All right, let's open our Bibles
back to Luke chapter 5. Several weeks ago, I preached
from this passage out at Brother Allen Ison's congregation in
Middle Fork. And I had a good time with it,
and I thought I'd like to bring a message here on this, but I'm
going to divide it up. I've entitled this message, Christ,
Our Savior, and our standard. Christ our Savior and our standard. And my point is I want us to
see the scriptural identification and distinction of the true Lord
Jesus Christ. You know, whenever messages begin
to branch out all over the world and the fame of someone like
our Savior spreads, there begins to be heresy creep in. People have different ideas about,
for example, I think about these questions. Who is Jesus Christ? Exactly who He is, you know?
Some say He is God. Some say He is man. Some say
He's not God, but He's man. He's not man, but He's God. All
kinds of different ideas. Of course, we know what the Scripture...
How does the Scripture answer that question? God's Word, that's
what we need to be concerned with. How is He identified between
Genesis and Revelation? And how is He distinguished?
Well, He's both God and man. That's what the Scripture teaches.
He's the God-man. In fact, to deny His deity is
to deny Him. And to deny His humanity is to
deny Him. And so, who is Jesus Christ?
And what did He actually accomplish? in his redemptive work. Some
say, well, he made everybody savable. He brought you into
a position that if you'll cooperate or do certain things, depending
upon what culture or denomination or part of the country you live
in, you have to do this, that, or the other, or this, that,
and other, and then his work is effectual. Well, that's not
what the Bible says. What did he accomplish? Well,
he accomplished the redemption of his people. He saved his people
from their sins. He secured and he demands the
eternal salvation and final glory of all for whom he died. That's
what the scripture teaches. Why did he do it? Well, he did
it for the glory of God. He didn't do it to meet your
felt needs. Now listen, Christ does meet our needs. what we
really need. The problem is we don't know
what we need until God shows us what we need. We're like children
that way. You know, you're little children
as they grow up, they really don't know what they need. They
think they do, and then as they get older and get to be teenagers,
they really think they know what they need, but you know better,
don't you? If you didn't think you did, you wouldn't have any
friction there, wouldn't have any arguments with them, would
you? But they're growing, see? And so, why did he do it? Well,
he did it for the glory of God. That's why he did it. And so
when we talk about salvation, we have to start there with the
glory of God. How can God be honored, magnified? And then where is he now? Well,
he's not dead, is he? He's not in a tomb somewhere.
We're not going to build a monument on earth to commemorate his grave
because he's risen. He died, He was buried, He rose
again the third day, and He ascended unto the Father in heaven, seated
at the right hand of the Father, ever living to make intercession
for us. And He's coming again to receive
His people unto Himself. and to judge the world in righteousness
so that those questions have to be answered well throughout
his earthly ministry he answered those questions but let me just
give you this we're gonna look back up here in verse 27 of Luke
chapter 5 the first point I want to make in this message is Christ
the Savior of sinners the Savior of sinners now he deals with
that and then the second point is I've got two points under
Christ our standard the second one if Christ, the standard of
repentance. And that's important. Now he's
the standard of repentance. Most people think they've repented.
They don't even know what repent it is, what repentance is, but
he's the standard of repentance. I'll show you that third Christ,
the standard of righteousness. Most people think they know what
righteousness is, but they don't. You see, Christ is the standard
of righteousness. And then he concludes this with
a parable that I'm not going to get to this morning, the parable
of the new garment and the new wine. And I'll get to that next
week. I'll do a whole message on that.
But let's look at this. First of all, begin in verse
27, Christ the Savior of sinners. Now, how is he identified and
distinguished as the savior of sinners. It's easy to say that.
But what does it really mean? Well, look here in verse 27.
It says, After these things he went forth, and he saw a publican
named Levi. Now, you know what a publican
was. A publican was among the most hated, despised, infamous
sinners in the land of Israel. A publican was a Jewish person,
a Jewish man, who sided with the Roman infiltrators, the Roman
conquerors, to collect taxes from the Jewish people to give
to Caesar. That's what he did. Now you can
just imagine. What if somebody came in here and took over our
country and some of us became tax collectors for the conquerors?
How would you think of us? Plus, they were infamous, just
about every one of them, if not every one, they were infamous
for skimming off the top. They took more and lined their
own pockets. You remember the issue of Zacchaeus? He was a publican. Well, this
man named Levi, and Aaron told you, that's Matthew. Levi is
his Hebrew name. Matthew, he became a disciple
of Christ. He's the one whom God the Holy
Spirit inspired to write the gospel of Matthew. So he was
a disciple, or he became a disciple. But he's sitting at the receipt
of custom, the tax table. He's going to collect the taxes.
And Christ comes along. And in his powerful, in his powerful,
invincible call, he looked at this man Matthew and he says,
follow me. And it says in verse 28, look
at this, and Matthew, that's Levi, left all. He didn't even
gather up the money or anything. He left all. He rose up and he
followed Christ. What you have there is a picture
of the invincible calling of the gospel. So he followed him. He followed him, following Christ. That's a disciple of Christ.
A disciple is one who trusts in, rests in, and follows the
Lord Jesus Christ for all. He left all to follow Christ
as his all. And we can see that. In verse
29 it says, And Levi made him a great feast in his own house.
And there was a great company of publicans, not one publican,
but many publicans, and of others that sat down with them. And
verse 30 says, but they're scribes and Pharisees. Now that's their
religious leaders. These are the pastors, the teachers,
the, the readers and interpreters of scripture. That's what a scribe,
for example, was one you see Bible commentaries today. Well,
the scribes wrote those Bible commentaries back then. They
studied the Law of Moses, verse by verse, the languages. They
knew the Hebrew language. They didn't speak Hebrew here,
they spoke Aramaic, which was a variation. These scribes, they
knew the Hebrew. And they went back and they meticulously
went over those scriptures and they wrote commentaries. And
the Pharisees were the ones who who were kind of like the practical
religious leaders. They taught the people in the
customs and the traditions and the ways and they read scriptures
and they prayed and all the duties of religion under the old covenant,
the law of Moses, added with their additions. And it says,
these scribes and these Pharisees, they murmured, that's complaining.
We don't do a lot of that, do we? But yeah, they complained. He's got a natural here. He said
they complained against his disciples, the ones who followed Christ.
And here's what they said. They said, why do you eat and
drink with publicans and sinners? Why do you consort with such
people? Most people, when they read that,
will bring it out that Christ did consort with publicans and
sinners. He didn't act like publicans
and sinners. He didn't promote what they were doing. But he
consorted with them, and here's why. He says in verse 31, And
Jesus answering, he said unto them, They that are whole need
not a physician, but they that are sick. Now he compares himself
with the occupation of a doctor. Several times in scripture, Christ
compares himself with occupations. Once he compares himself with
a shepherd, but here a physician. And he said, They that are whole,
healthy, well, Complete need not a physician, but they that
are sick. Now, of course, he's talking
about sickness unto death, which is sin. Sometimes natural man
is said to be sick with sin. Sometimes it's described as spiritual
death. It's both. It's a sickness unto
death. The wages of sin is death. Scripture
says, and so he says in verse 32, he says, I came not to call
the righteous. but sinners to repentance. He
said, what he's saying is if you're righteous, you don't need
to repent. If you're complete, if you're
healthy, if you're well, if you don't have this disease or this
sickness of sin, you don't need to repent. I'm not here for you.
You don't go to the, well, some people go to the doctor even
they're well, but mostly we don't go to the doctor if we're well. You see, it's not, it's not the
righteous who need a savior. It's the spiritually dead. It's sinners who need a Savior.
Who is Jesus Christ? Over in Matthew chapter 1, and
I thought about this, you know, here's Matthew. It's Levi. And he's inspired now, this is
much later on as you know, this is after the death, burial, resurrection,
and ascension of Christ, that Matthew was written. And they
say Matthew is a very Jewish gospel. If you look at the four
Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, they each emphasize
four aspects of the complete person and work of our Savior.
They all portray Him in every way and always, but there's an
emphasis. In Matthew, it's Christ the King,
the King, because He's the King of the Jews. And it starts off
with His lineage from Abraham because of that, because the
Jews, they boasted in Abraham. Well, what Matthew is going to
show here, he's going to show how the Messiah, the Lord Jesus
Christ, is the physical descendant of Abraham, according to the
flesh, the physical descendant of David, according to the flesh. And that was important because
that's how the Messiah was identified and distinguished in the Old
Testament. The Pharisees, like most Jews
then, they expected Christ to come, the Messiah to come in
the clouds on a white horse, conquer their enemies on earth,
set up his throne in Jerusalem and pat them on the back and
say, well done you fellas, you kept it together until I got
here and now you're my lieutenants. We're going to rule this Gentile
bunch together. We'll rule them with an iron
fist. And so they weren't expecting
one to be born in a manger. They weren't expecting one, as
Isaiah described him in Isaiah 53, as one with no reputation,
with no beauty outwardly, one who would be hated, despised,
and rejected of men. They weren't expecting that.
But Matthew shows that Jesus of Nazareth is the very one.
And he records here that when the angel, you know, when Mary
was with child, she was betrothed to Joseph. And it was custom,
if that would happen before the marriage, you know, that they
put the girl away. And so the angel come to him
and said, don't do that, Joseph. That holy thing that is conceived
in Mary is conceived of the Holy Ghost. And look at verse 21.
He identifies him here. He says in verse 21, and she
shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus. Now, what does the name Jesus
mean? Now, listen to me. Jesus is not a derogatory name
for our Savior. I know people sometimes say,
well, I don't like when they call him Jesus. Well, God called
him Jesus. His Father called him Jesus.
Now, I know most people don't know who Jesus is. And they use
that name in vain a lot. Well, what does it mean? Well,
here's what it means. For he shall save his people
from their sins. That's what it means. It's a derivative of the Old
Testament name Joshua, or Yeshua, which means God saves, or God
our Savior. Well, what do we need to be safe
from? From our sins. Who needs to be safe from sin?
Sinners. Now, the righteous don't need
him. He didn't say he's going to come down here and pat the
righteous on the back. Now, what's the problem with
the Pharisees over here when they talk about publicans and
sinners? Well, they imagine themselves
to be righteous. What does the Bible teach us?
Romans 3.10. There's none righteous, no, not one. to be found among
men and women born of Adam. We fell in Adam. We fell into
condemnation. We're born in Adam, spiritually
dead, without hope, without God, alienated in our minds, enemies
of God by wicked works. There's none righteous. It goes
on to say there's none that doeth good, no not one. Now that goodness
has to be measured by God's standard. It's goodness in the sight of
God, not in the sight of men. When he says there's none good,
no, not one in Romans 3.12, he's not talking about how we see
each other. He's talking about how God sees us. God who looks
on the heart, you see. So when we talk about this good
person or that good person, we've got to understand, you know,
we're talking about how we judge it on this plane. you know, as
fellow human beings. But God has a different standard.
That's why the rich young man, Matthew chapter 19, you remember
when he came to the Lord, he said, good master, what good
thing must I do to obtain eternal life? And you remember what Christ
said to him? He said, why do you call me good?
There's none good but God. Now why did Christ say that to
him? Because he was showing this man who did not believe that
Jesus of Nazareth is God, That if I'm not God, this is what
Christ is saying to him. If I'm not God, then I'm not
good. That's a pretty high standard, isn't it? That's a pretty high
standard. We'll look on in Matthew chapter
1. He says now, verse 22, now all this was done. Incidentally,
you know who named him, don't you? It wasn't Joseph. It was
God who named the child Jesus. You only name those who are your
sons or your daughters. and he's the son of God. And
verse 22 says, Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled
which was spoken by the prophet, saying, and this is the prophet
Isaiah in chapter 7 being fulfilled here, verse 23, Behold, a virgin
shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall
call his name Immanuel, which being interpreted is God with
us. God with us. God with us. The Word made flesh. Well, that's who Jesus Christ
is. Now, He had to be God with us, Emmanuel, in order to save
His people from their sins. Who are His people there? Those
who are saved from their sins. Paul wrote in 1 Timothy chapter
1 and verse 15, he said, this is a faithful saying, and worthy
of all acceptation. What does he mean by that? He
said, what I'm telling you is the truth and it shouldn't be
argued over. Shouldn't be debated over. Shouldn't be disagreed
upon. That Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners
of whom I am chief. Sinners. People who have no righteousness
in and of themselves. People who by nature and by their
works deserve death and hell. Who does that include? Well,
look at verse 32. Look back at Luke chapter 5.
Certainly includes the publicans, doesn't it? Nobody would doubt
that. Anybody who has a conscience,
anybody who has any sense of morality would say that publican
certainly deserves hell. You can look at people today.
We see criminals. We see Perverts we see all kinds
of open immoral sins and anybody most people who have a conscience
Would agree. Well, they deserve it. Well,
what about me? What about this fella standing
up here behind this pulpit? What do I deserve? You say well
if I don't deserve heaven And if I don't deserve it, well,
let's put this way if I don't deserve hell Then I don't need
Christ The whole need not a physician,
you see. Christ came to save sinners.
If based on my best efforts to keep the law of God, I don't
deserve death and hell, then I don't need Christ. And you
don't either, if that's the case. But that's not the case. For
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We've all
missed the mark. You say, even the good people?
Even the good people, whoever they are, they've missed the
mark too. Even the Pharisees. He told them in another place,
he said, you do indeed appear righteous unto men, but inwardly
you're hypocrites. Think about this. Turn over to
Matthew chapter 7. I refer to this passage quite
often. I was talking about this earlier. Verse 21. Now, you've got to
keep this in its context to understand what he's saying here. And what
did he just say? Well, he just said that there's
a straight way, a narrow way unto glory, unto God. And he
said, few there be that find it. And then he said there's
a broad road that leads to destruction, and many there be upon that road. What is the straight gate? What
is the narrow way? That's the way of God's grace
in Christ for sinners. People who cannot save themselves,
they're sick, they're sick unto death with sin. And the best
they can do will not save them, keep them, bless them, or bring
them to glory, or make them righteous before God. The straight gate,
the narrow way, is the way of Christ. It's the one way of salvation. Christ said, I'm the way, the
truth, and the life. no man cometh unto the father but by me well
what's the broad way the broad road that leads to this every
other way but Christ whatever way it is it could be the way
if it's a way of immorality we certainly would all agree that's
a way of death isn't that right but what about if it's a way
of religion it's the way of Cain Cain was a religious way he came
offering the best works of his hands unto God That's the broad
way that leads to destruction. And then he said, now there's
some false preachers who will disguise themselves as if they're
pointing you to the right way, but they're pointing you to the
wrong way. They're in sheep's clothing, wolves in sheep's clothing,
but there can be no salvation under that. An evil tree cannot
produce corrupt fruit. So look at verse 21 in that context.
He says, Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter
into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my
Father which is in heaven. Now what is it to do the will
of my Father which is in heaven? It's to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and follow Him for all salvation. That's what he's talking
about. And then he says, Many, verse
22, will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in thy name? And in thy name cast out devils,
and in thy name done many wonderful works. Now what are these people
doing here? They're standing before God at judgment. And it's
almost like you can ask them this question, what right or
reason or ground, or upon what ground should I allow you to
enter heaven? Well, what's their answer? Well,
I've preached in your name. I've cast out demons. I've done
many wonderful works. Now what's the answer? Verse
23, And then will I profess unto you, I never knew you. Depart
from me, ye that work iniquity. Now let me ask you this question.
If you would go before God right now, stand before the God of
all judgment, and hear him ask you that question, upon what
ground or what right or reason should I allow you to enter heaven?
What would you say? What would I say? Would I stand
before him and say, well, Lord, I've preached the gospel for
over 30 years now. I've pastored churches. I've
stood up for your truth. I've prayed. Is that what I would
say? If it is, you know what I'd hear
him say? Depart from me ye that work iniquity. I never knew you. Why is that? Because none of
my preaching, none of my praying, nothing that I do will measure
up to the glory of God and the standard of righteousness. I'm
a sinner. I cannot make myself righteous
before God by my works or efforts with or without the help of God. Let me tell you something. You
know, these Pharisees, they didn't think they did it all on their
own. We'll see that in just a moment. I'm a sinner, and I must be called
to repentance, you see. The whole need not a physician.
nothing i do measures up what what what should i plead as my
grand upon which god wouldn't allow me to enter glory what
should i plead is not there's only one thing to play christ
and him crucified and risen again i have one plea christ died for
me christ blood washed away all my sins christ righteousness
charged to me is my only righteousness before God. Paul wrote it in
Philippians chapter 3, O that I may know him and be found in
him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith or the faithfulness of Christ. That's
the only way. You see, the kind of people that
Christ came to save are those who do not judge themselves to
be righteous. You know, even a believer doesn't
judge himself to be righteous. Think about it. You know who
judges a believer to be righteous? God does. Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. And what does God say? Anyone
who stands upon the ground and in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
Emmanuel, is righteous in God's sight. My record is clear in
heaven. Why? Because I preached? No,
because Christ died for my sins. He was made sin for me. My record is clear in heaven.
Why? Because I prayed till I've worn
out the knees and my britches? No, it's because Christ shed
his precious blood on Calvary's cross and brought forth a righteousness
that equals the demands of God's law and justice. My whole complete
standing before God is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now,
if you don't see that, then you don't need the great physician.
Christ is the Savior of sinners. What is a sinner? All who come
short of the glory of God. I don't care if you're religious,
moral, I don't care if you're trying to be the best you can
be. as far as salvation is concerned and listen to me we ought to
be the best week we ought to be trying to be the best we can
be at all things but that's not our salvation that's not our
righteousness Christ is you see the difference we'll look back
at Luke chapter 5 here's the second thing now Christ the standard
of repentance look at verse 30 and 30 through 32 again he says
but their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples
saying why do you eat and drink with publicans and sinners And
Jesus answered and said unto them, They that are whole need
not a physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call
the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Now here's the point. The Pharisee would look at that
publican and say, now that, now that fella needs to repent. That
guy needs to repent. But he saw no need of repentance
in himself. That's the difference. People
today would look at the immoral, the perverted, and they'd say
they need to repent. And you know what? They're right. They
do need to repent. Every one of them. I pray that
they would repent. Call them to repent. But what
about me? Do I need to repent? Oh, yes.
Every day. Every day. What about this repentance? Look back at Matthew chapter
3. Matthew learned something about this repentance. He's talking
about John the Baptist here. Look at Matthew chapter 3. This is John. He's out in the wilderness. You know how John looked and
appeared. He wasn't your everyday run-of-the-mill
religionist of the day. He was kind of what people would
label a weirdo. And he was out there in the wilderness.
He was preaching the gospel, preaching the kingdom, and baptizing. The baptism of repentance, they
called it. And it says in verse 7, look at Matthew 3 and verse
7, but when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees, that
was Sadducees, another branch of the religious leadership.
They came to his baptism. He said to them, O generation
of vipers. What an introduction. You know,
we preachers, we try to prepare messages and we think about,
well, how am I going to introduce this thing, you know? Well, here's
John's introduction to his message to the scribes and the Pharisees.
You poisonous snakes. I guess he hadn't read Dale Carnegie
yet. But he said, whole generation
of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Now, you got to understand, these fellas thought they'd already
fled from the wrath to come. They were children of Abraham.
They'd been circumcised. They kept the law of Moses. What
wrath are you talking about that we deserve, John? Are you crazy? Well, they thought he was. He
says in verse 8, bring forth therefore fruits, meat, or appropriate
for repentance. You need to repent is what he's
telling them. Well, now here's their answer, and it's not their
answer, but he anticipates their answer. Look at verse 9. He says, and think not to say
within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father. You see, don't
plead Abraham as your father, because that'll do you no good.
He says, for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to
raise up children unto Abraham. I mean, that's no big deal, you
know, that you're a physical descendant of Abraham. God could
make those rocks physical descendants of Abraham if he wanted to, and
that means nothing. And so he says in verse 10, And
now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees. Therefore
every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down
and cast into the fire. Now he's talking about fruits,
meat for repentance. For repentance. Well, what is
repentance? Well, turn to John chapter 16. Repentance, as you know, repentance
in the Old Testament, the word for repentance, meant a change
of direction. Just the opposite. If you're
going south, you turn around and go the opposite way. And
it wasn't just a physical thing, it was a mental heart thing.
In the New Testament, the word means a change of mind. And again,
it's not just a mental thing, it's a heart thing, it's a heart
repentance. A change of mind about what?
Well, a change of mind about who God is. It's a change of
heart and mind about who I am, what I am and what I deserve.
It's a change of mind and heart. about who Christ is and how God
saves sinners. Christ is the standard of repentance.
Look at John chapter 16 and verse 7. He's talking about His death.
to his disciples, and he says he's got to go away. Nevertheless,
he said, I tell you the truth, it's expedient or necessary for
you that I go away. For if I go not away, if I don't
go to the cross and die for your sins and be buried and raised
again the third day and ascend unto the Father, the Comforter,
that's the word advocate, will not come. Who's he talking about?
The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit. He said, if
I don't die, He won't come to you. But if I depart, if I die,
I will send him unto you. The work of the Spirit, you see,
is based upon the death of Christ. He said in John chapter 12, he
said, I, if I be lifted up, will draw all unto me. His death equals
our life by the Spirit. But now look here, it says in
verse 8, And when he is come, he will reprove. That means convict
or convince. Alright? What's he talking about?
He's talking about Holy Spirit conviction here in the new birth.
He's talking about the Holy Spirit bringing a sinner to conviction. Conviction over what? Of sin,
of righteousness, and of judgment. Look at it. He will reprove the
world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. All right? Look at verse 9. Here's the key.
Christ is the standard of repentance. If I'm going to repent of my
sin, I have to know and understand by the power of the Spirit through
the preaching of the gospel what this issue is, what this issue
of sin and righteousness is. Look, I've sinned because they
believe not on me. Now, a lot of commentators will
take you there and they'll say, well, now, what he does, he convinces
you of the sin of unbelief, and that's true. But you have to
understand something. The sin of unbelief is the mother
of all sin. And here's the essence of what
he's saying here is that when the Holy Spirit come and convicts
us of sin, here's what he's going to convince me of. He's going
to convince me that without Christ, without faith in Christ, without
resting in Christ and trusting Him alone for all the salvation,
everything that I am and all that I do in the sight of God
is sin. Everything. without Christ you
see the only way that I can be accepted before God is to be
washed in the blood of Christ if I make myself religious thinking
the whole time that the waters of baptism wash away my sins
that's a denial of Christ if I think my church membership
makes me righteous before God that's a denial of Christ even
those things become sinful without Christ you understand what I'm
saying without him I'm nothing let me give you an example of
it turn to Philippians 3 we're going to read this passage tonight
but I'll just show you something here now here the Apostle Paul talks
about his past life in religion now here's exactly here's Christ
the standard of repentance and in Philippians 3 He's talking about confidence
in the flesh, and here's what he says in verse 5. Now look
at it. Philippians 3. He said, I was circumcised the
eighth day. Now, is there anything sinful about being circumcised
the eighth day? The answer, in and of itself,
no. That's what God commanded the Israelites under the old
covenant to do. That's what he commanded them
from Abraham to do. to be physically circumcised
the eighth day. That's when the child was born,
the eighth day, that male child was physically circumcised. Was
that a sinful act? No. No. Well, what's the problem
then? Well, let's go on. He says, he
says, the stock of Israel. Was it sinful to be of the stock
of Israel? Not in and of itself, of the
tribe of Benjamin, an honored tribe, a Hebrew of Hebrews as
touching the law of Pharisee. concerning zeal persecuting the
church what Paul means there is that when he was when he was
in in that Judaism at legalism he looked at the church Christianity
as being heresy and he persecuted touching the righteousness which
is in the law blameless now look at verse 7 but what things were
gained to me Now that's when these things become sinful. Saul
of Tarsus believed that those things were gain to him. Well, what did they gain him?
What did he think they gained him? Salvation. I'm a Hebrew
of Hebrews. I'm a Pharisee. He thought that
gained him salvation. Righteousness. He thought that
made him righteous. Blessings from God. Eternal life. Glory. He thought those things
were his salvation. Look at it, verse 7. But what
things were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ. Now
there's repentance right there. That's Christ the standard. When
I saw what it took for a holy God to justify a sinner like
me, what did it take? The death of the God-man. When
I saw what it actually took for God to declare this old sinner
righteous in His sight, what did it take? The blood of the
Lamb. That's what it took. It took
the obedience unto death of God the Son incarnate to save me,
to bless me, to forgive me, to make me righteous. And you mean
to tell me that I thought that my being circumcised the eighth
day had anything to do with that? Or my being a Hebrew of Hebrews
had anything to do with that? That's sinful. That's a denial
of Christ. Look on verse 8. Yea, doubtless
I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I've suffered the loss of all
things and do count them but done that I may win Christ. That's repentance. Everything
that I used to think recommended me unto God in my religious efforts,
even though I said it was by God's grace that I did them.
The Pharisee said, I thank God I'm not like other men. Everything
that I thought recommended me unto God, when I saw my sins
and when I saw Christ and what He accomplished on, now I've
had a change of heart. I've been brought to repentance
of dead works and I don't. That's it. And then look back
at Luke 5. Look at verse 33. Now here's
Christ's standard of righteousness. And I want you to listen to this.
He says, And they said unto him, Why do the disciples of John
fast often? Talking about John the Baptist.
His disciples fasted often. And they make prayers and likewise
the disciples of the Pharisees. They do the same thing. They
fast and they make prayers. But thine eat and drink. They're
having a good time. They're rejoicing. The comparison
here is the type of religion that bears down upon a person
as a burden. Brings them into the depths of
sorrow. as compared to that which is
joyous." Now don't get me wrong, I believe there are a lot of
people who run around in religion rejoicing who are just in euphoria,
false happiness, I know that. But he's comparing it to what
the Pharisees claimed to be righteousness. What did their righteousness
consist of? Turn to Luke chapter 18. What did their righteousness
consist of? And as you listen to this, what
does your righteousness consist of? What does my righteousness
consist of? Well, look at Luke 18 and verse
9. He speaks a parable here. Verse 9, unto certain people
which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised
others. That's what we're seeing in Luke 5, the publicans and
the Pharisees. They trusted in themselves that
they were righteous and they despised publicans and sinners.
Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and
the other a publican. Now look at verse 11. I want
you to notice this prayer. Don't let this get by you. Listen
to what he says now. The Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself. Now what's his first words? God,
I thank Thee. Now whatever this Pharisee is
depending upon or trusting in as his righteousness, who does
he give the credit to? gives it to God God I thank thee
I understand that because I fear that's what a lot of people are
doing today they're trusting not in Christ for all their salvation
all their righteousness but they're trusting and what they think
God has enabled them to do now you think about that a while
God, I thank Thee that I'm not like other men, or I'm not as
other men are. You see? Extortioners, unjust,
adulterers, or even as this publican. There's the negative. I'm not
like that. All right, here's the positive. Verse 12. God,
I thank Thee I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all
that I possess. Now, what's wrong with this man's
plea here? What's wrong with his claim?
He sees his righteousness in the things he thinks God has
enabled him to do. But look at the public in verse
13, the public and standing afar off would not lift up so much
as his eyes in the heaven, but smote upon his breast saying,
God be merciful. Now that word merciful there
is the, is the same word as propitiation. God be propitious. What does
that mean? That means I'm a center and I
need a substitute. I need one to wash away my sins. I need one to make me righteous.
Be merciful to me, a center. He's pleading. the blood of Christ.
You see the difference? Now look back at Luke 5. Now
here these Pharisees come along and say, well now, the disciples
of John fast and they make prayers, but yours don't. They rejoice
and listen to the Lord's answer in verse 34. He says, He said
unto them, Can you make the children of the bride chamber fast while
the bridegroom is with them? Who's the bridegroom? That's
Christ. He says in verse 35, but the
days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them,
and then they shall fast in those days. They'll sorrow in those
days. What's he talking about? His death. You see, Christ is the bridegroom.
He was identified and distinguished as the bridegroom from the Old
Testament. Listen to this, Isaiah 61 in verse 10. Let me just read
it to you. The prophet says, I will greatly
rejoice in the Lord, My soul shall be joyful in my God, for
he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered
me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself
with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself and her jewels."
That's Christ and his church. Christ the bridegroom, the church
his bride. John the Baptist said it, listen
to John 3 and verse 28. You yourselves bear me witness,
he said, I am not the Christ. John said, I'm not the Christ.
But that I am sent before him, he that hath the bride is the
bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom,
John said, I'm just the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth
and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly, because the bridegroom's voice,
this my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, I must decrease. What's he talking about here
in Luke 5? Where is your joy? Where is your peace? Where is
your assurance? Where is your comfort? Where
is your salvation? Well, I'll tell you where it
was for the Pharisees. It was in their fasting and in their
praying. What about his disciples? Where
was it all? It was in the bridegroom. He's
here. Let's rejoice. You say my salvation
is not in my prayers. My salvation is not in my preaching. My joy and peace and assurance
is not in my good works. Are all those things important?
Yes, they are. Are they necessary? Yes, they
are. But not in order to attain or maintain salvation. Not in
order to make me righteous. My joy and peace and confidence
and comfort and assurance of those things are in Christ, the
bridegroom. Let's rejoice. He's here. He's here. I don't have time. I'll do this next week. But you
know, just to put it to you bluntly, our bridegroom, our husband,
will never divorce us. You know why? Because the conditions
of our marriage union with him are upon him alone and not upon
us. I'll show you that next week
when we go into that parable. But rejoice, the bridegroom's
here. He's my righteousness. Not my
fasting, not my praying, not my sorrow, not even my faith. It's in Him. I have faith in
Him. And I rejoice in Him.