Thy mercy, my God, is the theme
of my song. Welcome, friends, to another
broadcast of Morse's For Zion's Poor. The Scripture clearly says,
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. So
one might consider that a sinner would be easy to find. Yet experience
and the Word of God teaches us that such is not the case. So
exactly what is a sinner? I believe the Lord has given
us an illustration of this in the words which he gave to the
prophet Jeremiah when Jerusalem was besieged by the Chaldeans.
In summary, the prophet made it clear that the Lord's purpose
was to completely destroy Jerusalem and all of its inhabitants and
that the only hope of being spared from this destruction was to
cast themselves on the mercy of the Chaldeans who were the
instruments of this destruction empowered by the Lord to accomplish
his purpose. This instruction was totally
contrary to natural common sense. It made absolutely no sense to
the natural thinking of men to abandon the relative safety of
the walls of the venerable city of Jerusalem, which had stood
the test of time, to cast oneself upon the mercy of those who were
bent upon the destruction of both the city and its inhabitants. In the same way in which the
prophet's instruction was considered an insane idea, the scripture
says that the preaching of the cross is to them that perish
foolishness, but unto us which are saved it is the power of
God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
It is impossible that the natural man should ever embrace the truth
of the gospel, because it seems a most unlikely and religiously
unappealing means of escape from destruction. The only way for
a man to see the glory of the gospel and the power of God in
it is for the Holy Ghost to give him ears to hear it and eyes
to behold its wisdom. Yet there is another preparation
which goes hand in hand with that awakening, and that is being
given the gift to be able to truly assess one's own worthiness
of destruction and his utter inability to do one thing in
his own power to avoid it. Such men are described in the
scriptures as sinners. Two men went up to 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 am not
as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as
this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give
tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar
off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but
smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down
to his house justified, rather than the other. One man recounted
his faithfulness and morality, while the other could only sue
for mercy. True repentance is that which
causes a man not only to hate his wickedness, but his own righteousness
as well. True repentance is the evidence
of a man being a sinner, the likes of which the Lord came
to save. True repentance is that which causes a man to renounce
the very things in which he once trusted, even as Paul said, But
what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ.
Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but lost for the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things, and do count them but done, that I may
win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. Only sinners
are called to this repentance. The righteous are left in their
righteousness where they are quite content. The gift and work
of true repentance causes a sinner to despise not just his wicked
deeds, more importantly, to hate any thought that might arise
within his bosom of any self-righteousness he might possess. The righteous
religious man can find some good in himself, even if it's only
by comparison to those he feels are morally inferior to himself.
As the Pharisee looked at the publican and even thanked God
that he was not like him. Religious men discover many ways
in which they can feel themselves superior to others, whether it
be in degrees of faith, levels of doctrinal understanding, or
the performance of good deeds. So what is a sinner? A sinner
is a man in whom the Lord is pleased to work, in acquainting
him with his own depravity. A sinner is a man who utterly
despairs of finding one thing within himself or his actions
that would please God in any way. A sinner is a man who renounces
all hope in religion of any type. A sinner is a man who can find
no comfort or help in any but Christ alone. A sinner is a man
who rejoices in the proclamation of free grace and knows that
such affords him the only hope of being an object of God's mercy. If you would like a free transcript
of this broadcast, email us at forthepoor at windstream.net.