Let us turn in our Bibles now, if you will, to Luke chapter 18. Luke chapter 18 and reading from verses 9 through 14. And he, that is the Lord Jesus, spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others.

Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess. 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, the sinner.

I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For every one that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humble himself shall be exhausted.

The last gospel message that Cliff brought in our church was from this parable. And he told about an experience which he had in New Guinea. One time he was in a hospital there, in a bed in a hospital ward, and he gathered the men around him and he told this story taken from this parable.

He told the man that there was two men who went up to the temple to pray, and that one of those men was a Pharisee, a member of a very respected group among the Jews, a very religious group among the Jews. And that this man prayed, and he fasted, and he gave tithes of all that he possessed. There was this other man who went up to the temple that same day, and he was a member of a group that was greatly despised among the Jews. He was a publican, and many of them were guilty of extortion.

And then Cliff asked the men there on that hospital ward, one of these men, the Lord Jesus said, one of these men went to his house that day justified. Who do you think, who do you think of these two men went home justified? And Cliff said all of them without exception said, well, that first one, that first one, that man who was so religious, that man who prayed, that man who said that he fasted, that man who said he gave tithes of all that he had. That's the one. Cliff said, everyone agreed. That's the one of the two, that's the one that went home to his house justified that day.

And so Cliff then had the opportunity to preach the gospel or declare the gospel unto them in that hospital ward. One of them went home justified, one of them went home condemned.

I have three truths that I want to remind us of from Cliff's story in the context of our Lord's parable here. Three very simple truths.

First, men the world over are the same. Did you hear what I said? Men the world over are the same. It matters not whether a person is born in the United States of America or if a person is born in Papua New Guinea. In one respect, all men are the same. And what is that sameness? Well, it's not language, as we've already heard. Brother Cliff went into a tribe that spoke a language that had never been really written before. That's not the sameness among all men the world over. It's not the language, not the color of our skin. It's not wealth. There are many men in this world who are very, very wealthy, and there are many, many who are very, very poor. That's not the sameness. And it's not education. Some who have had the privilege of being educated in the finest of schools. And there's some who have been born into a place where there was little or no education at all. And yet all men are the same the world over. All of the men in that hospital ward and all of us here in this room today and all outside this room Everyone in this world, we are all the same. And what is that sameness? It is that we are all children of Adam. We're all brothers and sisters in that sense. We're all children of Adam. makes no difference about our language, our speech, our color of our skin, our education, our social status, nothing like that. We're all the same. And we were all represented by that one man. That one man that God created from the dust of the ground, and then breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, were all descended from him." And as the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans chapter 5, therefore, because we're all descended from him, therefore by the one offense, By the offense, and in another verse there he says, by that one offense, one time Adam disobeyed God when he ate that tree, ate of the fruit of that tree God had forbidden him to eat of. By that one offense, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. Adam represented all of those men in that hospital ward, and he represented you, he represented me. And all of us, because of his one sin, as that scripture tells us, judgment passed upon us, and we come into this world, as the scripture says, from the womb speaking lies, morally dead, dead toward God, spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. Men by nature, the world over, do not understand the truth about God that is revealed to us in his holy word, the Bible. Men do not understand that God, the God with whom we all have to do, the God before whom we will all appear, is just a matter of time. It's not a question if. It's just a matter of time when you and I and everyone else will all stand before Almighty God And man by nature doesn't realize how holy, how absolute holy the God of the Bible is. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Men don't understand that. One of my pastor friends told me he was at a ball game recently and the man next to him They were talking, he was trying to witness to him, and the man said, well, why can't God just forget about it? Why can't God just kind of push it or sweep it under the rug? That is our sin. Why cannot he just forget about it? Go on as if nothing had happened. Because God is not like we are. We could do that. We'd have no trouble. We could do that, but not God. Why? If God were to overlook sin, he would cease to be God. He would no longer be the holy God that he is. Men don't understand that. Men think just a little religion, just a little religion, And the man in our Lord's parable here, he didn't have a little religion, he had a whole lot. Yes, he did. And we know from the fact that he was a Pharisee that he had been taught that it's what is on the outside. What goes into a man is what pollutes a person. And that's the reason they had their ceremonies. They accused our Lord one day or said to him, well, your disciples, they're eating with unwashing hands. Now, they were not talking about washing your hands like you and I do, practicing good hygiene. They were talking about a religious ceremony that they had invented and they would wash their hands up to their elbows. But the reason they did that, they had been to the market and maybe just perchance they had rubbed up against a sinner. Perchance they had rubbed up against a publican. And they were defiled. And our Lord said in no uncertain terms, the problem is not what goes into the man. It's what comes out of a man. That's the problem. Out of the heart proceed lying and cheating and adultery and all of these things that are so common to lost men and women. They come out of the heart.

And all of the religious ceremonies that men have invented And oh, there are many. There are many all over the world. I was watching a documentary just recently and this man was traveling to different countries and he was reporting on how people are trying to clean up the environment. And he was in India. And the man who was showing him around there had a project there cleaning up the Ganges River. And in their little talk, he said, yes, if a person washes in that river, all their sins are washed away. That's one of the filthiest rivers in the world.

But you know, a Hindu might believe that, but what's the difference from someone who is born in this country attend some so-called Christian church and believes that because some man, some priest maybe, has put a little water on the top of a baby's head and said, now they're members of the kingdom of God. What's the difference? It's still a ceremony that man has come up with.

Oh, let's go further. Maybe it's not putting a little water on the head. Maybe it's putting the body underneath the water, immersion. Scriptural baptism. But that doesn't give a man a new heart. There's no ceremony men could invent that can possibly cure man's ill. What man needs is a new heart.

And the heart in the scripture, you know, it refers to the mind, the understanding. When we come into this world, our understanding is darkened. It refers to the affections. We love ourselves. We don't love God. And that's the first commandment. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, all thy soul, all thy being, and love thy neighbor as thyself. And the will, this is all included in the heart.

One of the promises of the new covenant, the everlasting covenant, The covenant by which God saves sinners promises a new heart. God will remove the heart of stone and give a heart of flesh upon which he writes his law.

Yes, man the world over. That's the first thought that comes to me, man the world over. All the same, we're born the same, And by nature we think the same about God and how we may approach unto God, how we may be right with God.

A second thought comes to me, men the world over need the gospel. There are only two religions in this world. The men in that hospital ward that Cliff spoke to, I don't know how many years ago, but they needed the gospel, and he was able to speak the gospel, share the gospel with them. Evidently, they thought, like most men think, that by doing some works, a man may be justified. And they saw in Cliff's story, this man, he had the religious works. He must be justified. He must be the man who went home justified that day.

Oh, no. Men the world over need the gospel. And you know there are only two religions in this world. There's only two religions in this world. And every one of us, every one of you, myself, we are all today in one of these religions or the other. There's only two. I know you're religious. We're here in a church service. Well, there are only two religions in this world.

One, one religion, and it's the largest. It has the most adherents. And no matter what name it goes under, It teaches that man, by their works, either their works or the works of some other man, are made righteous. That's one religion. And all of us here today are either in that religion or this second religion.

The other religion teaches that man are made righteous by the works of another. and not just another man, but by the works of the man, the God-man, the one and only mediator between God and men. Scripture says in 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 21, hath made him, that is God, hath made him who knew no sin, Christ, to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. The sins of God's people were imputed to the substitute, to his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, And He, in His own body, the Bible tells us, bore the sins of His people on the cross.

Yes, we're either in one religion or the other. This second religion, if I use that word loosely, the word religion, but men are justified, men are made righteous according to the Word of God. And just like Brother Lance said earlier, that's the important thing right here. It's not what this preacher says. It's not what that preacher says or any other preacher says if it's not according to the Word of God. If we speak not according to the Word, line upon line, precept upon precept, pass no mind.

And what does the Word of God say? Being justified, that is being declared righteous, freely, this is Romans 3 and verse 24, you can look at it for yourself. Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Now when you look at that verse, Divided into two parts, men are justified freely by his grace. Actually, he could have just said freely. What is grace? It's free. Grace is something you don't earn. You sure don't deserve it. You can't buy it. How are men made righteous? How are men justified? Freely by His grace. I wish sometimes that I had the ability to really express what I know the Bible teaches us about grace. Means, for by grace are you saved. It's all of grace. It's completely of grace. We add nothing. We contribute nothing. It's all Him and what He has done for us.

Being justified freely by His grace. And God's grace is free. If you could earn it, it wouldn't be grace. if you deserved it. And believer, child of God here this morning, maybe when temptations or thoughts come into your mind that maybe you're not a child of God after all, you know, we have those insinuations sometimes as believers come into our hearts and our minds. But just remember this, if you deserved it, it wouldn't be grace. You understand that? If you deserve to be saved, it wouldn't be grace. No matter your failures, and no believer disappoints anybody more than he disappoints himself. Isn't that true? Sure it is. But we're not saved by our works. We're not saved by our feelings. We're not saved because we deserve it. If we are saved, we're saved by God's free sovereign grace and nothing else.

But always through, not apart from, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Through his work.

And Arthur Fink and his work on the Beatitudes He uses, for the first Beatitudes, he uses this parable to exemplify what those two first Beatitudes say. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Here's this man. Do you see any poverty of spirit in this Pharisee? I thank thee, Lord, I'm not like other men. Well, listen, I pray, I tithe, I fast. I mean, he had a whole litany of things to brag on himself. There's no poverty of spirit there. Oh, but when God saves a sinner, when a person is brought under conviction, that's one of the first things. It takes place in a man's heart. We see we have nothing, nothing but our sin. That's all we have. That's all we are. And blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.

This publican, it seems, had that mourning. He wouldn't even lift up his eyes toward heaven. I'm not worthy. You ever seen yourself like that? I hope you have. I trust you have. I'm not worthy. How unworthy are you? I'm not worthy to even lift up my eyes toward the God of heaven. And he smote upon his breast as though he said, here's the problem. Here's the problem. It's not my environment. It's not my family and what they've done to me. It's not the education system that I've grown up under. No, here's the problem. I have a heart that is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. God. God. God Almighty, be merciful to me.

And what did he find? He found that the God of the Bible, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, he delights in mercy. He really does. God's justice had to be satisfied. We had offended it by our sins, by our transgressions. Someone had to satisfy that justice. And we know the Lord Jesus Christ, that's one reason he came into this world, made of a woman, made under the law, that he might redeem those that were under the law, that were cursed by the law.

perfectly obeyed the law, what was he doing? He was establishing a righteousness. A righteousness that when it is imputed onto a believing sinner, God sees that person, God declares that person righteous, holy, without condemnation. There's no reconciliation of sinful men to God apart from the blood of Jesus Christ.

Why do you folks over there always talk about the blood? I'll tell you why. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. That's why. And it's not just anyone's blood. It's the blood of He who is both God and man. Man, that he might shed blood. God, that that blood might have the efficacy, the power to cleanse a sinner from sin.

There's no reconciliation of sinful man to God apart from the blood of Jesus Christ. There's no justification of sinful man apart from the imputed righteousness of Christ. You say, what does that mean, imputed? It means charged to your account. I mean, God takes the righteousness, the perfect, absolute holiness of Jesus Christ that he merited, and that is accredited, imputed, accounted to the sinner who believes in Christ, and God says he's justified. He's righteous.

And men need the gospel the world over because you cannot believe, you cannot trust in one of whom you've never heard. And that brings me to my third and very brief point. There are some men the world over redeemed by Jesus Christ.

I want you to look with me, and this will be the last place we turn, but in Revelation chapter 5, the scene is in heaven, and the Lamb has taken the book, the Lamb has taken the book, and we read in verse 8,

And when he had taken the book, the four beasts, four and twenty elders, fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of saints. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof, for Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood. out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation, and has made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth."

Do you see the words, out of? The song of heaven, the praise is that the Lamb has redeemed them out of. He didn't redeem all the tongues and nations and peoples of the world, but he redeemed his people out of. You say, well, who are his people? They're those that the Father chose in that everlasting covenant of grace and gave him to be their surety. And he came and he redeemed those, his sheep, out of all of these nations and tongues and tribes.

And I notice the word every. What an encouragement is this truth to a man, a missionary like Cliff and his wife, Marty. Seeing and knowing, and you brought it out so well, God has chosen And Christ has redeemed some out of every tongue. And when they went into that tribe and that tongue that those people spoke, no doubt this was a great encouragement to them. That some out of that tongue, God, Christ has redeemed. And they're going to hear the gospel.

He wasn't trusting in his eloquence. his ability to speak, his ability to persuade men. Oh, no. But believing in the truth that God had redeemed some out of every tribe, he could go there and in hope preach. And years and years of labor, preaching the same message. Didn't change. Didn't change. And God, the Holy Spirit, did his office work of drawing men to Christ. What an encouragement.

And I'll close with these words of the Apostle Paul. I believe they're appropriate for these two servants. And that's what I would call Brother Cliff Heller and Marty, servants of the Lord. And in my estimation, there could not ever be a higher commendation for any person than to be able to say he, she was a servant of God.

I have fought a good fight. I've finished my course and I've kept the faith. Henceforth, there's laid up for me a crown of righteousness.

May the Lord bless his word and I trust bless all of us here today.