The lesson this morning will
be taken from Luke chapter 18. Luke chapter 18, verses 9 through
14. I went back and forth with the
title of the lesson because it contains a lot of things, but
I finally settled on this title, A Cancer of the Soul. Let's read these verses together.
Luke chapter 18, beginning with verse 9. And he spake this parable
unto certain, that is, unto certain men, which trusted in themselves
that they were righteous, and despised others. Two men went
up into the temple to pray. The one a Pharisee, and the other
a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I'm not as other men
are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice a week. I give tithes
of all that I possess. This is the Pharisee. He's praying
with himself. That's what it said. And the
publicans standing far off. He couldn't come in to the temple,
into this part of the temple. He took his place in the Gentile
court. He stood far off. He would not lift up so much
as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying,
God, be merciful to me, a sinner." And I'm told by the linguist
that that last phrase is the sinner, the chief of sinners. I tell you, Christ said, this
man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone
that exalteth himself shall be abased, that is, brought low,
degraded, belittled. And he that humbleth himself
shall be exalted. Now the subject of the parable
this morning is self-righteousness. Certain, he said, certain men,
certain ones. that trusted in themselves that
they were righteous. Believers are righteous, but
they're righteous in Christ. They have his righteousness,
the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ. And it's unto all and upon all
them that believe. Self-righteousness is a righteousness
generated by something in you, by your works, by your obedience. Something in you, it's of you,
not of God. You remember Paul prayed for
his kinsmen. He's talking about Israelites,
the Jews. He prayed for them. And he prayed
that they'd be saved. Well, you think the Jews, whenever
anybody talks about a Jew, that's God's elect. God's gonna save
them, they're Jews. Everybody, well, they're still
saved. Still so. But here he's praying for them,
and he's praying that God will save them. He said, I bear witness
they have a zeal of God, but it's not according to knowledge,
for they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about
to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. Self-righteousness is a false
doctrine, and like all false teaching, will eat as does a
cancer. That's what it says over in 2
Timothy 2.17. And then if you look over there
at 2 Timothy 2.17, and look at the margin of your Bible, that
word cancer means gangrene. Gangrene, that's how it's interpreted.
It's an incurable evil that requires not a salve, but an amputation. It has to be cut out. You can't
cure it. You can't put a little salve
on it and make it better. Self-righteousness is the cancer
of the soul, and those who teach it are a cancer to an assembly. And I'll tell you this, at the
outset of the lesson, self-righteousness is a universal disease. It's
hereditary. It's ours from Adam. It's part
of our inheritance of condemnation. And all men and women are self-righteous
by nature. One fellow I was reading said
it's a family disease. And that's what it is. It's hereditary. Passed down from Adam to all
his postates. Paul Mahan, I was listening to
a message by him, and he said, in all likelihood, the fruit
that Adam and Eve were forbidden to eat was a fig. A fig, not
an apple, but a fig. And the reason he said that was
because after they ate it, they realized they was naked and they
tried to hide behind the fig tree in the garden. And not only
that, but then they made themselves aprons out of the fig leaves. from the truth and tried to hide
themselves for it. But they tried to hide themselves
from the Holy God and there's not one son or daughter of Adam
who does not secretly flatter themselves believing that they're
not as bad as others. Now I'm telling you, you pick
the worst man by reputation that ever was and you're exactly equal
with him Or worse. Or worse. And though to some degree that
might be true, don't mistake the restraining grace of God
in your life for self-righteousness. The only reason you didn't do
it is because you weren't there. God restrains you. And we're
all exactly alike in our natures. Every true child of God was cricken
from the dead, in which they were by nature children of wrath,
even as others. It's not just that we were children
of wrath, but we're a little better than him. No, exactly
as others. Exactly. And it's an evil thought. It's
an evil thought. that we are in and of ourselves
righteousness. Our Lord said, out of the heart
proceed what? Evil thoughts. First thing we
think about is some kind of sexual thought, isn't it? That's the
generation in which we live and that's the recourse of our religious
teaching from the past causes us to think that way. But evil
thoughts, what is an evil thought? Well, they thought they were
righteous. God said, you thought I was altogether such a one as
yourself. That's what you thought. That's
an evil thought. An evil thought. We're full of evil thoughts. Untold numbers of sermons on
unrighteousness have been preached, and yet it's more prevalent in
our day than ever before. All false religion is eat up
with it. All false religion works religion
begins on the premise that there's something in men worth saving. But salvation doesn't arise from
the worthiness of men, but from the purpose and will of God.
That's where it arises from. And how much plainer can words
be spoken? Think not that I'm come to call
the righteous, but sinners to repentance. That's about as plain
as you can get it. Our Lord does not put a healing
salve on self-righteousness, but cuts it out completely. He
slays the sinner in the gospel of Christ. Somebody told Rob,
said, you can catch more flies with honey than you can with
vinegar. And he said, I ain't trying to catch flies, I'm trying
to kill sinners. Sinners have to be slain by the
gospel. And then raised up with Christ
to walk in newness of life. Here's another phrase he uses.
He lays the axe to the root. To the root. And his new walk
is a walk of faith, defined in Romans 3.22, even the righteousness
of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, or the faithfulness
of Jesus Christ. And it's unto all and upon all
them that believe, for all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God. Self-righteousness was and is
put away in the death of Christ. And no matter how righteous you
appear in your own eyes or in the eyes of others, you have
no righteousness except the righteousness of Christ. How do I know that?
Look at Christ hanging on the cross. You see, He bore our sins in
His own body on the tree, but He also bore our self-righteousness,
the filthy rags of our righteousness. And he is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. And I don't care
how you use the word. He's the end. He's the end. How is the old man slain? He's
slain as we see him by faith being put to death in our substitute. And not only are vile and wicked
sins born in his body, but also the filthy rags of our righteousness. And when the sinner sees himself,
In the crucified Savior, his self-righteousness begins to
fade away, all hopes of it. And truly, all men are represented
in the Pharisee and the publican. And I don't feel at this time
that a study of their character is needed. It's so obvious in
the parable that it doesn't need expounded. Here's the one proud
with his head up looking up into glory, and here's the other one
who wouldn't even look up. totally different character,
one full of pride, one full of humility, one full of lies, one
full of truth. And I don't even think a study
of their posture, because it's so plainly revealed, nor of their
language, which follows their hearts. But what I do want to
talk about is the subject itself, self-righteousness. If time will permit, I want to
give you seven plain statements about this vile disease of self-righteousness. First of all, we're shown in
this parable that self-righteousness grows best in religious soil. You want to see self-righteousness
in its prime, you want to see the tree bearing its fruit, go
into any church, any church. You're going to find it because
that's where it grows best. in religious soil. And self-righteousness
is perfectly at home in the assemblies of false religion. And that's where it's watered
and fed and all the restraints are removed. They brag on self-righteousness. They tell you to seek it. Encourage
you to do it. It grows good in the soil of
religion Pharisee had nothing to restrain him from these bold
declarations that he made. He was confident that his righteousness
would be seen and had been seen and approved of God. Cain felt the same way. He felt
the same way. He didn't listen to his dad.
His dad gave him instructions on how God was to be worshipped.
He didn't leave him in his ignorance. He told him exactly what he had
to do. But what did he do? He reasoned it out in his own
mind and heart. He didn't go by the word of God.
He didn't go by the man that God had saved in his testimony. He went by his own reasoning. He said, here's what I think. Oh, don't do that. Just don't
do that. That's a step in the wrong direction.
Here's what I think. There's a way that seemeth right
unto the man. The end thereof is destruction. And here's Cain, and he said,
well, here's what I'm going to do. Y'all bring that old bloody
lamb if you want to. There ain't nothing in there
that I see worth bringing before God that's not going to inspire
me to worship. Here's what I need to do. I'm
going to raise a garden. And I can't even imagine the
size of the fruit that he brought that day. But he was so proud
of it, and he washed it, and he laid it all out there for
the Lord. And the Lord went by and just looked at it and walked
on by. got no interest whatsoever in
him. And boy, he was mad, wasn't he?
He was mad. And his brother went out to him
in kindness and love and was going to tell him what was wrong
with his sacrifice. As soon as he did, Cain slew
him. He couldn't get to God, but he could get to his brother,
and he slew his brother. When God publicly rejected his
sacrifice, his anger waxed so hot that he slayed his brother
to vent his anger toward God. And then secondly, self-righteousness
appears even among the base and profane of the world. Nothing
appears to me more ridiculous than vile sinners talking about
morality. You want to see vile sinners
talk about morality, turn on Fox News. you get a belly full
of it real quick. They're talking about morality
and social values and ethical behavior. What does a sinner
know about that? He knows nothing. Isaiah said,
Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, and put darkness
for light, and light for darkness, and put bitter for sweet, and
sweet for bitter. Why do you listen to people like
this? And then thirdly, self-righteousness always make those who practice
it harsh and hard and judgmental of others. They despised others. That's what the Lord said. Those
who trusted in themselves that they were righteous despised
others. And persecution is the spawn
of self-righteousness. That's right. That's where it
comes from. Stephen said to the Pharisees, which of the prophets
have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them that
showed before the coming of the just one. He preached Christ
our righteousness, Christ's coming to die in our room instead and
provide for us a righteousness. He preached the just one. And that's what these old prophets
preached and they were put to death for. And then fourthly,
self-righteousness will not bow to the Word of God alone. It
just won't do it. It'll tell you what they think.
It'll tell you what they reason. They'll tell you everything under
the sun. But they will not go to the Word
of God. And when you go to it, they'll
cut you off. They'll cut you off. In Proverbs
20, verse 6, listen to this. He said, Most men will proclaim
everyone his own goodness. Most of them will. But a faithful
man who can find, where are you going to find him? Self-righteousness
flies into the face of Holy Scripture and therefore into the face of
God who inspired it. Ecclesiastes 7.20, for there's
not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not. Doesn't
self-righteousness fly into the face of that? In Job 15, 14,
what is man that he should be clean, and he which is born of
a woman that he should be righteous? And yet men and women brag on
their righteousness. Paul said, what then? Are we
better than they? We've had the greater advantage. Our fathers were the prophets.
We have the word of God. God himself has come among us
and did great things, did great miracles, performed great deliverance
for this nation. So with all this advantage, are
we any better than the Gentiles? No, and no wise, for we have
before proved that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin,
as it is written. Here's the top of the list. There's
none righteous. No, not one. Self-righteousness
feeds on tradition and traditional understanding. It feeds on the
rudiments of the world. The whole world believes this
way. You saying the whole world's wrong and this little assembly's
right? No, I'm saying let God be true
and every man alive. They feed on denominational creeds
and authority, never the Word of God. Paul tells Timothy, all
Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and it's profitable for
instruction in righteousness. If you want to be instructed
in righteousness, go to the Word of God. And then fifthly, self-righteousness
will never acknowledge or confess its sin. Turn with me to 1 John
1. 1 John 1. Self-righteousness will never
acknowledge or confess its sin. It just won't do it. A confession
of sin is a denial of their own righteousness. They'd be cutting
off their head to fight their fates. 1 John 1, verse 8. If
we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not
in us. If we confess our sins, oh, here's
a whole different situation, isn't it? If we say we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth's not in us. If we
confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned,
we make him a liar and his words not his. When God the Holy Ghost defined
the doctrine of Antichrist religion in 2 Thessalonians 2, 9 and 10,
He said, even him whose coming is after the working of Satan
with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness
of unrighteousness. What's that? That is, a man being
deceived into believing his unrighteousness is righteousness before God. Those who trust in themselves
that they are righteous will never confess their sins unless
that confession is a work whereby they believe they're made righteous. All right. Sixthly, Self-righteousness
will not trust Christ alone for their righteousness. Can you
do that? Can you trust Him alone for your
righteousness? Not considering anything you
ever did, not considering something you purposed to do, or that you
might do in the future. Can you trust Him altogether,
100% for your righteousness? Huh? That's what it is. That's
what it is. And self-righteousness will not
trust Christ alone for their righteousness. He alone has taken
this name to himself, the Lord our righteousness, Jehovah Shekinah. If you look in the book of Jeremiah,
there's two places in there. One, it said his name shall be
called the Lord our righteousness. In the other place, it said in
her name. talking about his church, his bride. Her name shall be
called the Lord our righteousness. We have the same name. Self-righteousness makes the
obedience, righteousness, and sin-atoning sacrifice of Christ
according to the book of Galatians of none effect. It tells you
there's no reason for him to die. No reason for him to become
a man and be made under the law. No reason whatsoever if you can
be righteous of yourself. There's only one way to obtain
a righteousness acceptable to God, and that is on the merits
of Christ alone. Paul prayed for his kinsmen,
and that was their problem. They wouldn't submit because
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. to everyone
that believed in Him. And then he tells us this in
1 Corinthians 1, I think, verse 30. He said, Of God are ye in
Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, now listen, righteousness. He made unto us righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. And then lastly, here's the saving
thing. Self-righteousness bars the sinner
from God's grace and mercy in Christ. I like this statement. I don't know who first made it.
I've read it by several men. And it doesn't really matter.
But your sin will not keep you from Christ. But your righteousness
will. None are too bad, too evil, too
wicked to be saved, but multitudes are too good. I tell you, Christ said, this
vile publican went home justified, declared righteous, and the other
didn't. The other, he left standing his
own righteousness. When we come here to worship,
how do we come? These two men went up to the
house of God to worship. And they began that worship with
prayer. When we come here to worship,
how do we come? Do we come as needy sinners seeking
mercy? Or as righteous folks seeking
recognition? What do we desire when we come
in here? To be noticed? To stick out? If ever there's
a saved man, that's him. He's righteous. He's both. No. No. We bow before him in prayer. And when we do, how do we present
ourselves? As guilty sinners deserving the
wrath or as proud Pharisees boasting in our righteousness? Oh, great
God in heaven, if it can be that we can Call you, our Father,
our Father, please establish in us an attitude of grace and
mercy, an attitude of thankfulness for your loving gifts and means
to save ourselves. Teach us how to confess our sins
and rest in Christ alone.