Discerning His Presence 1975

I'd like to read a few verses from Matthew, chapter 9, starting at verse 9. As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax office. And he said to him, follow me. And he rose and followed him.

And as he sat at a table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? But when he heard it, he said, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means.

I desire mercy and not sacrifice, for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. We've seen the heavy emphasis all through scripture on how the spirit of the Lord's mercy goes out seeking the poor, the maimed, the halt, and the blind. Today we see Jesus going in another direction, looking for sinners.

He calls this man who is a wealthy tax collector. And Matthew is overjoyed. The parallel accounts of this passage tell us that it's Matthew himself who prepared this magnificent dinner in his home and invited to it all his friends who were themselves tax collectors and sinners.

And it's like a mafia reunion. All kinds of shady characters are there to celebrate their joy with Matthew as he now starts out his new life with Jesus. It's a beautiful thing.

And here in the middle of all these sinners reclined, and that's how they had their meals in those days, Jesus, just reclining there by the table, eating with his disciples. And to keep in mind now that this is not a prayer meeting, it's not a service, it's a feast. And it has all the aroma, for those who have the eyes to see this, of compromise with sin.

And whenever something might possibly be interpreted, anything that Jesus does, as compromise with sin, inevitably there's somebody there who picks it up. And here, very nearby, of course, there are these men who are very pious, and who know their scriptures from A to Z, and who are very busy performing their righteous deeds, and they know, if they look at Jesus doing this thing here, that he doesn't know the rudiments of holiness. Depart ye, depart ye, touch not the unclean things, go thee out from thence.

That's what scripture says. Now, they don't have the gut to talk directly to Jesus about this, so they talk to his disciples. How come your master eats with tax collectors and sinners? Jesus answers, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

Go and learn what this means. I desire mercy, and not sacrifice, for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. Now get this, the Pharisees' complaint with Jesus was solidly, as far as they were concerned, based on scripture.

So Jesus comes right back with scripture. He comes back to them with Hosea 6-6. All right, you guys know your scripture.

Learn what this scripture means. You search the scriptures, for in them you think you have life, but it is they that testify to me. And until you understand what Hosea 6-6 means, you won't be able to make head or tail out of what scripture is really saying.

First, go and learn what it means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice. If there's any spirit which has infected us as a fellowship, particularly in the last few years, it has been that spirit. In other words, we've been forming, many of us at least, in our minds, very clear-cut standards of what it means to be righteous, what it means to be a true disciple, and how you can really tell when somebody is walking in holiness.

And if people don't measure up to these standards which we have very specifically formed in our heads, they're either going to have to shape up or remove themselves from the circle of the righteous. We've taken what we believe is true discipleship and we've formulated ideas about what that really involves. For instance, if we happen to live in the city, you want to be a true disciple, you better move into the city.

You're in the suburbs, you're not committed to Jesus. You have a good job, you're not committed to Jesus. You have a new car and I have an old car, you spend too much time with your children, while I'm busy running around saving souls and neglecting mine, you're not committed to Jesus.

You read too many books. All I read is the Bible. You're not committed to Jesus.

You've got a suit that costs more than $49.50, two pair of pants. Get out of here. You know, and we could go down the list of ridiculous standards that we have formed in our heads.

Well, many oftentimes, many times don't admit that they're there, but they're there. They go down the list until noontime today, and he's ticking them off. And if we compare them, they're no less ridiculous than the standards that the Pharisees tried to apply to Jesus.

The result of this has been that we have driven from our midst people who have hungered and thirsted for the kingdom of God. But because they did not express their hunger for the kingdom in a way proper, from our point of view, we say good riddance. They're not committed.

Moreover, we have dumped on top of people who are already bent over with loads of guilt more condemnation because they don't come up to our standards. And while we've been doing this, we have been drawing our own satisfaction and comfort and assurance not from the cross of Jesus. You can never draw peace from the cross of Jesus when you're forever condemning everybody else.

Can't do it. So what you then do, unconsciously at least, you begin to scratch around and find your satisfaction in the fact that you are a true disciple and that you love Scripture. But what about the one to whom Scripture points, do you love him? And this is what we've done.

So that now Jesus has to say to us as a fellowship the exact words that he said to those Pharisees. And if you don't think these words apply to you, then I don't know what else to say, but I believe they apply to us all. Go and learn what this means.

And don't try to learn anything else until you learn this because it won't do you any good. This is the basic thing. Learn what this means.

I desire mercy, not sacrifice. But Lord, sacrifice is the basis of our approach to God. Didn't the priest offer the lamb? And haven't we developed in holiness as we have sacrificed? Are you telling me that all my self-denial and all my sacrifice is in vain? I desire mercy, not sacrifice, because the sacrifice has already been made.

And what do you think that you can add to it? And by what presumption do you think you can offer to God anything that's going to compare with the innocent suffering and death of his only begotten Son? God, out of a heart of mercy that has no limit, no bottom to it, has given us his prized treasure, his only begotten, and laid him on the altar, and pulled back the knife, and slain him in our place, and caused his blood to be the propitiation for our sins, and opened the door for us to come back to him. What more can you ask for from God? And now, if we will but look away from ourselves and unto him, look unto him and be saved all the ends of the earth, not at your achievements, and not at your forever constant failures, and not at your disappointments, and all these things that have marred your life, but look at him, then you'll find success. Fix your gaze on the dying Lamb of God, and the power that broke the curse twenty centuries ago, far, far away from here, will find its way like a burning torch into your heart, and will set you free, and heal you.

Now, the God who has so provided that sacrifice requires of us one thing, mercy. I will have mercy. I desire a mercy heart.

Now, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and a contrived heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. And a broken spirit is always a mercy-filled spirit.

And a contrived heart always, always, always is a mercy-filled heart. And that's what he requires. That's what he's looking for.

That's the only thing we can give him, if we will. God is looking, as he looks down upon us today, for a mercy heart. A mercy heart, first of all, is a heart that acknowledges its own desperate need of mercy.

They that are well have no need of a physician, but they that are sick. And who of us here isn't sick? But what physician can do us any good until we acknowledge that we are sick? I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. And who of us in this place is not a sinner? But what can the Savior do for us until we acknowledge that? Now, the mercy of God was flowing in Matthew's house.

It had no place on earth that day. You can be sure. Wonderful things were going on there.

But the Pharisees, who were so righteous, didn't see a thing. Couldn't possibly recognize what was taking place. The mercy of God that was so flowing and so free and so wonderful was missed by them because they had blinded themselves because they refused to acknowledge their own need of mercy.

And, my friends, the minute we get to that place where we refuse to acknowledge our own daily, hourly, desperate need of God's mercy, we become blind to the operation of God's hand in our lives and in our ministry. God help us to acknowledge our need of mercy. Otherwise, we're going to walk right by the halls of glory and right past the springs of living water, and the only thing we're going to see is other people's sin.

A mercy heart, secondly, is a heart that experiences a growing, overwhelming need to show mercy. It looks around and it begins now to find that it has in itself a drive coming from within, from God, to forgive, to pray for its enemy, to return good for evil. And instead of criticizing and tearing apart the body, to intercede.

It's quite possible, for instance, that the day that Matthew had this wonderful feast, there was a man there who had grossly wronged him. And for a long time, Matthew had full intentions of taking him to court or at least punching him in the face. But now, this wonderful thing has happened to Matthew, and to his own amazement, there is no bitterness in his heart.

And he wishes this man well and responds to him with nothing but good. And because this is what's in his heart, Matthew has life and the Pharisees have death. Matthew has peace, the Pharisees have an unrest inside their hearts.

Nothing is right, nor can it be, until they begin to show mercy. Because Matthew is offering to God the one thing that God is looking for, a mercy heart. Isn't it strange? These religious men are looking at a miracle, and all they see is a compromise with evil.

God looks down on that same thing, and he sees one man, perhaps a whole host of men and women, who are now putting their feet on the road that will lead them to life, and a road that will indeed cost them everything they have. And they're not going to be afraid to give up everything they have. It's not going to be some big production.

Look at me! I'm sacrificing everything I have! They never even think of it like that. They do it out of sheer joy, because they have found the mercy of God. Don't misunderstand me.

I'm not saying the gospel is soft. I believe that the gospel means self-denial. See, but it's a self-denial which is based on mercy and not sacrifice, and that makes all the difference in the world.

Even when we offer our body as a living sacrifice, we do it by the mercies of God. You know, we give ourselves the way a man and woman who are in love give themselves to each other in marriage for life. You know, I said, boy, this is really costing me a lot.

You know, if you're doing that, don't get married. They do it out of joy, because every place they turn, they see Jesus. And when it's self-denial based on mercy, it's never, never self-conscious.

It never makes a production out of what it's doing, and it never, never, never, never measures other people's self-denial and finds it wanting. Now, the love, that sheer love of God that was welling up like a fountain in that place that day in Matthew's house is here. No less here than it was there.

And that love of God is there when you wake up in the morning and when you lie down at night. And when you go forth into your trials, it says, you want to discern that love, to live in that love, to mount up on wings like an eagle and soar through that love. One lesson, and that's mercy.

You want to see Jesus in this body for all its shortcomings and all its problems? You want to see Jesus, you really want to see Jesus, you're looking for Jesus, you want to see Him in your home, in your work, in your daily walk, and even in your trials? Go and learn what this means. And don't try to learn anything else until you do. I desire mercy and not sacrifice.

We thank you and praise you, Lord God, for the things that you are doing to us as a body these days. Thank you for the visions that you are giving us and the correction that is coming. Lord God, we want to get away from the yoke of bondage and we want to come unto the yoke of Jesus.

And wherever that yoke of bondage is in any way touching us, deliver us, make us to know it. And bring us to the place where we're under only one yoke. Father God, we just pray that you will cause us to see our own need of mercy, the sacrifice that's already been made for it, and fill us, Lord God, with your own Spirit, who is nothing but mercy.

What else is it? And we ask these things in the name of who is mercy incarnate, Jesus. Amen.