Thank you, Bill. Let's go to
the book of Luke this evening, if you would, Luke chapter 18.
Luke chapter 18. This is a scripture that most
all of you know very well, and I'm sure you've heard lots of
messages on this very important parable of the Pharisee and the
publican. And if God the Spirit would help
me this evening, I hope to address this subject, that being, are
you justified? Are you justified? I'm not asking,
are you religious? I know you're religious, you
wouldn't be here. I'm not asking, are you a church goer? I'm not
asking, are you a member? I'm asking, are you justified? Are you justified? Now let's
read the scripture. Here in Luke 18. Now look at
verse nine. And he spake, who is the one
who's speaking? It's the Lord Jesus. Never a
man spake like this man. He's the prophet. He's the prophet. He's the one Moses spoke of back
in the book of Deuteronomy. God's going to raise up a prophet
and here he is teaching. He spoke to the people all times
in parables, earthly stories that had a spiritual meaning.
And he spoke in parables in order that those who didn't know him,
those who were filled with self-righteousness, they wouldn't understand what
he was saying. I'll tell you this, we're not
going to understand the scriptures unless he gives us understanding.
Now that's for certain. Unless the Spirit of God illuminates
us, unless He gives us the ability to focus in and understand that
which our Lord is really teaching, we're not going to get it. Now
that's just a simple fact, and that's why every time we meet
together, and every time you open up the Scriptures, whether
you open up the Scriptures right here, whether you open up the
Scriptures at your house, you've got to always ask God the Spirit,
give me some understanding of that which I'm about to read,
because I can't understand it as part from the Spirit of God.
After all we read, a man can receive nothing except it be
given him from above. This Bible, it is way beyond
natural comprehension and understanding. This is about spiritual things.
These things have to do with God. They have to do with everlasting
issues. The Word of God has to do with
the glory of Christ Jesus. It has to do with salvation by
grace, not by works, not by deeds of the law, not by obedience
to commandments. But it's got to do with this
salvation, this deliverance, this rescue that only God can
do. And we're not going to understand
the Scriptures. We're not going to grasp the
Gospel unless God gives us understanding of it. So every time you open
up the Scriptures, ask the Lord. Lord, help me. We're just students,
aren't we? I know we've heard, you've heard
hundreds and hundreds of messages, even from this pulpit. I mean,
that's some of you, you're charter members. You go way back here,
and you've listened to Brother Mahan over and over and over
again. But it doesn't matter who the
speaker is, we're not going to understand what the man is speaking
about. We're not going to grasp the
gospel unless God the Spirit takes the word of truth and puts
it in our hearts. That's what we want. I don't
want just a head knowledge. I don't want to just be correct.
Theologically, I want to know God, understand the things of
God in my heart. Don't you? That's where I told
Sunday school class this morning, this is what Solomon said, my
son, give me your heart. Give me your heart. This is the
accusation of our Lord against the Jews. He said, you do lip
service to me, but your hearts are far from me. I don't want
to be like that. And I don't want you to be like
that. I don't want to just come to the church and, you know,
okay, it's time to go to church, it's time to attend the service,
and we go through the rituals, and go through the motions, and
go through the ceremonies, and if we're not careful, we'll go
through all of these things, and then wind up and go to hell.
I want to know God. I want to know Christ Jesus.
I want to know the blessed Redeemer and the power of His resurrection. And I want to know Him in my
innermost being. And when I read the Word of God,
I say, Lord, teach me. I'm dumb. I'm ignorant. I don't
know anything by nature. I can't comprehend Your Word. I can't receive anything that
You have to say unless You give me the ability to receive it.
Now that's the way we approach the Scriptures. So here's our
Lord speaking. He spake this story, parable. Who did he speak it to? To certain
which they trusted in themselves. What was their opinion of self? That they were righteous. And they despised others. And here's the story. He says,
the Savior says, two men went up into the temple to pray, that
is to worship God, which involves prayer, but it also involved
listening to the word of God, going there to think about the
things of the Lord. They went up to the temple in
order to worship. And then he identifies them.
One was a Pharisee. He's a separated man. That's
what Pharisee means, isn't it? One who's separated. And the
other, he's a publican. He's a tax collector. Well, the
Pharisee stood and he prayed thus with himself. And I tell you his, you notice
his prayer, it's got five times he used I. His prayer is full
of I, it's full of self. It's a dangerous thing when you
start speaking to God, or so you think you're speaking to
God, and about every other word is I. Always bothers me when somebody
says, you know, I'm saved. They said, well, what happened
to you? Well, I did this and I did that and I felt this and
I experienced that. I said, you got a lot of I in
there. It'd be a whole lot better if you said the Lord's done something
for me. I think I've seen the glory of
Christ Jesus in my soul. The Lord has revealed to me I'm
a dead dog sinner. Omar Reese Montgomery used to
say that. I'm a dead dog sinner. And I'm
not worthy of the least of his mercies. But God showed me mercy
through the bloody death of the Lord Jesus Christ. That sounds
a whole lot better, but this man, listen to his prayer. He
stood, he stood, and he prayed thus with himself. God, I thank
thee. that I am not as other men, extortioners,
thieves, unjust, really bad sinners, adulterers, or even as this publican. In other words, first of all,
he sets forth his Morality. I'm a moral man. I'm an upstanding
man. And then, then he presents to
God, having spoken to God and said, I'm a very moral man. Now
he presents his religiosity. I've not only got morals, I got
religion. I fast twice in the week. You
know, you go back to the law, go back to the book of Leviticus,
only one time did God absolutely command the Israelites to fast. Day of atonement. The day of
atonement. That's the only day you had to
fast. Now, you could fast at other
times, but our Lord Jesus made it abundantly clear in Matthew
chapter six. When you do fast, don't act like
you're fasting. Don't put on a sad face. Don't
put ashes on your head. Don't give that appearance to
anybody that you're fasting. Don't be a hypocrite. That sort
of thing. But here's what the Pharisees
did. They fasted two times during the week. And here are the days
they fasted on Monday and Thursdays. That's the two days they fasted.
And they had, here's what the old rabbi said, that they fasted
on Mondays and Thursdays because it was on Monday that Moses went
up to the mountain to receive the law of God. Then 40 days
later on Thursday, he came back down. So it became a tradition
of the elders. We talked about that in Sun School
this morning. It became a tradition of the elders, okay, fast twice
in the week, Mondays and Thursdays. But I think there was another
reason, Mondays and Thursdays, that's when most people came
to the markets. That's when people came, they
flooded into the towns and villages and cities, and that's when the
Pharisees could be observed by most of the people who would
see them fast and have a sad look, you know. They gave indication to all the
people, I'm such a holy person, I'm fasting today. I'm doing
without food for the glory of God. I'm devoted to the Lord. And everybody saw it and everybody
said, oh, what a holy man he is. That's most likely the reason
they also fasted on Mondays and Thursdays. So that's just what
he said. I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that
I possess. The Lord Jesus said they even
gave 10% of their mint, their other little things that they
grew, spices, very particular. So he's a very moral man. and a very religious man, and
the publican. Now, here's the other man, and
he's standing afar off. I expect the Pharisee, he was
up as close to the holy place as he could get, because he felt
like he was worthy to be there. And here's his posture. He stood,
and you can read some of the old writers, they usually stood.
This man lifted up his eyes to heaven. Usually they held their
hands out like, I'm ready to receive the blessings that you're
going to give me. And he's right up close to the
holy place. But here's the publican, and
he stood far off. As though by his position, He's
saying, I'm not even worthy. I'm not worthy to get close to
the holy place. Because that was symbolically,
that indicated the presence of God. And you see, the Pharisee,
by his presence, where he was, he would say, hey, I'm worthy
to be here. The publican said, I'm not worthy
to be here. I'm not worthy to come to God.
I'm not worthy to approach God. God's absolutely holy and I'm
a sinful man. So he is way far off and he wouldn't
even so much as lift up his eyes to heaven. He didn't do like
the Pharisee. The Pharisee is though he is
looking God in the face. I'm worthy to look eye to eye
with God. Oh, what audacity! What arrogance! What self-righteousness! Oh,
what pride! And here's the Republican. He
don't lift his eyes to heaven. Because he's not worthy to look
on God. He's not even worthy to look
in the direction of God. And he just beats upon his breast. Just beats upon his breast. And
he says, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Be merciful to
me, a sinner. Now, in this same chapter, there's
another man who asks for mercy. Look over at the end of chapter
18 of Luke. And this is a man who's blind. It came to pass, verse 35, 1835. It came to pass, as he was come
nigh unto Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the wayside
begging. And hearing the multitude pass
by, he asked what it meant. And they told him that Jesus
of Nazareth passeth by. And he cried, saying, Jesus,
thou son of David, have mercy on me. Here's another man asking
for mercy. They, which went before, rebuked
him, that he should hold his peace. But he cried out all the
more, Thou son of David, have mercy on me. And I won't get
into this except to say this, this is an altogether different
word. Because when blind Bartimaeus
asked for mercy, he's saying this, Lord, show pity on me. I need compassion. But that's not what the publican
was saying. That's a different word. What
the publican said, back over here, look at verse 13 again.
God be merciful to me, a sinner. He's saying, God be propitious
to me, a sinner. That is, God be satisfied with
the blood for me, a sinner. Remember this. The Jews, Went up to the temple
once or twice a day to worship. Those times were 9 a.m., three
in the afternoon. Those are the two times, and
many of them went both times. What are those times also? What
happened those times? The offering of the morning sacrifice
and the evening sacrifice. And all of those, we know all
of those offerings pointed to Christ Jesus. Every sacrifice
that died on a Jewish altar, they pointed to the Lamb of God,
who would come and take away the sins of all of His people.
That one who died that God might be just and the justifier of
all who believe on the Lord Jesus. These men both went up to the
temple at the hour of prayer, at the hour when a sacrifice
was being offered. And there's the Pharisee. He
has no regard for the blood sacrifice. He has no regard for substitution. He has no regard for divine satisfaction
of God's justice. All he's interested in is God
paying attention to who he is and all of his worthiness and
in all of his greatness and in all of his righteousness. I,
I, I, I, I. That's all he's interested in
presenting to God. On the basis of all that I am,
here are my hands held out, bless me. Well, that's the way of the world,
isn't it? That's the way of natural religion. But here's the publican. And he sees the offering offered
to God, the sacrifice. He sees the blood. And he smites
upon his breast and he says, Oh God, be propitious to me. Be satisfied with me on the basis
of the blood shed upon the altar. And that's the gospel right there.
That's the gospel. When he said, God, be merciful
to me, he's saying, God, make reconciliation for me. Make satisfaction
for me. God, be propitious to me. The Lord Jesus is the propitiation
for our sins. The Savior and His death, that's
what satisfied God. It's not a self-righteous prayer. That ain't gonna satisfy God.
It's not gonna satisfy God's justice. And even our weeping,
our weeping and our repentance and our faith, that's not gonna
satisfy God's justice. The soul that sinneth shall die. God demands death. God's gonna
get death. And he got death for all of his
people, all of his chosen ones in the Lord Jesus Christ and
that honored God. And here's this publican and
he says to God, oh, be merciful to me. Make reconciliation for
me by the blood. I need the blood. That's what
he's saying. I need the blood. Now look at
verse 14. The Savior said, I tell you. But listen up when he said, I
got something to say to you. I said, Lord, I'm listening. I say unto you, this man, this
man went down to his house justified rather than the other. for everyone that exalted himself. There's the Pharisee. He promotes
himself, he exalts himself. He shall be abased. And he that
humbleth himself shall be exalted. This man went down to his house
justified rather than the other. And when he said that, he said
just the opposite, just the opposite of the prevailing Jewish doctrine
and just the opposite of what the world thinks. You see, his
words go against the grain. of the theology, of the doctrine,
or the beliefs of all of the religions of man. It goes against
it. This is what he was saying. You
think about this. He was saying, it is not the
man who thinks he's good that is right with God. It's the man
who knows he's wicked. and needs the blood sacrifice,
that's the man that's right with God. The world still has this idea,
good people go to heaven. Oh, I sure hope that when he
puts me on the scales, my good deeds outweigh my bad deeds. Well, you don't have any good
deeds. All you got's bad deeds. The night that Belshazzar held
a great party, had a bunch of guests, all of them drinking
wine, he said, we don't even have enough Vessels to hold all
the wine go over there and get some in vessels. We took from
the temple in Jerusalem Fill them full of wine. We're having
a party And then the hand of a man interrupted all the festivities
and something was written on the wall and scared that man
so bad his knees smoked together and And he sure tried to find
somebody who could interpret the handwriting. And finally,
the queen said, Daniel, he can tell you what it says, what it
means. It boiled down to this. Daniel
said, God said, you've been weighed in the balances, and you've found
wanting. You've found wanting. And I'll tell you, when we're
weighed in the balances, we better not be wanting. What is it that
God demands? What is it that God demands?
You see, here we are tonight, and here's the question, are
you justified? I wanna be justified, don't you?
I wanna be justified. Well, to be justified is to be
declared right with God. Righteous with God, and the root
word of righteous is right. I want to be right with God.
Oh, in the book of Acts, Simon the sorcerer, you know, Philip
baptized him. He had made a profession of faith.
And then Peter and John came to town, Samaria, and people
were receiving the Holy Spirit. Simon, he wanted to buy the gifts
of the Spirit. Peter looked at Simon and said,
your heart's not right with God. You're not right with God. You've
been religious, but you're not right with God. Everything's
wrong. And here's a question for all
of us tonight and people who are watching by way of the internet,
people who are listening to this CD or DVD later on. Here's a
question. Are you justified? Are you right
with God? Is everything alright between
you and the Lord? It can't be based upon your works
when the Lord said, When Daniel interpreted the words of the
Lord, you've been weighed in the balances and found wanting.
Here's what he was saying. You've been put on the balance
against the righteousness of God, against God Himself. You
don't even move the scales. You don't even budge them. See, there's a standard. Though
I wish I could tell the world this, there's a standard whereby
we're accepted with God. What has God said? Has God said
anything in this book about what the standard is? Yes, He has. Here's what God says, Be ye holy,
for I am holy. That's what God said. Be ye righteous,
for I am righteous. And I don't care what other people
say, well just do the best you can. Be moral, be religious,
you'll be alright. What God says still stands. Be ye holy, for I am holy. And you'll be holy, you'll be
righteous, or you'll perish in hell. That's just the way it
is. And we better be finding out,
and God better teach us, hope He will teach us, and enlighten
us, how can I be right with God? How can I be righteous? Because
you can't be righteous in yourself. You see, if God demands perfection,
well, consider this. How are you going to be perfect?
Hey, I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer. I'm not the smartest
guy to come down the road. But I tell you, I can put this
together. God says, Be ye holy, for I am
holy. Well, I understand this. Then
I've got to be holy. And I also understand this. Either
I'm going to have to make myself holy, or somebody else is going
to have to make me holy. Does that make sense? We don't
want to talk over people's heads. We're not trying to impress anybody
with our theological knowledge. We don't have any knowledge except
what God gives us. God demands perfection. I can't
produce it. Where can I get it? God demands righteousness. I
can't produce it. Who can give it to me? That's not complicated, is it?
That's not over anybody's head. And I'll tell you this, this
has been the issue for centuries. That's what Job, this issue was
raised back in the book of Job. Go back to Job 25 with me, Job
25. I know that Job's three friends,
and they were poor comforters, is what was said about those
three. And they said a lot of things
that wasn't right. But they said a lot of things
that were right. They said a lot of things that
were right. And this is Bildad, Job 25. Then answered Bildad the Shuhite
and said, Dominion and fear are with God. He maketh peace in
his high places. Is there any number of his armies? And upon whom doth not his light
arise? And then he asked, says, How
then can man be justified with God? And it says, or how can
he be clean that is born of a woman? Here's what he's asking. How
can any human being be presentable to God? Simple question. How can I be presentable to God? Now listen, we drink iniquity
like water. Is that what the Bible says?
It says all we like sheep have gone astray. We've gone astray. It says for all have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. It says there's not a just man
upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. And we can go
on and on and on and on. God looked down and He saw that
every imagination of man's heart was only evil continually. And yet this God who sees all
of this, who knows all of this, He demands we've got to be perfect
before He'll receive us. So the question is raised. How
then can man be justified with God? How can man be righteous
with God? How can he be clean that's born
of a woman? We're filthy. We're filthy. We're dirty. Here's God in His
purity, in His holiness, immaculate, infinitely glorious, beyond any
of our imagination. How can God embrace us? Embrace us as his children without
compromising his law and justice and his holy character. And that's
something the religious world don't have a clue about. And
we wouldn't either, except the Holy Spirit gave us some understanding.
God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law
to redeem them that were under the law. How can God be just
and justify the ungodly? Through the doing and the dying
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I told this yesterday at the
funeral. Many years ago, two men went
to Lexington to hear a preacher. Because they heard he preached
the gospel. These two men were best friends. They remained best
friends until the first one died. And then later, the second one
died. Those two men were J.D. Butler
and Scott Richardson, born on the same day, same year, same
birthday. They went to Lexington. J.D. told me, we heard there was a
young man preaching in Lexington by the name of Henry Mahan, and
we went to hear him. He said he got up and preached,
and he took this as his text. How can God be just and justify
the ungodly? And he preached and J.D. and Scott, both of them, because
both of them told me the same story. So I know it's true because
both told me the same thing. They looked at each other and
they said to each other, he's got it. He's got it. Do we have it? Do we know? Do we understand? How can God
be just and justify the ungodly? Through the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the Bible says we're justified, we're made righteous, we're right
with God by his blood, by the grace of God. You know what it
says in Romans chapter three? We're justified freely. by God's
grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, justified
freely. You know what freely means? Without
a cause, without a reason in us. The word is dorion. I don't throw
Greek words around very often, don't know much Greek, but I
know that one. Dorion is freely. Freely. It's the same Word they
used, or the Savior used, He said, they hated me without cause. Dorion, without cause. There
wasn't any reason, He said, there wasn't any reason in me why they
should hate me. And I'll tell you what, we're
justified freely. Dorion, there's no reason in
you. There's no reason in you why
God would justify you. No reason in any of you, no reason
in this preacher why God would declare us righteous. He declares
us righteousness in Jesus Christ, who is the Lord our righteousness. That's how we're declared righteous. And God the Spirit gives us life. He regenerates us. He quickens
us. And the Bible says we're justified
by faith. How do we, how's this justification,
how's it come to us? We receive the truthfulness of
it and the blissfulness of it by faith. By faith. I just believe the word of God.
And here in this story in Luke 18, One man went away justified. He went down to his house justified. Are you going to go down to your
house justified tonight? Boy, it'd be a blessed thing. I'm going home justified. I tell
you what, if you're in Christ Jesus, you go home justified.
Go home justified. Well, that's all I got to say.
63.