Lord willing, tonight I'm going
to be preaching on the sixth gift to the church from Romans
chapter 12, on he that ruleth with diligence. I feel, I believe very much of
what Paul felt when he said to the Corinthians, I was with you
in weakness and fear. and much trembling. And I feel
that way as I try to bring this particular message. In verse 13, we read this confession
of this publican. The publican standing far off
would not lift up so much as his eyes into heaven but smote upon his breast, saying,
God, be merciful to me. And I'm not real sure why the
word A is there because it is God be merciful in the original
to me, the sinner. And then our Lord says regarding
this man, I tell you, with what authority he speaks, I tell you,
this man went down to his house justified. Rather than the other,
for everyone that exalts himself shall be abased. And he that humbleth himself
shall be exalted. God said in Exodus chapter 34
verse 7, I will by no means clear the guilty. Under no circumstance will I
ever clear anyone who is guilty. God said that. That means if
you are guilty, God will not clear you. Now that's God's testimony. We
read in Proverbs chapter 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 said, I am the sinner. I'm guilty. I'm sinful. He smote upon his breast the
seed of his problem, his heart. I'm guilty. God be merciful to
me, thee, sinner. And yet our Lord, with divine
authority, said that this man who confessed his guilt, this
man went down to his house not merely forgiven, not merely pardoned, not merely shown mercy, but justified,
cleared of all guilt, perfectly righteous before God, cleared
of all guilt, and wrongdoing. Now, the Lord, with no explanation
as to how this could be, made this declaration concerning this
man. I tell you, I tell you, oh, what
authority is there? I tell you that this man, this
self-condemned man who believed himself to be the most guilty
man upon the face of the earth, this man went down to his house
justified. Now he doesn't give us any indication
as to how that took place. He simply makes the statement. Now how can that be? God said,
I'll by no means clear the guilty. This man was guilty. And the
Lord says regarding this man, that he went down to his house,
not guilty, justified. cleared of all guilt. I've entitled this message, The
Most Important Parable. The Most Important Parable. And the reason I entitled it
this way is because God uses the entire Bible to tell us how
this can be. The whole Bible is dedicated
to being an explanation, an exposition of how this guilty sinner can
be declared by Christ himself to be without guilt. Now, if there's a more important
parable, I can't think of one. And at any rate, it's the most
important parable today because it's the one we're going to consider.
Now the two men in this parable are the two representative men. All of mankind is described in
this parable. You and I are described in this
parable. I'm going to be describing you
and I'm going to be describing myself. And I want you to listen
carefully to see where you fit in because you will be described
in this parable. These two men mentioned in this
parable are the two representative men. Now, the righteous are represented
by the publican. And the wicked are represented
by the Pharisee. There are two kinds of men. two kinds of women in this world,
the righteous and the wicked. And you'll find yourself, I'll
find myself, in one of these two groups. Now that's enough
to make us interested in it. I'm going to be giving you an
accurate, God-given description of yourself. Now, very interesting
note. All of the wicked believe themselves
to be righteous, or at least to have the potential to be righteous. And all, all of the righteous believe
themselves to be wicked. I want you to chew on that. Maybe
you've heard it before. Think about it again. All of
the wicked, no exceptions, all of the wicked believe themselves
to be righteous, or at least to have the potential to be righteous. If my environment's right, if
I'm put in the right place, if I'm not faced with this, I can
be righteous. of the righteous, no exceptions
to this rule. All of the righteous take the
place of this publican. God be merciful to me, the sinner. Verse 9, and he spake this parable unto
certain which trust in themselves that they were righteous. And the offspring of that, they
despised others. The two go hand in hand. Now, this parable is mercifully
directed toward us. Us. You see, everybody in this room
and everybody outside of this room were born Pharisees. It's the religion of the natural
man. The Pharisees cannot be, look
just back in Old Testament or New Testament days. They're alive
and well right now. It's the religion of the natural
man. So when he speaks this parable unto certain who trusted in themselves
that they were righteous, thank God for this parable. What a
mercy he's given us, this parable. He spake a parable unto certain
which trusted in themselves that they were righteous. Now, This sin, self-righteousness,
betrays complete ignorance of what righteousness is in the
first place. If you believe yourself to be righteous in any way, with the righteousness that came
from you, you demonstrate by that, you don't have any idea
what righteousness is. It's based upon self-deception.
And this sin of self-righteousness is the sin that will keep you
from Christ. Now, I've said this many times.
I want to say it again because it's so important. It is not
your sin that will keep you from Jesus Christ. It is your righteousness. That is the only thing that will
keep you from Christ. Let me repeat that. It's not
your sin. I don't care what sin you're
thinking of. It's not your sin that will keep you from Jesus
Christ. It's your own personal righteousness. He spake this parable unto certain
which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and the
offspring of that, they despised, they belittled others. Now in
this religion of self-righteousness, it's always a religion of comparing
yourself with someone else. And you can always find someone
that you feel better than. The self-righteous man is always
judgmental of others. He's got a very strong ability
to see the speck in his brother's eye, all the while he is completely
blind to the log that is in his own eye. Now this is a part of
this religion of self-righteousness. It always includes despising
others, having a judgmental and harsh attitude toward others. Verse 10, two men went up into
the temple to pray. This was their desire. to pray
to God, for God to hear them. Two men went up into the temple
to pray. And they're the two representative
men, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. Now the word Pharisee means separated
one. That's all the word means. a
separated one. The self-righteous, the holier
than thou, and the publican was the most despised profession
of his day, someone who was employed by the Roman government to collect
taxes from the Jews, and they would pad their own pockets,
gaining more money than they should have, and they were despised.
Now, our Lord describes the prayer of the Pharisee in verse 11. The Pharisee stood, his posture
standing, an absence of reverence, no falling
before his face, but standing. His audience, he prayed thus
with himself. I love that. I love the way the
Lord brings that. He thought he was praying to
God. God hears me? I pray? He hears? No, he prayed thus
with himself. God did not hear this man's prayer. Oh, he heard it audibly, but
it wasn't the hearing of favor and acceptance. He heard exactly
what this man was saying. The Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself, God, I thank thee. This man was a Calvinist. He gave God the credit. He didn't give himself the credit.
He didn't say, I'm giving my free will the credit or my works
the credit. He said, I thank thee. Do you
know every Pharisee believed in election? They believed Israel
was the elect and nobody else was. They all believed in a limited
atonement. They all believed that the atonement
was for Israel and for nobody else. I mean, this fellow, as
far as he thought, was very sound and orthodox in his theology.
I thank thee. He gives God the credit. I thank thee. But he does not thank God for
who God was. He thanks God for who he was. I thank thee that I am not as
other men are. I see the drunk rolling in the
street. God, I thank thee that I'm not like him. I see the bank robber or the
man stained with sexual sin, and I thank thee that I'm not
like him. This is what he thanked God for.
He thanked God for how he was. I'm not as other men are. Now, what I notice is that there's
absolutely no confession of personal sin in this prayer. There's no asking for mercy.
There's no asking for grace. There's no worship of God. This is nothing less than the
worship of self. He wasn't praying to God. He
was praying to himself. I thank thee that I am not as
other men are. He says, I'm not an extortioner. I'm not someone who unlawfully
takes from others. I'm not unjust. I'm fair and
equitable in my dealings with men. I don't treat men bad, I
treat them good. That's my confession of myself,
and I'm not an adulterer. I'm not guilty of sexual sin,
and I'm not like this publican. Here's the one true thing he
said. He wasn't like the publican. He wasn't. He's right there.
He wasn't like the publican. But one of two things are true
regarding this man. Either He was completely ignorant
of the law of God. Didn't have any idea what it
really meant. Or he was just a liar. I believe both of those things
are true. He was ignorant of God and God's
law and righteousness and holiness. And he was a liar because everything
he said he did not do, he did do. He was an extortioner. He was unjust. and he was an
adulterer. All of those things that he said
he did not commit, he did commit. I think of that passage of scripture
in Romans chapter 2 verse 1 where Paul says, Therefore thou art
inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest another.
like this Pharisee was judging the public. And I'm not like
him. Thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judges
another. And here's why it's inexcusable. You that judge do the same things. Go ahead and turn there. So I
want you to see that to make sure I'm not misquoting that. Romans
chapter two. I'd actually like to begin reading
in verse 28 of Romans chapter 1, and even as they did not like
to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate
mind to do those things which are not convenient, being filled
Now look at the description of these people in Romans 129, being
filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness,
maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity,
whispers, back biters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters,
inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding,
covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful,
who knowing the judgment of God that they which commit such things
are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure
in them that do them." You want to talk about a wicked bunch
of people? I don't know of a Anything worse than this? Now
look what he says next. Therefore thou art inexcusable,
O man, whosoever thou art that judgest. For wherein thou judgest
another, you condemn yourself. For you that judge do the same
things. You know, when I read that passage
of scripture in Romans chapter one, I was describing me and
I was describing you. You believe that? The Pharisee did. He didn't believe that at all. He said, I fast twice in the
week. I deny myself many pleasures in fasting and I give tithes
of all that I possessed. Now here is a wicked man that
believes himself to be righteous. That would be the description
of this man, a wicked man who really believed himself to be
righteous. Now that describes every unbeliever. If this is a description of you,
if the shoe fits, wear it. If you believe yourself to be
righteous, like this man did, you are an unbeliever. You've never bowed the knee to
Christ. You've never believed the gospel. Now let's look at the publican
in verse 13. And the publican. Luke chapter 18, verse 13. This was the lowest rung in society. The publican. This is the man
who is despised by all and deserved to be despised. He was a criminal,
really. If he was a publican, he was
a criminal. He was a bad person. And the
public, standing afar off, feeling himself
to be unclean before a holy God, he would not lift up so much
as his eyes unto heaven, feeling the weight of his sin, And he
smote upon his breast. That's where his problem was.
That's where his trouble was. His breast, his heart. The heart
is deceitful above all things. Desperately wicked. Who can know
it? This is how this man felt about
himself. He smote his heart. That's my
problem. And look at his confession. He
smote upon his breast saying, God Be merciful to me, a sinner. Now, you notice that the Pharisee
didn't ask for anything. He simply thanked God for how
he was. He didn't ask God for anything, but this man made a
specific request. God, be merciful. And the word actually is not
the word generally translated merciful. The word is the word
propitious. God be propitious. Now I hope by the end of this
message we're going to understand what that means. God be propitious. To me, thee, sinner. Not a sinner, But the sinner,
if you would look up the word sinner in the dictionary, you'd
see my name. Sinner is my nature. Sinner is
my name. Now the word sinner is an adjective.
It means pre-eminently sinful, especially wicked. I wonder how many people in this
room take that title to themselves. Pre-eminently wicked. Especially sinful. Men who were
stained with certain vices and crimes. It's the same word Peter
used when he said to the Lord when he found out who he was.
He said, depart from me, O Lord. I am a sinner. sinful man. A sinful man. Full of sin. And in this request,
I notice there's no promises to stop sinning. He knew himself
better than that. No, I'll do this. If you do that, no bargaining
with God, no trying to strike a deal with God. Simply, God
be propitious to me, the sinner. Now, have you ever come before
God like that, with that request? And that's the only request you
have. God be propitious to me, the
sinner. Now, if I haven't come before
God like that, I haven't come before God, period. Now when
he makes this request, God be propitious to me, the sinner,
what he is demonstrating is an understanding of the character
of God. Now, the Pharisee had no understanding
of the character of God. He was clueless. He didn't know
who God was. He had no understanding. But
this man, in his request, demonstrates a heart understanding of the
character of God Almighty. You see, God is holy. God is just. God cannot sweep
sin under the carpet. You know, Lynn and I went to
a Cincinnati Bengals game Thursday, and there was this preacher out
there while we're trying to get into the game, and the preacher
was ranting and raving, you're all going to hell, you need to
repent of your sins, Christ died for your sin, God hates sin,
you need to deal with your sin. Just ranting and raving like
an idiot, and he was an idiot. I wanted to come up to him and
say, man, you're clueless. You don't even know who the Lord
is. But at any rate, I didn't hear this. Lynn heard somebody
behind us say that. This fellow said, why can't God
just forgive sin? Why did Christ have to die? That's
a good question, isn't it? Because of God's character. He
said, I will by no means clear the guilty. God is just. God
is holy. He must punish sin. And this poor publican is coming
into God's presence saying, God, do something about my sin. I
can't do anything about it. I need you to be propitious for
me. God be propitious to me, the
sinner. Now somebody is saying, what
in the world does that word mean? It's in the New Testament. It's
an important word, propitiation. What does it mean? Well, turn
with me to Romans chapter three. Romans chapter 3, verse 25, whom, speaking of the
Lord Jesus Christ, whom God hath set forth, and my marginal reading
says, whom God hath foreordained to be a, what? Propitiation. God foreordained him to be a
propitiation through faith in His blood. Now that same word,
propitiation, is translated to Hebrews chapter 9, a mercy seat. A mercy seat. Now this is what
propitiation means. Do you remember when the high
priest would go one time a year into the Holy of Holies with
blood and sprinkle it on the mercy seat. A propitiation is
a mercy seat. Now here's how this works. Turn
with me to Colossians chapter one. Colossians chapter one. Verse 20. and having made peace through
the blood of his cross by him to reconcile, to take away the
differences, 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 in the body of his flesh through
death to present you holy and unblameable and unapprovable
in his sight. Now that's what propitiation
is. It's him removing God's reason for anger. And that's what I'm
asking the Lord to do for me. Be propitious toward me. I'm
not asking to just don't look at my sins. I'm asking him to
remove them and make it to where I am not guilty anymore. That's what propitiation is.
Hebrews 8, 12 says, I will be merciful and there it's the same
word. I will be propitious to their iniquities and their sins. I will remember no more. How
come? because they are gone. Now, this man had such an understanding
of the character of God, and this is true worship. This is
true worship. I repeat, this is true worship.
A Pharisee knew nothing of worship. This man acknowledged the character
of God. The only hope that I have is
for you to do something about my sins. Be propitious. Put them
away. Make them to where they're no
more. Make them to where they're gone. God would set forth Christ,
foreordain Christ. He foreordained this for the
foundation of the world. He's called the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. He set him forth to be a propitiation. And what was that next phrase?
Do you remember? This is so important. Through faith in His blood. Do you believe... Here's what I want to ask you
right now. I'm not asking if you believe you're saved. I'm not asking
you if you believe your elect. I'm asking you this. Do you believe
his blood actually accomplished propitiation? Do you have faith in his blood
as all that's needed to make you clean before God? Nothing else. I need no other
argument. I need no other plea. It is enough
that Jesus died and that he died for me. Faith in his blood. Now, some understanding of my
own sinfulness comes only from some understanding of the true
character of God. Look in 1 John chapter 1, or
1 John chapter 2. My little children, verse 1.
These things write I unto you that you sin not. What do you mean by that exactly
what he says? Exactly what he says. You know, I don't know
of anything much more offensive than someone who would excuse
their sin because of the grace of God. I mean, I can't help
it. I am what I am. I see, and you
know, that's just the way it is, you know, but I'm not going
to worry about it. You know, that kind of attitude
is evil. That's all you can call evil.
Evil. He said these things lie down to you that you sin not. When you do, that word if and
if any man sin, that is quite often translated and when any
man sin. When you do, we have an advocate
with the Father. Now we have this advocate before
the sin took place. We have this advocate during
the sin, and we have this advocate after the sin. We have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is, here
is his advocacy, he is the propitiation for our sins. not for ours only,
but also the sins of the whole world, not just for us Jews,
but Gentiles as well. He is the propitiation. He is
the reason the sin is taken away. And this is what, this is the
only thing that that publican prayed. God be propitious for
me, the sinner. Now that is the worship of God. And that is true prayer. Now let's close by looking at
our Lord's comment about this man. Luke 18 verse 14. Oh, this man's prayer was, God
be propitious to me, the sinner. No promises about what he's going
to do to straighten things out. Just simply this prayer. God
be propitious to me, the sinner. Verse 14, I tell you. This man went down to his house. What's the next word? Justified. Justified. Now, he went down to his house cleared
of all guilt. He went down to his house perfectly
righteous. He went down to his house having
never sinned. Always doing that which was right,
never doing that which was wrong. That's what justification means.
He went down to his house justified. Now, here is the end of propitiation. Here's what propitiation creates. If he's propitious toward me,
you know what I am? I am justified. Justified before
God. Justified. Now, justification
is not, listen real carefully, justification is not something
God offers me where I can accept it or reject it. No, justification
is something God declares me to be. Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect, it is God that justifieth. And justification. Justification comes to me because
of the imputation of Christ's righteousness to me. To him that
worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness, even as David describes the blessedness
of the man unto whom God imputes righteousness without their works. saying, Blessed are they whose
iniquities are forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the
man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Romans 4 verses 5
through 8. Now, if God is propitious toward
my sin, If he has been satisfied through the blood of Christ and
taken it away, not only is my sin taken away, but his righteousness
is given to me, and I am justified by his righteousness. Now, I
love justification. Romans 3.24 says, being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus.
It's not just some kind of arbitrary choice of God to say, well, He's
going to be justified. No, it's through the redemption
that's in Christ Jesus, through the propitiation that's in Christ
Jesus. But we're justified freely by
His grace. Justification is by blood. Romans 5.9 says, being now justified
by His blood. The reason I'm justified is because
of the blood of Christ. Romans 5.1, justified by faith. What's the evidence God's done
this for you? You believe. You believe the
gospel. That is the evidence. It's not
because you can see your justification. It's because you believe. You
rely on Christ as your justification before God. Scripture also speaks
of justification by works. Paul says, show me your faith
without your works. I'm just, I wouldn't dare. What am I trying to say? Somebody
says, I wouldn't dare presume to think my works have anything
to do with my salvation. I can live like a devil and live
like hell and I can still be justified. Nobody believes that.
Nobody believes that. Justification is by works in
the sense that, and here's what James meant when he said that.
He wasn't saying something contrary to what Paul said, where we're
not justified by works. He's saying that Abraham proved
he really believed God by his works, not by what he said. Somebody says, I believe in justification.
Well, good, good. I'm glad you do. But his works
proved he really believed God. When God said, you take your
son and kill him, Abraham really believed that God would raise
him from the dead because God said he would do it. He said
the Messiah would come through that boy, and he believed even
if he killed him, God would raise him from the dead. So when he
lifted up his knife to kill that boy, he proved he really did
believe God. That's the only thing that proved
it. If he would have said, no, I'm not going to do that, then
the Messiah couldn't come. All he proved by that is he didn't
believe God. You see, your works will prove what you really believe.
And Matthew chapter 12 speaks of being justified by our words.
Your words will line up with the publican. You'll pray the
same prayer he prayed, if you're real, if I'm real. This will
be the very prayer of my heart, my greatest desire, God be propitious
to me, the sinner. Now I want to ask everybody in
this room, which person are you? Which person are you? Do you thank God that you're
not like other men are? Or is this your only plea? God, be propitious to me, the
sinner. Which one of these men represents
you? Now, the Lord said, I tell you
that this man that prayed this prayer went down to his house
justified rather than the other, and he ends with what we could
very well call the unalterable law of the kingdom of heaven. For everyone that exalts himself
shall be abased. It's going to happen every time.
Nebuchadnezzar found out those that walk in pride, he is able
to abase. He's able. And he that humbleth
himself. That's what this fellow is doing.
God be propitious to me, the sinner. That's what it is to
humble yourself before God. It's not to act humble, it's
to be humble before God. To believe this about yourself
and your only hope is Christ. God be propitious to me, the
sinner. He that humbleth himself shall
be exalted. May the Lord enable every one
of us to humble ourselves and to pray this particular prayer. God be propitious to me. the sinner. Let's pray.