How must a sinner approach God
to obtain mercy? Not how may a sinner, how can
a sinner? How must a sinner approach God
to obtain mercy? How must I come to God if I would
obtain mercy? How must you come? Turn with
me to Luke chapter 18, beginning at verse 9, and I'll show you.
Luke chapter 18, First night. He spake this parable unto certain
which trusted in themselves that they were righteous. And as is
always the case, such people despised others. Any man who
thinks he's righteous, anyone who thinks he's good, no matter
how sweetly they smile, no matter how humbly they pretend to put
on a show before you, those who imagine that they are good, despise
everybody else. I mean everybody, because they're
convinced that everybody is beneath them. They despised others. Two
men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, the
other a publican. Those two men described everybody
here. They described everybody in the
world. All are Pharisees. All are Pharisees. who seek acceptance with God,
either in whole or in part, by their own efforts, by that which
they do, by their good works, by their repetition of prayers,
by their religious duties, by performing religious ceremonies,
by giving alms, by being charitable, by doing good for others. All
are Pharisees who seek acceptance with God in whole or in part
by something they do. All are Pharisees who look to
and trust Christ, not look to and trust Christ alone, but look
to and trust Christ simply to make up any deficiency that might
be found in them. All are Pharisees. And all are
publicans who, like the man described in these next verses, being taught
by God the Holy Spirit, know themselves to be justly condemned
sinners, justly condemned before a holy God, and therefore acknowledge
and confess their sins. seeking grace, pardon, forgiveness,
righteousness, and acceptance with God only through Jesus Christ
the Lord, only by His blood, His righteousness, and His intercession. All right, read verse eleven
again, or verse ten. Two men went up into the temple
to pray, the one a Pharisee, the other a publican. The Pharisee
stood and prayed thus with himself." If you want to, you can read
it this way, the Pharisee stood and played thus with himself.
He was just playing a game, that's all. Playing a game, and nobody
was involved but him, playing, pretending before God. He prayed
thus with himself, 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. A liar, you don't give tithes,
you pay tithes. That's like saying I give I give
Uncle Sam 35% of all my income. No, you don't. You paid it because
the law requires it. And if you check that little
box to give a dollar to your favorite charity, that'll be
all right. You gave a dollar. No, you don't
give tithes. Legal is tithe because they have
to. Believers give because they want to. 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. I tell you, this man went down
to his house justified, thather than the other. For every one
that exalteth himself shall go to hell, shall be abased. And
he that humbleth himself shall go to glory, shall be exalted.
This publican was a Jew, one who had become one of the most
despised, degraded, and corrupt classes of humanity during this
day. You see, publicans were Jews
who collected taxes for the Roman government, and normally it was
their common practice to extract from their countrymen much more
than was due, and thereby they enriched themselves. They were
hard. self-serving, greedy men. They oppressed widows and orphans
and demanded of them what they could not pay, having no regard
for their needs. They served only themselves.
They wanted nothing but to enrich themselves. They were traitors
to the countrymen, and they were despised by the Romans. Republicans
were totally selfish people. They did what they did only for
themselves. No matter who they had to trample
under their feet. The people known as publicans,
were not often seen in the temple or the house of God. They had
no interest in going there, and the folks who went there had
no interest in them coming. They had a mutual agreement in
that regard. The publicans stayed away from
the Pharisees. The publicans stayed away from
the religious crowd. Oh, they didn't out and out deny
God and the sacrifices and such as that. They just stayed away
because they knew that they were despised by those folks, and
they had no interest in going to begin with. But it so happened
that God began to work in this man. Made him begin to think
on his life, his ways, and the blackness of his heart. He was
full of trouble, but he kept it to himself. At night, he couldn't
sleep. In the daytime, he couldn't focus
on anything. The hand of God was heavy on
him, and at last he couldn't endure the misery any longer.
Blessed condition. Blessed condition. When he couldn't
endure the misery any longer, he thought, maybe I ought to
go to the house of God. Maybe I ought to go and learn
the things I've heard from my fathers, and learn those things
that I recited as a boy, and see if God might have something
for me. Maybe I ought to go to the place
of God in Zion, the place of sacrifice, the place where daily
sacrifices are offered. To whom or where can I go but
to God? Where can I hope for mercy? but
at the mercy seat, at the place where the sacrifice is offered,
where God said, I will meet you between the cherubim upon the
mercy seat. And no sooner said than done.
He went to the temple, but he went there ashamed to enter in.
I've been there. Drive up to the church house
and know the people are looking at you and thinking, well, it
took him long enough to get here. Wonder why he's come now. Wonder
what he wants. He's ashamed to go to the church
house. He goes in knowing that the proud Pharisees are there. And as this publican slips in
at the door, this Pharisee walks by and gives him a scornful look. But the heavy-hearted publican
finds some secluded place where he hoped no one else would see
him, and no one would hear him. And he takes his place in the
dust. He looks down at the ground as
one unfit to look up to heaven, and he speaks to God. Trembling
and fearful, he utters this prayer, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. What simple words. What simple
words. What brief words. Here's a man
who's been enduring hardness in his soul. The hand of God
lay heavy upon him. He's in trouble, in trouble with
God, in trouble, in trouble with eternity. And he cries out for
mercy, and all he has to say is, God, be merciful to me, a
sinner. Oh, God in heaven never heard
sweeter words fall from the lips of a man. God be merciful to
me, the sinner. And it was done. His trembling
voice was heard in heaven. God spoke peace to his conscience.
When he left the temple, we're told he went down to his house
justified rather than the proud, self-righteous Pharisee. He had
come up to the temple of guilty sinner with a heavy, contrite,
broken, groaning heart. But he left the temple a saint
of God, a new creature in Christ, for whom old things have passed
away and all things have become new. He left the temple rejoicing
because he was redeemed. He left the temple giving praise
to God because now he's justified. Now hear me. God help you to
hear me. Every sinner who cries out to
God from his heart, like this publican did, God, be merciful
to me, a sinner, will go to his house rejoicing in free, full
justification. Let me show you just two things.
First, the publican's confession. He made a full, heartfelt confession
of his sin to God. The publican, we're told, standing
afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven, but
smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me a sinner."
Now, notice that he makes this confession to God. He makes it
to God. I'm not about to give you any
how-to instructions with regard to your soul's everlasting salvation. I don't have real good sense.
I've got better sense than that. Any time you read a how-to book
about spiritual things, you don't do yourself any good but always
harm. Folks write books on how to be
born again, how to become a spiritual Christian. How to do. How to be. There are not any
formulas to be given to men. None at all. Formulas for faith
and formulas for prayer and formulas for godliness are nothing but
self-righteous inventions of men designed by deceitful men
to deceive the hearts of deceived men. That's all. But this publican
goes to God. Not to a confessional booth.
Not to a priest, not to an inquiry room, not to some morning's bench,
not to some altar somewhere. He goes to God. He doesn't walk
down the aisle of a church or a theater or a stadium and repeat
words after a man. He doesn't shake hands with a
preacher and sign a decision card. He goes to God. He went
directly to God himself. and cries, God, be merciful to
me, the sinner. He seems to say within himself,
no one can help me but God. No one can have mercy on me but
God. No one can speak peace to my
soul but God. Perhaps, like many of you, he
tried to get other folks to do so. I did. I'd get in trouble. I'm talking about not just trouble
out here under with other folks. I'd get in trouble in here, in
my heart. And I'd go to folks that I thought
knew. I thought they knew the answers,
and I'd try to get some help, and they would do their dead-level
best to keep me from doing business with God. They'd tell me to do
this or do that, and they said, nothing's all right now. You're
saved. You've been saved a long time. You remember when you made
that decision for Jesus? Oh, you just got away from the
Lord. Everything's all right. Everything's all right. And I
found out nobody could help me. Nobody, nobody but God who is
the help of my soul. Only he whom I've offended can
forgive. Only he whose justice threatens
me can satisfy justice for me. Only he who has threatened to
send me to hell can save me from hell. His confession was a secret
there. I suspect most of you have been
in churches where that After they get done with the service,
they have a song. Folks, particularly folks in
the church, you know, the religious folks, the preachers have told
them they were saved and they weren't. Every few months or every couple
of years, whenever they have a revival meeting, they've got
to get warmed up again and revived and pumped up and primed again.
They'll walk down the aisle and they'll confess their sins and
talk about what they've done. and just bawl, I mean just swallow,
and everybody listens in. Everybody listens in. And everybody
joins in their self-righteousness, and they pretend, pretend, pity
and kindness and all that stuff. What they're really doing is
they're sitting back and saying, not me. I don't see how you could
do that. I don't know how on earth you could do like that.
Don't confess what you do to me or anybody else. But preacher,
aren't we supposed to confess our faults one to another? Yeah.
Constantly, always acknowledge you're nothing but sin, and do
it honestly. Constantly, always acknowledge
to one another your inward corruption, weakness, and failure. But keep
the filth to yourself. I don't need to hear it. And
nobody else does. These testimony meetings and
confession times are nothing on this earth but a way for men
to vent their self-righteousness and think they're doing something
to give themselves acceptance with God. This publican went
to God. We're not told that anyone heard
anything he said. But if somebody did happen to
hear it, this is what they heard. God be merciful to me. That's it. That's all. You see,
the only way you can do business with God is for you to do business
with God. That's the toughest thing I know
for me or you, either one. It's tough on our flesh. I'd
much rather do business with Benji Campbell. He's a fine man,
but he's just a man. I'd much rather do business up
here in front of this church. A little embarrassing, but not
too bad because you're all just like me. The only way to do business
with God is to do business with God yourself. Yourself. In private. Alone. In your closet. This publican
speaks not a word to men, but to God alone. And he does it
spontaneously. Turn back to Psalm 51 if you
will. Spontaneously. I don't know how to state this
so that you'll hear it and understand it. I don't know how to state
it emphatically enough or dogmatically enough. Everything that passes
under the name of Christ for religion and spirituality in
this generation, I mean everything, is exactly backwards and wrong.
Everything. These days, folks on television,
you want power with God. Isn't it amazing? Isn't it amazing? How did men... I mean, it seemed
like you could just blow air through their ears and it'd pick
up volume coming out the other side. They'd just zip their heads
and say, men, we've come to religion. You want power, well, God touched
the TV screen. That's a point of contact. Ooh,
did you feel that? And people fall for that junk.
There's no difference, though. No difference whatsoever in that. men trying to get you to say
a prayer that you have to repeat after them, and then tell you
you're saved? No, no, no. You do this, and you say, Bless
God. You say with this statement,
I've been in meetings where I have a bunch of folks standing all
around some kind of an imaginary altar. I mean, a piece of wood
in front of a pulpit, they call it an altar. A bunch of them
standing around there, and have them to repeat all at one time
in unison, God be merciful to me, a sinner. For Jesus' sake,
amen, God bless you, you're saved, don't let anybody tell you the
difference. And folks go home and say, well, bless God, I made
a decision for Jesus, and I got saved last night. Not on your
life. Not on your life. Here's a man
who found mercy, David, and he spoke to God spontaneously. Nobody had to tell him what to
say or who to say it to. Nobody had to twist his arm,
sing a long invitation, let me see your hand. Now, you raised
your hand, did you make business with God? What stupidity, what
blasphemy, what deception upon the souls of men. This man spoke
from his heart because he needed mercy. He spoke to God. He confesses
his sin spontaneously, and any confession that is not spontaneous,
arising from your own heart, is no confession at all. He confessed
himself a sinner because he had to. He couldn't help it. His
heart was crushing, his sin breaking his soul, pushing him down to
hell. The man came before the throne
of God, taking his place in the dust, freely surrendering himself
to the hands of God Almighty in his justice, confessing that
he fully deserved God's wrath, a sinner deserving of eternal
condemnation. His prayer is much like that
found here in Psalm 51. Here it is, given by David. Have
mercy upon me, O God. according to thy lovingkindness." What a way to appeal to God.
Why should God forgive your sin, Ron Wood? Oh, because He's able
to. Why should He accept me? Because
He's God, full of lovingkindness. Have mercy upon me, not according
to my deserts, not according to the comparison I have with
others. Have mercy upon me according
to Your boundless, infinite, matchless, free lovingkindness. According to the multitude of
Thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly
from my iniquities. Cleanse me from my sin, for I
acknowledge my transgressions." I acknowledge my transgressions.
Now, we know because it's written in the title. This has something
to do with the matter of Uriah the Hittite. But David is speaking
here to God Almighty, and yet he's speaking publicly because
he's writing that which is written by divine inspiration for us.
I acknowledge my transgressions. He doesn't mention Bathsheba's
name. He doesn't mention Uriah's name. He doesn't mention Joab's
name. He doesn't mention the name of
the fellow who brought him the note. He doesn't mention that.
Nobody needs to hear about that. I'm talking to God. I acknowledge
my transgression. My sin is ever before me. Against
thee, and thee only, have I done this evil in thy sight, that
thou mayest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when
thou judgest." Lord God, I speak to you now, and I declare it's
a just thing for you to do with me as you will. Kill me, and
you're right. Save me, and you're right. Send
me to hell, and nobody can charge you with evil. Take me to glory,
and nobody can charge you with evil. Behold, I was shapen in
iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Come back to Psalm
25. You might be thinking, well,
Brother Don, if a man wants mercy, that sure doesn't seem like a
good way to get it. Acknowledging his iniquity, his transgressions,
and his sins. Oh, you're mistaken. In Psalm
25, here's the psalm of David, and the psalmist says, "'Unto
thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. O my God, I trust in thee. Let me not be ashamed. Let not
mine enemies triumph over me.'" Verse 4. Show me thy ways, O
Lord. Teach me thy paths, lead me in
thy truth, and teach me, for thou art the God of my salvation. On thee do I wait all the day.
Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses,
for they have been ever of old. Remember not the sins of my youth,
nor my transgressions according to thy mercy. Remember thou me
for thy goodness' sake, O Lord." Now look at verse eleven. For
thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity, for it is great."
Lord, I hear tell that it's your glory to forgive iniquity, transgression,
and sin. Lord, I hear tell that the glory
of your name is wrapped up in saving sins. Lord, I hear tell
that you glorify yourself by forgiving sin. Well, here's a
man in whom you can glorify yourself for your name's sake. Pardon
my iniquity, for it's great. It's great. And look what he
confesses. God, be merciful to me, a sinner. The only way a
sinner can approach God for mercy is as a sinner. That's all. So,
Preacher, you mean that's before a fellow gets saved? Oh, how
I hate that word, get saved. Get saved. No, that's not just
before God saves you. The only way you can ever approach
God for mercy is as a sinner. You can't give it any other way.
I don't like that. I'm not going to come to God
as a sinner. You won't have any mercy. I promise you. But preacher,
I've been saved now for a long time. I've been doing good for
a long time. There's no mercy for you. You may well quit playing
with yourself and playing with God. There's no mercy for you.
Nobody but sinners are welcome at the throne of grace. Christ
died for sinners. Your only claim to righteousness
is your nakedness. Your only claim to cleansing
is your filth. Your only claim to food is your
hunger. Your only claim to the fountain
of life is your thirst. The sinner comes and confesses
himself a sinner before God. Now, notice what he did. He stood
afar, a man separated from God. And he wouldn't dare be presumptuous. He stands as one far off from
God, far off from God, deserving to be separated from God forever.
He would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven, broken,
dejected, in heart, contrite, in soul. He couldn't look up. He smote upon his breast, beat
his chest, as if to say, here's the source of the evil. As if
to say, what I've done. That Pharisee over yonder, he
knows what I've done. That poor widow over yonder,
she knows what I've done. Her hungry children, they know
what I've done. But they don't have a clue what
I am. Oh, Lord God, you know. And he hates what's within him. What reason did he have to hope
for mercy? He says, God, be merciful to
me, etc. That word merciful means this. God be reconciled to me, etc. He goes to the temple, and he
prays to God Almighty as Solomon spoke of men turning toward his
holy temple. I'm not talking about some idolatrous
thing. He's turning his eyes to the mercy seat, which represented
and typified the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember in the Holy of Holies,
on the Day of Atonement once a year, Aaron, God's high priest,
would come in bearing the names of the children of Israel, and
he'd come in with incense representing Christ's intercession. And he
would come in with blood, the blood of a lamb that had been
slain, blood that had been sprinkled on the horns of the altar. And
now he's caught blood in a basin, and this holy priest comes in
with his white linen garments on, and he goes over to the Ark
of the Covenant. Inside that Ark is God's broken
law. That which condemns, that which
commands death, that which commands eternal punishment, God's violated
holiness is there inside the ark. And over top of the ark
is a place called the mercy seat, the lid over the ark, pure gold,
pure gold. At each end of the cherubs looking
down on the mercy seat. And God said, that's the place
where I'll meet you. Nowhere else, nowhere else. Nowhere
else. I'll meet you at the mercy seat
between the sheriffs. That mercy seat, Abram would
sprinkle with the blood of the Paschal Lamb, sacrificed for
the people. And ceremonially, he made atonement,
covering God's broken law with the blood. And God accepted the
sacrifice. All of that is a picture of Christ,
our sacrifice, our Passover, who is sacrificed for us. It
foreshadowed his glorious work of atonement. This publican looks
on Christ, the Mercy Seeker, the sacrifice, the blood atonement,
the high priest, the fulfiller of the law, of the end of the
law. He looks on Christ just like Abel did back yonder in
the book of Genesis, chapter 4. He looks on Christ, and he
believes on Christ, and he trusts Christ. And he says, God, for
Christ's sake, be reconciled to me, the sinner. He speaks
as though there's none other in the world like me. God, be
merciful to me, the sinner. While pleading for mercy with
God, the publican had his eye on Christ's sacrifice. Come to
God, believing on the Son of God, trusting Christ, acknowledging
your sin, your sin, and God Almighty will grant you mercy, propitiation,
reconciliation through Christ Jesus the Lord. Now look at verse
14. That's the publican's confession.
Here's his justification. Our Lord Jesus speaks. Now remember, these are the Master's
words, not mine. I read something just recently
by a preacher who wanted to correct these words. He was afraid somebody
might misunderstand him. He was afraid Prince Senators
would get the wrong idea. Well, I'm of the opinion that
the Master's words don't need correction. Mine do, for what
he says. I tell you that this man went
down to his house justified rather than the other. For every one
that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth
himself shall be exalted. He went down to his house justified
because he came up to God's house condemned. The Pharisee went
down to his house condemned, though he never knew it, until
hell burned in his soul forever, because he came up to God's house
justified. The publican abased himself and
was exalted with free grace. The Pharisee exalted himself
and was abased in strict justice. Now hear me. There is such a
thing. as free, full, absolute, immutable,
indestructible absolution from all sin and guilt. There is such
a thing as free, absolute, unconditional justification for sinners. The
Pope gave it. That's a sermon in itself. I
walk up to some fellow, some kind of clown's outfit, looks
like a Masonic Order costume, and thinks he can absolve your
sin by doing a little mumbo-jumbo. I told you, just air shoots right
through there. It ain't big when it comes to
religion. And the preacher can't give it,
not the baddest one or another one, can't give it, can't give
it. But God Almighty can, and He does for Christ's sake. This
man went down to his house justified. His justification was immediate. Listen to this hymn. I took a
little time to find it last night, late. Written by Joseph Hart,
back in the 1750s. The moment a sinner believes
and trusts in his crucified God, his pardon that once he receives,
redemption in full through his blood. The faith that unites
to the Lamb and brings such salvation as this is more than a notion
or name, the work of God's Spirit it is. It treads on the world
and hell, it vanquishes death and despair, and what still is
stranger to tell, it overcomes heaven by prayer. It permits
a vile worm of the dust with God to commune as a friend, to
hope for forgiveness as just, and look for his love to the
end. It says to the mountains, that stand betwixt God and the
soul, it binds up the broken in heart and makes wounded consciences
whole. Did sins of a crimson-like dye
be spotless as snow and as white, and makes such a sinner as I
as pure as an angel of light?" went down to his house, justified.
As soon as a sinner believes on Christ, as soon as he receives
the atonement by faith in Christ, he is justified in his conscience
before God, declared by God to be at peace with God. The love
of God is yet abroad in his soul, and he's at peace. His justification
was complete. Justified. Justified. I can't
find a better illustration than what I've given you in the past.
When Shelby used to type these bulletins, she not only had to
read my handwriting, but when we had the old mimeograph machines,
you had this margin here, see how straight and complete it
is. You didn't have the use to justify writing margin, now you
do it by hitting justify, just one key, justify. She used to
take and type the bulletins, and then she'd take a ruler and
put it down on this side, and she'd measure the spaces on each
line. The letters on each side, count
them out, and punch them in one at a time, all the way through
whatever article was done, so it will be justified. Justified. Now watch this. Meryl Hart, here
is God's holy law. Here is God's holy character. Here is God's holy being. Here is God's whole self. Here I am, justified. Completely! EQUAL TO GOD'S DEMANDS! Forever justified. I went home to my house 37 years
ago, justified. And I've never been condemned
since. And never shall be. It's God
that justifies. This man was justified justly. If we confess our sins, he's
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. He was justified in his conscience,
and he knew it. He knew it. Come back to Psalm
32. Here's another of David's psalms
which confesses sin to God. Psalm 32. Blessed is he whose
transgression is forgiven. The word is picked up and carried
off. Whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Now, in those two verses, David
uses all three words that are used throughout the Old Testament
to describe sin. Sin is what I am. Transgression
is the breach of God's law. It's kicking over the fences.
It's transgressing the law. Iniquity is inequity. It's not measured up to the law.
David says, Blessed is the man whose transgression, his breaking,
his violation of God's law is forgiven, whose sin, the evil
that's in him, is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not, will not charge iniquity, and in whose
spirit there is no guile. Now, watch this. When I kept
silence, David knew what he did. He knew full well what he'd done,
but he kept silence. He wouldn't say a word about
it. He wasn't about to confess it. He wasn't about to do business
with God. He said, when I kept silence,
my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. Day and night, my hand was heavy
upon me. My moisture is turned into the
drought of summer. And let that soak in real good.
He that hideth his sin shall not prosper. And Rex is not talking about
hiding it from me or hiding it from you. He that hideth his
sin from God shall not prosper. Your moisture is going to turn
into drought or something. You think things are bad now,
it's just going to get worse. God's hand is heavy on you. Now,
what's the next line? I acknowledge my sin unto thee.
My iniquity have I not hid? I said, I will confess my transgressions
unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin." Paul's
a long time to think about that, too. I confess my transgressions. I said, I said I will confess,
and you forgave. Oh, the moment the sinner believes
and trusts in his crucified God, that moment a pardon received,
salvation in full through his blood. Come, come to the Savior,
right where you are. Come to Him. Confess your sin,
looking to Christ the Lord, and go home justified. Justify. Justify with God forever. Amen.