If you would open your Bibles
this morning to the book of Job, and turn please to chapter 21. Job
21. I was asked this morning what
the title of this message would be, and I've renamed it about
three times already. But I think it will have to be
called, The Prayer of the Wicked. Most everybody has heard about
this man Job. And Job had some friends, three
in particular, and these friends reasoned just
like most everybody in the world does. They have determined that
Job must be wicked because of what's happened to him. Lost
his family, lost his wealth, lost his social standing, all
these things. And they base their judgments
on outward appearances. They base their opinions on the
outward things that happen to men. And they reason like this. It says, terrible things have
happened to you, Job. You must surely be a wicked man. In chapter 20, Zophar has said,
the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the
hypocrite is but for a minute. He says, this is the portion
of a wicked man from God, and a heritage appointed unto him
by God. His wickedness will be short,
they say. And God will deal with him swiftly
and terribly. But what is meant in the Scriptures
when we find that word used, the wicked? It's defined by words
such as guilty, condemned, against God, even criminal. But was their assumption correct? Was their judgment accurate and
true? Not at all. Because while that
might be the case in some instances, What we find, not only in the
Scripture, but also in what we see in this world, the wicked
often prosper. Often prosper. So much so, that
David on one occasion confessed this. He said, I was envious
at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked." In
Proverbs 24, we're told, fret not thyself because of evil men,
neither be thou envious at the wicked. The wicked prosper. And our Lord, He did in one occasion
at least, bring this very thing to bear in a conversation with
men and women in Luke chapter 13. Let me read you a few verses. It says, "...there were present
at that season some that told him of the Galileans." There
were some who brought to Christ some news, some sensational news
about a terrible end that some folks had come to. It said, they
told him of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with
their sacrifices. To die such an awful death, they
must have been really wicked people. But Jesus answering said
unto them, Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above
all the Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell
you, no. But except you repent, ye shall
all likewise perish." And then he added another illustration. He says, "...or those eighteen
upon whom the tower of Siloam fell and slew them." What an
awful death. A tower collapsed, fell on them,
killed eighteen people. Think ye that they were sinners
above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, no. But except you repent, ye shall
all likewise perish." In other words, by no outward comparison,
are the wicked known by terrible things that happen to them or
by great judgments that come swiftly upon them. And the Apostle Paul warns us
about making such comparisons. He says, "...for we dare not
make ourselves of the number or compare ourselves with some
that commend themselves, but they, measuring themselves by
themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. Are not wise. And so Job now responds to their
line of reasoning. He responds to what they have
said and the comparisons that they have made concerning what
has happened to him and how he really is. And he reminds them
that the wicked often prosper. Look in verse 1 of chapter 21. But Job answered and said, Hear
diligently my speech, and let this be your consolations. Suffer me, or allow me that I
may speak, and after that I have spoken, mock on. You mocked me before, I'm sure
after I've spoken, you'll mock me again. I'll just tell you
the way it is, and you can simply just mock on. As for me, is my
complaint to man? And if it were so, why should
not my spirit be troubled? Mark me, and be astonished, and
lay your hand upon your mouth. Even when I remember, I am afraid,
and trembling taketh hold of my flesh." Wherefore or why do
the wicked live, become old, Yea, are mighty in power." This is obvious if you look around
you. The wicked live, they don't necessarily
die swiftly, and they become old, yea, and they are mighty
in power. Their seed, or their children,
Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their
offspring before their eyes. Their houses are safe from fear,
neither is the rod of God upon them. Their bull gendereth, and
faileth not. Their cow cabbeth, and casteth
not her calf. They send forth their little
ones like a flock, and their children dance. They take the timbrel and the
harp, and they rejoice at the sound of the organ. They spend their days in wealth
and in a moment go down to the grave. They have prosperity. They have health. They don't
necessarily at the end have long, languishing periods of ill health
and disease wherein it might be thought by those things that
they're wicked. No, it may well be, and most
often is, just exactly the opposite. And David also, in speaking of
a man by the name of Nabal, who was a wicked man, who was a very
obnoxious individual, he first sent a message to this man Nabal,
and he says, Thus shall ye say to him that lives in prosperity. He had plenty. And David was
simply asking of him just enough food to feed a handful of his
men, and yet that man refused him. But he had plenty. He had no need. He had no problems,
so he imagined. You see, and not only that, not
only do they fare in such ways, but the wicked attribute their
prosperity. They attribute their successes,
and their health, and their lack of problems. They attribute these
things to their own abilities. They attribute them to their
own goodness, and to their own wisdom, and to their own intelligence
and knowledge, and they reason like this, I must be doing something right. To be as I am, to be blessed
as I am, to have what I have, to have accomplished what I have,
then I must be doing something right. But now you can mark this down.
Prosperity is not a sign of God's favor. In other words, the things
that men and women are told in our day, that they hold as goals
and ideals, and what false religion comes along and fortifies, is
simply not true to the Scriptures. Men and women are told, if you
do this, God will bless you. If you give this, God will prosper
you. If you trust God, if you do this
and that and the other, you won't have ill health or problems or
any of these things that men dread. But prosperity? is no evidence
of having God's favor. As a matter of fact, it may be
just exactly the opposite. And I've often likened man, as
we find it told to us in the Scriptures, in his false reasoning,
in his blind logic, as being like a pig shut up in a pen. And every day he wakes up, and
there is so much food before him to eat, so much water for
him to drink, It is there prosperity seems to be reigning on every
hand, and so he would imagine himself, I must be a favorite
of my master. No. You're simply a pig that
is being fattened for the slaughter. The design in what is given you
is not to bless you at all, it is to fatten you for the appointed
time. And since this is the attitude
of a fallen sinner's heart, since this is so natural to every one
of us, it is played out in what we find. is the prayer of the
heart. Look back in Job 21 again where
we left off, because in verse 14, Job is led by the Spirit
to give this very accurate and real appraisal as to what men
and women by nature do. He says, therefore, since they
prosper, therefore, since they delight in all these things,
since therefore they imagine that they are favored particularly,
therefore they say unto God. They talk. to God. That's why I call this the prayer
of the wicked. They say unto God, Depart from
us, for we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways. What is the Almighty
that we should serve Him? And what profit should we have
if we pray unto Him? That's the prayer of the wicked. And they say this to God, maybe
not simply by uttering it with their lips. Most likely, they
do not say it audibly. As a matter of fact, they probably
would not dare be caught saying such things openly with their
mouth. And though they do not say it
with their lips, They say it by their actions. And maybe I
ought to say they say it even more so by their lack of actions. They say it by their disinterest
in God. They say it by their ignoring
God. They say it particularly in ignoring
the gospel of God. Now, I want us to look at these
three, four things that the Spirit of God says that they express,
if not by their lips, but by their actions. What is it that
in their lack of action, in their disinterest, in their ignoring
God. What is it that they are actually
saying? They don't think they're saying
this, but this is actually what they're saying. Verse 14, Therefore
they say unto God, Depart from us. They say this, in their actions
or want of action, I might say, and this becomes, in reality,
their prayer every day. Depart from us. Leave us alone. Don't bother us. Don't invade our existence. Don't interrupt or intrude in
our little world and kingdom. Depart from us. The psalmist again in Psalm 10,
and you would do well to read Psalm 10, but he says in describing
the wicked, He says, the wicked, through the pride of his countenance,
will not seek after God. God is not in all his thoughts. He thinks about family, he thinks
about this, and he thinks about that, and he thinks about this
other thing. It's not that he does not think,
but God is not in his thoughts. He may even think about religion. He may think about religious
things. He may be held fast in what the
Scriptures call a refuge of life. He may often think about the
activities of religion. But God, the true God, the living
God, God as He is in the Lord Jesus Christ, is not in all His
thoughts. And this is really, this is actually
the sum of what the very devils think. As a matter of fact, in Matthew
chapter 8, when Christ came to that man, that was called the
maniac of Gadara, who lived in the tombs and cut himself, and
did all these things, and was so possessed of these devils
and evil spirits that they had nicknamed him Legion." Many. And when Christ came up to him,
and those devils spoke out of him and through him, It says,
"...they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus,
thou Son of God? Art thou come hither to torment
us before the time?" Leave us alone. Leave us alone. And not only that. But the same
Spirit was exhibited in all the inhabitants of that same place
after Christ had cast those devils out of that man. Do you think they rejoiced that
that had taken place? Do you think they were happy
for Him? Do you think that they bowed
down and gave glory to God in Christ? Were they happy about
what happened? No, they were possessed by the
same devil. And the people of that city in
that same place, they said simply what's being said here, depart
from us. It says, "...And behold, the
whole city came out to meet Jesus. And when they saw Him, they besought
Him that He would depart out of their coasts." Get out of
town. Get away from us. Don't interrupt
us. Don't interfere with us. You
can only do what we let you do." What a foolish, stupid notion. To only be allowed, God Almighty
only be allowed what you or me or some other sinner allows Him
to do. And so, they believe that He
cannot act against their wills, and so they will Him to stay
away from them and depart from them. But I can tell you this, all
that has to happen for you to perish, or for me to perish,
or for anybody in this world to perish, is for God to leave
us alone. What would have happened if after
the fall in the garden, God had simply left Adam and Eve alone? They would and all the race would
have perished altogether because they had run and done what? Which
is an evidence of a sinner's fallen nature and blindness.
They went and hid themselves. And so we find the Lord God walking
in the garden and the Bible says that He calls out, Adam, wherefore
art thou? Where are you? And Adam and Eve,
they're hiding there in the trees. Really, if you would look at
it like this, when God created those trees, those things in
the garden, He created them as blessings. And where are they
hiding from God at? In the blessings. That's always
the way it is. So He calls out, where are you? Do you think He didn't know where
they were? But you see, those words, that
intrusion into what they wanted, that interference, that interruption,
is what saved them. But they said by nature, depart
from me. Don't interrupt us. I read about
Ephraim in the book of Hosea. You know what God said of Ephraim? Most horrible things that I can
imagine. He said, Ephraim is joined to
his idols. They may be religious idols,
they may be family idols, they may be work idols, they may be
pride idols, they may be anything. He's joined with his idols. Let
him alone. And the most awful thing that
could ever happen to any of us is for God to give us what we
by nature want, and that is leave us alone. Just leave us alone. As a matter of fact, some of
the things that we cry out against in society in this day, And there are enough evils going
on in this world and especially right now in this nation to just
make any person who has one shred of morality just cry and be afraid
and fear and everything else. But what it is, is it is the
mark of a society that God has let go. You don't believe it? Just turn
over to Romans chapter 1. And all the things that go on
today that are not only blatantly open, but excused by so many,
such as homosexuality and a host of other things, when you read
what it says, it is because they have rejected the truth of God,
and it says, wherefore God gave them over to a reprobate mind. He released them to do what they
wanted to do, and what they were determined to do by nature, all
He had to do is simply to leave them alone. That's what we're saying. Depart
from us. That's what this nation is saying
to God. Depart from us. But it's not
saying it simply as a nation. A nation is made up of individuals. And because on every hand, in
every aspect of life, men and women, from government to the
home, to the school, to everything else, they are saying, and especially
in religion, depart from us. Depart from us. And then we have
the second thing here that's being said. Therefore they say
unto God, depart from us secondly, for we desire not the knowledge
of thy ways. We don't want to know your ways. And that is simply demonstrated
so many times Because God tells us that His ways, they're not
our ways. They're not our ways. On every other hand, and in every
other case, they seek knowledge in every other way, knowledge
for all things which are temporary and foolish and even trivial,
but not God's ways. They want to learn, but they're
ever learning. and never able to come to the
knowledge of the truth. It is so frightening to know
and to realize how much an individual can know, how many things they
can know about. How many things they can know
how to do and accomplish. How many things that boggle my
mind as far as science and such things are concerned. It's a
scary thing to think of how much a man or a woman can know, but
know nothing of the ways of God. The first thing is they don't
want to know the way He is. Now, does that say something
about what we are in ourselves? They don't want to know. We,
by nature, do not really want to know how God really is. We only want to know how we think
He is. Can you imagine standing up before
God in the hour of judgment and offering this up as an excuse
for your ignorance? Well, I thought this is the way
you are. We don't want to know how He
is. Just give us one attribute, that will suffice us. You just
tell us that God is love and that's all. We don't really need
to know anything else. We don't want to find out that
the Scriptures say many more times than that, many more times
than that, that God is holy and that He is just and that He is
righteous. that He must punish sin. We don't
want to know all those things. And that's why men and women
will take what they think, and what these false religionists
say about God, rather than what He says about Himself. And they call it, My God. I don't know how many times over
35 years, People who have read something that I wrote or heard
something that I preached and said, they tell somebody else,
well, my God's not like that. They're telling the truth. But
the God of the Bible is. The only true and living God,
He is. And it really will not matter
how we think He is. And He declares Himself to be
holy and just and righteous, as well as merciful and gracious. And He says of men and women,
He says, "...and the way of peace they have not known." Do you
know why we know that? Do you know why He knows that? Because they say such things
that says this, you need to make your peace with God. There is no way that any sinner,
which is what we all are, could ever, of ourselves and by ourselves,
make peace with the thrice holy God. They say, we don't want to know
the way of peace. God says they have not known
the way of peace. What is the way of peace? Is
it by our making peace with God? No. The way of peace, according
to this book, is that peace, it says, that Christ made through
the blood of His cross. What's Christ doing there on
that cross? He's making peace on behalf of His people through
the shedding of His blood, which is what's necessary to put away
their sins and to end this enmity between men and God. He is, in
Christ, reconciling His people unto Himself. Men say, well, if you do this,
or if you live a good life, if you live a moral life, you'll
make peace with God. No way. No way. God says, My people are destroyed
for a lack of knowledge. And I hear people running down
knowledge in our day. He'll have all His people to
come to the knowledge of the truth. But it says, we desire not the
knowledge of thy ways. Don't want to know God's gospel?
Don't want to hear the only way He can be a just God and a Savior? Not only that, but the way of
truth, He says, is evil spoken of by them. The way of righteousness. What
is the way of righteousness? Well, Paul said, I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ. I'm determined to preach Christ
crucified. and only Christ crucify, salvation
in Him, salvation by grace alone in Him, salvation apart from
all human works, salvation to the satisfaction of divine justice
through His sacrifice, I am determined to preach the gospel of Christ,
for therein is the righteousness of God revealed." And men and women gather by the
thousands to be entertained, but only by the handfuls to hear
the Word of God. And they search through the newspapers
cover to cover, and they read the writings and books of men,
and they read useless magazines and all these things, but not
the Bible. This is the book of life. This
is the truth of God. You don't have to take my word
for anything I say. I don't want you to simply take
my word. But you need to search the Scriptures. You have to compare what men
say to what God has said in His Word. The Pharisees, Christ said,
you search the Scriptures, and in them you think you have eternal
life. But they are they that speak
of Me, and you will not come to Me that you might have life." Don't want to hear, don't want
to learn, don't want to be taught about Christ who is Himself the
way. Isn't that what he said? I am
the way, singular, one, only way, way of salvation, way to
God, way to heaven, way of righteousness. He's the way. But instead, men and women will
gather and they'll base their services on everything other
than Christ. We'll have a song service. We'll
have a concert. We'll have a play. We'll have
something to entertain everybody. Nothing about Him who is life. And they'll trust in their own
way. You see, the Bible says a couple
of times or more, there is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof, is the way
of death. Broad is the way that leads to
destruction, and many there be that go therein. Straight is
the gate. Narrow is the way that leads
to life. Few there be that find it. What
is that straight gate? What is that narrow way? Is that
the way in which we walk so as to gain the favor of God? No,
that's Christ. A gate is virtually the same
thing as a door, isn't it? He said, I am the door. And Christ said they'll stand
there in Matthew 7, He'll say they'll stand there in that day
and they'll say, Lord, Lord, we've preached in Your name,
we've cast out devils in Your name, we've done many wonderful
works in Your name, and He'll say to them, depart from Me. You that work iniquity, I never
knew you. I never knew you." They said,
we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. Then they said this,
what is the Almighty that we should serve Him? Now what I
noticed about that, first of all, is how men and women are
so unhesitant to use the names of God without any realization
of what such terms involved. They say, what is the Almighty? Everybody is always asking me,
what do you mean by the name of your church? Sovereign Grace
Baptist Church. What does that word sovereign
mean? How do you spell that? Nobody
even knows how to spell it. Sovereignty is simply a word
that describes God, just like the Almighty One. Another word we find in the epistles
is the word potentate. Paul says he's going to show
one day who is the only potentate, the only sovereign. What does
that mean? It means he's God alone. It means he, as God, does what
he will, to whom he will, when he will, and how he will. And
just like Nebuchadnezzar found out when he confessed He rules and
He does what He will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants
of men. He does what He will and nobody
can stop Him. Nobody can stop Him. An imagined
free will will not stop the sovereign will. What is the Almighty that
we should serve Him? You see, the issue in every age,
the issue with you and with me as it was in the garden, in that
one tree that was there in the midst of the garden that God
told Adam and Eve not to eat of. What was that issue? It was God's right to be God. His right to do what He will
with His own. His right to command us and simply
say, you do not eat of that tree. Were there other trees? Many
more. Were there better trees? Many
more. But man, when he failed, fell
because of rebellion against God's right to be God. Now, one day everybody's going
to find out. I used to hear them sing that
song, and I thought it was kind of cute, you know, everybody
ought to know. Everybody ought to know who Jesus is. Let me
tell you something, one day everybody is going to know. Every eye shall
see Him, the Scripture says. And they will see Him, according
to this book, not in mercy or grace at that hour, they'll see
Him as the mighty, sovereign God. I hear people talk about what
they're going to do in that hour, what they're going to tell God.
Oh me. The Scripture says that when
men in that hour behold Him who sits upon the throne, They find
out He is the same One that while wicked hands was taken and slain,
that they will cry out for the rocks to fall on them and hide
their faces from His face. They want no such God as the
Sovereign God. And especially as He is in the
man Christ Jesus. They just said, We will not have
this man to rule over us. What a foolish thing. What a
foolish thing is to think that you can make Jesus Lord. These preachers. Make Jesus Lord
of your life. He's Lord over everything. He's
not some puny, weak, pitiful individual. He's the King of
kings and Lord of lords. Pharaoh, when he was confronted
by Moses, he said, who is the Lord that I should obey His voice
to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither
will I let Israel go. You see, it's always born out
of low views of God. Who's the Almighty? I'll tell you what, we'll either
find out in grace or we'll find out in judgment who He is. It mostly has to do with our
submission to Christ to be saved God's way, to His rule over us,
to His righteousness in one outside of ourselves as the only way.
You see, the only righteousness that any sinner will ever have
is what the Bible calls an imputed righteousness. And that will
simply be the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ that is
charged to their account, and their salvation will not be based
in any way on who they are or what they did. It will all be
because of who He is and what He did. You will live your life but for
the grace of God, wondering, wondering, wondering, when have
I done enough? Have I given enough? Have I prayed
enough? Have I helped enough? Have I
quit sin enough? Have I done all these things?
And there's no end to it. But when the king hung on that
cross, he said, it's finished. You think he was throwing up
his hands and said, oh, I'm glad this is all over. No. He had a glory set before Him
that would be His through the accomplishment and finishing
of the work of salvation for all God's elect people. And He
finished it. Paul said, "...for they, being
ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish
their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto
the righteousness of God." I'm sure you saw at least the clip
from that movie where the man from Australia is confronted
on the street by thugs who pull out switchblades. Then he reaches
in his coat and pulls out a long, long knife, and he says, now
that's a knife. We can imagine our little puny
penknife righteousnesses, and our little puny penknife wills,
and all these things, but one day God Almighty is going to
show you the knife. Judgment. Men imagine that their free will
holds him at bay, that their decisions hold him at bay, that
they tie his hand, that they must let him. I saw the church
sign that said, God's the author, let him write the novel of your
life. He's already written that book,
start to finish. And then they said this, they
said, what should we have if we pray to Him? Oh, look at us. We've got everything. Got a good
home, got a good family, got a good job, got a lot of good
friends, got a good hobby, got a good this, that, and the other.
What could He add to us? As He says that they will say,
we're rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing.
What do we need? You need life. Eternal life. Your existence is coming to pass
in this world, as he said, swifter than a runner, faster than a
weaver's shuttle. Just almost like yesterday, I
went to a gathering of young people Met the woman who became
my wife this year. Fifty years! What happened to it? Where have
the days gone? They say, what can God add to
me? What would I get out of it? This prayer is the evidence of
death. It's the evidence of our natural
depravity of our blindness, of our misconception of everything
that is true and good and vital and important. It's like a man
freezing to death. I read once about the sensations
of that. And they said, just before a
man freezes to death, he has a sensation of being warm. Why
is he warm? Because he has no feeling. The wicked are simply every person
outside of Christ. Every unbeliever. And the end
for them, Though their prosperity does
not reveal who they truly are, nor is it a sign of God's favor,
their end, if you look in verse 16 of Job 21, Job continues,
he says, "'Lo, their good is not in their hand, their prosperity
is not because of them. The counsel of the wicked is
far from me. That kind of wisdom, God says,
is not my wisdom. Their prosperity is not in their
hand. He says, I kill and I make alive. He also said, I make rich and
I make poor. How oft is the candle of the
wicked put out, and oft cometh their destruction upon them.
God distributeth sorrows in His anger. They are as stubble before
the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away. God layeth
up His iniquity for His children. He rewardeth Him, and He shall
know it." Oh, what an awful thing. It's one thing we find out. We
live long enough and have children. And that is that a sinner can
only beget a sinner. Like begets like. I've always
said the thing that makes parents really in their deep down heart
so afraid about what their children are going to do and what they're
going to get into is because they know they've got a nature
just like them. His eyes shall see His destruction. He shall drink the wrath of the
Almighty. For what pleasure hath He in
His house after Him, when the number of His months is cut off
in the midst? Shall any teach God knowledge,
seeing He judges those that are high? One dieth in his full strength,
being wholly at ease and quiet. His breasts are full of milk,
and his bones are moistened with marrow. And another dieth in
the bitterness of his soul, and never eateth with pleasure. But
it doesn't matter, because they all shall lie down alike in the
dust, and the worm shall cover them." Some prosper. or what we call
prosper. Some don't. Some have real troubles
of life. Some don't. But there's one thing
about it. They're both sinners, and they're
all going to lie down in death. And outside of Christ, God is
a consuming fire. Their prosperity was not in their
hand, and neither will their end be, or their eternity to
be. God will say to them, you depart
from me." The psalmist says, the wicked shall be turned into
hell. And in the King James it says,
and the nations that forget God. But if you notice there, that
and is in italics, which meant that the translators added that
they thought for clarity. So what it says is, the wicked
shall be turned into hell. Who are they? all the people
that forget God. What an evidence of spiritual
death, of being lost, of being condemned. One old writer called
this, the climax of criminal audacity. The climax of self-deception. The climax of ingratitude. And it proceeds from natural
pride, self-righteousness, hatred and enmity toward God, natural
unbelief, and the love of sin. You see, man's difficulty is
not in finding God. His difficulty is in hiding from
God. We have an expression we use. And something that is so obvious,
but yet we can't see it. We call it the 800-pound gorilla
in the room. God's the 800-pound gorilla in
this room. He's so obvious. We see evidence
of Him this morning when the sun broke out. or when the rain
falls, or when the wind blows. We look around us and we see
everything lives and thrives, and we're fed. It's everywhere. We're so blind. We're like Pharaoh. Who is the
Lord? Who is He? Let me show you one other passage
of Scripture in closing. And that is found in Luke chapter
18. where we find just such a man. Actually, he's one of two men,
and guess what he's gone down to the temple to do? He's gone
down to the temple to pray. But his prayer is just going
to be like the one that Job describes. Because in Luke 18 and chapter
10, it says, two men went up into the temple to pray, the
one a Pharisee, a very religious man, a teacher. and the other
a publica, poor old hated despised tax collector. 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 publica. Now let me tell you what I do,
God. I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess."
That's what he prayed. But there was another man, and
he prayed something quite different. First of all, why did he pray
what he prayed? Why was his heart the way it
was? Because of the grace of God to
him. God had showed him what he was. and convinced him that his only
hope was in God, in Christ. Now listen, this man, it says,
the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as
his eyes unto heaven, but he smote upon his breast, saying,
God, be merciful to me, a sinner. In the Greek there, I believe
it actually says, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Like Paul. This is a faithful
saying. That Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Now which one of these men does
God call righteous? of this publican, Christ says,
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified. That means declared righteous
before God through and by the Lord Jesus Christ. than the other. For every one
that exalts himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth
himself shall be exalted." What happened to that publican? God had butted in. You say, I
don't want God to butt into my life. If He don't, you'll perish. God butted into his life. And
he brought him off of his own natural high horse, brought him
down to the reality of what he was, so that he now comes before
God, and he doesn't say, depart from me. He says, be merciful to me. Save
me. Save me your way. Have your will
in my life. Save me in the one You've appointed. Save me that way of the cross. Save me through Christ and Him
crucified. And He's one of many. Not everybody. Not even most
of everybody. But that publican is one of a
people that our Lord through the prophets spoke of. said,
And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up
to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob,
and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His path.
For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord
from Jerusalem." God is going to move some people.
As Christ said, "...of the sheep have I that are not of this foal,
them also I must bring." He's going to teach them. He's going
to bring them. He's going to give them faith.
He's going to give them spiritual life. And what is that life and
faith going to be? Evident sin. They're coming to
Christ. Again in Isaiah 55, He says,
"...let the wicked forsake his way." Elvis said, I did it my
way. I'm afraid that's true. If you
ever save, it'll be God's way. He just got one way. Christ plus
nothing. Grace, not works. Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord,
and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon. For my thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord." What a shock that is when we
find out God is not who we thought He was. when we find out that
God doesn't save us the way we thought He did. But what a blessing follows. The psalmist says in Psalm 50,
Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces,
and there be none to deliver. All his people, Christ said,
as it was written in the prophets,
they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh to me." Everyone taught of God. They don't come to the front
of the church building. They don't come to the baptismal
pool or font or any such things. They don't come to a denomination
or come to a particular position doctrinally. They come to Christ. And you know what their prayer
is called then? The prayer of the righteous. How are they righteous? God makes
them the righteousness of God in Christ. Our Father, this morning we pray
that You would bless Your Word to Your glory and for the good
and comfort and salvation of Your people. May all honor and
glory be to You. We thank You and we praise You.
We ask that you would not let the evil one steal away the precious
seed of the word of truth out of our minds and hearts. We pray
and ask everything in Christ. Amen.