A Tale of Two Sinners

amen at this time you can be seated good morning everyone we're good morning uh we're also going to dismiss our big kids to their classroom to little district and so they can all head on that way and for the rest of us if you have your Bibles I want you to go ahead and grab them and open them up to Luke chapter 18 we're going to be looking at a tale of two Sinners A Tale of Two sinners between a Pharisee and a tax collector and so Luke 18 we're going to be looking at verses 9-14 and so again we've got so many visitors here

today because of baby dedication uh which is so great welcome to the district Church my name is Dwayne one of the pastors here um and it's a joy to just worship with you it's a joy to hear your voices um when we sing together and when we join in the song of the redeemed lifting up um our Lord and Savior Jesus and so again just thank you so much for being with us this morning uh we are walking through the Book of Luke as a church so you're going to just join in with us this morning as we do that we've been uh this is

now I think week 81 of walking through Luke and uh we are in chapter 18 so our passage today is going to be verses 9 through 14 9 through 14 so I'm going to read it and then we will dive into it starting in verse n he also told this Parable to some who trusted in themselves elves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt two men went up into the temple to pray one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector the Pharisee standing by himself prayed thus God I thank you that I am not like other men extortioners unjust adulterers or even

like this tax collectors I fast twice a week I give ties of all that I get but the tax collector standing far off would not even lift up his eyes eyes to heaven but beat 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 everyone who exalts himself will be humbled but the one who ex humbles himself will be exalted let's pray one more time father we thank you for your word and we know that we cannot understand your word apart from the work of the holy spirit in our

lives and so we pray right now that as we unpack this passage that your holy spirit will guide us in understanding the truth so that it transforms us to be more like your son Jesus so that we are able to treasure him and help others follow him that we are able to see the areas in our life where we trust ourselves rather than you and that we would bring those things to you um to trust you instead of ourselves to be able to confess those areas where we sin and and need your forgiveness um where we self justify where we need your justification and so

father I pray that as we walk through this that you would give us eyes to see give us ears to hear the message that you would have for us this morning for it's in your son's name we pray amen all right in this Parable we're introduced to two types of people a Pharisee and a tax collector and if you don't know anything about Pharisees or tax collectors uh Pharisees were a religious sect during the first time first century of Judea and Judaism around the time of Jesus Jesus where they were considered the religious Elite uh they were the ones that all Jews aspir to be

like and so they were if you were to say who are the celebrity Jews of their day it would be the religious Pharisees they're the ones who know the law who keep the law who interpret the law who teach the law and consider themselves to be the ones who abide by it perfectly and so they're in their mindset have this idea that we don't need a savior we are good we are righteous we just need a king to come and fight our battles for us when it comes to the enemies on the outside so them being in kind of the Roman Empire time and being

um under the rule of the Roman Empire they're like we we need a king to come and take care of that with us we need a second Exodus if you will and so the Pharisees don't believe they need a savior um but rather just believe they're looking for a king because they are their own saviors they follow the law purpose L they do everything right they do um or keep all the traditions and customs and not only that but because they're so good they're like you know what maybe Moses didn't include everything uh maybe the prophets forgot some things and so not only did they

take the law and the prophets and try to keep them themselves but they added rules to it and they added customs and they added traditions and they said if we do all of these things we will be righteous and not only that but we will be a model Citizen and example for everyone else what a good Jew would be like and so if someone were to come to them and say Hey how do I be a good Jew in Jesus's day they would say look to the Pharisees the Pharisees are our are our example and our model so we have the Pharisees that we're going

to be talking about but then we also have a tax collector now Tax Collectors were Jews but they were employed by the Roman Empire to collect taxes from the Jews to F the Roman Empire well if you know anything about the Jews they don't like giving money away to anybody that's not for their own way of life for their own uh way of doing things and so they hate Tax Collectors um just in general from having to give money to the Roman Empire they don't want to do that they believe that's mising God's money that he has provided for his people but in addition to

that tax collectors were known as Sinners why because what they would do to establish their own wealth is they would come to you you know April 15th every time of the year and they would say hey um you don't actually owe this much you owe this much you owe more than what you think you owe and so they would actually tax the people more than what the Roman Empire was actually requiring and whatever extra they got out of the people went into their own accounts and so that's how they built their wealth was literally extortion it was it was robbing and stealing people of what

God had ultimately provided for them so if the Pharisees were were considered kind of above and beyond everyone else in ways of keeping the law the tax collectors were below everyone else in ways of breaking the law and so we have this kind of comparison and contrast of these two types of people um ones who consider themselves uh hey we're good to go and everything and ones who kind of know their bottom of the barrel like they they kind of know we're we're not good but we're okay with that and we're going to build a living off of that and so with that context Jesus

is giving this Parable now we also know that Jesus is journeying From Galilee where he did the majority of his three-year Ministry he's now working South on kind of set his face towards Jerusalem he's heading towards uh his his trial and crucifixion on the way he stops in SE several Villages and because again he has gathered such a following that there's going to be a mixture of people involved there's going to be um the Disciples of course there's going to be taxx collectors and sinners that that come and and interact with him and want to hear what he's teaching but there's also Pharisees and a

group of Pharisees who are following him as well so knowing this context of people involved Jesus gives a parable that's going to um again ruffle some feathers because that's just what he do he wants to disrupt what they are trusting in in order to show them a better way because again John 14:6 Jesus says I am the way the truth and life no man comes to the father except through me and so if they're trusting in anything else other than Jesus he wants to call that out and he wants to show them and so in verse N9 it says he told them this Parable to

some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt now I always want to come back to the great Commandment that sums up kind of all of the prophets and the law um of the Old Testament the great commandment love love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul with all your might and love your neighbor as yourself well these Pharisees are not doing that and so knowing that they're In This Crowd knowing that they're there listening to him he's going to call them out and and even explain a little bit of what they're doing that's actually

breaking all of God's law and the prophets like all of God's law and his commands and so what they are doing is they are proving them themselves to be righteous by what they do but they are treating others with contempt so they are loving themselves and making sure that everyone else sees that but they are actually showing no love towards others and if you consider yourself this is kind of a little bit of a point of application here if you consider yourself to be righteous or holy or Christian well it's always going to prove true based on whether or not you love God by the

way that you love others and so if we as Christians say well we have a relationship with Jesus we love Jesus we we trust Jesus we believe in the gospel but our lives prove that really all we care about is loving ourselves um or providing for ourselves or taking care of ourselves but it never moves Beyond ourselves towards others then what are we actually saying like our lives are showing contrast and um disagreement with our actual posture and position of our identity what you do reveals ultimately who you are now as we'll see in this passage what you do does not make who you are

but it does reveal a little bit about who you are as a person this is again a fundamental biblical principle James the brother of Jesus says in James 21:18 someone will say you have faith and I have Works show me your faith apart from your works and I will show you my faith by my my works so there were Pharisees again saying we have faith we we believe in Jesus or we believe in the law we believe that we are following God but they were not living lives that proved that and so therefore it became this kind of contradiction or um conflict and debate among

the people that it's okay to have faith you don't have to have works and they're saying no no no if you have faith but don't have works then it's actually showing that your faith is null and void like if you say if you with lip service I believe in Jesus or I'm righteous or I'm holy and I'm Christian but you're not actually Living Like Jesus is not coming out of you it's not oozing out of you then it actually reveals that maybe there's a disconnect with your actual relationship with Jesus Jesus himself says in John 13:35 by this all people will know that you are

my disciples all right so if he's telling his disciples by this all people will know that you follow me that you trust me I'm going to like perk my ears up and say okay what is the by this thing the love you have for one another like that's how they will know you are his disciples by the love that you have for one another in other words the pharisaical culture was to present themselves as righteous but never proved they were righteous therefore Jesus considers them self-righteous which really means not righteous at all but because Jesus is gracious and he's loving and he's merciful he's willing

to tell them to their face what needs to be said and so he turns to these Pharisees and he tells them this Parable verse 10 two men went up into the temple to pray one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector now we talked about prayer um last week and and over a couple of weeks with the parable of the p istent Widow and so this is great because Jesus is drawing on this he's giving them a parable that's diving into how they practice uh their their faith or how they practice their views of keeping their righteousness and so he's going to use prayer

as the model or the example for for this story and so the what's funny though is how this Pharisee and this tax collector actually end up praying because that you pray is important but to whom you pray and what you pray and why you pray is actually more important than just praying all right that it's very important that we understand that and so here is the Pharisees version of praying here's what he says in verse 11 the Pharisees standing by himself prayed thus God which is a good start if you're going to pray like that's a good start direct it to God I thank you

you which all right like he's acknowledging gratitude to the Lord which is definitely again it's a that's a positive action here that I am not like other men oh boy like it's where he starts to starts to shift a little bit I'm not like other men extortioners or unjust or adulterers or even like this tax collector so now so now he's like I mean it would be like having someone come up here and say hey would you pray and be like hey I I'm just Lord I'm so gracious and thankful for you also am thankful that I don't wash dishes like Alex Hunter does um

who yes cut his finger last night but like it starts comparing other people to again improve your own righteousness like how do you make yourself look good is by comparing yourself to the dumb Dums in the room like it's comparing yourself to those who are uneducated those who are outwardly doing things that are wrong and so because it was culturally known that tax collectors are sinners he's like how do I make sure that everyone else views me as a righteous person will let me put before them a tax collector and then they will look at me and say yeah he's not as bad as that

person so if we're going to follow a model here if we're going to follow an example let's follow the Pharisee rather than the tax collector because we don't want to be like that guy and again people will do that I mean do we not do that like if we could be honest with ourselves for just a moment when we're scrolling Instagram or Facebook or whatever it is threads I don't even know what that means but if we're scrolling those things and we're like man I'm glad glad I'm not posting what that person posted man I'm glad I'm not reacting to a post like that person

reacted or maybe sometimes we go into someone else's house and we walk through the house and we're like man I'm glad we're a little more organized than these people whe he like grown up in a barn like what are they doing here but we compare ourselves why because again self-righteousness self-justification we want to feel better about our own condition because we're not willing to really look in the mirror and see the fact that we have phisical tendencies that we think we can earn our own goodness and righteousness that ultimately hopefully allows God to look at and say dude well done good and faithful servant well

done you've done all these things good job and maybe we'll get God's favor because of our own righteousness now another thing that's interesting here is he goes on to say I fast twice a week I get a GI TI of all that I get he's derail this whole prayer into what he does and if you know anything about Romans 8 one of the things that's really interesting in Romans 8 is there's a part of the passage where the holy spirit is talking about his role in our prayer and so I like to call him like he's just he's he's a shot Blocker of prayers um

because there are times where the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings too deep for words because we don't know how to pray for as we ought so there are times where we will sit down and we will start praying to the Lord and the Holy Spirit is grieved by it like he's listening to the prayers and he's thinking this is all about you this is about what you have accomplished this is about what you have done this is about you being better than your neighbor this is about you doing things on your own rather than trusting in the gospel and so I can just

imagine as this Pharisee again getting before people praying out loud I mean which again was something else that God told us not to do as far as like showing yourself hey I F fast twice a week uh you're not supposed to tell people that you fast twice a week like I can just see the Holy Spirit interacting with the father and the son thinking I don't have a lot to work on with this prayer like I know that I've got to intercede on behalf of it and I got to like figure out how how do I work this really the only two things that he

did well was God I thank you but everything else I just got to say no to it this is not good and I got to rework this like he he's frustrated in this um but The Prayer by the Pharisee did not go go over well with God if this was Shark Tank and they were presenting their prayers before the Lord to accept the father Son and the Holy Spirit is not going to accept this prayer because it's not an accurate prayer it's not an accurate prayer it's trusting in me myself and I rather than the father Son and Holy Spirit and so what this Pharisee

thought would save him is what actually condemns him the Bible tells us that we will not be saved by our works but by the work of Jesus listen listen to Titus 3 1-7 remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities to be obedient to be ready for every good work and you're thinking all right that's that's exactly what he's doing is he not I mean he is getting ready he's he's he's being submissive to rulers and authorities as far as Pharisees go as far as their Juda judaistic uh religion to be obedient to be ready for every good work and they're nailing it they

believe they're nailing it and then verse two of Titus to speak evil of no one well I just did that I'm treating them with contempt to avoid quarreling oh why are we here following Jesus because we're seeking quarreling we're seeking to catch him and ultimately get him to Fumble so that they can accuse him of something to be gentle they did not treat Jesus very gently and to show perfect courtesy toward all people people well they're not showing courtesy to this tax collector for we ourselves were once foolish disobedient LED astray slaves to various passions and Pleasures passing our days in Malice and envy hated

by others and hating one another that's who this Pharisee is he just doesn't realize it and his way of fixing his sinful condition is to try to be good enough to try to be good enough but when the goodness and loving kindness of God our savior appeared he saved us not because of Works done by us in righteousness but according to his own Mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ Our Savior so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life like that's

Paul telling Titus that all of their Brethren that are in their Jewish Family he's trying to tell them make sure that you preach to them that there is nothing they can do by their own works that will justify themselves but it is only from the gift of Grace that comes from Jesus Christ and the work that he has accomplished in him being perfect when we were were imperfect him dying the death that we deserved and that he did not deserve that him becoming sin when we were sin so that we might be able to become his righteousness all of that is given to us and

granted to us and Jesus is turning to this Pharisee giving them this Parable ultimately to show that the Pharisee who prays these things is actually going to go home condemned and not not justified we are not saved by our own works but by the mercy of Jesus verse 13 let's see the prayer of the tax collector but the tax collector standing far off he would not even lift up his eyes to heaven but beat his breast saying God be merciful to me a sinner you see this is a man who has witnessed the Perfection of Jesus which always reveals the imperfection of us the Pharisees

are not willing to see Jesus in his Perfection they're doing everything they can to find an imperfection which is why they're calling him out and why they're questioning him at every turn this man this tax collector he sees Jesus and he's willing to look at himself in comparison to Christ and see that I fall short I fall short this is a man who has understood that he has stolen from others instead of loving them he has banked on his own flourishment at the expense of others he's become rich while causing others to become poor having his eyes opened he has come to the reality of

Romans 6:23 that the wages of his sin is death is death as someone who collects wages garnishes wages steals wages he realizes that God is calling him on his account and what this man owes God is death and so he knows that he can't even come to God with all of the wealth that he has gained by robbing people of theirs and he knows I can't even offer that to you I can't be like this Pharisee who says he tithes above and beyond even what God has required of them instead he's saying to God In Prayer I have nothing to give you I have nothing

to offer you other than the fact that I am a sinner in need of Mercy that's all I have to bring to the table and so he doesn't even lift his eyes up to heaven which is a sign of deep remorse and sorrow for the actions of his life and pleads for God to have mercy on him for God to forgive him you are seeing played out the parable of the lost sheep right here in Luke 15:7 that Parable it talks about how when Jesus says I tell you there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons

who need no repentance what we're seeing in this Parable is one who considers himself in the 99 sheep who don't need repentance they don't need forgiveness they consider themselves righteous they consider themselves good to go but there is one who is lost who has wandered who is strayed and is aware of it and is hoping that the shepherd will go after him pursue him and Grant him Mercy by bringing him into the fold and that's exactly what is happening if you know anything about the parable of the the Sheep the lost sheep the Lost coin the prodical son what it all hinges on is this

celebration in heaven when a Lost Sinner repents and comes to know Jesus doesn't seek for self-righteousness that was the older brother doesn't seek for well let me just earn money elsewhere let me figure things out let me forget that sheep I've got 99 I'm good to go no it's Jesus going after the Lost person who is in need of mercy and forgiveness saving them and them trusting in that forgiveness and receiving that forgiveness and being aware that they need his Mercy like heaven throws a massive celebration when that happens because it is the gospel on play over and over and over and over again it's

what makes God look wonderful not us the whole purpose isn't so that we become like Jesus so that people look at us and say look how awesome you are no the whole purpose of the Bible is so that we become like Jesus so that when people look at us they say how awesome is Jesus how amazing is he how glorious is he because what heaven declares is the glory and excellencies of the son Jesus it's all about him and this T this tax collector is finally coming to this realization that it's not all about his life and the wealth that he is able to get

in robbing from others is that not what technically the American dream is gather as much for yourself so that others might look at you and say look how awesome they are and how do we actually acquire from others is probably at some point going to be from taking from others making sure that you get ahead of someone else and what he's saying here ultimately is that I tell you this man the tax collector he went down from or he went down to his house Justified Justified rather than the other the Pharisee for everyone who exalts himself everyone who does whatever they can to get ahead

of others or be better than others or to be considered righteous in their own eyes doing their own works I mean you know trying to be the biggest Giver in the church the best server in in the church you know never missing Sunday like all of those things which again are good things but if you're doing it to exalt yourself God says that does not justify you that does not justify you but the one who humbles himself the one who looks in the mirror and is also looking at Jesus and saying I do not measure up in any way whatsoever he is right righteous I

am not he is glorious I am not he is the justifier and I need to be justified he who humbles himself will be exalted now what does that mean that means you will be saved you will be lifted out of your sin and become a saint not so that people can see you not so that you can be etched in history as a saint but that others will know you love Jesus because of the love you have for others because you then humble yourself by putting others first and maneuvering your life and how you Steward your resources and your time and your energy and your

calendar and all those things so that it's not building your own kingdom but it's actually advancing the kingdom of God when it comes to exalting others around you considering their interest not just the interest of yourself yourself loving God with all your heart and loving others as it pushes out and I know today is baby dedication and so I want to be clear on what we are dedicating ourselves to we are not dedicating ourselves to raising children to be obedient law-abiding citizens of the Bible and Society that's actually not what we're doing now we do want them to be obedient amen I have three boys

that run around this church and they think they own it and um they can be animals at times I love obedience I love discipline we must tell them what to do and what not to do or they'll kill each other I know that is so important and it's part of our role but but if what we raise are children who believe they are Christian because they read their Bible or they pray or they go to church or they don't cuss chew smoke or date girls that do like that was was what we did in the South if we just raise them to be good people

who are better than their classmates what we've dedicated them to is a life that is not justified in Christ what we've dedicated them to what we've committed them to is a life without hope a life without hope our job as parents is to bring our children to Jesus when we have rules in the house that they don't follow we bring them to Jesus when they struggle with fighting their siblings or friends we bring them to Jesus when they bite other kids in the nursery we bring them to Jesus it is our responsibility to create a culture of Family Worship in our homes where we're centered

on Jesus not just what Jesus commands because if we focus it on the commands without Jesus abiding in that relationship then we become Pharisees the only way that they can actually uphold the commands is by Jesus living his life through them so that they they can actually again great commandment love the Lord their God with all their heart soul and mind and be able to love others as themselves which again sums up every Rule and command that there is that's the only way that we're able to do it and then Jesus will look at us by knowing that we've brought our children to him brought

our families to him knowing that we need his forgiveness and instruction so that when Jesus looks at our house like he did the tax collectors he will also say of us Justified Justified that's what we want to hear but the only way that happens is if we're like the tax collector and we humble ourselves and we come to Christ and we say we are in need of your mercy we are in need of your mercy as we come to a time of communion this is how we finish out our messages each week I want show you what this justification actually means I want to show

you what it means it's in Romans chapter 3 verses 20- 26 because before I talk about it I want you to see that justification is a legal term it's a legal term and um our society loves legality loves the legality we love courtrooms we love judges we love prosecutors and defense like we love all of those things that's why every other show on TV is in that Realm well justification is a legal term and it means to be pardoned it means to be pardon it doesn't mean that you were without sin no you were sinful and you're brought into the courtroom of God and God

is the judge and you sit down and just like these two who are pleading their case through prayer you have one who says J you should pardon me you should justify me because I've done all these things I'm not as bad as that guy I tithe I do all the right things and the judge is going to bang the gavel and say Here's your sentence death and the tax collector comes in and the tax collector does something different he says I'm not pleading my own case but instead actually Jesus is my attorney here and Jesus is going to plead my case for me and Jesus

is going to say what are his accusations what are his charges brought against him well he's the tax collector he's a sinner he's done a lot of wrong to a lot of people and Jesus is going to say what's the penalty well the wages of sin is death so he deserves the death penalty and Jesus is going to say well he's come to me humbled needing mercy and forgiveness but someone's got to pay the death you know there was that someone's got to go to jail Jesus says I paid it for him he's free to go he's free to go Romans 3:20 for by works

of the law no human will no human being will be justified in his sight since through the law comes the knowledge of sin but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law although the law and the prophets bear witness to it the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe for there is no distinction for all have fallen short and have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood that

is a substitute in your place to be received by faith this was to show God's righteousness not our own because in his Divine forbearance he had passed over former sins it was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who is Faith in Jesus Jesus to be a justifier of the one who comes to Christ and says I deserve death I'm The Sinner and I'm in the need of your forgiveness you're the only one who can fix my situation you're the only one who can bring me back into a relationship with God my

Creator Jesus I trust you I believe you if there's anyone in this room who maybe for the first time has eyes to see that ands to hear that I don't care how goodlooking you are I don't care how great of a career you've built I don't care what family you've come from I don't care if you have a church background if we're doing those things to look better than others and not because we're in a relationship with Jesus none of it matters the Apostle Paul actually goes pretty hard on it where at one point he says all of those things he's like a phe I

was the best of all of them Hebrew of Hebrews there was no one greater than me but he says in Philippians I consider all of that rubbish but if you look up rubbish in the original language it literally means dung like I consider everything that I attain to in life as what you see on the sidewalks when someone doesn't clean up after their dog like that's what our lives are apart from Christ I consider it all rubbish in comparison to knowing Christ Jesus as my Lord and so are we aware of that and do we come to him laying our lives down and saying Jesus

we need you Jesus we need you if you've never done that I pray that you come to him and ask for forgiveness today let's pray together father we thank you so much for your goodness to us we thank you for your grace your mercy that you pour outs and honestly God I'm I'm so grateful that this is the the system of faith that you have created because how daunting would it be if it was left up to us to earn our way to you throughout our life how crushing would that be in our spirit never knowing whether or not we measure up never knowing whether

or not we're in your favor never knowing whether or not we've done enough good more than are bad but instead you gave us a different system a system of Grace and Mercy Mercy withholding what we deserve and Grace giving us what we don't deserve God we thank you for that and we thank you for your son Jesus and the work that he came to do in living the life that we could not live and dying the death that we deserved and then because because your wrath was satisfied in his death it was satisfied in paying the penalty for all of our sins and mistakes three

days later you brought Jesus back to life as the firstborn of many brothers and sisters who would come to know him in faith it gave birth to the church it gave birth to this new kingdom it gave birth to the family of God who love you with all our heart soul and mind and we're able to do that because of you and what you've done for us it's in your name that we pray amen amen if you would go ahead and stand with me at this time um if you