Christ's Call for Sinners — Al Martin

Will you turn with me, please, to the Gospel according to Luke, Luke's Gospel, chapter 5. And I shall begin the reading at verse 27 and read through verse 32. Luke chapter 5 and verse 27. Speaking of our Lord Jesus, Luke writes,.

And after these things he went forth and beheld a publican, or tax collector, named Levi, sitting at the place of Toll, and said unto him, Follow me. And he forsook all, and rose up, and followed him.

And Levi made him, that is, Jesus, a great feast in his house. And there was a great multitude of tax collectors and of others that were reclining at table with them. And the Pharisees and their scribes murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?

Christ’s Call to Sinners

And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are in health have no need of a doctor, but they that are sick. I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Tonight marks the third message in a brief series that I have entitled Simple Signposts to the Celestial City.

In John Bunyan's immortal work, Pilgrim's Progress, he uses the phrase the Celestial City as a synonym for heaven, that place of eternal blessedness and glory where the Scriptures tell us God will dwell in his immediate manifest presence with all of his children forever and forever.

The Celestial City is the place where there will be no more crying, no more sorrow, no more tears, no more death. And taking John Bunyan's terminology for heaven, namely the Celestial City, we are considering some simple signposts to the Celestial City.

Now I am conscious that in a real sense the whole of the Bible is one massive signpost to the Celestial City. For the Apostle Paul could say to Timothy in his second letter in chapter 3, Timothy, from a babe you have known the saints, which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.

The Bible, the Bible with recidness, for certain to that our attention upon the third of these simple signposts to the Celestial City. I am not saying that. The teaching of Jesus Himself in particular, saying that there are some people who are natively, inherently, naturally righteous, and therefore fit for heaven, is the teaching of the Bible in general.

The Universal Guilt of Sinners

In Romans 5 and verse 12, the Apostle Paul writing by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit concerning God's saving work in Jesus Christ, tells us, Romans 5, verse 12,. Therefore through one man entered into the world, and through the one man, our Lord is giving a lesson on prayer, into God's family, some men and women, boys and girls, who are inherently, natively, who can make themselves righteous, who are described as worthy, official religious leaders of our Lord's day.

And one of the marks shown upon them, you were dazzled with their brilliance. Month after month, you never wash the inside, and it's all filled with layers of dryness, and who knows what else that turns your stomach.

Jesus said, that's what you Pharisees are like. You see, it was that crowd that was disturbed, the Jesus of notorious sinners. It was in that setting that He said, I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners like the Pharisees, who in their own eyes, these to the 18th chapter of Luke, for this graphic picture of the mindset of a Pharisee.

Luke chapter 18 and verse 9. This parable unto certain, now notice, who trusted in themselves, while others did not. Here were people who trusted, they were righteous. This is going to expose the foolishness of such notions.

Two men went up into the temple to pray. The one, a Pharisee. The other, a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank You. That's a good start, to start with thanks. But that's about the only good thing in his prayer.

I thank You. Not that You have forgiven me, a hell deserving sinner. But he says, I thank You, that I am not as the rest of them. He's saying, God, I thank You, I'm not a sinner. Thank You, I'm not as the rest of men.

Then he goes on to tell God what he's done. If there's anything lacking in what he is, in and of himself, he says, I make it up by what I do. I fast twice in the week. Standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast saying, God, be merciful, be propitious.

Turn away your wrath from me. Not a sinner. In the original, there's the definite article. Turn away your wrath from me. Jesus says, I say unto you, this man went down to his house justified. He went down to his house with his sins forgiven.

Experiencing Conviction of Sin

Had no heart, knowledge, and felt experience of his true condition as a sinner before God. And Jesus said, I did not, this simple signpost, personal questions, men, women, boys, and girls, by means of the gradual impartation of biblical knowledge in a Christian home, whereas you learn the law of God and the ways of God and were carried to the house of God and heard the truth of God, your conscience began to feel the light of the word and the law, and you became, perhaps at a very early age, conscious.

Because mommy and daddy won't let me cuss and tell dirty jokes and talk back and smart mouth the neighbors and run across the neighbor's lawn and stick my tongue out at them if they dare to say anything to me.

Everybody thinks I'm a nice little guy, a nice little gal. But I know that in my heart, I've got a heart that's full of lies, that's full of deceit, and full of pride, and full of stubbornness. Maybe God brought you to know and feel yourself to be a sinner in a gradual way through the combined influence of a Christian home and a gospel-preaching, Bible-preaching church that, like this parish, and to get you to think about heaven and hell and am I ready to meet a holy God.

And maybe through a radio broadcast, through a tape, through someone handing you a book that is the light of a noonday sun, through clouds, and is not sitting under the gospel or a sudden and unusual intervention of God.

My question is this, my friend. Have you been brought to know and have you been made alive who were doused with His own blood? Tell people they are sinners. That's very damaging to their self-esteem.

To me, the day of judgment will be very damaging to self-esteem. When Almighty God told the whole moral universe that they are infinitely worthy of hell and says, depart from Me, you cursing fire. That's eternal.

Have my deceptive self-esteem bruised by holy ghost conviction now. Then have it eternally shattered in the day of judgment. But shattered it will be now by holy spirit conviction. Or then, if you can strut about, that He would by His Word show you that in Timothy 1 .15 this is a faithful saying and worthy of all to the world.

Christ Alone Saves Sinners

On this simple signpost, not only does it tell us that only those who know and feel their true condition as sinners will ever be saved by Jesus Christ, but it does not remind you of the words, I am come.

It happened in Mary's womb. None of us would dare say, I am come. ...into this world. We would say, I was born on such and such a date. And as I grew up and as I listened to the counsel of others and sought to know my own capacities, I chose such and such a calling in life.

But only if we are demented or under a demonic spirit of cursed dare say, I... ...those words through the Scriptures you find at times Jesus adds these words to them. I am come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will.

I am come down from heaven. Bound up in these words is His coming. In John 1 .1, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God. In the beginning with God, this Word became... ...never ceasing to be what He had always been.

I am come contains the mystery of what happened in Mary's womb when by the power of the Holy Spirit, the second person of the Godhead took to Himself a true human soul and body. Normal nine-month development as it is described in Galatians 4.

In the Gospel narrative, it tells us that when her time to bring forth the Child involves the One who is as much God as though He were never man. As much a man as though He were never God. United in the one person.

...in the one person. ...happened in Mary's womb of the marvelous realities of that life that was so human, so vulnerable. Scripture says He was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. He could look His most bitter enemies in the eye and said, which one of you can convict me of sin?

I do all am come. And in those words is the mystery of what happened in Mary's womb the wonder and the marvel of that holy life. The wonder and the marvel of that amazement. ...of the death. He raised the dead with one Word.

...came forth. Death itself could not stand. ...omnipotent voice of power. I am come. ...all the validation of my identity. I am come to the uniqueness. I did not come to be ministered unto, but to minister and.

...2028. My life. ...from John 12. I, Jesus said, is the good shepherd. Lay down my life for the sheep. I have power to lay it down. I have power to take it again. No one takes it from me. I lay it down.

...into these words. I is the great truth on our signpost that Jesus Christ Himself and Jesus Christ alone can save sinners. ...Christ in all the uniqueness of His person as the God-man. Jesus Christ in all the wonder and marvel of the validation of His identity as God's Messiah.

Jesus Christ in the perfection of His work of a perfect life, a sin-bearing, sin-atoning death, a glorious, triumphant resurrection. ...when Joseph was scratching his head and if he had a beard, stroking his beard, wondering what to do.

Mary, the woman to whom he was engaged, was pregnant. Wondering what course of action he should take according to the ancient law of Moses. An angel appeared to him as recorded in Matthew 1 .21 and said, Fear not to take unto you, Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit and she shall bring forth a son and thou shalt call His name Jesus.

...people could language be plainer. The angel said, Joseph, she's not pregnant. I am not come to call. ...on this simple signpost, let me ask you again. ...beside his dad in a carpenter's shop. As we read this morning, to be saved.

...think he was out of his tree. For on one occasion he was so... ...to others that he was skipping his normal mealtimes... ...and go further. Behold the Son of God in the garden of Gethsemane. The Father holding up the cup.

...live like the devil and die and go to hell. There's not something more to all of this than just going to church and going through rituals and forms and ceremonies. ...was real in... ...upon Golgotha...

...any other... ...we must... ...no more narrow than Christ Himself. We considered His words in the first signpost to the celestial city. I am the way. Not one of many ways. ...neither is there salvation in any other.

He was merely echoing the words of His Savior. My friend, we stand by a simple signpost to the celestial city. It's made up of these words of Jesus. I am not come to call the righteous. Only those who know and... ...will ever be saved by Jesus Christ.

Repentance as the Divine Remedy

Assertion number two. Jesus Christ Himself and Jesus Christ alone can save sinners from their sins. Thirdly and finally, on that signpost, there is another assertion and it's this. Jesus Christ saves sinners by calling them to repentance.

I am not come to... ...they that are healthy have no need of a doctor, but they that are sick. What is the divine medicine for sin? Jesus says, It is my calling them to repentance. The divine remedy...

He does not save sinners by making them into Pharisees. That is, by stroking people and telling, you're ok, I'm ok, everybody's ok, feel good about yourself. My friends, listen. This feel good about yourself religion that is being propagated in every level of our society is a damning lie.

Until you feel so bad about yourself, it's not making up a story. It's just facing reality. That's all it is. And Jesus Christ saves sinners by calling them to repentance, not by making them into Pharisees who feel good about themselves and preen themselves and say, Thank you God, I'm not like other men.

And if there's any deficiency in what I am, then Lord, look at what I do. I've been baptized. I've joined the church. I take the sacrament. My friends, don't insult God with such trinkets. He's not impressed.

Remember, this is the God who punished His Son upon the cross. What do you think? You're holding up your little report card of how many wafers you took and how many times you went to communion and how many times you went to Sunday school.

What does that mean in the face of a God who poured out His wrath upon His Son upon the cross? Don't insult God by throwing your little cheek trinkets when He purchased sinners at the price of the blood of His own Son.

Don't try to impress God with your trinkets. The way Jesus Christ saves sinners is by calling them to repentance! Not making them into Pharisees. Not making them into intellectual adherents who will subscribe to the tenets of the Christian faith intellectually.

No. And not by causing them to just go through a ritual of decision. Raise a hand. Pray a prayer. I'm alright forever. My friend, more people are going to hell out of decision rooms than probably any other place other than bar rooms and whore houses.

They go straight to hell out of decision rooms where they pray a little prayer that they parrot, that someone puts in their mouth and then they get absolution. You prayed the prayer? Yes. You were sincere?

Now somebody's going to say, no, I was faking it. Of course they're going to say I'm sincere. Then they pat him on the back and say, well now, if you meant it, you're saved. Don't ever doubt it. You're fixed up.

And they don't know a thing about repentance. They don't know a thing about this medicine that Jesus gives to sick sinners. What is this thing to which Jesus calls men? And in calling them to it, saves them.

I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners. Well, the best uninspired definition of repentance I've ever come across is in the Westminster Shorter Catechism. What is repentance unto life? The answer is this.

Repentance unto life is a saving grace whereby a sinner out of a true sense of his sin and apprehension is the old English word we would say a laying hold of the mercy of God in Christ does with grief and hatred of his sin unto God with a full purpose and endeavor after new.

The Marks of True Repentance

Number one, it is never experienced except you have a true sense of your sin. That's why this signpost says those who know and feel their sins and will with regard to their sins and with regard to the Savior, repentance unto life is a saving grace whereby a sinner out of a true sense of his sin and apprehension a laying hold of the mercy of God in Christ in other words, there's no true repentance if you only see God as a God of wrath and of judgment who will punish them from Him and cry as they will cry in the day of judgment for the rocks and the mountains to fall upon you and to hide you from the face of Him that sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.

God in pure justice sits outside of Christ and the Bible says our God is a consuming fire. It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. But when I see that that living God who is a consuming fire so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son and I see that in the Lord Jesus a full atonement has been made for the sins of all and any who will come unto God.

There's not the slightest evil thought. There is not the fervent, envious, dishonest, lustful. And in true repentance there is not only that sight and sight. Do I now treat my sin? Listen to the definition.

He does. That's a vital element of repentance. Acts 20 -21 falls as I preach repentance towards God. Isaiah the prophet said, Seek ye the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake His way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return.

He will have mercy upon Him and to our God for He will abundantly pardon. Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 1 -9 they themselves report of us what entering in we had unto you how you turned unto God living in the true God and to wait for His Son out of the heavens.

Dear people, repentance involves not only owning my sinnerhood and seeking to cast myself upon the earth but it involves turning from my sin turning from the disposition to be my own God and do my own thing and run my life by my own standards live by my own rules.

I turn from my sin with full and endeavor brought the message of life and salvation to me and inclined my heart to embrace that message. What can I do in the face of such mercy but I give myself away.

Tis all that I have. I want to speak a word especially to you dear young people. Some of you that I have to call young men and women now and it seems but just a few months ago though it's been years when you were part of the crowd that lined up and had to get your smooch and jumped up and straddled me and hugged me.

Examining the Faith of Young People

All too quickly you've become young men young women. I want to speak to you especially at this point. You know what will be one of the surest to know and believe because mom and dad have told me what's my faith?

What's just like the clothes in my car? You go through that struggle don't you? Am I saved or am I not? Cut through all of that and ask yourself this question. Do I see in God revealed in Christ through the undivided love of my unrivaled and is it my deed that you're saved?

Irritated with what you know of God because you find he wants to stick his nose into everything. Enough when you were small and mom and dad told you God didn't want you to tell lies and didn't want you to kick your sister and poke your brother in the eye and God didn't want you to cheat at school.

Then you began to get older and began to feel your hormones and your hemones stirring throughout all of your humanity and then they began to tell you you didn't have the right to use your sexual appetites as you chose.

They had to be reined in and harnessed. God tells me I can't do what the other kids do and I can't be where the other kids are and now I'm told I can't brag about making it for the first time. I can't brag about being deflowered and get together with the gals in the locker room and talk about how the guys made it with them.

And down underneath you resent. That's a mark. You're as lost as the devil. You can give the Bible, books of the Bible, Genesis to Revelation. Touches you in your sexual appetites. Touches you in your social relationships.

Touches you in your relationship to mom and dad. You're lost as the devil. I don't care how much you know and what you profess. But if you can honestly say kids I love the God I've come to know at my mom and dad's feet and in this church and in my Sunday school class I see that God is worthy of a thousand energies more than I have to give Him.

I see Him worthy if I had a thousand hands to serve. I see Him as worthy of all of that in the light of what He's done in sending His Son to die for a hell deserving sinner like me. Young person, if that is the honest disposition of your heart to God, you're a Christian.

You've come to repent in the medicine. If I go to bed one night with a fever and a sore throat, take some antibiotic and wake up the next morning and feel good, I'm not going to say I won't believe I'm feeling good unless I know at the precise hour the antibiotics kicked in and killed the little bad guys in my system and the good guys are in.

I just know I feel better. Say thank you Lord for blessing the medicine. Whether it kicked in at 2 o 'clock, 3 o 'clock, 11, I could care less. Sore throat's gone, feel good. That's all that matters. Dear young people, children, do you see what I'm saying to you?

This is one of the great stumbling blocks that kids brought up as you are. But can you say that the God Mom and Dad serve, the God of the Bible is the God you love and you want to serve Him with all your heart?

There is, you see, what the old catechism describes full purpose of an endeavor after new obedience. Christ has called you to repentance. And if He's called you, that disposition will not fade away. That disposition you won't relinquish for the face and for the body of a young woman that catches your fancy or a young man that is not godly, that is not a Christian, that you cannot court his or her interest with the approval of spiritually minded parents and elders and Christian friends.

No, no, no! You will not for the form of a woman or the face of a young man. And when career opportunities come, you won't sell your Savior for big bucks so you can drive big cars and have a big house and a big name and strut around like a big shot.

You'll say, for me to live is Christ. And nothing is worth selling my Savior for. That's the attitude of your heart. You're a Christian. You're a Christian! Christ has saved you by calling you to repentance.

Final Exhortation and Prayer for Conversion

Well, we've looked at this very simple signpost to the celestial city etched in the very words of Jesus, I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. And in that signpost, three simple assertions.

Only those who feel and know themselves to be sinners will ever be saved by Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ Himself and Jesus Christ alone can save sinners. Jesus Christ saved sinners by calling them to repentance.

Dear people, I have labored with every measure of strength and grace God has given me to preach with all my heart, to preach simply, to preach plainly, to preach with illustrations and applications that scratch where you itch.

And yet I'm reluctant to close the service. You know why? Because I fear, as has happened so many other times, there'll be more than a handful who go out and say, so what's new? I haven't told you anything.

It's been simple, basic, gospel. But my friend, if that does not become to you the power of God to salvation, it would be better that you've never been born. And if you're ready to go out now and say so, God have mercy on you.

And know that while you go out to try to drive out of your mind what you heard tonight, not a few of us, before we pillow our heads, will pray that you won't be able to sleep until what you've heard takes hold of your heart.

And for those of us who by the grace of God could face those three assertions on this simple signpost, what a wonderful thing to be a Christian. Isn't it a wonderful thing to be a Christian? Let the world pity us as a bunch of weak-headed, weak-willed people who've got to lean on a book and who've got to lean on a Savior who aren't self-sufficient and self-important.

Let them pity us. Someday their mouths will open with wonder when the Lord Jesus bursts through the skies and the Scripture says an amazing statement. My wife and I were discussing it last week. He comes to be glorified.

He'll be glorified in me. Me to be glorified in Him. I can understand. But for Him to be glorified in me? Yes. When He's done with me, angels are going to go, Look what God did for Albert N. Martin. Look what God did for Benjamin Bach.

Sinner friend, don't pity us. Pity your poor, impoverished state. And give yourself no rest till in Christ you have what is ours in Him. Our Father, we thank You for Your holy Word. We thank You for Your holy Gospel.

We thank You for Your holy Son. We thank You for Your holy Spirit. We thank You for Your holy Word. And we pray that the Word and the Spirit would so work through the Word that Your Son would by the mighty working of Your own power come to sinners this night effectually calling them to repentance.

We pray especially for our dear young people, children and grandchildren, some of whom are deeply distressed about whether or not they are ready to die. Whether they would enter the celestial city. Lord, use the preaching tonight to help them.

Where they ought to be encouraged, may they be encouraged. Where they ought to be convicted, Lord, convict them and give them no rest until they cry out like blind Bartimaeus, Son of David, have mercy upon me.

Bless the preaching of Your Word to refresh the hearts of Your saints and to draw sinners to Yourself. We commit Your Word to Your care and to the ongoing ministry of the Holy Spirit through our Lord Jesus Christ.