Eating with Sinners
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
For our opening word we have chosen the first verse of the study "He saw a man, * * sitting at the receipt of custom: and He saith unto him, Follow Me. And he arose, and followed Him."
There is something in this that is so simple and so direct that it appeals to us. It has every mark of the genuine.
1. There were no furbelows about it. There was no display, as though Matthew was a real hero, and needed a big commendation for his act in leaving the seat of custom on so short a notice. There was no blaring of trumpets, as though Christ had made a successful inroad into the upper classes, and had landed a follower from among the tax collectors.
There were no big headlines in the morning papers over the great success attending the ministry of the Lord. It is all stated so quietly, so unostentatiously "Follow Me. * * He left all, rose up, and followed."
Thus it should be: No man deserves to be heralded and applauded and praised because he turned his back on a few paltry dollars, which perish in a day, in order to follow the Son of God on a march toward a Land filled with flowers, with riches untold, and with a fellowship of martyrs and prophets and seers; and of the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost.
With such a glorious future ahead of him, and such an honor thrust upon him, there is no place to appropriately ascribe honor and glory because a man had such a wisdom that he saw the blessings which were ahead.
2. There was a call to leave the temporal for the spiritual. We are glad our verse says Matthew was "sitting at the receipt of custom." We are glad the verse describes the Master calling him away from sitting there. The Master always calls us to leave all. He rightly does this. Sometimes He permits us to remain in our position of employment, but He always demands that every position shall be subject to His orders. If we are to go with Him in a new path, we must leave the old, unless He deigns to travel with us in the path where we were traveling. In any event, there must be a following with Christ, and everything which hinders such a following must be set aside.
3. There was a call to follow. We wish that you could each one weigh the meaning of these wonderful words, "Follow Me." Sometimes we do not know what they entail. They do, however, always include a journeying with Christ. They always mean, "Whithersoever Thou goest, I will go; whithersoever Thou dwellest, I will dwell; Thy people shall be my people."
If we are to follow Christ we are to follow Him into the Garden, unto the hill that is lone and gray; we are to follow Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. We are to cast our lot with Him in a sacred and hallowed union, so that everything which befalls His lot befalls ours. There must be a union unto death, as well as unto life.
4. There will be a following hereafter.
They followed Him once in sacrifice and in suffering; now they follow Him as the risen, exalted Lord. If we follow on earth in fidelity as virgins, we, with them, will have a wonderful sphere of following Him in the Heavenlies.
If we follow Him on earth, even unto the death, if need be, we can follow Him in His Millennial Kingdom, and reign with Him in His glory.
I. JESUS SITTING AT MEAT WITH PUBLICANS AND SINNERS (Matthew 9:10)
Our verse says: "And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples."
1. Is there a place where we may fellowship with the ungodly? We are all aware that there is none. It is written, "And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them."
The word "fellowship" is too strong a word to apply to Matthew 9:10. Christ did sit at meat in a certain house, and many publicans and sinners sat down with Him. We have done this same thing time and again.
However, so far as we know, we have never had fellowship with those with whom we ate; that is, we have never been yoked together with them. We have never done what we are told not to do in Psalms 1:1. We have never walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seat of the scornful. If we have, our Lord never has. He was "separate from sinners."
We have made it our aim to obey the words of Proverbs 4:14-15, "Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away."
As we slip into the house and behold the Master eating with publicans and sinners, we still contend that, in no sense did Christ break His own separation from sinners.
2. There is a place where a man may contact sinners. Every call of the Bible is a call to us to go out into the byways and hedges, to bring them in. Every call of the Bible is a call to go into all the world and to preach the Gospel to every creature. God is always saying: "If by all means we may save some." Separation does not and never did mean isolation, in the sense of treating the unsaved as untouchables.
Our call is a call to contact with the man of low estate, with the sinner. Our place is to go to him, in his sin, to put our arms around him, give him a hand, to lift him up, to save him.
If Jesus Christ had refused to eat with the publicans and sinners He would, of necessity, have refused to die upon the Cross as the Saviour of sinners. His doing the one made it impossible to refuse to do the other.
II. THE PHARISAICAL CRITICS (Matthew 9:11)
1. On the lookout for faults. The Pharisees never approached Christ with an open mind. Many of them came to see Him. but they came, if by any means, they might discover in Him that which was evil They came in order to destroy Him.
A few, now and then, had their spirit of opposition broken down when they beheld His purity and power; and when they heard His messages of love and mercy. The vast majority, however, remained as critics to the end.
It is almost impossible to help anybody who carries with him a critical spirit.
2. A seeming discovery. The Pharisees knew the laws of separation. They were prepared to carry them to every extreme. They could pull their raiment about them and pass by on the other side with a display of ultra-religious ceremony. They could clasp their hands and ceremoniously lift their eyes heavenward as they prayed within themselves, and said, "I thank Thee, that I am not * * as this publican."
Knowing, therefore, their call to separation from sinners, and practicing it to a religious fanaticism, they were ready, when they saw Christ eating with publicans and sinners, to say, "Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?"
In our ministry, when at our invitation a reeling drunkard came up the aisle and fell prostrate at the altar, we have known certain pharisaical saints to complain bitterly. They felt that a poor intoxicated derelict of humanity had spoiled the whole service by seeking the Saviour.
To be sure the man was gloriously saved, and afterward became a vital factor for his Lord. To them, however, his salvation seemed to carry but little weight.
Thus it was that the Pharisees said: "Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?" For their part, they disdained Him, They said, "Your Master," and not "ours."
III. TEACHING THE LESSON OF MERCY (Matthew 9:12-13)
1. Christ explained His attitude toward publicans and sinners. Here is His explanation, "They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick." With one sweep, the Lord shook off the criticisms of the nagging Pharisees. With one word He overcame every critic of today, who would place upon Him the charge of being a comrade and a partner with the wicked.
Christ explained that He sat with the publicans and sinners the same way as a physician sits down by the bed of the sick. A doctor does not enter the home of the diseased to be a partaker of the disease. He enters to save the sick from whatever ailment may have befallen him.
He may prescribe for a leper, but he is never reckoned as having the leprosy; nor as being classed among the lepers. His work is that of healing and helping of uplifting. Jesus Christ, therefore, said, in effect, I sit with publicans and sinners, because I am a Saviour of publicans and sinners.
2. Christ reproved the Pharisees for their lack of mercy. He said: "But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice." Some of us are perfectly satisfied to go through the act of baptism and a remembrance of the Lord's Supper, but we are not willing to show mercy to the publican and the sinner. We are ready to quote, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners"; but we are not willing to apply those words by entering into the home of the publican, and in sitting down with him and pointing him to the way of life.
We parade our piety by holding tenaciously to a doctrinal statement concerning the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ, but we display an utter ignorance of the deeper meaning of that sacrifice when we refuse to have mercy. A doctrine that is not practiced, is not, to us, practical.
We must not only believe, but we must enter into the meaning of our faith. We must go back of the Cross in which we glory and reach down and lift the sinner up to our Saviour. We must go out and bring the one burdened with his sin to the foot of that Cross where sins are made to roll away.
3. The climax of it all. Christ said: "I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Over His position, as He sat at meat with publicans and sinners, He wrote the word "CALL." He did not write the word "Fellowship," or "Comradeship."
It was when Jesus Christ ate with publicans and sinners that He (see Luke 15:1-32) gave the parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. He was there in order to seek and to save that which was lost.
IV. FASTING SHOULD NOT BE CEREMONIAL (Matthew 9:14-15)
1. A question on fasting. This time the question was asked by the disciples of John. They asked in all sincerity, because they failed to understand the deeper meaning of fasting. Here was their question, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but Thy disciples fast not?"
(1) The question shows that John's disciples were aligned to rabbinical laws. Mark the words, "We and the Pharisees." Two classes only were displayed, "We and the Pharisees" were one class; "Thy disciples," was the other class.
It is not to be wondered at that John the Baptist's disciples were more or less under Old Testament legalities. John had come under the Law, and had heralded the coming of Christ. He had warned concerning certain fallacies in Jewish ceremonials, which were held without any new life in their wake; however, his disciples still followed after Judaism.
(2) The question of John's disciples made necessary an explanation as to why Christ was not enforcing certain rabbinical laws and customs. This same thing may often come, in effect, to many believers today. Some churches carry out a routine and formal worship which other churches omit. Some churches demand books of prayer, and other rituals, of which others know nothing. The question, Why? may come to them.
2. The answer to the question. The Lord Jesus said: "Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them?" Christ taught that, in effect, fasting, as a mere formality and ritual, was not acceptable to God. When people fast there must be a reason for fasting. There must be circumstances which make fasting practical.
Let us remember that in everything God looketh on the heart.
Was it a time for the children of the bridechamber to mourn, during the festive time that the bridegroom was with them? It would be incongruous out of order. Should we start up a period of weeping and wailing in the midst of happy and joyous festivities? Then we would be doing something by way of form, which is not an expression of the pulsings of our heart.
3. Christ's vision of the future. " The bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast." The Lord spoke of His death, of the tragic effect that it would have upon His disciples. He saw them as sheep without a shepherd; He anticipated the two disciples walking to Emmaus, weeping and sad as they walked; He saw Peter with his heart "crushed, as he beheld his dying Lord; He saw the women weeping about the tomb. He saw it all, and He said, "The days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast."
In other words, the days would come when there would be a genuine fasting, a fasting that was not ceremonial and formal; but a fasting that was real and genuine, and prompted by circumstances which give meaning to the fast.
V. A MESSAGE CONCERNING REALITIES (Matthew 9:16)
We have the message of a piece of new cloth in an old garment. Christ said, "No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse."
1. The old garment stands for the Judaistic Rabbinical laws which were passing away. The old garment stands for those things which the Scribes and the Pharisees commanded the populace to observe and do. They were burdens which were too heavy and too grievous to be borne. They were rituals which the Pharisees bound and laid on men's shoulders. They included such things as the making broad of phylacteries and the enlargement of the borders of garments. They included regulations concerning swearing by the Temple, and the giving of gifts, the paying of tithes of mint and anise and cummin. All of these things Christ called "straining at gnats." They were things which included, the building of the tombs of the Prophets, and the garnishing of the sepulchers of the righteous.
Jesus Christ called all the things above "an old garment that was rent and torn." They were not the commandments of God but they were the commandments of God made void by the commandments of men.
2. The new garment stands for that which Christ was about to bring in the Church the Gospel as Paul preached it. This was a brand new order, unknown to the Prophets of old. It was a new cloth that could not be tied on to the old garment.
Do you remember how the Apostle Paul said: "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free (that is, the new garment) and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage" (that is, the old garment). When the new garment came in, the old passed away.
VI. ARK CHRISTIANS FREE FROM THE LAW (Matthew 9:17 with Galatians 5:1)
The new wine put into old bottles is much the same as the new cloth put into the old garment. However, we believe that our former statements are not sufficient. There are other vital truths which need to be impressed.
1. There was no place for union between the Church and Judaism. When Christ brought in the Church, He did not bring it in as a reformed and restated Judaistic continuance.
Every statement of Scripture is contrary to this contention. Let me note a few of these for your consideration:
(1) "The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in." The teaching here is plain. The branches are Judaism; they were broken off; The "I" is Christianity that is grafted in. To be sure, it was grafted into the old Jewish root, but it is a separate system of branches.
We are studying in Romans 11:1-36. Here is another statement in the same chapter, "If the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?" Israel was cast away, the Church was brought in to be God's reconciling instrument. However, Israel shall, after the Rapture of the Church, be received back again, and at that time, Israel will function as one who is brought back from death. While the Church is operating, Israel is sidetracked. When the Church is taken away, at the Coming of the Lord, Israel will be brought back again, "for God is able to graff them in again."
(2) "I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed." Unto Paul God revealed the Gospel for this age. That Gospel was distinct from Judaism. When Peter came to Antioch he separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. In other words, Peter feared to take his stand against Judaistic entanglements, but the rather dissembled with them.
It was against this that Paul wrote, "I withstood him to the face," saying to Peter, "Why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?" After this Paul added, "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ."
2. Is, then, the Christian free from the Law? He is free from the Law, written in ordinances, so far as salvation is concerned. The handwriting that was against us, which was contrary to us, He took away, nailing it to His Cross. The Law brought condemnation, because it condemned us for our sins. Christ took this condemnation away, being made a curse for us.
The laws of sacrifices and ritual are wholly removed from the Church. We are dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world. "Why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?"
The Christian, walking in love, will find that he fulfills the Law written on two tables of stone. However, salvation is never by the Law.
AN ILLUSTRATION
Thank God for saving and superabounding grace.
A short time ago, in one of our churches in Seoul we had a most remarkable conversion. Many times we had invited a certain woman to the services and to the Lord Jesus Christ, but always she had refused our invitations. We felt the Lord was speaking to her, but she resisted the pleadings of His Spirit. She was an ardent idol worshiper and recently, as she was preparing rice cakes to offer to the idols, one of God's messengers again invited her to the meetings. This time she accepted, leaving her rice cakes just as they were, not even stopping to finish them. How the Spirit dealt with her that night, until she could no longer resist His workings! With tears, she repented of her sins and cried out to God for forgiveness. She arose from her knees with such shouts of victory and so happy in the Lord that all the Christians present in that meeting started shouting and praising the Lord with her. In the midst of this rejoicing she thought of her rice cakes and ran home to finish them, which took only a short time. White she was there she tore the idols from the shelf and the heathen pictures from the wall and burned them. She praised the Lord that these dead gods, with eyes that see not, ears that hear not, and a heart void of compassion, had been exchanged for the True and Living God, and that her burden was gone and peace had come to her heart. She returned to the church with her rice cakes and she and the Christians enjoyed them together she no longer needed them to offer to the idols. As they ate, they continued their rejoicing for the healing of both soul and body. Mrs. Pak, Yu-cha, Korea.