I invite you to the book of Luke
tonight, the book of Luke chapter 18. Luke chapter 18. This is a familiar passage to
most all of you, and I'm sure it is to most of you folks who
are watching by way of the internet. And I'll just read this short
parable. Luke chapter 18, verse 9. And he spake this parable unto
certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and
despised others. And then he told this story.
Two men went up into the temple to pray, to worship. the one
a Pharisee and the other a publican. 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 every one
that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth
himself shall be exalted." This short parable actually describes Everybody who's here tonight
and everyone who is watching by way of the internet or listening
to this message later on, you're either like the publican or you're
like the Pharisee. Which are you? Which group do
you fall into? Which group do I fall into? You see, Pharisees, they trust
in themselves that they're righteous. On the other hand, publicans
are mercy seekers, mercy beggars. Here's the title of this message,
God Be Merciful to Me. God, be merciful to me." This
man, the hand of God was heavy on his heart. He's a man who
troubled over his sins before the Lord. And he remembered over there
at the temple. From olden days they offered
a morning sacrifice and an evening sacrifice. And he remembered no doubt being
taught that it's by the blood of an innocent victim that the
guilty go free. And I think that somewhere along
the line, somebody told him, and the Spirit of God has now
triggered this within his mind, within his memory, that all of
those sacrifices of the Old Testament, they all pointed to the sacrifice
of the Lamb of God. That Lamb of God that takes away
the sin of a world of people. world of his elect. And he troubled in his soul.
And he wants to go to a worship service. He goes to the temple. And there in the temple he sees
this Pharisee praying publicly. But he doesn't feel worthy to
even stand next to the Pharisee. So he just stands afar off. And he kind of smites upon his
own breast as though to say, I got heart trouble. And he said, God, be merciful
to me. And here's the word, propitious
to me. Or show mercy to me on account
of or on the basis of the sacrifice. I need mercy, oh God, because
I am the sinner. As he entered into the temple
and saw other people there, He, in His own estimation, He's the
greatest sinner in that place. And He isn't just merely saying,
God be merciful to me, a sinner, but God be merciful, be propitious
to me. Be a mercy seat to me, because
I'm the sinner. I'm the worst one here in this
service. Quite literally, he was saying,
God, I beg you for mercy because of the Lamb of God, Christ the
Savior, and his sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary. I flee
to the mercy seat. And I know he had the right attitude,
and he prayed the right prayer. Because right out of the lips
of the Savior, the Savior said, that man went home justified.
And I'm telling you, if God the Spirit would lead us to the Lord
Jesus Christ, if he'd make us to beg for mercy, to sue for
mercy, to seek that mercy that's only found in God through the
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, if with me and with you, if you
could in your heart say something like this and mean it, I'm not
saying repeat the words of this man, but if you come to God by
means of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus and you say in a serious
way and you mean it, oh God, I need mercy. I need mercy. And I know you
show mercy, but you only show mercy on the basis of justice
satisfied. He can't show mercy any other
way. His law and his justice has got
to be honored. See, God had to do something
about our sins. before he could in justice forgive
us. And that which I desire for myself
and what I desire for you is mercy. Who needs mercy? Someone who's guilty, right? Someone who's guilty. I'll tell
you a story, a true story, Several years ago, there was, in our
congregation, not this congregation, but in another congregation I
pastored, there was a young man, a teenager in high school, and
he got in trouble because he forgot and took a knife to school.
And that's not a good thing. Had it in his backpack. And then
he showed it to somebody. He said, I forgot and left my
knife in my backpack. And as in the boy's restroom,
and his buddy said, I don't believe you, and he pulled the knife
out. He said, I forgot I left that in there. I think he'd gone
to a Boy Scout meeting or something. I don't know what the story was
there. But anyway, his friend said, you better put that away.
Well, he was found out. And the rules were very clear. If you got caught with a knife,
you're suspended from school. That's just the law. And a member of his family, and
he came to our church, and a member of his family came to, two members
of his family, said, would you go talk to the school superintendent? Because I knew the school superintendent. I liked him, he liked me, and
we'd see one another every once in a while. And in fact, he taught
Ethan Pee-wee football, the superintendent did. So they had a hearing of
the school council, and the superintendent was there, of course, the school
board, I should say. And so I asked the superintendent,
I said, could I speak on behalf of this young man? He said, yes,
you may. So he acknowledged me. And several
of them were watching me on local cable. So most of them knew me. And I got up and I called the
boy's name. And he was there. And his granddaddy
was there. And I said, there's no question
but what he's guilty. I said, so I'm not going to argue
his innocence. But I said, I'll tell you what
I am here to do, plead for mercy for him. That's all I can do,
is plead for mercy. And the school superintendent,
he said, I understand, Pastor Byrd, the young man in your church,
and you made a mistake, and I appreciate you being here, and all of us
do, but we can't show mercy. There are no exceptions to this.
He got suspended from school. Let me tell you something. If
you go before God in an admission of guilt and beg him for mercy, you will
get what you seek. You'll get mercy. Say, well, I don't deserve mercy. Well, if you deserved it, it
wouldn't be mercy, would it? It'd be justice. Mercy. Let's look at this parable. First
of all, who's the speaker? It's necessary to establish that. The speaker's the Lord of glory,
our master, our redeemer. The only Savior, the all-seeing
Son of God. It's said of Christ that all
things are naked and open before the eyes of Him with whom we
have to do. Known unto God are all His works
from the beginning. He's the one who said in the
Gospel of John, I judge a righteous judgment. He sees not as men
see. We look on the outward appearance.
He looks on the heart. The one who's speaking this parable
is the only mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. And he said, no man cometh unto
the Father but by me. He said, I am the door, by me
if any man enter in, or woman enter in, he shall be saved,
she shall be saved, and go in and out and find pasture. This
one who's speaking is the one of whom the prophets wrote. This
one who is speaking is the one to whom all the types and portraits
and pictures in the Old Testament of Messiah are all fulfilled
in this man right here. of whom it was said, Never a
man spake like this man." This is the only Savior of sinners. This is the Savior I need, the
Savior you need. And He tells us of one man here
who was rejected because he's filled with his own arrogance
and self-righteousness. That's not the way to come to
God. boasting of what you've done
and what you've accomplished. The way to come to God and find
what you're looking for is to come before Him broken and abased,
falling before the sovereign King, realizing it's up to Him
to show mercy or not show mercy. You see, we're kind of like that
leper who met the master after he had preached that message
with the beatitudes up on the mountain. And the leper's waiting for him
down at the bottom. And he said, if you will, you
can show me mercy. If you will, you can heal me.
And I'll tell you this, if it's his will, we'll all receive mercy. If it's His will. His will is
right. His will is good. His will is
just. If He wills your salvation, if
He has willed it, it'll come to pass in reality for you. And He will bring you and me
to this state before Him I'm a beggar of mercy. I need mercy. So the speaker's
the savior. Secondly, notice the method that
he uses in teaching this, the parable. It's a parable. An earthly
story, somebody said, with a spiritual or heavenly meaning. It's an
illustration. An illustration intended to teach
mainly one spiritual lesson, though there may be secondary
lessons as well. Our Lord often spoke in parables,
like he did in Matthew chapter 13. And the disciples asked him,
why do you speak in parables? He said, so that these other
fellows over here won't understand. You know it's recorded in Psalm
78 verse two, Messiah would open his mouth and speak parables. So our Lord is the speaker and
his chosen method of teaching is by way of presenting a parable. Well then here's the third thing,
to whom was he speaking? Well of course he's speaking
to everybody who was gathered. But specifically, this parable
is aimed at a particular group. As preachers, we can use the
rifle method of aiming at a target or a shotgun method trying to
hit everybody. Well, our Lord was shooting a
rifle here. He's got a particular target
in mind. Verse 9, certain which trusted
in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. There's the target. That's who
he's preaching to. With the intention of teaching
a lesson, a valuable lesson to all in the future who would read
this. He's speaking to those who trusted
in themselves. He described them as being self-trusters. Self-trusters. Fully persuaded,
they were. They had confidence in themselves. They believed they had faith
in that which they had done. They had a false assurance, but
it was an assurance that everything was right between them and God.
One writer who was, I have a lot of confidence in him as one who
was quite skilled in the Greek. He said, this word trusted includes
the idea of that which that which tranquilizes or sedates. You see, a self-righteous person
is sedated. They're tranquilized in the thinking
they're just fine. And they're just fine upon the
basis of the things that they had done. And he got his checklist
out. Got his pens and, okay. Prayer? Yeah, that's me, I'm
a praying man. Fast? Yeah, I fast twice in a
week. The law only requires one day
of fasting on the Day of Atonement. But man,
I fast twice in the week. Yeah, I got that down. Let's
see, what about tithing? Boy, I got that down. I tithe
of all I possess. He just goes right down the line
and he says, I'm a righteous man. And you see, your own self-righteousness
will sedate you, it will tranquilize you to where you feel no pain. You don't feel the pain of your
sin. You see, the publican, he's not tranquilized. He's not sedated. He very much feels his guilt. He experiences the rottenness
of his own filthiness and self-righteousness and ungodliness. But the Pharisee,
he's tranquilized. Nothing troubles him. Are you troubled before God? If you're really troubled before
God over your sins, there's a great physician for that kind of condition. And you come to Him and He freely,
fully, unconditionally all forgives based upon His sacrifice at the
cross of Calvary. But this man, he trusted in himself
that he's righteous. I tell you what, you better trust
somebody a whole lot bigger than you are. whole lot greater than
you are. Somebody who is righteous. Somebody who can represent you
before a holy God. So they trusted. See, it's not
like the Pharisee didn't, he said, well, he was an unbeliever.
Oh, you're wrong. He was a believer in himself. and he trusted that he was righteous. Righteous means just, right with
God, fit for God's presence. Can you imagine that? This man,
this man thought that he was worthy, worthy of the presence
of God based upon the things that he had done. Are you talking
about a fool? This man's a fool. You see, there is a worthiness
that some sinners have and were accepted by God, but our worthiness
is found in the worthy one, Christ the Savior. He's my worthiness. You see, he's my fitness for
heaven. I'm fit for the presence of God. I'm worthy to spend eternity
with God. Based on what, Jim? You just
said you're a filthy sinner. I am. But I'm worthy and fit
because of whom my Savior is. And because of the death that
he died. Why, this man is so sedated. He's so tranquilized. He believes
his own morality and his own goodness and his own performance
of duties and good works and obedience to certain laws and
rules and regulations makes him acceptable with God. He, like so many others, trusted
in himself that he was righteous. And he's ignorant of the fact
that we lost all righteousness in Adam's fall. We don't have
any righteousness except filthy rags. Isaiah 64 6 says that. We're destitute of righteousness. We're unrighteous and unfit for
the presence of God. And the thing of it is, we can't
make ourselves fit. We can't make ourselves righteous. We're bad off and can't do anything
about it. Just improve yourself. Turn over
a new leaf, live better. Well, if you need to start living
better, go ahead, but that don't impress God. Might help your relationship
with other people, but he won't help you with God, because he
demands perfection. After all, Leviticus 22, 21 says
that you'll be perfect to be accepted. You want God to accept
you? I guarantee if I asked every
one of you tonight, you'd say, yes, I want God to accept me.
Well, you're gonna have to be perfect to be accepted. I know
that, the Bible says that. Question is, how you gonna be
perfect? I'm gonna start right now. Bless
your heart, you can go ahead and start right now. What about
all them years that you done water under the bridge? You can't
go back and undo those. And even if you start doing better,
what about that principle of sin, that nature of sin that's
inside of you? You can't do anything about that. And I'll tell you something else,
this man not only trusted in himself and trusted in himself
that he was righteous, but like others who are self-righteous,
he despised others. Because whenever somebody has
too high of an opinion of themselves, this is sure to follow. Despise
others. Despise means to set it not,
to lightly esteem, to find contemptible. He looked over at that publican, he just was filled with contempt
toward him. Don't know why that man's here
in this place of worship anyway. Vile a man as he is, tax collector. Wish he wouldn't even come to
church. That's a fantasy. Too bad he's not like me. Years ago, young lady in the
church I pastored became pregnant out of wedlock. Had two women came up to me, said, you know, so-and-so's pregnant.
What are we going to do about it? What are we going to do about
it? I knew what she meant. We need a disciplinary committee. And I said, I'll tell you what
we're going to do. They said, what? I said, we're going to
love her. And we're going to tell her,
we're here for you, honey. And that's what we did. No discipline committee is needed. Tell you what, people who are
self-righteous They look down on others. Now, you can usually,
you can spot these folks because they're, when it comes to the
faults of others, they got 20-20 vision. And they got an ear that'll hear
just about anything. But when it comes to their own
faults, as the old saying goes, they're blind as a bat. Can't
see that. They're so very, very blind that
they can't see how foolish and ridiculous it is to put any stock,
to put any trust in anything that they've done to be accepted
with God. That's how foolish they are.
You wouldn't do that, would you? Surely you wouldn't. Pharisees
looked down on everybody. He said, I'm glad I'm not like
that guy over there, that publican. You see, the sin our Lord is
exposing is self-righteousness. And I wouldn't classify sin,
all sins are terrible. But I'll tell you this, I believe
I'd rather face the Lord as a drunkard than as to face him as a self-righteous
man. Yeah. You see, Read through the New
Testament. Our Lord always had words of
mercy for sinners. But I'll tell you what, when
it came to the self-righteous, he hit tough with them. He denounced them as being hypocrites. He never had a kind word for
them. Because you see, in being self-righteous
and thinking that by what they do they earn acceptance with
God, they have put themselves in competition with the Son of
God. No wonder He didn't have a kind
word for them. They're trying to steal His glory.
And that's not going to happen. Did an old sinner come to him? Boy, I tell you, he had words
of kindness, words of mercy. He didn't condone the sin. But people who came to him for
help, they found help. That woman caught in adultery. John chapter 8. Pharisees got
her and threw her down in front of the Savior. Said, she's caught
in the act of adultery. Now Moses, Moses says stone her
to death. So what do you say? And scripture
says they was tempting him, putting him to the test. Oh, that's a
bunch of imbeciles trying to match wits with him who is the
wisdom of God. And finally they all, They got
frustrated and felt guilty and they all left. And Lord looked
up and said to the woman, where are those thine accusers? She
said, no man, Lord. He said, neither do I condemn
thee. Wouldn't you love to hear him
say that to you? Neither do I condemn thee. I don't want to be condemned.
Neither do I condemn thee. I said I wouldn't want to classify
sins, but I'll tell you, self-righteousness, that's a bad one. That'll earn you a place in hell.
That's for sure. It's like the folks that Paul
spoke about in Romans chapter 10. He said, I bear them record. They got a zeal for God, but
it's not according to knowledge. Why are they going around trying
to establish a righteousness of their own? And they won't submit. Won't
submit to the righteousness of God found in Christ Jesus. Our Savior is a friend of sinners. And I'll tell you what, he's
not the friend of the self-righteous. I can give you three quick points
and I'll let you go home. Two men, both of them went up
to the temple to pray, to worship. That's a good thing to do. Go
to the house of worship. We don't congratulate people
for coming to the worship service. You ought to come worship God.
If you don't come worship God, shame on you. The Bible says, forsake not the
assembling of yourselves together as the matter of some is. We're
commanded to worship God in public worship. And these men came to
public worship. Jews had to worship God at the
temple. And if they couldn't get to the
temple, they had to pray facing the temple, like Daniel did when
he was in Babylon. were commanded to worship. So
they're in the right place. But once a Pharisee, he's very
religious. He wears religious clothes, lets
everybody know he's religious. If you doubted whether he's religious
or not, just follow him around for a little while and you'll
find he'll pray on the street corner so everybody can see. And he'll tell you that he fasts
twice in the week. He had rules to live by. Oh, he'd give money to the poor,
but he'd make sure people was watching when he did. And I'd
say, boy, he's such a holy man. That's me. That's me. That's
the Pharisee. Our Lord told his disciples,
he said, you better listen to me, except your righteousness
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you're
not gonna get in the kingdom of heaven. No, not you. You gotta have a righteousness
better than they got, because they've got a righteousness that's
self-manufactured. I made it myself. Well, let me tell you something.
Everything man makes is a mess. You want to make a righteousness
of your own? You just make a mess, a stinking
mess. Why not come before God and say,
I don't have any righteousness. I need righteousness. I need
mercy. That's what this man did. That's
what the publican did. I don't have anything to boast
about. You got anything to boast about? You gonna brag about anything
you've ever done? If you do, you're a bigger fool
than I think you are. Our Lord said about these Pharisees,
he said, they're like whited sepulchers. Look at that nice
green grass up on top of their graves. and that nice granite
stone. It's so beautiful, and yeah,
it's beautiful. That grave's full of dead men's
bones. That's the Pharisees. One's a Pharisee, the other one's
a publican. He's a tax collector, cheated people, dishonest, hated
by most everybody. He's a sinner, he knows it, everybody
else knows it. Both of them come to church,
come to the temple. Here's the second thing, two
men, two prayers. Listen to the prayer of the publican
again. He stood and prayed thus with himself, and that's as far
as his prayer got, just with himself. God. And then he uses I five
times. His prayer is full of I. I thank
thee that I am not, as other men are, extortioners, unjust,
adulterers, and I'm not like this guy over here. I fast twice
in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess. His prayer is full of self. But he had no more goodness than
any other man had, because all of us together have no goodness. But listen to the prayer of the
publican. He's standing afar off. See, the Pharisee, his attitude
is, I got a right to be here. And the poor old publican, he
stands afar off like I don't have any right to be here at
all. In fact, he wouldn't even lift
up his eyes toward heaven. The posture of his body showed
the posture of his soul. He's prostrate before God. He comes in humility, not like
the other guy in pride and in arrogance, but in humility. He stands afar off, he wouldn't
even lift up his eyes to heaven, verse 13. But he smote upon his
breast, saying, God, be merciful, be propitious. To me, I'm the
sinner. And when he pleads for mercy, he's saying, I deserve to perish,
to perish on account of my sins. I don't deserve anything good
from you, God, but I cast myself on your mercy in Christ. What a wonderful thing that'd
be if all of us tonight cast ourselves upon the mercy of God
in Jesus Christ. And if God would enable us to
do that, notice the two results. One of them went home justified.
I'd like to home justified and assured that I'm justified by
God, wouldn't you? One went home justified, the
other one didn't. Though one was accepted by God,
the other one was rejected by God. And Christ said, I tell
you. And what he says is right. He
speaks with authority. As those saying, I the judge,
I the one who sees all hearts, I tell you, this man went home justified
rather than the other. The Pharisee exalted himself
and God would in time abase him. God's going to bring him down.
I tell you, see, everybody's gonna be brought down sooner
or later. To be brought down in this life,
that's called salvation. But if you remain firm and arrogant
and self-righteous all the way to judgment, oh, you'll still
be brought down, but you'll be brought down to hell. The publican, by humbling grace,
took his place as a guilty sinner, and he went home justified, righteous,
accepted, forgiven, through the obedience of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, which of these two men do
you identify with? I hope there's nobody here that
identifies with this Pharisee and says, well, I want to be
like that guy. You want to be like that guy,
you need your head examined. I'll tell you that. I want to
be like this publican and have a true broken heart
before God over sin and approach God upon the basis of Christ
and Him crucified for sinners. And I am confident, confident
based upon the word of God that everybody who comes to God through
Jesus Christ the Lord gonna get mercy, mercy. Well, let's sing a closing song,
shall we? 75 is the number.