Is not that I did choose thee? Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Neiberg. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now here's our pastor, Todd Nyberg. In Luke chapter 18, beginning
in verse 13, we read of the Lord telling us of the prayer of the
publican. Now we're going to consider the
prayer of the Pharisee as well, but listen to what he says regarding
this publican. 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." Now, the Lord comments on what
he said. Listen very carefully. I tell
This man went down to his house justified rather than the other. God said in Exodus chapter 34
verse 7, I will by no means clear the guilty. That means if I have
any guilt upon me at all, God will not clear me. He won't let me go. Someone said
recently, why did Christ have to die? Why can't God just forgive
us? Well, he can't. That's against
his nature. He's absolutely just, he's absolutely
holy, and he will not clear the guilty. He said, I will by no
means clear the guilty. The wise man said in Proverbs
17, verse 15, he that justifieth the wicked and he that condemneth
the just even they both are an abomination to the Lord. Now this man, by his own confession,
calls himself a sinner. As a matter of fact, In the original,
it's the sinner. This man believed himself to
be the worst man to ever live. No one is as sinful as me, he
thought. If you would look up the word
sinner in the dictionary, my name would be the name that would
describe the sinner. I am the sinner. And yet our Lord, who said, I
will by no means clear the guilty, said this man went down to his
house, justified, cleared of all guilt, perfectly righteous
in God's sight, never having done anything wrong, and having
done nothing but that which is right. That's what justification
is. Now, how could the Lord say,
I'll by no means clear the guilty, and take this person who, by
his own admission, was guilty, a sinful man, and say he's justified. Now, I have entitled this message,
The Most Important Parable. The Most Important Parable. Because in this parable, our
Lord declares this man to be justified with no explanation
as to how that is, and the entire Bible is used to expound just
how that could be, how God could be just and justify the ungodly,
the most important parable. Now, the two men in this parable
are the two representative men. Let me read the parable and you
can see what I mean. Beginning in verse 9, we read,
and he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves
that they were righteous and despised others. Verse 10, two
men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and
the other a publican. Now these two men are the two
representative men. If you will listen carefully
during this message, I will be giving a very accurate description
of you. You and I fall into these two
camps. We're either in the camp of the
Pharisee or in the camp of the publican. These two men represent
us. One of these men, I am. One of these men, you are. The
Pharisee and the publican. Now, the righteous are represented
by the publican, the tax collector. and the wicked are represented
by the Pharisee, the religious moral man. There's no getting
around that. The righteous are represented
by this man who confessed that he was a sinner and needed the
mercy of God. The wicked are represented by
this religious man who thought that he was better than others
and who boasted of his own works and of his own righteousness,
a very moral man. Yet this man is the enemy of
God. The other is the friend of God. Now, here is an interesting fact.
All of the wicked believe themselves to be righteous, or at least
they have the potential to be righteous. And all of the righteous
believe themselves to be wicked. Isn't that interesting? But it's
so. Now let's begin reading once
again in verse nine. And he spake this parable unto
certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and
despised others. Now, this would describe everyone
listening to me. This is the natural man's religion. This is the way I was born. This
is the way you were born. trusting in yourself that you
were righteous, and looking down your nose at somebody else. Now, we either believe ourselves
to be righteous, or at least we believe we have the potential
to be righteous if we're put in the right environment and
if we're given the right circumstances. Now, self-righteousness. Listen to me real carefully.
This is the sin that betrays a complete ignorance of God and
His character. If you're self-righteous, you
have no idea who God is, and you have no idea of what righteousness
is in the first place. If you're self-righteous, you're
self-deceived. You've deceived yourself. And
self-righteousness is the sin that will most certainly keep
a man from Christ. Now, I want you to listen to
this carefully. It's not your sin that will keep you from Christ.
It's your righteousness. If you ever see your sin, it'll
drive you to the feet of Christ for mercy. It's your righteousness
that will keep you away from Him. And the offspring of self-righteousness
is despising others. He spake this parable unto certain
who trust it in themselves that they were righteous and despised,
looked down their nose at others, belittling others. Now in this
religion of self-righteousness, it's always a religion of comparing
yourself with somebody else. And you can always find somebody
that you think you're a little bit better than, a little bit
more holy than, a little bit more pleasing to God to. Now,
it's called despising others. The self-righteous man is always
judgmental of others. He can see the speck in his brother's
eye so clearly, and yet he still is blind to the log, the beam
that is in his own eye. Now, so we see who our Lord was
speaking to, those who trusted in themselves that they were
righteous and despised others. In verse 10, he says, went up
into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other
a publican. Now the Pharisee, the word means
a separated one, one who believed he separated himself from others
by his works, by the things that he did. A publican was a Roman
tax collector, a Jewish man employed by the Roman government to collect
taxes and he'd pad his own pockets taking extra money for himself,
making himself rich, and he was the most dishonest and despised
man of that day. This was the lowest you could
become as a publican. So here we have in the temple
two men that have come to pray, the Pharisee and the publican. Verse 11, the Pharisee stood. Notice posture. an absence of
reverence. He stood and prayed thus with
himself, his audience, himself. He thought he was praying to
God. He thought God heard, but God didn't. He was praying to
himself. You see, God resists the proud,
and God gives grace to the humble. Six things does God hate, yea,
seven are an abomination to him, and the first thing he mentioned
is a proud look and a haughty spirit. That's what this man
was. He stood and he prayed thus with
himself. God, I thank thee. Now, this man was orthodox. He
didn't say, I thank myself. He said, I thank thee. He wasn't
so stupid as to give himself the glory. He knew some of it,
at any rate, must go to God. So he doesn't say, I thank myself.
He says, God, I thank Thee. Now, I'm not real sure that he
really was thanking God. As a matter of fact, I know he
wasn't. But still, he was using that language. God, I thank Thee. So he was orthodox as far as
that goes. He was Saying, I believe that
what I've done is because of God giving me the ability to
do it. He was orthodox. But notice,
there's no confession of sin. There's no cry for mercy. Here's
what he has to say. God, I thank thee that I am not
as other men are. And he's not thanking God for
who God is. He's thanking God for who he
is. I thank thee that I'm not as
other men are." Now, he names what he does not do. He said,
I'm not an extortioner, one who unlawfully takes that which belongs
to somebody else. I'm not unjust. I treat everyone
fair and equitable in my dealings. And I'm not an adulterer. I'm
not guilty of sexual sin. I thank you that I'm not like
other men are. Now, let me tell you something
about this fellow. One of two things are true. Number
one, he's completely ignorant of what sin is in the first place.
Or number two, he's just a liar. And I believe it's a combination
of the both. He was ignorant of what sin is because the fact
of the matter is he had committed all the things that he said he
didn't commit in his heart before God. He was guilty of those things
and he was actually telling a lie. He was coming into the very presence
of God and lying before God, talking about what he had not
done. The only thing this man said
that was true was he was not like the publican. Indeed, he
was not like the publican. And then he goes on to boast
about what all he does in verse 12. I fast twice in the week.
I give tithes of all that I possess. So much for the prayer of the
Pharisee. He was a wicked man who believed
himself to be righteous. That would describe everyone
who is not saved. Now in verse 13, we read of the
publican. And the publican, what a very
different picture we're given. In the first man we see the worship
of self. Here we see the true worship
of God. And the publican, standing afar
off, feeling himself to be unclean before thrice holy God, would
not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, feeling the weight
of his sin. And the scripture says, he smote
upon his breast. He saw my heart is the problem. I've got a desperately wicked
heart that's deceitful above all things. I've got an unclean
heart. He smote on his breast saying,
God be merciful to me, the sinner. Now, this man, unlike the Pharisee
who made no requests, he had a very specific request. God, be merciful to me, the sinner,
not a sinner, the sinner. Sins my nature, sins my name. God be merciful to me, the sinner."
And the word sinner is an adjective. It means preeminently sinful,
especially wicked. That's how this man felt himself
to be before God. A man who was stained with certain
vices and crimes. It's the same word Peter used
when he said, Depart from me, O Lord. I'm a sinful man. I'm full of sin. That's all I
am. You don't want to have anything
to do with me. Isn't that interesting? When Peter found out who the
Lord was, he said, Lord, depart from me. You don't want to have
anything to do with me. Well, that's the way this man
felt. He said, oh God, be propitious to me, the sinner. Now look in
this request, he's not making any promises. He's not saying,
oh Lord, have mercy on me and I'll stop this sin and I'll start
doing this good work and I'll start becoming a better person.
No promises. He knew himself better than that.
He wouldn't dare make some kind of promise before God because
he knew that every promise he'd ever made, he'd failed to keep.
And all he can cry is, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Now,
have you ever come before God's presence like that? Now, if you
haven't, you've never come before God's presence, period. Now,
let's get this even more specific. When he says, God be merciful
to me, the sinner, in the original that word merciful is propitious. God be propitious to me, the
sinner. Now in making that request, he
is giving us some light as to his understanding of the character
of God. Now somebody says, what's propitiation?
We're going to get to that in a minute. But this man says,
And the reason he sees his own sinfulness, the reason he cries
out about who he is and his need of propitiation and his need
of mercy is because he knew who God was. The only way a man really
sees his sin is when he sees who God is in his holiness, in
his justice, in his righteousness. If you and I ever get a glimpse
of who he is, we'll see our sin just like this man did. And this
man knew that God's character was such that the only way he
could be saved is for God to do something about his sin. And that's what he is asking
the Lord to do. God, be propitious, be propitiated,
be propitious toward me, thee, sinner. Now what in the world
does that word propitiation mean? It's found in the Bible. It's
a Bible word, and it's a very important word. What does the
word mean? Well, in Romans 3, verse 25,
we read, "...whom God," speaking of Christ, "...whom God hath
set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood."
God set forth or foreordained Christ to be a propitiation through
faith in His blood. Now that same word translated
propitiation in Romans chapter 3 verse 25, the same word is
translated a mercy seat in Hebrews chapter 9 verse 5. Propitiation
and mercy seat are the same thing. Now what's the mercy seat? The
mercy seat covered the ark of God with the broken law that
was in the Holy of Holies, where the high priest would come in
once a year with the blood, with the blood, not without blood,
but with the blood of the sacrificial lamb and sprinkle it on the mercy
seat. And that's where God would accept
and commune with the sinner, at the mercy seat. You see, when
the blood was shed, the reason for God's anger was removed. That's what the blood of Christ
is all about. He appeased God. He made propitiation. He removed
God's reason for anger through the blood of His sacrifice. It
works like this. We can read about this, exactly
how it works, how it makes reconciliation, in Colossians 1, beginning in
verse 20. and having made peace. This is
what the Lord Jesus Christ did on Calvary Street. He made peace.
He didn't make peace available. He made peace so that God is
at peace with me. He has no reason for anger, no
reason to be mad at me. And having made peace through
the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things unto
himself. By him, I say, whether they be
things in earth or things in heaven and you. that were sometimes
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works. Yet now
hath he reconciled through death in the body of his flesh. Now hath he reconciled in the
body of his flesh through death. You see, my sins were transferred
to him. They became in his body. And
now because of what he did for me, And you that were sometimes
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now
hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to
present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. Now this is what the perpetuatory
sacrifice of Christ does or did. It makes every believer, everybody
for whom he died, holy and unblameable and unreprovable in the very
sight of God. Now this man was praying, God
be propitious to me. Do something about my sin, remove
it, pay for it, make it to where it's no more. And if I have any
understanding of the character of God, that's my prayer to him. God be propitious to me. In Hebrews chapter eight, verse
12, God said, for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. It's
literally, I will be propitious. There it is again. I will be
propitious. I'll be propitiated toward their
unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities. I will
remember no more. You see, if God is propitious
toward you, He doesn't remember your sins. He doesn't remember
your iniquities. And it's not because He doesn't
have a good memory. It's because they've been removed. They've
been propitiated. God is pleased. with all who
are in His Son. Now, if you or I have any understanding
of our sin, yes, we want mercy, yes, we want grace, yes, we want
forgiveness, yes, we want pardon, But more than anything else,
we want propitiation. God be propitious to me, the
sinner. Now, this is the worship of God. He displayed an understanding
of God's character and what the only thing that would do him
any good is for God to be propitiated. through the sacrifice of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I love our Lord's comment
about this man. I suppose, although this is a
parable, I suppose that he'd seen this, in fact, and observed
it. And while it is a parable, I
would say the story has been true thousands of times. The
Lord sees this. And the Lord's comment on this
is, I tell you, this man went down to his house justified. Now by his own admission, he
was evil. He was the sinner. But Christ
said he went down to his house justified. Now that word justified,
it means he went down to his house without any guilt. It means
he never did anything wrong. It means he always did that which
was right. It means he had perfect righteousness
before God, cleared of any guilt or wrongdoing. just, righteous,
and holy before God. That man went down to his house
justified. Now, those are the words of our
Lord. Now, according to the Bible,
justification comes through the imputation of the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. God has the authority to do this.
He has all authority. He's God. I remember one time
I heard a preacher who got caught in some kind of scandal. They
said, well, I put those sins under the blood. You don't have the
authority to do that. I don't have the authority to
do that. Only God can do that. And He took my sins and gave
them to His Son. That's why Christ died on the
cross. And Christ propitiated God. He made payment. He satisfied
the justice of God and the very righteousness of Jesus Christ.
His perfect obedience is given to me and I'm justified by His
righteousness. The scripture speaks of being
justified freely by His grace. You see, God did not look for
a reason in me to do this. He did so freely by His grace. We read in Romans 5, 9 of being
justified by blood. You see, His blood removed all
the sins of everybody He died for, and now they stand before
God just. We also read in James 2, or Romans
5, of being justified by faith. What is the one evidence that
God has done this for me? I believe the gospel. That's
how I know Christ died for me. I believe the gospel. I'm relying
on him right now. Justification received by faith. Justification by faith. Justification
by works. It's not a dead faith. Abraham
proved he believed God when he offered up his only son. If he
would have refused to offer up his son, he would have proved
he didn't really believe God would send the Messiah through
him. But when he was willing to kill him, he was saying, I
know God will raise him from the dead because God's always
true to his word. And then we read in Matthew chapter
12 of being justified by words. By your words, you'll be justified.
By your words, you'll be condemned. You see, if I'm really justified,
it's gonna come out in my speech. My speech is gonna line up with
what the Bible talks about justification. And then he finally says this.
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather
than the other, for everyone that exalts himself shall be
amazed. You can write it down. You exalt
yourself, you'll be a base. Nebuchadnezzar found that out.
He said, in the walk in pride, he knoweth how to abase. And
everyone that humbles himself, just like this publican did,
shall be exalted. That's the unalterable law of
the kingdom of heaven. Now we have this message on DVD
and CD. If you call the church, write
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Kniper, friends,
and God will be pleased to make Himself known to you. That's
our prayer. To request a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your request to messages at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Or you may write or call the
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