verse 5, for there is one God. Now just stop right there for
a minute. First Timothy 2 and 5, for there is one God. Everybody in America, just about,
just about, will say amen to that, won't they? Everybody.
All your neighbors will say amen to that. Our loved ones, they'll
all say, Amen. Oh yeah, we believe there's one
God. Amen. Yes, we sure do. There's one
God. And for the majority of those
same people that will amen the fact of what we just read, that
there is one God for that same bunch, that same multitude, it
has no practical bearing at all on how they live. Is that not
a fact? I'm not making that up, am I?
Yes, they'll say, Amen, there is one God, but then they'll
continue to live as rebels against him. Rebels against him. It has
no bearing on how they live whatsoever. Now, there's something wrong.
There's something wrong with that picture. And even for the
believer, if that's all we read, if that's all there was, one
God, It would give us no comfort whatsoever. One God, the true
God, the holy Lord God, the just God, the God who said, and it's
still on the books, he hasn't changed his mind. He's not put
this away. He says, the soul that sinneth,
it must die. Now, unless he changes who he
is, That's still true. That's still true. He says, I
only know wise. There's no way anybody's getting
by. They're not going to slip through
the cracks. I only know wise cleared the
guilty. No way. Therefore, if that's
all we read, that there is one God, it would be the very opposite
of comfort. It should fill our hearts with
terror and alarm because I'm going shortly to that appointment
that this one God has made when I stand before him and he shall
judge me in absolute righteousness. Oh, but look at the connecting
link. For there is one God and one mediator. Oh, now there's
good news. Now, Billy, that presents a whole
different picture. That gives me hope. This Word
that connects the verse, God and man, is also a good demonstration
of what it teaches, that there's one mediator. He's that connecting
link between a holy God and sinful man. And there is one mediator
between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. You have a very
good illustration of that in Matthew chapter 17. You remember When our Lord took the inner
circle, as they were called, Peter and James and John, or
they have been called, he took them up to the Mount of Transfiguration. And while he prayed and they
snoozed, got drowsy, they suddenly woke up and looked and behold,
there's Jesus Christ as they've never seen him before. bright,
glistening. They got a glimpse of Christ
in his glory. Christ is not just man but also
God, the God-man. And he was talking to Moses and
Elijah. And you know what they talked
about? the greatest subject there ever could be talked about. They
talked about that which the Son of Man came into this world for. They talked about his decease,
his death, that he should make a stab at. No, no, no, no. Religion
talks that way. God's Word doesn't talk that
way. Never, never, not one time. It never speaks that way. It
speaks of what he should accomplish at Jerusalem. Well, my soul,
I would almost say common sense should tell us if he's God Almighty,
if Jesus Christ is the God-man in the flesh, he'll do whatever
he came to do. Whatever he came to do, he's
going to accomplish it. Why wouldn't he? Why wouldn't
he? Again, I say religion talks to
the contrary. They talk about a God who attempts,
a God who tries, a God who wants to, a God who depends upon the
will of man. Well, that's another creature.
That's not the God of the Bible. Find me one verse. Find me one
verse throughout beginning at Genesis 1 and 1 to Revelation
22 where it even hints that God Almighty doesn't do everything
He determined to do. Who's gonna stop Him? Who's gonna
stop Him? Well, Peter, James, and John
wake up and rub the sleep from their eyes. And Peter, like we've
all done on occasion, whether we want to admit it or not, stuck
his foot in his mouth. He didn't know what to say. He
was caught sleeping. And he said, well, this is what
we should do. Lord, this is what we should
do. We should make three tabernacles. We ought to erect three monuments. One for Moses, and one for Elijah,
and one for you. And then God Almighty spoke.
He said, you don't need three tabernacles. The Word of God
was made flesh and tabernacled among us. Jesus Christ is the
only one you need, Peter. And man, when they heard the
voice of God saying, This is my beloved Son, and who am I?
I am well pleased. Hear ye Him, they fell to the
earth. They were afraid. They were afraid. We read in verse 6 of Matthew
17, And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face.
and were sore afraid. My soul, God had spoken. God Almighty had spoken. And
here's the picture represented in our text, or rather the picture
represents our text. It illustrates our text in 1
Timothy 2 and 5. The one mediator between God
and man, verse 7, and Jesus came. He steps between the fearful
disciples and the Holy God, the mediator, steps between. And Jesus came and touched them
and said, Arise and be not afraid. Be not afraid. Verse 8, And when they had lifted
up their eyes, they saw no man. Note that they saw no man save
or accept Jesus only. There's one mediator between
God and man, and that's the man Christ Jesus. The title of my
message is this, Blessed Assurance. Jesus is mine. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. That's one, as you well know,
that's one of the many hymns that Fanny Crosby wrote. The
first verse says, blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste
of glory divine, heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of his
spirit, washed in his blood. Now let's look at our text here
in 1 Timothy 2 and 5. The first clause, once again,
I want you to pay attention to that. For there is one God. Is. Is. Present tense. Present tense. Always so. Always so. In Deuteronomy chapter
32, verse 40, God says, For I lift up my hand to heaven and say,
I live forever. I live forever. Psalm 90, the
Psalm of Moses. I think he probably penned it
while he was in the wilderness with those belly-aching multitude
of Jews. And he looked out upon all that
multitude that was under his care, and he said, God, you've
been our help in all generations. You've been our dwelling place
in all generations. In that Psalm, he talks about
the frailty of man, the brevity of man, my life's like a vapor. Appears for a little while and
then vanishes away and then Moses turns his eyes from himself as
being like everybody else, flesh just being grass. I was talking
to, I think, Lester the other day when we were together and
I said, Lester, we like to think we're pretty tough, pretty robust
and something so small that you can't even see can bite us and
just bring us down, can infect us and just bring us down. All
flesh is grass but Moses looks away from himself and he looks
to his God and he says before the mountains were brought forth
Wherever thou hast formed the earth and the world, listen to
this, from everlasting to everlasting thou art God. There is one God. My soul, I've thought about this so much
when I felt led to preach from it. There is one God. One God. My, if God would make sinners,
aware of that, it would stop them in their tracks. That's
absolutely right. Everything that seems so important
to them right now would appear as it really is, just bubbles. Remember those things you had
as a kid, had that little thing with the ring on it and soapy
bubbles, I forget what it was, but you dip it in and just, and
you, man they didn't make bubbles. Oh, look at that. Man, you no
sooner see it, oh, it's pretty pop, it's gone. That's what men
and women are chasing after, just bubbles. Just bubbles. There is one God, and very soon,
I'm going to stand before Him, and every one of you are going
to stand before Him. That one God, from everlasting,
He says, I had no beginning. Now, I'll tell you what. My little
pee-wee of a brain can't get much of a handle on that. Because
I deal with time. That clock on the wall. Everything's
regulated in my life by time. It's just short. It's brief.
But God says, I had no beginning. What about that? I mean, I can't
hardly get, I can't get a grip on that. God says, I had no beginning. I didn't have a starting place.
I've always been. In the beginning, Genesis 1 and
1, God. No explanation, no debate, no
argument. In the beginning, God. God was,
God always has been. And he'll have no end. That's another thing I can't
get a grip on. No beginning, no end. Not only has he been
God everlastingly, always been, but as Moses said in the text
there in Psalm 92, means from everlasting to everlasting thou
art God. It also means that thou art everlastingly
God. Not only that you've always been,
but you've always been God. God Almighty, God that changes
not, God over all, God always, God without an equal or without
a rival. I don't want to pitch tent here,
it would be easy to do, but I just get so tired of hearing people,
religious people, talk about the devil like he's God's rival,
that he's God's equal. Man, read your Bible. He's God's
devil. He's on God's leash. And every
place you read in scripture, example after example, he can't
do anything unless God grants him permission. He asked God,
may I touch Job? Will you allow me to touch Job?
I'll make him curse you to your face. Those demons that he cast
out of that poor man in Gadara. They said, well, if you come
to torment us before our time, we know who you are. Will you
allow us to go into those swine? Will you give us permission to
do that? No, the devil is not God's rival. He's under, like
everything else, he's under the dominion of Jesus Christ. In Psalm 14, We read this, verse
1. The fool has said in his heart,
there is no God. How about that? And you'll notice
there, if you look at it, you'll notice there in Psalm 14, verse
1, that the two words, there is, is in italics. That means
they weren't in the original. What this fool is really saying,
no God, no God. He may try to convince himself,
no God. And he hopes there's no God. He hopes that he just dies like
a dog and just lays in the grave, that no more than just a dead
animal, that there's no God for him to face, that there's no
judgment awaiting him. Oh, put that away from me. I
don't want to think about it. No God. And that's what men like. They would love it if there was
no God. They would love it if evolution were true. In spite
of all that they can think or say or invent to the contrary,
God declares, I am God and there's none beside me. I am God and
there is none else. If Satan can't convince a man
that there is no God, he will convince him of another lie.
Another lie. Yes, there is a God, but he's
not like you've heard. He's not like the God you've
heard. Is that not exactly what he did
to Eve? Eve said, God, the Lord God told
us not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil. And the devil said, now, are
you sure about that? Has God really said that? Maybe
you misunderstood God. Maybe you misunderstood God.
Maybe God really didn't mean that. Maybe there's a little
wiggle room in that commandment because God knows if you take
that fruit, if you eat it, you're going to be wise. You're going
to be like God. Another God. There is not a week
goes by. There is not a week goes by.
that I don't see an example of what God said in Psalm 50 verse
21. Psalm 50 verse 21. God speaking. If this doesn't
describe our generation to a T, these things has thou done and
I kept silence. You remember when the Lord said
to his disciples one time when they came to him and said, man,
you've upset the Pharisees. Man, the Pharisees, they didn't
like what you said. And they were concerned about
the safety of the master. Well, they didn't need to be
concerned about that. But the Lord said, leave them
alone. Wow. Leave them alone. Now, I may be wrong, but I think
to a large degree that's what God Almighty has said to this
generation. Leave them alone. Just leave
them alone. They want their apostasy? Let
them have it. They cry, no God? No God, it'll
be for them. Just leave them alone. Oh, my soul. You would be hard
pressed to find any more alarming words in the Bible. Leave them
alone. God, thank you that you didn't
say that concerning this rebel. Because if he left me alone,
if he leaves you alone, if he lets you have your way, because
if you don't know Christ, that's your attitude, like the fool.
There's no God. I don't want to think about God.
I don't want to hear about God. I hope there is no God. And if
God says concerning you, okay, so be it. Leave him or her alone. The psalmist said, or rather
God said in Psalm 51 and 21, thou thoughtest that I was altogether
such a one as thyself. Man, does that not describe this
generation? Isn't it amazing? Does it not
prove the blindness, the depravity, the darkness in the heart of
man? He thinks that God's whatever he wants him to be. I don't have
to prove that to you. You know it. Listen to how people
talk. Listen to them. I mean, however
they think God is, however they wish he was, they think, well,
he must be that way. It doesn't make any difference
how absurd, how insane, how stupid it is. They say, well, I think
God's like this. I think God's too good to send
anybody to hell. Has God said? What did the Lord
Jesus Christ say? Don't fear the devil. No. Fear God. Fear Him that's able
to cast soul and body into hell. Christ said, I tell you, you
better fear Him. You better fear the true and
living God. But this generation believes
God is just like them. He's just too good to send anybody
to hell. And He loves everybody. He loves
everybody. Some of you are probably shocked.
Wanting to hear me say, no, he doesn't. No, he doesn't. Oh,
I don't like that. I don't want to hear that. I
want to believe that God's at my back and call, that my salvation
is up to me, that I can live like the devil, live my life
just as a slap in the face of God, and when I get ready to
die, I'll say, Jesus saved me. I'm making my decision for you.
That's what you want to hear. God said, you think I'm like
you. I'm not like you. I'm not like
that. Brothers and sisters in Christ,
is there no lost people in the world anymore? Is everybody saved? I mean, modern day religion has
just about succeeded, if you can call it a success, by getting
a decision out of everybody. I mean, I'm at the place that
old Ralph Barnard said he had come to. You can't hardly find
a lost man. Everybody's saved. Everybody's
made a decision. Everybody's walked an aisle.
Everybody's had a religious experience. That's not the same thing as
knowing God Almighty. Oh, I want nothing to do with
God outside of Jesus Christ. No, I don't. Outside of Christ,
God is and can only be a consuming fire. Unless we behold God in
and through Christ, the only meteor, and I'm going to get
to that, except in Him, unless we fasten our eyes upon Christ,
we can't know a reconciled God. We can't have peace with God
any other way. If Christ doesn't bear my guilt
and reconcile me to God, I'm going to perish forever. There
is a brief article in your bulletin by Horatius Boner entitled, Human
Religion. This was written many, many years
ago, but man, it sounds like he's looking out on our day,
doesn't it? Rather, he writes the article
from the text in Jude 11. Woe unto them, for they have
gone in the way of Cain. And Mr. Bonar wrote, Cain is
not an atheist, nor an altogether irreligious man. He acknowledges
a God and brings his fruits to the altar. Cain thought, well,
that's good enough. But he brings no lamb, like his
brother Abel did. He brings no lamb, no blood,
nothing that speaks of death. He comes with no confession,
no cry for mercy. Imagine that. Imagine that. Man, that is startling. Here
comes a sinner, supposedly, before the just and holy Lord God, and
this sinner came, and a multitude like him doesn't feel any need
of mercy. Ah, so he doesn't ask for anything. He has religion, but it's a self-made,
a human religion, something of his own, like Paul mentioned
in Philippians 3. Without Christ, without blood,
and therefore without pardon. The rejection of God's religion
and his Messiah, Boner went on to write, is the way of Cain.
Before any man can think, to stand before the face of God's
justice, to be admitted into the secret chamber of God's mercy,
to partake of the riches of his grace, he must look to that one
mediator between God and man. Oh my soul! Larry, you mean there
is one? You've talked about God without
Christ, but now you're saying there's a mediator between sinners
and God? There's one mediator between
God and man? Who is he? Where is he? How can I know him? How can I
know him? There is one mediator between
God and man, and that's the man Christ Jesus. Is anything more
important than that? This will determine This will
determine where I spend eternity, whether I know Christ or not.
Now, I need a mediator between me and God. I need a go-between. I need an advocate with the Father.
But I don't need a mediator between me and Jesus Christ. He says,
come to me. All ye laboring are heavy laden,
and I'll give you rest. He says, look unto me, and be
ye saved. Oh, come, come. All things are
ready. All things are prepared. Come
and dine. Come and dine. Come and find
that he delights. God Almighty delights to show
mercy to every sinner that looks at his son. He'll save them to
the uttermost. One mediator. Oh, but if I don't
know him, If I don't have Christ, I don't have God. I cannot claim
God as my father outside of Jesus Christ. If I don't have Christ,
I don't have any right to expect anything from God except everlasting
damnation. And that's just a fact. That's
what the book teaches. Everybody's not going to heaven.
Everyone who's outside of Jesus Christ are going to perish under
the wrath of God. Now you can shake your head,
you can try to stop up your ears, you can try to say, well, I just
don't see things that way, and try to convince yourself otherwise,
but there it stands. I received a phone call not long
ago. I may have told you about it.
And this lady, I think she said she lived in Childersburg. And
she wanted to know what we believed here at Grace Baptist Church.
She said she was looking for a church. She said, what do you
believe? And I told her briefly and hung
up. A few minutes later she called
back and she said, well, do you have a statement of faith? Do
you have a confession like the London Baptist Confession or
the Philadelphia Confession? And I said, no. No, we don't. She seemed disappointed. And
I said, our confession is much older than any of those. It's
the Bible. It's the Bible. It's a hundred
percent infallible. And it's more reliable than any
of those man-made documents. The Word of God. Hmm, she said. Haven't seen her. Haven't seen
her. I guess that wasn't enough. I've been asked one night as
I was going into Walmart. It was cold and there was these
two Two girls walking, two young ladies walking in about the time
I did. And they said, man, I thought
it was warming in Alabama. It's cold here just like it was
in Kentucky. And I said, oh, I'm from Kentucky
too. And we got to chatting. Well,
what are you doing here? I said, well, I'm a pastor. Told them about
the church here. And they said, once we got inside,
they said, well, is yours a full gospel church? Is it a full gospel
church? Now, I just didn't get off the
boat, so I know what they meant by that. They're asking, do you
have something in addition to the gospel? When they say full
gospel, they mean, is it full of man's merit? Full of man's
will? Full of man's worth? Full gospel
is a term that the Pentecostals and the Charismatics use. And
what they really wanted to know Can we come there, if we come
there, if we come to a service at your church, can we glory
in the flesh? Can we jabber in some so-called
unknown tongue? Can we get up and say, look at
me? And I'd say, no, you can't. No, you can't. Won't allow that.
Won't allow that. God Almighty forbids that. He
forbids that. God forbid that I should glory,
saving the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world
is crucified unto me and I unto the world. I've been asked, what
do you have for the young people down there at Fairmont Grace
Church? What do you have for my children? I was watching the
news just the other evening, a couple of days ago, and they
were interviewing this pastor. And before they signed off, they
asked him, you got any last words for your audience there? You
got a message for them? And this is just about a verbatim
quote. He said, oh yes, come to our
church. If you do, you'll enjoy yourself,
because we offer casual worship. That means if you're too sorry
to get up in the morning and clean yourself up, just come
like you are. It's all the same. Come in your
pajamas. It'll be okay. Casual worship. Casual dress. He said, and I
guarantee you, you'll be entertained. You'll find something you like.
You remember that, Robin? I said, you hear that? I said,
isn't that sad? Isn't that sad? Multitudes of
sinners are sitting in churches this morning, and they'll soon
stand before God Almighty, and they're being entertained on
the road to hell. That is sad. That is sad. And consequently, if the claims
of Christ are never brought before them, they'll never be able to
ask the question. They'll never consider the question.
It'll never dawn on them. while some clown is standing
up there entertaining them, it'll never be pressed upon them. They'll
never ask themselves. They'll live and die without
ever asking themselves, how can I be just with God? It'll never
enter into their thinking, Billy. It'll never dawn on them. That
question will never be put before them. Their preacher will just
entertain them, play games. Man, it is sad. It is sad. How can I be just with God? There is an answer. There's only
one answer. It's God's answer. Are you asking,
how can I be just with God? Is there a way that I can lie
down tonight and know, know that I've been reconciled to God Almighty? That he's not angry with me anymore. That all my sins are... Is there
some way I can have peace with that holy God before I leave
this world and stand before him? Yes, there is. The mediator. Between God and man. The man
Christ Jesus. Mediator. It means one that interposes
between two parties that are at variance with one another.
That have an argument with one another. A mediator comes in
and he brings them together. He settles
the argument between them. He reconciles those two parties. Jesus Christ is God's mediator. The man Christ Jesus. Because
He was flesh of our flesh and bone of our bones. He was made
like His brethren. Therefore, He can mediate for
man. He was man. Oh, but He's more
than that. He's also God Almighty. Who He
is gives merit and worth to what He did. God made Him to be sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. He mediates between
a holy God and a guilty rebel. And by that mediation, He brings
them together and they kiss one another. They're at peace forever
because of Jesus Christ, the advocate we have with the Father.
His blood has washed our sinful souls spotless. Man, how about
that? How about that? His soul has
washed our sinful souls spotless. His suffering has put away all
our transgressions. His death has disarmed God's
holy law. God's law has nothing against
us now. It's been satisfied in our mediator. Have you ever heard any better
news in all your life? The one party, God, the offended
party, and man, the offending party, has been reconciled by
that God who demands perfect satisfaction, and he receives
it in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
one mediator between God and man. He's like Jacob's ladder. You remember? Jacob laid down
the dream, and in his dream he saw a ladder, and it reached
from earth to heaven. That's Jesus Christ. That's the
mediator between earth and heaven. He said, I'm the way. You can't
come to God any other way. There's not a Baptist way and
a Catholic way. You can't come by St. Peter or
St. Paul, and Mary sure is not the
mediator. There's only one mediator, and
his name is the Lord Jesus Christ. One hymn writer put it like this,
and I think this is very good. Listen to it. He said, "'Til God in human flesh
I see, my thoughts no comfort find. The holy just and sacred
three are terrors to my mind. But if Emmanuel's face appear,
my hope, my joy begins. His name forbids my slavish fear. His grace removes my sins.'"
That's exactly what we read in Scripture. 2 Corinthians 5, verse
18. And all things are of God, who
hath reconciled us, not everybody, believers, who hath reconciled
us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry
of reconciliation, to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling
the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them. World. Jew, Gentile, a world of lost
sinners, and have committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God did
beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled
to God. For God hath made him to be sin
for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. The same thought is in Ephesians
chapter 2, verse 13. But now, Child of God, fellow pilgrim,
does your now find you right now with a broken heart? Does your now find you after
going through a sleepless night? Does your now find you perplexed
and wondering what you're going to do? That doesn't affect this
now. Now in Christ Jesus, you who
sometimes were far off are made nigh, are made nigh right now
by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace who had broken
down both, who had made both one rather, Jew and Gentile,
and had broken down the middle wall of partition between us.
Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law, of
commandments contained in ordinances, for to making himself obtain
one new man, so making peace. Colossians chapter 1, in the
body of his flesh have he reconciled through death to present you
holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. Did I read that
right? That sounds almost too good to
be true. You mean through the Lord Jesus Christ reconciling
me to God? On the grounds of satisfied justice,
He will present me holy, unblameable, and unreprovable in God's sight? Wow! What a Savior! Mr. Fortner, while I was studying,
I ran across this. He writes so many God honoring hymns, but this
one just fell right in line with the message. It's called Christ
my Mediator Stands. He says, Christ my Mediator Stands
between my soul and God. Upon us both he lays his hands
presenting precious blood. He took salvation's work in hand
before he made the Son. My surety, both God and man,
the work is his alone. He is the daysman God approves,
by whom he's satisfied, the kinsman ransomed, sinners loved, Christ
Jesus crucified. God trusts his glory in his hands,
and there I trust my soul. The surety for both he stands,
for God and for my soul. Oh, when I think about that,
when God enables me to Get just a glimpse of that. Then I can
understand the words such as these in Revelation chapter 14. And I heard a voice from heaven
saying unto me, write, blessed are the dead. Wow, look what
grace has done. Blessed are the dead which die
in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit, for they
may rest from their labors, and their works do follow them. Blessed
are the dead, not everyone, blessed are the dead which die in the
Lord. You remember our Lord illustrated
this so many times. In Luke 16, the rich man and
Lazarus, there was a certain rich man which was clothed with
purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. And there
was a certain beggar named Lazarus which was laid at his gate full
of sores and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from
the rich man's table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked
his sores. But you know who the rich man
was. I hope you know by experience. The rich man was Lazarus. The
rich man was Lazarus, Billy, because he was rich in the grace
of God. He was rich because he had Jesus
Christ as his mediator. Having Christ, Lazarus had no
reason whatsoever to fear death and to stand before God. He was
rich because he was clothed. Oh, outwardly it just rags, just
rags. Oh, but if you could see him
through the eyes of God Almighty, you'd see him clothed in the
perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And all the
money that the rich man had couldn't buy that. Couldn't buy that. Lazarus could say, dressed in
Christ's righteousness alone, I am faultless to stand before
the throne. And when they both died, like
I'm going to die and you're going to die, the rich man lifted up
his eyes in hell forever, forever. But Lazarus was carried by the
angels, carried by the angels. to be in the presence of that
one who loved him, Jesus Christ as mediator, and so be with the
Lord forever. The rich man cried, oh, allow
him to come and just dip his finger in water and bring it
to me. And the angel Abraham said, no,
no, can't do it. Between you and Lazarus, there's
a great goal fixed. He can't come to you. and you
can't come to him. If Christ is not your mediator
in life, he's not going to be by some magic mumbo-jumbo in
death. The great gulf will be fixed
eternally. One more example and I'll come
to a close. Our Lord talked about two men who went up to the temple
to pray. Do you remember that? And that
Pharisee stands and prays and he doesn't mind you looking at
him. Because all his religion is for show. He wants you to
look. He stands there and says, I thank
you God, I'm not like other men. He doesn't mind if you stare.
And listen to his prayer. Listen to his prayer. He never
asks for mercy. He doesn't need mercy. He doesn't
ask for Christ as his mediator. He doesn't need one. He doesn't
need the righteousness of Christ. He's got his own. Soon he'll
die. And like the leaves on the trees
in wintertime, all of his righteousness is going to blow away. Blow away. Oh, but then there was another.
Another man went up to the temple to pray. A publican. And unlike the Pharisee, he doesn't
want to be stared at. He would rather go unnoticed.
Because he knows what everybody thinks of him. He's despised.
He's a tax collector. Nobody likes him. But you know
what? He despised himself. He's got
nothing to brag about like the Pharisee. He feels so low, so
despised in his own eyes, that he won't even lift his head up
toward heaven. Won't even look in the direction
of God. And all he does is pray seven words. Seven words. God be merciful to me, the sinner. God be merciful. You know what
he said? God be propitious to me through
the sacrifice. God, I need a mediator. And the Lord Jesus Christ said,
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." I
heard a story about Rolf Barnard. There's a lot of stories about
Rolf Barnard, but some of you know him. I understand he could
be kind of rough at times, but just told the truth. But this
story says he was in a meeting preached the gospel and after
he finished preaching, two young men got up and came up to the
front before he could even get down out of the pulpit. And Rolfe
looked down at him and said, what do you want? What do you
want? And one said, oh, I want to be saved. And Berner said, oh, go back
and sit down. And one said, well, okay, no
problem, went back and sat down. The other one just stood there
weeping, the tears just rolling down his cheek. Barney said,
what do you want? And he said, oh, Mr. Barney,
I want mercy. I want grace. I don't want to
leave this place until I find Jesus Christ as my Savior. And old Barney said, well, young
man, I think God might have something for you. one mediator between
God and man, and that's the man Christ Jesus. Paul said, I'm
persuaded. God helped me to be persuaded
to. I'm persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things
to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall
be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ
Jesus the Lord. Blessed are the dead which die
in the Lord. Someday the silver cord will
break, and I no more as now shall sing, but oh the joy when I shall
wake within the palace of the King, and I shall see him face
to face, and tell the story saved by grace, and I shall see him
face to face, and tell the story saved by grace. Blessed assurance. Jesus is mine. God bless you.