The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

Entering the Portrait Gallery: The Parable as a Mirror

0:03 Now may I urge you to turn with me in your own Bibles to the Gospel according to Luke and the 18th chapter, and follow, please, as I read what for many of you may be a very familiar portion of the Word of God, but one which I trust by the blessing of the Spirit of God will come home to our hearts with freshness and with power as I seek to open up this passage in your hearing. Luke chapter 18, and beginning with verse 9, recording the ministry of our Lord Jesus, Luke writes, And he, that is, our Lord, spoke also this parable unto certain who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and set all others at peace. But not two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican or a tax collector. And the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank you that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.

1:30 I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess, but the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but beat upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. I say unto you, This man went down, to his house justified, rather than the other, for every one that exalts himself shall be humbled, but he that humbles himself shall be exalted. As we set this portion of the word of God before us this evening, I want us to think of our approach to this passage as though we were about to enter a portrait gallery together this evening. That is, a gallery set apart for the hanging of portraits for people to come and to observe them and to analyze them. And as we enter this portrait gallery, it is none other than the Lord Jesus,

2:52 who is going to be our guide in order to point out the things that each one of us ought to observe concerning the portraits within this gallery. It is the Lord Jesus, who Himself has painted the portraits, and He will interpret the significance of His own painting. However, these portraits are of a most unusual kind, for they not only give us an accurate picture of those whom they represent, but they also function as mirrors. It is impossible to stand by them and to look upon them and to listen to the Lord Jesus as He points out the various features in the portraits, without at the same time finding the portrait converting itself into a mirror, in which we will see ourselves in either one or the other of the portraits painted by the Lord Jesus. Described in the various features by the Lord Jesus, portraits of His own painting, of His own interpreting,

4:21 but they become mirrors in which we see our very selves. And unlike the trick mirrors in a funhouse, some of you kids perhaps have been in a funhouse, an entertainment museum, an amusement park, where you go in and they have these different shaped mirrors, and into some of them, when you place yourself before them, you are seen as about ten feet wide and a foot and a half tall. In others, you may see yourself ten feet tall and six inches wide. Trick mirrors that, though they reflect something that looks something like you, you know it is not really you.

5:03 But in these portraits that become mirrors, there is a perfect reflection of what we really are in the sight and in the presence of the living God. So I want you to come with me as, together, the Lord Jesus takes us into this portrait gallery, that here we might have the Lord Jesus direct our eyes to the two main hangings within the gallery. Listen carefully to the Lord Jesus as He points to the portrait gallery. points out the features of those two portraits upon which he will direct our attention, and then honestly to ask ourselves when the portrait turns into a mirror, in which portrait do I see myself reflected? Consider with me then as we enter our portrait gallery tonight, the things in which these men are essentially and fundamentally the same. That is, the features of the portraits where we find identical features. The things in which these two men are essentially the same.

Shared Foundations: What the Two Men Have in Common

6:23 Look at verse 10 of the text. Two men went up into the temple to pray. Two men went into the temple to pray. Since they are described as men, we know from the rest of Scripture that they are both in the same condition before God by nature.

6:51 They were men. That is, creatures made originally in the image of God. They were not cosmic junk. They were not animals of the highest order that God created.

7:03 They came to be what they were through the brute forces of time and nature in some so-called evolutionary process. They were men. Men made originally, as we read in Genesis chapter 1, after the image and the likeness of God. They were both in the same condition before God in that they bore the dignity of being creatures made in the image of God.

7:33 But, because they were both men, they were sinners who fell in Adam and were under the condemnation of God by nature. They were not born innocent until they came to some so-called age of accountability, a doctrine not at all found in the Scriptures. For our age of accountability came and went in the Garden of Eden. Romans chapter 5 and verse 12 says, Wherefore as through one man sin entered into the world and death passed upon all men, for that all sinned.

8:17 And when did they all sin? We all sinned when our first father sinned in eating the forbidden fruit. God, as it were, had piggybacked the entire human race upon Adam, saying, Adam, if you stand, stand in integrity before me and walk according to my word, the entire human race will stand in you and with you and upon you. But, Adam, when you fall, all of the human race will fall in you and with you, so that the Scriptures everywhere teach, as in 1 Corinthians 15, 22, as in Adam, all die.

8:59 Romans 3, 23, all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God, or that graphic imagery of the prophet Isaiah, all we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned every one of us to his own way. So as we enter the portrait gallery, and the Lord Jesus brings us before these two major portraits, we are told that they were two men, and the things in which these men, are essentially the same, is that they were in the same condition before God by nature. Creatures originally made in the image of God, but creatures fallen in Adam, and now in a state of sin and condemnation. Therefore they bear a family likeness. They have all the features of Adam in both creation, and in the fall, and as we stand before either or both of the portraits, and they become mirrors, we see that that's precisely our condition, as men, and as women, as boys, and as girls. We are not cosmic junk

10:25 floating through the universe by chance. We are creatures who are image bearers of the living God. We have all the dignity that is unique to man as man, and yet each one of us, without exception, bears the horrible infection of our humanity with the rotten influence of sin. Sin both as guilt, making us culpable and liable to the wrath of God.

10:59 Sin as pollution, and defilement, making us odious in the sight of the living God. When we stand before the portraits, and we see two men, we see that in their creative identity, and in their fallenness, we too are mirrored in these two men. For we sit in this place today as those who are creatures made in the image of God. And creatures fallen in Adam.

11:37 Sinners in guilt. Sinners in pollution. Sinners before the bar of God's judgment. Sinners in the defilement and in the bondage of our own natures.

11:53 But then notice, in the things that these men have in common, they are not only both in the same condition before God, as the Lord Jesus guides us to look closely at the portraits, we see in the second place that they are both in the same place, engaged in the same activity. In other words, the backdrop of each portrait is precisely the same. Look at the text of Scripture. We are told two men, verse 10, went up into THE temple in order to pray.

12:36 So the two men in their portraits are set before us in precisely the same general setting. Both of them are in the temple. Both of them are there to pray. They are in the temple.

12:54 The place of God's special presence. The place of His appointed formal worship. The place where the rituals instituted by God under the old covenant that were to be enacted by that special class of men of the tribe of Levi and of the sons of Aaron, the priesthood. There in the temple both men are found.

13:19 And they are both praying. Again, we are told they went up to the temple to pray. Verse 11 says, as we look at one of the portraits, the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. When we come to verse 13, though the word prayer is not used, it is obvious that this tax collector is engaged in prayer.

13:45 He is addressing himself to God. He beat upon his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. And so as we stand by the portraits, we not only see that they have in common their identical condition before God, but that they are both in the same place engaged in the same activity. And in a very real sense, when the mirrors or when the portraits become mirrors, we again find all of ourselves reflected.

14:25 We are here, not in the temple, but in a place set apart for the public worship of God. A place set apart for the exercise of the institutions ordained of God, the reading of the scriptures, the singing of His praise, the hearing of His word, the seeking of His face. And as I stood and sang, and as I listened while the word of God was being read, as far as I could discern, all of us were together engaged in those services, in those same activities. So we see the things in which these men are essentially the same, gazing at their portraits.

Radical Differences: Their Conception of God

15:08 When the portraits become mirrors, we see ourselves. But now then, having looked at the things in which these men are essentially the same, consider with me in the second place the things in which these men are radically and fundamentally different. The one from the other. The things in which these men are radically different from each other.

15:37 And I want you to note with me four specific differences that are nothing less than radical as the Lord Jesus, our gallery guide and interpreter, takes us by the hand and begins to point out the features painted closer to the foreground, against a common backdrop, as together we hear the voice of Christ describing what is before us. First of all, they differ radically in their conception of God. They differ radically in their conception of God. It is accurate to say that there is perhaps nothing more fundamental to what you are as a man, woman, boy or girl than your conception of God. What you conceive God to be is most likely the most powerful formative influence upon your life. And as the Lord Jesus takes us before these portraits, He underscores how these two men differ radically in their conception of God. Look and listen

17:06 as we stand by the portrait of the Pharisee. Although exceedingly religious, even to the point, our text says, of despising others. If this man had a long Jewish nose, he looked down to the end of its very life despising all others. Considering himself elevated above all others.

17:34 Yet this man, in spite of his religion that fed his pride, had a horribly distorted view of God. He had a view of a God who was so small and so trivial that he actually thought the God of the universe would be impressed with his outwardly moral life and that his piddling little religious deeds would gain him some favor with God. What a pathetically little God he had stuffed between his ears. Listen to it. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. There's a bit of a nuance there that his prayer got no higher than his own cranium. He stood and prayed thus with himself.

18:34 God, I thank you that I am not as the rest of men extortioners, unjust adulterers, or even as this tax collector. And furthermore, God, I want to inform you of a few things that ought to impress you. If you're not exceedingly impressed with what I am not, surely you are impressed with what I do. You see how he changes the emphasis?

19:04 I thank you I am not. And surely what I am not is impressive to you, God. And if that is not of sufficient impression to gain your full favor, God, let me inform you concerning what I do. I fast twice in the week.

19:22 Twice a week from nine in the morning till three in the afternoon. I forego a normal intake of food. God, doesn't that impress you tremendously that two times every week I don't open my mouth and ingest a normal amount of food? Now think of how ludicrous this is.

19:43 The God of the universe who spoke the galaxies into being by the word of his mouth, who upholds them by the word of his power, is supposed to be impressed because this guy doesn't throw something down his throat twice a week. That's what he's telling God, isn't it? I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I get.

20:10 Now surely, God, this must impress you. Though you own the world, created all that is in it, sustain and uphold it, I give a tenth of everything that comes within my possession. Think of it, God. One tenth of it I give back to you.

20:27 You, the God who owned the cattle upon a thousand hills, the God of whom it is spoken in Genesis 1. I love this. After all of the account of creation, it says, oh yes, and he made the stars also. And here with the Hubble telescope, they're discovering galaxies that stretch across hundreds and thousands of light years.

20:52 And what was this to God? He said, oh, by the way, I made the stars also. Big deal. Big deal.

21:01 Now do you see something of how ludicrous this situation is? Here's a man standing in the presence of a God like this with such a low, trivial, trite view of God that he actually thinks that because he does not conduct himself in some of the grosser forms, ways of the grosser forms of sin as other men, and because he does these little bits of religious things, these things will actually impress the high and the lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy, who charges His very angels with folly, who rides upon the wings of the storm and the clouds of the dust at His feet, and here this little speck of a creature who could not draw his next breath unless God gave it is preening himself like a peacock spreading its tail feathers in the presence of the Almighty. The God who at that moment had the retinue of heaven bowed before Him with seraphim and cherubim veiling face and feet and with holy restlessness flying about His throne crying one to another, holy, holy, holy

22:28 is the Lord God the Almighty. The whole earth is full of His glory. The God in whose presence myriads of angels wait straining for their names to be named, sent on an errand for the Almighty, this God who with a blink of His eye can send into oblivion massive mountains and cause the heaving seas to break over their shores. And here is this creature standing in the presence of this God actually thinking that the things He doesn't do and the piddling little rules and religious things He does will earn Him acceptance with God. What a trite, trivial, little God He had. But now when the Lord Jesus takes us by the hand and causes us to stand before the publican, what do we see in this publican? We see an utterly different conception of God.

23:33 He saw God according to verse 13 as so holy, so majestic, so pure, that He had no right of access to Him by nature. Look at the language. But the publican, the tax collector, standing afar off. Perhaps he came just a couple of inches inside the court of the Israelites where the males were able to come.

24:06 There was the court of the Gentiles and the court of the women. And the court of the males and then the court where only the priest could minister and then the inner sanctuary where only the high priest could go once a year. It says he stood afar off perhaps on the very border of where the court of the Gentiles was. His standing afar off was symbolic of his felt sense of the distance that existed between himself and the God who made him.

24:42 The God in whose presence he knew all things were naked and laid bare. This God so full of majesty, of purer eyes than to look upon iniquity that he knows he has no right of access to this God that if this God were not merciful to him he had had it, he was undone. There was no hope for him that if this God would not turn away his wrath he would be consumed by the righteous anger of God. He stood afar off because he knew that there was this infinite chasm between himself and this exalted, majestic, thrice holy God. They differed radically in their conception of God. And as we stand before the portrait and the portrait becomes a mirror in which portrait are you reflected? Do you have a trivial, trite little God whom you think is impressed when you don't do certain things or don't go quite as far as others into expressions of violations of God's holy law?

26:08 Do you really think that because you raised your hand and prayed the prayer and walked the aisle and go to church and throw God some of your money that he's impressed with all of that? Is that your conception of God? To say the word God to think of what God is to you and how you conceive of him are you mirrored in this Pharisee with his narrow, truncated, trite, trivial little God? Or is your view mirrored in this tax collector who sees him as high and lofty the Holy One of Israel of purer eyes than to look upon iniquity who will by no means clear the guilty? But then notice how they differ not only in their conception of God but they differ radically in their perception of themselves. They differ radically in their perception of themselves. The Pharisee he is the perfect product of ten seminars on self-esteem self-actualization self-fulfillment and being happy with himself.

Radical Differences: Their Perception of Themselves

27:31 Is he not? Look at him. I thank you that I am not as the rest of men extortioners, unjust adulterers or even as this tax collector. Everything about him oozes with self-esteem self-acceptance self-confidence self-congratulation.

27:57 When I was a kid you children listen to this little song we used to sing. I love myself. I think I'm grand. I go to the movie just to hold my hand.

28:12 I put my arm around my waist and I get fresh. I slap my face. Now that was a little innocent ditty. We used to laughingly quote one to another but it's no laughing matter in the presence of God when a man says I love myself.

28:35 I think I'm grand. I come to the temple not just to hold my hand but to show God how beautiful my hands are. How clean my hands are. How righteous I am.

28:51 He had a view of himself that was utterly devoid of any sense of his own wretched state in the presence of the living God. He's filled with a sense of peace and self-satisfaction. He says oh God behold me the righteous one. But now look at the perspective that the tax collector had of himself.

29:21 He is full not of self-esteem and self-confidence and self-congratulation. He is full of self-loathing self-abhorrence and self-distrust. Now I know these are not popular words in modern evangelicalism and even some so-called reformed theologians are telling us we should no longer sing vile and full of sin I am. Would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?

30:00 Even though God says fear not thou worm Jacob we are beneath taking the names that God calls us. But the publican you see has a perception of himself that leads to self-loathing. When the text says the publican standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven. Do you see what the emphasis is?

30:30 Unlike the Pharisee who apparently had himself arched backward with face upward to heaven. This man is pictured as bowed down head even bowed over and would not so much as even lift his eyes to heaven let alone his countenance. His lungs with air of self-importance and struck before God. He had a view of himself marked by self-loathing self-abhorrence and self-distrust.

31:08 He had the same view Isaiah had. In the year that King Isaiah died I saw the Lord high and lifted up upon a throne. And when Isaiah envisioned has this unveiling of God in his burning holiness and in his ineffable exaltedness what does Isaiah say? He cries out, Woe is me!

31:38 I'm undone! I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for mine eyes have seen the King Jehovah of hosts. I've seen God and now I see myself. Who was Isaiah?

31:58 Was he a pothead? Was he an old wino? No, he was a noble son of the court. He was a man that anyone would gladly claim as his uncle or his big brother.

32:13 Any woman would gladly identify as her husband. But when he saw God he saw himself. And when he saw himself it led to self-loathing self-abhorrence and self-distrust. And the mark of this was that he knew he had to go utterly out of himself if he was ever to have acceptance with God.

32:37 For look at his words. He said, Oh God be merciful to me. The sinner God if you don't do something for me that I cannot do for myself I've had it. I'm not only a far off now I shall be farther off yet in death and farther off yet in judgment and farther yet in eternity when I am cast into outer dark.

33:06 Oh how they differed radically in their perception of themselves. The Pharisee the epitome of self-esteem self-confidence self-congratulation. The publican full of self-loathing self-abhorrence and self-distrust. Now the portraits again become our mirrors.

33:29 In which one are you reflected? Sitting here in this building tonight which portrait is you? Are you one who has had your native self-esteem and self-fulfillment and self-confidence and self-congratulation devastated by the application of God's holy law to your conscience showing you that regardless of what your external life has been you are through and through a sinner deserving of the wrath of Almighty God? Or do you stand before the portrait of the publican and say Oh God that's me. If I know my own name I know one thing for sure that if I am ever accepted with God it will be on the basis of something God does not on the basis of what I am or what I have done. And you're in one of two of those portraits.

34:50 And as the mirror reflects you what do you see? Do you see not merely someone who coached in a inquiry room prayed the prayer no, no nobody was coaching him to pray the prayer. It is one of the most abominable and wretched practices ever foisted upon professing Christendom. Pray the prayer.

35:17 Say after me Oh God, Oh God, be merciful. Nobody was here coaching him. That prayer was wrung out of the inner consciousness of his own spirit. His conception of God led to an accurate perception of himself.

35:38 In which portrait are you mirrored? Well we've noted they differ radically in their conception of God. As we've come closer to their portraits and listened to the Lord Jesus interpret them we've seen they differ radically in their perception of themselves. And then thirdly they differ radically in their conviction of how one gains acceptance with God.

Radical Differences: Their Conviction of Gaining Acceptance with God

36:05 They differ radically in their conviction of how a man gains acceptance with God. Hear me carefully young and old alike. Few things are more indicative of someone's spiritual state than their heart conviction with respect to this question. How does one find acceptance with God?

36:37 Look at the portraits. There's the Pharisee. He actually believes he is accepted with God. That's why he gives thanks.

36:46 I give thanks. He believes he is accepted that he is a favorite in the court of heaven. He believed that were he to die in the next moment God would be under obligation to take such a nice chap and a good fellow right into his presence. And his confidence of that acceptance with God was based totally upon what he was and what he did and what he did not do and what he was not.

37:18 But it all centered in himself. We had Romans 10 read tonight. This man epitomizes what Paul describes in Romans 10 and in verse 2. Verses 2 and 3.

37:34 I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God but not according to knowledge for being ignorant of God's righteousness God's way of having sinners accepted before him and seeking to establish their own righteousness they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. That's a perfect description of this man. His conviction of how a man gained acceptance with God was utterly, utterly and radically different from what is revealed in Scripture. He believes his acceptance with God is grounded in who he is what he has done and what he has not done. Whereas the tax collector is so convinced that what he is by nature and practice is so abhorrent to God so wrath and hell deserving that this is what he prayed. His prayer was not God be merciful to me a sinner. There is a standard Greek word for mercy and merciful.

38:49 That was not in his prayer. He used a word that has a far more profound significance. This is what he prayed literally. God be propiti...

39:01 to me a sinner. And what is propitiation? It is the turning away of the wrath of God on the basis of an acceptable sacrifice. It is the acknowledgement that sin deserves wrath.

39:19 The wages of sin is death. And the sentence of death must be meted out in the pure holy righteous wrath of God. And when he prayed Oh God be propitious to me a sinner. What he was saying is God turn away your wrath on the grounds of an acceptable sacrifice.

39:41 When it says he would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven it is my own conviction that his eyes were fixed on an object there in the temple. Fixed upon an altar. Upon an altar where innocent victims were slain. Their blood spilt.

40:05 Their carcasses consumed in fire. To constantly bear witness that the sinner's approach to God can only be grounded on the death of the innocent substitute. And we know that every lamb that bleated when the knife slit its throat was a foreshadowing of that time when the Lamb of God who would bear away the sin of the world would hang upon the cross and there immolated forsaken, abandoned by God would cry with that mysterious penetrating awe some cry of dereliction my God, my God why have you forsaken me? And if an answer had ever come forth from heaven we know what the answer would have been my son I have forsaken you because I am of purer eyes than to behold iniquity and you have voluntarily engaged to take upon yourself all of the wrath deservingness of the sins of those for whom you are dying and though I have never loved you more as your obedience has found its highest expression

41:32 in laying down your life while I yet have never loved you more my son as I treat you in pure justice in the court of heaven I must consume you in the fire of my righteous anger and the scripture tells us Christ is our propitiation the scriptures tell us he made a propitiation in his blood the wrath of God is not somehow just jettisoned out into the black hole of the universe it is funneled down into the heart and soul of the Son of God and there it is forever swallowed up and how much this publican understood of that we do not know but interpreting and expounding the passage in the light of the full teaching of the New Testament we are warranted to say that he had a totally radically different conviction of how man gains acceptance with God the Pharisee believes his acceptance is based on who he is what he does not do and what he does the tax collector is convinced his acceptance with God is based totally upon the activity of God in turning away his wrath

43:01 on the basis of the death of an innocent victim God be propitious to me the sinner now as we stand by the portraits once again they become a mirror what do you see where are you when you stand before that Pharisee do you see yourself thinking that something you are something you are not something you have done or have not done is that which gives you acceptance with God do you believe that because you have not abandoned yourself to an openly immoral life you have known no man or woman but your legitimate husband or wife you guard your mind from lustful thoughts you have never consciously stolen the property of another you are honest and upright in your faith and the paying of your taxes you have got a string of perfect attendance bars for Sunday school that is long enough to go around three Los Angeles blocks do you really think that all those things give you some standing with God oh you would never say God look at my perfect attendance bars but in your heart of hearts do you believe that somehow they must count for a little something they just must give me a few brownie points

44:31 and though you would not blatantly stand like this man and say God I thank you I am not a slut and a whore and a whoremonger and a lecherous dirty young man or old man I am not a thief and a crook therefore God you must accept me maybe it is a little more subtle I thank you God I made my decision when I was a teenager and I thank you God that having made my decision I have lived a pretty decent life and I thank you God that I have gone to church regularly Sunday morning Sunday night and even occasionally to prayer meetings and Lord I thank you that I have been a tither all my life I believe in tithing God bless me I thank you God that is the language of a Pharisee that is the language of someone who thinks his acceptance with God is based on what he is what he does and what he doesn't do is that you is that a portrait of you does that portrait of you when it becomes a mirror reflect your image or are you here with that tax collector by whatever specific means over how long a period of time to whatever extent in all of that God is utterly sovereign but God has brought you to that place

45:58 where you say I know in my heart of hearts when it comes to having acceptance before Almighty God I must go totally out of myself and look solely to the mercy of God in the provision of an adequate substitute and sacrifice to turn away his wrath which are you do you sit here tonight in the depths of your being though you may have named the name of Christ for years and even earned the reputation of being a consistent Christian in your heart of hearts do you say oh God if you are not propitious to me if you do not turn away your wrath from me based upon the activity and the work of an innocent victim I've had it I'm undone there is no hope for me but we see fourthly and finally that they not only differ in their conception of God their perception of themselves their conviction of how a man gains acceptance with God but the final feature as we stand in this portrait gallery is this they differ radically in their true position before God

Radical Differences: Their True Position Before God

47:28 they differ radically in their true position before God notice what the text says as our Lord Jesus brings this description to a summary he says in Luke chapter 18 and verse 14 I say unto you he who is truth incarnate speaks with gracious magisterial authority I say unto you this man that is the tax collector went down to his house justified rather than the other you see they differed radically in their true position before God the Pharisee came up to the temple lost condemned dead in trespasses and sins dressed in nothing but the rags of his own righteousness which are scripture says as polluted garments and he left exactly as he came in spite of his prayer in spite of his sense of self-satisfaction no doubt more convinced than ever all was well between himself and God for he had paid one more trip to the temple

48:55 one more brownie point one more accomplishment star on his chart but you have it upon the word of Jesus he went down to his house not justified under condemnation under wrath an object of the righteous displeasure of God and had he died he'd have dropped straight into hell but the publican look at the text I say unto you this man this tax collector went down to his house justified what is justification it is God declaring a man to be in a condition so that he can say I am just as if I'd never sinned furthermore just as if I'd fully kept your law justification is God's legal declaration that on the ground of the perfect life of Christ and the death of Christ under the curse of God's law that sinner believing in Christ has all of his sins pardoned and is credited with a perfect righteousness

50:20 that demands that he be accepted into the presence of God and this publican according to Jesus this tax collector went down to his house justified declared righteous all of his sins past present and future forgiven pardoned no legal punishment could ever come upon him even for his subsequent sins as a justified man which he would need to confess and repent of yet there would never be an illegal terror there would never be any anger of the judge there'd be the frown of a displeased father but not the anger of an incensed judge what Christ was on his way to accomplish in the remainder of his earthly life culminating in his death burial and resurrection that had already been credited to Abel and to Seth and to Noah and to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob and the prophets it was credited to this he went down to his house justified they differed radically in their truths

51:49 in their true position before God the one went down to his house lost condemned still in Adam dead in his sins the other went down to his house justified the portrait again becomes a mirror as you leave this building in a few minutes you will go down to your house in one of two conditions the same as when you came in if you are in Adam just a man just a man just a woman just a boy just a girl having nothing more than what you brought into this world in your first birth and in spite of all that you've done and all you don't do that may be commendable in isolation from other factors according to this passage if you have never taken the posture of this publican and gone out of yourself totally into another for mercy and acceptance you go down to your house under the wrath of God the thought of it ought to be enough to terrify you to think that almighty God who holds your next breath in his hands would have a controversy with you it's the most frightening thing in the world to think that the God who has the right to withhold my next breath

53:16 has a controversy with me which if he chooses to bring it into the theatre of present action and snatch away my life will forever seal my doom as the doom of the lost and then your life and your consciousness and your feelings will be an eternal exposition of those words in the bible that are frightening just to read them outer darkness weeping wailing gnashing of teeth the smoke of their torment and descending up forever and forever they have no rest day nor night my friends those are bible words I didn't write them I tremble just to quote them you will have an eternal exegesis of them if you go down to your house the way you came if you came unhumbled never having seen your sin never having gone out of yourself and into Christ but if this night you say oh God you've shown me as I've stood before the portrait and the portrait has become a mirror

54:43 I've seen I've had the heart of the Pharisee but Lord you have shown me that beneath all of that I am the sinner I am the one who deserves wrath and judgement oh Lord as much I don't know but I do believe that you sent your son to die for sinners I do believe when he cried my God my God why have you forsaken me and when he gave the shout of triumph it is finished and when he was buried and then raised from the dead I do believe oh God that this is sufficient for me and my sin and you cast yourself upon him you cry to him for mercy as we heard in our scripture reading whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved this word of faith we preach is nigh it's near to you in your mouth and in your heart as I said last night and I say again tonight with joy Christ is nearer to you in the preaching of the gospel than your own breath he comes to you individually in the gospel and says in all the plenitude of my saving mercy and power in all the richness of my grace I'm yours

The Fundamental Lesson: Humility Leads to Exaltation

56:08 if you will have me I'm yours if you will have me but you see to have him you gotta get rid of making yourself your own savior your vaunted self esteem and self sufficiency and self congratulation all must be abandoned and you must take your posture with that publican not literally bending over and literally beating your breast but taking the posture that those external actions mirrored as the disposition of his heart the posture of a sinner well having considered together the things in which these men were the same the things in which they radically differed then thirdly and very briefly note from the passage the fundamental lesson from the portrait gallery you see when Jesus takes us in points out the various features explains their significance as he now takes us by the hand to lead us out of the portrait gallery he said there's one central fundamental lesson I want you to learn from all I've shown you in the gallery today and that central lesson is found at the end of verse 14

57:36 look at it I say unto you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other four here's the central lesson every one that exalts himself shall be humbled but he that humbles himself shall be exalted what's the central lesson of our Lord's guided tour through this portrait gallery it's this self exaltation will result in abasement by God and secondly abasement will result in exaltation by God that's the great lesson he every one that exalts himself shall be humbled the person who seeks to lift himself up by his own bootstraps into the presence of God shall be humbled where would this man's feathers be in the day of judgment when he stood naked before the living God and God showed the entire moral universe what he really was a sinner vile unclean undone odious in the presence

59:05 of the Holy One exalted in himself abased by God but he that humbles himself and in the context what is that humbling of himself taking my place in terms of what I really am yes a creature made in the image of God morally accountable to God but a creature fallen in Adam a sinner by nature and practice with nothing to commend myself to God humbling myself that is going totally out of myself unto another unto another for mercy and pardon and acceptance such a one Jesus said shall be exalted exalted with what the very righteousness of Christ put to our account and eventually exalted to the glorified state of the sons and daughters of God having glorified bodies and perfected spirits my friends nothing is more humbling pride withering than to stand spiritually naked and empty handed before a crucified savior and say from the depths of your heart nothing in my hands I bring simply to thy cross I cling

60:33 I to the fountain fly wash me savior or I die Jesus lover of my soul let me to thy bosom fly I to the fountain fly false and full of sin I am thou art full of truth and grace people say well simple faith in Christ yes it is simple faith but no one ever exercised that simple faith who was not humbled by the reality of his sinfulness and by the reality that since his salvation is wholly based on the work of another all of the credit and all of the glory goes to another there is none left for myself so every true act of saving faith and exercise of saving faith is flesh withering and you only have one of two alternatives you take that posture now and flee to Christ in the nakedness in the day of judgment

Confronting Reality: The Choice Before You

62:02 which will it be humble yourself now and be exalted with all of the glory of gospel privileges and standing stand upon your dignity I don't like the language vile false full of sin no I haven't done everything perfectly I am willing to admit I am a sinner but dead I stand upon your dignity and perish for he that exalts himself shall be humble I close with a simple honest true anecdote some years ago two Jehovah's Witnesses showed up at our front door and I had begun to learn that if you were going to have any hope of reaching them with the truth you had to get them derailed from their speech and from their own text they were nothing more than an apostate but the next thing they said was that you were going to be ab harder than they thought you were too much but I

63:31 am not that small or small but and said, where in the world do you get those words from the Bible? Vile and wretched and hell-deserving. And I began to quote the text. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

64:00 We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Behold, I am vile. At which point she grabbed the elbow of her companion and said, let's get out of here.

64:19 Well, you see, leaving my front porch didn't change her true state. And you may leave here tonight and say, I've had enough of that business. That's the last time I'll ever darken the door of that church, where I was told I was vile and wretched and undone. And all of my church attendance and all of my morality and uprightness count for nothing.

64:40 I'll go away. I'll go away from all of that. My friend, you can go away from such preaching, but it won't change the reality.

64:49 You'll meet all that reality in the day of judgment.

64:53 Would to God you'd face it tonight. While the door of mercy is open, while the Savior comes to you in the word and promise of the gospel, and while he says, come unto me, and I will give you rest. And if you've been able to go through the portrait gallery and say, by the grace of God, when the portrait has become a mirror, yes, I am mirrored in the portrait of the publican. It wasn't always that way, but blessed be God, it is so now.

65:31 Surely, child of God, you've not been wearied to have rehearsed in your hearing what God did, that you might be exalted. What he did to humble you, that he might raise you to the heights of being united to Christ, seated in the heavenlies with Christ, awaiting the hour when he shall be manifested and we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. What a wonderful thing to be a Christian.

66:02 May God grant that if you do not know the blessedness of being mirrored in that publican, ere you pillow your head tonight, by the grace of God, that portrait will mirror even you. Let us pray. Our Father, how we thank you for your holy word. Thank you for the words of our Lord Jesus.

66:38 Thank you for these portraits that he himself painted with his own words. Thank you for his own explanation of their significance. And we pray that the Holy Spirit will so seal them to every heart, that the last day of unveiling will show that someone, this night, was by grace brought to take the posture of the publican, abandoning all of the self-delusion and self-esteem of the Pharisee, and taking the true and rightful place of the publican. O God, seal your word, that it may bear fruit now and even until the day of Christ. Thank you for the privilege, of meeting together in this way tonight. And may your blessing rest upon us as we part from one another, grant us safety in our journey to our various homes. And if it please you, may your blessing rest upon the day that would unfold before us, that we may know what it means to walk in communion with you, the living God, who has brought us to yourself through Jesus Christ, hear us as we plead these mercies in his worthy name.

68:08 Amen.