Noel for leading the meeting tonight, it's good to be with
you again. And also the brother Fred for
singing and we always enjoy our brother singing and he didn't
disappoint us tonight. And of course the congregation
for singing too. The hand cannot say to the foot.
I have no need of the and as God's people, we are all in this
mission together. If you can get people in, you
are the people on the ground. Noah and I are the blowins for a
couple of weeks, couple of weeks.
And if you can get people in, well, then you'd be assured we
will preach the gospel of the grace of God with no interest in
anything else other than preaching the word of God.
I've got that watch off me at last.
I thought it was going to be a, a shackle round my my wrist
there, but it came off there for me.
Luke's gospel chapter 18, please.
Luke's gospel chapter 18. It's where we want to go tonight
in order to preach this old message of redeeming love.
There's a Saviour from all sin if you only let him in.
We're going to read a wonderful story tonight from the Word of
the Lord, words of the Saviour. Look chapter 18 and look at the
verse 9 and it says, and he that is our Saviour, the Lord Jesus.
And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in
themselves that they were righteous and despised others.
Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one of Pharisee and
the other a publican. Now we tend to think when we
talk about publicans, we think about the boys that serve the
booze. But you will of course know that
the publican back in 1611 when our translation was translated
was the tax collector and nobody likes the tax collector.
I was always amused that the man who wrote to the Inland Revenue
to the tax collectors and he says can you take me off your
mailing list? I wonder how you got on with
that. I'd love to know if it worked
for have. It'll work for me.
But nobody likes attack. There's any tax collectors here
tonight, by the way, You just keep their head down and smile.
That's the fair thing to do. But this man was a tax collector
and the two went up into the temple to pray.
The one of Pharisee. You know what a Pharisee is and
they are a Republican. The Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself. Here's his prayer.
God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are extortioners,
unjust adulterers, or even as this publican.
I fast twice in the week, I give ties of all that I possess.
And the publican standing afar off, we'd not lift up so much as
his eyes on the heaven, but smote his breast, saying, God be
merciful to me, a Sinner. I tell you, this man went down
to his house justified rather than the other.
For everyone that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he
that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
Amen. God will bless, I have no doubt.
What is really a short reading? What a very powerful reading off
the word of the Lord. Now seek the Lord now again in
prayer. Our Father, we thank you for the
meeting thus far. We thank you for the hymns that
we've been singing together. Hymns, Lord has centred largely
around the blood of the Lamb and the great cry.
Wash me in the blood of the Lamb, and I shall be whiter than
snow. Thank you for the two pieces
that our brother brought to us as well, using that gift, Lord,
that you have give to them, stirring it up and using it
again in the furtherance of the gospel.
We thank you for the reading of Scripture.
And now they are has come where the word of God is to be
preached. The Lord, thou hast said, we
remind thee as the Lord's remembrances tonight, we remind
thee that thou hast said that it pleases thee by the foolishness
of preaching to see of those that will believe.
And while our Lord are inside this building, or maybe they're
at home watching online, while we're there in Northern Ireland
or maybe further afield, Lord, it could be in the far end of
the earth watching in for all we know.
While nevertheless, Lord, we're praying that your word would
have free course and be glorified.
I need Thy power to preach the arm of flesh.
It will surely fail. We dare not trust our own, but
we look to Thee to bless thy word that'll have free course
and be glorified in Jesus name. Amen.
I believe that many, if not
indeed all of Christ's parables that He told were based on fact.
In other words, there really was a sower who went out to sew.
He wasn't making that up. He was able to look round them
and there were people out in the fields, the sower going out to
sew. There really was a lost sheep, a
man who had 100 sheep and he counted, and one somehow away
from the rest. It got out through a hole in
their heads, through the gate or whatever.
There was a lost coin, a little widow woman looking frantically
for the coin that she had. There really was a prodigal son
when he had run away from home, broke the father's heart.
There really was a little woman in the back kitchen baking with
the leaven and therefore come. We doubt that there really was
two men who would go up into the temple and to pray.
Is it beyond belief tonight that one of them, the Pharisee, would
would boast before the Lord of his supposed good works like
this Pharisee did? His strategy indeed is very
common. We meet with it constantly.
Perhaps not so public as his very went up, no doubt to the
front of the temple, and he prayed that our men might hear
him, and many of soul would maybe shrink back at that.
Perhaps not so nasty in relation to ours, for I thank God that He
was not as a sole man was. But many have a lot in common
with the Pharisee. And if you were to ask that
great question that people sometimes ask in evangelism, why
should God let ye into his heaven?
They dwell with him forevermore. Why should He let ye into him,
into his heaven, when it is universally admitted that we
have all sinned? Why should He let you?
In A general answer, a far too popular answer would be Thus my
church attendant, come the Sabbath morning, some soul will
say, I am in my Pew singing the praises of God.
My envelope is in my hand, I put it in the little basket.
I support the minister. I, I help around the church,
someone else might say in the same line.
Well, I, I try, I try my best, I do good, I, I harm nobody.
And on that basis they hope they get him to heaven.
Well, such a position is miles away from that of the tax
collector. Yes, it would agree and line up
with what the Pharisee was saying, but we want to think
tonight about this poor tax collector, the one who spoke the
words of our text in verse 13. He says, God be merciful to me
as son. There's no great eloquence
there. You want eloquent prayers, then
you need to look elsewhere. There's no list here of
commendable virtues that he had are on display.
All we have here in one lane in our Bible is simply a heartfelt
cry. Oh, God, be merciful to me, a
Sinner. The first thing that we want to
see, number one, is why we need mercy.
Why do we need mercy? It's in those words, me a
Sinner. It might help us to see, I
think, what sin actually is and why, when we have considered it,
why we can only plead for mercy when we realise, as we must do
in order to perceive that we are sinners.
The first thing that I want us to see here just to describe
sin. And they open it up and they
show it in all its heininess and all its awfulness.
First of all, sin is a crime. It is a crime.
Sin is defined in first John 3 and verse 4.
Sin is the transgression, the breaking, the stepping over the
line. That's what trans means, the
stepping over, the breaking of the law of God.
And sometimes we break the law of God by Commission.
In other words, the things that we do, the act of things that we
do, and sometimes we break the law by omission.
The things that we don't do, the things that we ought to do, the
duties that are impressed upon us and we leave them undone or
we don't do them right. And when we fail in that, then
we have committed a sin against God.
It's a crime against the law of God because every one of us
tonight, everyone of us, are subject to the law of God.
And we are subject to the law of God because we are creatures,
His creatures. He created us and not we
ourselves. And not only are we creatures
who live in His domain, the earth being the Lords and the
fullness thereof, but we're also dependent upon Him.
The very breath that you're drawing now as you listen to
this message is sent to you from Almighty God, and we are
dependent upon Him. And sin is not only a crime, but
sin is also rebellion, as there's another facet of it.
It is not a mere error. Sin is rebellion, and it says of
the carnal mind of man that every one of us have if we're
still unsaved. The Bible says it is not subject
to the law of God. In other words, it will not
subject itself to the law of God.
And indeed, the Bible says the carnal heart of man is at
eminently with God. He hates the law of God.
And you see their rebellion in the hearts of men.
The parallel verse here is Lamentation 3 and verse 42,
where there the cry went up, the lamentation went up, we have
transgressed and we have rebelled.
Sin is rebellion against God, and such rebellion is high
treason against God, not merely against an earthly king, but
against the king of kings himself, against the one by whom
all the other kings and all the other Princess rule and decree
justice, this king of kings who can set them up and bring them
down in a moment of time, and that's high treason.
You know in the Bible there was a very wicked woman called
Athaliah and she had a very wicked reign.
However, there was a God driven revolution against her.
The true king was in hiding. He was just a babe and then when
he grew to a certain age, they came out, as it were, out of the
woodwork and surprised this woman.
She realised what was happening. Her days on the throne as wicked
Athaliah were over and when she could see what was happening,
what did she cry? Treason.
She cried, but she was a
traitor. She was the one who shouldn't
have been on the throne. She is the one who had defied
the law of God, who had challenged the high King of
Heaven and was guilty of treason.
That was sin is high treason against the Lord.
Sin is something else. You know, there's another facet
to this. Sin is robbery.
The question is asked in Malachi, will a man rob God and
you can rob God of his glory. It's not that he ceases to be
all glorious, but sin is to fall short of the glory of God.
Romans 323 all have send them. What comes short of the glory of
God because God says to you tonight, he says, My son, note
those tender accents tonight, my son, give me thine heart, give
me your life. That's what the Lord's asking
for tonight. Give me your life.
The old handwriter wrote the words.
He says, Take my moments and take my days old.
Let them flow and ceaseless praise.
But the rebellious traitor in our wicked heart would cry out
against that and say, who is the Lord?
Just like Pharaoh of old, Who is the Lord, that I should obey his
voice. Sin is the robbery of God.
Sin is something else. That's uncleanness.
It's uncleanness. We usually refer to uncleanness
as a sexual sin, as in morality. But the Bible says all sin comes
in under this term of uncleanness.
All sin pollutes the soul. Do you remember what it says?
And I say a chapter 64 and verse 6, it says we are all as an
unclean thing and all our righteousness is.
There's one full of Pharisee, isn't it?
Not merely our sins, even our righteousnesses, our filthy rags
in the sight of God doesn't know what Titus says to them that are
defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure, but even their
mind and their conscience is defiled.
And you know one of the saddest occasions is when that time
comes, when the Spirit no longer strives with man and God says,
let him that is filthy, let him be filthy still.
And the man has left to woal like the pig in the mire in his
own sinful filth. Sudden is something else.
Sin is vanity indeed. The Bible says it is vanity and
man of these because sudden really in what attracts men to
it is based on the devil's lie. We get a lot of information.
You get a little texts in your phone from your bank or your
building society or whatever. You see it on the television.
There's entire programmes almost dedicated to it.
The idea of the scammer, somebody coming along pretending
to be somebody else, some official agency or whatever.
They want your money, it's in your bank, they want it in
theirs. It's a big scam, and that's what
sin is. That's what sin is.
It's a big scam. The pleasures of sin are only
temporary. The Bible says they last only
for a little season, a little small little season.
Says again that even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the
end of that mirth is heaviness. Sin brings men down into death
and into hell. That's the earned wage of sin.
We reap what we sow It's the sow and harvest.
It's entirely just because God, He is the God of justice has
imposed it. And the Bible says the whole
world, including those self deluded Pharisees stand guilty
before God. The whole world stands guilty
before God. Every mouth, it says, will be
stopped. Listen to this, even the damned
souls in hell. Now and again, you know, the
Lord just pulls back the little curt, and we all get the chance
to look. And even the damned souls in the
hell will cry out in their torment and in their despair and
in their pain. And they say, Lord God Almighty,
just and true are thy ways, thy keen of Saints.
You see now why we all stand in need of mercy of any one of
those, any one of those things named is enough to bring us
down. But we tick all the boxes we've
got to say tonight like this man, me the Sinner.
But then notice secondly, we need mercy, not only because
we're sinners, but notice secondly here, who alone can
grant that's needed mercy? He's going to be merciful too as
well. He says here he cried out in
prayer and he says, oh God, oh God, be merciful to me, the
Sinner. And only God, of course can do
it, because first of all, he's the offended one.
We are. Who are we to grant mercy when
we are equally guilty? And even the holiest of Saints
in the Bible, the men who walked with God, the men who were the
friend of God, the men who were after God's own heart, they all
confessed their total, excuse me, their total worthlessness
and their sins. Because the Bible says not only
because of all our sin are we totally depraved, That is, the
whole man is depraved, but we are totally guiltless, our guilt
guilty rather, and we're totally helpless.
And only God against whom we have sinned, house the right to
extend order, withhold mercy as it pleases him, and only God has
the power and the authority to do it.
But God can do it, not only because he has he offended one,
but because he sent his Son into the world to die for sinners.
And the sinless Son of God, and that old rugged cross, that
emblem of suffering and shame, He took our guilt and He took
our punishment for us. The Lord led on him the iniquity
of us all. Yes, he was wounded, but it was
for our transgressions. He was bruised.
It was for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was led in him. And by his stripes are we
healed. You know, rebellions are usually
quashed. The high treason in the past day
was was a capital crime. About a month ago, maybe 5 weeks
ago, it was over in London, all of and I went over for just for
a few days in the first full day, but went to the Tower of
London and we were able to get in and see the big white tower
and all the other towers rounded.
We saw a place right in the banks where he could come up by
boat and go into the tower traders gate.
And when many a soul brought in through traders gate and taken
down into the dungeon and tried for treason and then they were
beheaded. We saw the place where Anne
Boleyn was beheaded. We saw the place where traitors
and the result were places all over London.
And when the traitor's head went on the block and the big acts of
the executioner fell upon that head, they were decapitated.
The head was taken off the the, the executioner would lift up
that head, what a gruesome thing, and he would shout the
head of a traitor. But you know God maketh the
rebel, The Bible says a priest and the king.
There was no mercy given from among the kings of the earth.
But the Kane of kings, confronted with the rebellion of
his subjects, sent his Son, his only begotten Son, the fairy
darling of his bosom. He sent them into the world to
take the sinner's place. Was it for crimes that I had
done? He groaned upon the tree.
Amazing petty grace or known love beyond the greed?
Oh, I bid you tonight, if this is your decision to turn away
your eyes from your own concocted righteousness, turn
away your eyes from an earthly institution, whatever church it
may be. Even if it's this church, turn
your eyes away from us and cry to God the merciful, the mere
Sinner. Thirdly and lastly, here we have
the effect of such mercy when it is granted.
What happened to this man when he cried?
What? What became of him afterward?
What's the end of the story? What's the sequel?
How did it all work out? Well, God heard his cry.
Isaiah 45 verse 19, I said not under the seed of Jacob seek ye
may in vain. They that seek him will find
him, and they find him as the Bible says, rich in mercy, not a
tremendous thing. God who is rich in mercy, the
great love or with he loved this, and he's not only rich in
mercy, but he delights and mercy.
That's a wonderful thing too. Sometimes you know, you have
some people and they've got all the ability to help someone out
of all the riches that are needed, but they're not too
willing to part with it. Never little use.
And then you've got people who would love to be able to help
you, but they don't have the world withal to help you.
And they can only look on and pity you and maybe try and bring
you a little bit of comfort, but they can't help you because they
haven't got what it takes. But our God, behold your God
tonight. Now what the Isaiah says, behold
your God. He's not only rich in mercy, he
delights in it. It pleases him.
There's rejoicing in heaven among the angels of God when a
Sinner repents, because a repenting Sinner finds mercy,
and God delights in mercy. Listen indeed, listen to this as
an overture of peace, because on the cross Christ made peace by
the blood of us, by the blood that he shed.
He made peace by the the blood of his cross.
And listen to what he says to you.
He says today, seek ye the Lord, while he may be found.
This man went into the temple to seek the Lord, to seek God.
He knew where to find him, and he lifted up his voice unto the
Lord. And he says, Lord, be merciful
to me, a Sinner. Seek ye the Lord while he may be
found. Call upon him.
That's what this fellow is doing while he is near.
Let the wicked, let the wicked forsake his way, and let the
unrighteous man forsake his thoughts, and let him return
unto the Lord. Why?
For he will have mercy upon him and let him return on the our
God, for he will abundantly pardon.
That's what this fellow needed as public in this tax collector.
He needed abundant pardon. He is as guilty as hell itself.
He knew it. He knew it in his heart of
hearts. He didn't listen to this other
fellow pray and then join in a similar prayer and say, well
Lord, I'm glad I'm not as greedy as some of my fellow workers.
I'm glad that I'm not this and that and something else.
No, the Bible says he just went and he stood before the Lord.
Do you see him there? Do you see the repentance?
It says he smote his chest. One of the old commentators
says. It's as if he was saying, Lord,
here's the problem. It's in here.
It's not my environment in which I have grown up.
It's not my education or my lack of it.
It's not my family tree that we're all in this business of
robbing people. It's not the wickedness of the
age. It has had an influence upon me
that is at the root of the problem.
No, he says He's smiting his breath sin here.
It's my own wicked, sinful heart that drives me to do these
things. And he says, Lord the merciful
unto me. And God heard his cry.
You know the ear of God does not have a that I cannot hear and
his arm is not shortened or lame that I cannot see if he's
listening for the cry of the Sinner tonight and that Sinner
who just can about put together this prayer and says to God,
Lord be merciful to me. God will hear that prayer and
God will answer that prayer. That's a tremendous thing Jesus
said him that cometh to me. I will in no wise cast out and
he didn't push out this man. You see, when our Lord died upon
the cross, he died for the ungodly.
It's sinners Jesus will receive. Send a word of grace to all.
Don't argue yourself out tonight of getting saved.
Don't argue yourself out and say, well, I'm not, I'm not that
big Sinner that needs to get Christ.
You start thinking like that. You're closing the door on your
own mercy. You are forsaking your own
mercy. You're putting a hole in the
bottom of your own boat and you'll sink your vessel and you
will be lost forever more. What happened to this man?
Listen to what it says there in verse 14.
I tell you, there's the emphasis.
This man, not both men, this man went down to his house
justified. You know what justified means?
It means that the record was his record of crime was gone.
It was just as if it's one of the old Puritans worded it just
as if when he had never sinned, his blood of Christ had washed
the way the blood of Christ had washed the way, all the sin,
because that's why the blood was shed.
That's what we were singing about.
Wash me, cleanse me in the blood, in the blood that he
shed. It cleanseth us from all sin.
The Bible asks a great question. It's it's God throwing down the
gauntlet, the hell itself, who shall lay anything, anything,
anything to the charge of God's elect.
It is God that justifieth. It is Christ that thy ye rather
is risen again. And none can lay anything to the
charge of God's elect. The records clear because Christ
has borne our sins on his own body to the tree and this man
went down home justified doesn't know what the Bible says.
Being justified by faith. Faith brought this man into the
temple. Faith brought this man to the
very throne of God. Faith encouraged him to cry, but
merciful to me, a Sinner. Faith claimed what God was
offering and he went down to his home, justified rather than the
other. The old Pharisee went down,
probably self satisfied. I've been to that church again,
I've stood up and everybody knows what a great fellow I am.
I'll maybe come back again tomorrow. 24 hours near to hell
than they've ever been before. God looking upon him.
You know, when our Lord spoke the sinners, he always spoken
the most tenderest of tones. They, they goered unto him all
the harlots, and all the the publicans, and, and all the vile
sinners. But when he spoke in anger, he
directed it at the Pharisees. Woe unto you Pharisees,
hypocrites, hypocrites. He wasn't very keenly in
nonsense towards them. He exposed them for what they
were, hypocrites, and he said they may make their converts
twofold more. The child of hell land
themselves. But this man, this man went down
to his house justified. He went home and he went to bed.
We had to go to bed sooner or later, didn't they?
And he put his head in the pillow that night and for the
first time he was able to say, it is well.
It is well with my soul. Not a tremendous blessing.
That's the sleep of the just man, isn't it?
Be able to say I LED me down and slapped.
I await for the Lord sustained me.
The grace that has brought me safe thus far will leave me
safely home. I wonder what will you do
tonight if you're still unsaved? See yourself as God sees you.
See yourself as your conscience exposes you too.
Get that X-ray of your heart. It's not good, it's wicked.
The heart of man, Deceitful of all things, desperately wicked.
Who can know it? God says, I'll give you a new
heart. That's the message of the
gospel. I'll make you a new creature.
That's what we'll call been born again, and without the new
birth, you'll not enter the Kingdom.
Will you come to him tonight if you're still unsaved?
Don't come into the House of God a Pharisee and go out a
Pharisee. Come in as a lost Sinner and go
home, justified by the free grace of God.
May God give you that grace to do so.
Just setting where you are in your seat.
You OfferUp our prayer to God. Be merciful to me, a Sinner.
Be merciful to me. Mean it with all your hearts,
not just the formula. Formal words, it needs to be a
heartfelt conviction, work of God in your soul and you're
perceived. If you want to meet with us
afterwards, know all here myself, Mr Greenfield, whatever,
we're willing to help you if we can maybe clarify something, but
go down to your house justified. That's what these meetings are
all about. May the Lord bless His word.