Please turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter 18. Luke chapter 18, taking a few weeks off from our exposition in the Book of Colossians. We're going to look at a familiar portion this morning, Luke 18, specifically verses 9 to 14, the Pharisee and the publican, as it sets forth many good lessons for all of us As we enter into a new year, Luke 18, I will pick up reading in verse one. However, as that sets the stage, it sets the larger context for our understanding of this parable.
Then he spoke a parable to them that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, saying there wasn't a certain city, a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city, and she came to him saying, Get justice for me from my adversary. And he would not for a while. But afterward, he said within himself, Though I do not fear God nor regard men, yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her.
Lest by her continual coming, she weary me. Then the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge said. And shall God not avenge his own elect who cry out day and night to him, though he bears long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily.
Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he really find faith on the earth? Also, he spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself.
God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess. And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner.
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Amen. Let us pray.
Our God and Father, we come now to a familiar portion of Holy Scripture, and we pray that your spirit would guide us in our understanding We pray that you would teach us many good lessons, many instructions for our lives, God, and the area of prayer and our disposition, our attitude toward you and toward one another. Father, we just pray that you would forgive us now and cleanse us from all of our sin and iniquity. We confess it has a darkening influence over our minds and keeps us from receiving and appreciating your truth. So we pray that you would cleanse us afresh in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We thank you that we have redemption through his blood, that we have a conscience sprinkled with the blood of Christ himself, and that we are able to enter into your presence clothed in a righteousness not our own. And our Father, we just pray that you would be with those who are unable to be with us this morning. We pray that you would comfort those who are downcast, that you would build your people up, and that you would be their God of grace and mercy. And we pray through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Introduction
Well, as we consider this particular parable, we'll notice three things. First is the occasion of the parable. Verse nine sets forth the occasion of the parable. Secondly, we'll notice the specifics in the parable.
The two men who are considered or contrasted here, the Pharisees and the publican. And then thirdly, we'll notice the summary of the parable as it is given to us in verse 14 by our Lord Jesus Christ. And then God willing, we'll draw out some practical lessons of this portion of Scripture.
The Occasion of the Parable
But notice the occasion. Verse one. Then he spoke a parable to them that men always ought to pray and not lose heart. Verse nine.
Also, he spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. So the Lord is giving instruction peculiar to the situation that he is facing in his time. Now, the text of this specific parable we're considering this morning. One of the principles we'll draw out is a reformation principle, the idea that we are justified by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus.
Now, that's not the primary emphasis of the parable. It is a lesson that we can derive from it. It is primarily a condemnation of those who, in their self-righteousness, despise others. That's what he says in verse nine.
Those who trust in themselves that they were righteous and they despise other others. The target of this principle of this parable, rather, are those who are persuaded and convinced that they are righteous. And in this parable, being righteous means standing before God. In other words, if we believe our self-righteousness brings us favorably into the presence of God, the converse is going to be our mistreatment or our looking down upon others.
That was the sin, a particular sin of the Pharisees, as we see here. And then Jesus introduces the two men in the parable. He says there is a Pharisee and a tax collector. Now, you've got to kind of think back to this time for a moment.
When he said a Pharisee and a tax collector, we think a hated one and a hero. We think of the Pharisees as being hated ones, because that's how we look at that. We sometimes call each other, oh, you Pharisee, or it's a term of derision in the Christian church. That guy's a real Pharisee.
Well, in Jesus' context, the Pharisees were the heroes. In Jesus' context, in the temple complex, the Pharisees were the religious people. They were the accomplished ones. They wore the nice clothes.
They were at the temple. They were doing religious things. The publicans, on the other hand, were despised and hated by the people of that time. They were traitors.
They were Jews who worked for the Roman government to collect taxes from other Jews. They are always looked at as being less than human in the Scripture. In fact, Jesus picks us up in Matthew 18, at that last stage of church discipline. You treat him as a tax collector and a heathen.
That doesn't mean you welcome him in and love him and lavish good gifts upon him. No, as a tax collector, you exclude him. He's a bad guy. He is unrepentant.
He is not worthy of your favor. So that's the two men that Jesus introduces here. And again, we know the outcome. So we're thinking Pharisee, bad guy, publican, good guy.
But in Jesus context, it was just the opposite. Pharisee was the hero and the publican was the hated one. There are similarities between these two men. They both went to the temple, didn't they?
They both went to the place of worship. I believe we can derive from this idea that this is no sure indicator of saving religion just because you go to the temple, just because you go to the church, just because you're in the right place at the right time. That is no sure indicator that you have grace in your heart. This Pharisee was far from the kingdom, but he was in the right place.
Notice, secondly, the similarities. They both went to the temple to do what they both went to pray again. The fact that you pray is no sure indicator that there is grace in your heart. There are heathen who pray.
Jesus says, do not be like the heathen when you pray. They think that for their many words, for their vain repetition, they will be heard. Brethren, simply because a man, a woman, a boy or girl prays or goes to church, this is no sure sign that there is grace in the heart. You mustn't make a mistake here.
You mustn't delude yourself here. You must not fool yourself here. You must be born again. You must be looking to the Lord Jesus in faith.
You must believe the truth of the gospel in order to pass out of darkness into marvelous light. That is the way of salvation. It is not by what you do. It is not by where you go.
It is not by how you think. It is by your looking to Christ who saves sinners from their sins. Now, notice the differences between these two men. In an attempt to be alliterative, I've got the polished Pharisee and the putrid publican.
The Polish Pharisee and the putrid publican, try to make them sound as they would have appeared on that day when Jesus told this parable.
The Polished Pharisee
Notice first with reference to the Pharisee, he says in verse 10, two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week.
I give tithes of all that I possess." He thanked God, which is, in and of itself, a good thing. We have reason to believe the sincerity of his thankfulness based on the remainder of the parable. But at first sight, he went up and he thanked God. It's not always wicked to thank God from having kept you from certain sins.
It's not wicked to thank God that you're not as wicked as you could possibly be. God's restraining grace in your life, God's hand of mercy upon you. keeping you from the wickedness that you could possibly engage in, that is a blessing and that is a mercy. But notice, we see here that his tone was not a genuine thankfulness because he trusted not in the mercy of God, not in the grace or provision of God, but he trusted in his own words. He trusted in his own performance.
He banked his standing with God upon his words. He thanked God that he was not like other men. He's quite brazen here. He's quite proud, quite arrogant.
He is marked by self-righteousness, self-justification. He has a wrong estimation of who he is before a triune God. He says, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I mean, brethren, as a general rule, when you are praying to the triune God of heaven, don't put down your brother who's sitting next to you.
That is not going to avail favor with God one bit, one iota. He thanked God for what he did, his fastings and his prayings. Notice in verse 12, I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess.
Do you know what this indicates? This man has no understanding of sin. This man thinks that the distance between a holy God and himself can be dealt with by his performance. Can you imagine that?
As if we could fast and pray and give tithes in order to secure our place in heaven. Do you really think you can buy God off? The problem with this Pharisee is what I'll call self-atonement. He wanted to breach or make up that breach through his own efforts, through his own labors, through his own doings.
And that is the common sin of men everywhere today. That is a perfect example of the reality that men don't understand, total depravity. Paul says it this way, I do not disregard, or I do not set aside the grace of God. Galatians 2.21, we just looked at it an hour ago.
He says, for if righteousness comes through the law, if my fastings, if my tithings, if my prayings, if my Bible readings, if my church attendance, if my self-loathing atones for sin, Paul says Christ died in vain. It is to deny the gospel to claim self-righteousness. It is to deny the very cross work at Calvary, to treat as secondary that mockery that Cam brought out, or the spitting, or the punishment, or the pain, and not even the physical what men inflicted, but that cry of dereliction. When God the Son cries to God the Father, why hast thou forsaken me?
It is to take that and to set it aside if you think through fastings, through tithings and performance, you can avail favor with God. See, this guy's problem is big. He doesn't know it. Generally, the self-righteous don't see it.
They think they're doing well. They think they're earning favor with God. It's only those who have been convicted by the power of the Holy Spirit and shown something about what sin is in its gravity. In its stupendousness, in its utter heinousness, there was an old Southern preacher by the name of Rolf Barnard, and he would describe total depravity this way.
He would say the Bible says you're just plum bad. This self-righteous Pharisee didn't believe that for one moment. This self-righteous Pharisee thought that if there was any problem between him and God, he could tend to it, thank you very much. I don't do this, I don't go here, I don't go there, I don't go that.
I do this, I do this, I do this. That's the confession of the self-righteous man. In fact, if the self-righteous have an apostle's creed, here it is right here. If the self-righteous have a Chalcedonian definition of who Jesus is, it is this man right here.
I, I, I. This man looked to his own works for the basins of his acceptance with God. John Calvin said, We must not swell with confidence as if we had satisfied God. And next, we must not look down with disdainful contempt upon our brethren.
J.C. Ryle said it is a proud, high minded profession, destitute of penitence and of humility and of charity. You come into the presence of God tooting your own horn. I mean, you wouldn't do that with your brethren.
You might say, look, I'm a pretty fair guy. I never cheat anyone. I'm always, you know, even then it's kind of sickening, but you can get away with it in front of your brethren. But to come before the thrice holy God and try to impress him with what you have done.
Remember, God looks upon 33 years in history that are pleasing to him. Just a mention this week, and he made a good point, and I think I knew this, but he crystallized it for me. We need that passive obedience, Christ's death on the cross specifically, and his active obedience, Christ's perfect life and satisfying all the righteous requirements of God. He says the passive obedience and the substitutionary atoning death of Christ, as it were, puts us back into the garden.
Our sins have been obliterated through the blood shedding of our Lord Jesus, but we still need a righteousness. Hence, the active obedience of Christ. Hence, his doing, his life, his obedience, his fulfillment of all of the requirements of the law of God. So that when God says, but behold, it is better to obey than to sacrifice.
Yes, he sees the sacrifice of Christ, and he sees the obedience of Christ, and the glory of the gospel is he imputes it to us. It's not by our doing, it's not by our dying, it's not by our paying, it's not by our performance. Self-atonement is ungodly. It is a lie from the pit of hell itself.
Paul says in Romans chapter 4, if Abraham was justified by works, he has a reason to boast before God. He has a reason to boast. Actually, he says he has a reason to boast, and then Paul says, but not before God. What's the implication?
He was not justified by words. He did not stand in the presence of a holy God based on his doing, based on his performance. That is the sum and substance of all self-righteousness. It is looking at something other than the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is to remove the objective ground of justification, being upon the person of the Lord Jesus and putting it usually on self. Jesus says no.
The Putrid Publican
Notice the putrid public and he stood afar off. Let's just tell us this guy's humble. That's the whole point of the parable. When you pray, be humble.
Don't wander into the presence of God and say, Lord, you better, you better, you better, you better, you better. Because I'm this, this, this, this, this. No, this man stands afar off. He won't even look up into heaven.
He not like that Pharisee knows something of his sin. He knows something of his pollution. He knows something of his dirtiness. He knows that he doesn't deserve to be there.
He doesn't come in and dictate propositions to God. He doesn't even look up into heaven. He beats his breast and he says, God, be merciful to me, literally the sinner. The verb that he uses a rich verb we've looked at in our Bible study over the last few Wednesday nights.
The verb is the verb propitiate. God, be merciful, be propitious to me, have mercy on me, stay your wrath from me. Keep your fury away from me. And he uses the article.
I know in the New King James, it says, God be merciful to me. A sinner. He says the sinner. Like David, Psalm 51.
Have you ever considered David when he says against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight? Have you ever thought through 2 Samuel and the narrative there? And you think, wait a minute, David, you've done some pretty bad things to some pretty decent people. I mean, come on, you invite Uriah home so he can lie with his wife so that when it is found out she is pregnant, it will look as if he impregnated her.
And when Uriah shows more integrity than you, David, you send him with his own death warrant to the front of the battle. Do you realize that he wrote a letter to Joab? He gives it to Uriah and he says, take that to Joab. Uriah doesn't look at it and go to Mexico.
He doesn't read it and go to Canada. He's a man of integrity. There's a certain sense, brethren, where as you're reading the narrative, you ache for Uriah. Especially later on in the Chronicles when he's numbered among David's mighty men.
He did wretched things. He broke up families. He hurt people, he murdered, he committed adultery, in the grand scheme of things, the biggies. And what does he do when he comes to confess?
Against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight. Why? Because when a sinner is convicted, it's him and God. It's him and God.
When a sinner is convicted, they say with Job and Job nine, how can a man stand before a righteous God? That's the publican. He beats his breast. He says, God, be propitious to me.
This man realized he had no basis for a right standing without God's mercy. He realized that all the works of his hand could never avail with God. He could work his fingers to the bone. He could grind his knees down to the cap.
Remember Luther, prior to his conversion, the sorts of things that he did? He'd go to Rome, he'd get on his bare knees and he'd climb up stairs till his knees were bloodied. Why? Because he wanted to atone for his sins.
When did paradise open for him? It was when he read Romans 1, 16 and 17. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it, for in that gospel of God, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.
All the blood of my knees All the bones of my fingers, all the money I throw into the collection plate will never atone for my sin. But in that gospel, the righteousness that God demands and supplies is revealed from faith to faith. Habakkuk 2.4, way back at the time of the Babylonian captivity, made that blessed declaration that Paul adopted, that Luther adopted, that Calvin adopted, that launched the Reformation, that just shall live by faith. It's not by words, not by self-atonement, not by blood, not by pain.
You cannot buy God off. You don't throw God a bone. You don't neglect the very cross of Calvary, for to think that you can enter in based on your performance is to say that what Christ did was in vain. Might have been good for some of those out there, but for me, I have to go a different way.
This man saw his own monstrous character. He saw that he had nothing to offer to God. He simply cast himself upon the mercy of God. In highlighting this particular man's prayer, J.C.
Ryle points out, it's truly a petition. Notice that the Pharisee doesn't ask for anything, does he? He just comes in and tells God how good he is. I'm always a little bit leery when I hear a prayer like that.
I don't want to discourage anybody from praying. You pray. But man, if your prayer consists of you telling God what a good guy you are, you're in bad company here. Ryle points out that this was personal prayer.
God, be merciful to me. Yes, I want world missions. Yes, I want global advancement for the cause of Jesus. Yes, I want to be missional.
Yes, I want to be evangelistic. Yes, I want to care about dark skinned brethren. But God, be merciful to me. Because there's a day coming when I'm going to take my last breath and I'm going to be ushered into the presence of a holy God.
Lord, be merciful to me. Ryle points out that he was humble. He was humble. That's the essence of prayer.
Sometimes people say, if God is sovereign and you Calvinists believe that, why do you pray? It's a means to humble ourselves under his mighty hand. It is an act of worship. We often think prayer is just a means to get something, right?
You just pray in order to get something. Well, if God is sovereign, he's promised you all these good things. Why even bother? It is primarily an act of worship.
Get that in your head. That's why when pastors say you should pray, not just so you can get stuff, but so you can worship our God. And then Royal points out that his petition was spot on. It was for mercy.
I mean, before you want a new job, before you want a new insurance plan, before you want health, you first fetch mercy from a merciful God. That's the issue. That's what we need. That's what marks the prayers in the New Testament.
You never see Paul not saying he doesn't do this. Pray for my Aunt Bessie who stubbed her toe and hurt it. We can pray for Aunt Bessie who stubbed her toe and hurt it. But, you know, Paul's prayers concentrate on the spiritual man.
Paul's prayers concentrate on holiness and on righteousness and humility before our God. Paul's prayers concentrate on those things that are so often lacking in our prayer meetings. We need to be like Paul at the throne of grace, and we need to be first and foremost like this publican at the throne of grace. And then Ryle says this prayer came from his heart.
You gotta get the picture here, brethren. Here comes the Pharisee walking into the temple and everybody says, Greetings, Mr. Pharisee. Great guy.
How are you doing today? You wonderful specimen of a religious being. No doubt when the publican walks into the temple, people are looking around saying, Who let this riffraff in? Who let this guy in?
You really think you're going to pray to the Holy God and he's going to hear you? But you see, the publican doesn't care. It is not about what will other people think. It is not about how will I look.
I think the text is significant, too, with reference to the Pharisee. He stood and prayed thus with himself. I don't think that's an accident. He stood and prayed thus with himself.
He didn't really care if God heard him. Not the public, and it's from the heart. I'm a sinner. You're a holy God.
There's only one thing I can ask. God be merciful to me, the sinner.
The Summary of the Parable
Notice the summary of the parable. Verse 14. This is where, if I can say it in the vernacular, Jesus blew their minds. You may not like to hear that, but that's the case.
I tell you, Jesus says, this man went down to his house justified. Rather than the other one, you would have heard a public gasp at that particular moment. You would have heard a, what do you mean? The Pharisee prayed a model prayer, what he should do or what he did do and what he doesn't do.
The Pharisee looks good. The Pharisee's polished. The Pharisee's accomplished. The Pharisee's arrived.
Religiously speaking, Pharisees were the guys to be. And here comes this publican, this enemy of his brethren, this man who will take taxes from his own people and give them to the government of Rome. You're going to tell us, Jesus, that that man went to his house justified. That's precisely what Jesus says, and that's precisely the essence of the gospel.
It's not what my hand brings that saves my filthy soul. It's not our works, not our performance, not our atonement, not our fasting, not our tithings, but by God's grace, coming to that place of seeing sin and seeing the Savior. Now again, there are many other portions of scripture that we fill in at this particular point. Obviously, God's grace is at work in the man's heart.
Obviously, he believes the gospel. He believes the propositions that God has purposed in order to save him from his sins. That's not the main point of the parable. It is to teach that we are not to despise others.
We're not to love ourselves, but rather we are to frame our hearts in humility when we pray. But the essence, the teaching, a text or a passage that is so powerful as this cannot be neglected for the justification principle. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. The verb justified here, the perfect, which looks to the completed state and has abiding results.
It is a one-time act by God. When he accepts us or when he forgives or pardons all of our sins and he accepts us as righteous in his sight, not for any righteousness in us, but for the righteousness of Christ, which is imputed to them and received by faith alone. He was justified. It's a theological passive as well.
That means that God is the one justifying. I've always loved that statement in Romans chapter 3 and verse 20. I remember preaching that one time at a place that was predominantly black men. It was called the Bible Tabernacle and it was one of the coolest places.
A guy that had worked for Walt Disney got converted and he took his money and he built this great big wall tent. John would have loved it for a different application. The way they used it was for preaching. He would have loved it for that too, I'm sure.
But you would go into this tent. It would be a lot. And I'm not picking on black man. It just happened to be predominantly a black audience.
My brother, Michael Crawford, was there with me at the time. And I remember preaching that section in Romans, Romans 118 to chapter 320, trying to show and put the focus on the reality and the gravity of our sin. We get to Romans 320. How does Paul summarize?
How does Paul bring it all to a close? He begins with wrath revealed in Romans 1 18. He's going to get to Romans 3 21 with righteousness revealed. The Romans 3 20 is a is a summary statement.
And he says, therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. And that was the whole point was to illustrate to these guys that they were sinners before a thrice holy God. But the point of that text, think about it for a moment.
Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. You may be justified in the sight of a mother or of a father. You may be justified in the sight of your spouse. You may be justified at your workplace.
People may think you a very good person. They may think you a very reasonable man. They may think you a righteous person and even a very pious man. But it is before the triune God of Holy Scripture that we have to do.
And through law keeping, there will be no flesh justified in his sight. I don't care if your mother Teresa. I don't care who you are, what you've done, what you perform. If you are looking to your words, you perish in hell for eternity.
But conversely, who knows the sin of the publican? See, we forget real people. Think about that text in Luke 15. Luke 15, 1 and 2 sets the stage for one of the most glorious pieces of scripture.
We're all very familiar with the sheep or the shepherd who lost the one sheep and he leaves the 99, he goes and finds it, puts it on his shoulders and he comes back. We love that parable, don't we? Yeah, we should. And then the next parable, he says, there's a woman, she loses one of her coins.
What does she do? She moves her furniture, she gets the broom out, she starts sweeping, she starts searching. She finds that coin and she's rejoicing. And we get to the third in that section there.
We get there and we say, what a wonderful father. I mean, this man has two sons and one of the sons says, give me my share of the inheritance. Do not think, brethren, for a moment that times were different then. You got your inheritance when your father died.
The son was saying, father, I don't care if you're dead. Now, we've all encountered teenage rebellion. We've all encountered children who've not always respected us. But I can say to God and thanks be to Him, none of my kids have ever said, I wish you dead.
That's what that guy did. All you're good to me for is money. Cough it up. What's the father do?
He coughs it up. What's the son do? He goes out. These wonders with prodigal living, hence the name, the prodigal son.
Something we don't always get, though, when we appreciate those three stories is the context. OK, Luke 15, then all the sinners and all the tax collectors came to hear him. What kind of sinners? We'll run through the Ten Commandments.
Those kinds of sinners. Idolaters, murderers, adulterers, liars, thieves, cheaters, covetous, disobedient to parents. It's not like those sins only exist today. So, all these tax collectors, all these sinners come near to hear him.
And in verse 2 of Luke 15, it says, the scribes and the Pharisees grumbled and they complained. And they said, this man eats with sinners. You can almost see their disdain. You can see their long fingers pointing.
This man, this Jesus, He receives sinners and he eats with them. That's the context. That's when Jesus says, you're right. I do it like a shepherd who leaves the one and goes and gets it.
I do it like the woman who, when she loses her coin, finds it. And I do it like the father of the prodigal who, when the son is a long way off, runs to him and falls on him and kisses him and puts a ring on his finger. These are real sinners. Jesus is a real savior for sinners.
Don't miss that. No preparation involved. You don't need to feel your fitness, as we just sang in 393. I've got to feel my fitness.
Do you know what your fitness is? You've offended God. Believe the gospel. You've sinned against God, believe the gospel.
This man went home justified. The Pharisee didn't. He was rejected and damned for his reliance upon self and works. How do we know that?
Rather than the other. This man, the publican, went home justified rather than the other. He didn't go home justified. What's Jesus' point?
You rely on your works, you rely on your fastings, you rely on your tithings, you rely on your performance, and you will be damned to hell. Because righteousness does not come through the law. You need to appropriate that fact. You need to get it into your head.
Self-atonement is a myth. You cannot avail with God in your strength. There is one champion of Israel. There is one whose doings and dyings satisfy the requirements of God's covenant.
And it is Jesus and him alone. And then, of course, the principle set forth by Jesus in this parable with reference to prayer, with reference to the way we treat one another, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
Application
We learn several things and then we close. I know when I say several, you're probably thinking, oh, man, this is going to be a while. It's not going to be a while.
Righteous Attitude Toward Others
The first is that we need to have a righteous attitude toward others. It's unfortunate we have to put proud and Calvinist together. That's like oxymoronic, if you really understand the terminology there, it's like a jumbo shrimp or old news or military intelligence. There shouldn't be a proud Calvinist, those who understand the glory of a sovereign God and the sinfulness of their wretched hearts ought to be the lowest people ever.
They ought not to despise others. They ought to be charitable. They ought to be loving. They ought to be kind.
But notice how these things go hand in hand. When you're self-righteous, you despise others. Why is that? Because you want others to perform your expectation.
That's why in the church we need to be on guard. We need to be careful. We need to understand people are at different places. We're not to make men jump through our hoops.
Though the self-righteous may despise others, those righteous in Christ must love others. That is a principle of this text. You have been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. You have been washed in that fountain that is open for sin and uncleanness.
You have known the mercies of a sovereign God, the kindness of a gracious God. You know, a justification that depends not one way upon you and your performance. And you're going to have the gall to despise others. We've not learned Christ, if that's the case.
See, the gospel ought to promote in us a love for brethren. The gospel ought to promote in us a desire to believe the best about the brethren. I don't think it's unique to my heart only. I think there is in probably some of us a conspiracy theory.
I guess. Pastor Bartholomew coined that term conspiracy theory. I guess this idea that everybody's out to get you. You know, maybe they're not.
Love really believes all things. Love hopes all things. Sometimes husbands and wives, a man or a woman, will do something and the spouse just imagine they're trying to get them. No, I sinned.
I'm a sinner. Please forgive me. I didn't have my pencil behind my ear. I didn't have my light on or my hat on with my drafting table, thinking through the steps and how I was going to lead you into that particular place.
And I was going to see you fail or fumble or have a problem. I really didn't do that. Self-righteousness is an enemy to peace within the Church of Jesus Christ. We are to, in the language of the Apostle, endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace.
And the way we do that is by loving humbly.
Justification by Grace Through Faith
There is a Reformation application here. The parable relates to justification by grace alone through faith alone. I think if you allow me to indulge for a moment, the Pharisee here stands up as the Roman Catholic Church. And the publican comes along as the Protestant Reformation.
Now, I realize that's probably stretching it to a degree, but that's in essence what these men represent. Look at what we do, look at what we accomplish, do our sacraments, pay our tithes, do this, do this, do this, do this. I have faith, but do this. The Judaizing heresy.
There's faith, but circumcision in order to be saved. The former's came along and said, oh, God be merciful to me, the sinner. It's not what I pay, it's not how I fast, it's not what I give, it's not what I do. It's what Jesus did.
It's just like when Moses lifted up that serpent in the wilderness. Do you love that? Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. People have been bit.
What were they supposed to do? Fix your leg, then look? No, they were to look and live. They were to look and live.
The Benefit of Owning Sin
Thirdly, there is a benefit of owning sin set forth in this parable. God be merciful to me, the sinner. Proverbs 28, 13 is a passage you should get in your heads and in your hearts. It says, whoever covers his transgression shall not prosper.
Whoever confesses and forsakes it will find mercy. That's the Old Testament equivalent of 1 John 1, 9. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Sometimes we reason like this.
I don't want to go before God because I'm so sinful. The gospel says, go before God because you're so sinful. Right. How does God plead with Israel in Jeremiah three, return to me and I will heal your backsliders.
We like to heal ourselves. We like to fix ourselves before we go to God. Jesus says, come to me. I'll heal you.
I'll fix you. I mean, imagine that. Let's say you were scheduled for surgery next Thursday at Chilliwack General Hospital. But before you went there, you went to Abbotsford General Hospital, or whatever they call it, and you had your surgery done, so that you could be ready to meet the surgeon at Chilliwack General.
He'd say, what are you, foolish? You were supposed to come and get healed here, not fix yourself before you got there, or get a manual and do some self-surgery on you. We do that as Christians, we get feeling guilty and we want to sell the car. We want to fix it.
We want to take care of it. What are we tacitly saying? The blood of Jesus Christ really doesn't avail for all sin. We may not vocalize that, but our actions indicate that.
A fourth principle that we need to follow in this particular passage, and this is a difficult one for all of us.
The Danger of Out-Phariseeing
It is the propensity for all of us to out Pharisee the Pharisee. What is the temptation when we study a passage like this? That rotten, dirty Pharisee. Thank you, God, that I'm not like him.
Thank you, God, that I've learned justification by faith. Thank you, God, that I have a 1689 confession. Thank you, God, the pastor said, get Burkoff or Raymond and read systematic theology. The propensity in every heart here is to outshine the Pharisee.
I love the way Ryle puts it in his commentaries, expository thoughts. He says we are all naturally self-righteous. If you say not me, that's an indicator that you are. Please get that.
Writing books on your humility does not make you humble. Had a buddy in Palmdale, we used to joke, write a book. Humility and how I mastered it. Wait a minute, what?
There's certain books people shouldn't write. Humility and how I mastered it? No, you didn't. We are all naturally self-righteous.
It is the family disease of all the children of Adam. From the highest to the lowest, we think more highly of ourselves than we ought to do. We secretly flatter ourselves that we are not so bad as some, and that we have something to recommend us to the favor of God. Most men will proclaim every one of his own goodness, Proverbs 26.
We forget the plain testimony of Scripture. In many things we offend all. There is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not. What is man that he should be clean, or he that is born of a woman that he should be righteous?
The true cure for self-righteousness, get this, is self-knowledge. How do you learn yourself but through God's Word? He says, Once let the eyes of our understanding be opened by the spirit and we shall talk no more of our own goodness. Once let us see what there is in our own hearts and what the holy law of God requires and self-conceit will die.
We shall lay our hand on our mouths and cry with the leper, unclean, unclean. Let us beware of out Phariseeing the Pharisee in our passage.
Humility Learned at Calvary
And then finally, as I said, not everything is given here. Its primary commendation, its primary application is that we're not to trust in ourselves that we're righteous and we're not to despise others. The only means that any man, woman, boy or girl will adopt such a posture of humility is at the cross. Humility is not something we master.
It is something God does in us. And humility is first learned at Calvary. You can read books on humility. In fact, C.J.
Mahaney has a good book on humility. It's not subtitled How I Mastered It. It's very good. It's great means.
Read on humility. Get your concordance out. Get all the scriptures that talk about humility. Search them.
Study them. Do you know where they'll all bring you back to? Calvary. Because that's where the pride of man dies.
That's where our doing dies. That's where our performance dies. And that's where our genuine life begins. If you have not come to Christ, believe on Him.
As the Bible says, and you shall be saved. What a blessing to go to your house today justified. Having a status before God, not based on your righteousness, not based on your words, but solely based on God's grace through faith in Jesus. That's the way to go home justified today.
Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Our Father in heaven, we thank you for this parable. We thank you for the rich instruction that it gives us. And I pray that we would keep these thoughts in our hearts and in our minds and that we would seek your grace. Lord God, do forgive us.
Do forgive me, Lord. I know that self-righteousness is a reality in my own heart. And I confess it as sin, and I pray that you just help each of us to confess it as sin, to see our righteousness as in Christ and in him alone. Thank you for that blessed statement of the apostle, that God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
We praise you through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.