Exodus 25-31 • HGTV: Having God's Temple Vision

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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)

Let me ask that you would turn there now, look to the Lord's Word. We will look at Exodus. Did you gasp when you saw the text?



 Seven chapters, Exodus 25 through 31. It took God 40 days and 40 nights to give those seven chapters to Moses. We're only going to take about 40 minutes.



 But it's important to recognize what is happening. God is describing the tabernacle in which He will dwell with His people, and He tells themselves, tells them about Himself in the many pieces of it. Let me ask that you would stand as we would honor God's Word and to get just a flavor. We'll look at Exodus 25, verses 1 through 9 as we begin.



 "The Lord said to Moses, "Speak to the people of Israel that they take for me a contribution.



 From every man whose heart moves him, you shall receive the contribution for me. And this is the contribution that you shall receive from them, gold, silver, and bronze, blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twisted linen.



 Goats hair, tanned rams skins, goat skins, acacia wood, oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, onyx stones and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breast piece. And let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst, exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle and all of its furniture, so you shall make it." Let's pray together.



 Heavenly Father, in types and symbols, You prepared Your people for the coming of Your Son.



 And now we look back to not one only they saw, but the apostles and prophets testified for us. He came and is coming again. Help us to understand more of Him by the way in which You were revealing Him to Your people through the ages, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen. Please be seated.



 Eric and Christina are perfect for HGTV.



 He's the tough negotiator, equally adept at pushing subcontractors or swinging a sledgehammer. She is the stylish designer who can make demolitions into dream homes.



 HGTV, following that pattern that a lot of us watch at bedtimes, of seeing the dream home that's supposed to make your life perfect, whether it's the beach house or the mountain resort or the urban McMansion, whatever suits you, we recognize that what is being promised is something very special that will change our lives.



 Caitlin Flanagan, a journalist, says the now $12 billion HGTV network runs the never-ending fantasy loop that if you can just get the right house, the one that looks like your friend's houses, but just a little bit better, if you can get that house, your family will pour into it like thick cream into a pitcher, smooth, fluid, pleasing. Who could get a divorce in a house with so many lush towels in the master bathroom?



 How could you raise a sullen teen when there's a great room with a large screen TV and everybody can gather for nachos to watch the football game?



 What's wrong with that picture?



 Those of you who are followers of HGTV, and particularly Tarek and Christina's flip or flop show, know that their marriage flopped.



 Not only did they get a divorce despite the dream home and the two children, but because they were famous through HGTV, it played out in the public media, and we learned of the day that Tarek went down the lonely path with the loaded gun and suicidal intent.



 The police talked him down, talked him back, and apparently producers talked Christina and Tarek back, because even though they are now apart, there's a new show coming, new season, where if your home is just a little bit better, your life will be perfect, even if theirs is not.



 What's the message?



 The message clearly is that a new house won't fix your marriage, or a new kitchen, or a new car, or a new pool, or a new baby, or even a new location.



 Didn't work for Tarek and Christina. Didn't work for Israel.



 They keep going location after location after location and still finding out that all the best places are not bringing peace to their hearts.



 The message for us is that we need something more than what's in our homes to satisfy our souls.



 And the message of the Scriptures is God is telling us by what is in His house, what He intends to bring true satisfaction to the souls of humanity. Here He's describing a tabernacle to be built in the wilderness. But in doing so, He is by symbol and sense giving us an understanding of what is truly being offered that would bring satisfaction deeper down than we might understand.



 What after all is to be experienced in the tabernacle of God?



 Worship. And that worship is being expressed through gratitude.



 We understand what worship is about. Worship is at its essence the overflow of our satisfaction as we learn to express by appreciation, gratitude, thanksgiving, praise, what is even deeper than what we can say. We sense it. Kathy and I walked out of a restaurant last week with some friends, and as we did, somebody was just starting in the fall of Christmas to burn in their fireplace pine wood.



 And as we walked out and smelled it, the friend who was walking with us said, "Don't you love it?"



 He didn't have to explain.



 We understood.



 Maybe the sensation, the smell was touching something of memory, something of sweetness, of goodness. Whether it's something that we possessed or something that we lost, the things that we treasure are being touched by our senses.



 And when the worship is being described here, it's being prepared for first by the heart of gratitude that is bringing all that is needed to touch the sensations of the people of God. The opening verses, verse 2, "Speak to the people of Israel," God says to Moses, "that they may take from Me a contribution.



 From every man whose heart moves him, you shall receive the contribution for Me." The people are to show gratitude, which is in itself just an overflow of their heart's satisfaction. We actually love doing that. We were made for worship. When something touches us and we appreciate it, we want to be able to express that. And God says, "So take a contribution from people whose hearts are overflowing with appreciation for what I have provided for them." What surprises us is that it's to be from the heart.



 You know, in the Old Testament there were various tithes that were required.



 Tithes to take care of the poor, tithes to take care of the refugees as they were passing through the land, tithes to take care of the priests as he would make offerings and sacrifices for the people. But God says, "When it just comes to My glory, only take what people want to give from their hearts." That wording in verse 2, "From every man whose heart moves him," actually is, "from every man whose heart makes a vow."



 I want to show this appreciation for the Lord, and that surprises us. But it actually reflects the New Testament ethic that the Apostle Paul will say in 2 Corinthians, chapter 9. "Each one must give as he has decided in his heart."



 Not reluctantly, not under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. As God is saying to us, "If it's not from your heart, I actually don't want it. If it's not gratitude, that's your guide. If you're doing out of guilt, if you're doing out of compulsion, then it will ultimately make you hate me rather than delight to honor me. If worship is what's compelling you, if it's true overflow of your heart's satisfaction, then offer me from your heart." It sounds sweet, but we know it can be hard to do.



 Phil Riken, the pastor, now president of Wheaton College, talks about being a pastor and receiving a very large gift from a woman in the church who herself had received an inheritance and decided to tithe off of the inheritance to make a very large gift to the church.



 Later, some years, she herself passed away. And her heirs, going through the family papers, came across her decision to make that tithe of the large inheritance that she had received. But along with the notes on the decision was this sentence, "Quick, quick, before your heart gets hard."



 And we understand.



 We want to give, but we all suffer from HGTV envy.



 If I keep a little more, I'll get a whole lot more. If I just hold back, I will experience better.



 And the notion that we would give to God's glory and honor and purposes, ministry and mission, as much as we actually delight in that, our hearts get torn by what we think we would gain more than what would glorify the Lord. And so the Lord is requiring of His people here in the worship not to only understand the benefit of gratitude, letting gratitude be your guide, but to understand the reason for the gratitude. He begins to have them express His glory in what they give. Verse 3, "This is the contribution that you shall receive from them, Moses, gold and silver and bronze." Now listen, God doesn't need the gold and the silver and the bronze. He's got plenty more where that came from.



 But it's not just the gold that's to show glory. Did you see the others? Verse 4, "Blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twin linen and goat's hair. Beyond that, verse 6, oil for the lamp, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense." As though God is preparing for sight and sense and smell and touch, everything to be affected by what's happening in the temple itself, that our senses are revealing aspects of the glory of God. So that what He says in verse 9 will actually come pass.



 God says to Moses, "Do this exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle." There's a pattern, a type, an example of what's being shown in virtually every detail. We lose it because we're not familiar with this culture.



 But so many pieces are important to demonstrating what God will say about Himself for His glory and our gratitude, even the pattern of the preparation. Do you remember? It took 40 days and 40 nights for Moses to get down all these seven chapters.



 You've heard that before, haven't you? 40 days and 40 nights. Where does that first occur in the Scriptures? Do you remember? The rain came in Noah's time. How long?



 40 days and 40 nights. Why?



 Because it was punishment. At that time, every thought of the imaginations of their hearts was only evil continually. And God, for a people who had turned away from Him, brought His judgment. And now He says to Moses, "Prepare a tabernacle." And it takes 40 days and 40 nights to say, "How do you prepare the provision that will turn aside judgment?" It's the equal counter. Moses says there were 40 days and 40 nights of punishment. So there are 40 days and 40 nights of the preparation for the presence of God in His mercy by the sacrifices that will be offered. And that's not the end of the story.



 You're going to hear about 40 days and 40 nights again in the Bible. Where is that?



 All the way in the New Testament where Jesus, being prepared in righteousness to be the perfect sacrifice for our sin, is on another mountain.



 It's the Mount of Temptation. When Satan comes and tempts him with the pleasures and privileges and powers of the world, how long does Satan tempt him?



 Forty days and 40 nights. As though God is ultimately saying, "I'm not only showing you punishment. I'm not only showing you what is righteousness required, I'm going to show you the righteousness provided." And the complete picture is the pattern that we are to be understanding. Penalty deserved.



 Disrequired but ultimately righteousness provided. And that message is being taken again and again through the tabernacle because it's meant to penetrate our consciousness with every sense that the Apostle and the prophets can gather. Verse 7, we just read right past, hardly understanding. The people are to bring onyx stones and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece. Ephod, strange language to us. The priest would wear a vest.



 And on the vest there was this breastpiece. And we learn about it in chapter 28. We won't read all of chapter 28, but just so that you see it, what was that all about? Chapter 28 in verse 15.



 God says, "Among the instructions you shall make a breastpiece of judgment."



 Verse 17, "You shall set in it four rows of stones." A row of sardius, topaz, carbuncle should be the first row, the second, emerald, sapphire, a diamond. And there are four rows of three sets of precious stones.



 Verse 21, why? "There shall be twelve stones with their names according to the names of the sons of Israel." Verse 29, "So Aaron shall bear the names of the sons of Israel in the breastpiece of judgment on his heart when he goes into the holy place to bring them to regular remembrance before the Lord."



 There is a priest who will have on him for a thousand years to come the breastpiece of judgment, whereupon are the representation of the tribes of Israel, the people of God, who will not keep the righteousness of God. And so the priest who will bear the marks of judgment will make a sacrifice for them. Did you hear the words?



 The one who bears the marks of judgment will make sacrifice for the people.



 The one who bears the marks of judgment will make sacrifice for the people. It is long ago in the wilderness, but the winds are blowing a name.



 Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, the one who bears the marks of judgment will make sacrifice for his people. And we have to hear it the way they were meant to hear it, and at the same time confess how difficult it is to receive this message, which is why all the senses are being engaged so that we will actually hear. It is hard to hear what is actually being said because everything in our existence says, "I don't need that," or it will not satisfy.



 Pastor Carey and I met this past week with a group of women who have experienced abortion in their lives, including from this church.



 And as we talk to them, they talked about how their desires to provide counsel and comfort to women that they know are in this church and in this community who have experienced that, been hurt by it, or even contemplating it now.



 And the more they talk to us, the more a message just began to echo. As they said, as we never dealt with that sin for years, hid it away, kept it quiet, feared the shame, feared the reaction of the church, as we hid away our sin, we listened to messages on grace, but we did not really hear them.



 We heard judgment.



 We heard rejection.



 We heard the sense that we cannot be made right before God because what is… and they're here and they are here today and they are listening to us. And we have to say, "Listen to what the Scriptures say.



 He who bears the marks of judgment made the sacrifice of peace." And he says that not just to women who are experiencing or have experienced abortion, but to the men who are complicit, or to the people even now who are in addictive behaviors of sex or substance, or parents who look back at their parenting and see in their children waywardness or self-destruction.



 And inside they are saying, "I listen to these messages of grace, but I don't really hear them." It can't be true. And God is saying for a thousand years and plus more to His people, the one who knows the names and bears the mark of judgment made sacrifice for His people that they might know peace.



 It's just so hard for us to hear because we assume the values of the world. We assume that we cannot be made right. We assume that we have to make it up.



 And God is saying the gospel through the tabernacle. In all its pieces, I who bear the marks of judgment, Jesus Christ on your behalf, I made the sacrifice that brings you peace.



 Why don't we hear?



 Because we have trouble separating our lives from what is actually being said here. And what Jesus actually is saying by the prophets, by the people of old, by the apostles is, you actually need a little sanctuary in order to be able to hear what I need to say to you. Verse 8, God says to Moses, "Let them make me a sanctuary."



 Now the words just go past us, but you have to understand how important it is that a sanctuary, which is a place of separation from the world. How important that is. You get a sense of it if you were to go to the next chapter, chapter 26. You get a whole chapter on curtain making.



 But some very special things being expressed there. Chapter 26, verse 1, "Moreover, you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twine linen and blue and purple and scarlet yarns, where you shall make them with a cherubim." That is an angel skillfully worked into them. "The length of each curtain shall be twenty-eight cubits, the breadth of each curtain four cubits." All the curtains shall be the same size.



 Okay, got it? Cubit, elbow to fingertip, right?



 Verse 7, "You shall also make curtains of goats hair for a tent over the tabernacle. Eleven curtains you shall make, the length of each curtain shall be thirty cubits, and the breadth of each curtain shall be four cubits." Okay, got it? You know?



 Two-thirds of a football field, long? Half again is wide? Okay, got the curtains? Verse 31 of chapter 26, "And you shall make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twine linen. It shall be made with cherubim." Angels again skillfully worked into it. "And you shall hang it on four pillows of Acacia, overlaid with gold, with hooks of gold on four bases of silver." Well, that's kind of glorious. I'd like those curtains.



 But verse 33, "Pivotal.



 And you shall hang the veil from the clasps and bring the ark of the testimony in there within the veil. And the veil shall separate you for you the holy place from the most holy." All right, we have a separated out space in the wilderness of the world. And in that separated out of space, there's not only a place that people enter, but there's the Holy of Holies where God will enter.



 And that means that God's people, by being separated from the world, not only are separated from its words and ways, but actually can have audience with God.



 Is that important at all in this modern day and age that we have some sanctuary?



 I know there are people who will scoff at the very notion. Know that you Christians have to get away from the real world to have your little private world in your church, which is not the real world at all. Do we need some of that sanctuary? I could not help think about it as I read this week what I know some of you did as well. A report looking at 17,000 teens in five nations and summarizing 24 studies.



 This result, you knew it probably before I would say it. Regular use of violent video games leads to increased physical aggression as well as desensitizing kids to inappropriate social behavior and making them more willing to engage in self-risk.



 Our instincts told us that.



 But what would change it with a culture that's inundating kids with the fun, even the addictive nature of the video games when they become graphic and violent?



 Another study, same week.



 provided by Harvard, the C.H. Chan School for Public Health, saying the discovery is those teens who are regularly involved in worship, less likely to do drugs, less likely to engage in premarital sex, far less likely to do themselves harm.



 Does sanctuary help anybody?



 And it's not just kids.



 Another study two weeks ago before so much of the awfulness came out of the polarization of our culture over the politics of the Supreme Court nomination. A study that was done for the anxiety level of children whose parents are regularly engaged in political discussion in the home.



 Again, not a surprise.



 Somebody goes up and parents tend to know it but are not able to stop themselves. Why? One commentator said, "After the slow news of the weekend, we all know Monday morning we will be able to take another hit from the cocaine pipe of political rage and we can hardly wait."



 And our kids can hardly bear it.



 Do we need some sanctuary?



 I know there's something to getting away and we do too, but things in their right priority have to be considered. The lake houses, the travel sports, the competitions of various sports that take us out of church ultimately become so regular to the eclipse church. And we have to say, "Can I biblically point to how many times per year you're supposed to be in church?" And I can't.



 But I can say we need some sanctuary.



 And it's not just about getting away from the world. Sanctuary biblically is not just separation from the world, it is separation unto God.



 What was the second half of verse 8? Do you remember? Back in Exodus 25, "Let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst."



 This is not just about separation from the world, but union with God. And it's so precious, this notion of separated unto God, that in the New Testament where the Apostle John would talk about the coming of Jesus, he would say, "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." You know what the word dwelt is?



 Tabernacled. Jesus was from heaven. He became flesh and he tabernacled among us. And it's even the New Testament saying to us, "When we have sanctuary," not just separation from the world, but separation unto God. We are existing in the reality that is making Jesus real to us and present and powerful in bringing peace and satisfaction to our hearts because we're not just getting away from the world. It's Jesus saying, "Come away with me."



 And it's that Norah Jones lyric that is the gospel power yet for us. "Come away with me," says Jesus. Do we need that?



 Again, a friend this last week, being honest, said, "We come to church and we get all charged up."



 But then the rest of the week wears us down.



 It was said with some grief, but dealing with the realities we deal with. We love being here. We love the songs, the music, the uplift. And then we got to face the real world.



 Or is that the real world?



 If in fact what happens here is able to fuel you, to give you energy and strength and faith and confidence for whatever has to be faced, then I don't want to get caught in that bifurcation of the real world and the worship world that we compartmentalize these two pieces. We want to say these are both real worlds. And a lot of our decision-making as people of faith is which world is the one from which you are going to take energy? Which is the greater reality in which you will live? They're both real. I mean, you take again the polarities of the Supreme Court decision of the last couple of weeks. And you don't get much more real than that. The grittiness and the accusation and the hatred and the difficulty and the power plays. And you say, "That is real."



 But in the midst of all that, do you remember there was just the account of a ten-year-old girl at a dinner table praying for those who were putting her father on trial?



 That's a reality too.



 And for us as believers, we have some choice of which reality will trump the other.



 But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. We will worship the Lord. I know I have the other reality of faith. But this reality is real.



 God is real, present with His people. If I can just separate at times from everything else that would distract me, from the other priorities that would take me, if I can just have some sanctuary with God, it becomes so powerful for my heart and for my family and for everything that we want to actually take into our values into the world. Well what will draw us here?



 Because we know it is time away from that world, or the fun, or the money, or the employment, or the persons of that world. What would actually bring us to the sanctuary that God is designing?



 And He tells us with clarity that is amazing.



 It is mercy for people who need sanctuary that would bring you here. Verse 10, I didn't go that far, but we need to keep going in chapter 25. God said to Moses, "The people, they shall make an ark of Acacia wood. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height."



 Amazing.



 One of the most powerful gospel messages in all the Old Testament is found in a little box, three and a half feet by two and a half feet by two and a half feet. And if you can get away from thinking about Indiana Jones for a moment, you may actually be thinking of the gospel that is on display. Yes, there is glory here. I mean we recognize that in verse 11, "You shall overlay it with pure gold inside and outside." Okay, it's glorious, it's wonderful.



 Verse 16, "And you shall put into the ark the testimony that I give you."



 Glorious box. What goes in the box?



 The testimony of the righteousness of God. Do you remember Moses is going to receive tablets of stone whereon are inscribed the commandments of the expectation of the righteousness of God. So put into the box is the required righteousness.



 What else? Verse 18, "And you shall make two cherubim of gold, of hammered work shall they be on the two ends of the mercy seat." Why do you need mercy? Verse 20, "The cherubim," that is those angel figures, "shall spread out their wings above the box, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings. Their faces toward one another, toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be." We don't see this in the Indiana Jones version. Yes, there the cherubim face each other, but in the Bible they face down.



 Why?



 Do you remember when Isaiah will describe such heavenly figures around the holy throne of God? They sing, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, and with six wings they are flying, but with two they cover their eyes, and with two they cover themselves. Only with two do they fly, because they recognize they can neither see nor be exposed by the holiness of God. And here are the cherubim who are above the testimony of God of His required righteousness, but they look down." Why do they look down? Verse 22, "There I will meet with you," says God, "and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony."



 I will meet with you. Why do the cherubim look down? They cannot gaze upon the holiness of God. God comes down to deal in all His holy glory before His people. The image that is on display is that below the mercy seat is the holiness that is required, and above the mercy seat is the holiness that is displayed from heaven. And there is a problem there for the people of God, because the holiness that is required is not the holiness that we display.



 What can bring us together?



 The mercy of God.



 And what is to us just a lid, kind of fancy, that's put on the top of the ark of the covenant is in fact what God is saying, "I will design to show you my mercy."



 What is that design? We don't get the full picture in this passage. We have to go forward into Leviticus where the ceremony is itself described, what will happen with the mercy seat. Leviticus 19 and verse 14, Moses is instructed. The high priest shall take some of the blood of the burnt offering for sin and sprinkle it with his finger on the front of the mercy seat. Verse 19, he shall sprinkle some of the blood on it and cleanse it and consecrate it from the uncleanness of the people of Israel.



 The law stands as testimony against them. It is the righteousness that is required. Love is the righteousness of God on display from heaven. And between is the mercy that is consecrated in blood.



 As God is reminding his people and us always, without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. Life for life. If you have taken away life, then life must be provided and the life is provided in sacrifice, the life of another so that you might have life with God.



 The fullest and perhaps the best explanation is way over in Hebrews chapter 9. In Hebrews chapter 9, we read these words looking way back at these events.



 In the same way, Moses, verse 21 of Hebrews 9, in the same way, Moses sprinkled with blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. Indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood.



 Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.



 But Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 12, "But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God." When his sacrifice was made, once for all, the sacrificing stopped. No more sacrifice. Why?



 Verse 19 of chapter 10, "Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water."



 You just have baptism so much in your experience, you don't understand how a Jew would have been appalled by what was just said. What do you mean that we are consecrated, set apart by water, sprinkled upon us? Do you not know without the shedding of blood there is no sacrifice for sin? For 1,500 years we have practiced this. You had to sprinkle blood on the mercy seat for us to be consecrated. And here comes the New Testament gospel where the apostles say, "No!"



 With the sacrifice of Jesus, once for all, the blood is done. No more baptism in blood. Now the baptism that signals what the blood has accomplished, you are made clean. You are made right with God by your faith and what the blood has accomplished. Now it's the heart commitment. But as your heart is committed to Christ and you recognize he provided the sacrifice in your behalf, you are made right with God. And when you undergo baptism, what are you signifying? I believe the blood is done.



 I believe that I am washed by the blood of Jesus Christ and I celebrate it with my family and friends in the body of Christ.



 It's a beautiful picture, but it is not the full picture.



 The full picture of what is actually being stated is what Kevin prepared for the baptism, a quote out of Ezekiel. I didn't know he was going to do that. He stole my verse, you know.



 What does Ezekiel say?



 That God would claim back wandering people, his wandering people, saying, "I will take you from among the nations. I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean." Not blood.



 But even Jewish people wandering away will be gathered back from the nations and sprinkled with water.



 Baptism with what is made right by pure water, not by blood anymore. And that's not the full picture.



 The full picture is Isaiah when he says the Messiah will come. And he will not just sprinkle the Jews who are being brought back from many nations, but says Isaiah when the Messiah comes, he will sprinkle many nations.



 All peoples are now those that God is gathering in by his blood to be washed from their sin, to know his mercy. It's that great message that, remember, Philip is going down the road one day and he comes across an Ethiopian eunuch who, by being an Ethiopian eunuch, is of a different ethnicity than Philip. By being a eunuch, he is demonstrating that he's involved in the pagan practices of a king of some sort. And yet despite that fact, as he reads these words, when the Messiah comes, he will sprinkle the nations that they may be cleansed. He says to Philip, "Here's water.



 What keeps me from being baptized?" What does Philip say?



 Not a thing.



 It's the same message to you.



 It's the reminder that the picture is complete when we are in it. When you are in it. It's what God was planning from the very beginning that the message would be saying, "You can come from the nations.



 You can come with past sin. It's not your perfection. It's not your background that will make you right before God. It is your acknowledgment of your need for his mercy. And when you say, "God, you are holy and I am not, I know the requirements and I know the display, I need some mercy here," then he says, "I will give you my mercy and so that we will get it clear."



 Jesus tells a story.



 There were two men who went up to the temple to pray.



 One raised his eyes toward heaven and said, "God, I thank you that I'm not like other people.



 I'm respectable and respected and I thank you for that God."



 And the other man would not even lift his eyes to heaven.



 He had taken advantage and hurt other people.



 And as he looked down, he simply said, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner."



 And Jesus said, "It was that man who was reconciled to God that day, not the one who pretended his righteousness."



 The message to you, my friends, it's the old message.



 What will make you right with God? Nothing in you but the mercy of God in your behalf.



 And when you believe that, he will cleanse you from all unrighteousness and all past. He will and you can know his grace. Father, I pray for the people that you have brought here this day that we who see your gospel on display and sense it in so many ways would ourselves be moved by the mercy



 to come to sanctuary, to come away with our Savior, and to know his great love.



 Teach us your will and ways. We pray by the mercy that we claim through faith in Jesus.



 We ask this in our Savior's name. Amen.