Not the Self-Righteous

To: ALL WHO HAVE EARS TO HEAR
 

From; GOD THE FATHER, THE LORD JESUS CHRIST HIS SON and Ministered through the HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD, The Helper, that He may be with you forever. [John 14:16]

 

Subject: MY WORD

 

Matthew 9:9–13 (The Living Bible)

⁹As Jesus was going on down the road, he saw a tax collector, Matthew, sitting at a tax collection booth. “Come and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him, and Matthew jumped up and went along with him.

¹⁰Later, as Jesus and his disciples were eating dinner at Matthew’s house, there were many notorious swindlers there as guests!

¹¹The Pharisees were indignant. “Why does your teacher associate with men like that?”

¹²“Because people who are well don’t need a doctor! It’s the sick people who do!” was Jesus’ reply. ¹³Then he added, “Now go away and learn the meaning of this verse of Scripture,

‘It isn’t your sacrifices and your gifts I want—I want you to be merciful.’

For I have come to urge sinners, not the self-righteous, back to God.”

 

Proverbs 21:1–8 (The Living Bible)

      Just as water is turned into irrigation ditches, so the Lord directs the king’s thoughts. He turns them wherever he wants to.

²We can justify our every deed, but God looks at our motives.

³God is more pleased when we are just and fair than when we give him gifts.

⁴Pride, lust, and evil actions are all sin.

⁵Steady plodding brings prosperity; hasty speculation brings poverty.

⁶Dishonest gain will never last, so why take the risk?

⁷Because the wicked are unfair, their violence boomerangs and destroys them.

⁸A man is known by his actions. An evil man lives an evil life; a good man lives a godly life.

 

Hosea 6:6 (The Living Bible)

⁶“I don’t want your sacrifices—I want your love; I don’t want your offerings—I want you to know me.

 

Micah 6:6–8 (NASB95)

What God Requires of Man

    6         With what shall I come to the Lord

And bow myself before the God on high?

Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings,

With yearling calves?

    7         Does the Lord take delight in thousands of rams,

In ten thousand rivers of oil?

Shall I present my firstborn for my rebellious acts,

The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

    8         He has told you, O man, what is good;

And what does the Lord require of you

But to do justice, to love kindness,

And to walk humbly with your God?

 

Mark 2:17 (The Living Bible)

¹⁷When Jesus heard what they were saying, he told them, “Sick people need the doctor, not healthy ones! I haven’t come to tell good people to repent, but the bad ones.”  

Luke 5:31–32 (The Living Bible)

³¹Jesus answered them, “It is the sick who need a doctor, not those in good health. ³²My purpose is to invite sinners to turn from their sins, not to spend my time with those who think themselves already good enough.”  

Luke 19:10 (AMP)

10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.  

Psalm 14:1–7 (Tanakh) —

¹ For the leader. Of David. The benighted man thinks, “God does not care.” Man’s deeds are corrupt and loathsome; no one does good. ² The Lord looks down from heaven on mankind to find a man of understanding, a man mindful of God. ³ All have turned bad, altogether foul; there is none who does good, not even one. ⁴ Are they so witless, all those evildoers, who devour my people as they devour food, and do not invoke the Lord? ⁵ There they will be seized with fright, for God is present in the circle of the righteous. ⁶ You may set at naught the counsel of the lowly, but the Lord is his refuge. ⁷ O that the deliverance of Israel might come from Zion! When the Lord restores the fortunes of His people, Jacob will exult, Israel will rejoice.