I'd like to add one other passage
of Scripture to our reading. Turn to 1 Corinthians, chapter
1. 1 Corinthians, chapter 1. We're
talking about preaching, what's missing in today's preaching.
Preaching has a very important part in the design of redemption. You'll see that in this Scripture
right here, preaching. Our Lord was a preacher, said
the Lord began to preach. John the Baptist was a preacher,
and when our Lord went back to glory, ascended back to glory,
sent the Holy Spirit down here, he told his disciples to go and
preach. That's what he commissioned them
to do, go and preach the gospel. So here in 1 Corinthians 1 we
read, Paul speaking, verse 17, 1 Corinthians 1, for Christ sent
me not to baptize. Paul's not minimizing the importance
of baptism. He's simply saying, that's not
my primary purpose, to baptize or to organize. But he sent me,
this is my mission, this is my task, and this is the task of
the church and of every preacher, to preach the gospel. He sent
me to preach the gospel. And how am I going to preach
it? Well, not with wisdom of words. Not with appealing, enticing
words of man's wisdom. lest the cross of Christ should
be made of non-effect, unless I present myself, unless I call
attention to myself and to my wisdom and my logic, I'm going
to preach the cross in such a way that the cross will not be hidden
from men's eyes under words and attractive fleshly promotion. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness, nonsense, but unto us which are
being saved, it's the power of God. And when we talk about the
preaching of the cross, we're not talking about the preaching
of a piece of wood like this, we're talking about the preaching
of what took place on that cross. All of the work of justification
that our Lord accomplished in his sacrifice, in his death,
the preaching of the cross is the preaching of Christ. That's
the preaching of the cross. the preaching of Christ. That's
what's wrong, as I mentioned last week with this song on the
old rugged cross. I'll cling to the old rugged
cross and exchange it someday for a crown. I'm not clinging
to the old rugged cross. I'm not cherishing the old rugged
cross. I'm clinging to Christ who died on that cross. Salvation
is not in a cross, it's in him who died on the cross. And when
Paul talks about preaching the cross, he's not talking about
preaching a piece of wood or something of that sort, he's
talking about preaching justification by the work of him who died on
the cross. Now it's verse 19, it's written,
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing
the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Had not God made
foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God, by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. I ask myself
this question preparing this message. I'm a preacher. I claim
to be a preacher. Why do I preach? Why do I preach? Why does anybody preach? Well,
I can't answer for the others, but I think I can give you three
reasons why I preach. The first one is this, because
like Paul said, Christ sent me to preach. Go ye into all the
world and preach the gospel. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. I must be about my Father's business. He sent us to preach. My joy and my delight is to preach
the good news of Jesus Christ, to proclaim it to those who've
not heard, and also to preach it to those who have heard. He
sent me to preach. That's the first reason. Whether
anybody's ever saved or not, I must preach the gospel. Necessity
is laid upon me. Woe is unto me if I preach not
the gospel. I'm driven by that passion and
desire to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. First,
because God sent me to preach. Secondly, to promote the glory
of God. I'll tell you, the gospel is
the glory of God. The redemptive glory of God is
his chief glory. Now, I've said this on many occasions,
but healing the sick is not the chief glory of God. Even raising
the dead is not the chief glory of God. The destruction of this
world by a flood or any of the creation of the sun, moon, and
stars is not the chief glory of God. The chief glory of God
is his redemptive mercies in Jesus Christ. That's the chief
glory of God. Somebody made the statement on
television or somewhere recently that Friday, they call it Black
Friday, was the blackest day in Christian history. My friends,
if Christ died on Friday, I'm not sure which the day. Some
say Wednesday, some say Friday, some say other things. But the
day he died is not the blackest day in Christian history, it's
the brightest, most glorious day in our experience. Christ
died for my sins. He died for my sins. I'm not
mourning over the death of Christ, I'm rejoicing that he died. Moses
said to the Lord, show me your glory. And he said, I'll cause
my goodness to pass before you. I'll be merciful. I'll be gracious
to whom I will be gracious. So God's chief glory is his redemptive
glory. And in 1 Timothy 1.11, Paul actually
called the gospel the gospel of God's glory. It is, it's called
in that verse, the glorious gospel of our God, Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ, but that better translation is the gospel of God's glory. The chief glory of our Lord is
his redemptive glory. The fact that he should create
a man out of dust is not as glorious as creating a new man in Christ
Jesus. The fact that he should raise
the dead from the tomb is not as great as raising the spiritually
dead from dead tombs and dead grave. Giving sight to the blind
is not as glorious as giving sight to the spiritually blind
who will never again be without it. So you see, I preach to promote
the glory of God. Actually, whatever God does is
for his glory. He'll get glory even in his in
the demonstration of his judgment and justice. He hath made all
things for himself, yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
And then the third reason why I preach is found in verse 21
of 1 Corinthians 1. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Through the preaching
of the gospel, men are brought to Christ. The gospel is the
power of God unto salvation. I'll tell you this. Every man
that's ever been saved has been saved through the word of God,
by faith in Christ Jesus. Now that's so. In fact, I've
quoted this so many times over in the book of Romans. It says,
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, the name of
the right Lord, the living Lord, the sovereign Lord, the able
Lord, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
shall be saved, but how can they call on him in whom they have
not believed, and how shall they believe in him of whom they have
not heard, and how shall they hear without a preacher, and
how shall they preach except they be saved? The gospel is
the power of God unto salvation. Of his own will beget he us through
the word of truth. being born again not of corruptible
seed but of incorruptible seed by the word of God which liveth
and abideth forever. Men are saved by hearing and
receiving and believing the gospel. And that gospel is preached.
It's preached. I know the Lord ordained the
salvation of sinners. I know God has an elect. But
you turn to 2 Timothy 2 and let me show you something what Paul
said about his ministry. And the apostle Paul Suffered
so many things in prison. He went everywhere preaching.
He was one of the first traveling missionaries He went everywhere
preaching the gospel and he said here in 2nd Timothy 2 talking
about being in prison and being Persecuted and hated and mocked
and ridiculed and all these things. He said verse 10 of 2nd Timothy
2 therefore I endure all things all of this suffering and All
of this persecution, all of this that I've endured, being scourged
and mocked and stoned and shipwrecked and all the rest of it, for the
elect's sake, that they may obtain, that they may also obtain the
salvation which is in Christ Jesus. Well, Paul, what have
you got to do with their obtaining salvation? I've got to preach
to them. That's what I've got to do with it. He says the elect have been elected
But they're going to obtain salvation, and I endure all things that
they might obtain it. Wait a minute, Christ purchased
it, that's right. The Holy Father ordained it,
that's right. The Holy Spirit applies it. Well,
where do you come in? I preach it. I preach it. I preach it. And that is just
so, Jay, we've got to preach the gospel. And if we have to
bury ourselves in our studies and bury ourselves in the Bible
and desert our families and loved ones and give ourselves to going
up and down the country preaching and exhaust ourselves, we've
got to do it because men have got to hear this gospel and so
few people are preaching it. What I said this morning, I told
somebody I painted myself in the corner this morning, made
it sound like I was the only one, only pastor preaching the
gospel. I know that's not so, there are
men preaching it. I just don't run into them very
often. I just don't run into them. I hear them preaching a
lot of things. I hear them preaching everything
under the sun, but where does a man go to hear who Christ is? What did Christ do? Why did he
do it? Where is he now? What's my hope?
Substitution. Redemption. That old boy down there in Crossdale,
Tennessee was running down educated preachers. And he said, well,
he said, I ain't no educated preacher. Well, he didn't need
to say that for everybody to know it. But he said, I'll tell
you this, you'll never catch me using them big words like
regeneration and justification. And they won't either. But brother,
without regeneration and justification, we're in trouble, deep trouble. Preaching. I preach that men
may be brought to Christ. I preach that they may be brought
to Christ because it's by the foolishness of preaching that
God has ordained men to be saved. That's not by the preaching of
foolishness. We're not comedians. We're not entertainers. We're
not promoters. We're not toastmasters. We're
not politicians. We're preachers of Christ. And
if we'll preach Christ, God will honor it. Now God will honor
it. I guarantee you God will honor
it. And here's what makes preaching
so important. Let me give you three things
here. Faith is the product of preaching. That's a fact. Faith is the product of preaching.
Men believe what they hear. They can't believe anything else.
It is like you said to your pastor years ago. I don't know what
I'm not hearing, but I know I'm not hearing anything. I know
I'm not hearing. There's something I'm not hearing.
And I'll tell you, if you don't hear the truth, you're not going
to believe the truth. Your faith is a direct product
of what you hear. That's what makes the pastor's
position so important. That's what puts such a responsibility
upon his shoulders. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God. Men are going to believe what
they hear. They can do nothing else. I want you to show you
something in John chapter 18. It'd do well for you to turn
over there with me for a moment. John 18. John 18 verse 21. Let
me tell you something. If you want to find out what
a man's preaching, don't ask him. Don't ask him. Ask his people. Isn't that right,
Charlie? Don't ask him. Don't even waste your time. I've
talked to preachers before and asked them what they believe
sitting in their study. Oh man, they go right down the line.
And then I get out there in the congregation, nobody's ever heard
it before. Nobody's ever heard it. He doesn't preach it. Like
the pastor said to Garland Coffey, if I preach that, wow, I'd be
out on my ear tomorrow. I just preach what I can preach
and get along. I preach what I can preach and
make everybody happy. I preach what I can preach and
keep the thing together. One preacher told Brother Barnard
one time, said, I can't have you for a meeting if I lose two
tithers, we going to red. That's a fact. Bunch of preachers
one time came to Brother Barnard and said, will you come? Will
you come over to our county? Countywide, we're going to support
you, promote you in a countywide tent meeting. All the churches
in the county, all the Baptist churches are going to promote
you in a meeting. Will you come preach? He said, yep. They said,
now one request. When you come, promise us you
won't preach on election. He said, I ain't coming. And
one of them said, well, Brother Barnard, he said, you can preach
without preaching on election, can't you? He said, I sure can.
In fact, I don't preach on election too often. But he said, I won't
be there two days. It'll leak out on me, I believe
it. And he said, I ain't coming. Now, I tell you, if it's in your
heart, it'll leak out on you. Somebody's gonna discover you
believe it and our Lord said here in John 18 verse 19 the
high priest then asked Jesus of his disciples and of his doctrine
the high priest asked him of his doctrine and Jesus answered
now listen I spake openly to the world I Ever taught in the
synagogue in the temple whether the Jews always resort and in
secret have I said nothing? Why askest thou me? of my doctrine. Ask them which heard me." Huh? They'll tell you what I preach.
Ask them that heard me what I said to them, they know what I said. And I'll guarantee you if a man's
preaching anything, his congregation's going to know it. Because faith
is a product of preaching. And you found a congregation
that doesn't know anything about God's creation, and God's sovereignty,
and man's fall, and God's elective grace, and Christ's particular
redemption, and the Holy Spirit's fall, and the perseverance of
the saints, and preservation, and these things, and somebody's
not preaching anything. Spurgeon said one time, any six
or seven-year-old child in his church knew the five points of
Calvinism. I was thrilled to death one time. You've heard
me preach so much on the three R's. Roland Hill talked about
the three R's, ruin, redemption, and regeneration. I preached
it so much. This is a true story. I can verify
it by Eddie Robinette back there. And one of our children, just
a little child, was in school, and the teacher asked the class,
said, does anybody know what the three R's are? And one little
boy raised his hand. She said, what is it? He said,
read and write and arithmetic. Well, that's what she wanted.
But this child, who's in this church here and been in a church
ever since she was a baby, she went home and told her mother,
said, you know, said the teacher asked what the three R's were.
And she said, the little boy in front of me says, read and
write and arithmetic. Said, I'm glad she didn't call
on me. I thought it's ruin, redemption, regeneration. That happened. I can verify that. Boy, I tell
you, that's listening, though, and that's what comes from the...
Ask them that heard me, Christ said, even the little ones. Ask
them that heard me. Faith is a product of preaching.
I'll tell you something else, the knowledge of God is the product
of preaching. The knowledge of God is the product
of preaching. What we know about God, what
we know about his attributes, give me the attributes of God.
Many of you can't. God is holy. God is sovereign. God is almighty, God is merciful,
God is love, God is righteous, God is just, God is truth, all
of these things. You know the attributes of God.
Where did you learn them? You learned them through the
preaching of the Word of God, through the teaching of the Word
of God. If a man does not know anything about the attributes
of God, then he does not know anything about God. That's a
fact, Charlie. He does not know God. And he
does not have eternal life. He does not know God because
eternal life is to know God. Our Lord said to those Pharisees,
you neither know me nor my father. You have your father the devil.
They were the most religious men in town. Knowledge comes
through preaching. It's the product of preaching.
It's the results of preaching. Philip stood by that chariot
as that man sat there and read Isaiah 53. And he said to him,
do you understand what you're reading? And the man says, how
can I unless somebody show me? And that's true. I don't care
of any son of Adam. He's got to be taught. He's got
to be shown. And our Lord Jesus left in the
church prophets, apostles, evangelists, pastors, and teachers for the
perfecting of the saints, for the ministry of the word, that
we come to a knowledge of his truth. And the knowledge of God
is the product of preaching. I'll tell you something else.
Our conduct is a result of what we hear. Our conduct, our religious
conduct, I'll tell you this, and I'm going to be quite honest
and frank with you. If the pastor has prejudice toward
races, his people are going to have prejudice. If that's what
he preaches, that's what they're going to have. You wonder why
down at Darvin was a little bit concerned about going down to
the Deep South, Louisiana, the issue between blacks and whites
and so forth. I said it'll be tough because
the most religious people down there hate black people. They've
been taught to hate them. It's come from their pulpits.
It's in their literature. That's right. You know that,
Jay. You was raised down there. It's a product of what they've
listened to. If the pulpit preaches love, people love each other.
If the full pulpit preaches prejudice, it'll be manifested in the lives
and hearts of the people. I heard a pastor down there one
time preach on the subject brotherly love, and he made it quite clear
and distinct. That's what he meant, brotherly
love. I was under no obligation to love anybody else. That's
a fact. And when you draw those conclusions,
you say, we're just people, and if we can find an excuse for
our sins, we'll fight one, especially if it comes from the pulpit.
If we can justify our conduct by what we hear preached, we'll
justify our conduct. But if we cannot, then we won't.
So all of those things is true. Faith is a product of preaching.
The knowledge of God is the product of preaching. Conduct on the
part of the people is a result of preaching. And you'll find
that true where the It's like I was talking to you a moment
ago, and I talked to the men about preaching so long this
morning, so I just gave three sermons tonight, one at different
times, you know, and I can shorten each one of them. But that passing
the plate, I was talking about the honesty of this congregation,
the honesty of the pulpit here in dealing with the money that's
given. And when we set those examples and preach that way,
people respond that way. It's the product of what goes
forth. And here today, now here's our trouble. Here's one of our
trouble, and this is the missing note right here. Preachers are
crying, peace, peace, when there is no peace. And I want you to
catch these six or seven things that I'm going to give you right
here. Men are built up, built up, who have never been brought
down. That's the problem right there.
Men are built up. This is the importance of preaching.
Men are built up who've never been brought down. Men are filled,
filled, who've never been empty. My friends, there's got to be
a humbling before there can be an exalting. There's got to be
an emptying before there can be a filling. God will not sew
patches on our old garments. God will not put new wine in
old bottles. And what's this? Men are given
hope. They're given hope, hope of life,
hope of salvation, hope of heaven, who've never been without hope. And men are healed who've never
been wounded. And men are exalted who've never
been humbled. And men are saved who've never
been lost. This is where the problem lies. Men are given life who've never
been dead. Men are given grace who've never
been guilty. A holy God, now catch this, a
holy God never takes a man to Calvary. Never takes a man to
Calvary who's never been to Sinai. He just doesn't do it. Now it's
so, J. He'll never take him to Calvary.
What we've been trying to do is we've been trying to give
medicine to people who are not sick. We've been trying to minister
to people who are not needing. We've been trying to wish Christ
off on people who don't really want him, don't really need him.
Before God ever takes a man to Calvary and reveals to him the
grace and mercy and redemptive glory of his Son, He'll take
him to Calvary and strip him and ipt him and break him and
bruise him and crush him and kill him! And then he'll be mighty
much obliged for what takes place at Calvary. A man's not interested
in what happens at Calvary until he hears That voice from Sinai. God never speaks peace to a man's
heart until he lays down his weapons of warfare. That's right. You're going to turn your sword
around and hand it to God first or you're never going to have
a peace agreement. God's not going to sign peace with you
while you're armed to the teeth in rebellion against him. He's
going to break you and bruise you and strip you and humble
you, and you're going to unconditionally surrender first with a sword
pointing toward your own heart, confessing your own guilt and
suing for mercy. It's like one time I read back
in the Old Testament, and one of you can tell me where it is,
but the fellows that came with the ropes around their neck They
were guilty. They just went out and got the
ropes and planted hangman's nooses and put them on their necks and
stood there before the king with the ropes already around their
neck. Said we deserve to be hanged. You know he let them go. He let
them go. We put the rope around our neck.
And then the Holy God only administers grace to the guilty. Now that's
what I read over here in Matthew chapter 9. Let's turn back over
there just a moment. Matthew chapter 9. Our Lord tells
us we need to learn what this means. We need to learn what
this means. And I'm going to read Luke and
then we'll close. But the gospel is addressed to
sinners. And this is where preachers are
missing it. You'll never be saved till you're lost. You'll never
be clothed till you're stripped. You'll never be exalted till
you've been humbled. You'll never fall in love with the Redeemer
until you need him so desperately that you can't live without him.
I must have Christ. I must have Christ, like Saul
of Tarsus. And listen, these things were
precious to him. Saul of Tarsus was not only willing
to die for his religion, he was willing to kill for it. In fact,
he did. Brother, I tell you, he wasn't
playing games. The fact that he was a Hebrew
of Hebrews was important enough for him to kill for it. The fact
that he was of the tribe of Benjamin, The fact that he was a Pharisee,
the fact that he believed the law, the fact that he went through
the traditions and the circumcision and all the ceremonies and rituals,
he'd fight you for that religion. He'd die for them. He'd kill
for that religion. And he'd kill for those things
he believed. But he came to the place where he said, I count
all that, but don't. Rubbish. Now that's empty. That's
broken. That's stripped. I count everything,
my heritage, my ancestry, my accomplishments, my fame, my
glory, but rubbish that I may win Christ and be found in him.
God slew him. God slew him. And we're taking
a shortcut. We're enthroning people without
slaying them. We're giving a fellow a ticket
to heaven without him even knowing that he needs it. He's lost. Now watch in Matthew 9. You've
heard me read it. And they said, verse 11, Why
does your master eat with publicans and sinners? And when the Lord
heard it, he said, They that behold do not need. There's no
need. They're not going to visit the
physician. They're not going to do what he says. They're not
going to take his medicine. And they're not going to thank
him. Now that's so. Now here a man is sick. He needs
the physician. He'll go to the physician. He'll
take the medicine of the physician. And when he's healed, he'll pay
him and he'll thank him. He'll kiss his hand if need be.
But the man who's well, he doesn't need him, he doesn't go to him,
he doesn't take his medicine, and he doesn't thank him. And
that's what our Lord said. You go learn what that means.
I will have mercy and not sacrifice. I am come, the Savior of sinners,
to call not the righteous. You say, nobody's righteous.
They think they are. They think they are. I've come
not to call them, but sinners to repentance. Now let me show
you an illustration over here in Luke chapter 18. I want to
look at these two men. Take a good look at them. Now,
the first thing I want to say is this. We've got to realize
the difference in these two men. When our Lord was speaking to
these Jews, and he said a Pharisee went to the temple to pray, and
a publican, Do you realize how far apart these men were? Do
you realize what extreme this was? The Pharisee was the most
well-thought-of man to that congregation. The Pharisees, they used to say
that if there's just two men in heaven, one of them will be
a Pharisee and the other, what did the Sadducees say? That's
what the Jews used to say. If there's just two men in heaven,
one of them will be a Pharisee. In fact, when our Lord condemned
the Pharisees, the disciples came up with this question. then
who can be saved? Now that's how much they thought
of it. So our Lord mentioned this Pharisee. And a publican,
the most despised man in Jewish circles was a publican. They
hated him with a passion. They hated him with a passion. They were Jewish people who served
the Roman government. That's who they were. The publicans
were Jewish men who had sold out and served the Roman government
and collected taxes from their own people, Roman taxes. The
Jews hated the Romans and they hated the taxes, but they hated
those publicans worse than they hated either one, because they
came and collected. So now that's the two men he's
talking about. Now you can see how shocking this was. It's like
me standing here this evening and saying a preacher, I picked
the best preacher in the whole movement, and name his name,
say he went to pray and picked the lowest, filthiest, dirtiest
gangster in this town, say he went to pray. Now that's just
about not quite as extreme as the one Christ gave. And he said
they went to pray, and he said the Pharisee went right up to
the altar, just like he belonged there. He just proceeded right
up to the altar. Now the altar was a special place
in the Jewish temple. The altar was the holy place.
And brother, he walked right up to the altar. He went right
down to the front. He was very familiar with the
temple and the things of God. He felt like he belonged at that
altar. That's where he was doing his
prayer. But now it says the publican stood afar off. Look down at
verse 13. And the publican standing afar
off. not worthy of the presence of
the Lord God. Someone said he stood afar off
and left room for a mediator between him and God. The old
Pharisee came right down here like he's going to do business
direct, you know, directly with God. But that publican stood
way off in a corner, way off in a corner. Reminds me of Israel
at Mount Sinai when the lightning flashed and the thunder rolled
and the smoke bellowed and God spoke his law and they backed
off. They stood up far off it said and they said Moses you
speak to God. Speak to God for us. Don't let
God speak to us lest we die. You get the picture here the
Pharisee, the religious man, the moral man, the self-righteous
man comes right down to the front like he belong there. And the
public can stand way off in the corner somewhere. He wouldn't
even approach the altar. And then evidently that Pharisee
not only looked toward heaven, but he spread his hands. That
was an old Jewish custom to lift. That's where you notice on television
people lifting their hands. Well, that's an old Jewish custom
to lift the hands, palms extended toward heaven when you pray in
a manner of worship. And evidently he lifted his hands
Because down here in verse 13 it says the publican would not
so much even as lift his eyes to heaven. He didn't lift his
hands. He wouldn't even lift his eyes.
He wouldn't even lift his eyes. His downcast eyes showed his
shame. Maybe this is where we get the
bowing of the head in prayer. I'm not saying it's absolutely
necessary for a man to bow his head when he prays. He can pray
looking toward heaven if he's got a conscience void of sin
as far as redemption is concerned. In Christ, he can pray with his
hands raised or his hands folded or on his knees or prostrate
or however, but maybe the bowing of the head came from right here.
This man would not lift so much as his eyes to heaven. He was
ashamed about his head. Now notice this. The Pharisee
literally denied his sin. He said in verse 11, I am not
as other men. I am not. I am not. He denied his sins. There's not
one word of confession. There's not one word of humility.
Nothing but the extolling of his virtues. He said, I am not.
I am not as other men. I am not an adulterer. I am not
an extortioner. I am not unjust. I am not. Republicans smote on his breast.
He just, he wouldn't even lift his eyes, but standing afar off,
he smote on his breast. Somebody said this. He knew in
that breast lay the source of all his trouble. His heart. His spirit. That's where he was
beaten. Beaten. I had a friend tell me he had
a heart attack one time. He was, he's a salesman. He was
off in another town. He wanted to get home. He had
a heart attack. Put him in the hospital when he got home. But
he said he was hurting driving down the highway, hurting so
bad he was beating himself on his chest. His heart was hurting
and he was beating it, you know, trying to keep it from hurting,
trying to get the circulation going. And that's what this publican's
doing. He's had heart trouble, heart
pains, heart distress, and he's standing there beating on his
heart, crying, God, oh God, he cried, be merciful. I believe
he's The Lord is demonstrating or showing us something here
that contains all of that. My trouble, my trouble is heart
trouble. Heart trouble. He smote on his
breast. Our Lord said out of the heart
proceeds evil thoughts. Out of the heart proceeds adultery,
fornication, blasphemy. Out of the heart proceeds all
of these things. Lust and jealousy and envy and
bigotry and prejudice and pride and all these things are fruits
of the heart. And these are the things that
defile a man. So this old publican, he knew
some things. He knew the source of his trouble.
He beat on his breast. Now, the Pharisee dealt with
trivial rubbish. He stood there, now listen to
him in verse 12. I fast. I fast. Paul called that rubbish. That's
right. He said, I fast. I tithe. I give alms of all that I possess. I do all these. He was dealing
with what Isaiah called it, filthy rags. That's what Isaiah called
it, filthy rags. Filthy rags. Paul called it rubbish
and Isaiah called it filthy rags. But this publican didn't deal
with any of that trivial rubbish. You know what he dealt with?
Two of the greatest matters that a man can deal with, sin and
mercy. God be merciful to me, a sinner. Now, brother, in prayer, in approaching
God, in suing for peace, those are the two things you want to
be most concerned about. Your sin and His mercy. His mercy
on your sin. That's what you want to talk
to God about. I don't care when you come or how you come or who
comes. But this is the important thing.
Take your place before God as a sinner. As a sinner. And sue for mercy. And he stood
there. Now Christ said the Pharisee
went home condemned, damned, condemned. He said, this publican,
this atrocious, sinful, this man had a record. That's what
the police always say when they arrest somebody. Got a record?
Yeah, he had a record. It was a bad one too. But everybody
God saved got a bad record. Mine's as long as Started in
the Garden of Eden. That's how long it is. You talk
about a long record. I Got one goes back 6,000 years.
You have to you just don't know it as the first the first Well
entry on my record was made in the Garden of Eden That's first
entry lost Damn ruined dead as a first entry And they've been
writing them ever since, because all that man's ever done toward
God, I've been identified. Isaac Calvary, that's the second
thing they wrote, killed God's son. Woo, you talk about a record. Killed God's son. I don't want
to meet that thing, do you? I'll just take my chances. You
ain't got a chance. Boy, when they turned the pages
of your record, tried to throw God off His throne, killed God's
son, Don't need to go to the next page, do we? You say, my
life's been clean, but your start was bad. Don't need to go to
the next page. You're already a goner. That's
all. And this Pharisee, he went home
condemned. The publican, the guilty man,
Christ said he, this man went home from that experience, from
that confession, from that confrontation with God justified. Brother, I tell you that's all
I need to know that I'm justified. It's God that justified, justified
in the presence of God Almighty, justified. What's missing in
today's preaching? That very thing right there,
Matthew chapter 9 verse 10 through 13. Don't know what it is to
be lost. Men who've never been lost have
never been saved. Men who've never prayed like
the publican, taken their place with the publican, have never
been justified. Our Lord delights to show mercy.
If I can find a sinner, I can deliver him good news. God delights
to show mercy. If we can just find some sinners.
Somebody said one time, a sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost
hath made him so. Our Heavenly Father Thank Thee
for the good news of Christ, the glorious glad tidings of
great joy, which shall be and has been to all people. Unto
us is born a Savior, Christ the Lord. Christ the Lord. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. Emmanuel, God
with us, wonderful Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting
Father, the Prince of Peace. He alone is our strength, our
hope, and our refuge. We come to him empty and we're
filled. We come to him dead and we're given life. We come to
him blind and we see. We come to him lame and we walk.
We come to him with nothing but sin and sorrow and shame, and
we go away with joy and happiness and justification, all because
of Calvary. Use this message for your glory
and our good. Christ's sake, amen.