Who Are the Recipients?

Driving home: no issue is of greater importance than that which is wrapped up in the question, how can I be certain that I'm ready to meet God?

The analogy of the constantly beating heart that will inevitably stop illustrates the certainty of death for every individual, setting the stage for the sermon's focus on preparing to meet God.

And all the while you've been sitting here, that heart has been beating. That vital organ made up primarily of muscle tissue beating at a rate of most likely anywhere from the mid-50s for some of you in excellent cardiovascular shape to some of you in not so good cardiovascular shape somewhere in the mid-90s or higher. It's beaten thousands of times during this service. It has been beating millions of times for a number of us.

0:26 - 1:01 Read in full sermon

The point: Be convicted if you have no biblical grounds to believe that the living God has justified you, and do not seek to justify yourselves or others.

These three analogies explain the benefits of studying doctrine through catechetical statements: a fence marks boundaries and keeps out intruders, a grid sifts out error, and a genuine Federal Reserve note helps identify counterfeits, all serving to ground believers in truth.

And I gave three analogies. I said a good catechetical statement of a biblical doctrine operates like a fence, which functions in two ways. It marks out the proper boundaries, and it keeps out intruders. It can function, secondly, like a grid, a sieve, through which to sift ideas.

5:53 - 6:13 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The only people God justifies are ungodly people. That's the only ones.

The example of working for a paycheck illustrates that a reward for labor is a debt, not grace, contrasting it with God's justification of the ungodly, which is purely by grace.

They're in Romans chapter 4 and language could not be more clear. Romans chapter 4 verses 4 and 5. Now to him that does not work the reward is sorry now to him that is working the reward is not reckoned as of grace but as of debt. When you go to work put in your hours punch a clock and then you get a paycheck that's not grace.

37:00 - 37:29 Read in full sermon

The point: Examine if your attachment to Christ is real or merely a thin veneer, especially if your heart is wedded to the world in entertainment, dress, and talk.

Jesus' statement that 'they that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick' is used to explain that only those who recognize their spiritual illness (sin) will seek Christ, the Great Physician.

the sinner is all wrong with God and where is that taught in the Bible well I want us to look many texts but I want us to look at two in the interest of time the first from the lips of our savior himself in Luke chapter 5 in Luke chapter 5 in conversion and Levi makes a big feast obviously that he might make known his new relationship to the Lord Jesus in verse 30 says in Luke 5 the Pharisees and their scribes murmured against his disciples saying why do you eat and drink with the publicans and sinners what in the world is your master and you people these tax collectors they are like the Pales...

42:28 - 43:56 Read in full sermon

The point: Examine if your attachment to Christ is real or merely a thin veneer, especially if your heart is wedded to the world in entertainment, dress, and talk.

The comparison of a worldly Christian to an idolater in a deep jungle bowing to a carving highlights that worshipping the world's standards is a form of idolatry, emphasizing the need for deep conviction of sin.

With a thin veneer of Christ, and Christianity, and gospel talk. And the issue is, you've never felt what you really are before God. You've never felt the reality that that world at whose shrine you worship, in terms of what you like in entertainment, what you like in music, what you like in dress, what you like in talk, what you like in this, your heart is wedded to the world. Wedded to the world. The Bible says, whosoever be a friend to the world is an enemy of God.

46:28 - 47:07 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He uses the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector to vividly illustrate the publican's deep, felt awareness of his sin, contrasting it with the Pharisee's…

The Pharisee's proud, self-righteous posture in prayer is contrasted with the publican's humility, illustrating how outward demeanor can reflect inward spiritual state.

that they were righteous. Said all others it not. Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God I thank you. I'm not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I get. But the publican, standing afar off. Isn't it interesting? Jesus, first of all, addresses his body language.

49:31 - 50:03 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He uses the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector to vividly illustrate the publican's deep, felt awareness of his sin, contrasting it with the Pharisee's…

The publican's humble body language—standing afar off, not lifting his eyes, and smiting his breast—illustrates his deep, felt awareness of his sin and unworthiness before God.

Well, body language doesn't mean anything. If I sit and slouch in church, it doesn't mean my heart's not right. Baloney it isn't. You don't slouch in the presence of God. This man didn't come strutting up into the presence of God. His body language, Jesus identifies it. Not me. Jesus did. He stood afar off.

50:05 - 50:30 Read in full sermon

The point: Examine if there is tenderness to sin, secret grieving over sin, or real evidence of attachment to Christ as the pearl of great price.

The publican's prayer, 'Be propitious to me, the sinner,' illustrates that true conviction of sin isolates the individual before God, making them feel like the sole sinner in the universe.

Be thou merciful. Not the standard word for mercy, but the propitiation family of words most likely had. His eyes upon the altar of sacrifice. Be propitious to me. Not a sinner. Jesus put the definite article in his mouth. The sinner. Yes, the world is full of sinners, but oh God, at this point, there's only one sinner. And that sinner's me. You see, when God the Holy Ghost brings real conviction, there's only two people in the universe. You and God.

52:25 - 53:04 Read in full sermon