 parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. So if you will, turn your Bibles with me to Luke chapter 18 and we'll start with reading verses 9 through 14. Luke 18 verses 9 through 14. Love the word of God, don't you? Just awesome what it teaches just the truth all that we learn about Christ. It's just an amazement to me a constant amazement. Luke 18 verses 9 through 14. And here the Bible says, and he spoke this parable to some who 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 tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give ties of all that I possess. And the tax collector standing afar off would not so much as raise his 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 and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Let's pray together. Father in heaven, Lord, we praise you, God. We worship you. Thank you for this day of worship. Thank you for my brothers and sisters here. Lord, thank you for the salvation that you've given us in Christ. Lord, in knitting us together in your spirit, in your body. God, what a glorious truth. What a glorious truth that works itself in the practice of our Christian lives together. And Lord, we are so grateful to you for that. Lord, grateful to you for the opportunity tonight to take a look at this text. It's just always so gratifying, Lord, so good to look at the truths of Scripture with respect to our salvation, our justification, what it means to be right with you, God. And just basing our Christian walk on those sure and steadfast foundations is hugely helpful in the Christian life. And so Lord, apply these truths to our heart and help us to understand them. Again, Lord, this parable is one that we often refer to. And Lord, I pray that if there's anyone here not saved, that it would be the teaching of our Lord in this parable that might bring them to their knees, God, over their sin, that they might be genuinely saved, God justified. They might go down to their house this evening, justified right before you. And we love you, Lord. Thank you for this teaching of our Lord. Thank you for this time together to study your word in Jesus' name. Amen. And again, the title of this sermon, Misplaced Trust from the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector from Luke 18, verses 9 through 14. And just in taking a read of that text, taking a look at it, I love this parable. I love this story. We refer to it often. We're always going back to this. It's such a beautiful picture of the simplicity, if you will, of justification by God in Christ. And this is just a great story of our Lord here to describe two extremes, two contrasts. And so as we've been looking at the parables on Sunday nights, a lot of the parables refer to how to gain entrance into the kingdom. What does it look like to enter the kingdom of God? The characteristics of those that are in the kingdom, what does a person in the kingdom of God look like? The qualifications to be a disciple of Christ. What does it take to be a disciple of Christ? And then the characteristics, the fruit of those disciples. Here in this parable, the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, it's no different. How do sinful men become right, become justified with a holy just God? How can we be reconciled? What are we going to do about our sin? And if you've ever been genuinely converted, you've come to grips with that question yourself. What in the world do I do about my sin? If you're here tonight and you're still in your sin, that's the question that you need to be asking. What am I going to do about my sin? Here tonight, you may come in one of several forms of an audience member. One, you may come perplexed. You know in your heart and in your mind and your soul, you know down to your bones that you can't do it yourself. Maybe you've tried. Maybe you've put forth the effort. And to you, this issue of salvation, this issue of justification before God, the gifts of God and repentance and faith, you are mysterious. Maybe they are elusive. Maybe you think they're unattainable. You might even come tonight with the idea or the notion that I can't be saved. Maybe the Lord is not going to save me. Maybe you've lost all hope. Maybe sometimes the genuine Christian can fall into a pattern of despair. And you think yourself that salvation is ultimately and finally unattainable to you. Maybe the Lord has decided that you are to be reprobate and he's going to be glorified in your condemnation. And maybe you're a genuine Christian in despair and you're slipping away. Maybe falling further and further into your sin. There is instruction in this parable for you as well. Maybe you're struggling with sin, how to overcome sin. And in similar fashion to this Pharisee in Luke 18, you need the mercy of God. In similar fashion to this tax collector here, you need the mercy of God. The rest of the world has a different problem altogether. They might be identified here in Luke 18 with a Pharisee in the sense that they believe themselves to be right with God when they shouldn't. And they need to be convinced that they're not in the kingdom when they are certain that they are and to be convinced that they're not in. The goal here in thinking through this, the goal in your seeking of God, seeking of salvation is to be justified by God like this tax collector. To leave as it says, the temple, if you will, and go down to your house justified by God. Guiltless sins forgiven, acquitted by the great judge. And that doesn't take, if you think about it, deep, complex, hard theology. It is really as simple as it stated here in Luke 18. This text is so profound, and it's so profound in its simplicity and how clear it is and how simple it is. We could call this a parable of two prayers. There are two prayers listed here. Two kinds of hearts, two different approaches all together to God. It's really as a parable of two religions, do and done. There are only two religions in the world, a religion of do and a religion of done. Either you can make yourself righteous before God on your own or you can't. And it's just that easy. It's just that straightforward. Either, if you're a Christian, they'd be struggling in sin, either you can sustain your right standing with God and your sanctification before Him on your own or you can't. It's just that simple. We'll look tonight at this parable from four different perspectives. First, we'll look at it from the perspective of the crowd that it is addressed to. Next, the contrast between the Pharisee and the tax collector. Next, the contrition of the tax collector and finally the conclusion, the result of what happens. So let's take a look at these verses together. One beginning here from the perspective of the crowd. Look at verse nine. And also, He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and they despised others. The parable is addressed to some here that are gathered around Christ, some who trusted in themselves. These are people that were audience members of the parable who believed themselves to be good people. Maybe they did good things. It's certain here that they did. It made them and they thought good in their own eyes. Here, they specifically trusted in themselves and in their own good works rather than trusting in God. The word they're trusted is actually a word that means persuaded. It comes from a Greek word meaning persuaded. They actually persuaded themselves that they were righteous because of their good works. And the way that they lived their life and the way that they went down to the temple or up to the temple to worship, they persuaded themselves into a false confidence, a false confidence that they were right with God based on what they were doing. Now this is an extremely dangerous position to be in. If you are deceived about your standing with God, you may be inoculated to the truth. Someone comes to you, attempts to share the true gospel with you, gives you good biblical truth out of the word of God. And because you're deceived, you won't take it. You believe yourself to be right already. So why would you take the medicine? If you don't believe yourself to be cancerous, then you're not going to take the chemo. You're not going to endure that. And some being self-righteous will reject any notion of that. They might be unjust before God. They hear very, very dangerous to be in this position. And this is the position that a lot of people find themselves in. They live their Christian life. They, in wanting to justify themselves, in wanting to live with their sin and somehow be right with God, have their cake, if you will, and eat it too, they twist the word of God and they persuade themselves, within themselves, suppressing a guilty conscience, suppressing the truth of God in their unrighteousness, and they believe themselves to be converted. They believe themselves to be saved. It's a really dangerous position to be in. There's so many fit this description. The world is full of people that fit this description, virtually everybody that you talk to. If you've done any witnessing, you walk up to someone, ask them if they're a good person, what do they say? Oh yeah, I'm a good person. I'm a good person. Look at all that I do that makes me good. Talk to guys before. I mow my neighbor's grass. You know, I help the lady next door get the groceries out of her car. And my good outweighs my bad. It's all the time. On rare occasions, on rare occasions, somebody says no, right? And then after you get over the shock of them saying no, what do they usually say next? Well, I really need to clean my own life up. I got to clean my life up. I know I need to get my life in order, right? Who are they still trusting in? The trusting in themselves. That's right. They're simply misplaced trust. Those that say they are good people are simply trusting themselves. It's a misplaced trust. Those that say no, but they need to clean up their life or get their act together, they're still misplacing their trust. They're still trusting in themselves. Here, this some who trusted in themselves was specifically the Pharisees. The Pharisees were gathered around. These were religious people. Not just religious people, obsessively religious people. The religious elite and most religious people don't need much persuasion. They wouldn't have taken much for a Pharisee to convince themselves that they were right with God. They just justified themselves. They thought themselves to be right with God. This parable is a direct assault on the wicked religion of human self-achievement. On the wicked religion of do, do, do. In order for me to be right with God, I've got to get my life in order. I've got to get my act together. I've got to do this, do that, and do the other thing in order to be genuinely saved and genuinely right before God. The Pharisees, the direct audience of this parable, led a horrible, disgusting, self-destructive, self-defeating system of that very religion. If you are trapped under that system, it's hopeless. We had people who were in a constant pattern of thinking themselves having to be perfect under the law, blameless under the law, without sin under the law in order to be right with God. Did you imagine the frustration, the despair, the agony, the guilt of that? That system is horribly self-destructive. And people, you understand, people under those systems want to be right with God, and they will live up to whatever system they're under. Now think about it for a moment. If you are desiring to be right with God, right, maybe you're justifying yourself. You're trusting as these did in yourself to be righteous, and you're under, say, a charismatic system, charismatic program, a charismatic thought process for conversion, a misunderstanding of the gospel with respect to charismatic theology in the sense that you believe that your experiences are what justify you before God, or make you right before God. If you're in that kind of a system, you're not going to do away with your sin. You're going to justify your sin by the experiences that you have, and you're going to be very zealous to do that. Many of them are very zealous to do that, justifying themselves that because they have these experiences, they're right before God. They live up to the system which they're under. If you're in a legalistic system like the system of the Pharisees here in Luke 18, you're under a legalistic system. You have to, in order to be right with God, not necessarily give up your sin, not necessarily have a miraculous transformation of your heart, you simply have to wear the right length skirt, wear the right kind of suit, carry the right kind of Bible, do the right kinds of things, and you'll zealously live up to that system in order to justify yourself that you are right with God, in order to trust in yourself that you're right with God. In easy believism. If you're in easy believism, similar to the system here that the Pharisees have established in a completely different perspective. In easy believism, you don't do anything about your sin. You don't acknowledge the miraculous new birth in Christ in terms of changing your heart, becoming a new creation in Christ. You simply justify your sin under the system of easy believism, thinking to yourself, well, the only thing I need to do to be right with God is just to sincerely mean it in my heart. Every time I say that prayer, I need to sincerely mean that prayer. I just need to desire it in my heart. I can live in my sin because I know that Jesus died for me, and you can justify yourself, twist the Scripture to trust in yourself that you're righteous. It's simply living up to another religious system, another religious standard that submit to you. It's not the standard of the Word of God, and in every one of those cases, it's a neglect of the Word of God. It's a setting aside of the truths of Scripture, and really what is the simplicity of salvation in Christ? It just sets it aside. It is a glorious gift. It is a glorious truth, and oftentimes just in persuading themselves that they are right with God. They set aside the Word of God. They suppressed that truth in their unrighteousness to make themselves righteous before God. Here, those who trusted in themselves were legalists. They were under the legalistic system of the Pharisees, and they trusted in themselves to the point that they despised, it says, others. In verse 9, also, he spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and they despised others. They were so confident in themselves, so proud, so arrogant, that they showed contempt to everyone else. Look at Philippians 3, and let's just take a look at this thought process or this mindset. Look at Philippians 3, and we've got just a quick example here, just a quick glimpse into this mindset from the Apostle Paul in Philippians chapter 3, and where he was when he was once a Pharisee, where he was when he was in this legalistic, wretched, self-destructive, hopeless system of works righteousness. Look at Philippians chapter 3, look down beginning in verse 4. Here Paul says, though I also might have confidence in the flesh, if anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so, circumcise the 8th day. Now here's how a Pharisee would have thought. Here's how a zealous Jew would have thought. Circumcise the 8th day right in accord with the law, right? Of the stock of Israel, I was born into it, raised in the church so to speak, right? I'm a Christian if you will, because of who my father was. Of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews concerning the law, a Pharisee, in other words he was very zealous for the law, concerning zeal all the way to persecuting the church, concerning the righteousness which is in the law blameless, but that righteousness in the law is as a filthy rag to God, that righteousness which is in the law that he thought he attained is as a filthy rag. His righteousness had to have come from somewhere else if he were to be converted, and it did. Paul found Christ on the road to Damascus, and he wrapped himself in the white linen robes of Christ's righteousness. That's the righteousness that counts, right? Here Paul thought himself to be righteous before Christ. He knows himself to be unrighteous. The only righteousness he has is the righteousness of Christ after his conversion. That's a glimpse of how they thought. So proud they would have looked down on everybody else. This word when it says and despised others, that word for despise exuthaneo, exuthaneo. It means to treat with contempt, to reject, to look down on. Utter contempt. The person at the other end of that word would have been considered as worthless. It's the same word used in Acts 4.11 with respect to Christ when it says this is the stone which was exuthaneo, rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone. That word, others. They exuthaneo the others. They looked at them with contempt. Others literally means the rest. In the Greek, it's really rest men. The rest of the men they looked at with this contempt. And you remember the Good Samaritan, through the parable of the Good Samaritan. Who was the neighbor to the Jew, according to the law, in the Good Samaritan parable? It was that person who was the Jew, number one, and who was righteous. Number two, it was almost excluded everyone. They almost didn't have any neighbors because there were many Jews, but there weren't many Jews who would have been considered righteous according to this standard. Literally, this others means everyone else. They had such a high view of themselves that no one else was worthy. They simply rejected everyone else. When you understand your own wickedness, when you come to grips with your own sin, when you understand that because of your sin, you need grace. And as the poet said this morning, not just grace, but the exceeding riches of grace because of your sin. And how can you look down on anyone else? How can you show contempt toward anyone else? How can you be harsh with anyone else? How can you display anything but compassion on everyone else? The compassion of God, the love of God, the patience of God, the joy in Christ. How can you look at someone else with any other attitude? It's difficult to treat others harshly, or it's difficult to treat others with contempt when you yourself know what was required to save your miserable soul, right? Here, again, these Pharisees just had misplaced trust. They trusted in themselves. They twisted things to themselves to see themselves righteous, to persuade themselves that they were righteous. But next, that was the crowd. That was the crowd that was gathered, the crowd primarily of self-righteous, legalistic, works-based Pharisees who treated others with contempt. But now let's take a look at the contrast. There's a contrast here between two prayers, two people, a Pharisee and a tax collector. Again, two religious ideas. Look at verse 10. It says, Two men went up to the temple to pray. One a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess and the tax collector standing afar off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Now, there were normal times to go up into the temple for corporate prayer, for public prayer. The temple, if you remember Jerusalem is set on a hill. The temple even built up above that. So when it says that they went up into the temple, they literally had to climb from Jerusalem up into the temple for prayer, for worship. The public times for prayer, the corporate times for prayer were traditionally morning and afternoon and everyone would go in at that time to pray. However, individuals could go into the temple and pray anytime they wanted to for private prayer. Now, it says here that the Pharisee stood. That's a normal position for prayer. When people prayed at that time, they stood to pray. He would have lifted his hands, another normal posture for prayer. So he would have stood, he would have lifted his hands and then he would have prayed aloud. It was common at that time for your eyes to be open. You would have looked into heaven and you would have prayed out loud. Now, surely, if you can imagine, this particular Pharisee especially would have been upfront as close to the sanctuary as possible. He would have been on the inner court and he would have been praying out loud. It might have been said here as a result of this prayer, instead of praying with himself, he was praying to himself as we look at the prayer together. Here it begins like a Thanksgiving Psalm in a sense. He starts with giving thanks to God. But then we see really quickly here that this is no prayer at all. He starts in on a long list of personal achievements and at the end of this thing, God would be lucky to get this guy, right, based on his attitude. He starts off, God, I thank you that I'm not like other men. In other words, that's just the same attitude of that crowd of looking down on others with contempt. He may have been in praying this prayer and I want to see this as we walk through. He may have been praying this prayer with that tax collector in mind. He's in the temple. He's up near the sanctuary. He's in the proper pose. He's praying out loud and he catches a glimpse of this tax collector afar off. He calls God. He says, I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. When he says here, extortion, extortioners were robbers and thieves, robbers and thieves. That's how tax collectors would have been described as robbers and thieves. He says, unjust, that word for unjust there was often used of a swindler, someone who swindled you out of money. That would have been a Jewish description and a fair one of a tax collector, someone who robbed and someone who stole but someone who is a filthy swindler who swindled people out of money. And then he calls these men adulterers. Thank you, Lord, that I'm not like extortioners, the unjust or adulterers. An adulterer was an unfaithful traitor. They were unfaithful to their wives, unfaithful to their husbands. They were despicable and a tax collector would have been the worst form of an adulterer. The worst form of a traitor. You can imagine a tax collector was a Jewish person who, while under occupation from an occupying army, betrayed his own people and worked for the occupiers to solicit or to steal or to extort taxes out of his own people and to the point where he stole from them in order to pad his pocketbook in order to make a living, in order to get rich. So this is a guy who not only went to work for the enemy but then stole from his own people in working for the enemy so that he himself could get rich. It was the worst kind of traitor, the worst kind of adulterer. I can see this Pharisee in the temple, in the intercourt, next to the sanctuary, believing that he's praying to God, catching a glimpse of this tax collector and saying, God, thank you that I'm not like other men like this, like these extortioners, these, right, these unjust, these adulterers, or even like this filthy tax collector. And the word this there even carries a derogatory sense to it, has a derogatory use in the Greek. Literally, this or even as this tax collector is, or for that matter, this tax collector. It just shows contempt. As if to say, this guy who even dares to come into the temple and pray to you in his condition while he sits there with his legalistic wicked heart, praying to God, right? Hypocrite. It's like in the tale of two sons, right? The other son, this son of yours who's returned, just right, just contempt for the son who came back. It really is demonstrating pride. And it's pride in how you see someone else living. Here it's the pride of a wicked lost Pharisee who's looking with contempt at this tax collector. But don't Christians also sometimes fall into that wicked sin? That in spiritual pride, in seeing yourself as so righteous, seeing yourself as living so purely that you look at other Christians with contempt, that you look down your nose at other Christians because of the sin that they're in, rather than looking at that sinner like yourself with compassion, with love, with patience, right? It would look down your nose. It's pride. It's nothing but pride. That often happens because of obviously because of pride in the Christian life, but also because of legalism. You seeming to think in some way, former fashion, that you're sustaining your Christian life by doing the things that you're supposed to do, and then in your legalistic arrogance, looking down your nose at someone else who you seem to think isn't. It's just a result of pride. But he goes on to say, in verse 12, that he fasts twice a week. Now fasting was required. It was required by the law on certain festival days. It was required by the law on the day of atonement. And then there was a memorial that they held remembering the destruction of Jerusalem where they would fast for four days. This was a required fasting on the part of the Jewish people. Now here though, requiring or fasting two days a week wasn't required. This was above and beyond what the law of God required. They were going way beyond that. This was super spiritual here to fast two days a week. They fasted on Monday and Thursday. The Pharisees did and they often fasted just simply as a display, nothing more, just a display of religious zeal. And they often did that before men, not for God in that sense, but they did that before men. Remember from Matthew how they would put scours on their faces, right? They would walk around and just look hungry, you know, because they were trying to show off before men, not remembering that their fake zeal was hypocritical and abomination to God. They did this often before men, but they went above and beyond. Then it says here that I give tithes of all that I possess, not just all that I own or all that I earn rather, but all that I own, all that I possess, here again going above and beyond the requirements of the law. In other words, he didn't just tithe on that which came in. He tithed on that which was given to him or that which he owned, that which he already had. He gave a tenth of, again going above and beyond. Both of these, fasting and tithing, present active indicative means this was ongoing. This is just a part of his regular practice. But notice here all the eyes. Notice here all the eyes. Look at verse 11. The Pharisees stood and prayed thus for themself, God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I possess, right? This is not a prayer. This is just a list of personal achievements. This is his resume, right? There's no petition here. He doesn't need God. He's perfectly fine within himself, right? This is incredibly high esteem. I'm convinced this guy was an American. I'm pretty sure this is the case. They have very high esteem here. You could do nothing wrong. Listen, that true as it is, this is not a caricature, right? This is real life. This is true to life. This is how a religious, a zealous Pharisee would have lived, how he would have practiced what he would have done, how he would have thought. This is true to life. In that sense, Jesus here is not attacking an exaggeration of legalism, an exaggeration of false religion, or an exaggeration of them. He was attacking them as they really are. This is a story, true to life. They have no understanding of Luke 17. Look at Luke 17, just one chapter before, and look down at verse 10. Luke 17, verse 10. So likewise, you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, we are unprofitable servants, we have done what was our duty to do. That's the attitude that we're to have. You do everything possible that you can to be blameless before God, and at the end of the day, you're simply an unprofitable servant, because you've only done what it was your duty to do. These Pharisees had no understanding of that at all. The attitude of the Pharisee was clear. God was lucky to have him, right? Heaven is just going to be brighter and more glorious when he steps into it. By contrast here, and we're looking at the contrast, here comes the poor tax collector, right? From religious elite to religious and social, in every other way, outcast, right? This guy was a complete outcast. He was a vile trader, despised by everyone, except for other tax collectors, and he was in the worst kind of sin. They knew, the tax collectors knew that they were despicable. It was a willful act of treachery on their part to do this job, to do this to their people, all right? So here comes the tax collector. Look at verse 13. It says, and the tax collector standing afar off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but he beat his breast saying, God be merciful to me as sinner. Now, look at the contrast between this tax collector and the Pharisee. First, he was standing afar off. He's standing, that's the normal position for prayer, but literally in the Greek it means from far away, where this Pharisee was likely right up close to the sanctuary in the inner court, in the midst of everyone, his Jewish buddies, and would have been standing there proud, saying his prayer, allowed this tax collector standing literally from far away, standing afar off, would not dare go near the sanctuary, right? Understood his position. He was possibly even in the outer court, the court of the Gentiles, wasn't even in the inner court. He was standing far away. God is holy, and there is a healthy fear here on the part of this tax collector. You can see even in where he's standing that there's a sense of personal unworthiness. He doesn't deserve to go near the sanctuary. He doesn't deserve to be near God in that sense. He's like Peter and Luke 5, you know, depart from me, Lord, I'm a sinful man. When Peter comes in contact with Christ, the first thing he recognizes is that Christ is holy, and he isn't. Lord, depart from me, I'm a sinful man. And here, standing afar off, it says he wouldn't even raise his eyes, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast. This is where the position of prayer breaks down. Anyone praying would have lifted their eyes to pray. They would have lifted their hands. But this tax collector, realizing the wickedness of his own heart, realizing his position, who he was, what he had done, how God, the holy, just God, the one true and living God of Israel, viewed him. He was humbled by that and wouldn't even raise his eyes, much less his filthy, wicked hands that had stolen, that had robbed, that had committed that sin. Literally here, the fellow in the Greek, it means he wished. He wished not even to raise his eyes. They wouldn't do it. But he beat his breast. The heart was seen at this time as the seat of sin, the seat of who someone was. And so this act of beating the breast would have been an act of grief, an act of contrition. It would have been an act of desperation. They would have seen how wicked they were. This man, this tax collector, longed for forgiveness. The idea that he even subjected himself to that to go up into the temple to pray. And then this Jewish tax collector, possibly standing in the court of the Gentiles, afar off from the sanctuary, in this kind of a position, this is a major undertaking. As Spurgeon says, this was daring action on the part of this wicked tax collector. And he cries out, beating his breast, his eyes to the ground, ashamed. God be merciful to me. And there's an article there. Article in the Greek is the. No indefinite article A, but an article the. God be merciful to me. And he puts it in there, the sinner. With Paul, he would have cried out, I'm the chief of sinners. He would have seen himself as wicked. And he asked God to be merciful. God be merciful, the Alaska Mai. It means to be propitiated. God satisfy your wrath against me. God, do something about my sin. I can't do anything for myself. God, take away the guilt from me that incurs your wrath. God, I want to be propitiated. I want to be right with you. I want to be delivered from this guilt. He would have gone in like Christian with that huge backpack right on his back, laying down with led bricks of his sin under a burden that would have been incredibly difficult to walk up the steps into the temple with. And with that great burden on his back, he approaches fearfully standing afar off, approaches God, the Holy God. He would have had a deep understanding of his condemnation under the law, right? This Pharisee who knew the law better than anyone as a Pharisee. And yet this tax collector comes in. He would have felt the deep condemnation that the law brings. And we've carried that with him into the temple. The ground, the foundation of his appeal before God, this desperate appeal lies in the fact that God is merciful, that God is rich and mercy. If you think about it, there's the simplicity of this. Tax collector comes into the temple with no other thought really, theologically, but that God is a merciful God that God will save. No other truth, no other priority in his mind. God is merciful and I need mercy, the sinner. The Pharisee completely disregarded the Psalms of repentance. And this tax collector prayed his own, sounds just like one of them. Look at Psalm 51, Psalm 51. Just out of the heart of this tax collector comes a penitent Psalm before God, pleading with God for mercy which God graciously provides. Psalm 51, look at verse one. Here's David, a prayer of repentance. Have mercy upon me, oh God. According to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is always before me against you. You only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight that you may be found just when you speak and blameless when you judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part you will make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be wider than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness that the bones you have broken may rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Uphold me by your generous spirit. Then I will teach transgressions your ways and sinners shall be converted to you. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, oh God, the God of my salvation. My tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness. Lord, open my lips and my mouth shall show forth your praise. For you do not desire sacrifice or else I would give it. You do not delight in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart. These, oh God, you will not despise. Do good in your good pleasure to Zion. Build the walls of Jerusalem and you shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness with burnt offerings and whole burnt offering. Then they shall offer bulls on your altar. Take this just beautiful, beautiful poetic Psalm on the part of David here. And maybe you can't produce this in the same way that David did. Maybe this tax collector coming into the temple couldn't quite have gotten it so eloquently. But what he does is he just pleads out of his heart, right? And all of this just in the heart of this tax collector before holy God just walks into the temple and God be merciful to be a sinner. It's just a, it's the heart, right? It's not the words here, it's the heart and that tax collector pouring out his heart and God be merciful to me the sinner. And in that we see contrition, point three, the contrition. Verse 13, the tax collector standing afar off would not so much as race his eyes to heaven but beat his breath saying God be merciful to me the sinner. The approach to God was fearful, right? It was reverent. He was conscious, conscious of his great capacity to sin. And with great sin, if you can imagine with great sin, listen, this is great sin. If you think somehow that you're beyond saving or you think somehow that your sin is too great for merciful God to show mercy to you, you need to stack yourself up against this tax collector. He was coming in before God, the omnipotent God, asking for mercy, pleading for mercy. This was great sin. He sensed, it was obvious, his great unworthiness. Was this a show? Did he come in like the Pharisee with the same attitude of heart to be showy before men? No, this was completely sincere. If this tax collector can venture upon God for forgiveness, then certainly you and I can, right? And that's the point, one of the points here. Was it the axe of the tax collector? The fact that he came in and he stood afar off, that he wouldn't look up, that he looked down, that he wouldn't raise his hands. Maybe did he beat his breast? Was that what did it? Maybe, you know, he should have worn sackcloth and put ashes on his head. Would that have done it? No, it's not what made the difference. It is always a matter of the heart. In the tax collector in Luke 18, we have the portrait, a picture, if you will, painted of a man who was a beneficiary of grace, a recipient of God's mercy. Just painted a picture. You can picture him in your mind, can't you? Standing afar off, maybe in the shadows of the temple away from the sanctuary. Head down, hands down, just looking sullen, just in accord with his heart. No time for fruits here, right? No time to be able to demonstrate the evidences of saving faith. No time to demonstrate the fruits of repentance in that sense in many ways, like the thief on the cross. And yet this man, the Bible says, went down to his house justified. We see an example of a tax collector in Luke chapter 19, right? Who's that? Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus, the tax collector, gets genuinely saved. And we see evidences of salvation. We see the evidences of repentance. But here, with this, we just see the Pharisees' heart. This really is, as Spurgeon says, daring action. Is he proud? No. Is he presumptuous? Is he presumptuous to go into the temple to pray to God like this to the omnipotent God? No. He's contrite, and he's broken. Psalm 51, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart. These, oh God, you will not despise. If you were to come to God, you're to come to God on the same terms, in the same way. You approach the same way with your eyes on mercy, mercy from God in Christ Jesus. It's the heart that matters. Everything flows from a changed heart, from the right heart. And it's important, in the same way that this tax collector did, that you cultivate an understanding of your sin. Cultivate an understanding of your position outside of Christ. The only way to approach, with that in mind, is in faith. To place your trust where it belongs, not to place your trust in yourself that you're righteous, not to justify yourself or persuade yourself that you're right before God, but to place yourself, place your trust in Christ. When you come cultivating an understanding of your sin, that breeds contrition. Cultivating an understanding of your sin, looking at who God is in Scripture, looking at who you are apart from Christ, when you understand your sin that produces humility, when you enter with humility, you enter as this tax collector did, with repentance. In repenting of sin, you've got to place your trust where it belongs, and that's with Christ. The only way to approach, the only way this tax collector approached understanding a sin, was he approached in faith. He went in knowing that God is a merciful God, and he approached in faith that God would be merciful to him the sinner. It's faith that recognized God as the only God that can save, his only hope for being right with God, his only hope to be propitiated as he was praying, is that God would be merciful to him the sinner. That's faith, and he approached with faith, the place where it needs to be. Same whole story today, it's really, it really is not that difficult. If you're lost and unconverted, you need to come to grips with your sin. Believe what the Bible says about you, that you are a wicked, depraved, adulterous, extortion, extorting, unjust sinner, that you are what the Bible says that you are, and that you agree with God that he is right in your diagnosis of you, that he is just to punish you, that he is just to judge your sin, and then you place your faith in Christ. When you come to salvation, it's, look God, I see the promises of God in Scripture. I see the person and finished work of Christ, that Christ lived a perfect sinless life, that he went to the cross, the spotless Lamb of God, that he suffered, that he died, that on the third day he was risen again, proving that his sacrifice was acceptable, and that even now sits at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us. In the finished person and work of Christ, I'm trusting that these promises of God apply to me if I will leave my sin and follow him. What you do is, you say, God, be merciful to me a sinner, that's not for show, that's not insincere, that's recognizing yourself as a sinner, showing contrition over your sin, you understand your sin to the degree that this tax collector understood it, that you're not even worthy to lift your eyes to heaven, and then you take a step in faith, Christ, I trust you, I trust you, you're my only hope for salvation, or I trust you, that if I'll turn from my sin and follow you, that you'll do what you'll say you'll do, which is to save my wretched soul, and you step out in faith, believing in the promises of God by faith in Christ. It's Christ, I believe in you, that the promises of God apply to me, I believe in you, that if I will follow you in faith, that the Lord God will save me, that sin will not have dominion over me, that I will be justified and right with God, that my sins will be forgiven, that I'll be washed clean, that my sins be as scarlet, I'll be as white as snow, and I'll have the righteousness of Christ, you follow Christ in faith, believing those promises, the right attitude is faith. You notice how in this parable, Luke 18, that the new birth isn't mentioned, that regeneration is not talked about, God's gifting isn't mentioned, the baptism of the spirit is not mentioned, this is just human responsibility on the part of the tax collector, realizing that he is a sinner and in faith stepping out and following Christ, but don't only look to the example of the Pharisee or the tax collector here for encouragement, look at who the tax collector goes to, look at the God who saves him. A sinnership here, as Virgin also says, is no reason for despair here, this is every reason to be encouraged, God saves, Christ came into the world to save sinners, there's no reason for despair, there's no reason to think that God will not save you because God desires all men to be saved, there's simply no reason for despair, but the same reason, the same thing must be done in your sanctification, if you're here tonight and you're a Christian, it's the same basis on which you live the Christian life, in your sanctification, Christian, if you're battling sin, you follow Christ by faith, if you're struggling with sin, you step toward Christ in faith and by faith in Christ, you rely on the promises of God to overcome your sin, it is all by faith in Christ, if you take your eyes off, you're off Christ, if you take your eyes off of the promises of God, if you start walking outside of faith, you're in sin and you'll have no power to overcome sin in your life. Back in Luke 18, next we have the conclusion, we see the contrition on the part of this tax collector, we also have now the conclusion, look at verse 14, Luke 18, verse 14, here it says, I tell you, this man went down to his house, this tax collector went down to his house justified rather than the other, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted, Christ begins a statement with I tell you, this is a really strong claim to deity, I tell you this man went down to his house justified, says that Christ knows the mind of God, Christ knows the mind of God, he knows what happens here, this would have been shocking, the Pharisee was not accepted, everyone would have thought the Pharisee would have been, he would have made a better candidate, if you think about it, he was not a thief as he was claiming everyone else was, not an extortioner, not an adulterer outwardly, he kept the law much more faithfully than this tax collector would have, the difference is that he didn't humble himself, again the issue is the heart, the hearers may have seen this coming, look real quickly just a couple chapters back at Luke 14, Luke 14, so this would have happened before this story, look at Luke 14 and look at verse 11, here we see the same proverb right, for whoever exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted, his hearers here, those that had been following Christ may have seen this answer coming, the tax collector went down to his house justified, forgiven, wrapped clothed in the righteousness of Christ, a new standing with God and then Christ ends this statement with he who humbles himself, that word humbles the present active indicative, ongoing humbling, if you're to be right with God, it's an ongoing humbling, an ongoing repentance, an ongoing understanding of who you are outside of Christ, he who humbles himself, the Bible says will be exalted, will be future passive, you're humbled, you will be, it's God the one that's doing the work, you will be exalted, it's a future passive there, this is again a picture of misplaced trust, the Pharisee just simply had his trust in someone else himself, here the tax collector putting his trust in God alone, in Christ alone to save him, the lesson for the lost here is listen, to come to the gospel, to understand Christ's saving work, you simply recognize that you are a sinner, if you're a sinner then you qualify because Christ came to save the ungodly, if you see yourself ungodly then you qualify, be converted that your sins may be blotted out, if you don't see yourself as ungodly, you need to cultivate an understanding of your sin, the Bible says that you're ungodly and that's the truth of God's word, if you're a sinner outside of Christ, you humble yourself under the truth of God about you, you understand that you are a wicked sinner like this tax collector and then you take a step of faith, you say to yourself, I believe that God is the only source of mercy, I believe that Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom I feel like chief, and you simply take a step of faith that believes Christ will save you, you leave your sin behind because you hate it, if you cultivate a hatred for sin you're not going to be in sin, listen, if you cultivate a hatred for sin you will not flirt with sin, you'll not put yourself in situations that are compromising, you'll not put yourself around people who are in sin, you'll not put yourself in situations that might lead you into temptation, if you fear God then you will fear your sin and you will run far from it, you turn to Christ by faith and you take a step in obedience toward Christ in submission to his Lordship, turning from your sin, turning to him, you stand resting on the promises of God and you simply follow him by faith believing that he will save you and you can do that right now, now is the day of salvation, turn to Christ believing on him, forsake your sin and walk after him by faith, denying yourself, taking up your cross and following him, simply putting your faith where it belongs, if you're a Christian here tonight and you're serving the Lord but you struggle with sin, maybe you've fallen into sin and you want victory over sin, listen, the imperatives of God, the law of God, those commands in Scripture are not designed to make you look within yourself for your own strength in your own power to obey them, in the same way before you are saved that the law of God should drive you to Christ to be saved, in the same way the law of God, the laws of God, the commands of Scripture for the Christian should drive the Christian to Christ for obedience to the commands, those laws, those imperatives should drive you to the promises of God, should drive you to that statement by God that sin will not have dominion over you, that can you do that presumptuously, can you stand there and nestle up against sin while you claim the promises of God against it, no, you flee sin, keep yourself far from it, you don't get close to it, you don't flirt with it, you don't cohabitate with it, you flee it, but when you flee it, you flee to Christ, not within your own self, what happens in the Christian life is that when the laws of God come and you fail to obey them and you fail to obey them and you fall into sin, you're in sin, you're in sin, oftentimes what happens is the person then looks within themselves, it's the law of God and the condemnation so we think that is under the law, it's not there for the Christian, but that drives them to look at themselves at their own performance, they look within themselves at their own efforts to obey, they think, hey I've sinned, I've sinned, I've sinned, eyes are off Christ and then they believe themselves to be lost, how do I know that these promises of God apply to me when I'm in my sin, how do I know that these promises of God, that the work of the Spirit, that the power of the Spirit, the enabling of God will help me, will provide the power that I need to overcome sin in my life, when you're looking at yourself, they won't, you have to look at Christ by faith that the Spirit will help you, you have to look at Christ by faith that those promises apply to you and you have to live the Christian life by faith in Christ to overcome sin in your life, you cannot look within yourself, it is misplaced trust, hear from the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, it's a parable about misplaced trust, you can't trust yourself that you're righteous, you can't trust in yourself to sustain any level of righteousness, you can only and fully and only trust Christ alone for your salvation and trust Christ alone for your sanctification, but you can't do that presumptuously, you can't do that proud, you have to do that in the fear of God, it's the fear of the Lord that is the beginning of wisdom, you have to do that in the fear of God, we've been talking or beginning to talk lately about issues relating to sexual immorality, what a plague, what a blight on the world that sexual immorality is today and all the things that lead to it, listen, the only way that you're going to overcome sin and this sin of sexual immorality is through faith in Christ and when you are clinging to Christ by faith, clinging to the cross by faith, you cannot tie any temptation to that sin, any condition that would prompt you toward that sin, you can't tie a harlot to Christ, you have to flee the conditions that lead you into that sin, you have to flee the circumstances that might lead you into temptation and you have to follow Christ by faith and the Lord promises that if you'll follow Christ by faith then all of the power, all the enablement, all the promises of God will be the foundation that you need to overcome that sin in your life but if you fail to do that and you look within yourself, you'll look within yourself and you'll put yourself right into a ditch, you'll look within yourself, your guard will come down, it's not going to be as serious to you, you're not going to see it as as serious of a sin is what God sees it, you'll trust in yourself that you're righteous and you'll think you'll be deceived into thinking that you can flirt with that sin, you can't do it, cultivate a hatred for that sin and run far from it, placing your trust in Christ, this is the parable of misplaced trust, you're going to overcome sin, you have to put your trust completely in Christ to save you, it's the only way you're going to live the Christian life, it's the only way that you will persevere to the end, this is a lesson in perseverance, it's the only way that you'll make it, otherwise rest assured your sins will find you out, apart from faith in Christ you will fall away proving you were never saved to begin with, apart from faith in Christ you're not going to be victorious over sin, the Lord in scripture says that his will for you is your sanctification, that happens by faith in Christ, the lessons to learn from this parable, lessons for the lost person, lessons for the saved person, so where does our trust belong, we can't trust in ourselves, we have to trust alone in Christ, let's pray, Father in heaven, Lord God I thank you for this truth, God thank you for Christ, thank you for the Spirit, God thank you for God the wondrous gifts that you give us, Lord the foundation of our justification, God our right standing with you, the foundation of our sanctification, Lord our growth and maturity, our conformity into the image of Christ, thank you for the power and the enablement to overcome sin, God thank you that doesn't come within ourselves because God we would fail miserably, but thank you Lord that comes by your Spirit through the word of God according to the promises that you've made in accord with your covenant to us, God thank you or thank you for the truth of this parable, I pray that we would live by it, I pray that it would be there those here tonight that would be genuinely converted, Lord under your word in genuine contrition over sin, seeing you God as being rich in mercy and they'll step out leaving their sin behind, follow Christ by faith, please save them for the Christian here, God that struggles in sin, I pray that they would put their trust, rest their trust solely in Christ not in their own efforts, God not in their own performance or their perceived work to overcome this Lord, but in Christ alone they would put forth the effort by faith in Christ to overcome sin in order that you would sanctify them, prove to them Lord in reliance on those promises in reliance on the power of the Spirit, they can persevere and preserve them to the end that they might be saved, God help us to be a holy living church by faith in Christ, God help us to flee legalism like the plague, to flee sexual immorality like the plague, to flee everything that would lead us into temptation, to flee the trappings of this world Lord that would drop us into that pit to fear you, God to to walk through this world as one who realizes their unworthiness apart from Christ and just is trusting you alone to God to preserve us, to protect us, to see us through finally God see us home, we know Lord that we are aliens and strangers in this world, God help us to walk that way, God help us to cling to you, cling to the cross by faith, help us to put our trust where it should be put to place it where it needs to be placed, God in to keep us from the foolishness God of placing it in ourselves, we love you Lord and we rest in your promises, rest in the finished work of Christ, rest in the cross and rest in your grace and mercy and your provision for us Lord who are wicked sinners just like this tax collector or to desire from the heart to go down to our house justified. Thank you for this time of worship, thank you for this time Lord of studying your word together in Jesus name, amen.