Take up your mat (Part 2)

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Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author, Dr. Mike Avendroff.

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Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

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Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the Scriptures verse by verse with No Compromise.

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It's easier to say your sins are forgiven, harder to do but easier to say. Can you say sins are forgiven or just say rise and walk?

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And by the way, which one's easier for God to do? Both just as easy because everything's just as easy for God.

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Omniscient God, omnipotent God can do anything as easily as anything else, A .W. Tozer said. All his acts are done without effort.

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He expends no energy that must be replenished. His self -sufficiency makes it unnecessary for him to look outside of himself for a renewal of strength.

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But what is happening here? Jesus is going to authenticate his claim that he is the

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Son of Man, that he's the Son of God, that he's God in the flesh by doing something and what does he do that they can see?

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They can't see forgiveness of sins, which has already been granted, but they could see if this guy can stand up and walk out of there.

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Verse 6, why are there miracles and signs that Jesus could do? A, because he's

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God, but B, because he's attested by God that he is the Son of God by what he does.

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Verse 6, but that you may know that the Son of Man, Jesus loved to call himself that, has authority on earth to forgive sins.

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He said to the paralytic, rise, pick up your bed and go home.

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Verse 7, just simply, plainly, shortly, curtly says, he rose and went home.

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Jesus authenticates his declaration of forgiveness and verifies his claim of messiahship by making the man get up and take his bed and go home.

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I wonder why Jesus said, pick up your bed and go home. I probably would have liked to get rid of that nasty old thing.

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And by the way, he rose and went home. You can't get into the house. It's too crowded in the house.

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It's too crowded by the door. And Jesus says, your sins are forgiven, pick up your bed and walk. And it's like the parting of the ways of the

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Red Sea. People just stand back, probably with their lips hanging down to about here and their mouth open.

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And the guy just walks out. Hard to get him in, but it was easy to get him out.

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Jesus wasn't just a big talker like the scribes and the Pharisees. And verse 8 says of Matthew 9, and when the crowd sought, they responded rightly at least.

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They were afraid. Why? Because God's in my midst and I'm sinful. He's God. It's like Peter on the boat.

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It's like Isaiah before the throne of God. And they glorified God who had given such authority to men.

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Took up his pallet and walked and they respond correctly. The other accounts added that they were amazed.

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The word amazed in Mark is out of their minds, out of their gourds. It's where we get the word ecstasy.

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They couldn't wrap their mind around it. And they're glorifying God. We've never seen anything like this.

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And he took what he had been lying on, verse 25 of Luke 5, and went home glorifying

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God. And they were seized with astonishment and began glorifying God and they were filled with fear.

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And they were saying, we have seen remarkable things today. Well, there's another round here.

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Round two found in the next set of verses, verses 9 through 13. And here's why this is strategically located after that last section.

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Jesus in the first section had authority to forgive sins and heal people. But I wonder, is there a limit to Christ's forgiveness?

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Just how much would Jesus be willing to forgive? I mean, this was a paralytic. He was a sinner. Yes, he was dead in trespasses and sins, but he wasn't nasty.

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He wasn't notorious. He wasn't nefarious. He wasn't horrible. He wasn't way down on the pecking order of people.

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And so Mark will tell us with Matthew and with Luke gloriously that there are no limits to Christ's forgiveness.

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By the way, as I read this, if you're not a Christian today because you think in your mind,

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God could never forgive me because I've done the unthinkable, this is going to be good for you because Christ can save the worst.

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I think it was Jeffreys who would always, maybe he quoted somebody, but Jesus saves.

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There's a passage in the scripture about he saves to the uttermost, but he also saves from the gutter most.

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And I like that. Before I read Matthew 9, 9, there's something that's in between there that's found in Mark only.

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And he went out again by the seashore and all the multitudes were coming to him, Mark 2, 13, and he was teaching them.

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So now we're back on this ministry, teaching, preaching out by the seashore, out by the sea of Galilee, very common thing that rabbis would walk and speak and the followers would just follow right behind preaching, teaching.

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We don't know what the message was, but we do know it was from Christ and it was an extended message.

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Verse 9 of Matthew 9, it says, and Jesus passed on from there, saw a man called

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Matthew sitting at the tax booth. By the way, the way the

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Greek is, the word Matthew is kind of minimized. Matthew wrote Matthew and he minimized that himself.

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Sitting at the tax booth and he said to him, follow me. Now first passage, we had somebody that got up, rose and glorified

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God. And now there's somebody not getting up out of a sick bed, but of a sick bed of sin. And he rose and followed him.

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Matthew in the Aramaic means gift of God. And now the gift of God just got the ultimate gift of God.

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Follow me. Keep on following me was the command. Not just as a rabbi, but certainly as a son of God, follow me.

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And he rose and followed him. Hopped right up. This guy was probably employed by the arch villain hated

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Herod Antipas, the Edomite. That's who he worked for. And he collected tolls.

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Barclay says there's a saying, Judea is on the way to nowhere. Galilee is on the way to everywhere.

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So where do they put tolls? Just before you get to the airport, tolls and the bad news with tax collectors.

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They were not only dishonest, lying, cheating people. They were

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Jews who sold essentially their Judean citizenship to go work for the

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Romans to extract money out of fellow Jewish people. They were lowlifes.

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Jews despised these tax collectors not just because they were fraudulent, but because they were traitors.

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And here now Jesus says, I want you to follow me as the Messiah, to Matthew, a call to salvation, a call to discipleship, a call to follow him.

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And, you know, Matthew, it doesn't say it. He said, well, I've got to go bury my father first. I've got a couple of cows in the field.

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There have been other excuses that have been given. And Jesus had to say to them, let the dead bury the dead. But here,

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Matthew stands right up. This is what we call the effectual call of God. Follow me.

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The grace of God in this command, sovereign authority of Jesus. He had to say yes.

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And by his own volition, he says yes. Luke 5, listen to this, and he left everything behind and rose and began to follow him.

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How about a lot of money? How about if I could give you $500 ,000 a year and say, by the way, just say goodbye to it, follow

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Jesus? This is a lot of money. It's hard to get another job and impossible to get another job as a tax collector.

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This reminds me of Paul when he said in Philippians 3, whatever things were gained to me, those things

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I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing

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Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish in order that I might gain

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Christ. Oh, the Jewish leaders are going to love this.

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He's got a new disciple, a tax collector. Verse 10 of Matthew 9, let's find out what happens.

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And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, he did that at big feast back in those days in the east.

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There's our word again in Matthew, behold, just put yourself there, get a little mental picture of what's going on.

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Big feast, who were the people there at the feast? And behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples.

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Luke says it was a great feast. Mark 2 says, it came about that he was reclining at table in his house and many tax gatherers and sinners were dining with Jesus and his disciples for there were many of them and they were following Jesus.

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Huge meal, Jesus is in the house. How did they all get there? Whose house is this? What's the occasion?

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Luke 5, and Levi gave a big reception for him in his house. All right, so Levi says no to his notorious old job, but everybody he used to work with, the other notorious people, he says,

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I'm going to have a huge feast, you come over to my house, I have a special guest I'd like you to meet. By the way, isn't this what happens in the heart of a

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Christian? When you first get saved, after you're done or simultaneous with your praise to God that God would forgive you, what do you start thinking about?

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Immediately, if other people don't repent, they're not going to heaven.

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My mom, my dad, my brother, my sister, my kids, my friends, the people I work with, I've got to tell them.

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Matthew gets saved and what does he do? If God's grace can extend to the worst kind of person, then it can extend to other kinds of people no matter what they've done.

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And the text here in the original says many, a couple times, many tax gatherers, many of them, they're just hordes of these people.

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This is a great thing to do. You get saved, you invite all your cronies in. This is way better than having a

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Tupperware party so you can make money off your guests, pampered chef or something. I know I'm not stepping on anybody's toes.

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You can have whatever kind of party you want, but I'm saying this is the better party when you say, I'm going to invite people over to preach to them.

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Making money off people in the church? How about telling unbelievers about Christ Jesus, the

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Lord? Tax collectors and sinners. Now, tax collectors, I talked about just a minute ago, but what does

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Matthew mean with the word sinner there? I mean, we say, I'm a sinner, you're a sinner, sinners we sin, but what's the technical definition?

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The technical definition is this. Sinners were people who said no to Torah, no to Moses, no to the

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Bible, no to the law, and they don't care about law keeping, they care about breaking it, and therefore, they were called sinners by these folks.

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Everybody's a sinner, but they're specifically sinners because they're just antinomian, running around, no law, no

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Torah. They're undefiled, excuse me, they're defiled, they're not clean.

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And, you know, tax collectors were great at collecting taxes, and sinners were great at...

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Sinners is a synonym for prostitute or Gentile or pagan.

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Matthew 11, Matthew 18, Matthew 21, Luke 15. Oh, what do you do for a living?

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I collect taxes. Oh, what do you do for a living? I'm a sinner, I sin.

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By the way, why did I look at this side of the congregation, your tax collectors and your sinners? How does that make you feel?

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Better? Outcasts, misfits, rejects, unclean.

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What you scrape out of the bottom of the privy pot. Verse 11, Matthew 9, and when the

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Pharisees saw this, oh good, he's going to preach the gospel and some more people are going to get saved.

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It is so good, the worst people are going to get saved now, hallelujah. They said cowardly, by the way, to his disciples.

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Guilt by association. Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?

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It's like when my kids disobey and I say to my wife, look at what your kids are doing again. Well, I would never say that.

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Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? Just imagine them putting their lip up when they'd say that word sinner.

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Luke 5, it says, and the Pharisees and the scribes began grumbling at his disciples. This is over the top, this is last resort, associating with these people that are horrible.

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They're going to influence you. Pharisee even means separated one, and now Jesus is joining practically these people.

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Not because Jesus is joining with them to say, oh, we love your sin or I love your sin, but he's going to be preaching to them repentance just like he did to Matthew.

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That's what Matthew wants. Verse 12, but when he heard it, he said, those who are well have no need of a physician.

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You think you're well, don't you, Pharisees? That's what he's talking about. But tax collectors and sinners know they're sick.

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Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, go and learn what this means.

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Boy, that stings. He's saying this to the leaders. Go back and study your

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Hebrew concordance. Go back to your systematic theology Hebrew. Go back there.

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Man, that stings. The other day, I was riding my bicycle, and I actually said to myself,

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I haven't been feeling well, so it was a short ride. And I thought, you know, it was about a year ago I got stung on the bike. I haven't got stung in a year.

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I kid you not. And in slow motion, I could see about 20 minutes later, super hot outright.

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I had my jersey just unzipped just a hair, and I see this black hornet. I go, this can't be happening.

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Into my jersey and down my jersey. Ow, it's stinging me. And then, you know, if there's a bee in the car, you have to be careful because you're going to crash.

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And now there's a hornet in my jersey, and I'm riding a bike. And you should have just heard me. I was just screaming out.

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Ah. You know, do you smash the stinger into your chest? What do you do? And with the sting of the hornet, he stings them.

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You're supposed to be the teachers. Why don't you go home and learn your ABCs? Because you obviously don't know the

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Bible. And now he quotes just like he does in chapter 12. He quotes Hosea 6 -6, which

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I'm calling Jesus' favorite verse. He just uses it often. I don't know if it's his favorite or not.

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It's not really a right question to ask. Hosea 6 -6, he quotes.

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And he quotes it like he's God because it refers to God back in the Old Testament. I desire mercy and not sacrifice.

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He quotes this well -known passage and embarrasses the scribes. He embarrasses the

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Pharisees. Go home and learn what this means.

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All your religiosity, all your rituals, all your sacrifices mean nothing if you don't have compassion and love.

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Thomas Brooks, a Puritan, said for Jesus to refuse to associate with sinners would have been as foolish as for a doctor not to associate with the sick.

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Of course Jesus is going to be around spiritually sick people because he's the great physician.

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And mark it well, when Jesus is around people that know they're sinful, he's kind, he's gentle, he has a meal with them, he reclines on them in the

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Eastern fashion. But when people think they don't need repentance and they think that they're righteous even though they're not, he takes them to school.

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And words like, woe to you scribes and Pharisees, come out 14 chapters later.

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The doctor here goes to the sick. This is the grace of God, the sovereign initiation of God.

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We call the doctor, I'm sick. This is the doctor making the house call before you call.

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I desire compassion and not sacrifice,

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Jesus quotes. Scathing, just as Gomer was unfaithful to Hosea, you leaders are unfaithful to God and you're committing spiritual adultery.

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Your rituals mean nothing. Your sacrifices mean nothing. Torah keeping without compassion and love mean nothing.

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He's condemning the Pharisees. He's condemning the outward religious people. Actually, he's condemning anyone here who thinks they're good enough by their own person, by their own baptism, by their own good works or their own religiosity to somehow stand in God's presence.

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I like to ask the question, how good do you have to be to stand before God on judgment day? Well, I can't do it.

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I'm sick with sin. Oh good, let me point you to the great physician of our souls. It says in Luke chapter 5 verse 32 of this account,

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I have come not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. He's not just saying sinners go ahead and keep sinning.

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When Jesus has a meal with a sinner, he has a message for them. And what's the message? There's forgiveness to be found through repentance.

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And the positive side of repentance is faith, turning from sin and turning unto

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God. There's forgiveness to be found. I love this about Christ.

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He hangs out with sinful people but to preach the gospel to them. Luke 7 says the

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Son of Man has come eating and drinking and you say behold a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax gatherers and sinners.

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Happened all the time. So let me give you some questions as we have to wrap this up.

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Time is gone. Questions to end today. Question one, do you associate with ungodly people?

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Do you associate with ungodly people? Here we're up here in kind of white bread West Boylston, white collar.

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I'm not saying you have to be dear friends with people who are sinners. But I am saying you need to love them like Christ did because God desires mercy and not sacrifice.

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This is one of the many, many errors of the Amish besides their moralistic legalism that has no grace at all.

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It's to somehow retreat away from everyone else when Jesus is the one reclining at a feast.

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You think of the worst sinner you can think of. You think of people that are the worst that have just been convicted that are at the top of your list of saying, you know what, these are the worst.

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And the way God has ordained it is for you to preach the gospel to them.

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For you to go to them. C .T. Studd said, some want to live within a sound of a church or a chapel bell.

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I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell. Number two, second question.

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Are you like Christ in declaring man's greatest need? That is forgiveness of sins.

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Congregation, I know you don't, but just let me remind you, don't evangelize this way. Come to Christ and you'll have a great marriage.

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Come to Christ, you'll get a lot of money. Come to Christ, you'll have physical healing. Come to Christ and everything will be set.

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Because that need isn't their greatest need. By the way, if you ever meet some people and I've met some people like that, what do

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I have to offer them? Unbelievers can have money, health, and nice marriages.

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So what do you tell an unbeliever who has a nice marriage, who has money, who has nice kids and lives in a nice house?

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What can you tell them? You can tell them just like Jesus did of their ultimate need, forgiveness against a holy

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God found in the substitutionary representative work of Christ Jesus, the risen Savior.

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Question number three. Don't ever, that's an exhortation.

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Let me turn to the question. Do you remember God's initiative in salvation? Salvation certainly is of the

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Lord. All the credit goes to Him. And if you've got loved ones who need to be saved, rest in the fact that God will use you as well.

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But it is God's sovereign initiative to save. That's what it was here in chapter 9 verses 1 to 8.

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In round 1 in chapter 9 verses 9 to 13, Jesus seeking the lost.

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Spurgeon said, Sovereign mercy can dash into sinful places and take captives. How great is that?

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Free grace can go into the gutter and bring up a jewel. Divine love can rake a dunghill and find a diamond.

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There is no spot where God's grace cannot and will not go. Pile up your walls, bring up the big stones of your iniquity, but Christ shall yet take your citadel and make you a captive.

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Plunge into the mire, if you will, but that strong arm can bring you out and wash you clean.

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There is not strength enough in sin to overcome His grace.

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My last question, number 4. Do you put anything ahead of Christ?

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Particularly, let me ask you businessmen, you career people, career ladies.

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For Levi, when he thought of Christ and he thought of his occupation, it was over.

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And remember, anything that goes above Christ in your affections, whether it's money, work, pleasure, friends, kids, whatever you have to have above Christ, it's simply called idolatry.

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Following Christ Jesus, loving Christ more than success, loving

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Christ more than family, loving Christ more than job. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world if he loses his soul?

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So today, we've seen Christ Jesus face to face through His word.

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Is there anybody like Jesus? Have you ever met anyone like this? Who could design such a man, who could fabricate such a man, who does things like this?

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Who teaches like this and who self -sacrificially gives like this, including forgiveness of sins?

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If you're a Christian, you ought to say to yourself, Hallelujah, what a Savior.

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And if you're not a Christian today, today is the day that you need to repent and follow

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Jesus Christ. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

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Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 8 .30 and 11 a .m. and Sunday evenings at 6 p .m.

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We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston, Massachusetts. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org

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or by phone at 508 -835 -3400. The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff, or management.