Luke 18. Luke chapter 18. I want to look
at a few verses here in Luke 18. Then I'd like to compare
what's seen here with some passages in Philippians. We'll start here in Luke chapter. The Lord is speaking some parables
here. We'll learn here in the ninth
verse who he's talking to. The Lord's giving some parables. This particular parable that
the Lord is about to give is a parable about two different
people that have come into the tabernacle to worship. in the temple to worship. And as we look at these two people
that the Lord describes here, we find the two types of people
that come to worship. Those who come falsely, under
false pretenses, under false assurances, under false gospels,
under false understandings, and those who have come with the
truth that has been revealed to them by the Holy Spirit of
God from a quickened heart. We see here in these two
men found in the temple, we also see the natural man and we see
the spiritual man. We see two kinds of worshipers.
We see the natural worshipper or what we would call the religionist.
And then we see the true child of God who is truly worshipping
God in spirit and in truth as we'll see some verses later.
But we see these two men contrasted in what the Lord says about this.
So I thought we might look at this this morning. We talk often
and see often It isn't just that I'm trying to drive home a particular
doctrine of the two seeds or the doctrine of the two men,
the Shulamite or whatever you want to call it, the natural
man and the spiritual man, but it's found all throughout Scripture.
And I'm really, I think I've said this before, I was truly
amazed about how much of this used to be preached among Baptists,
And I hardly ever heard this preaching. Growing up, it never
came across my radar until the Lord began to bring me to the
truth of sovereign grace, for one. But as He began to teach
me more, even of that, I began to see this picture throughout
Scripture of who we are as the children of God. treasures in
these vessels of clay and how we have this battle between the
flesh and the spirit continually that the Lord has left us in
until the day of redemption. But let's look here, Luke chapter
18. I'm gonna start reading at verse
nine and I'm gonna read down to verse 14. and make a few comments
here as the Lord enables me and if my voice holds up. It says,
speaking of Jesus, and He spake this parable unto certain which
trusted in themselves. Now that's the subject matter
here. Jesus is speaking to some people
that was gathered to Him to listen to Him, and He was speaking to
them knowing that they were those who trusted in themselves, that
they were righteous, and how they despised others. Okay? And so here we see the first
group of people that we would call religionists, those who
trusted themselves and despised others. And I think we all have
not only experienced that from other people, But at some point
in our life, we have been that person where we look at ourselves
and we think, look how much I'm doing, how much I'm getting along
with the Lord, how much of a great walk I had before the Lord that
I've become better and better. What's your song? You know, I'm
I'm not what I was or I'm not what I used to be or something
like that. Huh? Little by little. No, it
wasn't that. I think the Cathedral Sunday
or something like that. I'm not what I was. Anyway, it's
left my mind already. But anyway, we talked about how
we have progressed in becoming more and more holy and more strict
and stringent to the law of God. And we began to think that we
have this righteousness of ourselves. Now some of us would even claim,
you know, oh, well, it's Christ in me. Christ is in me working
out this righteous and I am becoming more holy because Christ is in
me doing that work. Well, brethren, the work that
Christ is in you doing is not to make you more righteous. The work that Christ is doing
in you is to make you more aware of your sinfulness and to become
more dependent and trusting and looking towards his work that
he accomplished for you. Now, if, let's just say, for
instance, that I would go out here and take Zach's truck and
I would take it down and I would have it all cleaned and detailed.
Say I go out and spend $500 to have that thing cleaned and detailed
on the inside. I mean not a speck of dirt, dust,
it even smells good in there. Have it hand waxed. Now I know
it's kind of crazy because, you know, Zach's trunk is hair-lifted
out there. But to hand wax that thing, put
the slickum on the tires where they look good, buff those wheels
out, I mean, make that thing look sparkly new. And I come
and I tell Zach, you don't have to worry about cleaning that
old truck up or anything. I've already done it for you.
The cost is all covered. You don't have to do nothing
except enjoy the ride. And then Zach said, well, thanks.
And immediately go down to the car wash and start washing it
and vacuuming it out. And you know, I got to keep this
thing clean Now how do you think I would feel if Zach did that?
It would be a little bit of an insult to me. I just paid $500
for you to have a nice clean vehicle and now you're going,
thinking you're, I had it detailed at the best detailer and you're
going to take it down here to the 50 cent car wash and wash
it out? Well, I know that's not a great
example, but that's kind of what we're talking about when we talk
about Christ is making me more righteous so that I could fulfill
the law to be acceptable or to be pleasing to God. See, the very purpose for which
Christ came was to be for His people that which they cannot
do. And so He came and did that.
He came and was obedient to the Father so that you don't have
to do that because if you have to do that you will never attain
it. He came and lived and fulfilled
all the law so that you won't have to do that because you can
do that. And then He came and died a death
for you to pay an eternal price of wrath that sin was owed, his righteousness and his
justice demanded that sin be paid for, and so he came and
paid a perfect sacrifice that God said is well-pleasing, that
he accepted, that he said, hey, I am satisfied with what Christ
has done on your behalf. There's nothing else that I need
to even look at for you to be acceptable in my sight than what
Christ in His own person did for you. So His life and His
relationship, His dedication to the Father, His life and His
obedience and strict adherence to the law and the fulfilling
of the law in all of its aspects, in every way, and then His death
on your behalf as taking that punishment that is owed to you
because of your sin, Christ did all of that for you and gave
that to you as a gift. Not that you have to believe
on Him to get it, trust in Him to get it, receive it to get
it. He already gave it to you It
was already laid to your account before it ever came to the knowledge
of your mind, to the hearing of your ear, to the seeing of
your eyes, to the believing of your heart. Before any of that
ever happened, that was already laid to your account. And in
God's court of justice, you were already acquitted, justified,
and accepted in the Beloved based upon Christ and Him alone. And the fact that you are His,
means that there is no charge laid against you. The Bible says
there can be no charge laid against any of God's elect. And Christ
stood for His elect. And God accepted that and was
satisfied by that. So therefore, there is nothing
that we can do that can keep God from not loving us or to
do that would make God love us. That's why we were talking about
a couple of weeks ago before the boys had done anything good
or bad. God's love was set on one and not the other. God's
love was set on us before we do any religious activity or
don't do any religious activity. God's love has been set on us
from everlasting to everlasting. It's an everlasting love, an
eternal love, a love that he loved in a purpose within himself. Not a purpose found within you.
Not because you chose Him. Or because you accepted Him. Or because you believed on Him.
Now, truly those things happen in a child of grace because they
have been born from above. They have a spiritual life in
them that produces, that's the works that God ordained from
the foundation of the world. He produces Belief and trust
and hope and love. All of those are spiritual gifts
that come from a spiritual life that a child of grace already
spiritually has. Not that you do something to
get. Now, a lot of people think works is, you know, I got to
get out and give my money to the poor or give my clothes to
the poor or help the destitute or help the widows, help the
orphans. give my tithe, read my Bible,
all these outward things. That's the good works that the
Bible is talking about. But the Bible, whenever it talks
about good works, it says the good works that God has ordained
for you to do from the foundation of the world that you will walk
in are the good works of spiritual life being manifested in you. Love of God, love of brethren,
belief upon Christ, faith in Christ Jesus, repentance of dead
works. And so all of that comes because,
because you have been born from above, and because you have been
loved from everlasting, and because Christ already, before you ever
were in existence, stood as your Lamb's slave. So when we come here and we see
these men who think that they are righteous because of something
inherently that they are doing or keeping or obeying, hey, is
the law good? Paul said, yes, the law is good. We're not saying that the law
is bad, but these men think that because they search the scriptures,
that in them and doing them, they find eternal life. And these
men are thinking that because they think they are keeping the
law that they are being righteous. And listen, brethren, not only
myself, but I think all of us can say I have at some point
and maybe still do. We still do. Our flesh still
does this. But if not the majority of Christianity
today, their whole foundational theology is based upon We have
to attain or we have to uphold or keep a certain walk with God. We have to do something before
God will grant the salvation that He's already planned, that
He's already purchased, that He's already accomplished, but
fill in the blank. Repent, believe, confess, whatever.
You lay it down, whatever it is in that line, that's what
the righteous person thinks. I have to do this. I have to
do that. And then they begin to start
searching these scriptures to find out what is it that I've
got to do? What is it that I've got to be? And then, by golly,
I'm going to start doing that. I'm going to crucify my flesh. I'm going to constrain myself and bring myself
into submission and I'm going to make myself adhere to what
this book tells me that I should adhere to. And I'm going to have
to do these things because if I don't, now to some they'll
say I've lost my salvation, to others who believe you can't
lose your salvation, They will say, if I don't, then I'll become
a backsider and God will turn His back on me. And then He won't
hear my prayers and He won't hear this or that. Then I'll
have to repeat and come back to Him before He'll receive me
back to Himself, before He'll bless me, before He'll do anything
for me. See, it's a constant ebb and
flow of being righteous and being unrighteous, being righteous
and being unrighteous. And brethren, the Bible says
the standard is righteous, perfectly, all the time. Not righteous most
of the time, and unrighteous just a little. No, it's righteousness
all the time, and it's God's standard of righteousness, which
is complete perfection of every command He's ever given you. That's what perfection is. That's what righteousness is.
If you say, well, it's not just us, it's just the Ten Commandments.
No, brethren, the Ten Commandments was just a summary of all the
commands that God had given. God gave over 700 commands in
the Old Testament. And nobody's keeping them. So
the righteous person is deluded in the fact that they think that
they are being righteous. Especially... You can listen to me and you
can believe what I just said, okay? You can believe what I
just said, and if you have the Spirit of God in you, and you
have studied the Word of God, you know, and I hope at least
that I'm speaking according to the truth, and you know that
that's true. But don't take my word for it. We know the Bible
says that there is no one perfect. There is none righteous, No,
not one. There is none that seek after
God. No, not one. Nobody is righteous. Nobody is
a seeker after righteousness and after God because the natural
man despises the truth of who the true God is. Now, we have
this false faith evangelical American Christian God that's
out there, that's being preached in the majority of places. But
thankfully, the Lord has for himself his church that he began
and the doctrine and practice that he set forth. And that church
has been alive ever since he started it. And it continues
to be found in pockets here and there, wherever those people
are gathered. There are small and few and far
between, but they're out there. But brethren, the majority of
what's being preached on TV, on radio, what is being preached
in the churches and on every block in America is a righteousness
that you can try to attain and to uphold. And if you do, then
God is pleased with you because of that. And all of us, have
done that or we've been on the other side. We think we are that
righteous person and we look at somebody else who is doing
something that we don't think is right and therefore we despise
what they are doing and the more you begin to despise what they
are doing, the more you begin to despise the person doing it.
Have you ever found that to be true? I may know somebody At
first glance, they do something I don't like. I'm like, man,
I don't like what they did there, but you know, I'm not going to throw
the baby out with the bathwater. Maybe just they're having a bad
day. But if I come in tomorrow and they do the same thing to
me, you know, well, hey, man, they did it again. Then the next
day they do it or two weeks later they do it or they keep on doing
it. Then all of a sudden, you know what? I'm like, you know
what? I don't like that person. Well, as a religious person,
If we think that we are upholding a righteousness and a standard
and we have rid ourselves of certain sins and kept ourselves
from unrighteousness by being obedient to the Lord, by submitting
ourselves and by studying and praying and submitting ourselves
and yielding ourselves, as if your natural flesh could yield
to God. It can't. If it could have, there
was no need for God to send His Spirit into you. Have you ever
thought about that? What is the purpose of God even
bringing His Spirit into you, or you having to be born again?
Because the natural man can't accomplish anything that the
Lord has said. Believe, receive, trust, have
faith, come unto Me. Hunger and thirst. Hey, I'm your
bread and I'm your wine. Come to me. All you who are weary
and heavy laden, I will give you rest. But what does the Bible
say? None will come. None thirst after
me. None hunger after me. No one
seeks after righteousness. They seek after their own righteousness.
They look for their own righteousness. They believe they have it all
right. And it goes all the way back to Adam and Eve. Whenever
Adam and Eve seen at that, Doesn't God really say that if we eat
this, we'll surely die? If this can make us like God,
then surely God would want us to be like Him. Do you see the
same parallel there? That Satan works within the Judaizer,
the religious zealot, the legalist? Well, surely God would want you
to be righteous just like He is righteous, so you probably
ought to try to keep that to be acceptable to Him, to make
sure He gives you your rewards. If you want those rewards, you
better be like Him. And that's what Satan was telling
Adam and Eve. You can be like God. If you eat
this, you'll be like God. You'll know good from evil. And
you can be like Him. And so they did that very thing,
and then their conscience struck them, and they knew that they
were evil. They knew that they were wicked
and they were naked and they were afraid that God was going
to see them in that state. So what did they do? They began
to cover themselves. How do we cover the natural man
and all of his sinfulness? We pick this up and say, well,
I better get to doing this. How do I, how do I, whenever
I go to the grocery store and meet brother so-and-so from church
so-and-so, How do I make sure he knows I'm still walking with
the Lord? Well, how are you doing, brother?
I'm doing all right. Well, what you up to? Oh, just
clicking along. Well, how's the church? Oh, church
is going good, brother. Oh, we've got 95 this week. Last week we only had 60. We
got 95 this week. Praise the Lord. I'm studying
on such and such. Oh, it's a good study. Oh, and
by the way, we've raised this much money for the people over
in such and such country. We've got so many coats now in
our coat closet, we can't even hardly give them out fast enough.
We're cooking so much soup for all those who need something
to eat and every Thanksgiving. What is it that we're doing?
We're covering ourselves with righteousness, our own righteousness. Adam and Eve tried to cover themselves
with their own righteousness, and they thought, hey, this is
going to be acceptable before God. So if I come before God,
even though I'm naked, God's not going to view my nakedness.
He's going to view my effort to clothe myself. And we in Adam
are not righteous. And so what do we do? We think
that when we come before God, if we clothe ourselves in righteousness, then God will not see our nakedness,
our unrighteousness. See, we're naked before God.
There's no righteousness there. We're not clothed in a robe of
righteousness in Adam. And so we come before God and
we think, well, if I clothe myself in righteousness, then God will
be pleased. He will accept me. He will keep
me. He will reward me. And these are the people that
Jesus is talking to. And he spake this parable to
certain men which trusted in themselves and they that were
righteous and despised others. And here he goes, here's the
parable. Two men went up into the temple to pray. The one,
a Pharisee, now everybody knows what a Pharisee is, right? I
hope everybody knows what a Pharisee is. A Pharisee is a religious
leader back in the time of Jesus. Actually, it started way before
Jesus. Whenever the Jews, whenever Israel
was taken into Babylonian captivity, and they were in exile in Babylonian
captivity, they began to be influenced by the idolaters in Babylon who
worshipped other gods. And their priest, and their priest's
way of doing things, And they began to be influenced by that.
Well, whenever God released Israel out of Babylon and they came
back into their land and possessed Jerusalem again and built up
the walls of the city and the temple and all that stuff, whenever
they did that, a lot of the influence from Babylon came back with them
and a lot of their religious leaders began to mishmash God's
commands that He had given them and covenant He had given them.
and what they learned in Babylon and that little mishmash of stuff
began to grow and become its own thing as time went on. And as time went on, there grew
among the religious leaders because in the old covenant, there weren't
Pharisees and Sadducees. There was the priest who was
the Levites and then there was the people. And then God raised
up among the people at one time. He rose up prophets among the
people. And he rose up judges at one
time during the people. But there wasn't a sect called
the Pharisees among any of them. The Pharisees was a religious
sect of people who came out and had this oral tradition that
they added on to the Old Covenant system. And they believed that
in the inheritance to this Old Covenant system that they were
righteous. These were the men that were
in leadership among God's people during the time of Jesus. It
said two men went up to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other
a publican. Now, the publican, our terminology
today would be a tax collector. But a publican was a Jew who
was working for the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire had control
over Israel and was forcing them to pay taxes to Rome, forcing
the Jews to pay taxes to Rome. Well, there were some Jews who
went to work for the Romans and they sat there and collected
the taxes from their own people to give to the ones who was oppressing
them. So you can imagine the Jews hated
their own people who were tax collectors. They were called
publicans. And to them, the publican was
just a tiny step above a Gentile. In their estimation, the Gentile
was a dog. Right above that was the Jewish
publican. So you have one man here who
is a religious leader among all the people, and you have one
man here who is the lowest of low in the status pole. And it says, the Pharisee stood
and prayed thus. And notice if you would, these
two words here. This kind of popped out of the
pages with me this morning. The Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself. See, he come to the temple supposedly
to worship God. He began to voice prayer Which
prayer is to be a prayer prayed to God, but it says here that
he prayed thus with himself. He began to speak to himself
and pray to himself within himself. Now, have you ever met or heard
or been under a preacher or maybe in a church and somebody's been
called on to pray? and they start praying, and at
first it sounds like they start their prayer to God, but then
all of a sudden they start preaching at you? Or they start talking
about themselves? That's what we're seeing here.
This publican began, or excuse me, this Pharisee began to pray,
and as he began to pray, he began to exhort and to give adoration
to himself. to talk about himself, to make
the direction not extolling God for who he is, not coming in
contrition, seeking mercy and compassion from God, but that
he came to exalt himself before God, to say, hey, I'm somebody. Let's look what he says. The
Pharisee stood and prayed with himself God, I thank Thee. So people say, well, that was
good. He's being thankful. He's a thankful feller. But what
does he say? God, I thank Thee that I am not
as other men are. Extortioners, unjust, adulterers,
or even as this publican. Man, at first he was just kind
of making it general and vague. But then he actually got down
and said, man, matter of fact, I'm kind of glad you didn't make
me like this guy. Look at him over here. But actually,
if you look at what he just said here, he described the publican
and the extortioner. Well, that's all that the Roman
government was doing to these people and they're taxing these
people, was extorting them for money. And the Jewish publican
was the one doing the extortion for the Romans. He was extorting
his own people for money for the Romans. And they were doing
it with unjust balances. And you could say that that Jewish
person in his allegiance to Rome was an adulterer because he was
going against the things of God. But anyway, this man says, I
thank Thee that I am not as other men." Now, you don't often hear
people pray that evident of a prayer, you know. I don't
think I've ever heard anybody pray, Lord, I'm thankful that
you did make me like so and so. But the reason the Lord has given
this is because He's telling the heart of what this man is
praying. This man truly believes that
he's thankful to God that I'm thankful that I'm not like this
guy. Now listen, even among sovereign grace believers, we may believe
in the sovereign grace of God, but brethren, pride can strike
at our heart and it can swell up in pride and boastfulness
within us whenever we think, well, we're the elect and nobody
else is. whenever we can say, you know, I'm one of the chosen,
and I'm glad I am, and not like those reprobates out there. While
I'm thankful that the Lord has chosen me and elected me if I
am His, I surely don't boast in that, because there is nothing
to boast in, because He chose me despite me. He elected me
despite who I was. and there has nothing changed
about me that has made my election confirmed. There is nothing that
has changed within me that has proven my worth in why he should
have elected me. But see, you look at the Judaizer
and they are trying to make their calling and election sure through
their works. instead of through faith. We
make our calling at election sure by our hope in Christ, by
our faith in what He has done. And we are looking away from
ourselves and we are looking to Him. That's how you make your
calling in election sure, is by faith. looking away from me
and my works and my adherence to the law and looking at what
Christ did in his adherence to the law and his death on my behalf. That's what we look to. But the
religionists, they are looking and saying, well, hey, you know,
I am who I am because of what I have done. And see, we as the elect can easily
say, You know, I'm glad that I'm not like the reprobate. Look
at them reprobates out there. Well, that's all the reprobate
can do. Well, brother, that's all you can do. That's all you
can do, too. Well, someone looks and says,
look at brother so-and-so. He's over there sinning and doing
that. Well, there but for the grace of God go I. If it wasn't
for God's grace restraining me, I would probably be doing the
exact same thing. And I probably have done the
exact same. And guess what? There may be
a day I do the exact same thing. You never know when God's going
to restrain His grace from you and allow you to indulge in the
lust of your heart. He did it with David. He allowed
David, removed his restraining grace and allowed David to indulge
into his lust with Bathsheba. Why? Because he had a purpose
in all of it. You're not supposed to preach that. You're not supposed
to preach that God had a purpose in sin. If God didn't want David to have
an affair with Bathsheba, The religious person, they look
within themselves and they exhort themselves and they make themselves feel like what they are doing
is acceptable before God. And they in their own heart are
trying to soothe themselves by religious activity. Look what he says in verse 12.
He says, I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that
I possess. So here he says, look at all
what I've done. This is what I have done. Look at me. He's praying this to God. God,
I thank Thee that You've not made me like this dog at my feet,
but you have seen I do everything right. I'm
following what you say. I'm trying hard. I'm fasting
twice a week. Could I fast five times a week?
Probably so, but I'm fasting more than what Moses said to
fast. We were only fasting one time
a week, but now I'm fasting two times He's putting forth what he's
done. Also notice there in verse 11 it said the Pharisees stood
and prayed. He stood before God. Now I'm
not saying that you have to stand to pray or you have to bow to
pray. I don't believe the position
of your body necessarily proves more righteous or more holy.
I believe that a man can stand and bow his head and pray, that
he can get on one knee and bow his head and pray, he can get
prostrated on the floor with his face against the floor and
pray. It isn't the position of his body, but it's what the Lord
has given him in his heart to pray, content of that prayer. Okay, so whether this Pharisee
would have stood or would have sat down or would have bent over
or whatever, would have made no difference because what was
in the heart came out of the mouth. However, it does show
a little bit that he stood before God and this other man contrasted
to him, it says, look at verse 13, and the publican, standing
afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven,
but smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I mean, he didn't even offer
one inkling of a thing that I've at least done this. At least
I'm here. I came here today. You know,
he wouldn't even lift his eyes up to heaven and pray. He said
that he kept his eyes down and that he smote his breast. And
he said, Lord, be merciful. God, be merciful to me, a sinner.
And then Jesus said this in verse 14. Look, if you would. And notice
though, notice, the Bible says, a broken and contrite heart the
Lord despiseth not. What is a broken heart? A broken
heart is one who knows, one who is broken in heart, knows their
inability before God and their sinfulness. They know how wretched
and how sinful and unrighteous they are, and they know they
have the inability to do anything towards God. That's what being
broken in heart is. I'm broken in heart at the fact
that I am unrighteous. But you know what the contrite
heart is? The contrite heart is the heart that knows that
only Christ is my hope. To be contrite in heart is to
know that I need grace. I need Him. I need something
outside of myself. And if nothing outside of myself
is given to me, then I have no hope because my broken heartedness
tells me that I am a sinner before God. And this man had both of
them. He had a broken heart and a contrite
heart. He lifted up his eyes and he
said, Lord, be merciful to me. That's his contriteness. He is
coming before God humbly asking for something that he knows he
does not have. And he shows forth the brokenness
of his heart whenever he says to me, a sinner. Now, who is the one who actually
worshiped the Lord that day? Well, look at verse 14. I tell you this, this man, speaking
of the publican, went down to his house justified rather than
the other. For everyone that exalted himself
shall be abased. And he that humbleth himself,
that's the same. Matter of fact, I was looking
at this, the word abased there for the first man and the word
humbled there for the second man. Those two words mean exactly
the same thing. They actually are the same Greek
word behind those two words. It's the exact same Greek word.
But they mean the exact same thing. To abase oneself or to
be abased means to be humbled. And to be humbled means to be
abased. And Christ is saying that Pharisee,
because he exalted himself before God, will be abased, humbled. He will be made to be
humbled. Notice there, he said, himself
shall be humbled. See, that Pharisee will be humbled,
not that he is humble. There will be a time he comes
before God and he says, Lord, Lord, look at all the things
that I've done in your name. And here's where the humbling
will be. He said, Depart from me, ye worker of iniquity, for
I never knew you. At that point, that man will
be humbled before God to know that all of his righteousnesses
were as filthy rags before a holy God, and that he had no righteousness
before God that was being accepted, and that everything that he did,
he was doing according to his flesh, according to his own work,
in exaltation of His own life, to think that He could be something
that could be, to think that I, a fleshly child of Adam, can
say to somebody else, if you look at me, you see Christ. That God is in me so that you
can see God and what God is like. Brethren, there is no possible
way that any person in this world, no matter how full of the Spirit
they are, can show God, because God only appointed one man to
be the face of the divine, and that's Christ. So all these people
that follow after I and Thomas, who says it's God in you, the
hope of glory, and Him making Jesus be seen and all that, that's
hogwash. God is only seen in Christ, and
Christ, yes, is in me. And yes, Christ is working in
me, but the work that Christ is doing in me is not to make
me take His place as the only face of God, or to take His place
as the only righteous one, or to take the place of the exaltation
and glory of the One who kept the Law, and who kept all righteousness."
No, He's not in there doing that. He's inside of me working in
me to abase me that I may exalt Him. And that's what happened
with this publican. The Lord of glory had invaded
his heart and abased him so that his Adamic man who could do no
righteousness was evident to his eyes that were spiritually
open. His words of religiosity his
ears now heard as just jumbled up religion and his heart knew
that everything I'm doing is of no profit because the flesh
profits nothing. And the inward man He gives all
glory unto God because anything that He has received as far as
blessing, as far as love, salvation, eternity, as far as anything
that God gives to us in His salvific plan is based solely upon the
will of God alone. It is not based on anything that
we have done or who we are. He says, I tell you, this man
went down to his house justified rather than for everyone that
exalted himself shall be a base. And he that humbled himself shall
be exalted. Now, look with me, if you would,
over to Philippians three, three, because I I'll show you a perfect
example of how this happens. Philippians chapter 3. As a matter
of fact, I'm going to start in verse 1. This is Paul writing to the Philippians. Paul giving testimony of himself
here. He says, finally my brethren
rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you,
to me indeed, is not grievous, but for you it is safe or sure. And look what he says here, verse
two. Beware of dogs. Now he's not
talking about Wookie and Jake and Poppy, Tulip. He's not talking about canines. The word dog, whenever it's used
in scripture, as I mentioned a while ago, the Jews consider
Gentiles as dogs. It means that they are completely
and totally just worthless. He said, beware of dogs. Beware
of evil workers. Beware of the concision. Do you know what that word concision
is referring to? What word does concision come
from? Circumcision. You know the word
circumcision. I think all of us knows what
circumcision is, right? Well, the word concision comes
from that. That's a term that was used to
refer to the Jews. They were of the concision, the
cutting off of the flesh. He now compares Jesus through
the Holy Spirit to Paul, who is writing the words of God, is comparing the concision, the
Jews, the religious Judaism system, the Judaic faith, the Jewish
faith, beware of dogs, beware of evil
workers, beware of the concision. Those who believe in law keeping,
Those who are, their religion is to uphold a righteousness
through their own adherence to it. That's what the concision
is. That's what the Jews are. The
Jews are ones who believe because they are the people of God, Israel,
by the flesh, and adherent to the law of Moses, God's law,
then they are the ones who are going to rule with God. They are God's people. They will
be saved. That Messiah is theirs. And here God, of course we already
know before Jesus died, He already upturned that whole entire dispensational
belief that the Jews were going to continue and that the nation
was going to continue and that the religion was going to be
the religion that everyone should adhere to, Jesus said, your house
will be left to you desolate. And when the old covenant went
away, I heard Brother Larry, I didn't get to listen to all
of them, but I know he started talking about it, about the old
covenant versus the new covenant this week. That old covenant
was replaced. It's gone away. It's no more. It had ended. It was nullified. Why? Because a new and better
covenant has taken its place. Not the covenant of bulls and
goats and law keeping, but a covenant based upon better promises. What
better promises? The promise that Jesus kept everything
that God told him to do. the promise that Jesus died as
a spotless lamb in our place. It was by His blood, not the
blood of bulls and goats. It was by His obedience, not
the obedience of us to the commandments. And so we see here, God is saying,
beware of the concision, because that is no more. It says, for
we are their circumcision. How do you identify the circumcision?
By all their law-keeping? See, that's what I said a while
ago. The religionists, they make their calling and election sure
by what they do for God. But look what it says here. For
we are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit. What
did that man who came before God bowing his head do? He worshiped God in His Spirit.
He didn't come before God with something that he offered to
God. Look at what I've done. I'm glad
you've made me this way. And all these things that I've
done, I'm not like that guy. No, he came and he admitted,
I don't deserve it. I can't keep it. I've broken
it. Have mercy on me. You're the
only one who can grant mercy because you're the only sovereign
who has the sovereign freedom to choose who you will have compassion
upon and who you will not have compassion upon. You're the only
one who will have mercy on whom you will have mercy and whom
you will not have mercy on, and so I come to you because you're
the only one. Because I can't come to the priest,
the priest can do nothing to me. I can't come to the pastor,
the pastor can't do nothing to me. I can't come to my mother
or my father, they can't do nothing for me. My grandparents can't
do nothing for me. My church can't do nothing for
me. The world can't do nothing for me. My riches that I've gained,
that can't do nothing for me. The only thing that can do anything
for me is for the One who is merciful to give me mercy. And I know that you don't have
to give mercy to everyone. That's what that publican did.
We are the circumcision who worship God in the Spirit. And what do
we rejoice in? What we have done? What was that
Pharisee rejoicing in? What he had done before the Lord. But it says here, the true worshipers
of God are the ones who worship in their spirit, not in their
flesh. They worship in the spirit, not
their activity. And rejoice in Christ Jesus. We rejoice in what He done, not
what we are doing. Do I like it whenever I see the
brethren doing good things? Absolutely, I do. And do we occasionally
come up and say, hey, I appreciate what you're doing there. Be encouraged. Hey, I'm encouraged in what you're
doing there. We do that. But do you also notice, especially
among sovereign grace believers, there's a lot of us, we don't
just all the time go around patting everybody on the back. Oh, you
do a good job. Oh, you're doing a good job. Oh, man, how great you are. We don't do that. You know why?
Because all of us know. Who hath made thee to differ?
I am who I am because of Christ Jesus. The only one that should
be getting the boasting is Him. And Paul said that over and over
and over throughout his life. He said, I don't boast about
myself, I boast of the Lord. Matter of fact, what did he say
right here? For we are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit
and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. The Pharisee had a lot of confidence
in his flesh. The Judaizer has a lot of confidence
in their flesh. The modern day evangelical has
all the confidence in their flesh. It's by my will. It's by my choice. It's by my yielding. It's by
my praying. It's by my understanding. It's
by my knowledge that I get. It's by my outworking. Work out
your salvation. I'm working it out. that the true children of God
who are worshiping, they worship in their spirit and have no confidence
in the flesh because they rejoice in Christ Jesus. But look what
he says there, though I might also have confidence in my flesh,
so Paul's saying, he says, I don't have confidence in the flesh,
but if there was any confidence to have in the flesh, let me
tell you, people, I'm the guy that would have the confidence
in the flesh, and he goes on to tell us, He says, if any other
man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh,
I more. Why? I was circumcised the eighth
day of the stock of Israel. I'm a true Israelite who has
been circumcised according to the law of Moses after the covenant
with Abraham. I'm of the tribe of Benjamin.
I'm a Hebrew of the Hebrews. can't get more Hebrew than me.
I'm not one that's been brought in. I'm not a proselyte to the
Hebrews. I am a Hebrew of the Hebrews.
And he says, as touching the law, I'm a Pharisee. I'm one
that is keeping the law. At least that's what they thought,
right? He said, concerning zeal? Listen, you couldn't have had
more zeal than me because I was out persecuting the church of
Jesus Christ because my religion told me that that was a false
religion, and therefore, because of my love for my false religion,
I was out persecuting the true religion. I was actually Going
out and persecuting Christ's people, that's how I was zealous
for Judaism. He said, touching the righteousness
which is in the law blameless. Look what Paul said in verse
7. He said, but what things were
gained to me, that word gain there, That word gain there, when Paul
says, but what things were gain to me, Paul's meaning, but what
things I thought were for my profit, or for my status, or
for my esteem, what things were there to make me acceptable,
what I thought was making me acceptable before God, those
I counted loss for Christ. I was gaining religious activity. I was gaining notoriety among
my people, other religionists, but I was losing Christ. I was
losing the true faith, the true religion, the true Messiah, the
true God of Heaven. I was losing Him. Yea, doubtless, and I count all
things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord." That means, listen, all that stuff
that I thought was great and was to my esteem, was to my profit, he said, all those things
now I count as loss because I was losing what was important. I
count all of that thing as a wasted Time, on my behalf, it wasn't
wasted by the way. A lot of people I've heard preach
that. We even have a song, Wasted Years. You ever heard that song? I don't
remember the tune. But it's called Wasted Years.
Listen brother, although Paul did all those things that counted
for nothing, as far as Paul's standing with God, They weren't
wasted years, and neither is all your life before Christ came
into it, before your knowledge of your salvation came, before
your experience of salvation began. Listen, those weren't
wasted years. God purposed those for you to
walk in. He walked you in every area of
that. And listen, even to this day,
all the areas of your life, whether they're on the mountain or whether
they're in the valley, whether they're in the plains, whatever
they are, God is walking you through those hours. They're
no wasted years. God has a purpose for every bit
of it. They're not wasted years. And
so Paul here is not saying, all of my life was just a waste.
It wasn't his estimation of himself. I wasted all that time doing
all those things thinking I was being acceptable before God by
doing those things. And I found out in all of that,
I was losing Christ. I was losing the true God. And
he says, and so now all those things that I count as gain,
I now count them as loss for the excellency of the knowledge. I count them as loss, that I
may think and excel in thinking of Christ." He didn't turn around
and say, I count them all as loss, but now take up the reins
to do all the same thing, but to Christ. He didn't say that. He didn't say, I'm going to quit
chasing after religion, and now I'm going to chase after Christ
and do all of those good works in His name instead of Moses'
name. No, he said, I'm going to quit
looking at dead works and I'm going to look at the only works
that God counts and that was the works that Christ did. Not His doing that Christ did. Done. It is Jesus didn't say whenever he
died at the end of his life, he didn't say to be continued. He said it is finished. Everything was done. And Paul says that I put all
things away as lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. He said
for the knowledge of Christ Jesus and knowing Him and what He has
done for me and who I am in Him, I have lost everything else. I've lost everything else, meaning
that I don't look to anything else. Everything else is a loss
to me whenever I look at it. How much Bible do I read? That's
a loss to me. Because what's more important
is no matter how much I read this Bible, that's not going
to make me accept it before God. What Christ did makes me accept
it. So that excels my study in the Word of God. Now that's important.
Don't quit studying your Word. But I'm saying that what is more
excellent is not you doing this more, it's knowing that He has
done it for you. Not me praying more, that's good,
but that does not excel Christ in what He has done. Me coming
to church, me loving you, me helping you in your times of
need, me preaching the gospel to whoever the Lord leads for
me to preach that to, that does not excel me knowing that Christ
has done all for me and that everything that is needed of
righteousness has been imputed to me. See, that's more excellent. The excellency of knowing Christ
Jesus. Not the excellency of working
for Christ Jesus. The excellency of knowing and
resting and having faith in what He is and what He has done. He says, and be found in Him. Well, let me back up. because
he makes it even more clear, he says, for whom I have suffered
loss of all things. Now, brethren, I also believe
that because of his belief in Christ Jesus and his repenting
of those dead Judaic and what we would call today modern evangelical
theology, because of that, he has also suffered temporal loss. He has suffered physical loss. He lost his friends. He probably lost some family.
He definitely lost his position among the Pharisees. He lost everything that he might
know Christ Jesus. Have you lost everything that
you might know Christ Jesus? Well, the Bible says those who
worship Him in spirit and in truth, those who worship Him,
worship Him to rejoice in what He has done. Those who worship
Him are given a heart that is broken and contrite. He says,
I have suffered the loss of all
things and do count them but dung. Everybody know what dung
is? You know what dung is? Your kids
know what dung is? What's dung? Dung? Paul is saying, all the religious
activity that I did, and I did it better than anybody else.
He says, I count all that religious activity as poop before God. See, that's how much your religious
activity matters in the scheme of righteousness. Your righteousnesses
are as filthy rags Let me press that just a minute.
I wasn't going to speak on that, but let me press that for just
a minute so we can get an idea. Because sometimes that just comes
across our mind as like a box of old shop rags. That's not
what God intended when He said rags. There was two different
kinds of rags that God was talking about whenever He talked about
filthy rags in the Scripture. We don't see them today. We don't
have them today. There may be some today, I don't
know. But back in those days, they had what was called lepers.
Not a leopard, but lepers. They were people that had a disease
that caused these big, giant open sores all over their body
and it just was a bleeding, oozy, pussy mess. And the people were
not allowed to even get near them or touch them. If you touched
someone that had leprosy, You had to go and be cleansed and
you had to remove yourself from everybody else for a certain
amount of time and go cleanse yourself and all that stuff.
You weren't allowed to touch, and if you were a leper, you
weren't even allowed in the city. You had to go outside of the
city and dwell away from everybody by yourself until your leprosy
went away or until you died. They would take those lepers
and they would wrap them in cloths so that it would soak up the
blood and the pus that was coming out of their sores. That's the
kind of rags that Jesus was talking about. Those blood soaked nasty
rags. Those rags also refer back to
a menstrual cloth. That's what the actual word means
in Hebrew, is a menstrual cloth. We've had Poppy these last few
weeks has been in heat. And what have we done? We've
got a diaper for her, right? We put a diaper under her. Wrapped
it around her. Why? Because she was bleeding
all over the place, and those diapers were catching that. Whenever
you take that diaper off, it would just... Right? That's what God says your righteousness
is. Your righteousness is that bloody, pus-soaked, blood-soaked,
filthy rag. Your righteousnesses, by the
way, not your bad deeds, your very best deeds, your very best
efforts, God says, is a filthy rag. Now that's what Paul is
saying here. He's saying my righteousnesses,
everything that I can do when I have confidence in my flesh,
is dumb compared to the righteousness and the excellency of Christ.
So you think that your righteousness that you're trying to keep to
be pleasing to God, according to your flesh, is not more than filthy rags?
That it's of the excellency of Christ? Because Paul here is
saying everything else, and he was above everybody else in that
matter, by the way, everything else is as filthy rags, as dung,
compared to the excellency, which is of Christ. He says, and be found in him
not having my own righteousness. Are you looking at your own righteousness? Are you looking to have your
own righteousness? Well, that's what every Judaizer is doing.
They're trying to keep this law to be more righteous, to be more
holy. Now, brethren, I'm not speaking
against being obedient to the Lord as the Lord leads you to
be obedient to Him. I'm talking about if you think
that you are being acceptable before God, If you are attaining
righteousness, you are not attaining any righteousness. If you obey,
it is because of God's grace to allow you and enable you to
obey. If not, it is because God did
not restrain you by grace and you sinned from your own heart,
so that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and
the fellowship of His sufferings being made conformable unto His
death. If by any means I might attain
unto the resurrection of the dead, not as though I had already
attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after,
if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended
of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself
to have apprehended But this one thing I do, forgetting those
things which are behind. What things are in context here,
brethren? What is in context of the things
that he is forgetting which are behind him? He is forgetting
his religious zeal, his law-keeping, his Judaizing, his trying to
be righteous in and of himself through his flesh. worshiping
God by His flesh and not in the spirit, rejoicing after Christ
Jesus, looking unto Him in His excellency." He said, "...forgetting
those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those
things which are before." What were the things that were before
Him? Well, He said it right up there, the excellency of the
knowledge of Jesus my Lord. He says, I press for the mark
of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us,
therefore, as many as be perfect or mature, be thus minded. And if anything, you'd be otherwise
minded. God shall reveal even this unto
you. Nevertheless, where unto we have
already attained, let us walk by the same rule. Let us mind
the same thing. So, brethren, There are those who are the Pharisee
and there are those who are Republican. Those who worship God in extolling
and exhorting themselves, exalting themselves, and they will be
humbled. And there are those who have
been humbled before God and they shall be exalted. So as we come, and as we live,
as we worship, as we think upon the things of Christ, may we
always be reminded that the flesh profits nothing, and that it
is only what Christ has done that is counted as righteousness.
All right, does anybody have anything you'd like to add or
any comments? When you talked about the truck, Did you mean
like Zach was making it all dirty again? Like when he was going
to vacuum it up? Well, just by not appreciating
that I'd already cleaned it for him. He was trying to clean it
again. I'd cleaned it better than he could have. See, he was
going to take it down to that 50 cent car wash down here on
Main Street that just has a little wand that kind of spurts a little
bit and a brush that kind of has like five bristles in it.
and go try to clean his truck with a 50 cent car wash. When
I took a $500 person that does that for a living and cleans
it the best that it could ever be cleaned. But that was just
an illustration that Jesus has done more than we could ever
try to do ourselves. And yet we try to think that
we can do something to add or make it look better. of slapping the Lord's face whenever
we think that we can add to His righteousness that He's already
provided for us. Anyone else got a question? Corrections review. All right, brethren, I pray to the Lord
to keep you safe this afternoon as the Snow and ice starts to
come down. Lord willing, it won't be too
bad around here, but be careful if you have to get out. If you
gotta get out, I'd get out now while it's just raining. All right, well, it's time to
have our prayer. Father, we thank you again for
the day. We thank you again for Christ Jesus, and Father, we
pray that as long as you keep us together here in this fellowship,
Lord, that you would continue to put on our hearts and on our
lips the exaltation of Jesus Christ. Father, may we never
find any advantage in our flesh, may we never find any comfort
or solace in what we do, but that we may ever be abased before
You and trust and believe on Your works and Your works alone.
Lord, we thank You for the example that You give us of the Apostle
Paul. We thank You for the things that You've written through him.
the example of life that you set in Him, not that He has obtained
some sort of a righteousness, but to show us that every child
of grace, like the Apostle Paul, will be brought through the same
thing, knowing that they are something in their flesh, and
they're being brought low before your throne, to know with a broken
and contrite heart that it's all about Jesus. And so, Father,
thank You for that, and we know that we don't deserve it, We
know that without your grace, we would not have it. And I just
pray that, that even these that are here today, all these that
are in this house this morning, Father, I pray they might be
part of those few that you have called unto yourself by your
name, that Christ by his blood has shed on their behalf, keeping
the law for them and suffering the death deserved them. And
Lord, that you might bring them to the knowledge of that salvation
that you might give them understanding of it, that they might rejoice
in it and glorify you in it. And Lord, that they might confess
that faith through baptism. And Lord, that we might be able
to rejoice with them as a member of this church. And Father, we
just are so grateful for how you work and how you move and
what you do. Lord, you are the true shepherd
of the sheep and you are finding your sheep wherever they may
be. You are bringing them in and you are feeding them as you
see fit. And we trust all of that, not only as your work,
but the work that you are continuing to do. And that we rest not in
what we try to do, but in your promise of what you are. And
so Father, thank you again. Let me ask it all in your name.
Amen.