Now, boys and girls, tonight I'm going to try my very hardest to preach a very hard subject in a way that you can understand. So I'm going to need you to pray for me to be able to do that, because that's not easy. Now, some of you draw beautiful pictures for Miss Ruth and I, and for others, and we look at them, and we smile, and we appreciate them. We put them up on the fridge. to enjoy them for a little while longer. But, if pastor's gonna make a sermon for you, so that you can understand, the least you can do is not put my sermon on the fridge, but listen carefully. Now there's going to be some parts of this sermon you won't understand, and I'm sorry about that, because I have to preach to others too, but I'm going to try to make this as simple as I can, because sometimes the simpler the better. Now, if I were to ask you boys and girls, who is important in this world? Who comes to mind? You might think, well, the president. He's important. You might think, well, the leaders of big companies. They must be important. Or people with loads of money. They must be important. Or maybe you're thinking, well, My parents are important to me, very important to me. My brothers and sisters are. My friends are very important to me. But if I were to ask you, who does God think is the most important? What would you say then? Would God say, well, of course the president has to be? Is that what his word tells us? What kind of person is important to God? Is it those who live really good lives and try their hardest? Well, maybe. What if I told you that some people who see themselves as broken down sinners, who don't think they are worthy to be loved by God, what if I told you people like that are important to God? In the parable that Jesus told in the patches that we read, One of the people was considered very important by those around him. They thought of him as a model of holiness and godliness. The other person in the parable, people would have not liked him at all. They wouldn't want to talk to him. They wouldn't even want to look at him. They thought he was a traitor, that he had done bad things against his countrymen. And yet Jesus surprised his hearers. By the end of the parable, he made very plain that the ones who the people thought so highly of were not accepted by God. And the one man who thought so little of himself that all he could say to God was, God, be merciful to me, a sinner, that man was made right with God. Our text is Luke 18, the verses 13 and the beginning of 14. And the publican standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God, Be merciful to me, a sinner. And then Jesus said this, I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, and I'll explain what that is, rather than the other. And while we're talking about this subject, being made right with God, If you care to, you can turn to the back of your songbook, pages 15 and 16, as we're going to just take a quick look at articles 22 and 23 of the Belgic Confession. We're not gonna talk so much about these. We'll just weave them in and out once in a while when they help us understand this parable a little bit. Article 22 reads, we believe that to attain the true knowledge of this great mystery, in other words, how a person can be made right with God, the Holy Ghost kindles in our hearts an upright faith, and then listen to this, children, which embraces, that means holds Jesus Christ, with all his merits and appropriates, I'll explain that too, appropriates him and seeks nothing more besides him. For it must needs follow that either all things which are requisite or necessary to our salvation are not in Jesus Christ, or if all things we need are in him, then those who possess Jesus Christ through faith have complete salvation in him. Therefore for any to assert that Christ is not sufficient, in other words that Jesus is not enough, but is something more is required beside him would be too gross a blasphemy. You all know what gross means, right? That's just awful, ugly. For hence it would follow that Christ was but a half a savior. Therefore, we justly say with the Apostle Paul that we are justified by faith alone, or by faith without works. However, and now this is more for the adults, it's gonna fine tune what was just said. To speak more clearly, we do not mean that faith itself justifies us, for it is only an instrument So what's an instrument? Well, you use a telescope to see things far away. You use a microscope to see little things. You use spoons and forks to bring food to your mouth. Those are instruments. They do something for us. Faith is only an instrument with which we embrace Christ our Savior, but Jesus Christ imputing to us all his benefits and so many holy works which he has done for us and in our place, he is our righteousness. And faith is an instrument that, and this is interesting, keeps us in communion with him in all his benefits, which when they become ours are more than sufficient to acquit us or to cause us to be declared not guilty of our sins. And then Article 23, wherein, in other words, in what is our justification before God? How does that happen? We believe that our salvation consists in the remission or forgiveness of our sins for Jesus' sake, and that therein our righteousness before God is implied, as David and Paul teach us, declaring this to be the happiness of man, that God imputes righteousness to man without works. The same apostle says that we are justified freely by his grace through the redemption which is in Jesus Christ. And therefore, we always hold fast this foundation, ascribing all the glory to God, humbling ourselves before him, and acknowledging ourselves to be such as we really are, without presuming to trust in anything in ourselves or in any merit of ours, relying and resting upon the obedience of Christ crucified alone. which becomes ours when we believe in him. This is sufficient to cover all our iniquities and give us confidence in approaching to God, freeing the conscience of fear, terror, and dread, without following the example of our first father, Adam, who, trembling, attempted to cover himself with fig leaves. And verily, if we should appear before God, relying on ourselves or on any other creature, though ever so little, we should, alas, be consumed. And therefore, everyone must pray with David, O Lord, enter not into judgment with thy servant. For in thy sight shall no man living be justified. Well, children, that was probably hard to understand, but I'm gonna go from that to our parable and try to make this simple. So we're talking about justified by God. That means made right with God. First of all, what instrument does God use? Does he use a fork? No. Telescope? No. What does he use to get us right with himself? So that's the instrument. Number two, the foundation. Now when I say foundation, what do you think of? Well, what's under your house? A lot of houses have a basement. That's under the house. That's the foundation. Big buildings have very deep foundations. There's pilings, there's cement slabs, and what's under there? So we wanna see what is under the thing that we need to be right with God? What's the foundation on which we build? And then finally, the sufficiency. Okay, we're made right with God. How long does that last? How good is that, being right with God? Is it solid, is it shaky, does it last a long time, a short time? the sufficiency. Is it enough? Luke 18, actually, you might have noticed, began not with the parable of the publican and the Pharisee. It was a different parable. Some people call it the parable of the unjust judge. We could call it the parable of the persistent woman. This lady went to a judge. The judge was an ungodly man. He didn't care about people. He didn't care about God, a very wicked judge. And this woman was in trouble. There was somebody who was attacking her, who was threatening her. And she came to him, not once, not twice, but over and over, basically saying, help me. And for a while, the judge was like, I can't be bothered. He wouldn't help her. even though she needed help. Why didn't he help her? Because he didn't care about people, and he didn't care about God. But because she kept coming to the court, and coming to the court, time after time, finally, Jesus said, he did what she wanted. Why? Not because he cared about her, not because he wanted to do what's right. He was tired of this lady constantly asking him. Now we may say, well, why would Jesus tell us a parable like that? Do we wanna be an unjust judge? Do we wanna kind of talk to somebody so long they finally give in? That's not his point. He's saying if that judge who's so wicked would do what that lady asked simply because she kept asking and asking and asking, Jesus turns around and says, wouldn't God, who is so good, Do what his own children ask, what believers ask. He will. And he'll do it, Jesus said, speedily, right away. Now, boys and girls, you kind of know what this is like, don't you? Have you ever had it where you really wanted something, and you go to your mom or to your dad, Mom, may I have this? Not right now. Five minutes later, Mom, may I have this? Honey, I said not right now. Mommy, I have this. Now, we shouldn't do that. When your parents say no, it's no. But if we really, really needed something, let's say you're bleeding, and you needed a Band-Aid, and your mom is on the phone, and she's not really paying attention, or your dad is out doing something. She's like, just wait a minute, wait a minute. No, I'm bleeding, I'm bleeding. I need help, I need help, I need help. I think eventually they'd get the idea, and they'd bandage you up, and they'd hang up the phone, and they'd help you. So there's a time when we should keep asking, especially in prayer. And Jesus is telling us, if you keep on in praying, you don't quit, you don't give up, you don't think, well, I asked two or three times, he's never gonna answer me, it's never gonna happen. Don't think that way, Jesus says. Keep praying. Keep asking God. So then, Another prayer, another parable rather. Article 22 had said that everything we're talking about, being right with God, all of this starts with God. And it says that the Holy Spirit kindles in our heart faith. Now what is kindling? Do you ever have a campfire or a fireplace? And what do you do? You got your sticks together, you got your wood together, maybe some paper together to burn. Well, kindling is little sticks. Why do you have little sticks? Because they burn a lot quicker than big logs. So you start with the things that burn quicker, then you put little sticks, because they burn better, but they don't burn, you know, it doesn't take so long like logs do. So we call those little sticks kindling. And they're very helpful to start a fire, a fire that you want to have, not fires that you don't want to have. Well, this article is saying that God causes in our heart this kindling, this faith to begin to, just like a little fire, begin to start in our heart. And so Paul writes in Ephesians 2.8, it's God's grace, his freely given favor that saves us. And Article 22 says, we do not mean that faith itself justifies, it's just an instrument. So what does God do to get that faith going in our heart? Now what I'm going to say is not like step one, step two, step three, it all has to happen just this way. But this normally is the way God works. The first thing he does is show us that we don't deserve his help. He begins to show us the things that are wrong with us. And that is painful. I mean, we're supposed to help each other see things that are wrong with us. Your dad or mom might point out something you're doing wrong. You might actually be wondering what they're doing if it's right. So he shows us his undeserved favor, this grace, and he shows us that without him, we are lost. But what else he does, he begins, when we start to see that something's wrong with us, he also is making us ask the question, well, how do I get any different? How can I change? How could I ever be forgiven for the things I'm doing wrong? And what he works in our heart is this ability to believe. One of the things we start to believe is the Word of God. And you might be thinking, children, well, I already believe the Bible. But what we're talking about now is believing something because it's so important to us. It's so real to us. So, for example, if I would ask you, are you a sinner? Yes, I'm a sinner. Do you need Jesus to save you? Yes, I need Jesus to save you. But have you ever felt your deep need of Jesus? Have you ever felt how bad sin really is? And so it's not just something we think about. Sin becomes like a burden. It becomes like a sack of rocks that you're carrying around with you all day long. It weighs you down. But also, faith begins to teach you that this God you've been hearing about is real, and he hears you, and he talks to you through the word. And what he is saying to you begins to change you, begins to wake you up to the things of God, begins to show you that these things are real. So in other words, faith turns what might just sound like a bunch of words into reality. It's something that's real to us and important to us, and we begin to respond. We begin to live according to that. But then he also shows us not only that sin is a burden, sin is offensive to God, that we're not doing right to God, we begin to look for a way out. We begin to look for a remedy. It's like when you feel really, really, really sick, You're asking for something. Mom, Dad, can I have something that will help me get better? Do I need to go to a doctor? Do I need to take some medicine? Anything, because I feel so sick. And so we ask more questions. As God begins to work in us, we say, How can I ever get away from always falling for the same temptations? How can I have this addiction? It feels like an addiction to sin. How can I have that broken? How can I be forgiven for all that I've done wrong? How could God ever show me mercy? Article 22 says, in response to all kinds of problems like this, faith, this belief in God, embraces Jesus Christ. Now, you all know what a hug is, right children? Now maybe you're not a huggy family. Some people are, some people are not. But when you're hurt or when you wanna show somebody love or welcome, you hug them, right? Maybe you're so glad to see mom and dad in the morning, you run up and jump in their lap and you give them a hug and they give you a hug. This is saying, not that we hug Jesus, because he's not here with his body, but faith knows that Jesus is real. and we so trust him, it's as if we could hold him. Only instead of these kinds of arms, it's with the instrument of faith. So trusting in Jesus and holding on to Jesus with faith. Now I can give you an example. I've used this example before, but maybe not to you, children. So let's pretend I want to give you this watch. Now, as I'm holding this watch now, whose watch is it? It's mine, right? I'm holding it. It's my watch. If I say to you, I'm going to give you this watch for your birthday, whose watch is it right now? It's still mine, right? Because I haven't given it to you quite yet. What if I hold out this watch and say, here, this is for you? Now, it's still in my hand, isn't it? Whose watch is it? Still mine. But let's just say, I say I'm going to give you this watch, and you say, I don't want it. It's too big. It's too ugly. I don't like that kind of watch. Whose watch is it? Still mine. You don't want it. But what if I say to you, you don't have to pay anything. I want to give you my watch as a present. And let's say you hold out your hand, and you take the watch, and it's in your hand. I gave it to you. Whose watch is it now? It's yours. There's a true story. You remember a minister, very famous minister, C.H. Spurgeon, Charles Spurgeon. And he had like a Sunday school class like Miss Candace has. And he used that example, only he took his pocket watch and he held it out and said, this is for you. And all the children were thinking, no, he doesn't really mean it, he doesn't really, this is just an example. And this very simple boy, not the smartest boy in the class, he thought, hey, I'll take it, took the watch, stuck it in his pocket, and all the children are like, ah, he took his prize, and the minister said, no, he didn't take my watch. I gave it to him. Now why am I telling you this? I can hear about Jesus. I, as a minister in God's name, can offer you Jesus. You can hear that you can have Jesus for free. That all you have to do is believe that when Jesus is offered to you, you may embrace him as your own. But until you actually trust him, until you actually believe that what the word of God, what I'm telling you is true, we make all kinds of excuses. I don't understand what it means to believe in Jesus. I'm not sure what will happen if I believe in Jesus. Maybe my believing in Jesus won't be the right kind of believing. But the gospel is a free offer of salvation to sinners like us. And there's two words, one of them we understand, believe. The only reason you'd take my watch is if you believed that I was really giving it to you for nothing. It's like, no, honestly, it's yours, you can have it. And as soon as you believe that I really mean that, and you really want that, you take it. Now, you're not stealing it. Now, if you came up to me, and I'm looking over here, talking, and you sneak up on the pulpit and grab my watch and run away, that's stealing. but not if I give it to you, then it's yours as soon as you receive it. Now here's a big word I'm gonna teach you tonight. Faith simply means you believe that Jesus Christ can be yours simply as you trust in him, that's it. You believe the promise of God that whoever believes in his son will be saved. No questions asked. But the big word that I want to teach you is called appropriate. Now what on earth does that mean? Appropriate is the moment you hold that watch and put it in your pocket. Appropriate. Now that's different than appropriate This thing that I'm saying is appropriate, it's fitting. No, appropriate means to receive something that's given and to make it my own. Now notice you didn't have to buy it. You didn't have to pay for it. You didn't have to steal it. It was given to you as a free gift and when you stretched out your hand and held it and made it your own, it became your own. If I would come to you a week from now and say, oh, can I have my watch back? What are you gonna say? Well, wait a minute, pastor. You gave it to me, remember? It's like, oh yeah, that's right. So then I would have to ask, could I have your watch? Because it's not mine anymore. I gave it to you. And this is the gospel, children. And in fact, this is how we are made right with God. Not by trying harder, not by praying more, although that's all good. It's by believing what God says about his son. Now, here's the problem. I don't wanna discourage you, but I wanna talk to you honestly. Why might you not want my watch? Maybe you don't like the color. Maybe it's too big. Maybe it's not the right style for you. Maybe you just don't need a watch, you use a phone, or whatever. That's what happens every day when people preach the gospel. We can tell them that the moment you trust in Christ, you are saved, that God is so good, he will actually give you the faith to trust in him, to believe in him, And what do people do? I don't understand this. I don't actually think God means me. Maybe he means somebody who's better than me, but not me. He would never want me to be saved. And we get all confused and we think up many, or maybe I just don't care. I don't care if I'm saved or not. I've got more, I've got other things that are important to me. The favor of God, being saved by God, that's, maybe when I'm older that'll make more sense. The gospel is free. Now, you may wonder, how can I just give you a watch? On the basis of what? Did you earn it? No, I gave it to you. Did you deserve it? Maybe, probably not. Like, what did you do that I should give you a watch? I just gave it to you. Why? Because I wanted to. You might have been as naughty as anything today. I don't know that, but let's just say you were. Does that mean I can't give you a watch? I still can, because maybe I want to be good to you, even if you weren't good today. So what is the foundation? How can we do this and go back to a house? If you're building a house, And you do a lousy job on the foundation. Let's say you want a house on a concrete slab, but you use really cheap concrete. It's way too thin. You don't worry about what's underneath. I want to get this done. Let's just pour the concrete and go with it. And it's not exactly level, and there's all kinds of problems. What's going to happen? You could have the nicest house built on that foundation, but what's going to happen? After a while, that terrible foundation is going to sag. It's going to crack. It's going to turn the whole. Now all of a sudden, you've got a crack in your wall, and now the ceiling. And after a while, the whole house is in trouble. Why? You didn't take your time to have a good foundation, a solid foundation. So water begins to creep in maybe, or things begin to crack, and all of that. Let's go back to the parable. Let's ask, what was the foundation of these two men? Now I want you to think a minute. Remember, both of them were praying in the temple. So let's look at the Pharisee first. The Pharisee was a religious leader. Everybody thought he was very holy and God loved him and he loved God. What was his foundation? In other words, what made that man think that God should hear his prayer? Because that's the foundation. In other words, who do they think he was that God should hear him? Well, what's he say? God, well, that's a good start. He's praying to God. That's good. I thank thee. That's good, too. We should always thank God in prayer. I thank thee that I am not as other men are. Now, does he think too much of himself, maybe? Does he? Well, we don't know yet. And if God has changed us from being a worldly-minded sinner to a believer, a follower of Jesus, we can thank him for that, but things go from bad to worse. Listen, I thank thee I'm not as other men are, extortioners, meaning I cheat people out of things, charge too much money, I'm unjust, you know, I'm not like those unjust people who don't do right by their neighbors, I'm not an adulterer, I don't go running off with other people's spouses, and I'm not like that man. Who's he pointing to? The publican in the back of the temple. I thank thee, God, I'm not like him. What does that tell you? He thought he was quite something. And what did he think about him? He's nothing. He's just a publican, a tax collector. He works for the Romans. I'm not like him. He's not done yet. What's his foundation? What's he building on? Why does he think God likes him? I fast twice in the week. In other words, two days a week, he doesn't eat or drink until maybe sundown. You know, fasting can be a good means to sharpen our prayer life, to remind us how dependent we are. You know, as you get hungry and those hunger pangs, you feel so hungry, pray, supplicate to God, be reminded how dependent. So fasting can be good, but this man, it was like clockwork. Every week, twice a week. Every week, twice a week. He was checking boxes. OK, I'm thinking that's going to help. And I give tithes of everything I own. So do I got cattle? I give a tenth of that to God. If I've got crops in the field, I give a tenth of that to God. Every time that collection plate comes by, one tenth of my paycheck on the dime in that basket. I am faithful in my giving. And all of a sudden, it stops. That's his prayer. Why should God like him? In his mind, I'm a good person. I'm certainly better than a lot of other people. And I show it because I fast and I give. I do what is expected, what's in the law of God. So if we had to find something, if we had to boil it all down, what is he depending on? What's his hope? Himself. I think God's going to love and accept me because I'm such a good person. And I show it by the things that I do. Now, do we want to be good people? I hope so. Do we want to help others in God's name? I hope so. But is that what makes us right with God? That I just try a little harder, do a little more, pray a little more? Is that what's going to get me into heaven? Well, let's wait and see. What about this other man? In Titus 3 verse 5, the word of God says, not by works of righteousness or doing good which we have done will save us, not. So this man's, we would say, barking up the wrong tree. He's going down the wrong road. He's thinking, I'm gonna be saved because of what I've done. Paul to Titus says, no, according to his mercy. Now, what's mercy, children? Let's just say you do something really, really bad, and you know it, and now your parents find out. Well, what are you thinking? Boy, am I going to get it. I know I deserve to be punished. I know I did really bad. And here they come. I'm going to get a talking to. I might get something taken away. I might lose some privilege or other or have to stand in a corner or get a spanking or whatever it may be. I know it. I'm guilty. I did it. And I deserve it. What if instead of giving you a punishment, Your parent says to you, I want to show you mercy. I'm not going to punish you. It may sound silly to you, but when our children were young, ice cream was a big thing. We didn't have a lot of it. It was special. So one time, we were all sitting around the table, all eight children. And it was Sunday, and we're going to have ice cream. But one of our children was particularly naughty. that week, maybe that day, and no ice cream for you. Now you may think, okay, whatever, maybe you don't even like ice cream, but just go with this. Sunday came, the ice cream's going around, the ice cream came to my place. I said, no ice cream for me. Give it to him. That child started to cry. Dad, no, you get the ice cream. I was the one who was bad. I said, no, I want to show you mercy. Now, what was I doing? You might say, what does ice cream have to do with mercy? It's a picture of the gospel, a very simple picture. That child deserved to be punished, but I took the punishment myself. and gave him the blessing. Now whether you think ice cream's a blessing, that's another story, but anyway, he got the ice cream. What did Jesus do? We deserve the punishment. Jesus goes to the cross. He deserves to be blessed above all others. He blesses us instead. Let's look at this second man. What does he pray? We read, Jesus says, the publican standing afar off. That man didn't think he should be standing anywhere near the front of the temple. He was probably standing by the back door, not hardly daring to come in. He thought, I don't belong in a place like this. I'm too sinful. And it says he would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven. So when it came to praying, instead of praying like this, which was customary in those days, he couldn't even lift up his head. He was so ashamed to look up, he just looked down. He didn't dare even raise his eyes. You know, when you're ashamed, you do that, don't you? Did you ever see that when somebody did something really bad and they're going to get, what do we do? We look away. We don't want to look because we know we're in trouble. We know we did wrong. And do you ever have it when your dad and mom say, look at me? No, no, look at me, because they want our attention. This man did one more thing. He did this with his hand. Now you may wonder, what on earth does that mean? Well, that was a sign in those days of deep sorrow. So for example, when Jesus went to the cross, It said when he died on the cross, the people who followed him did that. They smote upon their breasts as they went home. That meant I am so deeply sorrowful. I feel awful at what just happened. This man, felt so bad because he saw himself to be such a sinner, he couldn't look up, and all he could do was smite upon his breast. And how long was his prayer? One sentence. What was his prayer? God, so he had the same address as the Pharisee, called upon the same God, but a very different prayer. Be merciful to me, a sinner. Amen. That was it. Now what was in that prayer? That man prayed to God even though he was so ashamed of himself because of his sins. He asked for mercy. What's mercy? Remember, I said mercy isn't when you deserve a prize or you deserve to be rewarded. No, it's when you deserve the opposite. When you think, I have got a punishment coming the size of this house, and you're shown mercy instead. This man thought, I deserve hell. I deserve to be cast away. I am so bad in the eyes of God, I can't even look up. But what else can he pray? Mercy. Show me mercy. Show me favor that I don't deserve. Take away sins that I have committed. Be merciful to me. And then he called himself what he saw himself to be. Be merciful to me, not a Pharisee, not a righteous man, not somebody who fasts and gives and all this. No, I'm a sinner. Show mercy, oh God, to a sinner. I'm a sinner. Now, we're all sinners, aren't we? None of us have kept the law of God perfectly. None of us have had perfect faith in Jesus. None of us deserve to go to heaven. None of us do. Not one of us. Nobody here. You might think, dad and mom, they follow God, they love God. Not one of us deserves to go to heaven. All of us need to ask God for mercy. Nobody's earned heaven. Nobody. But Jesus has. And that's why we come to him. is our foundation. He is the one who did keep the law of God perfectly. He is the one who gave up the ice cream, so to speak. He's the one who took our punishment upon himself and gave us what he deserved, glory, salvation, the favor of God. He gave it for free. Now, remember the watch? The gospel says, Jesus says to you in the gospel, I will give you my perfect life in place of your sins. I will give you my perfect sacrifice on the cross to take away your sin. Do you believe it? Do you really believe it? Will you embrace that? And will you receive it as your own? Don't say, I believe he saved sinners. No, no, no, no. Do you believe he can and will save you? The publican didn't say, God be merciful to some sinners here in the temple. And if I would ask every one of you children, can God save you? Of course he can. But if I ask you, do you believe that he saved you? Do you believe that Jesus died on the cross for you? Do you believe that Jesus is willing to take every sin you've ever committed and erase it with his blood? You, not your sister, not your parents, you. Do you believe he's a savior of sinners? And do you believe I am a sinner and I don't deserve to be saved, but he'll do it? Because he promised that anyone who believes in his offer of salvation will have it. That's a firm foundation. You see the difference between these two men? Okay, maybe the Pharisee fasts twice a week. What if he skips a week? Maybe he's not an adulterer, but what if he falls into adultery? Or some other sin? I'm sure there were many sins in life, he just didn't see them. He's building on a foundation that God could never accept. And if we think, well, if I'm just good enough, just try hard enough, just do enough good things, God's gonna let me in the door of heaven. It's not going to happen. It can't. It's like having a debt where you owe somebody $100 and you offer them a penny. Here's your penny, no wait, you owe me $100. All I've got's a penny. That's like us trying to do good enough to please God. No, our debt is way bigger than that. Only Jesus and what he's done, can pay that enormous debt for us for free, for free. What did Jesus say about that man? Now picture this, pretend this is the temple, this building here, we're all sitting here, and there he is, you see him in the back, you don't have to turn around, but just pretend he's back there. And he prays that prayer, God be merciful to me a sinner. You know what Jesus said? When that man walks out that door to go into his car to drive home, that man right then is right with God, forgiven, a saint, right then, right the moment he got done praying. And that Pharisee who thought so much of himself, I did this, I do that, I'm better than other people, what did Jesus say of him? Nothing. Why? Because he went down to his house the same as he came, full of himself, thinking that God owes him a favor because he's been so good to God. That's not the gospel, children. God owes us nothing but hell. If he'd give us what we deserve, that's what we'd get. The wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life to those who believe. Now how do I know, let's just finish this parable. How do I know that that publican believed in a saving way? Why would he come to God? Why would he ask for mercy? if he didn't believe God would give it. Let's just say you know your parents are not going to give you the car keys. You're too young. So you could come 100 times to your dad and say, Dad, can I have the car keys? What do you want the car keys for? I want to drive around the property. You're not even six years old or 10 years old, whatever. So he's going to say no every time. So this man could pray. all day long, it's not going to get him to heaven. But that poor man, leaning on God, coming to God knowing that God says in his word, I delight in mercy. God loves to show people mercy. He loves to do it. He will punish us. He must punish us. or he'll show us mercy. God says in Ezekiel, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. In other words, God doesn't sit in heaven, oh wow, I get to send another sinner to hell. Isn't this great? No, he never does that. He will never do that. Because God doesn't take any pleasure in sending sinners to hell. What does he take pleasure in? I love, oh, here's another sinner repenting and believing in my son. And all of heaven rejoices, Jesus said. The angels rejoice when even one sinner, if that sinner was you tonight, and you turn to God truly, and you put your sin at his feet and say, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Every angel in heaven will be rejoicing right now. Jesus said it. So you can see how much God loves to see sinners like you and me turning to him and asking for mercy. And here's the amazing thing, children. Remember that man? The second he got done praying, God said that man was in the eyes of God as if he never did anything wrong. God took his sins and cleared them away. In fact, God says, his mercy is so great, children. He says, when I forgive you, I will remember your sins no more. Did you ever have it where somebody hurts you? Maybe they hurt your feelings. And they ask you for forgiveness and you forgive them. But boy, every time you think about it, oh, that hurt. So maybe you forgave them and you're trying to not think about it, but every time you do, oh man, that hurt so bad when they said that, when they did that. God says, I am so merciful. I'm not only gonna forgive your sins, I'm gonna forget them as if they never were there. And when you stand before me in judgment, when you die and you come face to face with God, all he's gonna see is that you believed in his son and his son's perfect life covers you like my jacket is covering me now. That perfect life will cover you completely. God will say this person looks like Jesus. and that person will come into heaven. So, sufficiency of salvation. Now you may ask yourself, and it's a fair question, Pastor, are you trying to say that a short prayer like that is going to get me into heaven? And my answer is no. And you're like, wait a minute. We just went through this whole thing, and you said that man is in heaven today. Well, that's true, but it wasn't his prayer that did it. What do I mean? The article we read from says, we believe that our salvation, the forgiveness of our sins, is for Jesus' sake. So let me explain to you what I was saying. Why did that man pray that prayer? The fact that he saw for real that he was a sinner, that was a gift of God. The heart to pray the prayer he prayed was a gift of God. The words he spoke out of that heart that was broken by sin was a gift of God. The faith to believe that God would be merciful is a gift of God. The answer to his prayer was a gift of God. And what Jesus did to make him just, to make him right, was a gift of God. Now let's go back a minute. Was that prayer the instrument? Remember, forks get food to your mouth, spoons get soup to your mouth. Faith holds Jesus near, believing, trusting, holding on to him. So his prayer was put in his heart by God. Now he didn't know that. He didn't say, okay, the prayer that I'm praying now came from God. He didn't think that way. He saw himself as a sinner, he prayed for mercy, and Jesus said he was given mercy. So we can't wait until we know that the prayer I'm praying is from God, that the faith I have is the faith he gives, that every, no, that's not what I'm saying. All I'm saying is, God is the one who saves us from beginning to end. And if you're sitting here and you are believing what God is saying to you tonight, thank God for that. If you see yourself as a sinner and you are calling out to God for mercy, trusting that he will show that mercy for Jesus' sake, thank him for that. That is a gift of God. It isn't because you're so smart or I'm so clever. It's because He's so merciful. And He is. Every one of us needs that mercy. It's because Jesus became like us that He could do that. So will you take the watch? Will you make it your own? It's not enough just to hear about Jesus. It's not just enough to want Jesus. Are you prepared to receive Him? Are you prepared to say, He is my Savior, and I trust in Him? Because those hands of faith, however weak they are, those are His way of Jesus and us coming together. in salvation, and you will leave this building right with God. Not just now, but forever. Amen.