Turn your Bibles to Luke chapter
18. It's a story with which we are all very familiar. It's a
story that encompasses all of humanity. Everyone who's sitting
here, everyone in all of this world is in one of these two
categories of people. Verse 9 of chapter 18, Luke. He spoke 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 Republican. The Pharisee
stood and prayed thus with himself. God, I thank thee that I'm 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, a sinner. I tell you, this man went down
to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone
that exalts himself shall be abased, and he that humbles himself
shall be exalted. What a contrast! What a good
start. Two men went up to the temple
to pray. The Pharisees were a big organisation,
weren't they? They say that there were 6,000
Pharisees in Israel at this time. The word Pharisee comes from
a root, to be separated. They separated themselves under
the law of God. And as we read in Matthew 23,
they are particular about all sorts of things, particular about
all the observance of the law. Paul, of course, was a Pharisee.
He was such a zealous Pharisee that he, under that law, was
blameless. The publican is probably not
a very instructive word for us. It's not someone who keeps a
pub. It was someone who was a tax collector in those days. And
so there you were, a Jew, collecting money from the Romans and the
way the Romans collected money from places like in Palestine
and from Israelites and all others was that they auctioned off,
as it were, or sold off the right to collect taxes from various
regions. And so there'd be one person
who'd be able to, in charge of collecting the tax, and all these
other little people would collect it for him. And so you had a
certain amount of money that went to Rome, but you had no
limit on what you could actually get for yourself. out of it. And so your job was to pay $100
a week, but if you could get $500 a week, you paid $100 to
Rome and took the other $400 for yourself. So they were a
degraded group of people. They were notoriously corrupt. And they were really, in the
eyes of the Jews, they were traitors. They were Jews who were actually
serving the Romans. They were Jews who were using
their position given them by the Romans to actually steal
from their own people. They were despised. They were
corrupt. In fact, the Lord Jesus says
of those people in Matthew 18 who refused the counsel of the
church that they are actually to be cast out and treated as,
let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican. Someone might hear what the church
says you to treat them as such. And so they are notorious even
in the eyes of the Lord. So these two men, this Pharisee
and this publican, go up to the temple to pray. And what do they pray? It's just
look at their prayers, look at what's revealed about their hearts. We've got to remember, brothers
and sisters, this is called the house of God, isn't it? We are
people here now and on Sundays who come to the house of God. We go up, as it were, to the
temple. We go up to do business with
God. There are many who we see at
the temple every day who will be feared, will not be at the
Lord's right hand on that great day of judgement. There is just
a simple lesson in all of this. He who exalts himself shall be
abased and he that humbles himself shall be exalted. Let's listen
to the Pharisee. He's given us an example of these
men who trusted, whose faith was in themselves, in their wisdom,
in their understanding of things, in their belief that they were
righteous before God. And their righteousness was a
righteousness that allowed them to look down on others and despise
them. Here he is. He was went up to
this temple and he stood and he prayed with himself. What amazing words, what amazing
things the Lord Jesus says in just so few words. He prayed
thus with himself. His prayer didn't get anywhere
beyond himself. He thanks God. He says, I thank
you. that I am not as other men are. I thank you that I'm a cut above
the rest of this world." What a challenging thing it is, isn't
it, when you go down the streets here, and I was just out in the
street earlier this afternoon, and at the back of Woolwich you
have people behaving appallingly and language is shocking. And the first thing that comes
through our mind is what? It's the same, is it not? I don't
care how bad you might be in your own eyes. You'll see someone
else and you'll think, dear oh dear, what a shocker. Dear oh
dear, I'm not like that myself. Dear oh dear, how bad it is. Isn't it good that I'm not like
them? This man, he says, I'm not as
other men are. extortioners, unjust, adulterers,
or even as this publican. So the publican was a public
extortioner. The publican was a publicly unjust
man. And this man was none of those
things, nor was he an adulterer. He didn't do the evil things
that this other man did, and yet he has these good things
that he did. He fasted twice a week. He gave tithes of all that he
possessed. But he doesn't really thank God
at all. In fact, he's not really talking
to God, is he? to the temple, as the Lord Jesus
says to these people. They came to the temple. They
did their activities so that they would be seen of men. He comes to the temple with his
arms laden with his merits. He came to the temple to tell
God how very good he was. who trusted in his deeds of righteousness. He saw these things that he did,
the good things that he did and the bad things that he didn't
do, and he thought that he was righteous both positively and
negatively. And he came as a man who had
no need. He needed no favour from God.
He needed no grace. There is no grace needed when
there is so much worthiness. There is no grace needed when
there is any worthiness at all. And he despised others. He couldn't
even talk to God without despising other people. See, what he saw in the badness
of other people around him was a reason for him to think that
he's better than others himself by his own deed. Dear oh dear,
he paints a picture of what we are in our flesh, brothers and
sisters, so often. He came to pray and he really
only prayed with himself. And he came to that temple, he
came to that place where the only way of entrance
was with a blood sacrifice and he came with nothing that honoured
the Lord Jesus. He came with everything that
honoured him. It's a solemn thing, isn't it, to think how far, how
long These men can go on in religion in the very face of the emblems
sent by God to remind them of who they are and who God is,
and yet miss all that God meant for sinners to see in it. He
came to that place where twice a day they slew that lamb. The priest put his head on that
lamb and they cut its throat and as the blood poured out,
the blood was the blood that they deserved to have poured
out for their sins. The lamb represented the Lord
Jesus. The lamb represented substitution. You see, even his fasting, the
fasting was in fact in Exodus and Ezra and other places and
Leviticus, it actually means to afflict yourselves. It was
to be humbled. Fasting was to be a humbling
thing. To give tithes was to show that
everything that you had belonged to God. It was a sign of dependence,
not righteousness. Even the good things he did were
polluted things. And here we have the public and
the tax collector. What a contrast grace makes,
even to those who are unaware of it at the time. One was full
of pride and ostentation, the other one full of humiliation and humility and repentance. One had confidence in himself.
He stood. He was tall and he's proud and
he's worthy and he could look down on others from the little
hill of his own good deeds. The other one was dependent and
had a desire for God to release him. The publican went to the
only place and he went to the only one who could ease his pain
and unburden himself. Just look at his activities.
He came and he came humbled and he stood afar off. How must he
have felt as he came to that place where there were so many
people who were righteous in their own eyes, so many people
who were extremely righteous in his eyes, so many people who
would have looked at him and paid him taxes over the years
and despised him. He stood afar off. a sign of
his repentance and humility. He kept a distance because there
was a deep sense of his unworthiness, his unfitness for God's presence,
as if he was saying, how can one such as I, a notorious public
sinner, come into the presence of God? And he came thinking
possibly maybe, maybe the Lord would look upon him from a distance. And he would not so much as lift
up his eyes to heaven. His eyes had seen and he'd made
them look down to the earth. And he smote upon his breast
his heart. His heart was black. His heart, the very inner core
of who he is, had been seen and nothing but seen and he smote
it. He was saying by that, wasn't he, that he's a sinner by birth,
a sinner by nature, a sinner by practice, a sinner in his
heart, and he's a public sinner. He's not just a sinner who has
some good deeds before men. He's just a sinner. And it's
a real confession, isn't it? Came from his heart, wasn't contrived,
And it wasn't constrained by the activities of men and it
wasn't done in the presence of men. And he prayed saying, he
just prayed and spoke to God. He doesn't look at other men. His dealings are between himself
and God. You must deal with God, brothers
and sisters. People come to other people and
people come to me in some sense looking for the preacher or looking
for their other brothers and sisters to give them peace. We
tell them who the Prince of Peace is and we encourage them to go
to him. So he doesn't look at other men.
Such is the nature of his situation and such is the nature of his
sin. He doesn't look at other men
whether they be good. He doesn't look at other men
whether they be bad. As much as he is evil, no doubt
there are other people in his knowledge who are far more evil
than him. But the issue wasn't with other
people. The issue was himself and God. and he comes and he
calls himself the sinner. As David said, against you and
you only have I sinned. Every sin that's ever come into
your life, every sin for which you bear responsibility unless
the Lord Jesus has borne it, every sin is a sin against God. The Lord Jesus was proclaiming
His deity when He said to people, your sins are forgiven. Complete
strangers in this world it seemed to Him. And yet He said, the
sins of that paralytic man, the sins of these other people He
forgave, were sins that were personal sins against Him. Such is the nature of sin. Such
is what this publican prayed. that God is righteous, God in
perfect holy justice can condemn me for who I am and for what
I am and for what I've done. But this man had come to the
temple. He'd probably seen and heard every morning and evening
that lamb that was slain in the place of sinners. Maybe he heard
John the Baptist cry, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away
the sin of the world. The publican brings to God in
prayer the only object that God is delighted in. his darling
son and his sacrifice, that sweet incense of his sin atoning death,
rising to heaven, the one and the one only who honoured and
magnified and kept his holy law." In fact, the publican is saying
something remarkable. He says, God be merciful to me,
the sinner." As if he is the chief of sinners and he's the
only one that really matters at this time. It's just him as
the sinner. But he actually says something
quite remarkable. He says, God be propitious to me, the sinner. It's that same Greek word that
describes the mercy seat in Exodus 25 and in Hebrews 9. The mercy
seat which covered God's broken law. The place where God promised
to meet his people in mercy and communion. They could meet with
God through blood that was shed, sin removed. He who is of two purer eyes than
to look on sin could actually look upon the mercy seat and
look upon those represented there in the Lord Jesus. be propitious, propitiation. I'll just read the three other
times it's used in the New Testament and we'll just look at what this
means for him to say these remarkable words. And the Lord Jesus says
it's a parable. It is a parable, but it's probably
a real event. In Romans 3.25 it talks about
the Lord Jesus, whom God set forth to be a propitiation through
faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission
of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. So in
Romans 3.25 God set him forth. to declare His righteousness. He was set forth, He was displayed
publicly. He was set forth to be looked
at. His sacrifice was an offering
of a sweet-smelling savour to His Father, and God the Father
was well pleased with it. He gave him contentment and satisfaction
and delight because his justice was appeased by it and the demands
of his law were answered. I've often reminded you what
it would have been like to have been in Jerusalem after David
had sinned, that horrible sin, and murdered Uriah. taken the
enemy's sword, as it were, and murdered Uriah. And imagine what
it would have been like after Nathan had come to David, and
you're walking down the street of Jerusalem, David and Nathan,
and along comes Uriah's mother and father. And they come along
and say, Nathan, you represent God here. what's going to happen
to this man who's murdered my son, stolen his wife, murdered
my son in cold blood, deceitfully then trying to cover it up. Nathan says to Uriah's mother
and father, God has taken away his sins. There is no sin. There is no sin for David to
answer for. What would Uriah's mum and dad
have said? For a thousand years, Uriah's
mums and dads could have said to people who declare the gospel
of free and sovereign grace, there is no justice. There is
no justice. That is not just until the Lord
Jesus came and then there is no longer any accusation about
God being unjust. That's why Satan is cast out
of heaven. That's why the Gospel is declared
with great freedom. The Lord Jesus is set forth is
set forth as that sin-bearing propitiation, the one that pleases
and satisfies God. He was the one that was set forth
in the eternal purposes, in that eternal covenant that we love
to talk about. He's the one that's set forth
in all of the Old Testament, in all the promises, the yes
and ah that mean in Him. All the types in the Old Testament
point to Him. All the prophecies point forward
to Him. The Old Testament is just one
multifaceted picture of the finished work of the Lord Jesus. And he's
set forth in human flesh, born of a woman and made under the
law, in that body that God the Father had prepared for him.
And he's set forth by the Spirit of God in the preaching of the
Gospel. And as he said, when I am lifted
up, I will draw all men to myself. He's set forth. He's set forth
to declare the righteousness for the remissions of sins that
are past. You have to have your past sins
dealt with as well as your present and your future ones. In 2 John
2.2, the Apostle says, My little children, these things I write
unto you, that you sin not. And if any man sins, we have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he is the propitiation for
our sins. And not only for ours, but for
the sins of the whole world, for the sins of all of God's
elect, the Jews and Gentiles throughout the world. He's set
forth to be looked at, and we have an advocate. we had an advocate
with the Father, a righteous advocate who pleads for his people,
and he pleads for them on the basis of his finished work, the
righteousness of God in him, and that sin-bearing death that
takes away the sins of his people forever. In 1 John 4.10, the
love of God is manifest towards us because God sent his only
son into the world that we might live through him here in his
love, not that we have loved God. but that He loved us and
sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. So the Lord Jesus
is to be set forth in His propitiation. In His propitiation we have an
advocate with the Father. In His propitiation He has loved
us. That's what this sinner goes
to the temple to pray, doesn't he? He says, God, be merciful
to me, the sinner. He says, God, be propitious. Look upon your dear and precious
son and look towards me, the sinner, and show mercy through
the blood of your dear and darling son. If he saves the chief of
sinners and he saves to the uttermost, might he save me. And he went
home, the Lord Jesus declares. He went home to his house justified. What a great thing tonight, brothers
and sisters. You can go home, you who have
faith in him, you who have been given the grace to see the pardoning
of sinners, the delivering in the Lord Jesus of sinners from
the guilt of sin, the deliverance of sinners from the punishment
that's rightly due our sin, accepted in the Beloved, accepted in the
Lord Jesus. He came home, he went down home
to his house justified, because he'd come up to the throne of
grace, condemned, guilty, wrath-deserving, hell-earned sinner. And he went down to his house
And it says, having been justified. If you're justified in time,
you're justified in eternity, and you're justified in the Lord
Jesus. I love what Romans 4.25 says,
doesn't it? He was put to death, he's put
to death, delivered over or put to death for our offenses, and
he was raised again for our justification. The chapter division doesn't
help us at all, I don't think. It says, therefore, being justified
by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus, by
whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand
and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. This is the reality, isn't it?
Complete, free, absolute justification. The Lord Jesus has done the work.
He speaks the word into this man's heart and he goes home
rejoicing. Complete, partakers in the divine
nature. Perfect, holy, spotless, blameless. I love Ecclesiastes 3.14. The Prophet says, I know that
whatsoever God does, it shall be forever. Isn't that a beautiful
word, brothers and sisters? I know that whatever God does
shall be forever. Then he goes on to make it even
more glorious in grace. Nothing can be put to it. Nothing can be added to it. Nothing can be added to it, nor
anything taken from it, because God does it. Isn't it wonderful? It's the great gospel we have,
brothers and sisters, that we can proclaim. God does it, that
men should fear before him, justified immediately, justified completely. Now there is no condemnation,
no sin, perfect righteousness, justified by propitiation, so
justified satisfying the justice of God. justified in the court
of his conscience. We talked about David a little
bit earlier in Psalm 32. He has those words that we have
repeated in Romans chapter 4, doesn't he? Blessed is he whose
transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the
man under whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in his spirit
there is no guile. When I kept silent, my bones
waxed old through my roaring all day long, for day and night
thy hand was heavy upon me. My moisture is turned into the
drought of summer." Selah. I acknowledged my sin. unto thee,
and mine iniquity have I not hid. This man could have stayed
in the dark places, but he comes into the light, that God and
all men would see who he is and see his needs. I acknowledge
my sin unto thee, and my iniquity have I not hid. I said I will
confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgave."
Thou who forgave the iniquity of my sin, justified, justified
freely, justified by grace, and works are not to be entered into
the equation. What a great prayer. God be merciful
to me, the sinner. That's a prayer we can pray day
by day, hour by hour, isn't it? God, be propitious towards me,
the sinner. Show mercy to me through the
blood of your dear and precious son, the Lord Jesus. Those who have been forgiven
much, love much, brothers and sisters. those who have known
the depths of their sins, and known how grievous they are,
and seen them as sins against God and God only, and don't look
to others. Those who have been forgiven
much, love much. May we know the greatness of
forgiveness. And how do you continue? I love
what Colossians 2.6 says. Such an important verse, isn't
it? This is, as therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus
the Lord, so walk in him. The publican never got better
than being a sinner in need of God to look upon his son and
look upon him and his son. Let's pray.