Luke chapter 18 and reading again at verse 13, 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 we shall consider these words in their context as the Lord is pleased to enable us. When we come to interpret a verse in scripture, we must always observe the context in which the Holy Spirit has placed them. The further context is the Lord's teaching about prayer. And then he comes to two examples of persons in the visible church at prayer. But the immediate context is in verse 8. When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? And he spake. The word and connects it to the preceding verse. And what the Lord was speaking of here was that when he comes again, there shall be a falling away. And he puts the question, shall he find faith or the faith on the earth? Religion shall not cease, but the faith once delivered to the saints shall have been changed as to its meaning. And while prayer shall continue, shall he find faith in that prayer? And then he gives an example of what he meant. Two men went up to the temple to pray. Now, here the Lord does something which we cannot. He discerns the character of the person from their prayer life. He discerns the heart from their prayers. And on the outward observation, there were similarities between the two. They were both in the visible church. They both came to the temple. They both had the correct posture. And they both had an orthodox beginning to their prayer. Both started with the word God. God. But the difference, as the Lord makes clear at the end of this passage, is that one went down justified, and the other did not go down justified, which means he was condemned. Not only for his person, but for his prayer. For his prayer. They both began with the word God. But the Lord saw in the heart that they both had different meanings in their hearts for that word God. The Pharisee was praying to a God under a covenant of works. and that is why he does not refer to a mediator. There is no mediator in the covenant of works. The terms of the covenant of works are this do and thou shalt live. Now Adam was placed in a covenant with God, a covenant of works. And Adam was responsible in that covenant for his own righteousness by keeping the law. And the Pharisees perverted the covenant of works into an end for which God never gave it. That by the keeping of the law, as they thought, they would achieve a meritorious righteousness in the sight of God and God would become their debtor. Now the carnal mind cannot do anything else. The carnal mind will go about, as Paul said, to establish his own righteousness and will not submit to the righteousness of God. He prayed but none through a mediator. He saw no need for a mediator. They trusted in themselves that they were righteous. Now that presupposes a sense of ability to keep the law. He trusted in himself. He was persuaded. that he kept the law. Now, that is a false persuasion, of course. No one can keep the law. No sinner can keep the law. But he was persuaded that he could. And you see, if you have that persuasion, you have no need of a mediator. Because you can do it yourself. And you'll see how he feeds his sense of self-righteousness. He compares himself with others. And especially the worst of others. And the Lord says that where you have those who justify themselves, there is a despising of others. And you see, you need that to maintain your self-righteousness. How do you set up yourselves by putting down others? And especially focusing on notorious sinners. His righteousness was made up of comparisons and criticisms and a misplaced perception of his ability to keep the law. Now this persuasion As Paul said to the Galatians, this persuasion does not come from God. But it can come from the devil. Strong delusion. You see, the devil can handle scripture. The devil can interpret scripture. The devil can support your own interpretation of scripture. But he's always very selective and omits or adds or ignores the context of the scripture which he quotes. And the Pharisees were very selective. And they ended up with approximately 365 outward precepts, ceremonial observances of the law. And if you kept them, you were blameless. And there's another hint there from the way the Apostle described himself in Philippians chapter 3, how he constructed his own self-righteousness. His pedigree, his circumcision, his joining the Pharisaical party. These were his gains. And do you see what the Apostle was doing there before his conversion? He was adding one thing to another, bringing many things together to support his own sense of self-righteousness. It's like a man making a ladder from earth to heaven, and every rung in the ladder is another good work. But the ladder will not reach. The only ladder which will reach to heaven is the ladder which came down from heaven. Anything of our own construction shall never reach, and we shall continue to come short of the glory of God. God, I thank Thee. There's more to prayer than thanksgiving, especially here. He's not thanking God for what God gave him. He's thanking God for what He is and for what He does. That is not a proper thanksgiving. But there is here the form of godliness, the form of godliness that the Lord sees into the heart. Now we should remember that the people, the common people listening to the Lord's teaching here thought very highly of the Pharisees. And when you put the two in comparison, the Pharisees were religious. This publican, oh they would say we all know about him. And the Pharisee prays as if he was the favorite of heaven, whereas it was the publican, the publican who was the favorite of heaven. Man goes by the outward appearances. The Lord, especially in the prayer line, looks on the heart. Now you might say, but surely the publican's prayer proves, his words prove, that he was a subject of the grace of God. Not necessarily. God be merciful to me a sinner. A Pharisee can pray that prayer. A Pharisee can speak of being covered from head to toe with putrefying sores and leprosy and all kinds of things. You see, sin is so subtle and deceitful. It can even cause a man to glory in his sins, to glory in his shame. The Pharisee can talk of his sins, but why is he doing it? He's doing it to attract attention to himself, to his form of godliness. There was a man at a prayer meeting about 30 years ago in one of the major cities in this country. And he stood up and he spoke of how he was covered from head to toe in putrefying sores and leprosy and unclean and all kinds of filthiness. And another man who had been visiting the congregation came outside and spoke to one of the members, a woman, and said to the woman, oh that man in prayer, oh he must have had a dreadful life. And the woman replied to him, go and ask him what he's done and he'll chase you, he'll chase you. It was all a facade, all a facade. The Pharisee can say this prayer This people draws nigh to me, says the Lord with their lips, but their heart is far away from me. Two men went up into the temple to pray. One under the covenant of works. But this other, God be merciful to me a sinner. A short prayer, but so much in that prayer. So much in that prayer. This is the prayer of a justified man. This is a prayer of a man who has grace in the heart. Because wherever there's grace in the heart, it humbles. It humbles. We were reading in Ezekiel 36 that the Lord would send His Holy Spirit into His people in the covenant of grace. And what would be the effect of the Holy Spirit's indwelling in His people? Then shall ye loathe yourselves in your own sight. That is a blessing and benefit of the covenant of grace. The Holy Spirit sheds abroad of the soul immediately by a direct action the light of His presence. And in that light, you not only see Christ, you see yourself. And while one is a beautiful sight, the other is dreadful. But both views are necessary. And the Spirit gives the light to see God and to see yourself in a light you never had before. In thy light shall we see light, says the psalmist. God. Now when he uses the word God, he means God in the covenant of grace. God who is to be approached through the mediator. Now how do we know that? Because of the word he uses here. He says, God be merciful. The word means, be merciful on the basis of the sacrifice. He was in the temple, remember. And the psalmist says, we have thought of thy loving kindness, thy grace, in the midst of the temple. Psalm 48. And when you come into the temple, there is an altar of sacrifice. There is a lava for cleansing and up ahead is the altar of incense. Now you see the order there? Sacrifice, cleansing, prayer. God be merciful. He has only one need and that is for mercy. Mercy on the basis of the sacrifice. God's appointed way. If we're going to have mercy, it is freely by His grace and through the blood of the propitiation. Now this word propitiation refers to a sacrifice which takes away the wrath of the one to whom it is offered. We have a carnal mind and enmity against God, but from God's side, we are under His wrath and curse. This man in his soul reflected the condemnation of God. He condemned himself. There is a confession of sin here. There is a sense of God which he never had before. It is not enough simply to be convicted of sin. Calling himself a sinner was not going to save him. Neither does confession of sin save anyone. It is faith in the efficacy of the sacrifice. The temple was filled with symbolic representations of the person and work of Christ. And he did not lift up his eyes like the Pharisee. His eyes were down. Because when a man is under this experience, he is not looking at anyone else. He is not comparing himself with anyone else. He only has God in view. That is true prayer, only to have God in view against thee only have I sinned. How we need the assistance of the Spirit to lead our thoughts up to Christ, to a throne of grace in our prayers, we are so easily distracted. The devil seems to attack us just when we're about to have worship and gives us disturbing thoughts because he sees that we are preparing to approach God. Have mercy on me. There is mercy with God. But that is not the same as the extension or expression of mercy. Many have the doctrine that God is merciful, but never had the experience. And it is an experience to receive the mercy of God. There's an understanding of God. There is this light in the soul. There is faith now. Faith to take hold of the sacrifice. to die holding on to the horns of the altar. God be merciful, this is the language of faith, to me, to me, to me the sinner. Surely this is what is important, that God is merciful to you. Where there is mercy, there is faith to receive the mercy. Now, faith is not something we draw out of our own hearts. It is not a work we produce within ourselves. Just as the mercy can only come from God, so the faith can only come from God. It is the gift of God. It is not an addition to His purpose, it is a part of His purpose. And you must cry for mercy for yourself. Because He alone is the one who can give it to you. And He is under no obligation to give mercy to any sinner. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, He says. There is no arguing with that. But you are to pray as this man prayed. There is mercy in God. And cry mightily unto God for that mercy to come to you in the appointed way through the blood of the sacrifice. The Lord has purposed, the Lord has promised, and He says, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them. And that is what He does. God be merciful to me, a sinner. His sins were continually before Him. But He not only looked in, He looked away from Himself. The sins had taken such a hold of him, Psalm 40, he could not even look up. And the Pharisee despised him. This publican that the Lord Jesus says, this man, this man. To this man will I look. To him that is of a poor and contrite spirit and that trembles at my word to this man. This man went down justified. The other did not. But the other would go down confident, enjoying his false peace. He stood in prayer, but he did not stand in the same way as this publican. This publican was justified, and that means he had faith. And with faith, he had peace with God. Peace that flowed through the blood of the sacrifice of Christ. And he had access in prayer. But there's something else he had. He had grace on which to stand. The Pharisee stood on his own words. The Republican had the grace, and he stood on that grace. And he had access, and he had peace with God. And when he went down to his house, God went with him. I tell you, he says, the Lord knew by his own experience. We call this a parable, but was it? Was it? I tell you, this man, this man went down to his house justified. Now my friends, briefly, how do you go down to your house today? How do you approach God? What do you think of your own prayer life? Do you have not only a sight of your sin in the mirror of the Word, but a sense of your sin? Because the more you sense your sinfulness, the greater will be your sense of the grace of Christ. He gives grace to the humble. We often give help to the helpless. Rarely do we get help to those who believe they need no help. As Mary said, God acts in a similar way. The hungry he fills with good things, the rich he sends away empty. He gives grace to the humble and the effect of grace Is humility. Is this your prayer? There is so much in this prayer. A prayer for mercy. Nothing else, nothing less will do. And only one can give it. Is this your prayer? Then, my friend, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. Go in peace. Peace through the blood of the cross. May He bless His Word to us. Let us pray. O Lord, our hope and confidence depends on Thee alone. Thou didst hear our cry. Thou hast been for us a refuge and a strength and a help in time of need. Draw us nearer to thyself, that thy spirit might take the things of Christ, and raise our minds to a greater estimation of thy mercy and of our need. Apply thy word with conviction, and the correction of thy spirit O, that Thou would enable us to decrease, that Christ might increase, that the glory of Christ might be absolute and not divided among ourselves. For what have we that we have not received? In Thy mercy receive us through the merit and the blood of Jesus Christ. Amen.