All right, now, back in the passage
that Brother Richard just read, Luke chapter 14. As you may have
noticed, and as he read through this, we have the setting that
our Lord was in at this particular time, and then we have a parable
that is spoken. We're going to look at this parable
within that setting. It's entitled the message, A
Parable on Humility. Now, this isn't the first parable
on that subject that the Lord had spoken. It's not the first
lesson that he taught. For the gospel itself, the gospel
of salvation by grace, is a gospel of humility. And let's understand
this. Humility is not weakness. Humility
is not pretense. But it is the reality of knowing. That's in fact the root word
of it. It comes from knowledge. The reality of knowing. The reality
of what I am. what I really am, as opposed
to how I see myself naturally in the blindness of the flesh,
but how God reveals Himself to me. And in that light, just like
the prophet Isaiah in chapter 6, he said, I saw the Lord high
and lifted up. Holy, holy, holy, he said. And then he went on to say, woe
unto me. Woe unto me, for I am undone.
I'm cut off. I'm a man of unclean lips. I
dwell amidst a people of unclean lips. But now this humility that
God brings by His Spirit in the gospel is not given to His people
to leave us in despair. Or as John Bunyan put it in his
Pilgrim's Progress, to leave us wallowing in the slew of despond
and sorrow. But this humility is given to
drive us to the glory, the peace, the comfort, the assurance, and
the safety that we can only find in the Lord Jesus Christ, in
all that he accomplished in the glory of his person, who is God
in human flesh. in the glory of all that he accomplished
on Calvary to cleanse me from all my sins and to make me righteous
before a holy God. And that's where those who are
humble are to live, not in despair, not in sorrow. Oh, we have a
godly sorrow over our sins, but we don't stay there. That's not
our destination. Our destination is to rest in
the bosom of Christ. and the glory of His grace. Well,
that's what this is all about. But let's look at the setting
first here. Now, you know, our Lord, He spoke parables teaching
His disciples, but many times He spoke parables in response
to a challenge or to a question. And here, let's look at the setting.
In verse 1, it says, It came to pass as He went into the house
of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath day
that they watched Him. Here our Lord had gone to eat
in the house of one of the rulers, one of the chief Pharisees. This
was probably a man who was a member of that high court in Israel,
in Jerusalem, the Sanhedrin they call it. And so he was one of
the chief, probably well known among the people. And here the
Lord is eating bread with this chief Pharisee in his house on
the Sabbath. Notice it says there that they
watched him. Now, the sense of that is not
just they were intrigued or they were just looking to see what
they could learn or anything like that. The sense of it is
they were trying to find fault. Now, see, and I've always said
this, I've said, if you've come here this morning to watch me
to try to find fault, I can guarantee you one thing. You'll find it.
You'll find it. Because it's here. In all of
its glory, the faults are here. But if you come here to hear
Christ preached and lift it up and worship Him in truth and
in spirit, I pray and hope that you'll find that too. That's
what we're all about. I'm not here to promote myself
or brag on myself. I'm here to preach Christ. I'm
not here to point you to me or just to get you to come to this
building or this church or just to put you as an addition on
our row. I want you to look to Christ
and rest in Him. and to go to him. But they watched
him. They were looking to find fault.
Now, in these occasions, when there was a dinner like this,
usually it was a big social event, and they had certain places that
certain people were supposed to sit. The men and women of
honor had the chief places, the chief rooms. They were different
rooms. They all sat around a table. And then they had the lowest
rooms where some people just came to watch. They were on the
outside. So it was a social occasion and
where you sat depended upon where you were in the echelons of society. And that's what he uses. But
here he is in the house of one of the chief Pharisees. The chief
Pharisees to eat bread. Now who were the Pharisees? Now
most of you have an idea. about Pharisees. You hear the
term Pharisaism. That's become synonymous with
hypocrisy in our language today. But I want to show you two verses,
both of them here in the book of Luke, that I believe brings
it down to the very most basic definition and identification
of a Pharisee. And I want you to see this because
it's important. Now look at first at Luke 16, just over a few pages. Luke chapter 16. And he says in verse 14, now
he just talked about no man can serve two masters. You can't
have divided loyalties. That's what he's saying. If you
follow Christ, you can only follow Christ alone. You can't follow
Christ in the world. You can't follow Christ himself.
And it says in verse 14, and the Pharisees also who were covetous,
that means they had an inordinate evil desire of things, Most people
think of money when they think of covetousness, but you can
covet a lot of things. I'll give you an example of that.
A person can covet salvation in a wicked way. Because if you
desire, if you have a desire for salvation that is not in
God's way, by grace, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
if you have a desire for salvation by your works, that's covetousness. In fact, that's the most evil
desire in the world according to the scripture. By deeds of
law shall no flesh be justified in God's sight. But here the
Pharisees, who were covetous, heard all these things, and they
derided him. And look at verse 15. Now, here's
a good definition of a Pharisee. And he said unto them, You are
they which justify yourselves before men. Now, what is it to
justify yourself before men? It's to claim salvation before
men. It's to claim I'm right before men. But he says, But
God knoweth your hearts. And listen to this last line,
for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the
sight of God. Now, think of that in the terms
of religion, because these Pharisees were religious, zealous people. What is highly esteemed among
men in religion? Not humility. I know people think
that, but it's not. It's what men do. What men do
for the Lord, they say. their works, their identification
with denominations or with certain groups, their outward show. That's what's highly esteemed,
their own righteousness before God. But he says that's an abomination. What men highly esteem is an
abomination before God. That's pharisaism. That's pharisaism. And look at Luke 18. Now, here's
another parable. We'll get to that later. Not
in this message, but in another message. But he's speaking of
the parable of the publican and the Pharisee here. Look at verse
9. Here's how he begins it. He says,
And he spake this parable, Luke 18, 9, he spake this parable
unto certain, that is certain people, which trusted in themselves
that they were righteous and despised others. Now what he's
talking about here is like a person who'd say, now I'm saved and
others aren't. Or I'm righteous before God. but others aren't. Or, I don't
deserve punishment, but others do. That's the kind of attitude
that's being fostered here. And look at verse 10. He says,
two men went up to the temple to pray. Now, both men are praying. Now, the world esteems prayer,
don't they? God does, too, if it's in the
Lord. if it's in the Lord. But look,
two men went up to the temple to pray. The one a Pharisee,
the other a publican. You know what a publican was?
That was a Jewish man who collected taxes from his own people for
the Roman government. He was hated, and they always
skimmed off the top. So he picked the Pharisee, the
one who's highly looked up to in that culture, and he picked
the publican, the one everybody hated. And he says in verse 11,
the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank
thee that I am not as other men are. Now I want you to notice
something that a lot of people shoot over on this verse. Remember
what the Pharisee said. He didn't say, he didn't just
stand up and boast that I'm not like other men. He stood up and
he said, I thank God that I'm not as other men are. You see,
he was attributing his righteousness within himself to God. It's like
people do today. And he says, I'm not an extortioner,
not unjust, an adulterer, even as this publican. I fast. That's
what he doesn't do. I thank God I don't do those
things. And then he says in verse 12, I fast twice in the week.
I give tithes of all that I possess, that which the world highly esteems.
And he said, I thank God that I do all this. So you see, he
was attributing all to God. But here's the point. Anyone
who thinks that those things, what he doesn't do or what he
does, is his righteousness before God, whereby he says other people
are not righteous or despises us. Listen, anyone who thinks
that what he does or doesn't do is his righteousness before
God, that's a Pharisee. Exactly what it is. Because you
see, the Bible, the Gospel teaches us this, by the grace of God,
we who are saved have one righteousness, and that's Christ. He's my righteousness
before God. He alone. Now God enables us
to do many things in the new birth. He enables us to believe. He enables us to hear things
we couldn't hear before. I hear the glory of God in the
gospel. One time I sat out there in the
pew where you were, and I hated everything I was hearing. But
God gave me ears to hear. He gave me eyes to see. He broke
the wild ass's coat, as the old prophet said, and put a bridle
in his mouth. I can do that now. But let me
tell you something. That's not my righteousness before
God. I can believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. I can repent of
dead works. I can love the Lord, not perfectly,
and that's not my righteousness before God. Christ is. See the
difference? Now if anything else but Christ
is your righteousness before God, that's Pharisaism. And you
see there the publican, he come up, he stood afar off, verse
13, would not lift so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote
upon his breast and said, God be merciful to me, the sinner. That's what we are. That's what
we are. Now look back at the parable
now. That's what Pharisaism is. Christ said on the Sermon on
the Mount, Matthew 520, let me just quote it for you. "'For
I say unto you that except your righteousness exceed the righteousness
of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into
the kingdom of heaven.'" What he's teaching there is very simple.
We need a righteousness we cannot produce in order to get to heaven.
We need the righteousness of God in Christ. So Phariseeism
can be summed up this way. It's thinking or imagining that
man can do something to earn or deserve or attain or maintain
righteousness, salvation, God's favor and blessings. A Pharisee
is a man who thinks he's something when he's nothing. That's what
the Scripture says. Galatians 6.3 says, for if a
man thinks himself to be something when he's nothing, he does what? He deceives himself. Do you think
you're something? Most of us do, don't we? Until God brings us down. Scott Richardson used to say,
God brings us down to make our headquarters in the dust. They had a zeal of God, the Pharisees
did. Religious, but not according
to knowledge. They were ignorant of God's righteousness. And he said in Romans 10-4, for
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believes. He's the fulfillment of it. Now
look at verse 2. It says, Behold, there was a
certain man before him which had the dropsy. This is a disease
that we call today edema. It's a swelling of the joints
to the point where the man couldn't move. And Christ, this man came
before him. And he had this disease. And
verse 3 says, And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers. Now,
the lawyers there would be the same as the scribes. They were
the interpreters of the law. They could go back to the original
Hebrew, and they could parse a verb, and they could really
get into a word, and they could shake it up and make it flow
out in five or six different ways. They wrote commentaries. And so he says, Jesus answering,
spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal
on the Sabbath day? The Sabbath day. You know the
Sabbath day. That was the day of rest. That
was the seventh day of the week under the old covenant given
to Moses and the children of Israel, which no work was to
be done. It had strict rules and regulations about the Sabbath
day. And then over the years, especially during the later years
of the nation, and the 500 years of darkness between the Old and
New Testaments, there had raised up traditions of men that were
attached to the Sabbath. You remember Christ in the Sermon
on the Mount, he spoke that way. He said, you've heard it said
by them of old. That was the traditions of men.
And that's the way religion is. They can't leave it alone. You've
got to add your little take on it, you see. And you know, taste
not, touch not, handle not, don't do this, don't... You see, that's
how people measure righteousness by nature, by what they don't
do. We don't wear this, we don't watch that, we don't eat that,
we don't go there. That's how they measure righteousness.
But see, righteousness cannot be measured that way. Righteousness
can only be measured as we look to Christ. He's the standard
of righteousness. So he says, is it lawful to heal
on the Sabbath day? Well, he posed that question.
Verse 4, he says, and they held their peace. They didn't say
a word. And He took him and healed him and let him go. Christ just
went down, He healed the man and let him go. Set him free. Picture salvation. We have that
disease. We can't move spiritually, but
Christ heals us and He sets us free. If the Son therefore make
you free, you'll be free indeed. What a great picture that is.
But He just did it and He let him go. He didn't argue with
them. And if you ask them a question, they didn't say anything. They
didn't raise up and say, no, you can't do any work on the
Sabbath day. That's what they were thinking, but they wouldn't
say that. And look at verse five. It says,
and answered them saying, Christ, after he did, he answered them
saying, which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a
pit and will not straightway or immediately pull him out on
the Sabbath day? And he said, and they could not
answer him again to these things. They just didn't know. They didn't
respond. So he healed the man. He posed
another question. And what he's teaching there
is this. In the old covenant law given to the nation Israel
in its original form, not along with the traditions of men and
the commentaries of men and the ideas and definitions of men,
but as it was given, the Sabbath day was a day of rest. But it
was never forbidden on the Sabbath day to perform acts of necessity
or acts of mercy. Acts of necessity. You've heard
that saying, well, if your ox is in a ditch, pull him out. Now, these self-righteous religionists
had lost all true meaning of the Sabbath. Let me give you
these two things. First of all, the Sabbath was
mainly given for this reason. It was a picture and a foreshadowing
and an object lesson of a believer's eternal spiritual rest in Christ
for all salvation. You know what our Sabbath is
today? It's not Saturday. It's not Sunday. It's Christ. Him crucified and
risen again. He's our Sabbath. I don't have
time to go over there today, but read Hebrews chapter 4 sometime. That's what he's talking about.
We rest in Christ. We rest from our labors in Christ. Now, what that means is we stop
trying to save ourselves by our works, we stop trying to establish
a righteousness of our own, and we rest in Him. He said in Matthew
11, verse 28, "...coming to me, all ye that labor and are heavy
laden, and I'll give you rest." Christ, we don't have a Sabbath
day today under the new cover. Sunday is the Lord's day, in
this sense, is the first day of the week. It's the time that
is set aside in the New Testament for us to meet together and worship
the Lord. That's what it is. And it's a
special day. This is a special time right
here when we're together, feasting on the bread of life, hearing
the Word of God, hearing Christ lifted up. But Christ is our
Sabbath. And don't let anybody tell you
different. We rest in Him for all salvation, for all wisdom,
for all righteousness, for all holiness, and for all redemption.
And then the second thing is this. He's teaching this. The Sabbath was given to Israel
to benefit man. Not to impose heavy burdens of
religious tradition, to feed his pride and his self-righteousness.
Man wasn't made for the Sabbath, the Sabbath was made for man,
and they forgot that. So acts of necessity and acts
of mercy were never forbidden on the Sabbath. Now look at the
parable here, look at verse 7. It says, "...and he put forth
a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they
chose out the chief rooms, saying unto them." Now they always,
when they go to one of these feasts or one of these dinners,
they'd all look out the chief rooms, the highest rooms where
the most honorable would sit, and they would go and they would
sit there. And he spoke this parable to them. He says in verse
8, "'When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, Sit not
down in the highest room, lest a more honorable man than thou
be bidden of him. And he that bade thee and him
come, and say to thee, Give this man place, and thou begin with
shame to take the lowest room." In other words, here, if you
go in and you take the highest, the most honorable place, and
somebody later on who comes in who's more, who is higher than
you and more honorable than you, then the host has to come up
and say, now, you've got to go down. And here you are in shame,
red-faced, going to a less honorable place. So he says in verse 10,
But when thou art bidden, go, and sit down in the lowest room.
And when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend,
go up higher. Then shalt thou have worship
in the presence of them that sit at meal with thee. The one who is in the lowest
place goes up higher. And he teaches this lesson. It's
a common lesson. It's one of the major principles
of grace. Right here, verse 11, for whosoever
exalteth himself shall be abased, brought down. And he that humbleth
himself shall be exalted. That's the parable. This parable
comes from his view of those who were lost in their self-righteous
religion, proud, who desired the chief seats in the synagogues,
in the social events, those invited to this place were choosing the
best places to sit. And he addresses them in this
parable that states a truth that he draws from the Old Testament.
You'll find it in Proverbs chapter 25. Let me read it to you. Proverbs
25, verse 6. It says, put not forth thyself
in the presence of the king. And stand not in the place of
great men, for better it is that it be said unto thee, Come up
here, that thou shouldest be put lower in the presence of
the prince whom thine eyes have seen." So he says, whosoever
is going to exalt himself is going to be brought down. Think
about it. Let me give you a few things
to consider. Consider the danger of pride. and the necessity of
humility. Let me ask you this question.
What is it that keeps sinners from coming to Christ for salvation? What is it that really keeps
sinners from coming to Christ for salvation? If you haven't
come to Christ for salvation, what keeps you from doing it?
Now, let me tell you something. It's not election. It's not God's
electing grace, the fact that God chose a people from the foundation
that keeps you from coming. I know people want to say that
because they don't want, they don't like, they don't want to
be humble enough to believe that God's the one who does the choosing.
But that's not what keeps you or any sinner. That's not what
kept me from coming to Christ before I came to it. It's nothing
that you can blame God with. I'll tell you exactly, it's one
word. that keeps sinners from coming to Christ for salvation.
Pride. That's exactly what it is. Now,
somebody says, well, what about unbelief? Well, let me tell you
something. Unbelief is born of pride. That's why people don't
believe. They don't believe God. They
don't believe the Bible. They don't believe Christ. It's because
of pride. You see, pride and self-righteousness
go together. They're like twin brothers. And
the Bible teaches us, Proverbs chapter 6, Proverbs chapter 18,
Proverbs chapter 29, and we can go all through the Bible. I don't
have time to go through all the passages. But I'll tell you what,
God hates pride. God hates a proud look. It goes all the way back to Adam. It's how Adam fell. He didn't
believe God. He thought he could stand on
his own, he could be his own master, he could set his own
standard, he could call the shots, and he fell. It showed up again
in his son Cain, who came to God to worship God, not by the
blood of sacrifice in humility, like the publicans saying, God
be merciful to me, a sinner, but he came bringing the best
that he could do, the best works of his hand, that's pride. He
didn't believe God. God told him. He said, if thou
doest well, thou shalt be accepted. What is it to do well? Come like
Abel. Come as a sinner, bringing the
blood of the sacrifice, which represents and pictures Christ. Saying, I have nothing to offer. I have nothing to earn your favor. I have nothing to deserve it.
I'm just a sinner, and I'm begging you for mercy. If you gave me
what I deserved, it would be eternal, eternal damnation. At my best state, I'm altogether
vanity. I have no righteousness. I have
no holiness. I'm nothing but a mass of sin. God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Sinners who come to God seeking
salvation with such pride and self-righteousness as Cain did,
or as any unbeliever, will not find salvation from God. But
the Bible teaches those whom God by the Spirit humbles. And
it takes a sovereign, powerful work of the Holy Spirit to bring
a sinner down where he needs to be. Those whom God by His Spirit
humbles will find salvation. Hannah prayed it in 1 Samuel
2. You know what salvation is? It's God lifting the beggar off
the dung heap. Now, how low can you get? God
lifting the beggar off the dung heap. Not just a beggar. As Tim James said, a beggar that
lives on dung heap drive. That's how low. In Matthew chapter
5, look over there with me. Our Lord began the Sermon on
the Mount here, the Beatitudes we call them. Matthew chapter 5, verse 2, he
says, and he opened his mouth and taught them saying, look
at verse 3 now, blessed. And that word blessed, I know
a lot of translators translate it happy, but it's more than
just happy. It's a state of blessedness. It's for the saved, sinners saved
by grace, justified by the righteousness of Christ, imputed and received
by faith. And he said, blessed are who?
The poor in spirit. Now, I want you to notice something
here. He doesn't say, and this is a good translation from the
original, he doesn't say, blessed are the spiritually poor. Because
everybody's spiritually poor. The problem is, is just some
people don't know it. You see, it's like a lot of people,
they're going around writing blank checks. Because every time
a sinner thinks that God will save him or bless him or keep
him or reward him based on his works, it's like a person who's
writing a blank check. They think they've got money
in the bank, but they don't. They're poor. But they're going around
writing checks like they're a millionaire. And that's the way it is with
pride and unbelief. So everybody's spiritually poor, but some people
don't know it. We have to be taught. It has to be revealed
to us by the power of the Spirit. So he says, blessed are the poor
in spirit. Those are the people who know
their poverty. Now let me tell you something. If tomorrow you
woke up and found you've lost everything you had, everything
you've worked for all your life, your home, your family, your
bank account, your job, and you were put out on the street destitute
and homeless, let me tell you something, that would be a truly
humbling experience, wouldn't it? In other words, now you,
who are so strong and independent, make your own way, achieve the
American dream, now you're dependent on everybody for everything,
even a morsel of food. That would be a humbling experience,
wouldn't it? Well, that's what it is to be poor in spirit before
God. You see, I am totally dependent
upon God and His grace and mercy for everything in salvation. I'm dependent upon God, not only
for my physical breath, but for my spiritual life. I have none
except what He gives. Everything! I'm totally dependent
upon God. I am destitute. That's poor in
spirit. And he says here, blessed are
they who are poor in spirit. That's a blessing? You certainly
wouldn't think if you got up tomorrow morning and lost everything,
that'd be a blessing, would you? But I'll tell you something.
You find someone who's poor in spirit, that is a blessing from
God. That's a blessing of grace. That's
an act of grace because it says, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. The kingdom of heaven belongs to them. They don't have
anything to recommend them unto God, but in Christ, by His grace
and mercy, they have everything. That's right. That's what humility
is. I don't have anything to earn
or deserve God's favor, but in Christ I have it all. For in
Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you
are complete in Him. He that spared not His own Son,
but gave Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him freely
give us all things? Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, in Christ. He goes on,
he says in verse 4, blessed are they that mourn, and mourn over
their sins, for they shall be comforted. All comfort is in
Christ. He is our comfort. Blessed are
the meek, that means submissive. Not weak now. Weak doesn't mean
weak. It means submissive. Submissive to what? To God. To
Him and His way of salvation by sovereign grace in Christ.
And He says, For they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they with
which hunger and thirst. Are you hungry and thirsty after
righteousness? Do you want righteousness? For
they shall be filled. Where are you going to find righteousness?
In Christ. Do you see the difference? That's
the issue. That's what the scripture says.
Look at First Corinthians chapter one. And there are so many passages
that we could turn to to show you the reality of this truth,
that humility, not pride, is salvation. Look at First Corinthians
one. Look at verse 27 or verse 26. Well, let's go back to verse
25. He says, "...because the foolishness of God is wiser than
men." Salvation is when a man who is wise in his own eyes becomes
a fool. You see the switch? In other
words, when it comes to spiritual, eternal matters, by nature, I'm
a fool. Don't know the way. Can't find
the way, and every way I come up with is foolish. There's a
way that seemeth right unto a man, but it's a way unto death. You
see, we think it's the way of life, but we're fooled. It's
a way of death. But when we see God's wisdom
and how He can be just and justify a sinner like me, how He can
save me by His grace and still be holy, how He can be both a
righteous judge as well as a loving Father in and by the Lord Jesus
Christ, then He makes us wise. So he says, the foolishness of
God is wiser in men, and the weakness of God is stronger than
men. In other words, people by nature in religion think they're
strong. They think they can do something
to either attain or maintain salvation. But we can't do anything. In fact, the Bible says we're
born spiritually what? Dead. Salvation then, the new
birth, is a resurrection from the dead. How much did you have
to do with your first birth? Nothing! That's how much we have
to do with our second birth. We're recipients of life that
evidences itself in faith, which is the gift of God, and repentance,
which is the gift of God. And that's why he says, the weakness
of God is stronger than men. We think God's weak. You know,
that's the way people preach Him today. God's weak. He wants
to save you, but He can't. Unless you let Him. That's a
weak God. That's no God at all. You see,
we're the weak ones, we're the impotent ones. God is mighty. And he says in verse 26, For
you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God
hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the
wise. He chose a band of men, fishermen,
a tax collector, to go out and preach the gospel to the Jewish
nation, He chose one who persecuted the church to go out to the Gentiles.
Well, they would have been the last on our list to go out and
change the world. Peter and James and John and
Paul. They would have been the last. I'll tell you what. We
did this one time. You go out and you go through
the scriptures and just write down the resume and the biographies
of God's choice of saints, mighty men of faith, and don't put their
name on them, and read a list to a church who wants to call
a pastor, and I guarantee you they wouldn't have any of them
as pastor. They're not good enough. Well, a Christian wouldn't do
that. But you see, this is the way God works, and He says, And
God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the
things which are mighty, and base things of the world, and
things which are despised, like a publican, that's what Matthew
was, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not to bring
to naught, that's nothing, things that are, verse 29. Now listen,
here's the reason. Why does God do it that way?
That no flesh should glory in His presence. But of him, of God, are you in
Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption. You see, I've got no wisdom but
Christ. I've got no righteousness but Christ. I've got no holiness
but Christ. I've got no redemption but Christ.
And he says in verse 31, that according as it is written, he
that glorieth, let him glory in what? He that boasts, let
him boast in what? In the Lord. God forbid that
I should glory save in the cross about Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the issue. That's the issue. Go back to
Luke 14. True godly humility is so contrary
to our fallen proud nature that we can never attain it on our
own. We must be humbled by God or we'll never be humble before
at all. Consider who and how God saves
sinners. Look at verse 12. Then said he
also to him that bade him, when thou makest a dinner or a supper,
call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen,
nor thy rich neighbors, lest they also bid thee again, and
recompense can be made to thee. You know what he's saying there?
He's saying when you hold these dinners, don't call somebody who can give
you back something in return. But here's who you call, verse
13, but when thou makest the feast, call the poor. He can't
do anything for you. You know, a poor man, he can't
do anything for you. He can't pay the price. He can't earn
your respect. He can't, listen, he can't give
you anything in return. The maimed, the lame, the blind.
He's teaching a lesson here. He's not setting up how you should
hold your dinners. He's teaching a lesson. How does
God save sinners? He doesn't save people because
they can give Him something in return. He saves the poor, the
maimed, the lame, the blind, who can't do anything for Him. And He says in verse 14, And
thou shalt be blessed, for they cannot recompense thee. For thou
shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just." That's not rewards
in heaven, that's the recompense of eternal life that comes to
a justified sinner. How is a sinner justified before
God? By the blood and righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how. You see, this is
our situation. We can't earn or deserve anything
from God. We don't have anything to give
to God. We can't add anything to the Kingdom of God. It's all
of grace. I don't care who you are, who
your family is, where you're from, how much money you have,
how much you've accumulated on this life, how much work you've
done. You can't bring anything to God. You've got to come naked.
Naked! And He'll clothe you in the righteousness
of His Son. You've got to come hungry, and
He'll give you the bread of life. Thirsty, and He'll give you the
water of life. All you have is the need. He
has all the provision. They asked a man one time, he
said, what did you do for salvation? And here's the way he put it.
He said, well, I did all the sinning, and Christ did all the
saving. And that's about it. Well, let me ask this question
in conclusion. Would you like a test? I'll leave you with this. Would you like a test to see
if you have this pride and self-righteousness of Phariseeism? Would you like
a test for that? Alright, I've got two questions. Here they are. Number one, are
you saved? You don't have to answer me loudly.
Are you saved? Now, there may be some of you
that say, well, I don't know. I would ask you, why don't you know?
But here's the question. Number one, are you saved? And
if you answer yes to that question, here's the second question. Why? Or why not? Why? That would be a lot of different
answers, wouldn't it? But I'll tell you the only right answer.
I'm saved because of the sovereign mercy and grace of God in Christ. And that's it. Somebody says,
well, I'm saved because I believe. Well, saved sinners do believe,
but they're not saved because they believe. Oh, no. And I'm not just mincing words
or splitting hairs here. You see, if you're saved because
you believe, then what you're actually saying is you're saved
because you're better than other people who don't believe. You
say, I'm not as stubborn and not as unwilling. Not as proud
as other sinners, because they didn't believe enough. You see,
you're not saved because you believe. You believe because
you're saved. That's right. Somebody says,
well, I don't like that. Well, that's how pride talks.
That's how pride does it. See, that's why there is pride. We don't like the way God does
things. So we devise our own God. And our own what? Here's
what Paul says. Galatians 6, verse 14, God forbid
that I should glory, boast, save, except in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ. That's why I'm saying, because
of the cross of Christ. Because of the blood that was
shed on Calvary. Because of the righteousness
that He established and produced that enables God to be just and
justify a sinner like me. Because of God's sovereign grace
and mercy. And whenever we come to that
point, I'll tell you exactly what's happened. God has brought
us down off of our pride and our self-righteousness and brought
us into the dust. Now, we still have pride in us,
but we have to fight it, don't we? But we always look to Christ
for salvation.