Luke chapter 18. We'll begin
at verse 9 and read down through verse 14. Luke 18, verse 9 through verse 14. And he, our Lord, spake this
parable unto certain men, unto certain which trusted in themselves
that they were righteous. and despised others. Two men went up into the temple
to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a Republican. 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 toward heaven, but
smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, this man went down
to his house justified, rather than the other. For every one
that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth
himself shall be exalted." You'll notice back in verse 9 when our
Lord, he spake this parable. He said there, to those which
trust in themselves that they were righteous. And that's what
we want to talk about today is self-righteousness. When men,
individuals, it doesn't matter what age, we are born self-righteous. Trusting in themselves that they're
righteous. Thinking that there's something
that they can do to earn God's favor and to merit salvation,
trusting in themselves. How foolish to think that man
who drinks iniquity like water can produce any righteousness
of his own. But that's what we're going to
look at today. And that's where we're at today in this world
in which we live. I told them over at Brother Gary's this morning
I'll be 48 in October, but it seems like the older I get, the
more religious I see this world getting. It seems like everybody's
made professions. You see buildings on every side,
and they call them churches. And I went to see my sister in
Atlanta a couple weeks ago, and they have these what they call
mega churches. They had this one building. I think it was
like $4 or $5 million. They built just for this. It
looks like a big arena. And they said, well, if you build
that big a building, you've got to have a big sign out here on
this highway. They spent a quarter of a million dollars just on
the sign. Real religious. Real religious. Trusting in themselves
that they're righteous. Trusting in themselves that they're
righteous. And when I was down in Llanathaw,
also this billboard, it said this is for church, for those
who don't do church. Whatever that meant. But you
know what I'm saying is that is where we're at. That's the
spiritual condition that we live in. As I said, we are all by
nature. That's our nature. And this parable
includes every one of us here. And you are either a publican
or you're a Pharisee. Just like Cain and Abel. That's
where it all got started. came, came, and offered his own
works, and God rejected it. He thought by his good works
that he could be righteous, and God would accept him. And when
God rejected his offering, oh, it made him mad. But he could
not understand why God would receive and accept Abel's offering. Because it came by faith, he
was looking unto Christ, which would come to be the substitute
for his sin. And God accepted it. But I tell
you, we secretly flatter ourselves that we're not as bad as other
men. But we are. You and me both could not stand
to hear it this morning just how bad we really are. It's a problem called sin. And
we forget what the Bible says. The Bible's clear on this. It
says there is none righteous. No, not one. There is none that
understand it. There's none that seek after
God. We've all gone out of the way. We're all unprofitable. Ever since man became a sinner,
he's become self-righteous. What was the first thing that
Adam and Eve did after they sinned? Covered themselves up, made themselves
fig leaves to try to cover up their nakedness. And God came
and said, Adam, where art thou? And Adam hid himself, and he
said, I was afraid. And you know then what Adam told
God? He said, God asked him, he said,
who told you he was naked? Why did you do this? He said,
that woman that you gave me, and that self-righteousness,
I want to blame it on somebody else. You used to hear people
years ago, they say, well, God made me this way. You ever heard
people say statements like that? They choose. Man is born blind.
He has a nature to sin, but he still chooses to sin. That's
exactly right. He chooses to rebel. He chooses
to rebel. Ever since the fall, man has
pretended. That's what it is. He pretends to be righteous. And I'll tell you, this is the
number one sin which keeps people from coming to Christ. It's self-righteousness. Self-righteousness. Listen. An old preacher said
a long time ago, he said, I scarcely ever preach a sermon without
condemning self-righteousness. Yet I find I cannot preach it
down. Men will boast of who they are,
what they've done, or what they've not done, and make the road to
heaven to be one paved by their own works and their own merits. But you know what the cure for
self-righteousness is? Self-knowledge. When a man truly,
by God's grace, finds out who he is. Isaiah said, woe is me,
I'm a man of unclean lips. Paul said, oh wretched man that
I am. Find out, self-knowledge. But
the world tells man that you need to love yourself. You tell
me what there is to love. He needs to have self-esteem,
needs to feel good about himself. I tell you, the longer I live,
the more I hate who I am. That's right. There's this struggle
in me. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh, and it'll always be flesh. It's still, part of us
still feels with pride. And they're still part of us.
Even after God regenerates us, that thinks that there's something
that we can do to pay for our sin. And the only reason God
forgives us of our sin? Because of Christ's sacrifice.
That's it. That's it. Nothing in my hand
I bring, simply to the cross I cling." But our Lord lists
this Pharisee and this Publican. Outwardly, they looked the same
when they came. It said they both went to the
temple to pray. Outwardly, they walked the same
path. They entered the same house. So far as we can see, there was
no difference whatever in their outward religious behavior. But
there were some differences. And we're going to look at four.
There's a difference in their character. There's a difference in their
behavior. There's a difference in their prayers. And there's
a difference in their end. Number one, their character.
Let's first look at the Pharisees. They were the most religious
sect of the Jews. The most religious. Now listen
to this. They were thoroughly orthodox in their doctrine. They
believed in the inspiration of the Scriptures. They believed
in the Messiah, they just didn't believe that Jesus was the Messiah.
They believed in election, they believed that Israel was an elect
nation, they believed in predestination, and they believed in limited
atonement. They believed in these things, but still did not know
God. Listen, salvation is not in a doctrine. Salvation is in
a person. That's right. I learned this
the hard way. I thought when God first showed me the truth,
I had to beat people over the head because they didn't believe
the way I did. Kind of like Peter. In the garden, he took the sword
and he meant to take that man's head off of what he believed
in. And God humbled him. He said,
Peter, do you love me? And it's a heart matter, not
a head matter. You can teach a man head. You
can orthodox children. You can teach them doctrine enough
and they can believe it in their head and it not do them a bit
of good. I've seen people that believed in doctrine, and it's
like Ralph Barnard used to say, it's like a gun barrel. Straight
as a gun barrel, but it's just as empty. But it's Christ. But these, like I said, they
were orthodox. They believed in the resurrection
of the dead. They believed in future punishment. And they were
very strict in their observance of the law. They prayed three
times a day. Fasted twice a week. give tithes
of everything that they possessed. They were very meticulous in
everything they did. But they did what they did so
everybody could see them do it. They said they'd stand at the
corner of the street. They wanted everybody to see them. I mean,
Brother Perkins was talking about that earlier today. He was talking
about, you know, see people standing out on the street corners. There
was one in Wilkesboro a while back. He had a big van, had scriptures
written all over it. He had him a little puppet. He
was an ventriloquist. And he'd walk up down the street
and had a sign across his front and his back and a speaker. I
mean, nobody could understand a thing that God was saying.
But you know, everybody thought, oh, he's real religious. That's
the way the Pharisees were. They wanted everybody to see
them. They wanted everybody to brag on them. And our Lord said they made broad
the borders of their phylactophies. That means that they would sow
pieces of parchment on their robes which had scripture texts
on it. If they were living today, they
would have a bumper sticker that said, I love Jesus. Or I saw
one the other day, it said, real men love Jesus. You ever seen
that? Or they'd have their shirt plumbed
full of tracts, or they'd go into the hospital with the biggest
Bible they can get and make sure they had on a three-piece suit.
They wanted everybody to know they was religious. Those are
the Pharisees. Self-righteousness. You know
what it does? It lifts a man up with damnable pride. Because
he thinks he's something. Thinks he's something. Thinks
he's special. Talking to my middle daughter,
she's 21 the other day, and she was sitting around with just
talking, and she was saying this girl that she worked with was
real religious, and her daddy was supposed to be a preacher.
And I guess my daughter was doing something maybe that girl didn't
think she ought to be doing. She said, and I hope I can get
this right, she said, that's not real Jesus-y, is it? Now,
it's the first time I'd heard that term, but she said, that's
not real Jesus-y, is it? And she said, you're not real
Jesus-y to judge me, are you? I mean, but that's what we deal
with on every hand. self-righteousness. So that's
the character of the Pharisee. What about the publican? I tell you, to the Jews, nothing
was more offensive than a publican. You know why? They were tax collectors.
People today still don't like tax collectors. They still don't
like to pay taxes. But the reason I hated these
publicans, they worked for the Roman government. And as they'd
come, say the taxes was $50, and he goes up to Dwight and
he says the taxes are $75. So, Dwight has to do nothing
but pay the $75. But the taxes are only $50, and
Dwight knew it. So, what did he do with the other
$25? He put it in his pocket. So, the Romans hated them, and
the Jews despised them. That's who they were. They had
no conscience. They were selfish. They lined
their pockets to get rich. That's who the publicans were.
Great, notorious sinners, and everybody knew they were sinners. Totally selfish. They were without
morals, without a conscience, and without feelings. They would
even come to widows' houses and say, your taxes are to be paid.
Said, I'm a widow. I don't have any money to pay
them. That doesn't matter. The taxes are due. That's what
kind of people they were. I think that's why the Pharisee,
we're going to see a little bit more, when he said, I'm not an
extortioner. I'm not unjust. I'd never do
the things that he did. They knew what kind of people
they were. So that's their character. Secondly, their behavior. This
proud Pharisee, it says he stood and prayed within himself. Prayed
thus, verse 11, with himself. God, I thank Thee, I'm not as
other men are, extortioners, unjust, or adulterers, or even
as this republican. He stood in a fixed position.
Can't you just see him with his chest stuck out? Oh, I'm special. I want everybody to know it.
Just stood so he could be seen. He wanted to stand out. He stood
with great boldness and confidence. And he thought God was indebted
to him. That he was so good that God
just owed him something. And this religious world thinks
that God owes them salvation. That's right. They've been told
that God loves everybody. And God just ought to save them.
And if He don't, then He's unfair. He stood and prayed with Himself.
He was altogether with... He thought not God's glory. He
thought His own glory. He was confident of His own righteousness. You don't see anything of humility
in this man. No humility. He didn't even bow his head before
his creator, much less his heart. That's this Pharisee. What about
the publican? It says he was standing afar
off and would not lift so much as his eyes toward heaven. Something
happened to this man. Something's happened to this
man to make him feel the weight of sin. It's like a heavy burden. He knew he'd probably be despised
when he went to the temple, but he knew that in that temple was
a mercy seat. And he needed mercy. And he said
he stood afar off. He knew that he was separated
from God. He knew that his sin had separated him. This man realizes
something. He realizes that he's a sinner. There's hope for a sinner. Jesus
Christ came to die for sinners. He didn't come to call the righteous.
but sinners to repentance. And I tell you, the only one
that can make a person realize the weight of their sin is God
Almighty. Like me and Gary was talking
earlier, no matter of persuasion, you can't persuade them to see
it. You can't persuade them to understand. But if God ever opens
up their eyes and they ever see who they are by nature, it's
a humbling thing. You say, I thought I was a pretty
good person. And I found out I wasn't. He stands in the outer court
as one unworthy to enter God's presence. None of this rushing
into God's presence said, oh, how God just owes me. Some said,
just unworthy. Unworthy. And this is a display of his
reverence for God. Tell you one thing we lack in
this day, and that's reverence for God. Reverence. God is holy. God is righteous. He wasn't even willing to look
up toward heaven, just hung His head in shame. J.C. Rowles said he felt the remembrance
of his sins so grievous and the burden of them so intolerable
that like a child who had offended his father, he dared not look
the Almighty in the face. It just made him want to blush. Have you ever seen somebody just
blush? Just embarrassed. Embarrassed before God. You know
what it said? He smoked upon his breast. You know what he was saying?
The problem's in here. The problem's not out here. The
problem's not my environment. The problem's not where I live.
The problem's in here. This is my problem. It's a sin
problem. That's where the Catholics miss
it. They miss it on a lot of things,
but one, they think that the men can go live in a monastery
somewhere and they can get away from sin. I mean, Debbie was talking the
other day. You know, hell, they catch a lot of them, or they're
pedophiles and everything else. In some ways, sin just has a
way of crawling over them fences, don't it? Because sin's in here. And he beat upon his breast.
He knows that it's in here. That it's not changing the outside. Now, religion says, now, if we
can just change the outside just a little bit and make you reform,
and get you to make a decision and start coming to church like
that Pharisee, pray three times a day, give you tithes, come
to church, do all these things, everything will be better. He
knew it was something more than that. Something's got to change
on the inside. It's called a new birth. You
must be born again. And the new birth is something
only God can give. Nobody knows when a new birth
takes place. Something happened to this man
before he ever come. There's something had awakened
his conscience to a sense of sin. That he had offended a holy
and a righteous God. And only God can do that. Only
God can. And he knew only God could help
him. He didn't go running to a priest. He didn't go running
to an inquiry room. He didn't go running to the preacher.
He didn't go running nowhere else. He knew nobody else could
help him. Only God could help him. Someone said as he hung
his head and as he prayed, his words were probably more like
groans as he prayed to God. He didn't know how to pray, but
he knew he was a sinner and he knew one thing. He needed mercy. Mercy. Mercy. Mercy. Oh, that sinners might feel the
weight of sin. It's like your conscience that...
You know what? When we sin, we feel guilty.
Like I said this morning, unless God leaves you over to a reprobate
mind and nothing bothers you. But when you sin, God gives you
a conscious knowledge of good and evil. And when we feel bad...
So then we set out to doing something about it. So we've got to do
something to ease our guilty conscience that gnaws at us.
That's that conscience that when you lay down at night, it keeps
speaking to you. I believe that's what our Lord
meant when the rich man went to hell, says, for the worm dieth
not. He remembered he had five brethren
that still lived upon the earth, and they were lost. But that
conscience, how are we going to ease that guilty conscience?
Only grace and mercy. So there was a difference in
their conduct, their behavior, and now the prayers. This Pharisee,
if you could even call his a prayer, he was wrong in everything that
he said. Let's read it again. He said, I think thee that I'm
not as other men are. I'm not as extortioner, I'm not
unjust, and I'm not an adulterer. For I'm not even like this public.
I face twice in a week, and I give tithes of all that I possess.
Surely that's got to amount for something. There are several things missing.
Number one, no confession of sin. No confession of sin. No desire for the glory of God. No praise to God. No hint of
a need for God. He thanked God, but only to exalt
himself. And he said, I'm not like other
men. You ever heard anybody make a
statement like that? You see somebody do something
horrible? They'd say, I'd never do that, or I can't understand
why they do that. If you ever find out about sin,
you'll understand why they do that. And you'll understand that
it's just by the grace of God that you don't do that. You want
to see pride? Our Lord looked at Peter and
He said, Peter, before the cock crows twice, you're going to
deny Me three times. He said, Lord, no. Say, everybody else
might, but I sure won't. And that was late that evening.
And before the next morning, before the cop crew, three times,
not only once, twice, but three times, he said, I don't know
him. I don't know him. Then began
to cuss and to swear and say, I don't know who he is. Say,
how could a man do that? I can tell you. Pride. Then God had to humble him. Humbled
him. But I like what our Lord said
when He rose from the grave and He saw, I can't remember who
it was, and He said, you go tell My disciples I'm going to Galilee
and I'll meet them there. And He said, you tell Peter.
You tell Peter. This Pharisee, he denies particular
sins of which Pharisees were guilty. Now listen, what did
he say? He said, I'm not an extortioner. Our Lord said, you devour widows'
houses. A guy was talking about Benny Hinn and some of the others
on TV, how they would take a widow's last dollar. I remember this
man, and my grandfather told me this. He's dead and gone now,
and so is my grandmother. He told me one time, he said
this preacher one time come by their house. And you know when
he used to come by? Every first of the month. Wanted to come
by the first of the month. That's when their Social Security
check come. And he would play on their emotions
and they would give him money. You know what that is? That's
extortion, isn't it? He says, I'm not an extortioner. He said, I'm not unjust. They
were unjust stewards. And they were adulterers. Spiritual
adultery. Even as he made his prayers,
he was guilty of some other things. He was robbing God of God's glory.
They want the glory. You can get followings if you
tell man how good he is and give man a little bit of the glory. He was unjust, claiming a right
to God's favor. He said, God just ought to bless
me. He judged himself by the wrong
standard. He compared himself with other
men. Now, you can look at somebody
else and say, well, I'm not as bad as that man. I'm pretty good. That's the wrong standard. It's
like this. When we was in school, and some
of you might still be in school, if you make 99 on a test, you
think you've done pretty good, don't you? You've done pretty
good. If you make a 99 on God's test,
you've failed. Because anything short of perfection,
he refuses. That's right. If it ain't perfect. He says, if you just build an
altar, and you take a hammer and a chisel and touch it, he
said, you've defiled it. Everything we touch, we defile.
We compare ourselves against other people. That's the wrong
standard. This is the standard. It's not
what men say. It's what God says. His Word
has never changed. And it never will change. This
is a revelation of the character of Almighty God. Like I already
said, there is none righteous. No, not one. He said the whole
head is sick. We're full of wounds and bruises
and putrefying sores. And left to yourself, you will
never come to God. And there's not a spark of good
in any man, and there's no such thing as this mystical age of
accountability. Man's born to what? Sinners. David said, in sin did my mother
conceive me. And what did he say? In sin.
Children lie. Why? They're sinners. You have to teach them to lie.
They don't get their way, they're going to pout and get mad. Why? That's that nature. Don't people say that in religion?
They're innocent. No, they're not innocent. We're
all guilty, guilty before God. And it doesn't matter whether
a person is 7 or 70. The only way they'll ever come
to God is by God's grace, by God opening up their eyes and
allowing them to see that their only hope is in Jesus Christ
and Him alone. And if He don't ever do that,
they'll go their own ways. Didn't He say He hid these things
from the wise and prudent? He revealed it unto babes. Many
towns, He did a lot of miracles and they still didn't understand.
People say, I want people to see Jesus in me. They didn't
see Jesus in Jesus. Did they? No. Let's look at the
publican's prayer. It's short, but it's really instructive. He just said, the publican standing
afar wouldn't even lift up his eyes to heaven, but he smote
upon his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner.
There's a full confession of sin. He made no excuse for sin. Like I said, in the garden, Adam
made excuses. He said, the woman that you gave
me has no excuse for sin. No excuse. But don't men want
an excuse? You know why? He didn't want
to feel so guilty. He confessed that he was the
greatest sinner that ever lived. He said, God, be merciful to
me. These sinners, there can't be
anybody as bad as I am. You know what Paul said? God came to this world to save
sinners of whom I am chief. I'm the worst of the bunch. You don't know what I thought.
You don't know what I've done. God does. He confessed his sinful nature
and his sinful deeds. He spoke as if he was the only
sinner in the world. And he confessed that God would
be perfect in justifying him and sending him to hell. He confessed his sin to God.
As I've already said, he didn't go to some inquiry room. He didn't
go as people say today, you need to come down to the front of
the church and shake the preacher's hand. And listen, his confession of
sin was secret. He spoke not a word to man. I
remember in religion, we used to gather and meet. And I don't
know who came up with this foolishness, First thing we'd do, we'd all
go around the room and everybody would confess their sin. Everybody
would just hang out to dirty laundry. I guess we thought that
if we'd hang out enough dirty laundry, oh, we were spiritual.
Who needs to know what you did? And what good would that do? He confessed it to God. In secret. You know what? If you're a sinner,
you need to do business with God. That's right. Listen, this preacher can't help
you, that preacher can't help you, your mother, your father,
nobody in here can help you. But I'm the one that can. And if God ever reveals that
to you, oh, what a precious gift that is. He said, I'm a sinner by birth,
by nature, and by practice. He cries for mercy. At the sovereign
throne of God, mercy is optional. If you will, you can make me
whole. Mercy. Mercy. None of us come in demanding
God to do something. Begging God. We're beggars. When
we're beggars, we come begging for mercy. Beggars. You know who beggars are? Beggars
are people who don't have anything. Isn't that right? Beggars are
people who don't have anything. Their pockets are empty and they
have nowhere else to go but just to beg. And we come as beggars,
begging for mercy. Begging, begging. And why people
won't beg? Proud. God was the one he had offended,
and only God could forgive him. He pleads with God, whose prerogative
it is to have mercy. He made no promises of reformation,
saying, well, God, if you do this for me, I'll serve you from
this day forth. No promises. You know why? He'd
probably made promises before and never kept one of them. Ain't
we all guilty of that? He said, well, I won't never
do that again. He that thinks he stands, take
heed lest he fall. He simply pleads for mercy. He
came with nothing to offer. He said, God, I'm coming the
only way I know how. I come crying, I come doing... None of that don't matter. I
tell you, I read a tract one time Really blessed my heart. I can't remember now who wrote
it, but they said, they kept coming to God. They kept saying,
God, I'm a sinner. God, I'm a sinner. God, I'm a
sinner. And they said, well, I guess
they thought if they said it enough, they would convince God that
they were sincere. You know, they was trying to
make a work out of just saying it. And they got to the end of
the rope and they just said, God, you say I'm a sinner. And
I don't even really know what that means, but I come just upon
what you've said, begging for mercy. And God gave him peace. We'll make a work out of anything. He came with nothing, though,
for simply pleading for mercy. Note, listen to this. This is
good. His confession was spontaneous. Nobody had to tell him what to
say. Nobody. I remember when we used to try
to get people to the front of the church, and they'd get down there, and
you'd say, now, if you'd say this little prayer, God will
save you. And you've got to tell them what to say. It was spontaneous. It just come out. He couldn't
help himself. He was crying out for mercy like
Peter when he was walking on the water, and he began to sink.
You know what he said? God saved me. Spontaneous. If I threw you out in the water,
and you were drowning, You knew you couldn't save yourself. You
know what you'd do? You'd cry out. You would scream for somebody. You know what that is? That's
spontaneous. Crying for mercy. You might not utter a word. That's
right. Just cry out from your heart,
God, I need help. If you don't help me, I'm going
to perish. He prayed that God would show
him mercy through the perpetuary sacrifice of Christ God, be merciful,
God show me mercy through that sacrifice, that sacrifice that
was sprinkled on the mercy seat. In the Old Testament there was
an Ark of the Covenant, and inside that Ark was the law that had
been broken by man, but over top of that was a mercy seat.
And the high priest once a year would take a lamb, take a knife
and cut that lamb's throat and it would take the blood and one
time a year and sprinkle blood on that mercy seat and God could
show mercy because of a sacrifice, because of a substitute. Somebody
had died in somebody's place and this man knew it. That there's
nothing I can do. Quit trying to pay for your sins. It ain't going to work. It ain't
going to work. I cannot pay off one sin." And
he knew it. He knew that God can only show
mercy by blood sacrifice. I repeat that. How can God today
show you mercy? How can God show you mercy? How can God show me mercy? Through
Christ. Lastly, we see their end. It
says, our Lord said, this man went down to his house justified,
the publican, rather than the other, for everyone that exalteth
himself shall be abased, but he that humbleth himself shall
be exalted. That publican was justified by
faith in Christ, by faith. Abraham believed God and it was
accounted unto him for righteousness. But that proud Pharisee, though
he was righteous in his own eyes, was rejected by God. And all of them that exalt their
self in self-righteousness will be abased. And those that humble
themselves in repentance will be exalted. In closing, there's one thing
that our Lord condemns more severely than anything else, and it's
self-righteousness. And I'd rather stand before God
as a thief and a murderer than as a self-righteous man. The self-condemned find justification
before God, not the self-justified. Now listen, I'll ask you this
question one more time. Which are you? A Pharisee or
a publican? If you're here this day, if you'll
take the place like this publican did, willing to pray and ask
God for mercy, for free, sovereign mercy, come as a sinner, empty-handed
beggar, God will show you mercy. He came to save sinners. You know, people have perverted
this song, but it's a pretty song. Just as I am. without one plea. How? Just as I am. Didn't tell you
to reform, to do better. Now say, well, when I quit sinning,
then I'll come. That ain't never going to happen.
Just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for
me, and that thou biddest me to come, O Lamb of God, I come. But see, the world's made that
a physical move. I heard Brother Faulkner say
this one time years ago and it stuck in my mind. He said, salvation
is not moving a muscle. It's when God gives you faith
to look to Jesus Christ alone for everything. And I said, that's it. That's it. I've heard people
come to hear messages and hear the gospel for years, and they
hear with their head, and they probably consent with their head.
Then one day, one day the light comes on, and they say, now I
see, now I understand, and God gives peace. Peace. May God bless you.