You can’t afford to be mistaken about your relation with God. Make it sure. It is all too easy to miss the way.

Or, perhaps you are trying to find the way. Perhaps there is a load of guilt. Then heed this message on God’s mercy.

Our TEXT is LUKE 18:9-14. Look it up and read with me. Here is the study of two men as they go to worship God. Their hearts are so different!

The PHARISEE prays with great confidence and self-assurance. Jesus says that he is one of that crowd who “were confident of their own righteousness,” verse 9.

Now, on the outside this fellow looked fine. His was a religious life. He believed in God. (So do the devils!) He was regular in his “church,” and daily in prayer. Are you?

Before God he claimed that he was not greedy, nor dishonest, nor impure as to adultery, and he also fasted and tithed, verses 11, 12. Can you claim that?

Of oourse, it would have been different if he had only known that God looks on the heart — not on the outward appearance.  (Sins show up in the thoughts.) So he remained blind, satisfied, unstirred. That is deadly. God stir us!

It was different with the PUBLICAN. With dragging, hesitant step he comes to the temple to meet God in prayer. See him there as he “stood at a distance” and “he would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner,'” verse 13.

WHAT A WONDERFULLY GOOD THING IT IS TO KNOW OUR SIN! It is nothing less than the work of the Holy Spirit when our sins bear down upon us and drive us to God.

In imagination, I can see the publican as he looks away from the bright little faces across the supper table. That secret sin in his life — how it hurts when he looks upon the ones he is wronging! You who read this message, are there no sins upon your heart? Do you spend mornings after, remembering the night before? Has temper raged amid the flurry of bitter, mean words tearing the heart of another — perhaps the one you claim to love most? Are there those you dare not face? Yes, the heavenly records are stained.

Now, learn from the publican.  WHAT DID HE DO ABOUT HIS SIN?

See there he comes….hesitantly, yet he comes — to God. Hear what he prays: “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” That is all.

Jesus says, “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God.”  He was a sinner all right — through and through, but somehow he touched God. What is the secret?

It is simple. He threw everything upon the mercy of God. He pled the grace of God. In response God forgave all.

Jesus here is pulling back the veil from the very heart of God. God will have nothing to do with the self-righteous who cover their sin. Even their prayers are an abomination to Him, (Isaiah 1). But he will meet any sinner more than half-way.

Do not for one moment forget who it is telling this story. It is Jesus! The one who walked to Calvary and died on the cross for your sins. “What can wash away my sin?  Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”

“I must tell Jesus all of my trials;
I cannot bear these burdens alone;
In my distress He kindly will help me;
He ever loves and cares for His own.”

When you come to Jesus you are coming to one who bears in his body the marks of his loving death for your sin. He lives to hear your confession. Pour your heart out to him.

“God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

“But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation,” Psalm 13:5.