Well, beloved, please turn, if you will, in your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke, Luke chapter 18. Luke chapter 18, we're going to look particularly at verses 9 through 14. And just by way of introduction, as you're turning there, I had titled the message "A Parable of Two Prayers," but in my notes, I could have titled it "The World's Worst Prayer." But I thought, Chris Gordon's not going to put that in the bulletin. But it's actually followed by one of the best prayers. We are going to compare and contrast two prayers. One of them is the worst prayer, and one of them is one of the best prayers in Scripture. And we learn a lot by taking a look at these two prayers and contrasting them with one another.
And when we get to Luke 18, obviously we're coming into the very near the end of the gospel. And Luke's burden, why Luke has been writing, is, to proclaim who Jesus is, to show him forth as the Messiah, the very Son of God, the one in whom salvation can be found. From the beginning of his gospel, he showed the genealogy of Christ, how it goes all the way back to: he's the Son of Adam, and he's the Son of God. At the very beginning, he said that he was writing these things so that you may have certainty regarding the things that you have been taught, and by certainty that you can have life in Jesus. He's writing for a very specific reason: that we may know who Jesus Christ is, that we may know that he's the Messiah, and that by believing and resting in him that we may have salvation.
And Jesus, at a turning point in the gospel, when Peter rightly confessed who Jesus Christ was, he'd asked people over and over, "Who do you say that I am?" or "Who do you think that I am?" And Peter, in verse 9, got it right. He said, "You are the Christ, the son of the living God." And then at that point, Jesus said he turned his face like flint towards Jerusalem and was heading towards Jerusalem. And he was on Jerusalem not just to visit Jerusalem, but on a very specific mission: to seek and to save his people, to go to the cross, to go to Jerusalem, to be crucified, to be buried, to rise again on the third day that his people could have life and to have it abundantly.
And in the particular parable that we're looking at today, I love the fact that Jesus tells us what the parable is about up front. He says at the very beginning that he told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt. So, in other words, he's telling the parable to those who are looking to the righteousness from their own works or from their own obedience, from themselves a self-righteousness rather than a righteousness that comes to them by faith from God.
And so there are really two types of sinners in the world that are reflected in these two types of prayers in the world. Those are: those who look away from themselves and look to God for his grace and for his mercy in Christ alone for their salvation, and there are those who look to themselves for their salvation, either in whole or in part by contributing with God's grace in one way or another. One of them we could say is the prayer of the humble, and the other one we could say is the prayer of the prideful or the self-righteous. And so we want to look at these as we go through this evening.
Three things in particular: One, a prideful prayer; second, a humble prayer; and third, a profound pronouncement. A prideful prayer, a humble prayer, and a profound pronouncement.
And let's hear now the word of God, Luke 18, starting in verse 9. It says:
"He, Jesus, also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves 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 collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get. But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up 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 one. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted."
So for the reading of God's holy word, may he bless it to our hearing.
And so we know it at the very beginning that there are two men that went up to the temple to pray. It was the most sacred location in all of Israel. They went up ostensibly to do the same thing: to pray. But their prayers are very different, and the outcomes of their prayers are very different. They went to the same service, they stood slightly apart, and they're doing the same things but for different reasons. And it's interesting that the only word that they have in common in their prayer is the word "God." Everything else is different about these.
And so we want to first look at this prideful prayer, the prayer of the Pharisee, the self-righteous, if you will. When we call someone a Pharisee in our day, we mean it in a very derogatory term usually; but in the context that we're reading this, we must recognize that the Pharisees were well-respected. They were the most pious. They were religiously conservative. They were scrupulous. They cared about the law. They wanted to be obedient to these things. And a Pharisee is really kind of set up as someone to be looked up to in the society.
And in this story, we find the Pharisee is standing off by himself, and he prayed this prayer. He said, "God, I thank you." And that's a fantastic start to a prayer. But it goes downhill from there, doesn't it? What did he thank God for? Did he thank God for his grace, or for his love, or for his mercy? For his majesty? For his holiness? For his creation? For the sunrise? For the sunset? For food? For shelter? For the temple? For his word? For his faithfulness? For his abiding presence? For puppies? For ice cream. All the things that he could thank God for?
What does he thank God for? He says, "God, I thank you that I'm not like other men." And then he goes on to list sins in which he hasn't personally participated. He says, "God, I thank you that I'm not an extortioner." In other words, "I thank you that I'm not a robber or a swindler. I don't take stuff from my neighbor. In other words, I haven't violated the Eighth Commandment. I don't steal." He says, "I thank you that I'm not unjust," which is really an elastic term, really anything that falls short of the righteousness of God. He's saying, "I've done these things." And he said, "and I thank you that I'm not an adulterer. In other words, I haven't violated the Seventh Commandment." So: "God, I thank you, and I'm not like other men who do those things. I'm not an extortioner. I'm not unjust. I'm not an adulterer." And notice he goes from the general to the very specific. He first started off by, in essence, saying, "I thank you that I'm not like all y'all." But then he goes on to narrow it, and he says, "and God, I thank you that I'm not like this tax collector. someone else in his community. Someone else that had gone up to the temple to pray, someone else in the covenant community."
Reverend Bales preached here this morning, and I see that you had a time of confession. Can you imagine if during that time of confession, you have a time of silent confession, and if I would have been here, and I would have been leading this, and I would have said out loud, "Dear God, thank you that I'm not like Angelo Contreras"? You would have thought, "You're a jerk," and you'd be right. First of all, it'd be wonderful to be like Angelo Contreras, but another thing: we ought not to say things like that publicly. What comes out of our mouth reveals what is in our heart. He's showing contempt for another brother in the covenant community who's under the same judgment of wrath that he is and needs the same mercy and forgiveness to be righteous and holy that he does.
Can you imagine the poor guy standing there? "God, I thank you that I'm not like other men. I don't do this, I don't do this. And thank you that I'm not like that guy." Think of the pride. Think of the hubris, the arrogance of it all.
And then, having justified himself before God by things that he didn't do, he's now going to seek to justify himself: "Well, look at what I have done. Here are my positive acts of righteousness." I've avoided doing these things, but look at all the things that I've done.
And so he said, "I fast twice a week." Guess what? The law only required that he do this once a year. He's going well beyond the requirements of the law and thinking that God should be impressed with him and pleased with him at the things that he's doing. And he also goes on to say, "I give tithes of all that I get." This is also more than law required. They were to give tithes on certain things, but not on everything that they get.
So you can see what he's doing here: He's saying, "I thank you that I've not done these things, and look at all the things that I've done." And in some sense, we want to pause and say: Those are good things, right? We should certainly obey the Ten Commandments. We certainly should do things to honor the Lord. We are to be honest. We are to be faithful. We are to be just. We are to avoid stealing and committing adultery.
But note that he only picked the things that he obeyed. What about coveting? What about gossip? What about envy? What about complaining? What about impatience? What about self-righteousness, which he's manifesting on full display? What about hatred in your heart, which he's manifesting as well? Sin is deceptive like that, isn't it? We think that we're good or okay because we haven't done these things when there's a whole list of other things. Maybe we've compared ourselves to someone else in the congregation and said, "I didn't do those things." But you ought not to be comparing yourself to one another. You ought to be comparing yourself to our thrice holy God. And when we do that, we find we've fallen far short. that there's no hope of us attaining that kind of righteousness or holiness on our own, sparing of ourselves, and fleeing out to the Lord.
In effect, this guy's prayer is: "I thank you, God, that I'm such a great guy. You're fortunate to have me in the community. You're lucky." Pride permeates his whole prayer. It's just filled with the pronouns "I," "I," "I," "me," "me," "me," right? He's praying to the unholy trinity, in essence, of me, myself, and I, rather than the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is really self-praise, not praise to God. He's gone well beyond the call of duty in his own mind, and he thinks that God should be impressed with him.
And we find that such a prayer is offensive to Jesus. Unless you think I'm being a real meanie, this is what the text says in verse 9: This parable is told to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and he treated others with contempt. This is exactly what he's doing, isn't it? He's looking at himself and thinking that he's self-righteous.
I'm gonna ask you a question, and I want you to answer it out loud as a church. I know you know the answer to this one, so it's a softball: Was Father Abraham justified by works of the law or by faith?
By the works of the law, beloved? How many people are gonna be righteous before God? None. This wasn't something new. He should have known. It's not through self-righteousness. It's not through the works of the law. It's not through his obedience that one is righteous before God, but by faith, and by faith alone faith alone in the promises. Faith alone in Jesus Christ, as we confess from the Heidelberg. So we recognize that he's self-righteous. He really has no faith. His faith is in himself, not in God. But also, he treated others with contempt. He failed at the second table of the law. He doesn't have love for his neighbor. He's saying, "Thank God I'm not like that guy." He's more like that guy than he is like Christ. He's more like that guy than he is like the Lord. By his words and by his actions and his deeds, he shows that he's self-righteous and he's treating others with contempt.
Beloved, recall that we are justified by faith, not by works of the law. It's by faith alone that we are justified. And so if you don't get anything else out of the sermon, get this: One theologian summed this up well. The Pharisee compared himself to others, and he thought he was doing well. We're going to find that the tax collector compares himself to God and finds he is unwell.
What the Pharisee said about himself was true. The tragedy here is not that the Pharisee was not far enough along on the road, but that he was on the wrong road.
So if you don't get anything else out of the sermon, get this: He was on the law road. He was on the road of works righteousness, of self-righteousness. And it's not that he just hadn't gone far enough, that he didn't do enough and he needed to give it the old college try and dig in and do a little bit more or stop doing this or that, it's the wrong road.
I'm going to ask you again, beloved: By works of the law, how many are going to be made righteous? He's on the wrong road. He needs to be on the faith road, and faith alone. It's not that he wasn't far enough along? Wrong path. It's through faith and through faith alone that one receives justification, one is made righteous with God.
And so we see the prayer of the proud. We see the prayer of the self-righteous. Let's look at our second point: the humble prayer, that of the tax collector.
Tax collectors in that day were the most hated profession in the empire. They needed to collect a certain amount for the Jews, but then Rome allowed them to collect as much as they wanted after that. It was given to excess. It was given to greed. It was given to unfairness. These tax collectors were hated and despised. They were often associated with the most despised classes of society, harlots, drunkards, gluttons, and tax collectors, right? They weren't given the respect that we show our IRS agents today, right? They were hated.
And so there's a clear contrast here. Note the text: "But the tax collector." The Pharisee this, but the tax collector, note even his posture: "standing far off, would not even lift his eyes to heaven, but he beat his breast." In other words, the very seat, command center of what it means to be human, his thought, his will, his emotions, his desires, everything. that he's recognizing that he is unworthy and he just wants to call out to God, despair of himself. He's standing far off. He doesn't even feel comfortable lifting his eyes to heaven.
We heard one of the worst prayers in Scripture. Now we hear one of the most beautiful prayers in scripture. Short, sweet, powerful, to the point, glorious: "God, be merciful to me, a sinner."
There's no self-confidence here. There's no pride, there's no negotiation. Just someone who's penitent, someone who's repents, someone who recognizes he's a sinner. He's not comparing himself to other people. Even as he looks for forgiveness, he recognizes what he deserves.
The text could even be translated as "God be merciful to me, the sinner." Not just a sinner. He's almost in essence putting himself in a class by himself. Like the Pharisee put himself in a category by himself, I thank you that I'm not like other men. I'm not extortioner, I'm not an adulterer, I don't do these things, look at all I've done, puts himself in a class by himself. This sinner puts himself in a class by himself: "God, be merciful to me, the sinner." This is what happens when someone gets confronted with the law and someone gets confronted with the holy God and recognizes their desperate need.
We can think of the Apostle Paul using similar language, saying, "I'm the chief of all sinners" because of what he did in persecuting the church. And so he asks for mercy because mercy is the only thing for which he dared to ask. He doesn't say, "Can we negotiate? Can we work something out? Is there another way?" Just "God, be merciful to me, the sinner."
And the word that he uses for mercy is a really unique word. Kids, this is one of the big words of the Bible that I know that you learn here as well. It's the word propitiation. And it's a really great word. Propitiation means to have God's wrath satisfied for us by another. It's turned away. We are sinners and we deserve God's wrath. And to have someone propitiate your sins means to cover them, to satisfy them for you, and to turn God's wrath away from you, to have a substitute. In essence, he's praying for a substitute, someone to take my sins away, someone to make me righteous, someone to make me right with you because I can't do it on my own. I can't do it through the works of the law. I can't do it through self-righteousness. I am bankrupt. I am the sinner. I am utterly dependent on your mercy, upon your propitiation.
And so the word that he uses is talking about turning away the wrath of God. "Turn your wrath away from me by satisfying it through a substitute, through someone else." It's the word that was ultimately used for those of you who are familiar with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. When the priest would have two animals brought to him, and on one of them he would confess all the sins of the people and he would send it out into the wilderness symbolizing to them that your sins are taken away, all of them. They've been put on the substitute, and they're gone. And on the head of the other one would confess their sins, and then that animal would be slaughtered and its blood would be spilt over what seat, beloved? The mercy seat. These sins are covered. All of this in the Old Covenant was pointing forward to one who could take away our sins ultimately.
The scripture says that the blood of bulls and goats can't take away our sins, but they show forward a way, a propitiation, a type of one who would, and that is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And so the Apostle John writes this: "He says, in this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be a propitiation for us. a wrath-satisfying, wrath-turning-away substitute for us. How marvelous.
And that's what this man prays for. He would have heard about this throughout the Scriptures. He would have seen this throughout his life of participating in the Old Covenant sacrifices and ceremonies. He would have heard about this in Psalm 51. He would have heard about this in Psalm 32. He would have heard about this throughout Scripture.
And it's easy for us to come into a beautiful place like your church here. You have one of the most beautiful buildings and most beautiful sanctuaries I know of. And it's nice, and it's clean, and it's spotless, and I think that's a great thing. But if you would have gone to the temple in the day? Not so much. There's blood spilled here and there. It's smelly. There's animal carcasses. There's all kinds of things to remind you over and over of your sin and to remind you over and over of God's provision in that.
And so he wants a substitute. He wants someone to stand in his place, to bear the penalty for him, and to live a life of righteousness in his stead. All of his liturgy showed him that he needed this. And all of scripture shows us that we need this. And now the one telling the parable, He is the one, he is the lamb who is a propitiation for our sins, a God-satisfying substitute.
The wages of sin is death. And Jesus Christ died for us, not as an example, but in our place, as our substitute, in our stead. And in addition, he lived a life of perfect righteousness in our place, as our substitute, in our stead. And that's credited to our account as if we had done it ourselves. This is remarkable to even think about. All of our sins are what we say imputed to or put on Jesus. and all of his righteousness is put on us. And we make that our own in no other way than by working really hard, right, beloved? No, by faith alone, which is a gift.
We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, for God's glory alone, according to the word of God alone.
The one standing before them at that very moment was on his way to Jerusalem to lay down his life for his people that their sins would be taken away and then he would be raised up again on the third day showing that his sacrifice was accepted, showing that he conquered sin, showing that he conquered Satan showing that he conquered death.
So we hear the prayer of a self-righteous, prideful person, and then we hear the prayer of a humble, penitent person. And now we want to conclude by looking at a profound pronouncement.
Note that this cry for mercy, this simple and beautiful, profound prayer was immediately answered. In verse 14 it says: "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other."
Rather than the other might even be a little bit too weak. It could say "and not the other." There are no half measures with Jesus. He didn't go home partially justified or on the right track. He did not go home justified in any way, and the other one went home completely justified. Imagine calling out, "God be merciful to me," and you can hear the assurance that that prayer is answered because of Jesus Christ, like you hear every week: "Beloved, your sins are forgiven. You are declared righteous. You are adopted, you are loved. There's nothing in all of creation that can separate you from the love of God in Jesus Christ forever and ever, amen." A wonderful announcement that's given.
There are no half measures with Jesus.
And so there's a great reversal of expectations here. A great kingdom principle that's given to us in verse 14: "It says, everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted And that's what happened in the in The parable isn't it the one who exalts himself the pharisee the self-righteous goes away humbled. He went away unjustified. He went away still in his sins. He went his way way still under the wrath and condemnation of God. And the other one, who humbled himself, was exalted beyond his wildest imaginations united to the savior, forgiven, declared righteous, adopted, love forever and ever. Nothing able to separate him from the love of God the Father, in the Son, through the Holy Spirit.
It reminds us of our Lord and Savior Jesus in Philippians 2. There's one who humbled himself and was ultimately exalted. We recognize Jesus as the eternal Son of God, takes on human flesh. He humbles himself by becoming human, by becoming man, by taking on the form of the servant, that he might pay the penalty for our sins in the flesh, that he might live a life of perfect obedience in our stead in the flesh, that he would be crucified, dead, and buried, and raised again for us. He humbled himself, and then he was exalted. Where is Jesus right now, friends? He is at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us, having accomplished our salvation. Everything that we need for faith and for life is found in him. He humbled himself, and he was ultimately exalted beyond every other name.
And so it's at the name of Jesus that we can be saved and only at the name of Jesus, friends. Christianity, in some ways, is the most exclusive religion in the world, and in some ways is the most inclusive religion in the world. It's exclusive in the sense in that it's Christ and Christ alone there's no other name given by which men must be saved. It's Jesus. But it's also the most inclusive because, as we heard in our call to worship: "Come to me. Come to me, you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart." Anyone, everyone, Jew, Gentile, slave, free, barbarian, Scythian, tax collector, glutton, sinner, self-righteous Pharisee, anyone who comes in faith and repentance will be saved.
And we recognize then in this passage that great truth: that justification is not a matter of merit but it's a matter of mercy. And we see the mercy here.
And I'd like to conclude by just turning a little bit farther. Turn, and you will if you're in your bible, to Luke chapter 19. Within one week, we find a wee little man also a tax collector, a sinner climbing up a tree to see and to hear this Jesus. It's a remarkable story to think about.
Luke chapter 19, verse 1, says: "He, Jesus, entered Jericho and was passing through, and behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was. But on account of the crowd, he could not because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him. For he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and he saw him. Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today. So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled. He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner. And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold. And Jesus said, Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham, for the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.
Isn't that marvelous? How many of you know that your banker or your lawyer likes to hike up their pants and run into trees to hear the gospel, right? Imagine how unusual this is. What had possessed Zacchaeus to do this? He must have heard the story of Jesus. He must have heard of this kind of love and this kind of mercy. that Who's the guy that's going around showing mercy to tax collectors? He knows he's guilty. He knows that he needs something. And he's heard about the love of God. He's heard about the love of Jesus. He's heard about the mercy of Jesus. He's heard about the power of Jesus. And he just can't wait to go and to see and to hear him.
And I hope from this pulpit here, and I hope from all URC pulpits, I hope from all true church pulpits throughout the world, that the beauty and the glory and the majesty of Jesus is proclaimed so that people see him as beautiful and people see him as holy and people see him as loving and merciful, and that they can't wait to come and tell me that good news. Tell me about the one who can forgive a tax collector, a sinner like me, someone who has mercy.
And you'll notice that even in this story, what did some do? They grumbled. "How can you forgive that guy?" And Jesus said, "That's the reason why I came. The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."
If we were righteous and holy, beloved, we wouldn't need Jesus. It's because we are unrighteous and unholy that we desperately need Jesus. He's come to people like you and I. He's come to people like this tax collector. And he's opened his arms wide, and he said, "Come. You who are weary and heavy laden, you who recognize you're a sinner, you who want mercy, come." And then he doesn't give us a to-do list. He sends us away justified, forgiven, adopted, and loved. Amen?
Let's pray.
Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this story. We thank you for reminding us, on the one hand, what our sin deserves. And we recognize that we are, in our unregenerate state, at least much more like the tax collector, trying to earn salvation or merit salvation or prove that you are wise to elect us. But we thank you for giving us the law, which shows us our sin and shows us our misery and shows us that we need mercy. And we thank you that you provide that mercy for us in and through Jesus Christ, who is a propitiation, a wrath-turning, wrath-satisfying substitute for us that we could have life and that we could have it abundantly. Father, I pray that you'd be with Escondido United Reformed Church. I pray that they would continue to be undone by your grace and by your mercy. May it be new to them every morning. May they recognize that we have nothing to boast about in terms of our salvation. We are recipients. We receive an embarrassment of riches: Christ, plus all of his benefits. And may we be found to be gracious and generous and merciful to those around us as you have been towards us.
And Father, everyone in this room has friends and family who don't yet know you and don't yet confess the name of Jesus. And Father, you are the one who is mighty and powerful to save. We ask that you would be merciful to them and save them for Christ's sake.
And all God's children said, amen.