It has been five years since I preached from this text of scripture. This is a different message, but the scripture is the same. Before that, according to my records, it had been fourteen years. I think that we can say that I have not over used these verses.
Unlike my last message, I don’t plan to follow an outline of my own devising. What I hope to do today is use the verses to create the outline. And then, with the Lord’s help, I’ll try to let the words in each of those verses deliver the message. The more a preacher adds to the Word of God, the weaker the revelation becomes. Sometimes the soup demands more water, but at some point extra water dilutes the nutrition. Every preacher needs to return to Ezra every now and then to remind himself of the Biblical pattern. “So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.”
It is my prayer that we will all understand what Jesus Christ is telling us here. This is a parable about two different kinds of people, and one of them describes you. Which of these two you are will determine your eternal state.
Verse 10 – “Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.”
To understand this aright, we must realize that there more similarities than differences between these men. For example, both these men are Jews, descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They are “Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises, Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.” By birth there is no difference between these two men. Furthermore, in all likelihood they are of the same economic strata; upper middle class.
And both men, like you, went UP into the house of God. I like that word “up” because there is no more important building than the House of God. They both went up. Have you ever noticed that to enter the average court house the House of the Supreme Court for example, one must climb a number of steps? Why is that? The reason is not physical; it is psychological. Subconsciously, it tells people that they are going into an important place – a higher place. And to enter the Temple in Jerusalem, these two men had steps to climb. On other hand their going up into the Temple didn’t get them even one step closer to Heaven. Just as there may not be true justice in the Supreme Court of the United States. Even with the Jerusalem Temple – “God dwelleth not in temples made with hands.” And even though there are fifteen steps to reach the auditorium of the Calvary Baptist Church, not this place nor any other church in the city can claim to be an elevator to God. More often than not, city wide, church attendance condemns more souls than it saves.
Why were these men in the Temple that day? They didn’t climb those steps to meet their friends or to show off new suits or bonnets. They didn’t go to discuss the upcoming football game, or last night’s basketball game. They might have dropped some cash into the offering box, but this scripture doesn’t tell us that. They apparently didn’t talk to any of the priests or Levites who were there. They were not compelled to be there by their wives or their parents – they went willingly. It appears that they were there in order to pray. They didn’t even come in order to hear some good preaching or to learn something about themselves. They both thought they fully understood their own hearts. But while one was mistaken, the other was mortified.
The Lord Jesus tells us that one was a Pharisee and the other was a Publican. Have you ever noticed these are not opposing distinctions? This is a comparison of apples to oranges. By what criteria do people categorize themselves? They might use their sports allegiances – “I am a Husky fan;” “I am a Cougar.” Sometimes they use the status created by the size of their bank accounts. In college, there is a huge gap between the senior and the freshman, as though one was morally higher than the other. In the case of these men, one was categorized religiously and other was condemned occupationally. One was a Pharisee, who could have been banker, a fisherman, or a professional pick-pocket. The other was a Publican, who could have been the best father or the most generous supporter of the orphanage in town.
We know a little about Pharisees. Some would say they were excellent law-keepers, but others would call them nit-picky. One man would describe them as “religious,” but another might describe them as proud. And many of them certainly were proud – they were proud of they way they tithed and prayed, maintained the traditions and separated themselves from the low-life of society – like the publicans. This particular Pharisee spoke twenty-five words in Greek – thirty-three in our English Bibles. Five of those words were “I” and twenty-seven alluded to his preeminence in various areas.
Publicans on other hand, were known sinners in the sight of most of the rest nation – assumed sinners. They were sycophant servants of the Romans – tax collectors, collaborators, thieves of the honest Jews. They were required to collect money from their own nation and give it to the Romans. It was believed they could create their own tax rates, and if they didn’t like someone they could make their lives miserable. “The power to tax is the power to destroy.” The worst IRS man today looks like a saint compared to the Publican of Jesus’ day. “Publicans and harlots” were two words which that society tied together. And why? It was because society said that the Publican couldn’t marry a “good” girl.
It is to the Pharisee that Jesus first turns His attention.
“The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, 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.” This Pharisee pictured himself as among the cream of the crop; the flavor of the week. In his unconverted, self-centered frame of mind, he could make a list of all the evils which he did NOT; and another of the good things which he DID. The converted and reborn Pharisee confessed – “Even yet, the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.” There were no taverns in his man’s life, nor race tracks, gambling dens – not even any bowling allies. He didn’t listen Country Music, watch TV or movies rated above “G”. He didn’t smoke or chew tobacco; he didn’t curse or swear, and he didn’t run around. But, did this make him any better than the man next to him? No sir! He may have been honest in business, but that wasn’t necessarily true. He might been clean enough be elected to public office, but it seems that anyone can do that. In the eyes of Jerusalem, here was a “shoe-in” for Heaven.
The only one to disagree with him was Heaven’s Doorman – Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory. “I am the door of the sheep. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” Religious people are often the last to know way of salvation, because they can’t conceive of themselves as sinners. The man was thoroughly self-righteous growing out of the root of his self-deception. Satan had blinded this man’s eyes so he couldn’t see how poor he really was. This guy went into Temple drenched in cheap cologne. No one could stand to kneel with him, he stank so bad; not even Lord was there.
There is only one way for humans to fly, and that is with humility. As we look at birds, bats, kites and clouds, we say “why can’t I do that?” As long as we think we better than the pigeon or the sea gull, we will never fly. But as soon admit we are incapable of flight and humble ourselves enough to sit down and let others do it for us, then perhaps we can leave the ground. There is no sense going to the well with our pitcher already full. No one can come to Christ full of himself and honestly expect receive anything from Him. This man’s conformity to the rules of a false religion was not enough. And just because someone told him that he was less wicked than another – that was not enough either.
This Pharisee prayed, but to whom was it directed? Whether he knew it or not, he was praying to himself; he was the only god he needed. The Lord Jesus Christ quoted the man, “The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself.” “I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.” Now that I have reached these high levels of morality, I can fly the rest of the way to Heaven on my own.” He might have thought about carving those twenty-five words on a great slab of marble. Maybe they were inscribed on his tombstone; but the fact is – tombstones are placed over dead bodies. Like so many others, even people today, his religiousity did nothing to impress the Lord.
But over against him stood the 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.” Someone has called this a holy telegram to Heaven. In their heyday, telegrams were paid by the word and each word was expensive, so they were kept short. This man’s statement has only six words in the original language.
The difference between the first man and the second was in understanding their true personal condition. Somehow, God had broken through the fog in the mind of Publican and taught him, “There is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not.” “For (you) have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” You “are … as an unclean thing and all (your) righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” Some might deny it, but this is a revelation only God can truly plant in human soul. Oh, someone might admit to sins and crimes, failures and inadequacies. But a lack of sufficient righteousness before God is something only God can expose. Our Satanic father has us so confused and blinded us from birth that it takes divine miracle for us to see the truth.
How did the Lord get through to this man? I wonder what he might have done? Maybe he came home drunk one night and broke wife’s jaw, then when he awoke the next morning, he was broken. Maybe he saw best friend rot away with leprosy or watched him drive his chariot into a tree. Maybe through over-taxing he drove a man to suicide and later saw the man’s kids starving or becoming slaves. Perhaps John or Christ was preaching at the ford of the Jordan, where this man had his toll booth, and he overheard a gospel message. However it arrived, it finally clicked in heart as well head, “I am but dung!” Literally he said, “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” “Lord, I may be the only wicked person in Israel, but please have mercy on me.” The tense of the Greek verb says, that he kept beating his chest, over and over and over. That was the place where his wretched heart lay. He stood back as though he knew it would be dangerous for such wicked sinner to come to the throne of grace. But by standing where he was, he left room for a mediator to step between God and himself.
Did the fact of this sinfulness, or even his knowledge of his sinfulness redeem him? Does his confession of sin give God any information He didn’t have before? Does an accurate confession somehow remove the guilt of his sin? Why do people think that works before God but not before the human judicial system? What happens when the man walks into the police station and confesses to yesterday’s murder? That’s when the justice system begins to work. That confession may make things easier for the police but it does nothing to remedy the condition of the murderer. The sinnership of this Publican doesn’t elicit God’s grace and ultimately salvation. Grace preceded the man’s confession and grace guaranteed his forgiveness prompting the confession. And by the way, he didn’t plead his repentance either. He didn’t tell God that he was penitent sinner, or a reformed sinner, a born sinner or a reborn sinner. He didn’t offer God any promises or payments.
The Publican, however, did take his sinfulness to its logical conclusion. He implied, “Lord, who am I to approach your throne of grace and mercy? I am nothing but a sinner.” I have never seen your face, Lord, but “I have heard of thee with the hearing of the ear. Wherefore I abhor myself with dust and ashes.” “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.” What right does the President of North Korea to pray to the gracious Son of God? I’ll tell you – he has as much right as I have. “Lord, the only thing that I can say of myself is that I am a sinner. I am standing in the house of God, but I can’t even bring myself look toward you.” (The Lord doesn’t say that he “couldn’t” look towards Heaven, but he “wouldn’t.”) “I am praying, Lord, but I’m unworthy to call on your name.” “My problem is spiritual; my heart is a cask of filth.” “Please, O God, be merciful to me a most wretched sinner.” “I beg not for anything less than your mercy – with out it I will be destroyed.” “Hell is my future unless your grace deals with my sinfulness.”
Mercy can only be given to someone who is guilty. This man knew and confessed himself to be a guilty sinner unworthy of grace or mercy. “They that are whole need not a physician but they that are sick.” In comparing the Publican and the Pharisee someone once wrote: “One nearer to God’s altar trod; the other to the altar’s God.” I hope that you can see the difference between these two men. But can see yourself ?
The Lord went on –
“I tell you, 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.” When Jesus says, “I tell you,” – that is the way it is. A humble relationship to God is the only way to begin before Him – an it is the way to continue. This publican, if ever had any pride, and we all do, laid it down crucified before God. It was “abased,” and abasement is not under the floor of a house. His pride was crushed and destroyed before holy God.
This tax collector not only was praised for his humility, but declared, by the Son of God, to be “just.” That means that he was given the mercy he sought; he was forgiven; he was cleansed. There has never been a tax collector, meter reader, button pusher, beer guzzler, wife beater, curse purveyor or sin pursuer – Who in humility, faith and sincere sorrow over that sin has not been justified. Christ came into this world to save sinners like this man – and like you and me. He came not to heal the healthy but to cure the spiritually cancerous. But where there is no repentance before God, there is no salvation. And when a man’s faith is in something other than the sacrificed Son of God, there is no justification.
The first man in this parable, in all his religion, morality and self-righteousness walked into the temple on his way to hell, and he left by way of the same door. He trusted himself that he was righteous and would not submit himself to the righteousness of God. He rejected God’s grace because he thought that he had no need to have it.
We all need to cry out along with the second man – this Publican: “God be merciful to me a sinner.” There is nothing magical in the words themselves. But if with the publican’s heart we can take up the publican’s attitude, we can use the publican’s words to see what happened in the publican’s heart. The Lord declared him to be righteous, and the man’s prayer revealed it.
Have you ever received the publicans Saviour?