Turn with me now, if you would, in your pew Bibles to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 18. Luke 18, we're going to begin reading at verse 9, finishing at verse 14. A rather familiar parable likely to some, if not most of you, the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Luke 18, beginning at verse 9. Jesus is speaking to a crowd of people, and Luke takes up his narrative here at verse 9. He, that is 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'm 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. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. But the one who humbles himself will be exalted. We'll be looking further at this passage, so please leave it out on your lap if you could, so you can look at it quickly. Well, brothers and sisters, in our Lord Jesus Christ, you may know, you're likely aware, that all kinds of people tend to be exclusive in the way that they think, in the way that they act. Already at a young age, people separate themselves into distinct little groups that reflect who they are and what they prefer. Their little group says something about who they are and what their character is like. People want to know who is inside their little group and who is outside the group. And to make sure that only those people who share their unique identity get in and stay in their unique group, people often adopt unique visible practices. Maybe it's a unique kind of clothing or unique lingo or vocabulary or a different kind of behavior to make sure that only these kind of people remain in their group. They want to separate themselves from the outsiders. And we see this in daily life, don't we? For example, if you were driving down the freeway in the 1960s and you drove past a Volkswagen van, the van's plastered with make love, not war bumper stickers. And as you pass by a little bit closer to the van, you look inside and you see here's a man with long hair, with granny glasses and a tie-dye shirt. You could be fairly certain based on this person's appearance that he's a hippie. Or if you were cruising down the interstate in the 1980s and you passed by a classy BMW driven by a young man, sporty young man, with Gucci loafers and a Rolex watch, you'd be fairly certain you'd passed a yuppie. Some of you are heading into college. And you know that at college, every fraternity or sorority has its own crest or its own symbol, maybe its own uniform even, to set them apart from everybody else. Every treehouse or childhood clubhouse has its in-group and it has its out-group. Signs on the door, no girls allowed, no boys allowed. Well, Jesus in his parable, the Pharisee and the tax collector, is targeting an audience known for its exclusive behavior. In fact, we read from Luke that Jesus told His parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others, that is the outsiders, with contempt. And it's very likely, brothers and sisters in the Lord, that Jesus' audience to whom He tells this parable is composed somewhat or mostly of Pharisees who were part of a unique sect or group of Judaism. And boys and girls, you may know that the Pharisees had a reputation. They had a reputation for very good outward religious behavior and they set themselves apart from everybody else by being professionally religious. They were Jewish yuppies, so to speak. But Jesus, we're going to notice as we look at this parable, Jesus was not impressed with their exclusive law-abiding abilities because he saw that at the heart of their outward practice, their view of themselves was far higher than it ought to have been. And we need to remember that this attitude of self-righteousness was not just limited to the Pharisees, but in fact, it was the kind of attitude that characterized the entire nation of Israel. And that's why Jesus tells this parable to expose that error, that defect of self-righteousness. But even more broadly, perhaps this parable is a very important and pertinent warning to all of us If the error, the defect of self-righteous thinking, skews the way that we view the gospel. Well, in our parable, Jesus teaches that God's gift of righteousness is given to those who depend on His mercy. God's gift of righteousness is given to those who depend on His mercy. We want to look at this under just two points this morning. First of all, we want to examine briefly the two very different kinds of prayer that are offered by the two main characters of Jesus' parable, the Pharisee and the tax collector. And second of all, we want to notice that while there are two very different kinds of prayer, there's only one kind of justification. Jesus says, only one man goes home justified, righteous, declared righteous in the sight of God. Two kinds of prayer, one kind of justification. Well, let's take a moment now, as we look at our Bibles, to examine these two very different kinds of prayer offered by the two men in Jesus' parable. And as we look at these two prayers, we need to notice right off the bat that Jesus introduces these characters and brings into his parable a little bit of irony. And Jesus did that often when he would tell parables. We read right at the start that two men went into the temple to pray. One a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. we can almost see in the mind of the collective crowd, we can see the wheels turning in the mind's crowd. They must have thought to themselves, oh my, a Pharisee and a tax collector. The Pharisee is going to look wonderful in Jesus' parable compared to that rat, that cheat, the tax collector. In fact, how does he even dare show his face in the temple area? How does he dare come here to pray to God with all of his Jewish brothers? But contrary to what the crowd might have thought, Jesus has no intention whatsoever of praising the Pharisee. In fact, as we're going to see in just a moment as we look at his prayer, that Jesus seeks to expose and point out his self-righteousness and that of anyone who identifies with his manner of thinking. Well, first, we see the Pharisee. He enters the scene into the temple throng where all kinds of worshipers are offering their prayers and their sacrifices to the Lord. Notice the way that this so-called religious expert, this so-called professional and religious ceremony and observation comes before God in prayer. Jesus continues in verse 11, The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus, God, I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector behind me here. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get. Look what the Pharisee does. He positions himself pridefully before God. He stands in front of everybody in the outer temple court and he prays about himself in a manner so that all can see and all can hear. Notice, he hardly prays to or even about God at all. This so-called pro, this professional at prayer talks all about himself. mentioning God only once so that at least he'll take notice of his wonderful, pious and holy credentials. But he speaks of himself. He uses the first-person pronoun, I, five times in his prayer to draw everyone's attention to his apparent self-righteousness. After addressing God in his opening words, he never refers to him again. But he himself is never out of the spotlight from beginning to end. He stands before God as if to say, My resume of righteousness, O God, here it is. Take notice. Read it carefully. He glances at God, but then contemplates himself the entire time. My resume, God, of righteousness. Look, I'm much better than this tax collector behind me here. I fast twice a week. Brothers and sisters in the Lord, we need to see and notice and remember that the Old Testament law never required somebody to fast this often. In fact, according to Old Testament law, it was only one day out of the year, on the Day of Atonement, that it was a requirement for God's people to fast. But the Pharisee says, I do it twice a week. Not only do I fast twice a week, O God, but I give tithes, He says, of all that I get. In Deuteronomy 14, God required a yearly tithe of one's crops, but not of everything that an Israelite man acquired. This Pharisee knew that the goods and the produce that he bought from the Jewish man had already been tithed by the man who grew them and produced them. and sold them, but he tithed of it again anyway. You see, the Pharisee in Jesus' parable is going above and beyond the call of duty to prove to God by his works that he was truly righteous. In fact, he believed that he could outdo God himself by his meritorious deeds. It's as if he says to God, God, I know you've set up these statutes for us to follow. But I'm going to do even more. I'm going to prove my holiness to you in ways beyond, ways greater than you, the holy God, have stipulated in your word. If we haven't seen it by now, we need to notice how arrogant is the prayer of this Pharisee. Even though he wants to thank God for what God has done for him, really what the Pharisee is asking is that God would thank him for such a righteous and apparently holy person he was. You see, the Pharisee, Luke tells us, represents the broader audience of Jesus who are said to be those who pridefully look down on everybody else and treated them with contempt. But Jesus condemns this kind of spiritual pride. There is nothing more opposed, brothers and sisters in the Lord, to the spirit of the gospel than spiritual and personal pride. It simply doesn't belong in the lives of those who are members of the kingdom of God. In fact, the presence of this kind of pride in someone's life reveals that that person is far away from God and doesn't truly know Him. Because knowing God leads us to humility. To look not to our righteousness, but to the righteousness of God. And in fact, we see that with the Pharisee. Despite all of the pious airs that he put on before God and before the entire temple throng, He proves by the words of his prayer that he doesn't truly know God at all. He does what's fitting for a believer, at least outwardly. He comes and offers his prayer in all kinds of zeal, with loud cries, but in reality he's very far from the Lord. He's separate, he's ignorant from the Lord, not worshiping God, but worshiping himself in all of his vaunted superiority. And brothers and sisters, if we are honest, we realize that often we are sometimes guilty of that very attitude before God, whether it be in corporate worship, during personal prayer, during our weekly activities, when we are successful. C.S. Lewis offers some pertinent words regarding the condemnation of this kind of self-righteousness that Jesus proclaims. Lewis writes this, Whenever we find that our religious life is making us feel that we are good, above all, that we are better than someone else, I think we may be sure that we are being acted on, but not by God, but by the devil. The real test of being in the presence of God, he says, is that you either forget about yourself altogether or see yourself as a small, dirty object. And in many ways, he's right. That's the kind of humility in prayer and in all of life that God desires and requires. It's the kind of humility, not that we find illustrated in the Pharisee, But that we find illustrated in the tax collector. In contrast to the Pharisee in Jesus' parable, we read, 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. You see, the tax collector, rather than the Pharisee, has a realistic view of himself before God and before his fellow men. The tax collector realized that as a tax collector, he was not a popular man in Israel. He, in the eyes of his fellow Jews, he had done the unthinkable. He was a traitor. He was a cheater. He had sold out to, he had become an agent of the hated Roman Empire. He had cheated his brothers of their money. And the tax collector knows that his sin has not escaped his brother's eyes, but it also hasn't escaped the scrutiny of God. And so he, due to his shame, due to his guilt before God and before his brothers, he stands back in the temple area. But he stands back for a very different reason than the arrogant Pharisee. He stands back, not because of some presumed superiority, but because he realizes his inferiority, his sinfulness, his guilt. Rather than lifting his head and his hands in a gesture of self-righteous pomp, he lowers his head. He beats his breast in genuine grief, in sorrow over his sin. And he doesn't come to God saying, God, look at all I've done. He doesn't brag of his obedience, but he comes asking. He comes pleading humbly of God for things that he knows he doesn't deserve. He begs for those things that he knows he could only receive by the grace and the mercy of God. Notice his words with me. He says, God, be merciful to me. The sinner. The Greek here is actually much more emphatic. He's saying to God, I am the man. I am the sinner who cannot boast of anything good in myself. My only hope, he says, is to appeal for your mercy, for your grace, O God. The prayer of the tax collector is the true prayer of a true sinner because it begins and ends with a cry for God's mercy. By the tax collector, not the Pharisee. By the tax collector, Jesus illustrates the kind of religion, the true religion that God accepts. And anybody in the crowd that day who had truly listened to God's Word, who had memorized Psalm 51, for example, where the psalmist begins with a cry for mercy, would have known that it was not the Pharisee who was the one being held up as a good example to the people. It was the tax collector. It was a tax collector, though not the so-called pro at religion like the Pharisee. It was the tax collector who had a much better grasp of the Psalter, of the psalm. It was the tax collector. who was a much better interpreter, an exegete of the Word of God. Because he understood, he grasped what is the proper posture that we must always have as God's people before Him and before each other. As we notice from comparing these two prayers, first of all, we notice that humility is absolutely a necessity as we approach our God. And really, it is only those who are conscious of their sin, who are conscious of their sin and repentant of it, that will ever see and feel the desire to come to Christ and to God for forgiveness. And while this parable certainly exposes our problem with human pride, it does something more. It unearths the root of pride most of all, that of self-righteousness. And that's why Luke records that this parable was spoken particularly to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous. And we saw that already in the prayer of the Pharisee, didn't we? In the manner in which he prayed, he revealed the self-righteousness that plagued his soul. He boasted of all that he had done, but there's something that the Pharisee did not do. Oh, he spoke in grand terms about what he had done for God, but he never asked for God's forgiveness. He never provided a plea for forgiveness, for cleansing, for washing by the hand of God. And we learn, the verdict of the parable comes to us, that this man did not go home justified in the sight of God. You see, foundational to the Pharisee's problem with self-righteousness was an even deeper problem. The Pharisee had a standard problem. He had a standard problem, a mixed-up standard by which to judge his own self-righteousness before God and before others. Now, boys and girls, what was the Pharisee's standard? What was his standard, his measuring stick by which to judge his own righteousness? Well, it was the character, it was the actions of other people. That's why he begins his prayer thanking God that he is not like other men, the tax collector. the adulterers, the sinners. Compared to them, the Pharisee thought, well, I look pretty good. I look very good compared to these other men. But what is the true standard for righteousness according to the Word of God? The true standard is nothing less than the perfect law of God. And Romans 2.13 reveals to us that only those who do the law will be justified. But the command is not simply, oh, touch on a few laws and you'll be fine. As long as you do a few, God will view you justified. He will declare you just. No. Not at all. The command is that only those who obey the law completely and perfectly will be justified. The standard is nothing less than perfection because the law reflects the very perfect nature of God Himself. That's why Jesus said in Matthew 5, you must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. If you're suffering from the sickness of self-righteousness this morning, brothers and sisters, all you need is a healthy dose, a healthy examination of what the law of God says. The law of God, His perfect standard, is the prime medication, the principal antidote that will make it all clear. Because as we compare our lives to the law of God, we cannot help but realize that even by our small measure of obedience, We can and will never be justified, as the Pharisee thought. Rather, as we compare ourselves to God's perfect law, we become overwhelmingly aware that by the works of the law, no one will be justified in God's sight. Why? Because Romans 3.20 tells us that the law exposes our sin. Through the law comes knowledge of sin, not of our own righteousness. When we take a good long look at God's perfect standard, we become quickly aware that self-righteousness is as dangerous as it is foolish. But, but, when the Spirit of God enlivens our hearts, transforms our lives to reveal to us that we are sick, and it strengthens us and empowers us to humbly desire the care of Jesus, our great and perfect physician, we will experience His healing power. In Mark chapter 2 verse 17, Jesus said something beautiful that we need to take notice of, that we need to reflect upon. In Mark chapter 2, Jesus remarked that He did not come to heal or care for the righteous. That is, those who believed that they were righteous in and of themselves. No, Jesus came to heal, to care for sinners who knew that they had no righteousness to bring. He came to teach, Jesus did, that God justifies sinners like the tax collector, like you and I. And that was a message that the Pharisees despised. What was the real difference between these two men? The Pharisee and the tax collector. The real difference was their ground of justification before God. The Pharisee attempted to justify himself before God on the basis of his own work, on his merit, on his own obedience. But the tax collector, grounded, fortified his justification before God in the mercy of God, received through faith. One commentator describes these two men in a very interesting way. The Pharisee cried out to God, Me! Me! Me! Look at all I've done! And it was this man that did not go home justified. But the tax collector cried, Me, the sinner. And Jesus pronounces it was this man who went home justified before God. Self-righteousness is opposed to the Gospel. It's opposed to God and to the biblical faith. But the righteousness of God is for those who have received and who depend upon the mercy and the grace of God by faith. It's fitting for us, brothers and sisters, as those who have been saved by grace, to live out now our lives by that same grace and the power of the Holy Spirit. And when we do, as we do, we will be careful that we don't snub our noses at those in or outside the church who struggle with sin. We will refrain by God's grace and power from that wretched game where we decide who is and who is not worthy of the gospel. And we will instead look to Christ and His righteousness, taking no confidence in the works of our hands. We will humbly latch onto Christ, dash our sins against His cross, and depend upon His grace, look daily to His grace as the ground of our confidence, as the ground of our hope as believers. We will cry out like the tax collector for God's mercy in a very special way. Because we read here in Jesus' parable that the Pharisee came to God, came into the temple throng, and he asked not just for any mercy. He asked for atoning mercy. When the tax collector came into the temple that was likely filled with smoke from all of the animal sacrifices being offered for sin, for atonement. He prayed not just that he would have general mercy, but Jesus uses a very special term here. A word that pleads for atoning mercy. The tax collector stands among the righteous offering their sacrifices and he pleads that atonement would be made for him. He yearns that once again, though a tax collector, though a sinner, that He would once again stand in the company, in the presence of the righteous who are washed in the blood of the Lamb. And so in deep remorse, He strikes His chest. And He cries out in repentance and hope, O God, let it be for Me. Make an atonement. For me, the sinner. And we learn, just as this is our cry as sinners, we learn that we are most certainly justified. We go home justified because of the blood of the Lamb. The tax collector and us sinners go home and are called righteous. Because God presented Jesus Christ as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in His blood. And it's only on that basis, brothers and sisters, it's only on that unshakable ground, that foundation that will never be shaken. That ground, by God's grace, through the atonement God provided, through the sacrifice of the precious body and blood of Jesus Christ, it's on that foundation that we are justified and received into the presence of God. Jesus died for us, sinners, who have no righteousness to bring. And through His righteousness, we are truly declared just. And by the power of God's Spirit, which is always at work in us, we can renounce our works. We can confess our sins and trust in Him alone for His shed blood, in His shed blood for our redemption. We can, by the power and the strength of God's Spirit, reject any remains of self-righteousness that clings to us and share in this wonderful comfort that we are clothed in the righteousness of the slain but now ascended and reigning Lamb of God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humble, but everyone who humbles himself will be exalted. Let's pray. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we are so thankful for our Lamb of God. Though the error, the defect of self-righteousness, the sin of self-righteousness may plague our hearts and minds on occasion, we know that it has come before you to confess our sin and proclaim our need that we are forgiven. That like the tax collector, we receive mercy. We receive grace because an atonement was made by the righteous Lamb of God in our place. We go home today declared by You, the Most Holy God, to be righteous, to be justified, because of the Lamb of God. And so, Lord, by Your Spirit, may You strengthen us to let go of any thoughts of self-righteousness or meritorious righteousness, to dash our sins against the cross of Christ and to depend upon Your mercy and grace for life and for living. This we pray in the name of our Lamb, Jesus Christ. Amen.