We sure are glad to have Brother
Marvin Stollinger, pastor of the Katie Baptist Church, and
his wife, Clinton, and his mother, Miss Stollinger, with us. Great
to see you guys. And I've really been looking
forward to hearing my dear, dear friend, Dave Edmondson, preach.
I've never heard him preach. So don't, don't. I'm going to
put some pressure on you. Don't look. But he is the pastor. I've known him for years, and
he took over for Jack Shanks in New Caney, Texas, the pastor
of the Sovereign Grace Church. Very dear, dear friend of mine.
I just love this fellow, and I'm looking forward to hearing
him preach. So you come on and preach the
gospel to us. It's a pleasure to be here with
you tonight. I was thinking this afternoon while I was driving
here from Danville about the first time I met Brother Todd.
I've known your pastor ever since. I had a mullet haircut. 1986. My wife and I, and at that time
two children, in the providence of God Almighty, moved to Franklin,
Tennessee. I thought at that time that it
was for a job, but I know now that in the divine providence
of God Almighty, that it was God's appointed time to cross
my path with the gospel. That was the same time I met
Brother Marvin. Providentially, God sent me to
the church that he was at, and that's been a wonderful friendship
for many years too, brother. And we're a little grayer now,
a little older, but we're still trusting in the same God. We hadn't been there, I guess,
two weeks. And the pastor there announced
that they were going to have a sovereign grace Bible conference. I didn't know what a Bible conference
was, much less a sovereign grace one. But God in his mercy and
in his grace, since 16, at that time, and I'm sorry to say some
of those aren't even preaching the gospel. But there were choice,
man. He sent one in particular from
Lexington, Kentucky. And I heard the gospel that week. I heard the gospel from your
pastor. And people ask me, a lot of people, they can tell you
the hour and the minute that they were saved. I can't. But
I know that that week in 1986, I heard the truth about God Almighty
for the first time. And I am so thankful for he and
the other men that preached the gospel to me at that time. So, if you would turn with me
to the gospel of Luke, chapter 18. And here we have the parable
of the righteous Pharisee and the publican. I've read this
passage of scripture many times and I've used it in way of example
in many sermons to show the self-righteousness of men by nature. And I've also
used it in example of the publican who God had humbled by his grace
and his humility in many messages to show the attitude of a believer,
saved sinner. We're all sinners. There's two
kinds of sinners. There's safe sinners and lost
sinners. After God showed him grace. And
with all that said, I must confess to you that I never really noticed
to whom this parable was spoken. Look at verse 9 with me. It says,
it tells us plainly who he spoke it to. And he spake this parable
unto certain. I love that word used in Scripture. There was a certain man at the
pool of Bethesda. There was a multitude of sick
folk there. But Christ set his eyes on a
certain man. There are certain men and women
all throughout Scripture that God brings attention to. And
that week you came. I was a certain man, certain
men and women. He says, under certain which,
what? Trusted in themselves. There
was a reason the Lord spoke this parable. There were those here
this day that trusted in themselves, and notice the next group of
words, that they were righteous and despised others. Verse 10,
two men, this is the parable, two men went up to 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'm 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 a sinner."
Oh, I can identify with that man. And yet, I would have went
on being a Pharisee if God hadn't intervened. I had eyes, but I
couldn't see. I had ears, but I couldn't hear.
I had a heart that beat it, but it didn't understand. And God
didn't have to save me. He could have passed me by and
still been God, still been holy, still been just. But he had mercy
on me. a sinner. Aren't you glad that
God shows mercy to sinners? Amen. Amen. So as I've already
introduced to you, this parable that Christ spoke was spoken
for certain men and women who trusted in themselves that they
were righteous and despised others. My first point is it was spoken
to those who trusted in themselves. I know a little about that. Most
of my life, I trusted in myself. I thought I was a self-made man.
I thought I had picked myself up by my bootstraps. And I knew that I wasn't perfect,
but my story was, well, I'm as good as the next fellow. The
truth of the matter is that I was as bad as the next fellow. There's
none that doeth good, no not one. There's none that seeketh
after God. They've all gone astray. They
all sought their own way. That was me. That was me. And it's where we all are by
nature. The Pharisee stood and noticed those words he spoke
or he prayed thus with himself. I thought that was pretty interesting.
He wasn't praying to God. He was praying to himself. He
wasn't praying for God to hear. He was praying for himself and
those around him to hear, especially that publican. He wasn't thanking God for his
mercy and his grace and his love. He was thanking God that he'd
made himself to differ. Why do we come boldly into the
throne of grace? Well, to find mercy, to find
help in time of need. We come boldly only in our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ. He's given us access to the throne
of grace. A child of God, I tell you this,
he won't go into the throne of grace bragging or trusting in
his own righteousness. No. He has none. There's none
righteous. No, not one. Not a one. Our righteousness is as filthy
rags. A believer doesn't thank God
that he's not like other men. The Pharisee prayed, I thank thee
that I'm not as other men, extortioners, unjust and adulterers, or even
as this publican. The truth of the matter is he
was worse. Because he was trusting in his own righteousness. You know men by nature, fallen
man, when it all comes right down to it, he wants to be his
own God. He does. They want to trust in themselves. And they'll try their whole life
to trust in themselves. And the sad part is that if God
Almighty doesn't sovereignly intervene, he'll go right on to hell trusting
in himself. Trusting in himself. Now our father Adam, he disobeyed
God when he desired to be his own God. And that's what he did.
I believe that. He desired to have knowledge
of good and evil instead of just trusting God to provide him with
the good things that he was already providing him all the days of
his life. He knew already only good things. That's all there was at the time
before the fall. God told Adam, he said, of all
the trees in the garden, you can eat freely. Freely eat. They were all good. It was all
good. God made them for Adam to provide
and provide for him. He was to partake and enjoy in
a sustained life in him. What sustains us as believers? Spiritual food. That's why you're
here tonight. You need to hear a word from
God. You need to look into His Word, which is our food, spiritual
food. And it's good. Christ is the
Word. Christ is what sustains us, and
we must have God's Word. Adam didn't have to work for
this food. The fruit of those trees were
free. And our salvation by the sovereign grace of God in Christ,
life-sustaining, is free. Free. Paul said in Romans 3,
being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. Did you hear that? In Christ
Jesus. He said in Romans 8 that God
spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, all those
that he chose before the foundation of the world. How shall he not with him also
freely, freely give us all things? Paul wrote to the Corinthians
in 1 Corinthians 2, and he said, now we have received not the
spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that
we might know the things that are freely given to us of God,
freely. You can't buy it, you can't earn
it, and you sure don't deserve it. I'm so glad it's free, aren't
you, Marvin? I am so glad that it's free.
But it wasn't free to God, was it? He gave His own Son that
we might freely partake of Him. Revelation 22 says, and the Spirit
and the bride say, come. And let him that heareth say,
Come, and let him that is athirst come, come, come to Christ, come
to Christ. And whosoever will, let him take
the water of life freely, freely. Partake of Christ, eat and drink
freely, and you'll have life. Does that sound like good news
to you? It sure does to me. Turn back with me to Genesis
chapter 2, if you would. Genesis chapter 2, verse 16. And the Lord God commanded the
man Adam saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely
eat. But of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day
that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. And Adam ate
of the forbidden fruit. And he died, as God said, he
died spiritually for disobeying the one easy law that God had
given him. Now I say one easy law because
everything Adam needed was provided for him. Everything he needed. God said,
restrain from this one little thing. Don't eat this. of all
these other trees you can eat of. Eat of them freely. Enjoy
them. And can you imagine how good
that fruit was? Man, that was God-made fruit. That was good
eating. And I say one easy law because,
you know, I thought about this. The very thing that God forbid
Adam was to his own demise. It was. He said, you'll surely die. This
one thing was the only thing that could harm him. I know a lot of you are parents.
And of course, we always tell our children when we discipline
them for doing things that will harm them. We don't want them
to be harmed. The very one thing that God told
Adam not to partake of was the only thing that would harm him. Oh, you're talking about the
love of God. Oh. And I'll paraphrase a little,
but God said, you eat that fruit and you'll die. You'll die. The one thing, dear friends,
that can keep you from eternal life is unbelief. God says, This is my beloved
Son, in whom I'm well pleased. Hear ye Him. Trust in Him. Believe on Him. And whether we realize it or
not, dear friends, when we ignore and disobey God, what we're saying
is, I'm my own God. and I'll do what I want to. Every man and woman since Adam
fell has had a perverted nature and a knowledge to trust in themselves. Easy thing to do when you don't
know God. Now look over at chapter 3 in
Genesis. Now the serpent was more subtle
than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea,
hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the
trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in
the midst of the garden, God hath said." Did you hear that? God has said. You shall not eat
of it. You shall not eat of that one. And the woman said to the serpent,
we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but the
fruit which is in the midst of the garden, God said, not eat. Neither shall you touch it, lest
you die. And verse four, and the serpent
said unto the woman, you shall not surely die. For God doth
know in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened,
and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." That got their
attention. Fallen humanity trust in themselves,
and they do desire to be their own god, because Adam's desire
is now their desire. In his state before sin, Adam
knew only what was good. Now he knew only evil. And every son and daughter of
Adam since is born into the world with the same fallen nature. Before our sovereign God drew
us by his mercy and grace, I desired to be my own God. I did. Going to do what I want
to do. I'm going to do it when I want
to do it, and I'm going to do it how I want to do it. And that's why fallen and sinful
men still today, dear friends, make God out to be a weak, helpless,
pathetic, and frustrated, and what I call a little g-God. Little
g-God. Their opinion of God is so low
because they want to make themselves the ones in control. They don't
want to deal with a sovereign and mighty God. They want to
be able to control, manipulate, and do things their way. They think that salvation is
by their works, that salvation is by their decision, and they're
the ones who in their own minds made the difference. Paul said,
who maketh thee to differ? Who maketh thee to differ? Why, everything you have is a
gift. And if God gave it to you, how
do you glory in it? It was a gift given of God. Well, our text said that certain
men and women who trusted in themselves, that they were righteous. Now this thing comes down to
righteousness. My standing before God Almighty.
Those who trust in themselves believe that they're righteous
in themselves. We've already established the
fact that there's none righteous, not a single person born of woman. This righteousness in themselves
is called self-righteousness. And that's exactly what that
old Pharisee's problem was. You remember what he said? He
continued in verse 9 of Luke 18, you don't have to turn back
there, but he continues in his brag fest, and he says, I fast
twice a week. I give tithes of all I possess. I, I, I, me, myself, and I. Self-righteous. But we are always an unclean
thing. And all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. And we do
fade as a leaf. And our iniquities, like the
wind, have taken us away. And this is why our Lord said
in Matthew 5, verse 20, He said, I'm going to tell you something
now. Listen to me. He said, accept your righteousness
shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees."
This fellow here bragging. Let your righteousness exceed
that. You shall in no case, no case, enter into the kingdom
of heaven. Men trust in themselves. And
they think they are righteous in themselves. And this Pharisee
is a perfect example. Lord, hadn't we cast out devils
in your name? Hadn't we done all these wonderful
works? And he said, depart from me,
ye that do iniquity. I never knew you. I'm going to tell you something.
If God knows you, you're going to wind up with a perfect righteousness.
And it's not going to come from you. It's going to come from
another. It's going to come from another. One day in Mark chapter 2, the
scribes and the Pharisees saw our Lord eat Republicans and
sinners. And they said unto his disciples,
they said, how is it? Tell me, how is it that your
master eats and drinks with publicans
and sinners. They couldn't get over it. They
couldn't get over it. And when Jesus heard it, he said
unto them, they that are whole, they that are righteous in their
own mind, in their own sight, they that are righteous have
no need of a physician. Oh, those words just flash out
on the page to me, have no need. Have no need. But they that are sick. Now,
I tell you, I'm not one that likes to go to the doctor. But
when I'm sick, I go. I go. And I'm like, you can't
get me in to win. I'm sick. I've got a desperate
need here. And our Lord said, I came not
to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Sinners
to repentance. You know, when it comes right
down to it, religious men and women, men by nature, any that
have an interest in the righteousness of God In their own right, they've
got nothing but a fig leaf righteousness. That's what I titled this message,
Fig Leaf Righteousness. You're still with me in Genesis,
aren't you? Look at verse 6. And when the woman saw that the
tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes,
and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof,
and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he
did eat. And in verse 7, and the eyes
of them both were opened. That's what they wanted. They
wanted the knowledge of good and evil. They wanted to be their
own God. And notice what happened. And
they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together
and made themselves aprons. Self-righteous. Our first parents
had their eyes open as a serpent had said. But their innocence was gone.
Their right standing before God was gone. They had disobeyed
God. The one thing God told them not
to do, they did. My. They'd been naked since their
creation. Physically. But they had been
clothed with the goodness and righteousness of God Almighty. They'd always been covered with
the righteousness of God. They were perfect, sinless, and
righteous. They were created that way in the image of Christ. God said,
let us make man in our own image. Who was he talking to? His beloved
son. Let's make man in our own righteous,
perfectly righteous. They were perfect before their
fall. They had no conscience of their nakedness. And don't
miss the lesson here, dear friends. Now that they had sinned, they'd
lost their righteousness. They no longer stood perfectly
before God Almighty. They'd lost their right standing
with God. They'd lost their covering. And
they knew it. They knew it. Verse 7 says, their
eyes were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And you
know what? This is the same way God deals
with sinners. When God Almighty opens the sinner's
eyes, he sees that he has no covering. He has no covering. He sees his nakedness. He sees
his lack. of covering. He knows that he's
naked. He stands before God, open and
naked before a thrice holy God. He sees he's got no covering.
He's got no righteousness. He couldn't see until God opened
his eyes. He was covered with self-righteousness.
Fig leaves. He was covered with his own righteousness.
He was covered with old fig leaves. And that's why the scriptures
tell us that when God opened Adam and Eve's eyes, they saw
they were naked. Oh, I remember when the Lord
opened my eyes, and those men preached to me, holy God, holy
God. And I saw I was naked. I had
no covering. God showed me my sin. God showed
me my need. And I said, I must have a covering. And not just any old righteousness
is going to do. I need perfect righteousness. What am I going to do? What am
I going to do? And you know what they did? Immediately
they went about to establish their own righteousness. That's
what they did. They sewed fig leaves together
to cover their nakedness. For they, being ignorant of God's
righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. And that's still what fallen
man does. He sews fig leaves together to
cover himself. But those fig leaves, when you
cut them from the vine, they immediately begin to die. Not long ago, we were mowing
the grass at the church, and the parsonage had some of those
beautiful, I call them elephant ears, I don't know what the looked
like big ole elephant ears, and all they were just as green and
pretty and alive. And I can't see as good as I
used to, and I got that ole weed eater a little bit close. And I didn't know it at first,
but I cut the life away from it. Now, it still hung. I didn't
go all the way through it. And the next day, I walked out
there and I saw that it had turned brown. It began to die as soon
as I cut the life from it. Adam and Eve's fig leaf righteousness
was only a fatal covering because soon the fig leaves, they begin
to wither and they begin to die. And they would once again stand
without a covering. unless they did the same thing
again. That's no lasting covering, is it? That's no lasting righteousness. Men work and work and work and
work to be righteous and never to any avail. Just fig leaves. Just fig leaves. Well, I may
be jumping ahead a little bit, but that's OK, because I want
to show you this vital fact. Look down at verse 21 of Genesis
3. Unto Adam also, and to his wife,
did the Lord make coats of skins, coats of skins, and clothe them. There's the gospel right there. Coats of skins. And almost all
things, Paul said, are by the law purged with blood. And without shedding of blood,
there's no remission, no forgiveness, no righteousness, no right standing
with God Almighty. How did God make the coats of
skin? He had to shed blood. He had to shed blood. There had
to be a sacrifice. God killed that they may be covered. Our God is both just and justifier. and to save his elect, his sheep,
his people, and cover them in a perfect righteousness, he delivered
up his own precious son. Old men by wicked hands slayed
him, but it was by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God. God did it. Oh, God did it. God made Him, Christ, to be sin
for us. That His blood might be shed
to cover and to clothe us in holiness and righteousness. There's
the gospel, my dear friends. Christ's blood was shed for His
people. The third thing in our text,
it says that they trusted in themselves, that they were righteous,
and they despised others. That's who that parable was written
for. Certain men that trusted in themselves,
that they were righteous, and despised others. Now our first
indication of despising others is seen in verse 8 of Genesis
3. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden
in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from
the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. What was once sweet fellowship
with God Almighty, now they're hiding from Him. What used to
be pure joy and love for their Creator has now been reduced
to hide him, don't want to see him. I will not have this God rule
over me. There's now fear and shame. A despising of God, my friends,
is no longer to desire to be in his presence. Those that love
the Lord God desire to be in his presence, don't they? People
who love God want to be where God is. I don't have to bring a series
of messages on church attendance, not to believers. They want to
be where God meets with His people. They want to be where His Son
is exalted and high and lifted up. And the Lord, look at verse 9,
and the Lord God called unto Adam, and he said unto him, Where
art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice
in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid
myself. And God said, Who told thee thou
wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof
I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, The
woman whom thou gavest me gaveest to be with me. She gave me of
the tree, and I did eat. The woman whom he loved, loved
more than the God, his God, because he chose his relationship with
her over his relationship with God. You know, the whole time
that serpent was talking to her, he was right there. He heard
all of it. She turned around and gave it
to him. She was deceived. He sinned openly. He wanted to
be his own God. He wanted to trust in himself.
Trust in his own fig leaf righteousness. Oh, can you see the despising
of others after the fall? That's why Christ brought this
parable. Here were men and women who trusted
in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. Can you hear what Adam is saying?
Or can you hear what he's not saying? That would be a better
way to put it. What he's saying is, if you had not given me that
woman, I'd still be okay. I ate because she gave it to
me and you gave her to me. So really, this is your fault. See what the knowledge of good
and evil does for you. Oh, this is what made the fall
of man such a horrific and great fall. and threw all mankind into
the deadness of sin, dear friends. Man was perfect. All was good. But man wanted more. I want to
be my own God. I want to do things my way. I
don't want anybody to rule over me. I want to be top dog. And he not only wanted more,
He wanted more than God. And this shows us something of
the sinfulness of sin. And each and every one of us,
since this fall, have been born into this world with the same
problem. Well, it seems like everyone has someone
to blame, though. And that's why when God saves
sinners in Christ, he's going to make sure that they know their
sin. We must know our sin before we
ever see our need. Every sinner on earth seems to
have an excuse. There was once a certain man
who had a great supper, and he bade many. And he sent his servant
at suppertime to say to them that were bidden, come. All things are now ready. And the scripture says in Luke
14 that they all with one consent begin to make excuse. The first
one said, he said, I bought a piece of ground and I need to go and
check it out. What kind of nut buys a piece
of ground before he checks it out? That was a pitiful excuse. and another said I bought five
yoke oxen and I'm going to go prove what fool buys a team of
oxen without checking them out first pitiful excuse and another
said I've married a wife and therefore I cannot come bring
her that's a pitiful excuse the servant came and he showed
his lord these things and the master of the house was angry,
angry. Oh, my friends, if you don't
come to Christ, the Master is angry with you. And he said to his servant, he
said, you go out quickly into the streets and the lanes of
the city and you bring in the hither. You bring in the poor
and the maimed and the haught and the blind. That's me. That's me. Lame, poor, maimed,
haught, blind. Bring them to Christ. That's
what God's called you to do. That's what God's called you
to do. That's what God's called you to do. Bring them to Christ.
Show them the Lord Jesus. Lift Him high that all can see. There's perfect righteousness
in him. Perfect righteousness. And the
servant came back, and he said, it's done as thou hast commanded,
and yet there's still room. You know, I thought about that
while over in Danville this week. I have trouble sleeping when
I'm not at home. I don't know if any of you have that trouble. I have trouble sleeping when
I'm at home sometimes. I got up, of course, and it's
an hour later here than it is where I live. I woke up about
five my time, about four time here, and it was still dark.
And I walked outside, and I walked around, and I prayed a bit, and
I just meditated, thinking about the message that I had to bring
there. And after a while, The sun began to come up. And I don't
know what made me think this, but I did. I thought, there's
still room. The Lord's called the sun up
to come again. There's another message going
to be preached. There's another lamb, another sheep that God's
going to bring into the fold. There's still room. One of these
days when the last sheep comes into the fold, when the last
sinner comes home, dear friends, God's going to wrap all this
up. Ain't going to be any more sunrises. Ain't going to be any
more preaching. God's going to wrap it up. That's
the reason the sun's still coming up. He's got more sinners to
save. There's still room. There's still
room. The Lord said unto the servant,
you go out into the highways and the hedges and you compel
them to come in. That's what we're doing, we're
compelling men to come in. There's only one way to be reconciled
to God, the Lord Jesus Christ. He gave Himself for us. He did for us what we could not
do for ourselves. Come! Come, ye that are heavy
laden, I, I'll give you rest. I'll give you rest. But you won't
rest. You're not going to find it in
your righteousness. You're not. You're not going
to find it trusting in yourself. The Lord God of heaven and earth
and Christ His Son bids His servants, His preachers to bring in those
that are poor, maimed, hauled, and blind. And that's us. Come
to Christ. Come to Him. There's life in
Him. There's rest in Him. There's
peace and joy. Thank God. Thank God. Amen, Pastor.