Let's open our Bibles together
to Isaiah 55. While you're turning there, a
few announcements. Ed Sparks is in the hospital,
has been for the last couple of days. He's been having some
issues with his stomach. They've been running tests and
they've yet to determine kind of a course of action. So want
to be mindful of him and the family in his prayers. Also,
Andrew Endicott's husband, his health's failing. He's been under
hospice care and last Frank heard they were trying to get him to
move to hospice possibly as early as today. And then Frank and
Janet, some of you had asked about Frank earlier. He is still
in a lot of pain and waiting to be seen by a doctor, hoping
to get something scheduled soon to at least maybe get some physical
therapy started. I know he had a pretty rough
night last night. But I think equally painful,
and he is in a lot of pain. is the fact that he can't be
here for the worship service. I believe that may pain him as
much as the grief his back's given him. He longs to be here
with us, to worship together, and to preach, so let's keep
him and Janet in our prayers. And then I'm sure there's a lot
of others. I hate announcing folks because I know we always
miss someone. I know there's a lot of folks
just in a time of trouble and we don't even know about it.
If you have Isaiah 55, just two verses of Scripture. Seek ye
the Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is
near. Let the wicked forsake his way
and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return unto the Lord,
and He'll have mercy upon him. And to our God, for He will abundantly
pardon. All right. We're going to have
a special in song. Nearer, still nearer, close to
thy heart, Draw me, my Savior, so precious thou art. Fold me, oh, fold me close to
thy breast. Shelter me safe in that haven
of rest. Shelter me safe in that haven
of rest. Nothing I bring, not as an offering
to Jesus my King. Only my sinful, now contrite
heart Grant me the cleansing Thy blood doth impart. Grant me the cleansing Thy blood
doth impart. Lord to be Thine. Sin with its follies, I gladly
resign. All of its pleasures, hope and
its primes, Give me but Jesus, my Lord, crucified. Give me but Jesus, my Lord, crucified. Nearer, still nearer, while life
shall last. Still safe in glory my anchor
is cast Through endless ages ever to be Nearer, my Savior,
still nearer to Thee That sounds as good back there
as it did up here. Thank you. Thank you guys. So
good. Open your Bibles with me. To
Luke chapter 18. Our text will come from verse
10 of Luke. Before we begin, let's go to our Lord in prayer. Our God and Father in heaven,
we thank you for this opportunity once again to gather, together
as a family, the Lord's church, to read thy word, to hear these hymns, to hear a message
from thee. Lord, we pray you'd bless us
with your presence here this evening. Lord, for those of our
number who are in a time of difficulty, Lord, a time of sickness, we
pray you'd be with your people. Lord, we pray for Ed and Deb
and their family. Lord, pray for the doctors as
they tend to him. Pray for Andrea and her family.
Lord, we pray for our pastor, Janet. Lord, that you would comfort
him. Lord, that you would give him
some relief as you see fit. And Lord, return him to us to
again stand and preach your word. Lord, we thank you for your many
blessings. Lord, we're thankful to have
our brother Cecil back with us and pray that you'd continue
to be with him. Lord, for those of our number
Lord, we're in a time of trouble, so many that we do not know of.
Lord, we may not know, but you know all things. Comfort, strengthen,
and encourage your people. In all things, teach us to look
to thee and rest in thee. Again, we pray you'd bless us
here this evening. Bless us with your word. Lord, give us a message from
thee. Enable us to worship and praise
for Thou alone art worthy. Pray to continue with us in days
to come. Continue to lead us and guide us and direct us in
all things. But above all, teach us of our
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's in His name we pray and
give Thee thanks. Amen. Luke chapter 18, verse 10. Two men went up into the temple to pray. The one, a Pharisee, and the
other, a publican. Now, throughout the scriptures,
we often read of two men. Nathan used a story of two men
to reveal David's sin to him. You guys remember that? He said
there was a rich man and a poor man that lived in the same city. And he went on and told that,
and of course David got all upset until he realized Nathan was
talking about him. He said, David, thou art the
man. That's what I'd like for us to
do this evening. Just look at a few occasions here where two
men are found in the Scriptures and what these teach us, what
God's Word teaches us from these two men. Back in the book of
Genesis, we read of Cain and Abel. Let's turn there together
to Genesis chapter 4. Look beginning in verse 1 of
Genesis 4. Adam knew Eve, his wife, and
she conceived and bare Cain and said, I've gotten a man from
the Lord. And she again bare his brother Abel, and Abel was
a keeper of the sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And
in the process of time, it came to pass that Cain brought of
the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also
brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof,
and the Lord had respect unto Abel and unto his offering. But
unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect, and Cain
was very wrought, and his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto
Cain, Why art thou wrought? and why is thy countenance fallen?
If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou
doest not well, sin lieth at the door, and unto thee shall
be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.' And Cain talked
with Abel his brother, and it came to pass when they were in
the field that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and he slew
him. Cain brought the fruit of the
ground. He'd gone out, he'd plowed, he'd
planted, he'd watered, he'd cultivated, and then he brought those, no
doubt, no doubt much labor, much work went into that garden and
what he would bring. He brought the works of his hands. He brought the firstling of the
flock and the fat thereof. He brought an offering of faith,
an offering that pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ, a lamb, like
that Passover lamb, an innocent lamb, sacrificed for the guilty. And we read that He brought the
firstling of the flock. No doubt it was the best lamb. A lamb without spot and without
blemish. Again, a sacrifice that pointed
to the Lord Jesus Christ, our sinless Savior. He brought that
lamb and that lamb was slain. The Lord Jesus Christ, He was
slain. He had to be slain. The wages
of sin is death. There has to be payment for sin. Christ suffered and shed His
blood for His sheep. for his people. Abel brought
an offering confessing his sin and owning that he was worthy
of death. Our sin, my sin, it deserves
the wrath of God. But the Lord Jesus Christ died
as our substitute. He died in the room instead of
his people. And he did so to make satisfaction. before God's law. Abel brought a blood sacrifice. And look at those last few words
in Genesis 4, verse 4. The Lord had respect unto Abel
and to his offering. But unto Cain and his offering,
he had no respect. Abel's offering pointed to to
redemption, to redemption through a blood sacrifice. Amen. We read on in the Scriptures.
We read of Ishmael and Isaac. God told Abram in Genesis 15,
He said, Fear not, Abram, for I am thy exceeding great reward. God took Abram and He said, Look
now toward the heaven. You look at the stars. You try
and count them. If you can number them, so shall
thy seed be. We go out on a clear night and
look up to the skies. You can't even begin to number
those stars. He promised him. He said, that'll
be your seed. But you know, time went on, and
Abram's wife, Sarah, bore no children. And in time, Abraham
and Sarah knew no doubt, we don't know how long, but they obviously
grew impatient. Their faith wavered. They doubted. And I guess they thought, well,
maybe we should just help God out a little bit here. Isn't
that what we're prone to do by nature? Aren't we quick? Aren't
we quick to just not wait on the Lord. And Sarah said, take
my servant Hagar, and you have a child by her. And she bore
that son. She bore Ishmael. Ishmael, the
child of the flesh. But then in time, Sarah would
bear that promised son. She bore Isaac. Turn to Genesis
21. Look beginning with verse 1 of
Genesis 21. And the Lord visited Sarah, look
what that says there, as he had said. And the Lord did unto Sarah as
he had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bare
Abraham a son in his old age, look when it happened there,
at the set time, of which God had spoken to him. Abraham called
the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare
to him, Isaac. God fulfilled his promise. What he purposed to do, he did
it. What he promised to do, he did
it. As he said, as he spoken, and
he did it at the set time in which he said he would do it.
What God promised, He brought to pass. Paul, writing to the
Galatians, he said, we brethren, as Isaac, are the children of
promise. God's purpose to save a people.
God's promise to save a people. He'll do it when He's pleased
to do so. Two men, Jacob and Esau. Turn with me to Romans chapter
9. Romans 9, look at verse 9. For this is the word of promise. At this time will I come and
Sarah will have a son. And not only this, but when Rebecca
also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, for the
children being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might
stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said unto
her, the elder shall serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob
have I loved. Esau have I hated. What shall
we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I'll have
mercy on whom I'll have mercy and I'll have compassion on whom
I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but it's of God that showeth
mercy. Jacob have I loved. Esau have
I hated." Now men try to water that down. Men try to remove
the offense of that. They say things like this. They
say that that word hated, it just means loved less. But if
we look back at what it says in the scripture, it says, Jacob
have I loved, Esau have I hated. God loved Jacob. He didn't love Esau. God chose
Jacob. We don't read that He chose Esau. God blessed Jacob, but not Esau. God's mercy followed Jacob all
the days of his life, even to the end, but not Esau. Esau was left in his sin. Jacob
have I loved, Esau have I hated. And what's truly amazing about
that statement, probably the thing that we should really get
taken up with is not the fact that God hated Esau. That should be pretty easy for
us to understand. This is what's truly amazing
about this statement. Jacob have I loved. Supplanter. Thief. He deceived
his father. He stole his brother's birthright.
Earl, if Jacob comes to buy your Jeep tomorrow, I'd say hide the
keys and tell him you don't have the title, right? I mean, Jacob
was just a despicable man. But we read that God loved him. For the children not being being
not yet born, having done neither good nor evil, that the purpose
of God according to election might stand not of works, but
of him, him that calleth. Jacob was an object of God's
mercy before he was born, chosen before he had done any good or
evil, chosen according to the purpose of God, by God's mercy
and by his sovereign will. Jacob, like all of God's sheep,
chosen in Christ for the foundation of the world. Two men. We read of two men,
Cain and Abel. Here we learn of redemption through
a blood sacrifice. The scriptures declare without
the shedding of blood, there is no remission. Isaac and Ishmael. Here we see God's promise fulfilled. His purpose accomplished. Jacob
and Esau. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. God's election. He said, I'll
be gracious to whom I'll be gracious, and I'll show mercy to whom I'll
show mercy. Two men. Turn with me to Matthew
chapter 27. Look at verse 16. And they had a notable prisoner
called Barabbas. Now, Barabbas was an infamous
man. He was a man who had been committed
into prison. He was a thief. He was a robber. He was guilty of sedition. He'd
started an insurrection. He'd started an overthrow of
the government. And during that overthrow, he'd
murdered a man. Look at verse 17 of Matthew 27. Pilate said, therefore, when
the people were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will
you that I release unto you." Two men here. Two men. Barabbas or Jesus, which is called
the Christ. What do we read of the Lord Jesus
Christ? Call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people
from their sin. Call His name Emmanuel, God with
us. He's the Son of God. He's God
in human flesh. He's a man who was tempted in
all points, like we. One really big difference, yet
without sin. The sinless Savior. Jesus of
Nazareth, a man approved of God by miracles, wonders, and signs. Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. take away the sin of the world.
He healed the sick. He gave sight to the blind. He
raised the dead. He, of whom John the Baptist
said, there cometh one mightier than me, the latchet of whose
shoes I'm not worthy to stoop down and loosen. Jesus Christ, when He was with
His disciples, there in John 18, when Judas had betrayed Him,
Judas received a band of men to come after him, to take him
in. And these officers were sent from the chief priests and the
Pharisees, and they came with lanterns and torches and weapons
like they were going to take in a hardened criminal that had
been on the wanted list forever. That's how they came after our
Lord. And Jesus, knowing all things that would come upon Him,
He looked at them, And He said to them, Whom seek ye? And they
answered and they said, Jesus of Nazareth. And our Lord, He
said, I'm He. And He spoke in power. He spoke in such power that those
men fell back to the ground. And they asked Him again. He asked them, He said, Whom
seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth, and our Lord uttered
these words. He said, I've told you that I'm
He. If it's me that you seek, let these go. His disciples, He said, if you
seek me, let them go. Isn't that the same thing He
did on the cross when He hung there on the cross? Take me,
but let these, my people, let them go. Two men. Two men. And that's just a brief
description, isn't it? We could go through the Scriptures
and we could never exhaust them, speaking of our Lord. But two
men. Two men here. Barabbas, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Are you still in Matthew 27?
Look at verse 21. The governor answered and he
said unto them, weather of the twain, which of these two men
were you that I release unto you? It doesn't sound like they had
to think about it very long, does it? They said Barabbas.
They cried out Barabbas. Could anything speak more, I
want to say of man's depravity, could anything speak more Our
depravity? Could anything speak more of
our fallen nature? Man wants his free will. I think
we see it right there on display. Whom would you that I'd release
unto you? Rabbis? Criminals? Or the Lord Jesus Christ? In verse 22, Pilate said, What
shall I do then with Jesus, which is called the Christ? And they
all said unto him, Let him be crucified. And the governor said,
Why? In verse 23, What evil has he
done? But they cried out the more,
saying, Let him be crucified. All of them. That's what all
of them said. And they said, look at verse
25. Let His blood be upon us and upon our children. That's what all the people said.
And had we been there, we'd have been shouting just as loud as
any of them. Crucify. Give us Barabbas. What
shall I do with Jesus? Let Him be. to crucify and all
of them. That was the voice of all the
people. And listen, it was by the determinant counsel and foreknowledge
of God. But Peter said this, he said,
it was by that, but listen, it was by your wicked hands that
you, in your wicked hearts, that you crucified, you killed Him. All of you. All of us. Is it
any wonder that we read in God's Word, all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. The Scriptures declare that we
are all, all of us are going out of the way. They're together
become unprofitable. There's none that do it good.
No, not one. Romans 5.12, therefore, as by
one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so
death passed upon all men. for all have sinned." So what's my hope? What's our hope? Knowing something of our wickedness? And boy, we just see a glimpse
of it, don't we? Something of our sin? What's
my hope? Look at Matthew 27. Look at verse
38. Go over to verse 38. There were there two thieves,
two more men. Two thieves crucified with Him,
one on the right hand and the other on the left. The Lord Jesus
Christ hung on that cross between these two thieves. The Lord Jesus
Christ whom God the Father made to be sin. Why did He do it? That we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. He did it for His people. that
we might be made righteous in Him. And these two thieves, they
railed on Him. We read that in the Scriptures.
Both of them railed on Him. They said this. They said what
everybody else said, what all of them were saying. If thou
be the Christ, if thou be the Son of God, come down from the
cross. They said He saved others. Himself,
He cannot save. They said, He trusted in God,
let Him deliver him now, if you'll have Him. For He said, I'm the Son of God.
Two men, two men. Look at verse 44. How do we know
that they said that? Well, look at verse 44. The thieves
also which were crucified with Him cast the same in His teeth. Those two thieves, they said
the same thing. But my friends, something happened.
Something happened in the midst of all of this. Think about what's
going on. We see violence in our world
today, no comparison to what was happening when our Lord hung
on the cross. And in the middle of all that,
Almighty God, in sovereign mercy, was pleased to reach down He
grabbed one of his sheep. He plucked that brand out of
the fire. In Luke's account, it says that
while one of the male factors continued to rail on our Lord,
the other rebuked him. At some point in all this, something
happened. Something was revealed to that
man. There was a change. He said to
him, he said, don't you fear God, seeing that we're in the
same condemnation? We're sinners. We've been condemned
to die. And we indeed, justly. What's happening to us? We deserve
it. We got it coming. We earned it.
But this man, he's done nothing amiss. He now sees something
of his sin. He sees something of his unworthiness. The truth that God is just to
condemn him. He said, we indeed just, we deserve
this. We've got what's coming to us. And then he cries out
for mercy to the only one who's able to
give it. He sees something of Christ's
sovereignty and majesty. We can tell that in what he says.
He now calls him Lord. He says, Lord, Master, remember
me when you come into your kingdom. He has a kingdom. His majesty,
His greatness. He says, remember me when you
come into your kingdom. The Scriptures declare, whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. And this thief, something again, something's
been revealed to him of sin. Something's been revealed to
him of the glory and the majesty of our Lord. And he cries out
for mercy. And our Lord says to this thief,
to this sinner, He says, Verily I say unto you, truly. That's
a pretty, if you look that up, that word verily, that's a pretty
strong, it's a pretty strong word, but it means truly. Truly
I say unto you today. Today you will be with me in
paradise. You know, both of these thieves,
are going to die. There's no question about that.
It's appointed unto man, wants to die. After that, the judgment. One's going to die in his sins.
Two men. One's going to die in his sins. The other is going
to die in the Son. He's going to die in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Can you imagine when he closed
his eyes in death? I can't imagine the fear that
must have overcome him going to that cross, knowing this is
it. Somewhere in the midst of all
that, the Lord shows mercy to him. I have to think that last
breath he took, there had to be comfort. He had hope. The
Lord had told him. Isn't that good news? It's good
news for the man to whom the Lord shows mercy. It's good news,
blessed, Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute
sin, is sin put away. We sing that hymn, the dying
thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day. And there may I,
though vile as he, wash all my sin away. Turn with me to one
more scripture. Turn back to Luke 18. Look at verse 10, where we started. Two men went up into the temple
to pray. They went to the worship service.
So what we're doing here tonight, we've come to worship. We've
come into this house to worship Him. And the one was a Pharisee,
and the other one was a public. That Pharisee, their outward appearance was
great, wasn't it? Huh? He came there. seeking acceptance
with God on his good deeds, by his long prayers, his religious
activity, his giving, his pride and his self-righteousness, doing
these works to be seen of men. The Pharisee, he stood and he
prayed thus within himself. He said, God, I thank Thee. He
gave thanks. He stood in religious service.
God, I thank Thee. What did He thank him for? He
said that I'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers,
or even as this publican. That's all outward stuff. You've
given thanks for all these outward things. He said, I fast twice
a week. Two times a week I fast. I was
thinking about that. I bet everybody knew his fast
days. He probably didn't shave that
day, probably had a five o'clock shadow, messed his hair up a
little bit, made sure that everybody knew that he was doing some service
for the Lord. No doubt about it. He said, I
give tithes of everything I possess. Our Lord in Matthew 23 said,
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You pay tithes of
mint, anise, and cumin, but you've omitted the weightier things
of the law. Judgment, mercy, faith. These are the things, if you
want to be taken up with the law, these are the things you
need to be taken up with. It's all about that outward appearance. Look at Luke 18.13. Two men. Pharisee, publican. Now we read
about that publican. The publican standing afar off,
he wouldn't so much as lift his eyes unto heaven. But he smote
upon his breast. Right there where the source
of the problem is. The heart. The wickedness, this old, corrupt,
sinful, dead heart. We read, the heart is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked. Who could know it? And he cried in his in his humiliation
and in his shame and in his sin. God, he cried to God, God, be
merciful. God, be merciful to me, the sinner. God, he cried unto God, God,
against whom I've sinned. God, who looks on the heart,
God, in whom there is mercy and forgiveness. God who alone can
put away his sin in Christ. And he says this, be merciful,
be gracious, be propitious. It points to the mercy seat.
Mercy through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn to
Psalm 51 with me, real quick. Psalm 51. I believe his prayer sounds a
lot like David's here. David said in verse 1 of Psalm
51, Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness.
According to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out
my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine
iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgression,
and my sin is ever before me against thee, and thee only have
I sinned and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest
be justified when you speak and clear when you judge, pardoning
mercy through Christ. God, be merciful to me, the sinner. David said this in Psalm 25 11,
for thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity, for it
is great. Luke 18, 14. Our Lord, speaking
of two men, He says of this publican, this sinful publican, this publican
that cried out to God for mercy, the Lord Jesus Christ said this,
this man went down to his house justified. The scriptures declare
that publicans and sinners came to Him. Is it any wonder they
did? This publican went down to his house, justified, righteous,
righteous, declared righteous by the Son of God, our Lord. He ate with publicans and sinners.
That self-righteous man, that self-righteous Pharisee, he said,
I thank you that I'm not like this publican. Wouldn't you love to be like,
don't we desire to be like that publican? Two men, this publican,
this man went down to his house justified, righteous. Aren't we thankful that the Lord
Jesus Christ, you know, they said this not as a compliment,
but we can certainly take it, that he's a friend of publicans
and sinners. Jesus Christ came into the world
to save sinners. Two men, two men. Why did our Lord tell this parable?
He told it to those who thought they were righteous by what they
did. Aren't we thankful that He's pleased to save sinners?
Two men, one trusted in himself and the other took his place
as a sinner and cried out for mercy. Oh, that the Lord would
deliver us from self-righteousness and that He would cause us to
fall at His feet and beg for mercy. Let me read one more Scripture
to you here. Over in Isaiah 55, let the wicked
forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him
return to the Lord and he'll have mercy on him.
And to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. There's our rest. There's our hope. It's in him,
in all of him. May God be pleased to bless his
word.