The publican shows all the qualities of a correct alignment with God's teaching on Himself as supreme and man as fallen. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The Hebrew word for fear like in Psalm 111:10 and the Greek word for fear like in Acts 9:31 mean - fear. Why fear?

Because God is supremely good and man is supremely fallen. God is the the perfect Creator, the perfect Lord, the perfect Judge. He loves perfectly, gets angry perfectly, blesses perfectly, curses perfectly, carries out vengeance perfectly. This perfection is something so far outside our understanding. We know no perfect person and have difficulty relating a comparison. That teacher/politician/parent/celebrity might be really good but they are not perfect.

Contrastly, man is the fallen creation, the hater of God, the rebel. He loves imperfectly, gets angry sinfully, does wrong, fails to do right, unjustly carries out vengeance. The publican knows himself and knows that he has nothing to offer God that would add to Him and knows how imperfect he is standing before the Holy God crying out for mercy.

Today, Pastor Joh n Samuel Barnett shows that God uses struggling and surrendered people like the publican who exhibit a correct understanding of God, of man, and a humble life that God will exhault.