Alright, let's open our Bibles
to the book of Luke chapter 18. Luke chapter 18. We're going to begin reading
at verse 9 of Luke 18. Speaking of our Lord's parables,
He spake this parable unto certain, that is certain men, which trusted
in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. And I could read, which trusted
in themselves as being righteous, as you might see that in your
concordance there. They trusted in themselves that
they were righteous and despised others. And here's the parable,
verse 10, two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a
Pharisee and the other a publican. Now, some commentators say this
parable is about prayer, and it is, but it's about more than
prayer. What it's about is the ground
upon which we come to God in prayer. That's what the parable
is about. And I'll show you that just as
we read verse 11. Or verse 10, two men went up into the temple
to pray, 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."
Now, verse 14 tells us what this parable is really about. I tell
you, this man, this publican, went down to his house justified
rather than the other, the Pharisee. For everyone that exalteth himself
shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."
I've entitled this message, A Parable on Justification. A Parable on
Justification. Because that's what this parable
is about. This parable is really about the most fundamental truth
and principle of the Christian religion. concerning who Christ
is and what he actually accomplished in redeeming his people from
their sins. This parable does involve prayer.
How do we pray? Upon what ground do we come before
God to pray? Prayer is approaching God. It's sort of emblematic that
way. It has to do with communion with God. True prayer presupposes
a special relationship of a sinner, saved sinner, to his Heavenly
Father in Christ. And so it has to do with worship. True prayer is worship. True
prayer is faith. It's an act of faith coming to
God. When I say prayer is an act of
faith, I'm not saying that prayer is coming to God just believing
enough that you're going to get what you want. That's not what
I'm talking about. Praying in faith means praying
to the Father through the Son. Hebrews chapter 4. We looked
at that, I think, either last week or a couple of weeks ago.
Praying to the Father through the Son. Praying to the Father
through Christ. You don't pray to God the Father
through the saints. You don't do that. There's nothing
in the Word of God that instructs or commands a child of God to
pray to the Father through the saints. You don't pray to God
through Mary. the mother of Jesus. You don't
pray a rosary. You don't pray through at an
altar. Now listen to me. You pray to
God and believers are to have a continual attitude of prayer.
We read that last week in this prayer or the parable of the
unjust judge. The prayer is coming to the Father,
being accepted Now the issue of this prayer, this parable
in the prayer, is how is a sinner accepted before God? That's the
issue here. Now most people pray, you know,
they'll pray either when they're in trouble, you know, I mean
I know when I was in college I prayed a lot, Lord if you get
me through this one I won't do it again. A lot of people pray. And a lot of people are serious
in prayer, sincere and zealous in prayer. And I don't doubt
their sincerity and their zeal. That's not the issue. But here's
the issue. How is a sinner accepted before
God in any relationship, in any communication, prayer, worship,
service? You're going to serve God. The
Bible says, serve the Lord. How can my service be accepted
before God? Now, that's the issue of this
parable. And it goes to the most fundamental question, and that's
this, how can a holy God save and bless, accept and commune
with a sinner? That's the most basic of questions.
Job deals with this question in several ways. He and his friends,
his three friends who were miserable comforters, even one of them
asked this question. Job 9 and verse 2 said, I know
it is of the truth, but how should man be just or be justified with
God? Because the only one who has
a right to pray and acceptance with God in prayer is a justified
person. When he says here, he spoke on
this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they
were righteous, that were righteous could just as easily be translated
just, that they were just. I'm a just man, they would say.
I'm just before God. I'm righteous. Those two terms
are interchangeable. What is it to be righteous? What
is it to be just? Why do I have to be righteous?
Well, I'll tell you why, and I quote this verse all the time
for you all. In Acts chapter 17, In verse
30 there, Paul, as he's concluding his message to the Athenian philosophers
and religionists, he says, God has commanded all men everywhere
to repent. In verse 31, why? Why do I need
to repent? Now, what does repent mean? It
means I need to change. In the New Testament, it was
a change of mind. Now, I'm not just intellectual
now. I know people, you know, when
you mention the mind, you know, It's a change of heart. That's
the way they would look at it. It's a change of everything,
the inner being, the inner man, the heart. And in the Old Testament,
it was a change of direction. Going north, you go south, or
go south, you go north, not just the very north. But he says,
because God hath commanded all men everywhere to repent. You
see, that's what we need. We need repentance. That's the
gift of God. It comes with faith, which is
the gift of God. And he says, because God hath
appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness. Now that's why I need to be righteous,
in order to be saved, in order to pray, in order to be blessed
of God, in order to spend eternity with God in Christ. I need to be righteous. Because
God hath commanded on me in every way to repent, because he hath
appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness."
That's the standard. Okay? God's going to judge righteously,
and He always judges according to the truth. He never perverts
judgment or justice. He never does anything that's
wrong. He never does anything that's unfair. Whatever God's
judgment is, it's the only judgment that can be made. It's the only
right. and just and fair judge. However he judges me, he's right
to do so. However he judges you. The world
in righteousness, God always judges according to truth and
God is no respecter of persons. You see, if you were the judge
and somebody came before you having been accused of a crime
and you looked down there and it was your best friend or maybe
your son or your daughter, your mind would be clicking up here.
It would change a little bit, wouldn't it? as opposed to say
if it was your worst enemy. You would be a respecter of persons. I would too. We all would be.
That's human nature. That's fallen human nature. But
God's not like that, you see. He's no respecter of men's persons. He judges according to truth.
You're either righteous or you're not on God's side. That's the
standard. God's going to judge the world
in righteousness. Now, how do we know how righteous
we have to be? Now, that's a question that only
a fallen sinner would ask. How righteous do we have to be?
Because we think God works on a sliding scale, but he doesn't. Somebody says, well, I know I'm
not perfect, but I'm not as bad as some people. And that may sound good in religious
circles, but it won't do any good in the court of God's justice,
will it? You see, there is a standard,
righteousness, and there's someone who exemplified that standard.
And here's who it is. God is going to judge the world
in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained. Now, what
that means is that God has ordained and appointed a man to be the
standard of righteousness. It's not a man of my choice or
your choice. You know, you can't pick out
somebody and say, well, I better get somebody who's a little worse
than me, because I got to at least be better than them." No,
God's the one who appointed the man to be the standard of righteousness. Now, who is that man? He says,
"...in that he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath
raised him from the dead." Now, who is that? Jesus Christ. So you see, the comparison is
not even on the map with me or with you. I've got to be as righteous
as Christ. You've got to be as righteous
as Christ. That's what it is. These certain, they trusted in
themselves that they were righteous and they despised others. They
said we're just. So here's the question. How can
a man be just with God? Job 25 and verse 4. How then
can man be justified with God? How can he be clean that is born
of woman, fallen dead, depraved sinners, fallen in Adam, ruined. David prayed this, King David.
He said, and enter not into judgment with thy servant, praying to
God. For in thy sight shall no man living be justified. Think
about that one. In God's sight shall no man living
be justified. What's David talking about there?
He's talking about man by nature, even the best of men by nature.
It says here, two men went up to the temple to pray. One was
a Pharisee. He would have been considered
to be the best of men in his day. I know looking back on it
in the New Testament and what you've heard me say, what you've
heard other preachers say, sometimes we think of the Pharisees as
being guys who had horns and a tail and a pitchfork or something.
But they weren't. I'm telling you. And you better
get that out of your mind. These were the most well respected,
followed, looked up to men in their day, just like religious
men in our day. These are the ones that the disciples,
they asked the Lord this question one time when he turned away
a rich young ruler who was of the school of the Pharisees,
they said this, they said, now if he can't be saved, who can
be? If he's not saved, who is? Our Lord stood in the Sermon
on the Mount and He said in Matthew 5 and verse 20, unless your righteousness
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you
shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven. What's the implication
of that statement? They're not entering. But these
were the religious leaders. These were the preachers, the
pastors, the men who everybody wanted to be. They were the examples
of society. Yeah, there were some greedy
ones, there were some mean ones, but there were some who weren't.
Nicodemus, he was one, he came in humility to Christ by night
and recognized he was a great prophet. Said no man could do
the works that ye do unless he were sin of God. One of them, named Gamaliel,
told the others, he said, you better leave these people alone,
these Christians alone, they might be sin of God. Now, he
didn't believe it, but he knew enough to say, hands off. Y'all
want to go out there and kill them? He said, you better watch
out. So you see, these Pharisees.
But now, what was the problem then? Well, look at it again. Look at verse 9. Who's speaking
here? The Lord Jesus Christ. Who's
He speaking to? He's speaking to His disciples.
What's He speaking about? He's speaking about how a sinner
can approach God and be accepted in prayer, in worship, in service,
in any way. Salvation. And He uses prayer
as an example, and He says, He spake this parable, verse 9,
unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous,
that they were justified, that they were saved, and they despised
others. That's the same as saying they
looked at others as being unrighteous, unsaved, unjustified. What was the problem here? They
trusted in themselves. And that has two connotations
here. Number one, it was their own personal judgment of themselves. This is what they would say within
themselves. This is my judgment of myself.
I'm saved. I'm justified. I'm righteous. But you're not. All right? You're not. They trusted in themselves. And then trusting in themselves
has this connotation. They trusted that they were justified,
they were righteous by their works. In other words, their faith was
not in Christ. Their faith was in themselves.
That's the problem. You see, it doesn't really matter
what you say about yourself. What matters is what does God
say about you. Scripture in Romans chapter 8
says, Who shall lay anything to the charge of God the elect?
It's God that justifies. Now, you justify yourself, or
I can justify myself, but if God doesn't justify me, where
does that leave me? It leaves me eternally damned. It doesn't matter. You see, my
testimony of myself has to be the testimony of God or it's
no good. It's a lie. So, I mean, you can walk around
here all day long talking about yourself and talking about others,
who's safe, who's not, you're safe, they're not, whatever.
It doesn't matter. It's all a big lie unless you
can go to God's Word and get His judgment of matters. These trusted in themselves that
they were righteous. I believe it would include those
who justify themselves based upon what they claim is done
within them. And I'll show you that here in
the Pharisee. You see, our justification before
God is His way or no way. What is His way? Well, His way
is the way of Christ. His way is the way of the cross.
His way is the way of redemption by blood, the blood of the Lamb. His way is the way of righteousness,
not in me or by me, but in Christ and by Christ. His righteousness
charged to me, imputed to me. That's the only way. Christ was
made sin. How was He made sin? My sins
were charged, accounted, made. He became responsible for them.
And I made the righteousness of God in Him. His righteousness
accounted, imputed to me. And that's the only way I can
stand before God justified according to His judgment in Christ. That's
why I read Isaiah 45. In the Lord shall all the seed
of Israel... What is the seed of Israel there?
Not that Palestine over there. The seed of Israel there is spiritual
Israel. Every believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ. In the Lord shall all the seed
of Israel be saved. In the Lord shall all the seed
of Israel be righteous. justified. Now I want you to
notice, here's the two men, the Pharisee and the publican. Now
the publican, he would be considered to be the worst of society in
his day. If anybody, if anybody was lost,
this fella was. He was a scoundrel, the publicans
were infamous, they were tax collectors, collecting taxes
from their own people for the Roman government. They cheated,
they lied, they steal. Zacchaeus was a publican. Matthew
was a publican. And so he uses these two extremes,
the best of society and the worst of society, to make this point
about how God justifies a sinner. So here's the two men. Now think
about it. And he says these two men, verse 10, went up unto the
temple to pray. They went to the right place,
and they went to pray. The one a Pharisee, the other
a publican. Now I want you to notice this Pharisee's prayer.
This is important. The Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself. He was off by himself, but he
prayed thus with himself. Some people say that means he's
praying to himself. He wasn't praying to himself.
He was praying to God. And here's what he says. Now,
notice the first, the opening of his prayer. I want you to
notice this. Don't let this pass you by. Here's what he says. God, I thank thee. Now, whatever he's going to pray
here and whatever he's going to say and whatever ground he's
going to come to God in prayer and worship and service and acceptance,
the first thing you know about this person, he's attributing
to God, not to himself. He's saying, I thank God for
these things. Now that sounds good, doesn't
it? But look what follows. He says, I thank thee that I'm
not as other men are. Now, I want you to think about
something here. You say, well, I'd never pray
a prayer like that. Yes, you have. Have you ever read in the
paper about some awful crime committed by some awful person,
just some heinous crime. And have you ever made this statement? But for the grace of God, there
go I. You know, that's the same thing
as saying, I thank God that I'm not like that fellow. It's really right. There, but
for the grace of God, go I. I thank God that he hinders me
from going that route. I know I've got it in me. The
same thing. I thank thee that I'm not as
other men are. But now look what follows that
though. He says extortioners. That's somebody who cheats and
steals to get money. He says unjust, unfair in his
judgments, adulterers. Or even as if public and now
what does the scripture say about all men and women by nature?
That we're all sinners. We're all extortioners, unjust,
adulterers by nature, doesn't it? Doesn't it? That's the negative that the
Pharisee prays. I thank God that I don't do those
things. I'm not like those things. I'm not like that publican. Thank
God I'm not. Now he treats it to God. He's
not saying, well, it's all me. He's saying, God, I thank you
that I'm not doing this. And then he goes to the positive,
verse 12, I fast twice in the week. Now that's going above
and beyond the call of duty there, you know that. The fasting of
the tradition of men will only require one time a week. But
he says, I thank God I fast twice in the week. And I give tithes
of all that I possess, not just a part of what I possess. Be
like, I give tithes of the gross, not the net. But I thank God
I do that. So I said, I think he's saying,
I thank God that I do all these things. Well, now there's nothing, you
know, the Bible teaches us that we're all sinners. We have these,
we have this sin problem. of every sin. Christ taught that
in Matthew chapter 5 when he said, except your righteousness
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. And
then he goes on to say, you've heard it said by them of thou
shalt not kill, thou shalt not murder, but I'm telling you to
be angry without a cause is to commit murder. Even to desire
someone dead is murder. In the heart, spiritual murder.
He says, and you've heard it said, thou shalt not commit adultery,
but I say unto you that to look upon a woman in lust after is
to commit adultery in the eyes of God. You see, God is the judge
here now, not men. You can't see my thoughts, but
God knows my thoughts. You know, if we could see each
other's thoughts, we wouldn't be sitting here. We'd run away
from each other. We wouldn't want to be around each other,
would we? Well, God sees them all, knows
them all. His Word. is a discerner, a sharp
two-edged sword that discerns the thoughts and the intents
of the heart, the motives. And I'll tell you what, you know,
he's the judge. Now we can have those thoughts
and we can put them out of our mind and judge ourselves righteous
by nature, but that's not going to do any good. What's the problem
with all this? Shouldn't we try not to be extortioners? Shouldn't we try not to be unjust
and adulterers? Shouldn't we try not to be like
publicans? Shouldn't we give for the glory
of God and the good of His kingdom and be charitable to help others
who are in need? Shouldn't we do that? Shouldn't
we deny ourselves and humble ourselves? Yes, but now here's
the problem. If that is your righteousness
before God, if that's what your righteousness is before God,
if that's your ground of acceptance before God, if that's the cause
and the ground upon which you expect God to receive you and
bless you and save you and justify you and hear you, then my friend,
you are not just yet. You are in your sins. You're an unbeliever. And that's so. Think about. There's a lot of
things that God keeps us from doing that we would do were it
not for his. Sovereign hand of restraint. There's a lot of things that
we're in able to do that we weren't in able to do, except by the
power of the Holy Spirit, we believe. We who are saying we
believe we wouldn't. We weren't able to do that before
we were born again. We have a desire to worship God.
We have that the true living God. We didn't have that desire
before the Holy Spirit put that in us. I have a desire to preach
the gospel. Been enabled to preach the gospel.
But here's the point. None of that is our righteousness
before God. That's the Pharisees problem.
You say. Let me show you another case
of it. Turn back to Matthew chapter
7. Sermon on the Mount, verse 21. Matthew 7, 21. Same thing going
on here. He says, "...not every one 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."
And he says, "...many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord,
have we not prophesied in thy name?" Preached in thy name.
Is there anything wrong with preaching in his name? No. And in thy name have passed out
devils. Is there anything wrong with casting out devils? Our
Lord did it. And in thy name done many wonderful
works. I don't know what wonderful works
they're referring to, but the Lord said they were wonderful.
Anything wrong with doing wonderful works? No. And he says in verse
23, And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart
from me ye that work iniquity. It was all iniquity. Now, the
most common take on that scripture is this. These fellows weren't
sincere enough. Oh, no. Oh, no. Number one, the context won't
bear that out. And number two, there's nothing
said about that in here. That's just speculation. And
the person who tells you that, I'm going to tell you what they're
saying. I'm sincere enough. And you better be as sincere
as I am." That's Phariseeism. The context of this is this.
Number one, he says, enter ye in at the straight gate. There's
only one way to God. It's a straight and narrow way.
You know what that way is? Christ and Him crucified and
risen again. Righteousness by Christ. And
he says, many false prophets will come to you in sheep's clothing
and they won't lead you to that straight and narrow way. And
then he says, many will come to me and say, Lord, Lord, haven't
we prophesied in your name? And then they'll please what
they think is their righteousness before God. I preached in your
name, done many wonderful works, cast out demons. Is that your...
Listen, I preached a lot of gospel messages. I have. I'm not bragging. I'm just telling you I have in
over 20 years. But not one of those messages,
or all of them put together, preached in the power of the
Holy Spirit, is my righteousness before God. That's what I'm telling
you. Christ is my righteousness. You
see what I'm saying? I thank God that I've been enabled
to preach the gospel. But that's not my righteousness
before God. Christ is. And then he concludes,
he says, about those who build their house on the sand, they'll
fall, and those who build their house on the rock. Who's the
rock? Christ. Christ is our rock. He's the
Lord, my righteousness. Now go back to the parable. Now
here's the proof of it. Verse 13. And it says, the publican
standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven. Now you know what that means,
what that's saying in that parable? This publican realized that he
had, in himself or by his works, no righteousness before God.
The Pharisee thought he had one. He thought God had given it to
him. But this publican knew he didn't have one. And he wouldn't
even lift up his eyes under heaven. He knew he wasn't worthy to even
look up, let alone start talking about what God had done for him
and in him. And here's what he says, he smote
upon his breast. That's an action of a true contrite
heart, broken over sin. Knowing, Lord, if you give me
what I deserve, it would be eternal damnation. Lord, if thou, Lord,
shouldest mark iniquities, who would stand? That's what this
publican said. I'm a sinner and I don't deserve
anything good from you. I deserve everything evil. I
deserve everything bad." And here's what he said, God be merciful
to me, a sinner. I need mercy. Now on your bulletin,
I've got an article there in the first page there or the right
after the inside page there called Christ our propitiation. I want
you to read that today or sometime when you get a chance. And it
tells you this, now look at that line, God be merciful to me,
a sinner. Now that term, be merciful, could
just as well literally be interpreted this way. God be propitious to
me, a sinner. Those are big words. There's
a word in Scripture that's translated in the New Testament three times
Propitiation. That's why I want you to read
that article. Get that word in your mind. Don't let the length
of it or the fact that you can't spell it throw you off or scare
you. These are scriptural words. Scriptural
words. It's used in the Book of Romans,
Chapter 3. It's used in the Book of 1 John,
Chapter 2 and Chapter 4. Propitiation. And it's used elsewhere
in the New Testament, but it's translated differently. It's
translated here, God be merciful to me a sinner. What does this
term be propitious mean? I've got it in that article.
It means satisfy justice and make reconciliation for me. This publican realized that the
only way that God could justify a sinner is that God satisfy
his justice and be reconciled to a sinner. In other words,
it goes back to the question that we began with. How can God
justify a sinner? How can he be just and justify
the ungodly? How can he be both a just God
and a Savior? How can God look at this sinner
and pronounce me righteous, not guilty? That's what that means.
Pronounce me righteous in His sight and still be just. You know, if a judge in our court
system today did that, we'd be angry, wouldn't we? Think about
it. A known criminal comes up before
a judge. You know he's guilty, but the
judge says, not guilty. Or the jury says, not guilty.
What does that do to you when that happens? Does that make
you angry? It does me. Well, by nature,
in Adam, I'm guilty. By practice, I'm guilty. And
yet God looks at me and says, justified, righteous. Now, how
can he do that? Well, the publican, the old publican,
who wasn't much of a theologian in the eyes of the Pharisee,
he says, God be propitious towards me. What does it take to satisfy
God's justice? Well, the Bible says the soul
that sinneth, it shall what? Surely die. The Bible says that
without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin,
no forgiveness, no mercy. The Bible says that the wages
of sin is death. God, from the very beginning,
wrote that in the annals of earthly history when he revealed to Adam
that you cannot touch the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, for in the day that you eat thereof you shall what? Surely
die. We know something about capital
punishment in our country, very little these days, but we know
that there are certain crimes that deserve death. In God's
court, all sin deserve death, the scripture said. You say that's
not fair. You take that up with God. All sin deserves death, because
all sin is against the Holy God. What do we deserve based on our
sin? Death, eternal death. What do
we deserve based upon our best efforts to save ourselves? The
Bible says man in his best state is altogether vanity. By deeds
of law, by works shall no flesh be justified, made righteous,
declared righteous in the sight of God. What do we need? We need a propitiation. We need
God to find a way that He can be a just God and a Savior towards
us. He must be both a righteous judge
who judges according to truth and a merciful, loving Father.
How can He be both? Well, the only answer, turn to
Romans chapter 3, It's found right here. Verse 23. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. Listen to it now, verse 24. Being
justified, being made righteous freely. Now that word freely
means without a cause. Now let me ask you this. Think
about the publican. Was there anything in the publican
to cause God to justify? Was it his family heritage? Nothing said about it. And the
Lord has already put the put the stops to that kind of thinking.
You remember John the Baptist even told him, he said, think
not to say Abraham's our father. The ax is going to be laid to
that root. Just because you're a physical
child of Abraham doesn't mean anything in God's court. Wasn't
the publicans worse? Well, the publicans were the
most infamous sinners of their day. There was nothing in the
publican to cause God to do anything good for the public. Now, you
want to know something? That refers to me too, and you,
and everybody outside this building. There's nothing good to cause
God to say, bless, or commune with, or hear, or justify any
sinner. Nothing. Not even in the best
of them. And so being justified freely,
unconditionally, without a... Who does God justify? Romans
4 says He justifies the ungodly. And it says being justified freely,
unconditionally, without a cost, by His grace. Now, when it says
by His grace, it doesn't mean just God takes a notion one day
to feel good and be compassionate and just says, forget it, fellas.
I'll justify. No. Being justified freely by
His grace, look at the last line there, verse 24, through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus, through the blood shedding,
the death, the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know what that
is there? That's propitiation. That's God
satisfying His justice based on my sins charged to the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's God making me righteous
based upon the obedience unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ
charged to me. I'm saved. I'm justified in Christ. Look on verse 25. He says, whom
God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood. Believing
that His blood covers all my sins. Believing that His righteousness
alone gives me an acceptable standing before God now and forever. God, be merciful to me, the sinner. That's what the publican is saying.
He says to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that
are past. That's the Old Testament saints that were justified in
Christ even before the cross, but not without the cross. Based
on the cross. through the forbearance of God,
to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness, that he might
be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." You see, God must be just when
he justifies. If he was not just to justify
a sinner, he wouldn't be God. And he sent his Son to be the
propitiation. Look at 1 John 2. This is what the publican is
asking. You see, he knows he has no righteousness in himself.
God does not make a sinner righteous by doing things in that sinner.
He does not do it. God makes a sinner righteous
through the death of his Son. Now God does a lot of glorious
and great things in a sinner by the power of His Spirit, but
that's not what makes us righteous before God. It's what Christ
did on that cross that makes a sinner righteous before God.
And if the Holy Spirit ever does a glorious, marvelous, great
work in us, that's the first thing we'll see right there.
He'll glorify Christ. as our propitiation. 1 John 2
and verse 1, My little children, these things write I unto you,
that ye sin not. That's our goal, isn't it? And
if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous. And He is the propitiation for
our sins. He's the sin offering, the sin
bearer, the satisfaction, the reconciler of our sins. He made reconciliation for iniquity,
Daniel chapter 9 verse 24. And not for ours only, but also
for the sins of the whole world. The whole world there refers
to every believer all over the world, not every individual without
exception. Some people want to think that,
but I want to tell you something. If the whole world there means
he's a propitiation for every individual without exception,
then I'll tell you something right now. Every individual without
exception is saved and justified before God. So that's what propitiation
does. Propitiation doesn't mean the
possibility of being justified before God in Christ. Propitiation
means the certainty of justification. God's satisfied. That's what
propitiation means. God satisfied with the death
of His Son for His people. And then look over at 1 John
chapter 4. 1 John chapter 4. He says in verse 9, let's read
verse 8. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. In this was manifested the love
of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son
into the world, that we might live through him, hearing his
love, not that we love God, but that he loved us," see, that's
unconditionally, freely, "'and sent his Son to be the propitiation
for our sins.'" Christ satisfied the justice of God for his people.
We're righteous in him. Now, one other thing, and I'm
going to quit. That word propitiation, that word propitious as the publicans
said it, God be merciful. Christ said there in the last
verse, he said this man went down to his house justified rather
than the Pharisee. Any sinner who believes in Christ
gives evidence that he's justified in Christ. And that word be propitious,
it's related, it's translated in the old Greek, Old Testament,
it's the word that's translated mercy seek. Remember the mercy
seat in the tabernacle? That lid that covered the Ark
of the Covenant? The box? And the priest would
come in, and the holiest of holies. And what would he do? What would
he do on that mercy seat? He would sprinkle the blood over
the mercy seat. That's propitiation. That's a
picture of the blood of Christ justifying his people by way
of propitiation. God be merciful to me, the sinner. When you come before God, don't
stand there and plead what God has enabled you to do. As glorious
and great as that is, plead what God has done for you in Christ.
Plead His blood and His righteousness alone. All right, let's sing
hymn number 127. Hallelujah, what a Savior. 127.