Sermon #110 Luke
Sermons
Title: Publicans and Sinners Welcome
Text: Luke
15:1
Subject: The
Approachableness of Christ
Date: Sunday
Evening—
Tape # X-90a
Introduction:
(Luke 15:1) "Then drew near unto him
all the publicans and sinners for to hear him."
While he walked upon this earth in human flesh, the
Son of God courted the company of publicans and sinners. Publicans and sinners
were always welcomed by the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing has changed.
Proposition: He who came into the world
to save sinners still courts the company of publicans and sinners, welcoming
all who come to him.
That
is the one thing I want you to see in this message. May God the Holy Spirit make
it a mighty magnet to draw every sinner here to the Savior.
I have no aim, no goal, no purpose tonight except to
persuade you for Christ’s sake to come to him.
Our Lord Jesus is one the Mediator between God and men. He is the great Daysman
who can lay hold on both God and man, and bring the two together. A mediator is
not a mediator of one— he must be akin to both the parties between whom he
mediates. If Jesus Christ shall be a perfect mediator between God and man, he
must be able to come to God so near that God shall call him his fellow, and
then he must approach to man so closely that he shall not be ashamed to call
him brother.
This
is precisely the case with our Redeemer. He is a mediator, and as a mediator
you may come to him. Jacob's ladder reached from earth to heaven. If he had the
bottom rungs of the ladder, it would have been a useless thing. Would it not?
Who could ascend by it into the hill of the Lord? Christ is the great
conjunction, the great connecting link between earth and heaven.
We
need a mediator between us and God. We dare not think of coming to God without
a mediator. But we need no mediator between us and the God-man. Come to Christ,
the Mediator. Come and welcome!
· Without Preparation
· Without Qualification
· Without Righteousness
· Without Atonement
· Without Experience
· Without Feeling
He
is the Mediator. He has everything in himself. He requires nothing. He gives
everything.
Our all-glorious Christ is the Great High Priest. He is not a pretend
priest, but a real one. He who is the great High Priest, ever living in heaven
is able to save unto the uttermost all who come to God
by him. The true priest in
· The priest was chosen from
among the people.
· The priest made atonement.
· The priest blessed.
· The first point of contact
between God and the leper was Aaron the High priest. When he was so unclean
that no other man could or would touch him, the priest touched him and made himself unclean by doing so, that he might help the poor
leper and pronounce him clean.
· It was the priest who
absolved guilt.
· The priest made intercession
for the transgressors, as one touched with the feeling of their infirmities.
It
may be that no other mortal wants to touch you, O trembling outcast, but the
sinner’s Priest will. You may have separated yourself from all others by your
iniquities, but you are not separated from that great Friend of sinners who at
this very hour is willing that publicans and sinners should draw near unto him.
The Son of God, the Lord Jesus is the sinner’s Savior; too. The priest and the Levite
passed by on the other side when the bleeding wretch lay in the road to
Frequently, the Scriptures describe the Lord Jesus as the
"Lamb." Blessed name! I do not suppose there is any one here who was ever
afraid of a lamb. That little girl, if she saw a lamb, would not be scared by
it. Every child, almost instinctively, wants to put its hand on the head of a
lamb. O that you might come and put your hand on the head of Christ, the Lamb
of God that taketh away the sin of the world.
"Oh see how Jesus trusts
himself
Unto our childish love,
As though by his free ways with us
His earnestness to prove!
His sacred name a common word
On earth he loves to hear;
There is no majesty in him
Which love may not come near."
He who is the Lamb of God is
also called the Shepherd, the Good Shepherd, the Chief Shepherd, the Great
Shepherd, and the Shepherd of the sheep. No one fears a shepherd. Sheep
are never timid when near the shepherd. O poor wandering sheep, you, perhaps,
have come to be afraid of Christ, but there is no reason why you should be, for
this heavenly Shepherd says, "I will seek out my sheep, and will
deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and
dark day."
Timid, foolish, and wandering though you may be, there is nothing in the good Shepherd to drive you away
from him, but everything to entice you to come to him.
Christ is our Brother, a
Brother born for adversity. You need not think that your troubles are too
trifling to bring to your Brother. He has an open ear, an open heart, and an
open hand. You may come to our good elder Brother at all hours. If he ever
blames you for coming, or turns you away, let me know. But there are brothers
who prove to be failures to their brothers.
So the Word of God tells us that he Son of
God is a Friend, a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother. A friend’s door is always open. The welcome
mat is always out. As soon as you show up on his doorstep, he says, "Come
in. It’s so good to see you. How have you been? What can I get you? What can I
do for you?" Such a friend is Jesus Christ. He is to be met with by all
needy, seeking hearts.
Pause a moment to behold the
Savior’s magnificent Person and be persuaded that he still welcomes poor,
despised publicans and sinners. The person of our Lord Jesus Christ proclaims this
truth with a trumpet voice. He is man, born of woman, bone of our
bone, and flesh of our flesh. The Lord Jesus Christ is God, but
if he were God only, you might well stand at a
distance, and shudder at the splendor of his majesty. But he is man as well as
God, and so it comes to pass, as Isaac Watts puts it—
"Till God in human flesh I see,
My thoughts no comfort find;
The holy, just, and sacred Three
Are terrors to my mind.
But if Immanuel's face appear,
My hope, my joy begins;
His name forbids my slavish fear,
His grace removes my sins."
When I see Christ in the manger where the horned ox
fed, or hanging on a woman's breast, or obedient to his parents, or "a Man
of sorrows and acquainted with grief," a poor man without a place whereon
to lay his head, then I feel that I can freely come to him. When I see him
hungry, thirsty, weary, angry, weeping, hurting, even forsaken of God, I think
to myself, there is One who knows exactly what I feel, who knows exactly what I
need. And he has promised, "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast
out."
What tender language, what
gracious words he uses to woo sinners to himself. ― "Come unto
me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
― "If any man thirst, let him come unto
me and drink." ― "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that
killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often
would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her
chickens under her wings, and ye would not." It is not "I would
not," but "ye would not." ― "Come now, and let us
reason together: though your sins be as scarlet, they
shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as
wool." ― "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous
man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon
him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."
What keeps you from Christ?
What is it keeps you back? Let me make one more effort at persuading you how
welcome sinners are at the throne of grace. Look away to
·
He hangs there in another man’s place.
·
He prays for the very men whose hands are red with his blood.
·
He dies the just for the unjust, that he might bring the unjust to God.
·
He is made to be sin, that sinners might be made the righteousness of
God in him.
·
He takes embraces a poor thief in the arms of omnipotent mercy, while
his arms are nailed to the cursed tree.
·
He looks graciously upon a fallen object of his intense love with
tender forgiveness.
·
He bids you and me look upon him and live (Isa. 45:22).
(Isa
45:22) "Look unto me, and be ye
saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none
else."
"There
is life in a look at the crucified One."
Surely, you need not be
afraid to come to him who went to
"Why art thou afraid to come,
And tell him all thy case?
He will not pronounce thy doom,
Nor frown thee from thy face.
Wilt thou fear Immanuel?
Or dread the Lamb of God,
Who, to save poor souls from hell,
Has shed his precious blood?"
"Compell'd by bleeding
love,
Ye wandering sheep draw near;
Christ calls you from above—
His charming accents hear!
Let whosoever will now come,
In mercy's breast there still is room."
"Let not conscience
make you linger,
Nor of fitness fondly dream.
―
All the fitness he requireth,
Is to feel your need of him:
This he gives you;
'Tis the Spirit's rising beam."
"Come, and welcome;
Come, and welcome,
Sinners, come, and welcome
home!"
I stand at mercy's door tonight, and say to every
passerby, in the name of the Master, "My oxen and fatlings are killed;
come, come, come to the supper!" O that you would
come this very night!
"Jesus sits on
He receives poor sinners
still.”
It is my prayer that it may
be written of this day and this place, ― "Then
drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him."
·
A Magdalene
·
A Gardarene
·
A Zachaeus
·
A Canaanite
Amen.