root of which is separate. And the key to their doctrine was you separate yourself from sinners, people who aren't involved in our program. We have rules, we have demands, and if you're not doing that, Well, we should separate from you. And this is their criticism in verse 16. And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners? I don't think there's much doubt that Jesus is deliberately provoking the Pharisees by taking no less than a tax collector into his circle of disciples. And the Pharisees and scribes, they were determined to see sinners rejected. And Jesus wants to make the point that he is determined to see sinners redeemed. Oh, what a difference there is. They want sinners rejected. He wants sinners redeemed. And that is why he came. What did the angel Gabriel say to his father when he was born? You shall call his name Jesus, for he will deliver his people from their sins. Why did the Son of God come from heaven to earth? Not to condemn the earth. The earth was already condemned. But John 3.17 says, God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world through him might be saved. And so I think we can imagine these legal experts, and they're looking down the street, and they're looking across the street, and Jesus is in there. The whole place is filled with tax collectors and sinners, and there's Jesus why he's reclining at table with them. He's in flagrant violation of their agenda. Who did he think he was? Well, that's the very question that Jesus wanted to answer. He thinks that he is the Savior, the Son of God, sent to be the Savior of sinners through his blood. My friends, this is the good news of Jesus Christ. God has sent his son to gather sinners to himself, that through faith in him, they would be forgiven by the blood that he shed on the cross. Well, Jesus gives his answer in verse 17. This is his self-understanding. Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. And those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Now here's the difference. The Pharisees thought of themselves as judges. They probably thought of themselves as teachers and lighteners, but then they judge the people. Well, Jesus saw himself as a healer offering the remedy for the contagion and the curse of sin through his gospel. And he points out a doctor who would not meet the sick would be worthless. And so as our faithful Redeemer, Jesus sought out the company of tax collectors and sinners so that by drawing them to faith, he might save them from the righteous wrath of God. Sinclair Ferguson describes that response by Jesus as simple, brilliant, and devastating. And the devastating part is what follows in verse 17. He says, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. Now that's devastating to the Pharisees attitude about him because that just condemns him. With his own words, as they will say in his trial, with his own words, he condemns himself. He's contaminating himself because he's with sinners. But it was devastating as well of their own false righteousness. And they thought that they were righteous before God by avoiding contact with all sinners. And Jesus says, well, the one thing that you cannot have, if you present yourself falsely as righteous, you cannot have the forgiveness I have come to give. In the eyes of the scribes and the Pharisees, it was a scandal for Jesus to have to fellowship with tax collectors and sinners. But you see, in Jesus' eyes, the scandal was that they thought that they were righteous. That was a scandal. That by keeping their own petty rules, they believed that they were righteous. And this is why one of the most important verses in the whole of the New Testament is Romans 3, 23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We must understand that we are all sinners. And so when Jesus says, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners, that's his understanding. As Romans three says, there is no one righteous. No, not one. So by demanding that all sinners be rejected, the Pharisees were only condemning themselves before God. And they were like many religious people today who they invent rules and the rules are well-meaning. They're not going to go to movies because we know movies have bad things in it. They're not going to go into a restaurant that serves alcohol because everybody knows that alcohol can lead to bad things. So they're going to build rules around it. But the problem is they believe they are righteous because they are keeping the rules that they themselves invented. They were rules designed to be able for them to keep. But the problem is they need to remember that they are sinners and they stand before a holy God. If you will not come to Jesus as a sinner, then you must come before God and stand before His judgment and you will not stand because the standard is not your petty rules. However well intended, it's His perfect righteousness. You will stand, dare I say, for many people who are like these Pharisees, observing their laws, their very attitude condemns them because of the contempt they show for others. Jesus says that is like murdering them in their hearts. Now, the point is this, that our whole attitude toward Jesus is going to be determined by whether or not we confess and realize that we ourselves are sinners. We greatly need the Savior. My number one need is to be forgiven my sins. And it's the truth. And when I see that truth, oh, the last thing I'll do is revile the one who came to forgive my sins. But I will love him, and I will race towards him, and I will celebrate the greatest of good news. But my friends, if you think, because you live differently from ungodly people today, which is not very hard to do given the standards of our culture. And you think because you're not doing all the things you're reading about in the news that you are righteous before God. Well, you will have no part of Jesus because he is the friend of sinners. Let me make this very personal. If you are not ready to confess yourself a guilty sinner before God, then Christ and his gospel are of no benefit to you. If you desire not God's mercy, but God's justice, that justice will condemn you. Be holy as I am holy, and you are not holy as God is holy. Let me put it this way, the gospel key fits only that door on which the words of another tax collector in Luke's gospel are written, God have mercy on me, the sinner. That's the door inscribed, Lord have mercy on me. That door, the gospel key clicks and it opens the door to forgiveness and eternal life. And you should come like those at Levi's gospel party. Come just as you are. Don't be afraid to come stay from Jesus because you say that you're a sinner and nobody wants you. He's the savior of sinners. Your sense of shame and unworthiness should not keep you from Him. Come as you are to Jesus and He will save you. Well, God sent Jesus to be the answer to the problem of sin. And God displays his mercy in Christ by gathering sinners who are redeemed through his blood. And we have it on the authority of God's word that there is, this is Luke 15, seven, there is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. Well, there should be joy in the church as well when today's tax collectors when the drug dealers, when the gang members, when the abortion activists, when the transgender advocates When they come to hear the gospel, we rejoice. And when they believe in Jesus, they will be forgiven and they will be saved and they will follow him. Well, let me conclude with a question and an application. This is such a vitally important passage. I want to ask a question and then give an application. And the question is this, does Jesus answer to the Pharisees? I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. My people are sinners, not the righteous." Does that mean that Jesus is light on sin? Does that mean that Jesus is not hung up on sin? That's the way people talk. That it's not a big deal, what matters is the gospel, and sin's not a big issue. And if Jesus has that attitude, should we have the same attitude? Stop being hung up. about sin and don't talk about the evils of our generation and don't worry if you find yourself breaking God's law. All that matters is the gospel. Let me say this, there's not a shred of evidence in the New Testament that says Jesus took sin lightly. And there's not a shred of evidence in the New Testament that for the sake of the gospel we should take sin lightly. Jesus did not take sin lightly. He came and the Son of God died. So great is the problem of sin that only His blood could solve it. And Jesus calls the unrighteous not only to be forgiven from the guilt of sin, but also to be delivered from the power of sin. There are no instances in the Bible of Jesus endorsing sinful actions, treating sin as any less devastating than the whole Bible says that sin is. And so likewise, for Christians to love sinners and to invite them into our church and into our fellowship so that they will meet Jesus, it does not mean that Christians are to take a permissive attitude towards sin, and it is not gospel-minded to do so. Gospel-mindedness does not mean it's legalistic if we try to obey the Bible. It's not legalistic to raise our children, to live carefully, because they live in a world that's surrounded with spiritual and moral minefields. They need to be trained in godliness. My friends, that is not at all opposed to gospel-mindedness. It is the very thing to which and for which we are saved. You know the old expression, Jesus loved the sinner, but he hates the sin. And we too should hate the sin even while we love the sinner. Let me give an example. We know that Jesus embraced many people who were involved in sexual sin. Many times we'll run into a good number of prostitutes who are called to Jesus and other sexual sinners. And that means that we need to be willing to reach out and lovingly embrace people who have spoiled their lives in this sexually permissive and indulgent generation. And at the same time, we are commanded in the New Testament, let me quote Ephesians 5.3, that sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you as is proper among the saints. So on the one hand, we're told we're to love the sexually immoral, the fornicators, the adulterers, I mean, it's everything in our society today. And at the same time, we're not even to be tainted with it. That's exactly right. Moreover, we do have obligations as citizens, as community members. Sometimes we do have to speak out against the debaucheries that are running rampant in our society. And I do think of homosexual marriage and transgenderism today. Christians have a loving duty. We're not loving people if we don't say this is wicked and we love the sinner, but the sin is wrong and we're going to call it wrong. And yet we must make the point clearly that we do love the sinner. If we feel a duty that requires us to speak out against sin, and I think we do have that duty, we also must be moved by mercy to reach out to the people who are caught in the sin and to do so with loving grace. It's not always easy to maintain, but we have the Holy Spirit, we are to do both. We are to hate sin and we are to love sinners. Same principle holds for alcohol abuse and drug abuse. I hope you realize the scripture forbids us, Ephesians 5.18, from drunkenness and other substance abuse. Don't be high that way. It says be filled with the Holy Spirit. And yet you may have a new neighbor, and you may realize, my new neighbor likes to get a little drunk. I've got a colleague at work, and she seems to get high a fair amount. What should we do? Well, this example says we should invite them over. Or when they invite us over, we should come. And when we get there, we should lead gracious, holy lives, and we should tell them about Jesus. That's what we are called to do. We're to introduce them to that saving and cleansing power that God extends to sinners through His Son. That's all my question with its answer. Well the Pharisees concluded that Jesus was tainted by sin because he reclined with tax collectors and sinners. How wrong they were. You see the same Jesus who could touch the leper and he wasn't made unclean. The leper was cleansed. The same Jesus can fellowship with tax collectors and prostitutes without contagion because He is holy. It is His holiness that enables His evangelism. And that's the application, that we are to be holy as His followers. And our holiness will enable evangelism. And yet I want to say, I'll close with this, but I want to put it this way. We are commanded the holiness, but let it be the holiness not of the Pharisee, but of the physician. Why does a physician scrub up before he goes in the operating room? Because he doesn't want to do any harm. He wants to bless, he wants them to be healed. And I do hope that your desire to witness the gospel says, I need to get after my sanctification. I need to be a more gracious person. I need to be a more godly person so that they won't be distracted by my sin. That's the kind of holiness we want. We want to bring healing to our patients. And so let our holiness be like Jesus, the great physician. Let God's people, let us turn from sin, both in our hearts and with our hands, because we've been called out of darkness into light, because we're the people of God. Paul says, you do not belong to yourself anymore. You've been bought with a price. Honor God with your body. And we want our loving Heavenly Father to be pleased with how we live. But let our holiness be like that of Jesus. The Sinclair Ferguson says that Christ-like holiness is not contaminated by eating with sinners. Rather, it seeks to make them whole and holy too. And so as God gives us grace to lead more and more holy lives, let us never forget, let us never forget that we are at best sinners saved by grace through the blood of Jesus. And let us never stop seeking that sinners would learn of him, that they would be forgiven. because we are the ones like Levi who are called to introduce them to the friend of sinners and to urge them to believe in Jesus because if they do, they will be saved. Father, we thank you for this time together in your word. We thank you for this remarkable passage. And we pray, Lord, that we would think about it. In what ways are we like the Pharisees, Lord? And in what ways should we be more like the converted Levi? And so, Father, I pray that we would think about our friends, and that we would think about Jesus, that we would want him to be exalted. You, our Father, to be glorified by your grace, because even through us, sinners learn that there is a Savior. Oh, we pray for this in Jesus' name, amen.