Look at this prayer! There is no confession there. He had got so bad, and the devil had so covered up his sins, that he was above confession.
The first thing we have to do when we come to God is to confess. If there is any sin clustering around the heart, bear in mind we can have no communion with God. It is because we have sin about our hearts that our prayers do not go any higher than our head. We can not get God’s favor if we have any iniquity in our hearts.
People, like the Pharisee, have only been educated to pray. If they did not pray every night their consciences would trouble them, and they would get out of bed and say their prayers; but the moment they get off their knees, perhaps, you may hear them swearing.
A man may just as well get a string of beads and pray to them. It would do him as much good.
This Pharisee’s prayer showed no spirit of contrition; there was no petition; he did not ask any thing from God. This is a queer kind of prayer:
“Lord, I thank Thee that I am not as other men are—extortionate, unjust, adulterous—or even as the poor publican.”
Not a petition in his prayer. It was a prayerless prayer—it was downright mockery. But how many men have just got into that cradle and been rocked to sleep by the devil!
A short time ago I put this question to a man:
“Are you a Christian?”