Can I ask you all to open your Bibles, please, toLuke chapter 18? You know, there are certain passages in the Bible that if youhad the opportunity to grow up in church, stand out. Now, if any of you were apastor's kid—I was a pastor's kid—even more so, because here's the secret aboutpastors.
They have a few sermons to keep for the road, okay?So, a few sermons that they feel a little bit more confident in, they just feellike they know a little bit better. You know, if you kind of got them cold inan elevator and said, preach, like, this would come out of them because theyknow it so well.
Well, my father had a few of those sermons, and oneof the ones that he would often have within him, and if he was ever askedwithout warning to preach, he would pull out this one and talk about two men,two prayers, and two outcomes, the Pharisee and the tax collector. So, thisweek was really hard because I studied the passage as I normally do and dideverything else, and yet all I could hear was his voice, two men, two prayers,two outcomes. So, there you go, our outline is gonna be very simple this morning.Two men, two prayers, two outcomes.
But hopefully what was helpful to me growing up willbe just as helpful to you, and especially not just be the structure of a manbut help us to have insight into the very Word of God. So, would you stand withme, please, while we read the passage? Luke chapter 18, and reading from verse9:
(Scripture reading) "He also told this parableto some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated otherswith contempt. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and theother 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 collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithesof all that I get." But the tax collector, standing far off, would noteven lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, "God bemerciful to me, a sinner." I tell you, this man went down to his housejustified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will behumbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted."
Let's pray.
[Prayer] Heavenly Father, we ask for Your help thismorning. Lord, this parable reminds us of just how easy it is to slip into thatself-deception where we think much of ourselves and it obscures our vision frombeing able to clearly see You and indeed our need of You. So, we ask that thetext would do that hard work, the double-edged sword would pierce the hardheart and cause us instead to see our own emptiness, our own helplessness, ourown sinfulness. That once more we may cry out to You for mercy, having hoperooted not in self or any act that we have done, but simply in the graciouscharacter of the God that we come in desperation before. Minister to us, wepray. For it's in Jesus' name we ask it. Amen. [End]
Have a seat.
Well, this is our second parable on prayer. Earlierin the chapter, last week, verses 1 to 8, Jesus told a parable to hisdisciples. Do you remember verse 1?
That they ought always to pray and not lose heart.And now He comes a second time in verse 9 to speak this time to some whotrusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others withcontempt. And He comes to tell them that God only responds to the prayer of thehumble.
Again, if you remember, as we often highlight, thesummary that Jesus gives of the commandments, the law of God, He says, whenasked what is the greatest commandment, He says, “the greatest commandment isthis, that you would love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind,and strength. And the second is like it, that you would love your neighbor asyourself.” However, instead of love God with all their heart, soul, mind, andstrength, these individuals that he relates this parable to are those who trustedin themselves.
Their love and affection is inward rather thanupward. Their attention is about who they are and what they have done. Theirconfidence—their confidence even as it comes to their acceptance before God,their acceptance by God—is rooted in themselves. And also, these very sameindividuals treat others with contempt.
If the second commandment Jesus says, the secondsummary commandment, is to love your neighbor as yourself, then one of themarks of the Pharisee, the one who would fall into this trap of folly, is acontempt, a dismissal, a sneering look towards other people. And so, we can seevery quickly, even before we get into the guts of the text and the parableitself, we can see something so clearly about what Jesus is addressing. Thatspirit that would mark the religious, that would mark our attitude as we come,even this morning, before God to worship Him, that has some sense of, I'm meantto be here, because of who I am, because of my identity, because of what I havedone.
I am a Christian. I prayed to Him. I know my Bible.I have confidence that my theology, unlike so many others, is correct theology.My actions are not watery. When it comes to church, I have a big God in mind,and I believe in big God worship. When it comes to how we do what we do atTrinity compared to other churches, we take God seriously.
And actually, the subtle thing behind it all that wesometimes fail to catch is the fact that we're talking all the time about we,or even more often, I. When actually, if we are truly to be shaped by thegospel and to be shaped by the claims of Scripture alone, we recognizeimmediately that we must talk about Christ alone. For we are saved by His gracealone, through faith alone. It's not ourselves, it's all of Him.
This story, when you put it beside the one thatcomes before, it reminds us positively of something as well. Verses one toeight remind us that God, as He speaks to His disciples, Jesus makes clear tothem that God answers the prayers of the elect. Verses 9 to 14 give us realcomfort this morning because it reminds us also that God answers, God hears theprayers of the sinner. And if this morning as you come to church, you identifyyourself more with this sinner, there's a lot of comfort to be found in the text.Now, the story itself is somewhat clear, but sometimes in our particular world,in our particular familiarity with the Bible, we go into autopilot. As soon asyou see the word Pharisee, what do you think?
Well, he must be the bad guy. He must be thenotorious one, the one that we should be suspicious of. And when you hear taxcollector, well, nobody smiles, but we kind of have in our own minds that, youknow, the tax collector is respectable. You know, no one's glad to see the taxcollector, but we respect the nature of the job. We admire something of thesteadfastness of someone who would do any type of employment consistently.
But the world that we have to enter in to get thestory was an altogether different one. And the people that Jesus tells thestory to, especially when you remember that qualification in verse nine, thosewho trust it in themselves, that they were righteous and viewed others withcontempt, those particular individuals, when they heard the word Pharisee, theythought hero. When they heard the phrase tax collector, they thought, enemy. Iwant you to imagine, and please grant me grace as I try to do this, a retellingof the story that on a given Sunday morning, the people of Trinity Bible Churchturn up, enter into the building, and take their seats.
And everybody looks, and there sitting at the frontis that individual. The one who's always there, always sitting in the seat. Theonly time they're not in the seat is when they're singing in the choir. Andwhen it comes to singing, everybody else looks to the screen to see the words,but this individual never looks to the screen. They're playing the songs allthe time on Spotify. They know them off by heart. They could be looking allaround them, and yet they sing with gusto, and they sing with harmony. We'reall very impressed by the way they sing.
When it comes to their Bible, their Bible, the backis broken on it. They have read it every year for the last 35 years. They knowwhat it says. They can anticipate what the preacher will say. They can tellwhen it's a theologically rich preacher and whenever it's a wonky-donky type ofpreacher. They have that ability, that familiarity. If anybody was to ask themwhat book would they recommend, immediately they have a list of John MacArthur,R.C. Sproul, and everything else that's there to hand out.
They know the good stuff that's out there. And theylook sharp. They look good. And everybody is excited to see them. After church,the kids run to that individual because they know that individual always hascandy in their pocket and is so generous. And the mums, they love seeing thechildren going to the likes of him. What an example. What a good man. Or a goodwoman, could be a good woman.
Meanwhile, somebody else slips in. In fact, maybethey don't even come through the glass doors. They kind of just sit in thatoverflow area. They're hanging their head. Nobody can quite see exactly who itis. But there's something, whether it's a smell, whether it's the way theycarry themselves. The security team are antsy.
The mums pull the children close to them and say,after church today, I don't want you running around. You need to stay with me.Because maybe somebody does start to recognize who this individual is, andrumors have circulated. There's things, things that he is associated with. Theywould make mums vomit. Nobody likes the fact he's here. The story continues.
Both men, in those few moments before the servicecommences, pray. The guy at the front, he prays something akin to, Lord, Ithank you. That I know my stuff, and I'm not like the other individuals inDallas at seeker-sensitive churches or at no church.
I thank you that I'm not marked by adultery, bycriminality, and I'm not covered in suspicion and rumors like that guy overthere. I've been able to give to help the missionaries in Argentina this week.I've helped three old ladies across the road. I helped serve in the Sundayschool class, and I'm looking forward to doing it again in a few moments. Amen.Meanwhile, the other individual, he's never prayed. He doesn't even know, whatdo you do? Like, how do you start? How do you finish? What goes in here? Infact, he doesn't know if he can even get words out. And he feels so out ofplace.
And he feels so, presumptuous even to have turned upat church this Sunday, and his head is low, and his fists in desperation areclenched, and he simply fumbles out, God help me, for I am a sinner. And Jesusresponds by shocking the religious group that listened to him by saying, I tellyou, this man, he went down to his house right with God rather than the other.For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. but the one who humbleshimself shall be exalted.
This is a story of contrast, and I want to highlightthe obvious in the text so that we can try and soak in the lesson long enoughto be exposed to the challenge that it presents. So, first of all, I want youto notice this is a story about two men, two men. Look at verse 10. Two menwent up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.They both go up to the temple to pray.
That was a normal thing. Every day at 9 a.m. and at3 p.m. there would be sacrifices offered at the altar. There would have beenincense that would have been burnt. And during that time, people gathered andpeople participated in the worship through prayer. It was a normal time. Thisis a very public moment. This is a public worship event. And the two men comein that moment to worship, yet the text focuses on the difference between thetwo as they went to that same place. Both go to the temple to worship. Bothseek to engage in prayer.
Both leave feeling that they talked to God, yet onlyone went home right with God, while the other was rejected. And the shock wasthat the one who was accepted was the unlikely. While the crowd would assumeone had God's ear, one was in God's good books, yet when he prayed God didn'tengage with him at all.
So, the first of these two men is the Pharisee. Again,today we have a tendency as soon as we see the word Pharisee to dismiss, but inthat day the Pharisees were the pious. The ones who took the Bible seriously.In fact, the Pharisees as a grouping started in that intertestamental period.
The Old Testament, if you're familiar with the OldTestament, is a history of the people of Israel and a history of every messthat they make. Every time God brings them back, they run away. Every time Godcorrects, they waver once more. Every time God brings a deliverer, they need anenemy to come in and to wake them up again. The history of the Old Testament isone of moral failure and moral drift in the part of the people of Israel. Theycontinually go after other gods.
And so in the intertestamental period, after thebiggest demonstration of their folly, the greatest punishment to come, when Goddecimated the nation and sent the people into exile, after their restoration,after 70 years, when the Lord caused the Captive Psalm 128 to be back in Ziononce more, The people, as they rebuilt the temple and saw Jewish worshipreestablished in Jerusalem once more, and a nation once more existing, thepeople worried that they would make the same mistake they had made every seasonbefore.
And so, a group emerged called the Pharisees. Theywere there to stop the rot, the moral majority to keep the rest of the nationin check, the whole high standard they believed came from the Word of God, thatothers would not go in the direction of the generations before them. And so,they tried to put parameters, guardrails to stop people wandering.
So, if the law said, do this, they made a, put whatthey thought was a safety net. Well, we'll do that to make sure that we don'tbreak the law. If the law said, give 10% of your income to, in the OldTestament, the tithe to the temple, they said, well, we'll do that, and we'llgive 10% of everything we get, just in case maybe the farmer didn't tithe, orthe merchant didn't tithe. The tradesperson that I got this good from didn'thide. I'm going to make up where they may have lacked so that society will stayon the straight and narrow.
These people memorized Scripture. Most of thePharisees could quote to you the whole of the Torah by memory. It's the firstfive books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. It'sat least 25% of your Bible. And they could just quote it. They knew itverbatim. They knew it inside out. They weren't lazy individuals. They werevery pious, very zealous. They would have been considered in their day by therest of society as an example of full commitment, as an example of holiness.
The second individual is this tax collector. Now,again, most of us today, we don't mind. We're never enthusiastic, but we don'tmind the tax collector. We respect the position. But in the New Testamentworld, this was an extremely wicked man. There was no other way ofunderstanding the likes of him. Here is one who wouldn't have been accepted atthe temple. People would have been suspicious of him. In fact, in the Jewishtemple court system, the testimony of a tax collector was discounted. Theyweren't allowed to represent, to speak as a witness in court, because they weregenerally accepted as untrustworthy. And they were thought that way becausethey were crooks.
The Romans, in order to, you know, kind of avoidconflict and to make their lives easier, they farmed out the duty of collectingtaxes to the lowest bidder. So, whoever would, you know, do it for the cheapestsalary, that was the person that got the job. And so, individuals would go inand they would put in these low bids, and they would get to be the taxcollector.
But obviously they did okay out of it, otherwisethey wouldn't have wanted to do it in the first place. And they did okay out ofit because they lined their pockets with excess. They would go to theindividual, and if the Romans wanted $2 from them, they would ask for five. Andthey would scoop off the top whatever was left over and keep it for themselves.And the Romans knew it; the Romans accepted it. because their job was gettingdone. And so, these individuals were profiting by exploiting their fellow man,in fact, their fellow citizens, their fellow Jews. And they were lining theirown pockets by collaborating with the occupying enemy. So, the people hatedthem. The people, when they saw it them, wanted to spit on them, and if theycould have got away with it, would have lynched them.
There was a deep hostility in the hearts of peoplewhen they heard the phrase tax collector. Think of Benedict Arnold switchingsides in the Revolutionary War, the anger that was felt towards him. Think ofthose French politicians in World War II that secured and kept their positionby snuggling up to the Nazis. The average French citizen wanted to spit onthem, couldn't stand them, because they had betrayed the nation. That's the taxcollector in the time of Jesus. So, two very different men. Secondly, noticetwo prayers. Two prayers. Both men pray. Well, at least they think they do.
It's a reminder, isn't it, even that very simplepoint that they both go home. The Pharisee, as far as we're aware, goes homefeeling everything's gone right. It's a great reminder, isn't it, your feelingsaren't what counts. You can come to church and go home and feel great. You cancome to church and go home feeling awful. Your feelings are not a barometer ofreality.
You have to come to the Word that is consistent tofind a true verdict on what is real. But look at the Pharisee's self-focusedprayer. Look at his self-focused prayer. Notice, first of all, how he focuseson his own value. He's focused on value, his value. Look at how the prayerbegins there in verse 11.
God, I thank you that I, if that's how you startyour prayer, you need to stop. If word number six, is I, there is a problem.And that problem is clear because of how Jesus has introduced the story to us.Verse 9, the Pharisees' prayer reflects some who trusted in themselves thatthey were righteous. And now six words into the prayer, God, I thank you thatI, there's the issue. Before we even get into the details of the prayer, that'sthe issue.
He's thankful for I, for me. There's aself-righteous spirit. There's a sense of self-value. There's a sense ofsecurity to come before the throne of God based on who he was. His prayerwasn't a prayer to worship God. It was a prayer that worships self. When youboil down what he's thankful for, he's thankful for himself and his ownperformance. He really thought he was something before the Lord God Almighty.J.C. Ryle says, we are all naturally self-righteous. It's a family disease thatgoes back all the way to Adam. Maybe some of you think you're not. That'sprobably a sign that you are.
It's a plague that continually in sinful heartsblossoms so quickly. And you know the way after the winter, probably yourgarden, your flower beds look, well, dirt. They're just full of dirt, nothingelse. But as soon, last week, when it got just a little bit warmer,Immediately, there's those first weeds that start to appear. Like, there'll bemany more to follow, but the ones that just quickly appear, well, the firstweed that tends to appear in the sinful heart is this one, the weed ofself-righteousness.
It blossoms so quickly. We naturally want to exaltourselves. We naturally want to dwell on what we have done right and push down,dismiss our failures. And that has made all the more difficult in ourparticular generation that has tried to fly the flag of self-value. ofself-esteem, of self-worth. Friends, let me be really candid and blunt. Youdon't have self-worth. You fall short of the glory of God. You're broken.You're an enemy of God. You're chained. You work under the prince of the powerof this air. You are a sinner. And yet that weed of self-righteousness grows soquickly.
It covers the gaze so that we can't honestly see thecondition that we suffer from. This prayer is focused on his personal value,but it's also focused on comparison. Here's another sign of the Pharisee'sprayer. And notice in verse 9, Jesus has already indicated that broken responsewill also be marked by treating others with contempt. And now in verse 11, theman prays, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust,adulterers, or even like this tax collector. If a righteous heart loves theirneighbor, a cold heart comforts itself by despising its neighbor.
This individual is focused, you notice, on externalsins. I haven't been seen to extort other people's money. I haven't been seento commit adultery. I haven't been seen like this tax collector to collaboratewith the enemy. It's a list of externals. Externals that compares you to othersbut ignores the fact that you fall short of the glory of God. That's what we'reto be compared to.
He doesn't deal with anything in the heart, does he?He doesn't see how prideful he is, how arrogant he is. He doesn't consider thelust that sits within. He hides how poor he has performed. It's such a sign ofa shipwrecked faith. We're obsessed with comparing our performance with otherpeople. That's a sign that the heart is misplaced. That hides the reality thatyou fall short of God's standard, of God's expectation, of the target that Godsets.
I think today, many of us, we know these types ofstories, and we like to think, before we even begin, of how not...we don'tpray, Lord, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, adulterers,or even like this tax collector, but maybe in your head you are thinking, Lord,I thank you that I am not like that Pharisee.
And actually, we've committed the same crime. Wecomfort ourselves in thinking that I don't talk about myself. Oh, I would neverdo that. I'm above that folly, that mistake. And actually, we've fallen intoexactly the same trap. The same spirit of self-flattering, that ultimatelymakes the same mistake because it hides the fact that you need Christ. And thisman was confident as he compared himself to others, but it stopped him fromseeking Christ. This self-focused prayer is focused on its value, focused oncomparison, and focused on activity. Look at verse 12.
I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that Iget. He's focused on his stomach. He does fast. And he's focused on his wallet.He does tithe. And here's the point. He is doing real work. He is doing thingsthe law talks about. The guy really was hungry. Twice a week, Mondays andThursdays were the days that the Pharisees tended to fast. So on Monday andThursday, he was hungry. He did set aside his income, his wealth.
In fact, he went over and above. He tells us that hegave a tenth of everything he got. He went over and above. So, there issacrifice here. This guy is doing, he's restricting, he's purging or stoppingthe enjoyment and self, and he is sacrificing his wealth. But it's all a spiritof box ticking. It's all focused on external success. It's not necessarily forshow before people. There may be a bit of spirit of that in it. But primarilyhis issue is it's about show before self.
It makes him feel good. He's happy to not eat. He'shappy to set aside income because he believes it makes him better. He thinkshe's going over and above. Maybe he thinks he's making up for some bad in thepast, or more likely he thinks he's getting some credit, some good favor. Buthe's not actually doing what the law required. The law called for fasting oncea year on the Day of Atonement. So, he went and said, oh, well, I can do morethan that. I'll go twice a week. The law asked for a tithe of the income. Well,he went over and above. I'll tithe everything. Do you notice he never asks foranything in this prayer? He never asked for anything because, well, he neverfelt his need of anything.
He thinks so much of himself and his work, hisChristian service, that he's marked by a confidence in his self-performance.Have you fallen into that trap? You're trusting in how you're doing. Theactions, the things you're involved with, the way your time is spent, that'snot where our confidence should ever sit.
This man, like every man and every woman, neededforgiveness, yet he missed it. Because verse 9, he thought he was righteous,and he treated others with contempt. Or the second prayer, the tax collector'sprayer, is a self-aware prayer. It has some focuses as well. First of all, it'sfocused on disqualification. Notice how we read in verse 13, but the taxcollector standing far off.
He most likely is in the court of the Gentiles. Hecan't bring himself to go any closer. In the temple, the Holy of Holies isright at the center. That's where God was said to dwell in a special way. And so,the idea is he feels completely disqualified. He feels he has no right to comeany closer to God than he has already dared to come in desperation. We're toldas well that he would not even lift up his eyes to heaven.
Well, for us, that seems weird because we bow ourheads to pray, but in Jesus' day, that was the posture. They would lift uptheir face towards heaven as they prayed. This man isn't doing the normalthings. It would be the equivalent of going to a prayer meeting and feeling sounqualified that you couldn't even bow your head. We're told he beat hisbreast.
That's not a normal thing in the Jewish worldeither. In fact, especially for men, that was so rare. Sometimes you read aboutin situations of grief, women hitting their chest, but very, very rarely aremen seen to do something like this. Like an exception might be Josephus talkedabout David after the death of Absalom continually beating his breast, butagain, the reason that stands out is because of how rare it is.
This isn't a normal action. It's a desperate action.It's a broken action. It's an action that speaks of his own sense ofdisqualification, and that's all reinforced by what he says. How does heidentify himself? Well, he says in verse 13, God be merciful to me, a sinner.The definite article is there. You could translate that. Maybe you shouldtranslate that. The sinner.
He's not focusing on anybody else. He's only got hiseyes on himself in the right sense of the word, because he sees his wholedisqualification. He's aware that he is the absolute failure, that hepersonally falls short the reality is you need to know that you are a sinnerbefore you can know that there is a Savior. So, he's focused on hisdisqualification. Then he's focused on God.
Look at the direction of his prayer. God is thefirst word. God, be merciful. The verb is tied to God. The Pharisee, all hisverbs are tied to his own action. I think. I tithe. It's all I do, but this manis desperately appealing to God to do, for God to act. Again, that's sorevealing.
You want to know the disposition of your heart whenit comes to prayer. Do you pray about yourself, or do you pray in desperationto God? One came trusting himself for his qualification. The other comes cryingto God that God would show mercy because he is disqualified. So, he's focusedon his disqualification, he's focused on God, and he's focused on atonement.
The ESV says, God be merciful to me, a sinner.There's an old word, an old English word that gets to the idea of what is beingdeclared there even better. The word propitious, God be propitious to me, asinner, or as the Holman Christian Standard Bible translates it, God turn yourwrath from me. It's a sacrificial word.
It speaks of that wrath, that punishment, thatjudgment that should fall upon the disqualified, should fall upon the guiltybeing redirected upon that of the sacrifice. And that's the idea here. Maybethis particular prayer, most likely this particular prayer is given at the timeof offering, the time of sacrifice. And as the tax collector looks and sees thelamb upon the altar, it makes that picture of Old Testament sacrifice, makeshim so aware of his own disqualification and his own helpless need for propitiation.For the wrath that should fall on his guilty head to be redirected to fall uponanother.
And the reality is that those who, like thisindividual, cry in desperation to God, though they are guilty, to be spared, tobe shown mercy. God, through the sending of His Son, the perfect Lamb of God,who was sacrificed to take away the sin of the world, is the means by whichthat forgiveness is realized.
Two men, two prayers, and two outcomes. The Phariseeleft with confidence. But he left unheard. He may as well have prayed to thewall. And according to the text, if we had to extrapolate what happened next,well, if Jesus says the one who exalts himself will be humbled, we can assumeit didn't end well for this Pharisee. Prayed to himself. His prayers praisedHimself, and in the end, He ended up with Himself.
And then there's the tax collector. Verse 14, I tellyou, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. He wenthome right with God, accepted by God, not just forgiven, but credited withrighteousness. Why? Because he was humble. He realized his disqualification,and so he cried to the merciful God for action. How does it work this way?
One commentator says, position in the temple meansnothing. The position of the heart means everything. One heart thought all ofself, and it ended up with just self. One heart was self-aware of its ownbrokenness and ended up with God caring, saving, and showing mercy. We mustapproach God humbly, acknowledging our feelings and depending on His great workof atonement.
You can only come this way. It's not enough to cometo church. It's not enough to know your Bible. It's not enough to serve. Infact, those things damn by themselves. We can only come appealing to God formercy. One went home condemned, thinking much of himself, while the other wenthome justified. Friends, how are you going home today?
Let's pray.
[Prayer] Heavenly Father, we thank You for JesusChrist. We thank You, Lord, for the one who knows the heart, speaking soclearly to the need that we have. We ask, Lord, that You would help us to callto You for mercy. And we thank You, Lord, that those who genuinely seek Yourwork of forgiveness will know it, for You are a God rich in mercy. Help us, we prayand help us as we continue now to remember. For it's in His name we ask it.Amen. [End]
