Publican and Pharisee: Two Portraits / Two Mirrors

Introduction: The Portrait Gallery and the Mirror

0:03 The following message was delivered on Sunday morning, March 12, 1995, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:15 Now before we turn to the word of God and then seek God's face again in prayer, let me just briefly express on behalf of all of the elders and the chairman of the deacons our gratitude to God for your prayers for us. As we went away on our retreat on Friday afternoon for a very concentrated period of seeking God's face and wrestling with matters of great concern to the life and ministry of this assembly, it is always a joy to know that when we go off on these annual seasons, we do so with your prayers accompanying us, and we are thankful that God was gracious in hearing and answering our prayers, and in days to come, a number of the matters addressed and some resolved will unfold in various ways before you as a congregation, but I felt I would be delinquent if I not explicitly thank you for your prayers. Now will you turn with me to the 18th chapter of the Gospel of Luke as I read a portion of the word of God, to whom many of you is a familiar portion,

1:37 Luke chapter 18, beginning with verse 9, referring to the ministry of our Lord Jesus on a specific occasion. Luke writes in chapter 18 and verse 9, And he spoke also this parable unto certain who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised all others. Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican or a tax collector. 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. I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I get.

2:48 But the publican or tax collector, 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.

3:11 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. Now let us unite our hearts in prayer and ask that God, the Holy Spirit, would enable us to grasp the message of our Lord Jesus in this, his own word.

3:50 Holy Father, we bow again in your presence, conscious as we have sung in the paraphrase of the 51st Psalm, conscious as we have expressed in the previous prayers of this morning, conscious as we've been reminded in the reading of the word of God, that a man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven. And because we believe that you alone can give spiritual light, you alone can give spiritual life, you alone can give understanding and grace, we come beseeching you for your glory and for the good of our souls. Attend the preaching of the Lord. Attend the preaching of the Lord. Attend the preaching of the Lord with power and with the Holy Spirit.

4:45 Enable your servant to speak not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance. Bless your word then to the confirmation of the faith of yours, those who know and love you. Bless your word to the calling in of others, who for the first time may see themselves, for what they really are. And behold your mercy in Christ for what it is.

5:18 And may close with that offer of mercy. We plead through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Now this morning with this portion of the word of God before us, we're going to make an excursion together, one that most of us would not make on a Lord's day, one that may be a little bit more difficult, one that may be a little bit more difficult, one that many of us would never make on any day of the week, for our excursion is to a portrait gallery.

5:54 And we're going to be escorted to that portrait gallery by none other than the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He will be our tour guide or the curator of the art gallery into which we are taken this morning. And what is unusual is that the Lord Jesus is the one who has painted the very portraits that he himself will explain to us. We will stand with the Lord Jesus looking at the portraits that he has painted and listen to his own word as he explains to us the significance of these portraits. However, these are very unusual portraits because they have the unusual faculty and ability. Once we have gazed upon them and discovered the various contours of the faces in the portraits, the portrait upon gazing long upon it turns from the picture of another

7:14 into a mirror in which we see ourselves reflected. And as the Lord Jesus guides us through this portrait gallery, we will see these portraits and the various features of those painted on the canvas and having seen those features stay before them long enough until they turn into mirrors. And we behold ourselves in one or the other portrait frame. Obviously from the reading of the passage, one is the portrait of a proud, self-deluded, unhumbled and unbelieving but very religious man. And the other is the portrait of a humbled, self-loathing, penitent, self-loathing, penitent, but believing, probably not very religious man. And as we study their portraits, remember, we also want to behold our own faces as the portrait becomes a mirror.

Similarities: Common Ground Before God

8:41 Now consider with me, first of all, the things in which these men are essentially the same. As the Lord Jesus takes us by the hand into the portrait gallery, and we take our first look at the two portraits, there is something in which the portraits are identical. Look at the passage. Jesus, speaking a parable unto certain who trust.

9:11 They trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised all others, said, Two men went up into the temple to pray. And the things in which these men are essentially the same is first in their condition before God, and they are both in the same place engaged in the same activity. We are told that two men went up into the temple to pray. And because they were men, unnamed, but nonetheless designated as men, we know from the whole teaching of the word of God an awful lot about these two men. We know an awful lot concerning the things that they had in common. He said, Because they were men, ordinary men, they were first of all human beings made in the image of God. When Jesus describes in his parable that we are likening now to two portraits, he is describing men.

10:30 He is not describing animals or birds or scenery, but men. That is, human beings who, according to...

10:42 According to the scriptures in Genesis 1, 26 and 27, are utterly unique among all of God's creatures in that they were created in the image and after the likeness of God. I remind you of those very familiar words that in the sixth day of creation we are told, and God said, Let us make man after our image. After our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, etc. And in the image of God created he them, male and female, created he them. Because these in the portraits are human beings, they are men, we know immediately that they are creatures made in the image of God. They are not cosmic. They are not junk.

11:43 They are not the highest expression of the order of the animals. They are not some unexplainable creature whose fundamental identity can only be the subject of the discussion of philosophers or the examination of those in the medical or psychiatric field. We know from the scriptures that because they were men, they were creatures. They were creatures utterly distinct from all the other of God's creatures that they were made in the image of God.

12:22 But furthermore, we know because they were men, that they were sinners who fell in Adam and by nature were under the condemnation of God. Just from the fact that Jesus said two men went up into the temple, two men went up into the temple, to pray. We know from the fact they are designated as men, that they were not only human beings made originally in the image of God, but that they were sinners who fell in Adam and came under the condemnation of God. There is a broad in our day and even in many evangelical circles of silly notion that when men and women come forth from their meeting with God, that when men and women come forth from their meeting with God, that when men and women come forth from their meeting with God, their mother's wounds as little baby boys and girls, that they are somehow in some intermediate state of moral condition until a so-called age of accountability. And it's at that point that they really become sinners with real condemnation, that when they really know what it is to tell a real lie and they consciously and deliberately do it, or when they really consciously know what it is to frame a nasty or a dirty word and they deliberately speak

13:47 it, that at that point, somewhere along the line, they pass a threshold, and this threshold is often called an age of accountability. But from the Scriptures, this notion simply, simply will not wash. For we read in the Word of God in such passages as Romans 5 and verse 2, Romans 5 and verse 12, of his God. It is through the one man and our all sinning in him and with him in that

14:50 first transgression that we became sinners and fell under the condemnation of God. It is for this reason that in 1 Corinthians 15, 22, the Scripture says, as in Adam, all die. It doesn't. It doesn't say, as in Adam, all are potentially slated for death, but the text says, in Adam, all die. And the Scripture is clear in affirming that all men, whether male or female, all mankind are not only originally made in the image of God, but we are sinners who fell in Adam and have come under the condemnation of God. And some of the most sweeping general statements in all of the Bible are used to describe our universal state of sinnerhood. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way. Isaiah 53, 6,

16:10 Romans 3, 23, We for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is not a just man upon the face of the earth that does good and sins not. So when we stand with the Lord Jesus at our side, and in our portrait gallery we look at the two portraits, we see they are two men. And there is a tremendous family likeness.

16:41 There are dominant features in both portraits that are almost the mirror image of the other, in that they are both creatures made in the image of God. And they are both creatures who fell in Adam and have come under the condemnation of God. And as we look at both portraits, standing before the one and before the other, and there long enough for the portrait to turn into a mirror, these mirrors are never like the mirrors in the fun house. Some of you kids have stood before the mirrors in the fun house. You maybe just 4'2 inches tall and you stand before one mirror and it makes you taller than Shaquille O'Neal. It makes you look 7 feet tall. You stand before another one and it makes you look five foot wide. If you're 5ft tall,

17:43 it makes you look bigger. If you're 7 feet tall, you foot wide. You like to stand before the one that will show you as slim and skinny as olive oil. They just shrink you right down to toothpick size. The mirrors in the funhouse reflect you, but they don't reflect you for what you really are. They reflect a distorted image of you. It's you, but it's not you. But when we stand before these portraits and we gaze upon them and they turn into mirrors, those mirrors polished by the very rectitude and the pure holy attributes of God reflect perfectly what we really are like. And when we stand

18:33 before these two portraits, we find that whether we stand before the first or the second, they reflect precisely the same thing. About ourselves, as was true of both of these men. And they say, yes, you too are a creature made in the image of God. Though Adam fell many millennia ago, the scripture says that we are still creatures that are made in the image of God, not with the perfect image.

19:07 It is a marred image, but nonetheless, we are image bearers, but we are image bearers who have fallen in Adam, who are sinners by representation in Adam, who are sinners under the condemnation of God, sinners in our own nature, sinners in our own practice. This is the humbling. This is the flesh withering. But this is the reality of what you and I are in the image of God.

19:44 So the first thing in which these men are essentially the same, they are both the same in their condition before God, and what they are and were, we are this day. But then the second thing in which they are both the same is this. They are both in the same place, engaged in the same activity. Look at the text.

20:13 Two men, two men, two men, two men, two men, two men, two men, two men, two men, two men, went up into the temple to pray. Verse 11, the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, and though the word prayer is not used, verse 13 is obviously a record of the prayer of the second man, but the tax collector standing afar off would not lift up so much his eyes to heaven, but smote his breast. Thus saying, God be merciful to me, the sinner, which is the record of his prayer. So they are both in the same place, engaged in the same activity. If we stand before their portraits, we notice not only striking similarities in the leading features of their faces, but striking similarities in the background of the canvas. They have both gone up to the temple. That is the place of God's special presence. The place where

21:25 God's worship and the God instituted rituals of worship were enacted. The place where sacrifices were offered and where the priest carried on their divinely directed tasks. They were both in the same place in the temple. And they were both praying. As we stand before their portraits, we see not only these basic similarities in the contours of their faces, their fundamental identity, but in the background are those things that indicate that they are both in the same place identified by Jesus as the temple, and that they are both engaged in the same activity. They are praying. They are seeking to have conscious, mental, and spiritual communion with God expressed in words, which are the echo of the thoughts of their hearts.

22:34 And as we once again stand before the portraits long enough, whether we stand before the first or the second, just as we see ourselves in either portrait or portrait of God, we see that the image of God is in either portrait as men, made in the image of God, as men, women, boys, and girls falling in Adam, so in a very real sense. We can stand before the first or the second portrait and we see ourselves. We have all come up to a common place of worship this morning. I am preaching to the people who are found within the walls of this building.

23:17 Where a congregation called Trinity Baptist Church gathers. Though not all of you are within these walls, some are downstairs in the nursery, some are downstairs in the foyer. The living congregation to whom I'm ministering this morning is gathered in this place, set apart for the public worship of God. And, at least to some degree, we have all been engaged in common religious activities that have to do with the worship of God. And, at least to some degree, we have all been engaged in common religious activities that have to do with God.

23:47 we have been singing hymns from a common hymn book, and following the reading of the text of scripture from the Word of God. And, we have bowed our heads in unison and have been engaged in the activities of pray,r so that, as we stand before the portraits and they become mirrors, at this point we can see ourselves in either the first or the second portrait Now become a mirror. You're here in a place set apart for the public worship of God. You're here engaged in those rituals ordained of God as the very stuff of his worship under the new covenant. Now these are the things in which these men are essentially the same and in which all of us sitting here are essentially the same. But now when we move in the second place to consider from the passage what the Lord Jesus, the curator of this portrait museum, tells us about the things in which these men are radically different.

Radical Differences: Conception of God

25:04 From this point on, everything is a study not in similarity, but in contrast. And furthermore, from this point on, after we've looked at the portrait. And we've listened to the Lord Jesus describing the significance of what we see in the portrait. And then the portraits turn into mirrors.

25:29 No longer can you see yourself before both mirrors.

25:35 You have to stand before one and say, do I see my image reflected there? Or stand before the other, is my image reflected there? But there's no man, woman, boy or girl in this place whose image is reflected. From both portraits turned a mirror.

25:54 From this point on, there is radical difference as our Lord Jesus describes the portraits for us.

26:07 First of all, notice with me that they differ radically in their conception of God. That is what they consciously think about God. These two men. And in the two portraits drawn by our Lord's words, differ radically in their conception of God.

26:36 Look at the Pharisee. Two men went up into the temple to pray. The one, a Pharisee. And the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself.

26:47 God, I thank you that I'm not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I get. What does this tell us about this man's conception of God?

27:10 Well, we know from the rest of scripture that although the Pharisees were an exceedingly religious bunch of people, even to the point, according to verse 9, that they looked... that they looked down their long religious snout in a despising attitude to all others.

27:31 For Jesus spoke this parable with peculiar purpose to expose these Pharisees, who though exceedingly religious, rather than being humbled, which is of the essence of all true religion, for thus saith the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in the highest. I am holy place with him also that is of a humble and a contrite spirit.

28:02 The Pharisee was full of himself and full of pride. He was a self-inflated religious balloon and windbag who dares to vent some of that very wind in the presence of God in the kind of prayer that he prays. But at the foundation of the contrast in the two portraits is this radically different conception of God. Though the Pharisee was a very religious man, and though outwardly many parts of his life were very meticulous in religious things, he had so small, so trivial a view of God that he actually believed...

28:47 This is one of the most amazing things. He actually believed that his outwardly moral...

28:54 spiritual life and his religious deeds could earn enough brownie points that God would look favorably upon him now and take him to heaven when he died. He had such a low, unworthy, trivial view of God that he thought the God of the universe, who spoke worlds into being by the word of his mouth, brought them into being, and out of the womb of nothing, by sheer creative speaking, the God who upholds all things by the word of his power, the God who needed nothing from anything that he ever created, who is totally self-sufficient in himself, he's got such a trivial, small God that he really thinks that he can earn enough brownie points for God to smile and rub his hands and say, Oh, that's so lovely and so wonderful because you don't do this and don't do that and don't do this and because you do that and because you do that, you have earned my favor. What a low, unworthy view of God this man had. Though his life was religious from morning till night

30:18 and all that he did and said was framed by his religion, he was utterly destitute of some of the most fundamental, some of the most fundamental elements of a true knowledge of God that a man must have if he's going to truly know God. He had this small, trivial God who could influence the acceptance and eternal destiny of never-dying souls on the basis of brownie points. But now let's look at the second portrait. What about this publican or tax collector?

30:57 What was his view of God? Look at his prayer. But the publican standing afar off. In comparison to this Pharisee who probably went as far as someone who was not of the priestly class could go into that part of the temple.

31:19 By contrast, the tax collector standing afar off, maybe just over the boundary of the court of the Gentiles, into the place where a Jewish adult male was allowed to come, perhaps just inches over that. Standing afar off, notice as Jesus paints the picture, he says he would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven. The picture is of a man bent over and in his bed, in a position he would not, not even speaking of lifting up his head like the Pharisee. He turns his face upward and thanks God he's not like other men and begins to kick off all his brownie points. This man afar off. As far away from the place of God's special presence in that inner sanctuary.

32:26 As far off from the most holy things of the temple, the altar, and the sacrifice. And that veil that separated the outer from the inner sanctuary. Afar off. He does not so much as lift his eyes to heaven.

32:45 Not so much as his eyes, let alone his whole head and face. And then it says he is beating upon his breast. Not for artistic effect. Not for histrionic effect.

33:01 There was nobody from the channel 4 news team there with a camera on his shoulder taking his picture. No. He was but expressing the state of his heart and particularly his view of God. He saw God is so intrinsically holy.

33:21 So majestic and glorious in himself. So pure. That he was of purer eyes than to look upon iniquity. And he saw himself in the light of that holy God in such a way that he knew there was a distance between himself and this God because of his sin.

33:46 He saw that this God was a God who, if he did not have mercy, if he did not extend forgiveness, if he would not turn away, his wrath, there was no hope for him because of who God was against the backdrop of what he was as a creature and a sinner. Now as we stand before the two portraits and we begin our study of the contrast, we see the contrast of their radically different conception of God. Now stand before each one until you see your own face. The portraits become mirrors. Do you see yourself before the portrait of the Pharisee? Is that the mirror that reflects your image? That you really think that the God of heaven who charges his angels with folly before whom the burning ones veil face and feet and cry one to another holy, holy, holy.

34:59 You really think that this God can be appeased, that this God can be disposed to be favorable to you and accept your person and receive you with favor simply because you haven't been as rotten as a lot of your fellow sinners? Do you really think that? That's what he thought. I thank you, I am not.

35:26 And then he names those who were more notorious for their blatant, for their blatant sins. And he really thinks that because he has not been an extortioner, he's not been unjust in his dealings with his neighbors, he has not violated the seventh commandment at least outwardly, and he's not like this tax collector who hobnobs with those dirty Romans and hires himself out to the Romans to collect their wretched taxes on their behalf. He surely says, Lord, this is my crowning brownie point in terms of me being different from the rest of the riffraff, even as this publican. Is that you this morning? Do you really think in your heart of hearts that God is going to be favorable to you simply because you're not the rotten sinner that your neighbor is? You're not the vile sinner that many of your work associates are. You're not the vile sinner your own spouse or son or daughter has become.

36:33 And in your mind, you really think that somehow that will gain you some favor with God that you mirrored in that first portrait. And remember, he is not only confident of acceptance because of what he isn't, but then because of what he does, and he names his little religious things. I fast twice in the week, twice a week, from early morning till three in the afternoon I go without my normal food. Surely, surely this earns some major brownie points.

37:08 I take tithes of all that I get, Jesus said, right down to their herbs. Were they to go out in the backyard in their herb garden and pick a handful of mint or some other herb, they'd be sure to take a tenth of it and set it apart to give as an offering to God. I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I get, get a small portion of it, express my presence in Him, and I've given all that I've got.

37:40 Now, actually, I want to make sure that you understand that what you do is the best. You know, it's like this, I'm standing before that portrait, become a mirror. Is that reflecting your image? You think there's something you have done or can do or are doing that really makes up any deficiency that may be there.

38:02 still doesn't quite give you enough brownie points so to cover your bet in your heart of hearts I've walked an aisle I've raised a hand I've prayed the sinner's prayer I've been baptized I've become a member of a reformed church I tithe all that I get I attend the stated meetings I this, I that stand before that portrait long enough and ask if indeed you see your face because if you do if you do the Lord Jesus has something very serious to say about you and we'll come to that in due course or do you find yourself in that second portrait here is the man who stands afar off nobody's there coaching him nobody's there telling him now if you want to go to heaven and you find no reason why you shouldn't accept Christ pray this prayer after me nobody's there coaching him nobody's there putting words in his mouth he has come by the operation of the spirit of God through the word of God to the discovery of what he really is in the presence of God and he sees God as so holy

39:32 he sees God as so majestic and exalted in his holiness and righteousness and justice that he cries out from afar not so much as lifting up his eyes to heaven the place of God's special dwelling he feels himself to be at such a distance God if you don't interpose with mercy pure mercy only mercy I've had it merciful to me and then he doesn't say a sinner along with everybody else no Jesus puts in his words mouth the words the sinner there's only one sinner in the world in your presence God and it's me oh yes I came up to the temple amidst a bunch of sinners and I stand in the temple amidst a bunch of sinners but oh God when I think of who you are and what I am there's only one God and one sinner be merciful to thee sinner is that your conception of God when you think of standing in his presence so holy so righteous so just so inflexible in his holy law and you as a creature morally accountable to him

41:00 but fallen in Adam a sinner by representation by nature and by practice which are you you can't be mirrored in both portals you either have the fundamental spirit of the Pharisee or the fundamental spirit of the public when you think of God but then notice how they differ radically not only in their conception of God but in their perception of themselves not only do they radically differ in their conception of God but in their perception of themselves look at the Pharisee he did not have to attend any self-esteem seminars

Radical Differences: Perception of Self

41:54 he was full of self-esteem self-confidence and self-congratulation when it says he stood thus and prayed with himself that's what he was really doing he was really just bragging into his own ears God wasn't impressed with any of this but he's so full of self-esteem self-confidence self-congratulation when I was a kid there was a little ditty we used to sing I love me I think I'm grand I go to the movies just to hold my hand I put my arm around my waist I get fresh I slap my face silly little ditty isn't it innocent enough when kids sing it but when a man dares to sing it in the presence of almighty God it is horrendous that's what he's singing I love me God I think I'm grand I want to appreciate it I want to appreciate it I want to appreciate it I don't want to surprise you with just how grand I am look at me God I'm not like the extortioner I am not like the unjust the adulterer or even this tax collector and look what I do he had this view of himself

43:20 that based on what he was and what he did he had no shattering sense of inadequacy to appear before God no sense of adequacy no sense of undone-ness he could read Isaiah 6 and he wouldn't have a clue of its meaning I saw the Lord high and lifted up and his train filled the temple I saw the seraphim flying, crying and the doors of the post shook at the voice of him that cried and then I cried woe is me I'm undone I've had it mine eyes have seen the King Jehovah of hosts I've seen the exalted God and whatever I, Isaiah, may have in terms of good breeding and upbringing Isaiah was no bum there's no record Isaiah had ever become a prodigal Isaiah had had the culture and influence of the court nurturing and shaping and forming his noble manhood but he says when I saw God I saw myself and when I saw myself it shattered me I was undone

44:47 not this Pharisee he never once knew what it was to feel an inward shaking and trembling in the sight of his own wretched sinfulness in the presence of God now look at portrait number two there's the publican so full of self-loathing and self-loathing and self-abhorrence and self-distrust that he goes totally out of himself he doesn't say a thing about himself but his identity as the sinner everything else is directed to God saying God be merciful be propitious turn away your wrath from me the sinner he's acknowledging in his prayer that in himself and apart from the intervention of God he's had it he knows that if the God who is is true to all that he is he must consume him in his wrath and in his righteous anger against sin and the sinner that's the view the tax collector has of himself now I ask you stand before the two portraits and they now become mirrors

46:15 which one is reflecting you? does the Pharisee reflect you? are you at heart a Pharisee? that you think that because of the influence of your Christian home and Christian nurture which under God's common grace kept you from becoming an outward adulterer and extortioner and someone that the civil law would seek to seize and throw into prison and because you early learned the disciplines of going to church and reading bible and tithing that down underneath that somehow gives you brownie points is that you stand before the mirror and be honest with what you see and if you see your face in that mirror oh my friend take seriously that reflection we come to portrait two and there you see a man whose view of himself is whatever good he may have done in the world's estimation whatever virtue he may possess in the estimation of his wife and his kids and his neighbors and the community in the presence of almighty God he sees himself in one fundamental category only the sin

47:43 and he goes totally out of himself pleading that this God would be merciful to him you see he understood the language of the psalmist who cried if you Lord should mark iniquity oh Lord who could stand God if you were to mark sin so as to bring it into judgment who could stand there was genuine spirit wrought self-loathing and self-abhorrence and self-distrust but as we go before the portraits with the Lord Jesus the great curator explaining the significance of what we see notice they not only had a radically different conception of God and a radically different perception of themselves but they had a radically different conviction of how a man gains acceptance with God a radically different conviction of how a man gains acceptance with God few things are more indicative of the true state of anyone's soul than their convictions concerning this question how does a man gain acceptance with God

Radical Differences: Conviction of Acceptance with God

49:09 that's probably the most significant question anyone can ask how does a man gain acceptance with God some would say well you don't need to gain it we all have it we're all his children by creation the question's invalid others would say yes we need to gain it but this way or that way well look at the portrait the Pharisee he actually believes he is accepted on the basis of who he is and what he does and does not do who he is what he does and what he does not do he is the picture of the very person described in Romans chapter 10 where Paul's speaking of his son his burden for his fellow Jews says in verse 2 of Romans 10 I bear them witness they have a zeal for God but not according to knowledge for being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God they did not subject themselves to a righteousness of which God is the author and one that is pleasing to God because it is the very righteousness of God they did not subject themselves to that they sought to establish their own construct their own ladder to heaven

50:39 make their own ground of acceptance with God they differed radically in their conviction of how one gains acceptance the Pharisee thinks acceptance is based on who he is what he does and does not do but the publican he's so convinced that what he is by nature and practice is so abhorrent to God so wrath and hell deserving that in the original the regular word for mercy is not used here when he prays the Lord Jesus has him praying God be merciful it's not the ordinary word for mercy but it's the word in the family from which we get our English word propitious propitiation which is the turning away of the wrath of God the turning away of the wrath of God by the sacrifice of an innocent victim his prayer is literally God be propitious to me the sinner and when it says he would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven could it be that his eyes were fixed on the altar on which an innocent lamb was being consumed by fire could it be that he saw

52:05 in the innocent lamb being consumed that marvelous foreshadowing of what the Lord Jesus the very one who paints the picture and explains it to us that one who would be the lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world but how much he saw that we do not know but from his prayer we know this he's utterly convinced that if God does not turn away his wrath from him that wrath will utterly consume him now I ask you let's stand before the fortress while they become mirrors again and where do you stand what is your view of how a sinner finds acceptance with God is it fundamentally a conviction that what you are what you do and what you don't do religious or otherwise is what will gain your acceptance with God there are multitudes of evangelicalism today when you ask them on what basis are you going to heaven they say I trusted Christ I made my decision they don't talk about Christ they talk about what they did and what they've done and what they continue to do and it's not just semantics folks it's evident that there's no real trusting in Christ

53:34 for their only hope of life and salvation for the Bible says whenever there is genuine faith in Christ there will always be love to Christ faith works by love and love to Christ will produce a life of meticulous obedience to Christ there are multitudes who glibly claim to be saved because they made some decisions in connection with Christ decades ago whose lives show no pattern whatever of devotion to Christ they're in the picture of the Pharisee this is what I've done and since I made my decision I don't do this I don't do that I do this I do the other whereas the disposition of the Pharisee is not something that a man has only in his initial the publican I'm sorry the disposition of the publican the tax collector is not something a man has only in his initial reaching out for mercy he knows that at his most mature point as a Christian there's enough sin in his most holy deeds to damn him a thousand times over he knows that in and of themselves his prayers his devotional life his praises his worship his witness no matter what he does is so tainted with sin

55:02 that if God were to use that as the basis of whether to accept or reject him he'd be damned for his devotions he'd be damned for his worship he'd be damned for his prayers the disposition of the publican becomes the abiding disposition of every true Christian his conviction about his acceptance with God from the beginning to the end is that it's God being propitious on the basis of who Christ is and what Christ has done Christ at the beginning Christ in the middle and Christ at the end in the language of Philippians 3 Paul says that I may be found in Christ not having a righteousness of my own which is of the law but that which is through the faith of Christ but then notice this fourth and final area in which they differ they not only differ radically in their conception of God in their perception of self in their conviction about the way of acceptance they differ radically in their true position before God they differ radically in their true position before God look at verse 14 Jesus tells us their true position concerning these two men

Radical Differences: True Position Before God

56:31 what does he say? verse 14 of Luke chapter 18 I say unto you this man the tax collector went down to his house justified rather than the other let's take portrait number one he has stood he's prayed his prayer he's reflected his conception of God his perception of himself his conviction about the way of acceptance with God Jesus said he went down to his house in exactly the same state in which he went up to the temple condemned doomed under the wrath and curse of God still in Adam a sinner with no hope of mercy as long as he abides in the self delusion of thinking his brownie points will fix him up but the publican Jesus said he went down to his house justified that is all his sins were pardoned he was declared righteous in the sight of God he was credited with a perfect record even the record of the son of God of whom the father said this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased

57:54 he had put to his account the same righteousness that was reckoned unto Abraham that was reckoned unto Phineas that was reckoned unto every Old Testament saint as the Lord Jesus is described as the land slain from the foundation of the world God credits to this tax collector the full virtue of the perfect life of the son of God the death that in a short while he would die upon the cross what was his true position before God he was a sinner who in the court of heaven just as if he'd never sinned and as we looked at the portraits of them now we look at the mirror what is your true position before God one or the other you go down from this building the same way you came into it and perhaps the same way you've come into it weeks, months, years and you go down from it to your house under wrath and under judgment and under condemnation in spite of all prayers you've prayed and the brownie points you think you've built up because you've never taken the posture of a hell deserving helpless sinner

59:14 who throws himself wholly and solely upon the mercy of God in Christ you'll continue to go down to your house not with more brownie points before God but more weight of judgment upon your head would to God that today you'd go down to your house justified justified why? because by God's grace you no longer think of God like a heathen deity who's so restricted and trivial that throwing a few little brownie points in front of him can earn his favor you no longer hold on to that self-flattering view of yourself but you take the indictment of the word of God about the reality and depth of your sinnerhood and you no longer think the way of acceptance is in you but it's in another and when you go out of yourself and into Christ by faith you too will go down to your house justified now we've looked at the areas in which the two were the same the four areas in which they were radically different just a moment in closing consider thirdly the fundamental lesson from the portrait gallery as the Lord Jesus has taken us before the portrait which become mirrors

The Fundamental Lesson: Humility and Exaltation

60:40 and is about to lead us out he wants to clinch the basic lesson of our visit to the portrait gallery look at the words in the last half of verse 14 for everyone that exalts himself shall be humbled but he that humbles himself shall be exalted every one that exalts himself shall be humbled that's what our Lord is saying concerning portrait number one this man exalted himself bragged about what he was and what he was not and what he did and the scripture says every such person will be humbled a day is coming when such men will stand before almighty God all the brown brownie points will be burned out and they'll stand in the naked shame of no covering and all the vile ugliness of their sinnerhood in Adam and their sinnerhood by practice and nature will be seen in all of its wretched nakedness and they'll be humbled bent low when they hear the words depart from me but look every one that humbles himself

62:09 that's what the public is saying the tax collector humbled himself and what was humbling himself taking some posture lower than reality no it was coming down off the self delusion of inflated views of himself and embracing reality and he was exalted how with an immediate pardon of all his sins with immediate acceptance before God and the beloved and in the last day will be exalted when he is owned by the son of God as one of his and hears the words come ye blessed into the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world we've gone to the portrait gallery with the portraits that become mirrors which is your portrait may God grant that each of us will give himself no rest till he can say oh God by grace I'm in that second portrait that's me I go to my house justified solely because of your mercy and your grace in the crucified

63:35 and in the risen and in the living savior let us pray our father we pray that you would take the attempt to open up this very basic portion of your word and may it prove to be effectual in the heart and mind of every man woman boy or girl in this place that none of us shall be deceived about you and about ourselves and about the way of acceptance and about our true standing before you but may we humble ourselves taking the posture of the tax collector going out of ourselves and looking solely to you for pardoning grace and mercy seal then your word to the prophet of our souls and to the salvation of some who sit here this morning we ask in Jesus name Amen