The following message was delivered
on Sunday morning, March 12, 1995, at the Trinity Baptist
Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now before we turn to the Word
of God and then seek God's face again in prayer, let me just
briefly express on behalf of all of the elders and the chairman
of the deacons our gratitude to God for your prayers for us
As we went away on our retreat on Friday afternoon for a very
concentrated period of seeking God's face and wrestling with
matters of great concern to the life and ministry of this Assembly,
it is always a joy to know that when we go off on these annual
seasons, we do so with your prayers accompanying us. And we are thankful
that God was gracious in hearing and answering our prayers, and
in days to come, a number of the matters addressed and some
resolved will unfold in various ways before you as a congregation. But I felt I would be delinquent
did I not explicitly thank you for your prayers. Now will you
turn with me to the 18th chapter of the Gospel of Luke, as I read
a portion of the Word of God, what to many of you is a familiar
portion. Luke chapter 18, beginning with
verse 9, referring to the ministry of our Lord Jesus on a specific
occasion. Luke writes in chapter 18 and
verse 9, and he spoke also this parable unto certain who trusted
in themselves that they were righteous, and despised all others. Two men went up into the temple
to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a publican or a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself, God, I thank you that I am not as the rest
of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax
collector. I fast twice in the week. I give
tithes of all that I get. But the publican or tax collector,
standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto
heaven, but beat upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me,
the sinner. I say unto you, this man went
down to his house justified rather than the other. For every one
that exalts himself shall be humbled, but he that humbles
himself shall be exalted. Now let us unite our hearts in
prayer and ask that God the Holy Spirit would enable us to grasp
the message of our Lord Jesus in this, his own word. Holy Father, we bow again in
your presence, conscious as we have sung in the paraphrase of
the 51st Psalm, conscious as we have expressed in the previous
prayers of this morning, conscious as we've been reminded in the
reading of the word of God, that a man can receive nothing except
it be given him from heaven. And because we believe that you
alone can give spiritual light, you alone can give spiritual
life, you alone can give understanding and grace, we come beseeching
you for your glory and for the good of our souls. Attend the
preaching of the word with power and with the Holy Spirit. Enable
your servant to speak not in word only but also in power and
in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance. Bless your word then
to the confirmation of the faith of yours, those who know and
love you. Bless your word to the calling
in of others who for the first time may see themselves for what
they really are and behold your mercy in Christ for what it is
and may close with that offer of mercy we plead through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen. Now this morning with this portion
of the Word of God before us We're going to make an excursion
together, one that most of us would not make on a Lord's Day,
one that many of us would never make on any day of the week,
for our excursion is to a portrait gallery. And we're going to be
escorted to that portrait gallery by none other than the Lord Jesus
Christ himself. He will be our tour guide or
the curator of the art gallery into which we are taken this
morning. And what is unusual is that the
Lord Jesus is the one who has painted the very portraits that
he himself will explain to us. we will stand with the Lord Jesus
looking at the portraits that he has painted and listen to
his own word as he explains to us the significance of these
portraits. However, these are very unusual
portraits because they have the unusual faculty and ability Once
we have gazed upon them and discovered the various contours of the faces
in the portraits, the portrait, upon gazing long upon it, turns
from the picture of another into a mirror in which we see ourselves
reflected. And as the Lord Jesus guides
us through this portrait gallery, we will see these portraits and
the various features of those painted on the canvas, and having
seen those features, stay before them long enough until they turn
into mirrors, and we behold ourselves in one or the other portrait
frame. Obviously, from the reading of
the passage, one is the portrait of a proud, self-deluded, unhumbled,
and unbelieving, but very religious man. And the other is the portrait
of a humbled, self-loathing, penitent, but believing, probably not very religious man. And as we study their portraits,
remember, we also want to behold our own faces as the portrait
becomes a mirror. Now consider with me, first of
all, the things in which these men are essentially the same. As the Lord Jesus takes us by
the hand into the portrait gallery, and we take our first look at
the two portraits, there is something in which the portraits are identical. Look at the passage. Jesus, speaking
a parable unto certain who trusted in themselves that they were
righteous and despised all others, said, Two men went up into the
temple to pray. And the things in which these
men are essentially the same is first in their condition before
God and they are both in the same place engaged in the same
activity. We are told that two men went
up into the temple to pray and because they were men Unnamed,
but nonetheless designated as men, we know from the whole teaching
of the Word of God an awful lot about these two men. We know
an awful lot concerning the things that they had in common. Because
they were men, ordinary men, they were first of all human
beings made in the image of God. When Jesus describes in his parable
that we are likening now to two portraits, he is describing men. He is not describing animals
or birds or scenery, but men. That is, human beings who, according
to the scriptures in Genesis 1, 26, and 27, are utterly unique
among all of God's creatures in that they were created in
the image and after the likeness of God. I remind you of those
very familiar words that in the sixth day of creation we are
told, and God said, let us make man after our image, after our
likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, etc. And in the image of God created
he them, male and female, created he them. Because these in the
portraits are human beings, they are men, we know immediately
that they are creatures made in the image of God. They are
not cosmic junk. They are not the highest expression
of the order of the animals. They are not some unexplainable
creature whose fundamental identity can only be the subject of the
discussion of philosophers or the examination of those in the
medical or psychiatric field. We know from the scriptures that
because they were men, they were creatures utterly distinct from
all the other of God's creatures, that they were made in the image
of God. But furthermore, we know because
they were men, that they were sinners who fell in Adam and
by nature were under the condemnation of God. just from the fact that
Jesus said two men went up into the temple to pray. We know from
the fact they are designated as men, that they were not only
human beings made originally in the image of God, but that
they were sinners who fell in Adam and came under the condemnation
of God. There is abroad in our day and
even in many evangelical circles a silly notion that when men
and women come forth from their mothers' wombs as little baby
boys and girls, that they are somehow in some intermediate
state of moral condition until a so-called age of accountability. and it's at that point that they
really become sinners with real condemnation that when they really
know what it is to tell a real lie and they consciously and
deliberately do it or when they really consciously know what
it is to frame a nasty or a dirty word and they deliberately speak
it that at that point somewhere along the line they pass a threshold
and This threshold is often called an age of accountability. But
from the Scriptures, this notion simply, simply will not wash. For we read in the Word of God
in such passages as Romans 5 and verse 12, Wherefore, as through
one man sin entered into the world, and death passed upon
all men, for that all sin, When did the all sin? The all sinned when our first
father, the one man mentioned in Romans 5.12, disobeyed the
commandment of his God. It is through the one man and
our all sinning in him and with him in that first transgression
that we became sinners and fell under the condemnation of God. It is for this reason that in
1 Corinthians 15 22 the scripture says, as in Adam, all die. It doesn't say as in Adam, all
are potentially slated for death. But the text says in Adam, all
die. And the scripture is clear in
affirming that all men, whether male or female, all mankind are
not only originally made in the image of God, But we are sinners
who fell in Adam and have come under the condemnation of God. And some of the most sweeping
general statements in all of the Bible are used to describe
our universal state of sinnerhood. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his
own way. Isaiah 53, 6, Romans 3, 23, For
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is
not a just man upon the face of the earth that does good and
sins not. So when we stand with the Lord
Jesus at our side, And in our portrait gallery, we look at
the two portraits. We see they are two men. And there is a tremendous family
likeness. There are dominant features in
both portraits that are almost the mirror image of the other,
in that they are both creatures made in the image of God. And they are both creatures who
fell in Adam and have come under the condemnation of God. And as we look at both portraits,
standing before the one and before the other, and stand there long
enough for the portrait to turn into a mirror, these mirrors
are never like the mirrors in the funhouse. Some of you kids
have stood before the mirrors in the funhouse. You may be just
four foot two inches tall and you stand before one mirror and
it makes you taller than Shaquille O'Neal. It makes you look seven
feet tall. You stand before another one
and it makes you look five foot wide. If you're five foot wide,
you like to stand before the one that will show you as slim
and skinny as olive oil. They just shrink you right down
to toothpick size. The mirrors in the funhouse reflect
you, but they don't reflect you for what you really are. They
reflect the distorted image of you. It's you, but it's not you. But when we stand before these
portraits, and we gaze upon them and they turn into mirrors, those
mirrors polished by the very rectitude and the pure holy attributes
of God reflect perfectly what we really are like. And when
we stand before these two portraits, we find that whether we stand
before the first or the second, they reflect precisely the same
thing about ourselves as was true of both of these men. And
they say, yes, you too are a creature made in the image of God. Though
Adam fell many millennia ago, the scripture says that we are
still creatures that are made in the image of God. Not with
the perfect image. It is a marred image. But nonetheless,
we are image bearers. But we are image bearers who
have fallen in Adam. who are sinners by representation
in Adam, who are sinners under the condemnation of God, sinners
in our own nature, sinners in our own practice. This is the
humbling. This is the flesh withering.
But this is the reality of what you and I are in the estimation
of God. So the first thing in which these
men are essentially the same, they are both the same in their
condition before God and what they are and were, we are this
day. But then the second thing in
which they are both the same is this, they are both in the
same place engaged in the same activity. Look at the text. Two
men went up into the temple to pray. Verse 11, the Pharisees
stood and prayed thus with himself, and though the word prayer is
not used, verse 13 is obviously a record of the prayer of the
second man, but the tax collector standing afar off would not lift
up so much his eyes to heaven but smote his breast, saying,
God be merciful to me, the sinner, which is the record of his prayer. So they are both in the same
place, engaged in the same activity. If we stand before their portraits,
we notice not only striking similarities in the leading features of their
faces, but striking similarities in the background of the canvas.
They have both gone up to the temple. That is the place of
God's special presence. The place where God's worship
and the God-instituted rituals of worship were enacted. The
place where sacrifices were offered and where the priests carried
on their divinely directed tasks. They were both in the same place
in the temple, and they were both praying. As we stand before
their portraits, we see not only these basic similarities in the
contours of their faces, their fundamental identity, but in
the background are those things that indicate that they are both
in the same place identified by Jesus as the temple. and that
they are both engaged in the same activity, they are praying. They are seeking to have conscious
mental and spiritual communion with God expressed in words,
which are the echo of the thoughts of their hearts. As we once again
stand before the portraits long enough, whether we stand before
the first or the second, just as we see ourselves in either
portrait as men, made in the image of God, as men, women,
boys and girls, fallen in Adam, so in a very real sense we can
stand before the first or the second portrait and we see ourselves. We have all come up to a common
place of worship this morning. I am preaching to the people
who are found within the walls of this building where a congregation
called Trinity Baptist Church gathers. Though not all of you
are within these walls, some are downstairs in the nursery,
some are downstairs in the foyer. The living congregation to whom
I'm ministering this morning is gathered in this place set
apart for the public worship of God. And, at least to some
degree, we have all been engaged in common religious activities
that have to do with approaching to God. We have been singing
hymns from a common hymn book, and following the reading of
the text of Scripture from the Word of God. And we have bowed
our heads in unison, and have been engaged in the activities
of prayer, so that as we stand before the portraits, and they
become mirrors, At this point, we can see ourselves in either
the first or the second portrait now become a mirror. You're here
in a place set apart for the public worship of God. You're
here engaged in those rituals ordained of God as the very start
of His worship under the New Covenant. Now these are the things
in which these men are essentially the same and in which all of
us sitting here are essentially the same. But now when we move
into second place to consider from the passage what the Lord
Jesus, the curator of this portrait museum tells us about the things
in which these men are radically different From this point on,
everything is a study, not in similarity, but in contrast. And furthermore, from this point
on, after we've looked at the portrait, and we've listened
to the Lord Jesus describing the significance of what we see
in the portrait, and then the portraits turn into mirrors,
no longer can you see yourself before both mirrors. You have
to stand before one and say, do I see my image reflected there? Or stand before the other, is
my image reflected there? But there's no man, woman, boy
or girl in this place whose image is reflected. From both portraits
turned a mirror. From this point on, there is
radical difference as our Lord Jesus describes the portraits
for us. First of all, notice with me
that they differ radically in their conception of God. That is, what they consciously
think about God. These two men in the two portraits,
drawn by our Lord's words, differ radically in their conception
of God. Look at the Pharisee. Two men
went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee. And the Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself, God, I thank you that I'm not as the rest
of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax
collector. I fast twice in the week. I get
tithes of all that I get. What does this tell us about
this man's conception of God? Well, we know from the rest of
Scripture that although the Pharisees were an exceedingly religious
bunch of people, even to the point, according to verse 9,
that they looked down their long religious snout in a despising
attitude to all others, for Jesus spoke this parable with peculiar
purpose to expose these Pharisees, who though exceedingly religious,
rather than being humbled, which is of the essence of all true
religion, for thus saith the high and lofty one who inhabits
eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy
place with him also that is of a humble and a contrite spirit."
The Pharisee was full of himself and full of pride. He was a self-inflated
religious balloon and windbag. who dares to vent some of that
very wind in the presence of God in the kind of prayer that
he prays. But at the foundation of the
contrast in the two portraits is this radically different conception
of God. Though the Pharisee was a very
religious man, and though outwardly many parts of his life were very
meticulous in religious things, He had so small, so trivial a
view of God that he actually believed, this is one of the
most amazing things, he actually believed that his outwardly moral
life and his religious deeds could earn enough brownie points
that God would look favorably upon him now and take him to
heaven when he died. He had such a low, unworthy,
trivial view of God that he thought the God of the universe, who
spoke worlds into being by the word of His mouth, brought them
into being out of the womb of nothing by sheer creative speaking,
the God who upholds all things by the word of His power, The
God who needed nothing from anything that he ever created, who is
totally self-sufficient in himself, he's got such a trivial small
God that he really thinks that he can earn enough brownie points
for God to smile and rub his hands and say, oh that's so lovely
and so wonderful because you don't do this and don't do that
and don't do this and because you do that and because you do
that, You have earned my favor. What a low, unworthy view of
God this man had. Though his life was religious
from morning till night, and all that he did and said was
framed by his religion, he was utterly destitute of some of
the most fundamental elements of a true knowledge of God that
a man must have if he's going to truly know God. He had this
small, trivial God who could influence the acceptance and
eternal destiny of never-dying souls on the basis of brownie
points. But now let's look at the second
portrait. What about this publican or tax collector? What was his
view of God? Look at his prayer. But the publican
standing afar off. In comparison to this Pharisee,
who probably went as far as someone who was not of the priestly class
could go into that part of the temple, by contrast, the tax
collector standing afar off, maybe just over the boundary
of the court of the Gentiles, into the place where a Jewish
adult male was allowed to come, perhaps just inches over that. Standing afar off, notice as
Jesus paints the picture, he says he would not lift up so
much as his eyes to heaven. The picture is of a man bent
over, and in his bent position he would not, not even speaking
of lifting up his head like the Pharisee, turns his face up And
thanks God he's not like other men, and begins to kick off all
his brownie points, this man is far off. He's far away from
the place of God's special presence in that inner sanctuary. as far
off from the most holy things of the temple, the altar, and
the sacrifice, and that veil that separated the outer from
the inner sanctuary, afar off, he does not so much as lift his
eye. to heaven, not so much as his
eyes, let alone his whole head and face. And then it says he
is beating upon his breast. Not for artistic effect, not
for histrionic effect. There was nobody from the Channel
4 News team there with a camera on his shoulder taking his picture. No. He was but expressing the
state of his heart and particularly his view of God. He saw God as
so intrinsically holy, so majestic and glorious in himself. so pure
that he was of purer eyes than to look upon iniquity. And he saw himself in the light
of that holy God in such a way that he knew there was a distance
between himself and this God because of his sin. He saw that
this God was a God who, if he did not have mercy, If he did
not extend forgiveness, if he would not turn away his wrath,
there was no hope for him because of who God was against the backdrop
of what he was as a creature and a sinner. Now as we stand
before the two portraits, We begin our study of the contrast. We see the contrast of their
radically different conception of God. Now stand before each
one until you see your own face. The portraits become mirrors.
Do you see yourself before the portrait of the Pharisee? Is
that the mirror that reflects your image? Did you really think
that the God of heaven, who charges his angels with folly, before
whom the burning ones bale face and feet and cry, one to another,
holy, holy, holy, you really think that this God, can be appeased,
that this God can be disposed to be favorable to you and accept
your person and receive you with favor simply because you haven't
been as rotten as a lot of your fellow sinners? Do you really
think that? That's what he thought. I thank
you, I am not! And then he names those who were
more notorious for their blatant sins. And he really thinks that
because he has not been an extortioner, he's not been unjust in his dealings
with his neighbors, He has not violated the seventh commandment,
at least outwardly, and he's not like this tax collector who
hobnobs with those dirty Romans and hires himself out to the
Romans to collect their wretched taxes on their behalf. He surely
says, Lord, this is my crowning brownie point in terms of me
being different from the rest of the riffraff, even as this
publican. Is that you this morning? Do
you really think in your heart of hearts that God is going to
be favorable to you simply because you're not the rotten sinner
that your neighbor is? You're not the vile sinner that
many of your work associates are. You're not the vile sinner
your own spouse or son or daughter has become. And in your mind
you really think that somehow that will gain you some favor
with God. that you mirrored in that first
portrait. Remember, he is not only confident
of acceptance because of what he isn't, but then because of
what he does, and he names his little religious things. I fast
twice in the week, twice a week. From early morning till three
in the afternoon, I go without my normal food. Surely, surely
this earns some major brownie points. I take tithes of all
that I get, Jesus said, right down to their herbs. Were they
to go out in the backyard in their herb garden and pick a
handful of mint or some other herb, they'd be sure to take
a pence of it and set it apart to give as an offering to God.
I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I get. Standing before that portrait
become a mirror. Is that reflecting your image?
You think there's something you have done or can do or are doing? that really makes up any deficiency
that may be there. Maybe a few deficiencies. No,
you're not like extortioners and adulterers and publicans. But there's a knowing sense that
maybe what you are not in comparison to others still doesn't quite
give you enough brownie points so to cover your bet. In your
heart of hearts, I've walked the Nile. I've raised a hand. I've prayed the sinner's prayer.
I've been baptized. I've become a member of a reformed
church. I tithe all that I get. I attend the staged meetings.
I this, I that. Stand before that portrait long
enough and ask if indeed you see your face. Because if you
do, If you do, the Lord Jesus has something very serious to
say about you. And we'll come to that in due
course. Or do you find yourself in that second portrait? Here
is the man who stands afar off. Nobody's there coaching him.
Nobody's there telling him now If you want to go to heaven and
you find no reason why you shouldn't accept Christ, pray this prayer
after me. Nobody's there coaching him.
Nobody's there putting words in his mouth. He has come by
the operation of the Spirit of God through the Word of God to
the discovery of what he really is in the presence of God. And
he sees God is so holy. He sees God is so majestic and
exalted in his holiness and righteousness and justice that he cries out
from afar, not so much as lifting up his eyes. heaven, the place
of God's special dwelling. He feels himself to be at such
a distance. God, if you don't interpose with
mercy, pure mercy, only mercy, I've had it, be merciful to me. And then he doesn't say, a sinner,
along with everybody else. No, Jesus puts in his mouth the
words, be sinner. There's only one sinner in the
world in your presence, God, and it's me! Oh yes, I came up
to the temple amidst a bunch of sinners, and I stand in the
temple amidst a bunch of sinners, but oh God, when I think of who
you are and what I am, there's only one God and one sinner.
Be merciful to thee, sinner." Is that your conception of God?
when you think of standing in his presence. So holy, so righteous,
so just, so inflexible in his holy law, and you as a creature
morally accountable to him, but fallen in Adam, a sinner by representation,
by nature, and by practice. Which are you? You can't be mirrored
in both portraits. You either have the fundamental
spirit of the Pharisee, or the fundamental spirit of the publican,
when you think of God. But then notice how they differ
radically, not only in their conception of God, but in their
perception of themselves. Not only do they radically differ
in their conception of God, but in their perception of themselves. Look at the Pharisee. He did
not have to attend any self-esteem seminars. He was full of self-esteem,
self-confidence, and self-congratulation. When it says he stood thus and
prayed with himself, that's what he was really doing. He was really
just bragging into his own ears. God wasn't impressed with any
of this. But he's so full of self-esteem, self-confidence,
self-congratulation. When I was a kid, there was a
little Diddy we used to sing. I love me. I think I'm grand. I go to the movies just to hold
my hat. I put my arm around my waist. I get fresh. I slap my face. Silly little
Diddy, isn't it? innocent enough when kids sing
it. But when a man dares to sing it in the presence of Almighty
God, it is horrendous. That's what he's singing. I love
me, God. I think I'm grand. I want to
apprise you of just how grand I am. Look at me, God. I'm not like the extortioner. I am not like the unjust, the
adulterer, or even this tax collector. And look what I do!" He had this
view of himself that based on what he was and what he did,
he had no shattering sense of inadequacy to appear before God. No sense of undone-ness He could
read Isaiah 6 and he wouldn't have a clue of its meaning. I
saw the Lord high and lifted up and His train filled the temple. I saw the seraphim flying, crying,
and the doors of the post shook at the voice of Him. It cried
and then I cried, woe is me, I'm undone. I've had it! Thine eyes have seen the King
Jehovah of hosts! I've seen the exalted God! And whatever I Isaiah may have
in terms of good breeding and upbringing, Isaiah was no bum! There's no record Isaiah had
ever become a prodigal! Isaiah had had the culture and
influence of the court! nurturing and shaping and forming
his noble manhood. But he says, when I saw God,
I saw myself. And when I saw myself, it shattered
me. I was undone. Not this Pharisee. He never once knew what it was
to feel an inward shaking and trembling in the sight of his
own wretched sinfulness in the presence of God. Now look at
portrait number two. There's the publican, so full
of self-loathing and self-abhorrence and self-distrust that he goes
totally out of himself. He doesn't say a thing about
himself, but his identity as the sinner. Everything else is
directed to God, saying, God, be merciful, be propitious, turn
away your wrath from me, the sinner. He's acknowledging in
his prayer that in himself, and apart from the intervention of
God, he's had it. He knows that if the God who
is is true to all that he is, He must consume him in his wrath
and in his righteous anger against sin and the sinner. That's the view the tax collector
has of himself. Now I ask you, stand before the
two portraits. They now become mirrors. Which
one is reflecting you? Does the Pharisee reflect you?
Are you at heart a fantasy? that you think that because of
the influence of your Christian home and Christian nurture, which
under God's common grace kept you from becoming an outward
adulterer and extortioner, and someone that the civil law would
seek to seize and throw into prison, and because you early
learned the disciplines of going to church and reading Bible and
tithing, that down underneath That somehow gives you brownie
points, is that you stand before the mirror and be honest with
what you see. And if you see your face in that mirror, oh
my friend, take seriously that reflection. We come to portrait two and there
you see a man whose view of himself is whatever good he may have
done in the world's estimation. Whatever virtue he may possess
in the estimation of his wife and his kids and his neighbors
and the community in the presence of Almighty God, he sees himself
in one fundamental category only, the sinner. The sinner! And he goes totally out of himself,
pleading that this God would be merciful to him. You see,
he understood the language of the psalmist who cried, If you,
Lord, should mark iniquity, O Lord, who could stand? God, if you
were to mark sin so as to bring it into judgment, who could stand? There was genuine spirit-wrought
self-loathing and self-abhorrence and self-distrust. But as we
go before the portraits with the Lord Jesus, the great curator,
explaining the significance of what we see, notice they not
only had a radically different conception of God and a radically
different perception of themselves, but they had a radically different
conviction of how a man gains acceptance with God. radically
different conviction of how a man gains acceptance with God. Few things are more indicative
of the true state of anyone's soul than their convictions concerning
this question. How does a man gain acceptance
with God? That's probably the most significant
question anyone can ask. How does a man gain acceptance
with God? Some would say, well, you don't
need to gain it. We all have it. We're all His children by
creation. The question's invalid. Others would say, yes, we need
to gain it, but this way or that way. Well, look at the portrait.
The Pharisee, he actually believes he is accepted on the basis of
who he is and what he does and does not do. Who he is, what
he does, and what he does not do. He is the picture of the
very person described in Romans chapter 10, where Paul, speaking
of his burden for his fellow Jews, says in verse 2 of Romans
10, I bear them witness they have a zeal for God, but not
according to knowledge, for being ignorant of God's righteousness
and going about to establish their own righteousness, they
did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. They did not subject themselves
to a righteousness of which God is the author and one that is
pleasing to God because it is the very righteousness of God. They did not subject themselves
to that. They sought to establish their
own, construct their own ladder to heaven, make their own ground
of acceptance with God. They differed radically in their
conviction of how one gains acceptance. The Pharisee thinks acceptance
is based on who he is, what he does and does not do. But the
publican, he's so convinced that what he is by nature and practice
is so abhorrent to God, so wrath and hell deserving, that in the
original, the regular word for mercy is not used here. When
he prays, the Lord Jesus has him praying, God be merciful. It's not the ordinary word for
mercy, but it's the word in the family from which we get our
English word, propitious, propitiation, which is the turning away of
the wrath of God. the turning away of the wrath
of God by the sacrifice of an innocent victim. His prayer is
literally, God be propitious to me, the sinner. And when it says he would not
so much as lift up his eyes to heaven, could it be that his
eyes were fixed on the altar on which an innocent lamb was
being consumed by fire? Could it be that he saw in the
innocent lamb being consumed that marvelous foreshadowing
of what the Lord Jesus, the very one who paints the picture and
explains it to us, that one who would be the Lamb of God to take
away the sin of the world. But how much he saw that we do
not know, but from his prayer we know this. He's utterly convinced
that if God does not turn away his wrath from him, that wrath
will utterly consume him. Now I ask you, let's stand before
the portraits while they become mirrors again. and where do you
stand? What is your view of how a sinner
finds acceptance with God? Is it fundamentally a conviction
that what you are, what you do, and what you don't do, religious
or otherwise, is what will gain your acceptance with God. There
are multitudes of evangelicalism today. When you ask them, on
what basis are you going to heaven? They say, I trusted Christ. I
made my decision. They don't talk about Christ.
They talk about what they did and what they've done and what
they continue to do. And it's not just semantics,
folks. It's evident that there's no real trusting in Christ. for their only hope of life and
salvation. For the Bible says whenever there
is genuine faith in Christ, there will always be love to Christ.
Faith works by love, and love to Christ will produce a life
of meticulous obedience to Christ. There are multitudes who glibly
claim to be saved because they made some decision in connection
with Christ decades ago, whose lives show no pattern whatever.
of devotion to Christ. They're in the picture of the
Pharisee. It's what I've done. And since I made my decision,
I don't do this. I don't do that. I do this. I
do the other. Whereas the disposition of the
Pharisee is not something that a man has only in his initial
the public and I'm sorry, the disposition of the public and
the tax collector is not something a man has only in his initial
reaching out for mercy. He knows that at his most mature
point as a Christian, there's enough sin in his most holy deeds
to damn him a thousand times over. He knows that in and of
themselves, His prayers, His devotional life, His praises,
His worship, His witness, no matter what He does, is so tainted
with sin, that if God were to use that as the basis of whether
to accept or reject Him, He'd be damned for His devotions.
He'd be damned for His worship. He'd be damned for His prayers. The disposition of the publican
becomes the abiding disposition of every true Christian. His
conviction about his acceptance with God from the beginning to
the end is that it's God being propitious on the basis of who
Christ is and what Christ is doing. Christ at the beginning,
Christ in the middle, and Christ at the end. In the language of
Philippians 3, Paul says that I may be found in Christ, not
having a righteousness of my own, which is of the law, but
that which is through the faith of Christ. But then notice this
fourth and final area in which they differ. They not only differ
radically in their conception of God, in their perception of
self, in their conviction about the way of acceptance, they differ
radically in their true position before God. They differ radically
in their true position before God. Look at verse 14. Jesus
tells us their true position concerning these two men. What does he say? Verse 14. of
Luke chapter 18, I say unto you, this man, the tax collector,
went down to his house justified rather than the other. Let's take portrait number one. He has stood, he's prayed his
prayer. He's reflected his conception
of God, his perception of himself, his conviction about the way
of acceptance with God. Jesus said he went down to his
house in exactly the same state in which he went up to the temple,
condemned, doomed under the wrath and curse of God, still in Adam,
a sinner with no hope of mercy as long as he abides in the self-delusion. of thinking his brownie points
will fix him up. But the publican, Jesus said,
he went down to his house justified. That is, all his sins were pardoned. He was declared righteous in
the sight of God. He was credited with a perfect
record, even the record of the Son of God, of whom the Father
said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well He had put
to his account the same righteousness that was reckoned unto Abraham,
that was reckoned unto Phinehas, that was reckoned unto every
Old Testament saint. As the Lord Jesus is described
as the land slain from the foundation of the world, God credits to
this tax collector. The full virtue of the perfect
life of the Son of God, the death, that in a short while he would
die upon the cross. What was his true position before
God? He was a sinner who in the court
of heaven stood just as if he'd never sinned. And as we've looked at the portraits
of them, now we look at the mirror. What is your true position before
God? one or the other. You go down
from this building the same way you came into it, and perhaps
the same way you've come into it weeks, months, years, and
you go down from it to your house under wrath and under judgment
and under condemnation in spite of all the prayers you've prayed
and the brownie points you think you've built up Because you've
never taken the posture of a hell-deserving, helpless sinner who throws himself
wholly and solely upon the mercy of God in Christ, you'll continue
to go down to your house, not with more brownie points before
God, but more weight of judgment upon your Would to God that today
you'd go down to your house justified, justified. Why? Because by God's
grace you no longer think of God like a heathen deity who's
so restricted and trivial that throwing a few little brownie
points in front of him can earn his favor. You no longer hold
on to that self-flattering view of yourself But you take the
indictment of the Word of God about the reality and depth of
your sinnerhood. And you no longer think the way
of acceptance is in you, but it's in another. And when you
go out of yourself and into Christ by faith, you too will go down
to your house justified. Now we've looked at the areas
in which the two were the same. The four areas in which they
were radically different Just a moment in closing, consider
thirdly the fundamental lesson from the Portrait Gallery. As
the Lord Jesus has taken us before the portraits which become mirrors
and is about to lead us out, he wants to clinch the basic
lesson of our visit to the Portrait Gallery. Look at the words in
the last half of verse 14. For every one that exalts himself
shall be humbled. but he that humbles himself shall
be exalted. Every one that exalts himself
shall be humbled. That's what our Lord has said
concerning portrait number one. This man exalted himself, bragged
about what he was and what he was not and what he did and the
scripture says every such person will be humbled. The day is coming
when such men will stand before Almighty God. All their brownie
points will be burned up, and they'll stand in the naked shame
of no covering, and all the vile ugliness of their sinnerhood
in Adam and their sinnerhood by practice and nature will be
seen in all of its wretched nakedness, and they'll be humbled, bent
low, when they hear the words, depart from me ye cursed. But
look, every one that humbles himself, that's what the publican
did. The tax collector humbled himself. And what was humbling himself?
Taking some posture lower than reality? No! It was coming down
off the self-delusion of inflated views of himself and embracing
reality. And he was exalted. How? With
an immediate pardon of all his sin, with immediate acceptance
before God and the Beloved. in the last day will be exalted
when he is owned by the Son of God as one of his and hears the
words come ye blessed into the kingdom prepared for you from
the foundation of the world. We've gone to the portrait gallery
with the portraits that become mirrors. Which is your portrait? May God grant
that each of us will give himself no rest till he can say, O God
by grace, I'm in that second portrait. That's me. I go to
my house justified solely because of your mercy and your grace
in the crucified and in the risen and in the living Savior. Let
us pray. Our Father, we pray that you
would take the attempt to open up this very basic portion of
your Word, and may it prove to be effectual in the heart and
mind of every man, woman, boy, or girl in this place, that none
of us shall be deceived about you and about ourselves and about
the way of acceptance and about our true standing before you.
May we humble ourselves, taking the posture of the tax collector,
going out of ourselves and looking solely to you for pardoning grace
and mercy. Seal then your word to the prophet
of our souls and to the salvation of some who sit here this morning.
We ask in Jesus name.