SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: And we'll read our passage together this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew chapter 9, just five verses before us.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew chapter 9, we'll begin in verse 9 and read through verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: You know, in an ancient times, not so ancient times, a few hundred years ago, especially in Europe, the pulpits would be elevated about the height of where the screen is here.
SPEAKER_01: There would be a staircase going up to that pulpit, and the pulpit would be up there all by itself.
SPEAKER_01: I kind of feel that way this morning, kind of naked up here with all this.
SPEAKER_01: But the reason that they did that was not so that everybody could say, hey, look at the preacher.
SPEAKER_01: It was so that the word of God would be central.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we really want to have happen every single Sunday, but especially this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew chapter 9, the word of God says to us that as Jesus passed on from there, that is, from Capernaum, where he was ministering, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said to him, Follow me.
SPEAKER_01: And he rose and followed him.
SPEAKER_01: And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to the disciples, Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?
SPEAKER_01: But when he heard it, he said, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick to go and learn what this means.
SPEAKER_01: I desire mercy and not sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: I said I'm going to do something a little bit different this morning.
SPEAKER_01: I want to just very briefly lay out some of the basic elements of this passage, but only in summary.
SPEAKER_01: Then I want you to follow me on a short walk through some passages in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: And then we'll briefly come back to wrap it up in Matthew.
SPEAKER_01: Now, on the one hand, this passage is very simple.
SPEAKER_01: There are three distinct categories of people to whom Jesus ministered.
SPEAKER_01: And then there's another group, a fourth group, that stands in opposition to everything that Jesus is doing.
SPEAKER_01: So first, there's Matthew.
SPEAKER_01: He represents a category.
SPEAKER_01: He's the outcast tax collector, right?
SPEAKER_01: He's the first-century version of the sleazy guy that everybody wants to avoid.
SPEAKER_01: He has quite a few friends who are also outcasts.
SPEAKER_01: And if we put all of those friends together collectively, they're sort of known as sinners.
SPEAKER_01: Another category of people that you would avoid.
SPEAKER_01: And not only does Jesus minister to the tax collectors and the sinners, but there's a third group known as the sick.
SPEAKER_01: Here in this context, referring to spiritually sick.
SPEAKER_01: And then there's the Pharisees who oppose Jesus in all of those interactions with all three of those first categories of people.
SPEAKER_01: That describes these five verses in a nutshell.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus ministering to three groups of outcasts, and then there's a fourth group that opposes all of his ministry.
SPEAKER_01: Now the common way of preaching this text is to focus on what Jesus does.
SPEAKER_01: That is his ministry to those three categories of people.
SPEAKER_01: You've probably heard a sermon or two on how Jesus ministers to the poor and the needy, how he ministers to the outcasts of society, how he meets the needs of the sick and he heals them.
SPEAKER_01: And when we approach this passage in that way, it can very easily become a sort of a moral bully club of sorts.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe even Micah 6.8 is pulled out to whack us into action so that we shift more effort and resources into mercy ministries.
SPEAKER_01: And then what ends up happening is we feel guilty that we don't do enough.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you've heard this passage preached that way.
SPEAKER_01: Now, hear me clearly, I want to affirm.
SPEAKER_01: I want to affirm some of that as appropriate application of this passage to our lives as followers of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: But it is inappropriate to use this passage as a bully club to guilt us into action or to motivate a church into mercy ministries.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to say that because the main point of this passage is not about compassion.
SPEAKER_01: We can take that a step further.
SPEAKER_01: It's not about the tax collectors.
SPEAKER_01: It's not about the sinners.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not about the sick.
SPEAKER_01: It's about the fulfillment of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: It's about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, it's about the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_01: Now go on a walk with me.
SPEAKER_01: You're going to need your Bible for this.
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of passages that we're going to look at.
SPEAKER_01: We won't necessarily highlight all of them, but it will help you if you can see what we're looking at.
SPEAKER_01: First is in the Old Testament, the book of 1 Samuel.
SPEAKER_01: If you can find that collection of first and seconds in the early part of the Old Testament, it's the first one, 1st and 2 Samuel.
SPEAKER_01: So we're going to 1 Samuel chapter 15.
SPEAKER_01: Now what we're going to highlight here in this little jaunt is three primary passages of the Old Testament that give us the key to understanding all of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: That's right, we're going to understand all of the Old Testament just in a little bit of time this morning.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Samuel chapter 15.
SPEAKER_01: If you would pay special note to verse 21.
SPEAKER_01: This is King Saul, Israel's first king, speaking.
SPEAKER_01: And Samuel then said, note this in verse 22 has Yahweh as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of Yahweh.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.
SPEAKER_01: If you would put that up for me, I would appreciate it.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Samuel 15.
SPEAKER_01: You might be familiar with this verse.
SPEAKER_01: Does he enjoy offerings and sacrifices that people give to him as much as he enjoys obeying his voice?
SPEAKER_01: The answer is no.
SPEAKER_01: Samuel, the prophet, goes on to tell Saul to obey is better than sacrifice and to listen to God.
SPEAKER_01: Implication there is listen and do what he says is better than the fat of Ram.
SPEAKER_01: See, you have to go back to chapter 15, verse 1 to really know what's going on here.
SPEAKER_01: This is a passage of scripture where God was finally bringing judgment upon the inhabitants of the land.
SPEAKER_01: You'll remember that his whole purpose in bringing Israel to Egypt and then keeping them there 400 years was to be patient with the people of the land of Canaan.
SPEAKER_01: He said, their sin, their iniquity is not yet complete.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to be even more patient.
SPEAKER_01: And then in bringing Israel out of Egypt and into Canaan, he was using them as part of his judgment upon those peoples for not repenting.
SPEAKER_01: And so he says, now's the time.
SPEAKER_01: Now's the time.
SPEAKER_01: So get rid of them.
SPEAKER_01: Get rid of everything.
SPEAKER_01: All the people, all the animals, get rid of them.
SPEAKER_01: And in getting rid of them, you're devoting them to destruction.
SPEAKER_01: That's a technical term for worship.
SPEAKER_01: It was saying, all of this that we're bringing on these people as judgment is part of worshiping God.
SPEAKER_01: God said, Keep nothing alive.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you'll look in your Bible, down to verse 14, Samuel comes along and says, What is this bleeding of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of oxen that I hear?
SPEAKER_01: See, what happened is that Saul and the people didn't listen to God.
SPEAKER_01: They didn't do everything that God told them to do.
SPEAKER_01: And they thought, you know what, it's good for us to keep some of the best of the animals back.
SPEAKER_01: We won't kill everything, we'll keep some of the best back so that we can offer some sacrifices to God because God's really gonna appreciate that.
SPEAKER_01: And Samuel comes along and says, Did you not listen?
SPEAKER_01: God said, get rid of all of it.
SPEAKER_01: And so he presents this to the king.
SPEAKER_01: Do you really think that God wants an offering or a sacrifice more than he wants you to listen to what he says and obey it?
SPEAKER_01: Then in verse 23 he says, For rebellion is as the sin of divination and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.
SPEAKER_01: Because you have rejected the word of Yahweh, he has rejected you from being king.
SPEAKER_01: Samuel says, Saul, you obeyed partially.
SPEAKER_01: But what you don't understand is that partial obedience is rebellion and rejection of God.
SPEAKER_01: Partial obedience, in essence, means you don't have proper faith in the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: And Saul represented the best of the people.
SPEAKER_01: From a human perspective, he was he was the best of what people had to offer God.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's a demonstration to say the best we have to offer God is not good enough.
SPEAKER_01: So God said to the king, listen, a proper trust in me is is displayed, is evidenced, not in ritual sacrifices, but in trusting my word.
SPEAKER_01: And God's king of all people must trust God's word and live out that trust.
SPEAKER_01: But what Saul did was not trust.
SPEAKER_01: He failed.
SPEAKER_01: And this is the beginning of sort of a theme that we see running through the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: And this verse, verse 22, encapsulates this idea of does God really want sacrifices and offerings more than this?
SPEAKER_01: Or God appreciates this more than sacrifices.
SPEAKER_01: And it's a key to understanding the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: It's not about the ritual, it's not about all those lists of offerings and sacrifices that you find.
SPEAKER_01: It's not about the liturgy, it's not about the rules established by the human rulers, it's about the heart's connection to God that is lived out in a trust-filled and obedient life.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go from one king to another king.
SPEAKER_01: Saul was the first king, chosen by the people's desires.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go to Solomon, the wisest man to have ever walked this earth other than the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Let's look at Proverbs chapter 21.
SPEAKER_01: Proverbs 21.
SPEAKER_01: Beginning in verse 3, and then we're going to back up from there.
SPEAKER_01: So first is King Saul, then we go to King Solomon and Proverbs chapter 21 and verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to Yahweh than sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: God says, I would rather have righteousness, rightness in you, and displaying that injustice than I would have you offering animals on an altar.
SPEAKER_01: That comes, by the way, from the man, Solomon, who offered up 22,000 oxen and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep to dedicate the temple.
SPEAKER_01: Process those numbers a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: Twenty-two thousand oxen and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep.
SPEAKER_01: The scriptures say that they couldn't keep up.
SPEAKER_01: No wonder.
SPEAKER_01: So Solomon knew something about sacrifices.
SPEAKER_01: Solomon knew something about offering things to God in that kind of a way.
SPEAKER_01: And yet he says to his children, listen, that's not what God really desires.
SPEAKER_01: What God really desires is righteousness and justice.
SPEAKER_01: Well, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: Well, we need to back up to the context a little bit to verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 1, it says, the king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of Yahweh.
SPEAKER_01: He turns it wherever he wills.
SPEAKER_01: Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but Yahweh weighs the heart.
SPEAKER_01: Then he says, to do justice and righteousness is more acceptable to Yahweh than sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: Notice verse 4: Proud eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, or sin.
SPEAKER_01: Notice that surrounding verse three are three other verses referring to what?
SPEAKER_01: The heart.
SPEAKER_01: This is not about primarily what actions are seen.
SPEAKER_01: It's not about so much pursuing justice in our world as in having the heart that motivates justice.
SPEAKER_01: Solomon says, more important than offering sacrifices, more important than going through ritual, is having the right kind of heart from which those proper actions come.
SPEAKER_01: Remember when Jesus said, out of the heart the mouth speaks.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you're supposed to say righteous things.
SPEAKER_01: That's what a Christian's language is supposed to be like.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus says it starts inside.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what Solomon is doing here.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying a right relationship with God that generates a right heart is where you start.
SPEAKER_01: Then you see that in different ways.
SPEAKER_01: So doing righteousness and justice is more about having a heart that lives out the character of God than anything else.
SPEAKER_01: Think about that for a minute.
SPEAKER_01: The wisest king who ever ruled over Israel taught his sons.
SPEAKER_01: That's who this book was written to.
SPEAKER_01: Solomon taught his sons that having the right heart toward God and lived out in life is more important than the ritual of sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: So in 1 Samuel 15, God spoke to the king.
SPEAKER_01: What was the result?
SPEAKER_01: Failure.
SPEAKER_01: In Proverbs 21, we have the king speaking to his son.
SPEAKER_01: What's the result?
SPEAKER_01: Sadly, failure.
SPEAKER_01: The Old Testament shows us that multiple and continual generations, the best of the best, the kings of Israel, the kings of Judah, could not keep this key essence of God's expectations.
SPEAKER_01: They didn't have the right heart over and over and over again that led to right living, to right obedience.
SPEAKER_01: It just happened occasionally, but not on a regular basis.
SPEAKER_01: The ones who did were the exception, not the rule.
SPEAKER_01: One more Old Testament passage.
SPEAKER_01: You go to the prophet Hosea.
SPEAKER_01: The prophet Hosea.
SPEAKER_01: It's this one.
SPEAKER_01: Hosea chapter six in verse six.
SPEAKER_01: Where God says, For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: I desire the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
SPEAKER_01: This is sort of the culmination of the first two passages where God's saying, Listen, let's put sacrifices in the right place.
SPEAKER_01: Simply offering a sacrifice, even an animal that is a blood sacrifice, does not mean you have the right heart.
SPEAKER_01: You can do that all day long and not have the right heart.
SPEAKER_01: God says, start with a right heart, and then you'll be going in the right direction.
SPEAKER_01: And this is the culmination of that.
SPEAKER_01: It's the pinnacle of it.
SPEAKER_01: To understand what's going on here in Hosea 6, 6, we need to understand a little bit about its context.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 1 of Hosea is perhaps one of the saddest chapters in the entire Bible.
SPEAKER_01: God says to Israel in verse 10, you are not my people.
SPEAKER_01: See, in Hosea's life, as in many prophets, God intended Hosea's life to be an object lesson for his people.
SPEAKER_01: So Hosea was to marry a prostitute, and they had a child, and God said, I want you to name your child No Mercy.
SPEAKER_01: No mercy, because I'm done having mercy on my people.
SPEAKER_01: I'm done forgiving them.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, from now on, you can call them not my people.
SPEAKER_01: God says, I've had enough.
SPEAKER_01: I've had enough.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, in in chapter 2, down in verses 20 and 21, 22, 23, God gives some hope.
SPEAKER_01: He looks forward to a time when in essence he says, I'm going to bring you back and I'm going to remarry my bride.
SPEAKER_01: And this time it's going to be in faithfulness.
SPEAKER_01: And the one that I didn't have mercy on, I'm now going to have mercy on.
SPEAKER_01: And the ones whom I said that you are not my people, I'm now going to say you are my people.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I'm going to restore everything.
SPEAKER_01: Everything that's bad now, Hosea said, is going to be good later because of what God's going to do, right?
SPEAKER_01: Chapter three is all about the object lesson.
SPEAKER_01: Itself, Hosea marrying a woman.
SPEAKER_01: Now in chapter four, it begins with this.
SPEAKER_01: Hear the word of Yahweh, O children of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: So God's now saying, Listen up.
SPEAKER_01: You need to hear what I have to say.
SPEAKER_01: But what he has to say is not good.
SPEAKER_01: He says, there's no faithfulness, there's no steadfast love, and there's no knowledge of God in the land.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, well, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_01: Didn't we just hear that?
SPEAKER_01: Hosea 6, 6.
SPEAKER_01: I desire steadfast love and knowledge of God rather than sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: But in chapter 4, God says, none of that's here.
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't exist.
SPEAKER_01: He says, everywhere that I look amongst the people that should be my people, there's no faithfulness, and there's no steadfast love.
SPEAKER_01: They don't know me.
SPEAKER_01: It's not there.
SPEAKER_01: Well, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: It means that there's no faith, there's no genuine trust in God because there are no renewed hearts.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 6 of chapter 4, God says, My people are destroyed.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: For lack of knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: What kind of knowledge?
SPEAKER_01: Knowledge about God in verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: So I reject you from being priest to me.
SPEAKER_01: Since you've forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children.
SPEAKER_01: It's just terrible.
SPEAKER_01: It's terrible.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: The very end, a people without understanding shall come to ruin.
SPEAKER_01: God says to his people, You don't know me.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have exactly what I desire.
SPEAKER_01: And so you're going to come to ruin.
SPEAKER_01: Now there's an important detail to know here about knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: When we talk about knowledge, especially from a biblical perspective, it's not simply a matter of taking in information and storing it in the grain matter in your skull.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what we're talking about.
SPEAKER_01: It's not taking in a piece of information and putting it in the file cabinet.
SPEAKER_01: That's part of it.
SPEAKER_01: When we talk about knowledge and instilling knowledge, it's about something that is understood, that is then trusted and followed out of love and devotion to the God who gave it.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we proclaim the Word of God.
SPEAKER_01: We seek to give knowledge so that the Holy Spirit can give light to that knowledge so that you can have understanding in it.
SPEAKER_01: Israel didn't have that.
SPEAKER_01: That's why chapter 5 begins with this: Hear this, O priests.
SPEAKER_01: God says, My people are not my people.
SPEAKER_01: They have no knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: They don't know me.
SPEAKER_01: Their hearts aren't right.
SPEAKER_01: Who's to blame?
SPEAKER_01: The priests.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 5, verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God.
SPEAKER_01: They know not Yahweh.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 5, verse 15, though, has a change of tune.
SPEAKER_01: I will return again to my place until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face and in their distress earnestly seek me.
SPEAKER_01: Though there's bad and good there, right?
SPEAKER_01: You know how we sometimes say about somebody that who has walked away from the Lord or who's struggling in their relationship with Christ?
SPEAKER_01: They haven't hit rock bottom yet.
SPEAKER_01: That's kind of what God's saying here.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, My people are going to hit rock bottom.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to go back and I'm going to return to my place until they hit the bottom.
SPEAKER_01: Because I know when they hit the bottom, then they're going to turn to me.
SPEAKER_01: Things are going to turn around then.
SPEAKER_01: So there's both bad and good.
SPEAKER_01: There's both sadness and hope.
SPEAKER_01: That's why chapter six begins with, Come, let us return to Yahweh.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 3, let us know.
SPEAKER_01: Ah, now they're beginning to understand what God expects.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I want you to know me.
SPEAKER_01: And they say, let us know, let us press on to know.
SPEAKER_01: And he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains.
SPEAKER_01: That's what God wants to hear from his people.
SPEAKER_01: We want to know you.
SPEAKER_01: God says in verse 4, but what will I do with you?
SPEAKER_01: What will I do with you?
SPEAKER_01: Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away.
SPEAKER_01: What's he saying?
SPEAKER_01: You can talk all you want.
SPEAKER_01: You can talk all you want, but your love is just, it's there and gone.
SPEAKER_01: What kind of love is that?
SPEAKER_01: If you claim that you know me and yet you turn around and do whatever you want the next instance, what does that really communicate?
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, verse 5, I have hewn them.
SPEAKER_01: By the prophet the prophets, I've slain them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light.
SPEAKER_01: For my desire is steadfast love and not sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to know me before you offer burnt offerings.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 7 is a rapid downward spiral.
SPEAKER_01: Things just get worse and worse and worse.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter 7, verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: All my people are hot as an oven, and they devour their rulers.
SPEAKER_01: All their kings have fallen, and none of them calls upon me.
SPEAKER_01: You can look at 2 Kings 15 for some reference to that.
SPEAKER_01: In 2 Kings 15, four of the last kings of Israel were assassinated, killed by their own people.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 10, yet they do not return to Yahweh their God, nor do they seek him for all of this.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 8.
SPEAKER_01: God sort of laying out his evidence.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 2, to me they cry, my God, we know you.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't it so wonderful that we've come to church in the midst of COVID?
SPEAKER_01: That was supposed to be funny.
SPEAKER_01: Seriously, though.
SPEAKER_01: And they're saying, look, God, look at what we've done.
SPEAKER_01: We know you.
SPEAKER_01: But where's the evidence?
SPEAKER_01: God says.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, maybe you're sacrificing like Saul did, right?
SPEAKER_01: But there's no steadfast love, there's no true knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: At best, it's half-hearted obedience.
SPEAKER_01: There's no one who's truly merciful as God requires.
SPEAKER_01: And so in verse 12 of chapter 8, we have this, the saddest part, I think, of the book of Hosea.
SPEAKER_01: Were I to write for my people, if I was to take a pen and write out my laws by tens of thousands, they would be regarded as a strange thing.
SPEAKER_01: It's as though you hand a Bible to somebody who has no idea who God is or what God has done.
SPEAKER_01: And what's this?
SPEAKER_01: God says, that's the people who are supposed to be my people.
SPEAKER_01: They say they know me.
SPEAKER_01: But do they know me when my word is a strange thing to them?
SPEAKER_01: Thankfully, there are some bits of hope.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 9.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter, I'm sorry, chapter 10.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go skip over to chapter 10 and verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: Sow for yourselves righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: Where have we heard that before?
SPEAKER_01: Reap steadfast love.
SPEAKER_01: There we go.
SPEAKER_01: Remnants of chapter 6.
SPEAKER_01: Break up your fallow ground.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because it is time to seek Yahweh so that he may come and reign righteousness upon you.
SPEAKER_01: There's hope, there's an anticipation that, okay, things are bad now, but God's going to come, he's going to fix everything, right?
SPEAKER_01: So chapter 11 is about anticipation, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: When Israel was a child, I loved him.
SPEAKER_01: And out of Egypt I called my son.
SPEAKER_01: Where have we heard that before?
SPEAKER_01: Why would that be familiar?
SPEAKER_01: It's because Matthew quotes it.
SPEAKER_01: In Matthew chapter 2, verse 15, applying it to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: One more.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 14.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: The very last verse of the book.
SPEAKER_01: Whoever is wise, let him understand these things.
SPEAKER_01: Whoever is discerning, let him know them.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, 6-6 says, What?
SPEAKER_01: I want you to know me.
SPEAKER_01: God's saying, know these things.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because the ways of the Lord are right, are righteous.
SPEAKER_01: And those who are upright, those who do right things, walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them.
SPEAKER_01: What are the ways of Yahweh in that verse?
SPEAKER_01: When he says, the ways of the Lord are right, walk in them.
SPEAKER_01: What ways are they?
SPEAKER_01: Well, we know what they're not, right?
SPEAKER_01: They're not sacrifice and they're not offerings.
SPEAKER_01: Because God does not delight in those things as much as he does in other things.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, he says, the things in which I delight, the things that I want you to walk in are steadfast love, mercy, justice, all lived out in obedience because of a heart right with God.
SPEAKER_01: But no one could do it.
SPEAKER_01: No one could do it.
SPEAKER_01: No one could fully live out the heart of God's law.
SPEAKER_01: What's the heart of God's law?
SPEAKER_01: 6-6.
SPEAKER_01: I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: I desire the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
SPEAKER_01: Samuel tried to teach Saul that.
SPEAKER_01: Solomon tried to teach his sons that.
SPEAKER_01: And there's failure.
SPEAKER_01: Not Saul, not even David or Solomon, not even the prophets could fulfill the expectation.
SPEAKER_01: So here's a question.
SPEAKER_01: When Hosea says in chapter 10, verse 12, it is time to seek Yahweh so that he may come and reign righteousness upon you, what should the hearers expect?
SPEAKER_01: When he says it's time to seek God so that he can come and reign righteousness, what should the people expect?
SPEAKER_01: When God promised the Messiah, understand this.
SPEAKER_01: When God promised the Messiah, he gave his people exactly what they should look for.
SPEAKER_01: He gave them exactly what to look for.
SPEAKER_01: They shouldn't have missed it.
SPEAKER_01: He promised a coming one.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, the coming one is going to come and he's going to rain down righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: What is righteousness?
SPEAKER_01: On the context of Hosea, it's holding fast to steadfast love.
SPEAKER_01: And justice, it is waiting continually.
SPEAKER_01: For your God, it is steadfast love and not sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: It is knowing God rather than offering burnt offerings.
SPEAKER_01: You see, when God promised his Messiah, he told his people, everything that I've been giving you, you can't do.
SPEAKER_01: You've shown over and over and over again, you can't do this, you can't do this.
SPEAKER_01: You keep failing.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you keep saying we know you and we're gonna try harder, and the end you keep failing.
SPEAKER_01: So what's gonna happen?
SPEAKER_01: God says, I'm going to come.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm going to rain down righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: Now let's go back to Matthew chapter 5.
SPEAKER_01: This is near the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, you'll remember.
SPEAKER_01: People were beginning to wonder who's this Jesus guy?
SPEAKER_01: What's all this stuff that he's saying?
SPEAKER_01: And sounds like he's contradicting the law.
SPEAKER_01: It sounds like he's saying about the law of Moses, we need to do away with that.
SPEAKER_01: It's over, it's done, it's abolished.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus says, Do not think that I have come to abolish the law.
SPEAKER_01: This is chapter 5, verse 17.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew 5, 17.
SPEAKER_01: Do not think that I've come to abolish the law or the prophets.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Instead, I've come to fulfill them.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if Jesus' purpose is to fulfill God's law and the word of the prophets, what should we see Jesus doing?
SPEAKER_01: If you're with me, you should see him obeying the word of God fully from the lesson of Saul.
SPEAKER_01: You should you should see him pursuing righteousness and justice, like Solomon taught his sons.
SPEAKER_01: And you should see him pursuing steadfast love and the knowledge of God rather than sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: When the New Testament was written, do you know what word was chosen in the language that they spoke and wrote in the Greek language?
SPEAKER_01: Do you know what word was chosen to express or represent the Old Testament idea of steadfast love?
SPEAKER_01: That Old Testament idea of steadfast love comes from a single Hebrew word.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know what word they chose in Greek to represent that?
SPEAKER_01: Mercy.
SPEAKER_01: So let me make this absolutely clear.
SPEAKER_01: So we're going from one language to another and then to a third, would say this.
SPEAKER_01: For I desire mercy and not sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: God said, a Messiah will come fulfilling God's desire for mercy, not one coming first to sacrifice animals.
SPEAKER_01: And in his coming, he would obey the command of God to show his character by being merciful.
SPEAKER_01: Fulfilling the law of God and the prophets is at least in part being merciful.
SPEAKER_01: Now go back to Matthew 9, verse twelve.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, go back to your Bibles and learn what this means.
SPEAKER_01: I desire mercy and not sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: What does Jesus say explicitly?
SPEAKER_01: What does he say just right out in the open?
SPEAKER_01: Well, he says that calling sinners to repentance to become partakers of the kingdom of heaven by faith in Jesus is the truest expression of mercy this world knows.
SPEAKER_01: The truest expression of mercy that the world knows is knowing Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he says.
SPEAKER_01: The truest mercy ministry is evangelism, is speaking of Christ, not providing food or clothing or housing or money.
SPEAKER_01: It's not that those things are unimportant.
SPEAKER_01: It's just the number one expression of mercy in God's view is presenting Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what does Jesus say implicitly?
SPEAKER_01: What sort of, we read between the lines a little bit, what's he saying?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is saying that he's the one.
SPEAKER_01: He's the one.
SPEAKER_01: His merciful work of calling sinners to repentance is the fulfillment of God's requirement of mercy.
SPEAKER_01: And he would fulfill it by being merciful and not sacrificing, instead, by being the sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: God commanded Saul way back in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: But Saul only had partial obedience to God because he did not fully trust.
SPEAKER_01: Solomon commanded his sons, and they were completely faithless and therefore without mercy.
SPEAKER_01: But God's king would come and he would be the one to fulfill the key to the entire Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: So if Jesus is the fulfillment, we ought to see him being merciful.
SPEAKER_01: Let's look back at verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to see quickly three pictures of divine mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Three demonstrations of divine mercy.
SPEAKER_01: The first one is that divine mercy called the outcast.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew's a tax collector.
SPEAKER_01: Most of the taxes went to regional governments and the rest to Rome.
SPEAKER_01: So from a Jewish perspective, this meant that as a tax collector, you were supporting the enemy.
SPEAKER_01: You're supporting the enemy of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: So just from an American perspective, trying to picture an American colonist working for the British at Boston Harbor.
unknown: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: You with me?
SPEAKER_01: I know it's Sunday morning and it's hard to get going.
SPEAKER_01: Remember the Boston Tea Party where the colonists got so upset about being taxed for their tea, right?
SPEAKER_01: No, imagine if it was one of your own collecting the taxes.
SPEAKER_01: That's how, that's probably the closest that we can get to understanding the angst that would be present in a Jewish person about Matthew, a Jew, being a tax collector for Rome.
SPEAKER_01: They were considered traitors.
SPEAKER_01: There were sinners, and then there were tax collectors.
SPEAKER_01: You see, many tax collectors overcharged people.
SPEAKER_01: There was a certain amount that they were required to collect for the government, but the government said that you can do whatever you want to get more money.
SPEAKER_01: And that's on you.
SPEAKER_01: So many would extort people.
SPEAKER_01: There's evidence that some tortured and killed in order to locate tax fugitives.
SPEAKER_01: There are even accounts of tax collectors beating elderly women because their relatives were behind on taxes.
SPEAKER_01: And you thought the IRS was bad.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if Matthew was a customs agent, which would have been probably pretty likely being in Capernaum, right on the border between Israel and the Decopolis, if he was a custom agent, he would have been just a step better than a regular tax collector because some of what he collected went to the local community.
SPEAKER_01: But still, as a tax collector, he's worse than a sinner.
SPEAKER_01: And the strangest of things happens.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus walks by his tax booth and looks at him and says, Matt, come and follow me.
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_01: Did you see that?
SPEAKER_01: Beloved God takes pleasure in bringing the worst to himself.
SPEAKER_01: Often they are more capable of seeing his mercy than those who think.
SPEAKER_01: They haven't made.
SPEAKER_01: Those whom the world rejects are the ones to whom God shows the mercy of his salvation.
SPEAKER_01: And what happens?
SPEAKER_01: Matthew.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew immediately follows.
SPEAKER_01: Now we've met this guy.
SPEAKER_01: He wrote this book.
SPEAKER_01: So we know a little bit about it just from reading what he's written.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew gets up and leaves a profitable profession.
SPEAKER_01: Probably one that paid him handsomely.
SPEAKER_01: He leaves behind his position of wealth and ease.
SPEAKER_01: He leaves the protection of Rome.
SPEAKER_01: And he's a contrast to the two guys back in chapter 8, verses 18 through 22, who gave excuses for following Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew just up and leaves everything to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And that leads us then to an unimaginable sight, which is our second display of divine mercy, and that is that divine mercy feasted with the despicable.
SPEAKER_01: Mark tells us that, I'm sorry, Luke tells us that Matthew, Matthew made a great feast at his home.
SPEAKER_01: So this is sort of a special, intimate setting in Matthew's home to celebrate God's mercy with his friends.
SPEAKER_01: And in the ancient world, eating with someone indicated support and agreement with who they were and what they did.
SPEAKER_01: So Matthew is in essence celebrating the fact that Jesus has called him to follow him.
SPEAKER_01: And whom does he invite to celebrate with him?
SPEAKER_01: His friends, naturally.
SPEAKER_01: What kind of friends does a tax collector have?
SPEAKER_01: Tax collectors.
SPEAKER_01: And other sinners.
SPEAKER_01: These would be people who didn't really care about the requirements of the law of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: But for Jesus as a teacher to share a meal with these kinds of people would have been worse than scandalous.
SPEAKER_01: And he was eating in the home of an unclean tax collector.
SPEAKER_01: And we're told that Pharisees are in the vicinity and they're paying attention to who's going in and out of that home, and they know what's happening, and so they call aside some of Jesus' disciples.
SPEAKER_01: They don't even have the gall to talk to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: They call some of the disciples and say, Who in the world is your teacher associating with?
SPEAKER_01: But here's where we see divine mercy on display.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus doesn't really care what the Pharisees think.
SPEAKER_01: He shrugs off their disapproval.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't go along with their theology that says such awful people are not worthy of his attention and presence.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't agree that such people are beyond the reach of God's grace and mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, in essence, says these are exactly the kind of people that God's mercy is designed to reach.
SPEAKER_01: These are exactly the kind of people that you were supposed to be merciful to and showing them the grace of God.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus doesn't care about the categories of people imposed by the world by unmerciful hypocrites.
SPEAKER_01: To treat the sick, the infirm, the diseased, the outcasts of the world better than society treats them is gracious and merciful.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the true point: to invite them into the Lord's kingdom is the ultimate in mercy.
SPEAKER_01: There's more to this issue than how Jesus treats a person or a kind of person.
SPEAKER_01: It's about him inviting them into his kingdom and changing them.
SPEAKER_01: He's not infected by their problems.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, they are cleansed by his power and his holiness.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the most stunning thing about divine mercy.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter who you are or what you're like or what you've done before meeting Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter if you're a disgusting leper with scaly skin and perhaps even portions of your body missing from the ravages of disease.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't matter what ethnicity you were born into, like the centurion in chapter 8.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter if you live in the most despicable places, or if you have the most despicable job, or if you've committed the most despicable of sins.
SPEAKER_01: What matters is that you find Jesus and experience his saving mercy.
SPEAKER_01: All of these healings that we've seen in chapter 8 leading up to this point are a demonstration of that greatest of mercies, that Jesus can save his people from their sins.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus came that Matthew could have life again.
SPEAKER_01: And not just Matthew.
SPEAKER_01: Not just Matthew, but everyone who trusts in him.
SPEAKER_01: See, the calling of Matthew is at once, it's at once an invitation and a command.
SPEAKER_01: It's an invitation to leave behind the unmerciful life you've led and come and receive divine mercy.
SPEAKER_01: And it's a command to the lost saying, Come to me for rescue.
SPEAKER_01: And those who need rescue love the rescuer so much that they turn around and they follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the interesting thing, though.
SPEAKER_01: Those who truly appreciated Jesus, those who sought him out, those who desired to follow him were not those who went to church every week.
SPEAKER_01: It's only those who recognize their sin that receive mercy from the Savior.
SPEAKER_01: So that's the third category where divine mercy seeks out the lost.
SPEAKER_01: The Pharisees challenge the disciples, why does your teacher eat with those people?
SPEAKER_01: There's an inherent sarcasm in that question.
SPEAKER_01: Why does your teacher you call him a teacher?
SPEAKER_01: If he's a teacher, why is he with those people and why is he eating with them?
SPEAKER_01: Why is he in Matt's house?
SPEAKER_01: In other words, what sort of person would be merciful to a tax collector?
SPEAKER_01: What's Hosea's answer?
SPEAKER_01: God's people.
SPEAKER_01: And ultimately, God's promised one.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is the one who responds.
SPEAKER_01: Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
SPEAKER_01: That's sort of a parable.
SPEAKER_01: That's not used as a principle of physical healing, but of spiritual healing.
SPEAKER_01: In this context, the sick are those who need mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Those who need spiritual mercy.
SPEAKER_01: You see, if you want to be a fisherman, you get your hands and feet wet and eventually you begin to smell like fish.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to be a carpenter, you use your hands and they're going to get dusty and they're going to get rough and they're going to be filled with splinters.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to be a doctor, you spend time with the sick people and the diseased.
SPEAKER_01: If you've come to save your people from their sins, you seek out those who need mercy for their sins, not those who think they are righteous.
SPEAKER_01: There are three basic types of people who, when it comes to sin, there are those who are sinners but don't care.
SPEAKER_01: There are those who know that they're sinners and desire to have that fixed.
SPEAKER_01: And then there are those like the Pharisees who are sinners but think they're righteous.
SPEAKER_01: It's as if their bodies were riddled with sickness, but they continue to believe that they don't need a doctor.
SPEAKER_01: They're on ventilators, but they're convinced they're fine.
SPEAKER_01: They don't believe they need mercy because they don't believe that they're sinners in need of a savior.
SPEAKER_01: They don't have a sin problem.
SPEAKER_01: But here is divine mercy, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus came for those who know they are sick and want to be healed.
SPEAKER_01: We're not talking about physical healing here.
SPEAKER_01: It's as if Matthew is saying to his guests, guys, I found the answer to everything.
SPEAKER_01: And here he is.
SPEAKER_01: Let me introduce you to my new friend.
SPEAKER_01: Divine mercy.
SPEAKER_01: By extension, Matthew says to us, I don't care what category of people you're in, let me introduce you to my friend.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: Divine mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Because Hosea promised us that God would come and rain down righteousness on us.
SPEAKER_01: It's not my rightness.
SPEAKER_01: It's his.
SPEAKER_01: Go and learn what this means.
SPEAKER_01: I desire mercy, not sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: Divine mercy has come and dwelt among us.
SPEAKER_01: And we beheld his glory.
SPEAKER_01: Not the broken, fading, sinful, partial obedience glory of forgotten kings.
SPEAKER_01: But glory as of the only begotten of the Father.
SPEAKER_01: Glory that is full of grace and truth.
SPEAKER_01: Glory that came to fulfill the law as no one else could.
SPEAKER_01: My friends, this is about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: This is about the one who has authority to forgive sins.
SPEAKER_01: He's the one, the one whose approach to sin is not sacrifice, but mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Why can he approach sin with mercy instead of sacrifice?
SPEAKER_01: It's because he can be merciful to our sins, because he took the sacrifice himself.
SPEAKER_01: Go and learn what this means.
SPEAKER_01: When you see Jesus exercising mercy by reaching the lost with the good news of salvation, then you are seeing the fulfillment of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: What does that mean for us?
SPEAKER_01: What does that mean for you?
SPEAKER_01: How do we take that and work it out today?
SPEAKER_01: First and foremost, see Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe if we were to take Hosea's words, know God.
SPEAKER_01: Know Him.
SPEAKER_01: And see Him.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to Him.
SPEAKER_01: Don't doubt.
SPEAKER_01: The world's gonna throw questions at you, they're gonna throw curveballs at you, they're gonna want you to swing and miss, they're gonna want you to be confused to no end.
SPEAKER_01: See Jesus and know your God.
SPEAKER_01: Trust His Word.
SPEAKER_01: God said what to expect, and here you see fulfillment.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, have the heart of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Amazing thing happened.
SPEAKER_01: God said, You can't do that.
SPEAKER_01: It's my expectation, but you can't do it.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna come and fulfill it myself.
SPEAKER_01: And then I'm gonna do something even more astounding.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna give you my spirit so that you can do it too.
SPEAKER_01: My friends, have the heart of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: There is no group of people so lost as to be beyond the hope of divine mercy.
SPEAKER_01: None.
SPEAKER_01: Are you being merciful to them?
SPEAKER_01: That is, are you bringing them to Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Are you are you showing them Christ?
SPEAKER_01: Finally, your Bible is trustworthy.
SPEAKER_01: I've loved going through this text this last week, again and again, seeing the connections that God wove together to say, look at who I'm who I am, look at what I've done, listen to my word.
SPEAKER_01: It's trustworthy.
SPEAKER_01: Know it and know me.
SPEAKER_01: And when you know Him and you trust His word and you live it out, what are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: You're showing that you have the heart that God wants.
SPEAKER_01: You're showing that you've been impacted by divine mercy.
SPEAKER_01: John Newton wrote of that divine mercy.
SPEAKER_01: You know John Newton, right?
SPEAKER_01: Author of Amazing Grace.
SPEAKER_01: He said, if I ever reach heaven, I expect to find three wonders there.
SPEAKER_01: First, to meet someone I had not thought to see there.
SPEAKER_01: Second, to miss some I had thought to meet there.
SPEAKER_01: And third, the greatest wonder of all to find myself there.
SPEAKER_01: It's the wonders of divine mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, may we not leave this room today without having been impacted by your mercy.
SPEAKER_01: What a wonderful thing that you've done for us beyond comprehension.
SPEAKER_01: Open your word to us.
SPEAKER_01: May your spirit give us light to see you.
SPEAKER_01: May your spirit enable us to trust you and to know you day by day, moment by moment, hour by hour, until that day when we see you and all of your revealed glory.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.