Pharisee / Tax Collector (1996 Conf. in CA.)

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 him. In themselves that they were righteous, and set all others at naught. 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.

1:24 Unlawful. Unjust. Adulterers. Or even as this tax collector.

1:31 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. 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 parable. I want us to think of the 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.

2:46 And as we enter this portrait gallery, it is none other than the Lord Jesus, who is going to be our guide in order to point out the things. It is 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 are? We will see ourselves in either one or the other of the portraits painted by the Lord

4:07 Jesus, described in the various features by the Lord Jesus, portraits of his own painting, of his own interpreting, but they become mirrors in which we see our very selves. And unlike the trickery of the Lord Jesus, we will see ourselves in either one or the other of the portraits painted by him. Trick mirrors in a funhouse. Some of you kids, perhaps, have been in a funhouse, an entertainment amusement park where you go in and they have these different shaped mirrors.

4:41 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. 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.

5:17 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 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? 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. Look at verse 10 of the text.

Shared Foundations: What the Two Men Have in Common

6:25 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. They were men.

6:51 That is creatures made originally in the image of God. in the image of God. in the image of God. They were not cosmic junk.

7:00 They were not animals of the highest order that 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. 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 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.

9:00 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.

9:31 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.

10:06 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, 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.

10:41 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, 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. Sinners in guilt. Sinners in pollution. Sinners before the bar of God's judgment.

11:47 Sinners in the defilement and in the bondage of our own natures. 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.

12:24 Look at the text of Scripture. We are told two men, verse 10, went up into the temple in order to pray. So the two men in their portraits are set before us in precisely the same general setting. Both of them are in the temple.

12:48 Both of them are there to pray. They are in the temple. They are in the temple. The place of God's special presence.

12:58 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. And they are both praying.

13:22 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.

13:46 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.

14:15 And in a very real sense, when the mirrors or when the portraits become mirrors, we again find all of ourselves reflected. 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 preached, and as God was being read, as far as I could discern, all of us were together engaged in those same activities.

Radical Differences: Conception of God

15:01 So we see the things in which these men are essentially the same, gazing at their portraits. 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.

15:38 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, before these portraits, He underscores how these two men differ radically in their conception of God.

17:03 Look and listen 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 nose, he looked down to the end of its very nose, he looked down to the end of its very nose, he looked down to the end of its very nose, he looked down to the end of its very nose, he looked down to the end of its very nose, despising all others, considering himself elevated above all others. Yet this man, in spite of his religion that fed his pride, had a horribly distorted view of God.

17:44 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.

18:24 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. God, 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.

18:53 If you're not exceedingly impressed with what I am, surely you are impressed with what I do. You see how he changes the emphasis? I thank you I am not. And surely what I am not is impressive to you, God.

19:10 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, 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?

19:40 Now think of how ludicrous this is. The God of the universe, who spoke the galaxies into being by the word in his mouth, who upholds them by the word in his power, is supposed to be impressed because this guy doesn't throw something down his throat. He does it twice a week. That's what he's telling God, isn't it?

20:03 He's in the week. I give of all that I get. Now surely, God, this must impress you. Though you own the world, create it all that is in it, sustain and uphold it, I give a tenth of everything that comes within my possession.

20:24 Think of it, God, one tenth of it I give back to you. You, the God who owns 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.

20:42 And here with the Hubble telescope, they're discovering galaxies that stretch across hundreds and thousands of light years. And what was this to God? He said, Oh, by the way, I made the stars also. Big deal. Big deal.

21:02 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 of 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 is the Lord God the Almighty.

22:30 The whole earth is full of his glory. The God in whom 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 religious things he does will earn him acceptance with God.

23:15 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. We saw God according to verse 13 as so holy, so majestic, so pure that he had no right access to him by nature.

23:48 Look at the language. But the publican, the tax collector standing afar. Perhaps he came just a couple of inches inside the court of the Israelites where the males were able to come. 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.

24:20 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. 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.

25:05 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.

25:35 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? Do you really think 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

Radical Differences: Perception of Self

26:55 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 God. 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. Is he not? Look at him. Thank you that I am not, as the rest of men.

27:41 Extortioners on Jews. Just adulterers, or even as this tax collector. Everything about him oozes with self-esteem, self-acceptance, self-confidence, self-congratulation. When I was a kid, you children listened 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. I put my arm around my waist. When 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

28:29 in the presence of God when a man says, I love myself. 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. I'm grand. How clean my hands are. How righteous I am. 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, O God, behold me, the righteous one. But now look at the perspective.

29:17 That the tax collector had of himself. 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 be self-loathing. The tax collector should no longer sing, vile and full of sin I am. Would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I? 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

30:13 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? 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.

30:45 So the text says the publican would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven. Do you see that? The tax collector says, the publican standing afar off would not lift up so much heaven, let alone his countenance, and fill his lungs with air of self-importance and strut before God. He had a view of himself marked by self-loathing, self-abhorrence, and self-distrust. He had the same view Isaiah had. In the year that King Uzziah 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, who is me? I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst

31:44 of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen me. 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? Was he a pothead? Was he an old wife? He was a noble son of the court. He was a man that anyone would gladly claim as his uncle or his big brother. 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. For look at his words. He said, O God, be merciful to me. The sinner God, if you don't do something

32:46 for me that I cannot do for myself, I've had it. I am 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 darkness. Oh, how they differed radically in their perception of themselves. The Pharisee, the epitome of self-esteem, self-confidence, self-congratulation.

33:17 The publican, full of self-loathing, self-abhorrence, and self-distrust. Now the portraits, again, become our mirrors. 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 love for you? 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, O God, that's me. If I know my own name, I know one thing for sure. That if I am ever, ever, ever, ever, ever

34:32 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 are in one of two of those portraits. And as the mirror reflects you, what do you see? Do you see not merely someone who coached in an inquiry room, prayed a 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, O God, O 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: Conviction of Gaining Acceptance with God

36:05 They differ radically in their conviction. 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.

36:30 How does one find acceptance with God? Look at the portraits. There's the Pharisee. He acts.

36:41 He actually believes he is accepted with God. That's why he gives thanks. I give thanks. He believes.

36:49 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, what he was and what he did and what he did not do and what he was not. But it all centered in himself.

37:23 We had Romans 10 read tonight. This man epitomizes what Paul describes in Romans 10 and in verse 2. Verses 2 and 3. I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God,

37:40 but not according to knowledge for being ignorant, but 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, 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.

38:26 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, a standard Greek word for mercy and merciful. That was not in his prayer.

38:52 He used the word that has a far more profound significance. This is what he prayed. Literally God be propitious to me, a sinner. And what is propitiation?

39:06 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. 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.

39:33 What he was saying is God turn away your wrath on the grounds of an acceptable sacrifice. When it says he would not so much as lift up his eyes, eyes to heaven. It's 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 slaying their blood spilt 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. God can only be grounded on the death of the innocent.

40:18 Innocent substitute. And we know that every land that pleaded when the knife slitted 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, awesome 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 pure eyes than to behold iniquity. And you have voluntarily engaged to take upon yourself all of the, 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 in laying down your life while I yet have never loved you more.

41:37 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.

42:08 It is funneled down into the heart and soul of the son of God. And there it is forever swallowed up.

42:20 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.

42:51 The tax collector is convinced his acceptance with God, It's based totally upon the activity of God in turning away His wrath on the basis of the death of an innocent victim.

43:08 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?

43:21 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've known no man or woman but your legitimate husband or wife, you guard your mind from lustful thoughts, you have never consciously stolen, you've known the property of another, you're honest and upright in the paying of your taxes, you've got a string of perfect attendance bars for Sunday school that's long enough to go around three Los Angeles blocks.

44:14 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, you would believe that somehow they must count for a little something, they just must give me a few brownie points. And though you would not blatantly stand like this man and say, God, I thank you.

44:37 I'm not a slut and a whore and a whoremonger and a lecherous, dirty young man or old man. I'm not a thief and a crook.

44:47 Therefore, God, you must accept me. Maybe it's 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've lived a pretty decent life.

45:02 And I thank you, God, that I've gone to church regularly, Sunday morning, Sunday night, and even occasionally to prayer meetings. And, Lord, I thank you that I've been a tither all my life. I believe in tithing. God's blessed me.

45:15 I thank you, God.

45:18 That's the language of a Pharisee. That's 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.

45:32 Is that you? Is that a portrait of you? Does that portrait, when it becomes a mirror, reflect your image?

45:42 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 where you say, I know in my heart of hearts, when it comes to having acceptance, 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.

46:25 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 earlier, and turn 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.

Radical Differences: True Position Before God

47:01 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. They differ radically in their true position before God. Notice what the text says, as our Lord Jesus brings this text to us, this description to a summary.

47:42 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, one more brownie point, one more accomplishment star on his chart. But you have it upon the word of Jesus,

49:06 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.

49:36 Justified! What is justification? It is God declaring a man to be in the condition, Conditioned so that he can say, I am just as if I'd never sinned. Furthermore, just as if I'd fully kept your law.

49:57 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 that demands that he be accepted into the presence of God as righteous. 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 any legal terror. There would never be any anger of the judge.

51:11 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 publican.

51:43 He went down to his house, justified. They differed radically 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.

52:07 The portrait again becomes a mirror. And 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,

52:23 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.

52:33 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 would have a controversy with me.

53:17 Has a controversy with me. Which, if he chooses to bring it into the theater 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.

53:50 Weeping. Wailing. Gnashing of teeth. The smoke of their torment ascending up forever and forever.

54:01 They have no rest day nor night. My friends, those are Bible words. I didn't write them. I tremble just to quote them.

54:15 You will have an eternal exegesis of them. You will have an eternal exegesis of them. You will have an eternal exegesis of them. If you go down to your house the way you came, if you came unhumbled,

54:27 never having seen your sin, never having gone out of yourself and into Christ, but if this night you say, O God, you've shown me, as I've stood before the portrait, and the portrait has become a mirror, 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 judgment. O 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?

55:10 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, O God, that this, this is sufficient for me and my sin.

55:28 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.

55:57 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, if you will have me. I'm yours, if you will have me. But you see, to have Him, you've got to get rid of making yourself your own Savior. Your vaunted self-esteem, and self-sufficiency, and self-congratulation, all must be abandoned.

56:32 And you must take your posture with that publican, not literally bending over, or 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.

The Fundamental Lesson: Self-Exaltation vs. Humility

57:08 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. And from all I've shown you in the gallery today, and that central lesson is found at the end of verse 14, 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.

57:45 Every one that exalts himself shall be humbled, but he that humbles himself shall be exalted. What's the central lesson? The central lesson of our Lord's guided tour through this portrait gallery, it's this. Self-exaltation will result in abasement by God.

58:14 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.

58:43 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. Oh, hideous in the presence 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?

59:21 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 for mercy and pardon and acceptance.

59:51 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 glory, 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.

60:36 I cling. Foul, foul I to the fountain fly. Wash me, Savior, or I die. Jesus, lover of my soul, let me to thy bosom fly.

60:54 False and full of sin I am. Thou art full of truth and grace.

61:05 People say, well, simple faith in Christ. Yes, it is simple faith. But no. 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 upon the work of another, all of the credit and all of the glory goes to another.

61:33 There's none left for myself. So every true act of saving faith and exercise of saving faith, is flesh withering.

61:47 And you only have one of two alternatives. You take that posture now and flee to Christ. Or maintain your dignity now and be forced to take the posture of moral nakedness in the day of judgment. Which will it be?

62:04 Humble yourself now and be exalted with all of the glory of gospel privileges and standing.

62:13 Or stand upon your dignity. I don't like the language. Vile. False.

62:19 Full of sin. No. I haven't done everything perfectly. I'm willing to admit I'm a sinner.

62:25 But dead. Defiled. Polluted. My righteousness as filthy garments.

62:32 No. All right. Stand upon your dignity and perish.

62:38 For he that exalts himself shall be humble.

A Call to Humility and Faith

62:42 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 and their own approach. And once I showed enough courtesy to gain the attention of the woman who was the chief speaker.

63:10 I said, ma'am, before we enter into any discussion about the Trinity and hell and Jesus as the co-equal, co-eternal son of the living God, may I ask you a very simple question? I said, where and when and by what means were you brought to own yourself as a vile, filthy, hell-deserving sinner? She stood upright and bristled and said, where in the world do you get those words from the Bible? Vile and wretched and hell-deserving.

63:52 And I began to quote the text. The heart is deceitful. Faithful above all things and desperately wicked. We are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.

64:09 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. 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.

64:41 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. Would to God you'd face it tonight while the door of mercy is open. While the Savior comes to you. You in the word and promise of the gospel.

65:04 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.

65:28 It is so now. 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.

65:50 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. 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.

Closing Prayer

66:21 Let us pray.

66:29 Our Father, how we thank you for your holy word. Thank you for the words of our Lord Jesus. Thank you for these portraits that he himself painted with his own words. Thank you for his own explanation of their significance.

66:49 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 Pharisees. And taking the true and rightful place of the publican.

67:20 Oh 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. May your blessing rest upon us as we part from one another. Grant us safety in our journey to our various homes.

67:43 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.

68:02 Hear us as we plead these mercies in his worthy name. Amen.