Luke 18, we'll be looking at verses 9 through 14. And here, our Lord exposes self-righteousness. He exposes the folly of it, how a man can be so deceived in his heart, so as to think that by his works, by something in him that he has done and brought forth, that God is pleased with him, that God receives his righteousness. or that God blesses him for his righteousness or something that he's done and it never dawns on him, it never comes to his imagination or understanding that he's despising Christ. He's not trusting in the righteousness of God. He's not submitting himself to the righteousness of God in and by the Lord Jesus Christ.

So beginning in verse nine, Luke 18, nine, Our Lord spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others." And so what the Scriptures teach us here is that we do well to understand that self-righteousness really is in every one of us. This is not something peculiar just to some people and not ourselves. No, this is a sin which is in every single one of us. We all have this self-righteous nature in us.

First of all, we're not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. were told in scriptures that by the offense of one, by the offense of Adam, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, were all sinners, and the law entered into to make that sin known to us, to make us to know just how evil our sin is, how corrupt our nature is, and how far from God we are by nature. And so the scriptures teach us that men do not make themselves righteous by the law, but God gave the law to make known to us the offense and to know sin and what sin deserves, the punishment of sin. For they, the scriptures say, are all under sin as it is written, there's none righteous, no, not one.

And so, this self-righteousness resides in all of us, in our nature. We are self-righteous by nature. As soon as Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, the scriptures tell us that their eyes were open, they knew that they were naked, and they immediately went and sewed for themselves fig leaves together to cover their nakedness. They did this work themselves. And then Adam heard God, and he ran from God, seeing God as his enemy now. And then as soon as God began to speak to him, what did Adam do? The self-righteousness of Adam blamed God. It's the woman that you gave to be with me. It's you, God, and it's the woman that you gave to me. and she gave me of the tree and I did eat. He's the last one. He's the most innocent in the whole thing. It's God first and the woman and it's not even my fault.

And just like Adam, it's man's self-righteousness that keeps us from confessing our sins to God. Justifying ourselves rather than confessing our sins to God and asking him for mercy as a guilty sinner who doesn't deserve mercy but who deserves wrath. And that's in all of us. Just like it was in Adam, that's the corrupt seed that we are born of. And that's why we see it in ourselves.

Men who know the truth. Men who preach the gospel have observed and stated repeatedly that we preach the gospel and we preach against self-righteousness of men. I think I preach it very often, against self-righteousness in preaching the gospel. And we cover that a lot, except it never goes away. Self-righteousness never goes away in man, no matter how much you speak against it, no matter how much you preach it down. Men, to this day, since Adam and Eve fell in the garden, it's declared and yet men to this day still look to their works, still look to what they do or don't do to determine whether they or others are going to heaven or hell. They still are looking at the works. They're still looking at the outward work of the man or themselves.

And a self-righteous man will always tell you what he's done, what's different about him now. He's always gonna talk about what he has done for the Lord and not about what the Lord has done for him and what God in grace has done for him. That's really a big tell there. They speak of themselves and their works rather than of Christ and his work. And their boast is in themselves. And he'll happily compare himself to other men to find his boast, but his boast is not Christ. It's not Christ. It's always something in him that tips the scale in his favor with God. There's something that he has done to get God's notice, to get God's blessing, and to indebt God to him.

It's always something that he did that you didn't do that he has preferred above others. But the truth is, when God looks in our heart, he's never gonna find righteousness in us. All our works, all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags in his sight. That's what the scriptures call them. Our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. It's like trying to clean your greasy hands with a greasy rag. It just smears the grease around. It doesn't remove it. It doesn't help it.

Our Lord says it this way in Matthew 15, verse 18 and 19, for those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, deaths, false witness, blasphemies." And if you notice, those are things that men do by nature. This is the works of the flesh, but also those same things can be attributed to us in our relationship with the Lord. We blaspheme God in boasting of our works. We are thieves in robbing God's glory. We're spiritual adulterers against the true and living God. We're fornicators, glorying in ourselves. We're the murderers of God, if we could. These are all things that are in our heart, and there's only one cure for man's sin, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not your righteousness. That doesn't cure your sin. It's the Lord Jesus Christ.

And many men believe that their salvation is found in their righteousness, in their keeping the law, or in them going to the scriptures to find truths in the Bible, practices outlined in the Bible for them to do. But all that is is a manifestation of man's self-righteousness. Trusting in those things is self-righteousness. Boasting in those things, glorying in those things, thinking, now I can come to God, that's just self-righteousness. It's self-righteousness. That's not what the Lord is looking for. He's looking for us coming to him in spirit and in truth. As sinners, hoping in the righteousness whom God has provided, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so just as there's only one cure for sin, there's only one cure for self-righteousness, which is, of course, sin. That cure is Jesus Christ, who suffered and died and rose again for us because we can't do it. Otherwise, the Son of God would not have come. If there was a law that could have been given to make us righteous, then Christ died in vain, Paul said. He's died in vain. A sinner's salvation in every part without any exception, is Jesus Christ alone.

If we're looking to something we've done to believe God is blessing us, then we're not looking to Christ alone. And that's a false hope. That's a self-righteousness. But you that profess Christ, and you that believe the Lord Jesus Christ, When the Lord turns the heart, when he shows us what we are and that he is all our salvation, we stop boasting of our own righteousness. That stops because it's of no value. It's of no value to ourselves. It's of no value to any others. We don't talk about what we've done. We talk to others about what Christ has done for us.

Whereas the self-righteous, they continue to boast. They boast in what makes them different from before or what makes them different from others. And they'll say it out loud or they'll think it in their heart. This is, but it's Christ, it's Christ. That's why David said, blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee. That's why he boasted in the Lord, not in himself, but in what the Lord does for his people, because David was made to know, I'm a sinner, I'm the sinner. I've offended God. Me personally, I've offended God. And so that's why when God healed him and God gave him repentance, and God restored him in mercy, David's boast was in the Lord and what the Lord had done for him.

Isaiah exclaimed, woe is me, for I am undone. And if you have a King James Bible with a margin in it, it means I'm cut off. That word could have also been translated, I'm cut off. That's something for the prophet of God to say and confess, I'm cut off. I'm ruined. I'm done. It's over for me. Woe is me. Woe is me, because he saw the Lord. Job said, I am vile. I'm vile. And what shall I answer thee? I will lay my hand on my mouth. Job 40, verse 4. I will lay my hand on my mouth. I've got nothing more to say or to boast of before you, Lord, because I'm vile. I'm vile. I have no righteousness of my own.

And so what the scriptures show us is that when Christ has come to the heart, that's when we stop boasting of ourselves. That's when we stop boasting and talking about our righteousness and what's different in me because of me, and we start talking about what Christ has done. And not boasting of differences in us, but the difference is heard in what we say in our boast, in our glory. It's in Christ. We speak of Him. That in spite of me, in spite of my works, in spite of my sin, in spite of my failures, in spite of my boasting, it's all of Christ. It's all of Him. And God and grace It's His grace makes us to know Christ so that He becomes all our boast and all our confidence.

Paul said in Romans 24, 7-24, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? It wasn't him who delivered him. It wasn't his works that delivered him. He said, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's who saves me. That's who delivers this wretched man from death. Paul didn't boast of himself. He said, I have no confidence in the flesh.

And so, sinners, we either come to God as the self-righteous Pharisee, as we're going to see in this parable here, who's utterly deceived and yet dead in trespasses and sins, though he has all these works to boast of. Or we come to God as the sinful publican who self-abased himself. He didn't come in self-righteousness, he came in self-abasement, looking to Christ alone. He wouldn't dare boast of his righteousness. And so God only justifies one, as we'll see. Only one goes home justified. And it's not the one that the natural man thinks of would be justified of God. Man's always striving to be like the Pharisee, and yet he goes home unjustified. It's the one that men think, God can't save that one, but that's who the Lord comes and saves. And he justifies that one, and that one goes home in peace, having received the mercy of the Lord.

The first thing we'll notice here when we look at this parable, picking up in verse 10, is a great similarity between these two guys. There's a great similarity here in these two men that's first shown. Verse 10, two men went up into the temple to pray. Two men, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. So we know that there's going to be a difference brought out in a moment. We're going to see a difference here. But so far, there's no difference. They're both going up to worship the true and living God. They're going to the same place. They didn't go to two different places, with one going into the Jewish temple and another one going into the pagan temple. They went to the same temple. From all we could see, they're going to worship the same God.

the same thing in going to God. So it's the same here. It's as though you can imagine seeing Cain and Abel. Those two boys were raised to worship God. Both Cain and Abel went before the Lord. Both Ishmael and Isaac were taught by Abraham to worship the true and living God. Both Esau and Jacob went and worshiped the same Lord in Isaac's household. And then we know Saul and David in the kingdom went to the same temple to worship the Lord. Judas Iscariot and Simon Peter went to worship the same Lord. They followed the same Lord. They appeared the same outwardly.

But we know that God rejected one and God received the other. One came in pride. One came in self-righteousness. One came in the vanity of their flesh, thanking themselves to have earned God's favor and blessing. The other came in the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, being taught of Him. And He taught them. He teaches His child to come in the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ and to have no confidence in their flesh, to make no boast in their flesh. It's a difference of the heart that God must give to the sinner. He's the one that makes the difference. It's not that we figured this out. It's not that we're smarter than the Pharisee. Not at all. It's the Lord that has to show us that. It's the Lord that gives us that heart. It's the Lord that gives us that life and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

We're all born alike, right? We all come forth speaking lies, dead in trespasses and sins, but God saves his child. He plucks them out of that dead body in Adam and gives us an inheritance in the Lord Jesus Christ. He makes us, he makes his child to live and to believe him all in grace. And so we see in this parable What we see in this parable is that the self-condemned are the ones that are justified by God rather than the self-righteous. It's not how good we can number our good works and our righteousnesses that make the difference. It's God, by his grace and mercy, that makes the difference.

So understand, as we go into this now, that these two men in our parable are representative of all men in the true church. These two men represent everyone in the true church of God. in the church, at least on the exterior of it. Men who appear alike on the outside, coming to the same place of worship before the one true and living God. And our Lord there, for he gives four differences. We can see four differences between these two men. Four differences. And our Lord tells us, you shall know them by their fruits. except men think that the natural man thinks that he's talking about our good works, right? Our works, what men can see. That's not at all what the Lord's talking about. He was talking about that, that you'll know them who go to the flesh to bring forth works as opposed to them who are by the spirit of grace, bring forth fruits of righteousness.

All right. And so What the natural eye can't see, God sees in the heart. He knows, because he puts it there. He makes the difference. Now, he makes it known to us here in this parable. Let's read verses 11 through 13. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee. that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. His words were about seven, and the Pharisees about five times that. Almost 35 words there, but that's not the real difference here.

The first difference is their character. The first difference is their character. The one a Pharisee and the other a publican. In the day that our Lord walked the earth here, the Pharisee was the man who was most esteemed. He was the most esteemed man. He was esteemed as a moral man, a man of character, a good man, a righteous man. And he was considered faithful unto God. When others looked at him, they would say, that's the blessed man of Psalm 1. He's the blessed man. He's the good man. Because they couldn't see Christ, but they would say, he's that blessed man.

You know, of all the sects of the Jews, as I understand it, these men were the most orthodox in their doctrine. We agree with a lot of what they believed about election, about the resurrection, about our eternal inheritance. They spoke of those things, not other sects, not the Sadducees. They believed in the inspiration of all scripture. of all the Old Testament that we have. They believed that that was inspired of God, whereas the Sadducees said only the first five books were inspired of God. And so they're orthodox in a lot of their doctrine, whereas the publican was the most despised by the Jews. Because the publican, I mean, just his job by nature was to collect taxes from the people, and he would overcharge them more than he even needed to. They hated him just for working for the Roman government, and he took more than was necessary to enrich himself.

And so a publican just by nature was hated by the people, and so they were, he was to be avoided as a sinful, wretched man. as a man whom God hated and despised. Don't go near that man. He's going to be destroyed by the Lord. He was seen as immoral, as corrupt, and certainly corruptible. He was an unjust man. The Pharisee loved to be seen of men, and he wanted to be seen of men for his religious works, because he was most religious, and he made a point to be seen in his religion. right, probably would say that it's to help you, right, so that you could see a good example of how you're supposed to live. I'm going to be this, you know, show you my religion. I'm going to make sure you know so that you have a good example of what to be like. And they diligently sought the respect of people by their works and the applause of men by what they did. And they would even show disgust on their face. When they saw somebody that didn't measure up, they couldn't even hide what was in their heart. They would look at them and just make that face of, you're disgusting. You're nothing like me. You're an abomination. And so they would despise others who didn't measure up to their level of righteousness.

Now, the believer though here he's represented in this publican here is very different in that he knows himself to be poor, weak, worthless. All right, he's humbled, he's strict. He's been brought low in himself by the work of the Lord who shows him his sin, who shows him his need of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You know, the believer feels shame for their thoughts, their words, and their deeds. They feel shame because we see them. This flesh isn't improved. This flesh hasn't improved or changed. We may be, at times, subdued to try and beat it down, but we know it's all still there. The same thing, the same old man is not changed yet. This old man is not yet changed. We live in Christ, by Christ, in the new man. He believes, and all he can believe. The old man, all he does is unbelief. And so the believer freely admits, you're better than me. You're better than me. And we're thankful and impressed with our brethren, but with our own selves, we know our hearts. And we're not impressed with ourselves at all. And like Paul, we're brought to see to have no confidence in the flesh. No confidence in the flesh. That's not my words, that's the apostles' words. No confidence in the flesh.

The second difference is seen in their behavior. The Pharisees stood and prayed thus with himself. And he prayed, but he prayed with himself. God wasn't hearing it. He thought nothing of getting himself as close to God as he possibly can, because he was worthy. He was worthy of what he had done. He thought, I can go near to the Lord. I have nothing to be ashamed of. I'm working. I'm laboring. I'm doing the best that I can. I'm going to draw near to God. And so he stood up in such a way so as to put himself before others, showing no shame in distinguishing himself from others that were there. from the other people that were there to worship God. And he's looking around at them thinking, well, I'm not as you guys. I'm not like other men. I deserve to be here. I can come here because of what I've done for the Lord. I'm different from the many worshipers that are here today. That's what he's saying there in that temple that morning.

And the scriptures tell us he prayed, but he prayed with himself. And all his prayer, when you read it, was for his own glory. It was for his own glory. He's better than everyone else. He's not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. And though he pretended to address God, he was there praising himself for his own works. I fast twice in a week. I give tithes of all that I possess. And he's trusting those things. This is his confidence. This is his hope. to stand before God and to draw near to God because of what he has done.

But then we look at the publican, and we find a different sort of man. This man stood afar off. He was afraid to draw near to God. He didn't want to come near to God because he didn't feel worthy to come near to him. I don't know if he was in the outer court. Some say he was just standing out in the outer court. I don't know, but he knew himself to be an unworthy sinner. to draw near to the Lord in the holy place. He's unworthy, deserving nothing but God's wrath. That's what he recognizes. I don't deserve the least of your mercies, Lord. He would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven. You know, just like when you're talking to your child who's guilty, right? And you're questioning your child. They don't even want to look at you. They don't even want to look at your face. That's how this publican is. He knows, he knows that he's guilty. And he smote upon his breast. Why? Because that's where his heart is. The fountain of all his sin. He knows this is where it's coming from. It's not coming from without. I'm the problem. I'm the sinner. That's why he smote on his own breast.

And then the third difference is their prayer. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. And I guess, you know, we wouldn't even call it a prayer. It doesn't sound like any prayer, but he prayed by spreading before the Lord all his works, right? That's what he's laying out. Lord, this is everything I'm doing. so that he could come before the Lord. These are all my good deeds so as to indebt God to bless him." And that's why he's saying it. He's saying here, look, Lord, look, look, this is everything I'm doing for you. Please, Lord, bless me. Please, Lord, bless me for my good works. There's no confession of his sin. The man only wanted God's glory and blessing and admitted of no need for God. because of his sin. He admitted of no need for forgiveness and mercy. He's saying, I'm not like other sinners. I'm not like these other sinners. That's why I deserve your justification and blessing. And God gave him no justification, no blessing. Everything he said that he wasn't was exactly what he was. The Pharisees, above all, were extortioners. going into widows' homes and taking their homes. They were the unjust ones. Christ told them, you're unjust stewards. You're not caring for the flock. You're not telling them the truth. You're telling them lies. You're turning them to the flesh. You've not prepared them for the coming of Christ. You've prepared them to be Pharisees. You're just making them like yourselves. They were adulterers, an adulterous generation, a generation of vipers. who committed fornication against God in their works, turning to the flesh, rather than looking to the Lord who gives fruit unto him, who blesses his people. He believed himself to keep the law perfectly, and a man can do that, right? Paul himself said, I was before the law blameless. For the law, I'm blameless. And yet, he said, it's all dumb. It's garbage compared to Christ. I don't want to be found in that. That's garbage. That just sealed me up in self-righteousness. I want to be found in the righteousness of God, which is Jesus Christ. That's whose righteousness. I want to be found in. And he said, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in God's sight, for that's not why the law was given. The law was given to show us our sin. And they weren't seeing it. Pharisee wasn't seen, and so this man was judging himself by other men, but not God.

Now, this public hymn is nothing like the Pharisee. His prayer is very short, and he smote upon his breast and said this, God be merciful to me, a sinner. That's it. Unlike the Pharisee who spoke of everyone else's sins, he only spoke of his own sins. That's a big difference, right? The Pharisee was pointing out what everyone else did. And this man's saying, Lord, I'm the sinner. I'm the one who sinned against you. I'm the one who needs your mercy. And he didn't make any excuses for his sin.

When he asked God here to be merciful to him, the sinner, that word merciful, as it's here used here, it's only used, if you look that word up, merciful here in this verse, it's only used in one other place in the Bible. In Hebrews 2.17 is where it's used. It says, wherefore in all things it behooved him, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, and here it is, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.

So that word means to propitiate. It means to make reconciliation for. And this publican here, this sinner, is asking God, Lord, please be propitiated toward me. Please turn, please find a ransom. Please find forgiveness for my sins, for my offenses. Lord, please reconcile me to you. Find that reconciliation, Lord, that I need because I'm the sinner. Lord, and I don't have any righteousness, and I don't have any right to come before you, and I know that, Lord. You've shown me that. And so he's asking God, please, Lord, find a ransom for my soul. Please turn your wrath from me, because I don't have anything to deserve it. But Lord, I'm asking you for mercy, this mercy.

And so the Savior, that's exactly what Christ does. That's exactly why the Father sent Christ into the world to save sinners who need God's wrath to be propitiated, turned from them, that need a reconciliation between them and God. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why Christ came as the substitute and the savior of sinners. And so here he is, this man, he's confessing his entire dependence upon Christ, the Lamb of God, the savior of sinners. And that's what our Lord does for his people. That's why there's nothing to boast of. It's not about what you and I do or don't do. It's about Christ. And he'll do exactly as it pleases him. You'll bear fruits as are ordained of God. But we ain't boasting of them, but we're boasting of Christ who does them, not of us who does them. We're boasting of what he does for us.

It's a big difference. And then the fourth and final difference here is their end. Verse 14, I tell you, this man, the publican, the sinner, went down to his house justified rather than the Pharisee with all his works. For everyone that exalteth himself shall be abased. And he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. And so that one who is despised and rejected of men, he went down to his house justified rather than the Pharisee. And so that's the great work. of Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior. He's the one that makes that difference in the heart. He's the one that plucks his children out from boasting in and having a confidence in their self-righteousness and puts them in Christ where Christ becomes all our boast and all our confidence. He's our righteousness before God. That's who's justified of God, those in Christ.

And then you have the Pharisee who deceives himself by thinking he is righteous before God and that his works are his righteousness and acceptance before God and why God is pleased with him or not pleased with him based on what he does or does not do. Because it's of the law, it's of the letter of the law. All he hears is in word only, but that's not the hope of salvation that God gives his child. that the hope that he gives to sinners is Christ. Christ, Christ, Christ, from beginning to end. He's the righteous branch whom God has promised before the foundation of the world. And if the Father reveals Christ unto you, then he shall be made all your hope, all your boast, all your righteousness. As the scriptures say, for of God are ye in Christ, who is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, that according as it's written, he that glorieth, he that boasts, let him glory boast in the Lord. That's what the Lord does in calling his people.

And so I pray the Lord bless that to us.