We're gonna spend a short time
in just a few verses in a chapter in the book of Luke, chapter
18. We're gonna spend a few moments
this afternoon in chapter 18, just a few verses of scripture.
Now, when we follow the ministry of the Lord Jesus, we find that
he talked to young people, he talked to old people. He talked
to males, he talked to females. He talked to rich, he talked
to poor. He talked to those who were well, and he talked to those
who were diseased. He never stopped talking, but
he always told the truth to every group he ever spoke to, to every
individual that he ever spoke to, he always told the truth. And that's a phenomenon, a man
that can continuously without ever having a problem of telling
the truth. He never met a person that he
couldn't tell the truth to because he said about himself, I am the
way, the truth and the life. He is the truth, and so when
he speaks, he's telling the truth, and it doesn't matter which group
he's with. Now, he was going to speak to those who were his
disciples. He spoke the truth to them, and he spoke the truth
to people that were offended at him. He spoke the truth to
people that didn't like him. He spoke to all kinds of people,
but he always shared with them the truth. And so in our scripture
reading today in the 18th chapter of the book of Luke, he is going
to share the truth again. And he's gonna share the truth
with some people that particularly did not care for him. He was
an offense to them because he brought up a problem that they
had, and that was they were trusting in themselves and their righteousness
and not Christ and his righteousness, not God and his righteousness.
So here in the book of Luke chapter 18, beginning with verse nine,
it says he, and that word he there is referring to the Lord
Jesus Christ. And he spake this parable. He's
gonna share some truth with some folks. He spoke this parable
unto certain which trusted in themselves. Their hope was in
themselves. Their faith was in themselves. He said, which trusted in themselves
that they were righteous and despised others. And that meant
they always were looking down their nose at people because
they were always better than other folks. So he's going to
be speaking to a group. They don't necessarily like what
he's going to say, but he's going to tell them the truth. He always
tells the truth. He never fibs. He never gives
a white lie. He never gives a lie of any kind.
He's gonna share the truth. So he begins here telling about
two people, two people. One of them he calls a Pharisee
and the other person he calls a publican. Now in this passage
of scripture, in the book of Luke chapter 18, there in verse
10, two men, are going to go to the same place
to pray. They're going to the temple to
pray. Now, that temple was in Jerusalem. It was the most important
religious place among the Jews. And so we have two people that
at the same time, same day, they have a compunction to go down
to the temple and pray. They're going down there to pray.
So he's talking to a group of people and he's making an illustration
to them. But in his illustration, he's
gonna tell them exactly the truth. He's gonna tell the truth about
their religion and their righteousness. And it tells us there in the
book of Luke chapter 18, verse 10, two men went up into the
temple to pray and he identifies them. Now the crowd that he's
talking to, it tells us there in verse nine, it says, they
trusted in themselves and were righteous and always looked down
their nose at people and said, we're better than everybody else.
That's the crowd. All right, now that's a pretty
serious crowd, but he's going to bring up the truth. And it
tells us here that he brings up two people. They're going
to go down to the temple to pray. They have good intentions. They
have religious intentions to go down to the temple to pray.
And one of them was a Pharisee and the other Republican. Now
a Pharisee, to us today, a Pharisee is a person that says one thing
and does another. That's a Pharisee. Well, in this
day and time, a Pharisee was a very important person in the
religious world, in the Jewish religious world. When we read
about the Apostle Paul, and he's talking about his life before
his conversion, he said, and shares with us a couple of times
in scripture, I was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. I was a top-notch
religious person in the land. I was a Pharisee above all Pharisees. He had studied harder, got better
grades, had more papers, more certificates, more medals, more
of everything than anybody else. And he was very proud of that
in his religious state. He had it all put together. And he's a Pharisee. He's a religious
leader. He had studied at a very important
person's feet. His name was Gamaliel. He was
a doctor of the law. He had studied under him. He
knew the Old Testament. He knew Old Testament law, but
he knew nothing about Christ. He knew nothing about righteousness
in Christ. He was one of those that Jesus
could have been talking to here. he had his own righteousness,
as it tells us there in verse nine, which trusted in themselves
that they were righteous and despised others. That fits Saul
of Tarsus before he was saved to the T. Every word in there
speaks about Saul of Tarsus, and every word in there speaks
about everybody before they're saved, all right? And the other
person is a publican. Now a publican among the Jews
at this time was a very hated person because he was a tax collector.
He was their IRS. He collected money. He sold out
to Rome. Rome was the oppressing nation.
He was a Jew and he said, I'll collect taxes for you. And the
Romans said, this is how much we want. And if there's more,
you can have it. We want this much though. So
he was a very hated individual among the Jews. We have a person
that is a highly educated, highly religious person, and we have
a very hated person, and yet they're going down to the temple
today to pray. Now, the Pharisee's prayer is
two verses long. The publican's prayer is one
verse long. Let's read it. It says, and the
Pharisee. Now his attitude or his position
in prayer, it doesn't matter where we are, what we're doing
when we pray. It doesn't matter whether you're
standing or sitting, but if that reflects how we feel inside about
God, that we're pretty important and we can stand alongside of
him because he's my co-pilot thing, then we have a problem.
And that's what the Pharisee thought. I'm just right there
really close. I've got an almost accomplished.
I'm very close to being just like God. And so he says, he
stood and prayed thus with himself. Now we find other places Jesus
spoke about these Pharisees. They love to go down on the street
corner and pray out loud so people could see him. They were very
proud people and proud of their religion. And they always felt
more important and more religious than anybody else. Even Saul
of Tarsus, he said, I was a Pharisee among Pharisees. I was better
than even the Pharisees were. So he was always on that ladder
of one upsmanship, one better. And so this Pharisee stood and
prayed thus with himself. And that says a whole lot about
his prayer. He's prayed thus with himself. He's there and he said, God,
I thank thee. Now, you know, that doesn't sound
too bad until we read what he has to say. It's a good thing
to thank God. That's a positive thing for us
to thank God. Thank God for what we have. Thank
God for the health we have. Thank God for the food we have.
Thank God we got to hear the gospel. Thank God that God was
gracious. All of those things. I thank
God. And that's a good thing to do
every day. In fact, it's not a bad thing
to do every hour. or every minute to thank God
for the blessings that we have. But this Pharisee starts off
and he says, I thank thee, God I thank thee, that I am not as
other men are. So he goes from a very high plane,
I thank thee, God, down and says, I'm so glad I'm not like other
folks. He speaks volumes in that phrase. He tells us how important
he is himself. And he tells us how important
he is to everything else. Everybody is under me. I am more
important, more valuable than anybody else. Thank you, God.
I thank thee that I'm not as other men are. And then he gives
us a list of things he's not like. He's not an extortioner
or unjust or an adulterer. And then he looks over here and
sees this publican. He says, and I'm glad I'm not
like this publican. Now he's a hated man. I would
venture to say that there were some people in the area that
knew this Pharisee that also didn't care much for him either,
because he never was complimentary to anyone else. His religion
had put him into a position. He was a Pharisee. All right,
and it goes on here. I fast twice in a week. Now that's interesting. Under
the law, you only had to do it once a week. But he went beyond
the law. He's better than that. And you know, I can just imagine
that he let people know that he was going to fast. You know,
in the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus brings up three very
important things in religion. And that is number one, prayer,
prayer. fasting, and giving. And that's
where a lot of people want to show off. And he says, when you
fast, don't let anybody know that you're doing it. That's
between you and God. And when you pray, enter into
your closet. It's not for prayer out on the
sidewalk. It's not for prayer for someone
else's benefits. It's between you and God. Go
in your closet and pray. And when you give, don't do it
to show off. Don't let your right hand know
what your left hand is doing. Well, you know, to God's people,
that's important information. To the world, they could care
less. They're going to do it the other way anyway. So this
man, this Pharisee, is religious to the guilds. He's highly educated
in religion. He's a legalist. He has all of
it down pat. And he tells us about his very
nature and says, I thank you that I'm not like other men.
I thank you that I fast. I thank you that I tithe. He
goes on to tell us there and there, and I tithe of everything
that I possess. Someone mentioned, well, he's
counting out Celery seed, nine for me, one for God. That's tithing
everything. So he's very proud of that. And
then we're introduced to the other guy. Now, there is only
one verse about the other guy, one thought
about the other guy. And this other guy, he's a publican,
he's not liked. But we find out that the Lord
Jesus said he went to his house forgiven. There's nothing more valuable
than being forgiven. And all of the things that go
with that, God has to forgive us. And he forgives his people
of their sins. I have died for those sins. I
have paid the price for those sins. So he tells us that this
publican, even though nobody likes him, he has an inside track
with God because God has visited his heart. He's heard the gospel
and God has visited him. And when he went down to the
temple to pray, he wasn't down there for show. He was down there
to commune with God and say, well, let's just listen to what
he had to say. The publican, standing afar off, would not
lift so much as his eyes unto heaven. What a humble spirit this man
had been given. He would not even raise his eyes
to heaven, and he smote upon his breasts. You know what he
did when he did that? He's pointing to his problem. His heart is
his problem. The heart of man is the problem. He smote where his problem was.
The heart is desperately wicked, deceitful above all things, and
desperately wicked. It takes an act of grace. It
takes an act of God to do something about that heart. And we find
out that Jesus spoke about giving us a new heart. That's what he
has to do. He doesn't want our old heart.
He doesn't want our black heart. I've heard people say, give your
heart to Jesus. He didn't want it. He wants to give us a new
heart. And he does give us a new heart.
So that's what he does. He said, he smote his breast. This is my problem. He smote
his breast saying, God be merciful. Boy, when you're pleading for
mercy, there's an indication that you've already had a problem. I've never had to go to the courtroom
and plead for mercy, but I've heard of people that have. They
asked the judge, please be merciful to me. I've committed a crime. I've done something wrong. It's
stupid. It's foolish. But I asked for mercy. And that's
what this publican is crying out. God be merciful to me. Merciful. And that word comes
to us from the word that was used for the mercy seat there
in the temple. It was the mercy seat. You know,
in that box where that mercy seat was, there was broken law. Moses went up on Mount Sinai
and was given two tables of stone with the Ten Commandments on
it. And when he came down, he saw what was going on among Israel,
and he threw them down and broke them. And God said, put those
inside that box. And you know what happens? Once
a year, the high priest comes in with blood and sprinkles over
the mercy seat and covers up the broken law for God's people.
Well, that's what Christ did at the cross. covers it up, it's
taken care of, paid for in full. So we have this mercy, God be
merciful to me, a sinner. Now the Pharisee never had any comment
about that problem. Never brought up that issue,
never said a word about being a sinner because in his mind,
he was not. And in the mind of this publican,
he was because it had been revealed to him. And then Jesus told that
whole group that he's speaking to, those people that says he
spake this parable was certain who trusted in themselves that
they were righteous and despised others. He said this, I tell
you. Now, if we take a vote among
you folks. Just suppose that we're having a vote among those
people that he's speaking to, how many would think that the
publican or the Pharisee went down to his house better off
than he came? And you know, they'd probably raise their hand. Well,
how about that publican? What about him? Oh, no, no, no.
You know what Jesus had to say? And he's telling them the truth.
He said, this man went down to his house justified or forgiven. That publican went down to his
house forgiven. What a statement he made. He
told the people the truth. It's exactly opposite as they
had in their own mind. But this one, this publican,
went down to his house, justified rather than the other. For everyone
that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth
himself shall be exalted." So the Lord demonstrates to us,
shares with us, what importance it is for God to do something
for us spiritually, give us a new heart, and then we have a right
relationship with God, and then we recognize the real problem.
We're not blaming someone else for our problem, we're blaming
I smote myself on my breast. Here's the problem. But God is
gracious. Plead for mercy. Plead for mercy. There's mercy with God. He is
merciful God, and he has a mercy seat, and his name is Jesus.
So this publican came down there, he came down there just to be
thankful for what he had in Christ Jesus. God, thank you, be merciful
to me, a sinner. He got up without saying much
and left. And Jesus, the son of God's comment
about him was, he went to his house forgiven. What a gracious
thing for God to do to forgive us all our sin. But that takes the blood of Christ
and he reveals that to us and we can trust him in the matter
and say, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. May we pray.