November 25, 2012
Scripture:
Hymn 366 – We are little Children
Prayer
Today we are going to look at several actions that we do every day and we will compare them to things that we can do in our spiritual life.
Sitting – Luke 8:35
The Christian life begins by believing on the Lord Jesus. Once Legion was healed by the Lord, he sat at Jesus’ feet. We can sit at Jesus’ feet by reading the Bible and listening to the instruction we get from it. In Luke 10:38-39, Mary sat at Jesus’ feet and listened to what He was saying. We can be very thankful that we live in a free country where we can read the Bible, because there are countries where you can’t have Bibles.
Standing – Philippians 4:1
To stand in the Christian life is to go against something that is wrong. We need to stand strong for the right things. If we are standing strong, we shouldn’t be able to be pushed over. In 2 Samuel 23:11, the Israelites were defending a field of lentils from the Philistines. All of the Israelites soldiers fled except one man; and with God’s help, he stood firm and brought victory. Of course, in standing up for what is right, we must still be kind and gentle, as the Bible tells us to be. There are going to be times when we are encouraged to do wrong things, but we need to stand for what the Bible says.
Walking – Ephesians 5:2
In Bible times, there were no motorized vehicles, so walking was a main way of traveling. Someone’s “walk” is another word for how they conducted their life. One aspect of our “walk” should be love. In 2 Corinthians 13 we get a lot on what love should be like and in Matthew 22:37-39, Jesus taught how people should love Him and others.
Running – Hebrews 12:1
When you are running, you have goal in mind. Maybe it is to run for a set amount of time, or to win a race. To do that you need to have endurance. Our goal as Christian should be to live for Jesus; this requires a lot of endurance, but we can find our strength in the Lord.
Let’s each remember how these things that most of us do each day can be compared to our Christian life.
Luke 18:9-30
Last week we had the story of the unjust judge, and the lesson to never faint in prayer. Today the theme of prayer continues with the story of the Pharisee and the publican. These men both went to the temple to pray, but they are contrasting individuals. Jesus told this story to those that thought they were righteous—but were actually self-righteous—because they despised others. These two men have two different attitudes that we’ve encountered before; first in the elder and the prodigal sons, and then in the rich man and Lazarus.
The Pharisee had the attitude of self-righteousness. As he went to the temple he probably stopped and said a few prayers if enough people were looking. The Pharisees were hypocrites. They just put on a show; they weren’t righteous on the inside. We can have this attitude in us. We want to appear more righteous than we really are; and need to watch out for this. Our Lord rebuked these Pharisees, calling them whited sepulchres: beautiful, but full of dead men’s bones. It was good that this man was at the temple, and it’s good to pray, but did he really pray? No.
The Pharisee stood; not in defence of truth, but in pride. His prayer went only to himself; it was all I, I, I. He didn’t make his requests known unto God, instead He reminded God about ‘important’ things: how often he fasted, how much he tithed, and how well he kept the law. He looked down his nose at the publican, but he needed to realize that the Lord looks on the heart.
Oswald J. Smith wrote a tract back in the day that was titled: “Do Good People Go to Heaven?”. In it he said that, yes, they would—if there were any. The thing is that Romans three tells us that there are none, so we all need to be saved.
The Publican also stood, but he didn’t even look up. He struck his breast—knowing where the problem was, that his heart was not right before God. In a few, frank words he confessed his sin to the One Who he had offended. He was like David in Psalm 51, “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned.” He came to the only One Who could forgive him and show him mercy.
Mercy has been defined as not getting the punishment we deserve. Grace is getting goodness that we don’t deserve. There was a lady whose husband and two sons served in Napoleon’s army. The husband and first son both died in battle, and then the younger son was arrested for treason, convicted, and sentenced to die. This mother obtained a hearing with Napoleon, and in desperation she pleaded for mercy for her son. Napoleon looked at the facts of the case and said, “But justice demands that he die!” The mother said, “I didn’t ask for justice. I asked for mercy.” “But he doesn’t deserve mercy!” Napoleon countered. The mother replied, “If he deserved it, it wouldn’t be mercy.” The Lord gives us both mercy and grace: our sins have been forgiven, and we have been made sons of God.
The publican went home more justified than the Pharisee, so this isn’t the justification that we get in Romans. It’s a kind of justification that can come in degrees. Either way, we see the difference between self-righteousness (the Pharisee) and self-renunciation (the publican). The only way to be righteous before God is to realize that we aren’t and come to Him in repentance (self-renunciation) and faith. In order to enter the kingdom of heaven our righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. The only way it is possible is to receive divine righteousness, which is imputed to us when we are justified by faith.
Hymn 380 - Standing by a purpose true
Prayer