Abased Or Exhalted

Q: What does the Bible say about justification?

The Bible teaches that justification is by faith alone, not by works, as seen in the parable of the Pharisee and the publican in Luke 18:9-14. Justification, according to the Bible, is a legal declaration by God that a sinner is righteous on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ. This principle is illustrated perfectly in Luke 18:9-14, where a Pharisee and a publican pray in the temple. The Pharisee's self-righteousness leads to his condemnation, while the publican's humble cry for mercy results in his justification. This parable emphasizes that despite our efforts, it is only through God's grace and the propitiatory work of Christ that we can be justified before Him. True justification, therefore, is not based on our works but rather on faith in Christ alone, aligning with the Reformed doctrine of justification by faith.

Q: How do we know God's mercy is available to us?

God's mercy is available to us as He desires to reconcile with sinners who cry out for His grace, as seen in Luke 18:13. The availability of God's mercy is assured through His character and the redemptive work of Christ. In Luke 18:13, the publican's prayer, 'God be merciful to me, the sinner,' illustrates the heart that God responds to: one that recognizes its own sinfulness and need for grace. Throughout Scripture, particularly in passages such as John 6:44 and Jeremiah 31:3, we see that God actively calls His elect to Himself, drawing them in love and kindness. Thus, His mercy is not a distant concept but a present and tangible reality for all who genuinely seek Him. Similarly, His promise to respond to our cries underlines the certainty of His mercy extended to repentant hearts.

Q: Why is humility important for Christians?

Humility is crucial for Christians because it aligns us with God's perspective and enables us to seek His mercy, as shown in Luke 18:14. Humility is essential in the Christian faith because it reflects our understanding of God's holiness and our own sinfulness. In Luke 18:14, Jesus states, 'For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.' This turning point between the proud Pharisee and the humble publican illustrates that true understanding of our nature before God leads us to seek His mercy rather than boast in our own righteousness. It is this posture of humility that invites God's grace into our lives, enabling us to experience true transformation. Additionally, the Bible consistently warns against pride, which God opposes (Proverbs 6:16-19), indicating that humility is the means through which we draw closer to Him and receive His favor.

Q: How can we be justified before God?

We are justified before God through faith in Jesus Christ, not by our own works, as affirmed in Romans 5:1. Justification before God is a doctrinal cornerstone of Reformed theology, signifying that we are declared righteous solely through faith in Jesus Christ. Romans 5:1 clearly states, 'Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.' This verse aligns with the parable of the Pharisee and the publican, where the publican sought mercy for his sinfulness rather than relying on his own works. Our efficacy in being justified comes from Christ’s righteousness, not from any merit or effort on our part. By recognizing our inability to achieve righteousness apart from Christ, we can rely solely on Him for our justification, leading to peace and reconciliation with God.

If you would, turn with me to Luke 18. Luke 18. Luke 18, and I'm gonna start in verse nine. And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican.

The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I 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, the sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

We have here in this passage, we have two men cut from the same cloth, I'll say, so to speak. I did not say they were the same. I said they're both cut from the same cloth. Man as he is born in Adam is what? Turn over to Ecclesiastes 1 with me for a minute. And you all will recognize this if you don't already know it. Ecclesiastes 1, it's just after Proverbs. This is man. Ecclesiastes 1. The words of the preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What prophet hath a man of all his labor which he taketh under the sun?

One generation passeth away and another generation cometh. But the earth abideth forever. The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down and hasteth to his place where he arose. The wind goeth toward the south and turneth about unto the north. It whirls about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full. Unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again. All things are full of labor.

Man cannot utter it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. The thing that hath been is that which shall be, and that which is done is that which shall be done, and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there anything whereof it may be said, see, this is new. It hath been already of old time which was before us. There is no remembrance of former things, neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after. There's nothing new under the sun. Man as he is born in Adam is full of vanity. nothing. We all start out that way. And in this flesh, there still is nothing.

But maybe just maybe some of us have our minds changed, and we start thinking a little different than what we did before. We read this in the New Testament as well. What does Paul tell the Ephesians? He says in Ephesians 4, 17, this I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind. How or why do they do this? Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart. who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness. But for some of us, things change, just as it did with Ephesians, and so it was with the publican.

Ephesians 4.20, but ye have not so learned Christ. We do not walk after the vanity of our mind, which we still have in this flesh, as I said. But we do walk, and we read it last week. We walk after the Spirit. We must be guided by something that is not vanity, but full of life in Christ Jesus.

And I have one point, it may have several sub-points, but my one point is justified. And I'm starting at the last verse in our text, but Christ says this man went down to his house justified. Was he justified by what he did? By him beating on his chest and praying to God? We know that's not true. He was justified by what someone else did, and he in fact was crying for that, wasn't he? God be merciful to me, the sinner. He needed something he did not have. He needed to be propitiated.

And this word mercy that is used here has many different words, several different words that it, you know, it has for that meaning. They all mean the same thing. They don't mean different things, but it kind of gives, if you look at each of these words, it kind of gives an overall picture of what he was crying for. This man was asking for it all because he needed it all. And he knew it could only come from one place, to conciliate.

Stop your anger with me and stop my anger with you. Show me favor. Do you not ask this from God? I do. I don't want to be angry with God. And I have certainly shown that in the past. And I'm not talking about just the past, though. This flesh still raises its ugly head, and I do things to show in this flesh that it hates God. What else?

To atone for sin. Make amends for my sin, yes, but, I mean, make atonement for my sin, yes, but specifically my guilt against God. My sins are just the outward or the showing of my hatred and guilt before God. They are the outward act of what I am by nature, sin. I need him to atone for me.

What else? Be propitious. Perform an act that will cause favor toward God. My axe will not cut it. I need someone who can perform an act that will set me free from sin and guilt. What do I need? And this is what he says, mercy. I need from God a freeing what he has the power and the right to do. That is, he has the right to punish me forever because I've sinned against him. I deserve it. I don't deserve anything else but that. I've done everything to demerit myself. Or I would not need mercy, neither would this man.

This publican knew this as well, didn't he? Thank God there are some who feel and know just like this publican did. We need God to make reconciliation for us. We need the whole ball of wax, as the saying goes. We need conciliation, we need atonement, we need perpetuation, we need expiation. We need mercy, compassion from God. But by nature, we will do as this Pharisee did. By nature, we will pray with ourselves.

Christ said that such a one as this did not go down to his house justified. We are all cut from the same cloth. So I cannot raise my voice in high mindedness to someone such as this. I did not get myself out of this state. But this one, just as we all did in the past, thought this way here.

I need to do this or I don't need to do that. If I do the right thing, I will be justified before God. That's what this Pharisee thought. Do you think if he did this or that, that God would look down on him with favor? No. I have, I've thought that. I'm sure I still will in this flesh. This Pharisee went away and he had his reward. He wanted to feel good about himself, and that's what happened.

You all know what this is, because those who have been enlightened just like those Ephesians were, we know what drove us previously, the darkened mind which walked in pride, and God hates pride. Proverbs 6, 16 through 19, these six things doth the Lord hate, yea, seven are an abomination unto him, a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, and heart that devises wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and this one always gets me, and he that soweth discord among the brethren. We are all of these by nature. We all begin with pride.

That proud look, what does it do? It looks at myself and says, I thank you that I'm not as bad as this person over here. I'm not like these other folks. You want to see what I've done, God? That's what it's saying. You want to see what I've done? Just as Moose Park said, they bring their filthy, bloody, rag righteousness before God. and they or we at one time want him to thank us for those bloody rags. I fast twice in a week. I give up things at least a few times in a week, and I work hard at it, and I do, giving up things. That's what this man says. I give tithes of all that I possess. I give a small portion of my money, in other words.

God's not impressed with what we do. We've done nothing that would merit any favor from God, and we will never do anything that will merit His favor. He requires you to give all to Him, not just a tenth. He requires you to give up everything and worship only Him, not just twice a week. He created everything, so all the money in the world is His. What are you going to give to Him? Do you think God's going to become rich by you giving to him? And I'm not saying it's wrong to give. God is the creator of all things and he needs nothing from man.

We think by nature, we think we can do something righteous before Christ holy God. We are all just like everybody else. You all know the story, this story here, but we're all like everybody else. We were like everybody else anyway. But there was a woman that came to a preacher to talk about her son. And she said to the preacher, preacher, my son's hanging around the wrong crowd and things are going bad. And the preacher replied to the woman, Ma'am, I'm afraid your son is the bad crowd, the wrong crowd. But until God brings us to the place where we know we are not just like everyone else, but just as this publican did, he knew he was the wrong crowd. He knew himself to be the sinner.

What is it to be in a state such as this? This is a state of being humble. But more importantly, it is being humbled. As I said before, we're in no better shape than the Pharisee by nature. We ourselves were walking in pride at one time and still do that from time to time.

We had to be humbled and we have to be humbled. but I want God to even humble me now. I don't want to be humbled as this parable was speaking of. I don't want to be humbled when I meet God in judgment as the one spoken of here. I want him to humble me now. I want to go down to my house justified.

We've already read that God hates a proud look. God hates pride, and it says again in Proverbs, Proverbs 8, 13, the fear of the Lord is to hate evil Pride and arrogancy and the evil way and the froward mouth do I hate. And that's God talking. We by nature have a mountain of pride and we are arrogant when it comes to God.

We are arrogant and that is all of us. Our ways are evil and we have a mouth that speaks fraud just like this man. We think ourselves to be something. This man said, I'm not like other men are. We've said before here, and it's been said in other places, in our hearts, we are just as bad as Hitler was. You know and we know there are people who will say, I am not that bad. But we are that bad. We've just been restrained by God so that we do not show that hatred to God.

But what this Pharisee is saying is just as bad as what Hitler did and who Hitler was. He said, I'm not like other men. Extortioners, that is a greedy or a thief, take something that's not theirs. But saying this, he is thieving from God who says, we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. Someone might say, just saying something or thinking something is as bad as Hitler? Yes. God says he will not share his glory with another. He tells us there is none good, not one. What is it to not be good? It is to be evil. Then he says, I'm not like other men are, unjust. What is he saying here?

I am righteous. I don't need anything from you, God. I'm righteous by my own hands. And let me tell you what I can do for God. That's what he's saying. I can fast and I can give a little money. You ought to be thankful to me, God, for what I do for you. People actually think they do things acceptable to God. We are absolutely and totally unjust, and God says we are. To say something else is to call God a liar. I'm not like other men, adulterers. We, by nature, are a lover of everything else but God, and especially a lover of ourselves. There is nothing to love in ourselves. but yet we love ourselves. This world teaches us we ought to feel good about ourselves. No, we should not. There's nothing to feel good about in ourselves.

We've sinned against God and deserve eternal damnation and condemnation of God. And he says, or even as this publican, what is this publican? The sinner. So what is he saying? He's saying he is not the sinner. Oh, he may do like a lot of them do. We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God as a group. But he knew nothing of being the sinner. He does not feel himself to sin. I've heard people say this. Those who even believe Sovereign Grace, I've heard some of them say this, I don't sin. Liars. But this is the one thing they might be right about, though.

This Pharisee is not like this publican. We are cut from the same cloth, but we are not all the same. This Pharisee is full of pride and hatred to God, just like all of us are in this flesh. We do not look to God in and of ourselves. We have to be humbled.

And you all know it, Daniels 4, 37. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment, and those that walk in pride, he is able to abase. And as we've said here many times, he's able to abase whomsoever he's pleased to abase that he wants to humble. The question is, will he humble me? That's the question. I need abasement because by nature I will not abase myself.

If he does, he will hear the cry, the prayer of one of his. And we read in the text just before this, this parable about prayer. Let's look at that and go back up to verse 1. And let's read that, 1-2-8. And he spake a parable unto them. And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint, saying, There was in a city a judge which feared not God, neither regarded man. And there was a widow in that city. And she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while. But afterward he said within himself, though I fear not God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.

And the Lord said, hear what the unjust judge saith, and shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?"

What is it to cry unto God? To pray. Just as the two men did, the one prayed to himself, and that's what it says. He prayed to himself. The other prayed to God. God always hears his people. He will always answer his people's prayers. This world does not care. You can look to this world, pray to this world, if you will, ask them for something. And they will only do something if it will do something for them or benefit them. Either to get you to quit bothering them, as this text said, or if they get some kind of gain out of it. But God is long-suffering with his people. That's what it says.

God's people cry to him, and what does it say they do? They cry day and night all the time. Constantly we cry to God. We know we can do nothing of ourselves. We did not get to this point of begging God, of asking him to show mercy on us on our own, though.

How did we get to this point? Jeremiah 31, three, the Lord hath appeared of old unto me saying, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. I have drawn thee. If he does not draw us, we will never come to him. We will not know that we are the sinner. What do we read in John, John 6, 44? No man can come to me except the Father which has sent me, draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day. And that word there for draw, it means to drag, to drag.

That doesn't sound very nice, does it? But it does if you know he does this in loving kindness. If you know what you are and who he is, this dragging sounds delicious, like I like to say. I can eat up this dragging if he has brought me to see what I am and who he is, because I know I would never come to him on my own.

So I can cry out just as this publican did, God be merciful to me, the sinner. And you all know this man went down to his house justified, don't you? It's not a secret, Christ said he did. Now I know this is a parable, but what is Christ telling us? If you've been humbled by God to where you come crying to him, crying day and night for him to be merciful to you, the sinner, you will go down to your house justified, righteous.

And I want to be clear here, not by what you have done, because we can see if this publican thought he could do something, he would have not asked for mercy. If he thought he could do something, he wouldn't have asked for mercy. But if you cry out to him, he will show you mercy.

What is it that you'll see? The nails, feet, you'll see Christ on that cross, hanging on that cross. God will show you his dear son hanging on that tree. My justification does not come from what I do or have done, although I might do just as this publican did. But my justification came by what someone else did, and that being Jesus Christ the Lord. He did the work to justify me before God. And he shows that to me by drawing me. He shows me my works are worthless, but his works are righteous before God because he is God.

We pray day and night, don't we? We may pray for different things, and we do. We don't really even know what to pray for or how to pray for that which we are praying for. And I feel a lot of times that my prayers are full of pride. Because I know they are. But we do cry to him and he does hear us. He comes to us, he satisfies us. By what? He shows us his dear son. He sends us his spirit and what does that spirit do? The spirit tells us of the son. Scripture tells us, John 16, 13, how be it when he, the spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth, for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come.

I'm not justified by crying out to God, but rather I see from the hand of God that I have been justified. I go down to my house knowing I have been justified. He puts that balm of the gospel on me and covers me. I start to feel that healing that only comes from him. The true physician comes to me and he cleanses me of all my wounds and bruises and putrefying sores that I had from head to toe. He cleanses me. And you know what that does?

It makes me want to cry out to God even more. Be merciful to me, the sinner. May God keep me. God, keep drawing me. God is faithful to keep his own. But I know myself, there are others who we have thought would be here with us until they weren't. How am I any better than they? I am not in and of myself. The only place that is safe for me is in Christ Jesus. I cannot stand on my own.

May he keep me in this same place, this same place as the publican is, that we read right here. Be merciful to me, the sinner. I'm still the sinner and I need mercy still. Be merciful to me all the way to yourself until you bring me to yourself, where I will see him face to face. I need that, don't you? I want other people to know that. I want other people to know him. Just like that woman at the well did when she went back and told them, John 4, 29, come, see a man which told me all things that ever I did, is not this the Christ? As has been said here before, if you get above being a sinner, you've went too far.

All but for him, we would leave him in a minute, but he is faithful to show us mercy to us all. all that come unto him by Jesus Christ. He will have mercy on us because we are told he will keep us and he will protect us and he will take care of us. Maybe not like we want, but it will be right. It will be done in the right way because it's God doing it.

Dear Lord, clothe me with your righteousness and I am righteous. I am justified. Amen. Dear old God, thank you for showing us your Son, dear Lord. Forgive us of our sins. Help us to see the righteousness that is in your Son, dear Father. All these things we ask in Christ's name, amen.

Abased Or Exhalted

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about justification?

How do we know God's mercy is available to us?

Why is humility important for Christians?

How can we be justified before God?

Sermon Transcript

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Abased Or Exhalted

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about justification?

How do we know God's mercy is available to us?

Why is humility important for Christians?

How can we be justified before God?

Sermon Transcript

Comments

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