Thank you for directing your internet connection to this sermon audio page for Christ Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Learn more about ChristOPC by visiting our webpage at www.ChristOPCATL.org. Currently, ChristOPC is meeting on campus each Sunday at 11 a.m. and 5.30 p.m. for worship using social distancing protocols and assigned seating. Childcare is available at the 11 a.m. worship. Please contact the church through its website for additional information and directions. It is a real delight to be with you all. I don't know all of you, but I know some of you from way back, way, way back, some of you, some of you more recently, and thank you again for your hospitality. It really was wonderful to be here for the meeting of our presbytery. And I personally am glad to be back in this presbytery of the Southeast. Ohio's nice. I kind of like it around here. So I am so glad to be with you and have the opportunity to bring God's word to you from two passages from the gospel of Luke this morning and this evening. I'm going to do the latter portion of the reading of scripture from Luke 18 today in the morning, and then this evening we'll pick up the first part of the chapter. Both of these chapters or sections have to do with prayer, different aspects of prayer of which we need to be more and more So I'm going to simply read our text, The Pharisee and the Tax Collector. He 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. For anyone, everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. May the Lord apply this, his word by his Holy Spirit to each of our hearts, effectually calling us to greater repentance for our sins. Shall we pray? Lord, we do come before you with fear and trembling, because it is so easy, so foolish but easy, to be proud of being here even though we sing your grace. Help us to learn humility from the most humble of all, our dear Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen. I ran across a new word recently. Maybe it's not all that common. I haven't heard it since. But it was the term humblebrag. I don't know if anybody else has ever heard this before, but it's something really funny. It's a funny, funny word. So I looked up some illustrations of a humblebrag. Brag. By the way, does that make any sense? Humble brag? Which is it? Is it bragging or is it humble? Well, here's an example. Somebody says, oh no, I just spilled red wine on my new book contract. Bumbling through life, silly me. Well, which is it? Is it humble that they're so clumsy? Or did they happen to mention their new book contract? I like to go out on the Tennessee River down in Chattanooga. And I like to use a kayak. Some people are out there in inner tubes or whatever. Can you imagine a guy riding by in his 80-foot yacht, gold fixtures or whatever. And he looks down and he goes, hey, down there. You get to be so much closer to the water and nature. I envy you, I really do. And vroom, off he speeds in his big yacht, and you are left in his wake, wondering if he really meant it. Would he really rather be in your kayak or on his big 80-foot yacht? Here's another one. Just filed my taxes. Biggie was right. More money, more problems. Oh, poor you. Oh, you have so much money. Oh, but you have taxes. I know, it's just a hard thing. So which is it? Is it humble or is it bragging? Poor you. Well, it's called false modesty. You want people to think that you are humble, but you are bragging because you think that you're smart. Now here we have Humility and pride in the same passage. You might look at the Pharisee and maybe it's not even all that humble. It's a straight old brag, isn't it? Well, he does say, I thank you, God. Well, that sounds a little bit humble. But from then on, it's I, I, I, I, I, I, I. I thank you that I am not like other men. Now it is so hard to comment on pride. What I'm doing right now is extremely dangerous. I'm at church, so are you. I'm standing up front. Look, I'm higher. Do you see? It's so easy. Somebody's standing up front, somebody leading in prayer, somebody in the public eye. So easy to fall into the trap of pride. We heard a wonderful message. If you happen to hear it at Presbytery, it was a blessing from the new pastor at Cornerstone. It's hard to comment on it, but you really can't escape it either. It really is impossible to escape without the grace of God. I can't escape it either. You know, I know. If I don't think I'm proud, you'll be able to tell me otherwise. Now, the problem is we each have to know in our own lives what we really are. We forget where we have come from. Even we forget where we are now in our own Christian lives, so falling short of the glory of God, are we not? how far short we fall, and where we are now is nowhere near what we should be. But even that is by the grace of God alone. We just said that in the Heidelberg Catechism. Whatever faith we have, it's the salvation that's given us by grace alone. And we love to say that we believe that. It's really dangerous. to say you believe that which makes you humble, and people will be watching. Is that really the way you are? The Pharisees, of course, were notorious for their pride. Or maybe it was just plain famous. Some people actually liked the way they were. Until Christ appeared, the Pharisees were actually pretty comfortable. They were famous. They were well thought of. They were respected. And they were better than those Sadducees that hardly even believed the Bible at all. We believe the Bible. Well, that's good as far as it goes. But the problem is they didn't really believe what it said when it came to how they were to be saved. The Pharisees were safe till Jesus came, and Jesus came to rip off their masks. You children, I'm sure you've had a balloon at some time or another, and you have to blow it up. Big, fat balloon made of almost nothing. And if you, well, your helium balloon might go flying off, but a normal balloon, what happens to it eventually? If it doesn't happen right away, somebody will make sure it happens. They come along with a pin and they pop the balloon. It's gone. That big old balloon, it was really nothing. It was just air. It was popped. Jesus came to pop the balloon of the Pharisees. And he tells us this is exactly what he is doing in this parable. He told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt. And at the end, the lesson is clear. If we exalt ourselves, we will be humbled. And if we humble ourselves, we will be exalted. The parable describes these opposite people, and they are only perhaps slightly exaggerated, but I bet you it's pretty close. It is a parable, but there were people like this. Illustrations of these things are in scripture throughout the Gospels particularly. Now they went, they, these two men, went to the temple to pray. Now I know when I was a kid, it was called the Pharisee and the Publican. And as I'll talk about later, I was a PK. I was supposed to know what publican is. I don't know. I'm not exactly sure. At least we have tax collector. That helps. Well, it doesn't help a lot. None of us are really all that fond of even the most honest IRS agents, perhaps. But this was even worse, as we shall see. Well, we have a Pharisee who's normally proud and haughty and knows it. Well, maybe he doesn't know it. And then this tax collector who was one of the worst people in the society of those days, they both went to the same temple. Now, that was not uncommon. It was where you would often go to pray. It wasn't as though you just had to be in your closet, which Jesus did say is a safer thing to do, but both of them were there in the temple. Jesus talked about this problem of doing your righteousness before men. Matthew 6 says, Beware, when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others. Truly, I said to you, they have received their reward. What's the reward? If you get to show how holy you supposedly are, what's your reward? Everybody goes, wow. How is that guy holy? Oh, he is so special. But Jesus says, that's it. That's the end of your reward because God doesn't just look on the outward appearance as we all have to do, but God looks upon the heart and he knows, and the Pharisees were, oh no, this guy is onto us. We hate this guy. But he told his own disciples, when you pray, go into your room and shut the door. And then he teaches them the Lord's Prayer. We can say the Lord's Prayer in public, but even then it's a little bit dangerous. Public prayers as a whole are really dangerous. You end up not talking to God at all. This, of course, is a constant struggle for pastors. I know people are listening. Am I talking to the people? Or am I really talking to God? It's okay to have public prayers. There were prayers public in the Old Testament. Great example, the dedication of the temple by Solomon. That's not a wrong thing to do, but again, dangerous. You end up not talking to God at all sometimes. Talk about yourself, sort of, mumbling under your breath how people do not respect you enough. Well, at least I'm standing up front and they're not. Oh, God, the Pharisee says, I thank you. I, I, I thank you that I am not like other men. He starts out with thanks, briefly and barely. But I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust adulterers, even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get. And by the way, this is true. He wasn't faking this. It was true. These are things that he did. They did so many of these kinds of things and they made themselves look real fancy, so to speak. Jesus says in Matthew 23, these same Pharisees do all their deeds to be seen by others. They make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. Now I know what fringes are. I don't wear them myself, but in those days that was cool. They had long fringes on their robes. Oh, look at those long fringes. Height of style, I guess. And they make their phylacteries broad. Again, when I was a kid, I'm going phylacteries. Okay, who knows what a phylactery is? You might know. Don't brag about it. But if you might know, that's great. But a phylactery is just a little box with Bible verses in it. And they would, okay, get this. I guess you have, somebody may have little boxes of Bible verses somewhere in your mantle. But they didn't just leave it on their mantle. They took it off the mantle and strapped it onto their heads. So they're wearing a box on their heads. I don't know if that's the height of style, but they thought it was cool. I have a box of Bible verses on my head. Do you know and believe in the word of God? Of course I do. Don't you see the box on my head? I've got Bible verses right there. We have the same problem in different ways. Jesus said, they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplace to be called rabbi by others. I get to be called a pastor. It means shepherd. It's supposed to be kind of grungy. But no, people, especially in the South, seem to go, oh, pastor. This is so dangerous. This Pharisee wanted to declare himself righteous. And he was basically saying, yes, I am. You have a problem with that? Of course I'm righteous. Now the problem is, can you spot your own subtle, humble bragging? In all my years, I've never seen somebody in such poor shape as that. Somebody comes in to the auditorium here not dressed up quite right. Or not really maybe having a bath recently. All of us are sinners, we like to say and pontificate, but some are sinners more than others and we're pointing our head somewhere else. God, I thank you that I haven't fallen to what so many people around here have fallen into, sensuality, dishonest business practices. I'm so grateful, oh God, that I am not a drug pusher or a pimp. Like some of those unchurched people over there, tsk, tsk. This is the terrible hypocrisy and pride that enters into the church itself, and we make the grace of God into personal praise. Now again, very dangerous ground. I thank God that I am not like this Pharisee over there. I thank God that I am so much like this tax collector. Well, we'll see. The tax collector, what was he doing? He was praying in the temple and that was okay, but he wasn't standing in the middle. You get the impression that from what it says here about the tax collector, the Pharisee was standing in the middle of the room, kind of. lifting up his eyes to heaven because the tax collector didn't. And you can imagine him doing this. Oh God, I am so thanked and looking up into heaven as if he deserved to behold God on his own account. Therefore the contrast, and Jesus couldn't have made it more stark, the contrast is this tax collector standing far off, over in the corner maybe, let us say, and not lifting even up his eyes, much less his arms to heaven, but beating his breast. He was angry with himself. He hated himself and his sin. Continuing to stand. The verb in the Greek, and yes, I know Greek, present continuous, continuing act of, you see how dangerous this is? Anyway, continual act of doing something, and that's what he did. He did not, he was not willing, he was continually willing. In other words, there was sincerity here. He did not want to lift up his eyes, and he had a true inner posture, not merely outward posture, of life and heart. He was making no excuses. He didn't point at the Pharisee. as the Pharisee was pointing to him, and he says, God be merciful to me, the sinner. There's another one. I don't know why it doesn't quite show up in the English, but it doesn't seem to do so, does it? It says, God be merciful to me, a sinner. It actually says the sinner. Because when you are talking to God, you're the only person you should be thinking about. As far as your unworthiness, you shouldn't be comparing yourself to others. It's so easy. And you can do it without anybody knowing about it. It's so sneaky. But the only sinner that counts right now is what this tax collector was thinking about. That is himself. I don't care how proud the proud Pharisee is at this point. I'm just thinking about myself. I am just laid bare and naked before the Lord. God, be merciful to me. The sinner, I am just the sinner standing before you, God, asking you to forgive me. I don't deserve it. It is mercy, not payment. The Pharisee was, we call it posturing. A posture is a stance for effect. In other words, you're standing in such a way that everybody knows, supposedly knows, what you're really all about. You ever watch the Academy Awards? Kind of turns my stomach. There it is. Oh, he receives the Academy Awards, this little crazy statue, you know, gold and something. Thank you very much to the members of the Academy. I would like to now thank the little people. All those people along the way that, you know, didn't get this award, but I do thank them. It's all fake. We know it. It's fake. Fake, fake. It's Hollywood fake. Paste it on smiles. It's all fake. David, as we heard from Psalm 4 or Psalm 51, another example, have mercy upon me, O God. We're going to sing that later. According to your steadfast love, David sinned in horrible ways. Why would God ever forgive him? He was king and he did all this. Nathan comes to him and evidently he had thought to himself, the things he did didn't matter. He just covered it all up. Nathan gives him a parable. David sees it. Nathan says, you're the man. He goes, yes, I am. I have sinned against the Lord." Simple, direct, not fancy. He wasn't posturing. Ezra prayed, oh my God, I am ashamed and blushed, lift up my face to you. And then he says, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens. We have been in great guilt, and Ezra included himself. Anybody know what a PK is? Some of you in this room are PKs, young or old. I'm a PK, preacher's kid. Some of you may be EKs, that's a little lower maybe. Elder's kids. Oh then there are the MKs, oh they are cool. Their family went overseas and learned another language and went away from their home. They are MKs and boy are they good at soccer. So you know, you have all these Ks, they're kids, they take their name from their parents and their pride rests in where they come from. We had a girl that in my high school group at home, back in New Jersey, came from a broken home, really tragic situation. The dad was a drunkard, the mother was immoral. She was a friend of some of us in the high school. She became eventually a Christian. She used to say, I don't deserve even to sit here with the rest of you. When she became a Christian, after she sat in the back for a while, she realized we're all sinners, but she particularly knew she was a sinner. And she was also, even then, I was so startled by this, she also was aware of her pride. This was really remarkable to me. She used to say, I can't believe it. I write letters or notes or I think to myself, and they always have I, I, I, I, I, I at the center. Am I still the center of my life? She noticed that first. The second thing she noticed is the pride of the church. She noticed it. It was an OPC church. You might have thought it meant only perfect church. I'm ashamed to say sometimes that's the way we act. We know it's not true. It should be the ordinary people church. Let's try that. But I'm afraid she might have noticed something else besides her own pride and the pride of the church. Although she was too kind to say so, I am sure she noticed my own pride. Now, I had been a Christian, grew up in a Christian home and all that. We became friends. I became convicted. There's no way I act the way she does in noticing how proud I am. And she knew that from the beginning. I couldn't believe it, but it was true. Well, here we have this tax collector noticing that he is the sinner. The result is startling. Please try to get how amazing this is. I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. Now let's just say this man, who is he again? Tax collector. He's not just an IRS guy doing his job. The Romans gave him authority to do whatever he wanted. We don't care where this $100 comes from. You get it. And if you can get any more, we don't care. So the tax collector would go around from house to house. And when you saw him coming, you hated that guy, especially because he was a Jew. And he was a friend of the enemy, the Romans, who have destroyed our nation and taken us captive and put us under their terrible thumb and their terrible laws. And when the Messiah comes, I'm sure he'll get rid of all those guys and we'll be fine. Tax collector. Hit man. Mafioso. Terrible thief, liar, betrayer of his country and his nation. And now it says, this man went home justified rather than the other. Now wait a minute. Justification. Not just forgiveness, though there is that, but God counting us as righteous. I've heard that justification could be summarized as just as if you had never sinned. And that's pretty good as far as it goes, but it actually means just as if you had kept all the law of God perfectly. Now, if anybody seemed to keep the law of God perfectly, it was the Pharisee. What did he have to confess? This tax collector broke the law multiple ways, and he says one thing to God. He says and admits what he has done, and the Bible says that his sins are gone. I mean, gone. They're not there anymore. Just by telling God what he had done with true sorrow, even we sometimes naturally see religion as a way to find our own way to God. We who supposedly know that God loved us first, we say it, we have the Bible verse memorized. Maybe you strapped it to your head one time, I don't know. You act as though, we act as though, we are the treasure rather than the grace of God. Now don't deny it. God knows the heart. Jesus uses Paul's word, well I guess Paul's using Jesus' word. or Luke's word, whatever, Jesus says, this man went home justified. This fellow bondservant to Paul, to the Gentiles. The word justified is also used in the case of the rich young ruler who did go to Jesus at night, remember, well, that was Nicodemus. Rich young ruler wanted to justify himself, justify himself. The Pharisee who thought he had it all actually had nothing that counts. He had his reward from men, none from God. This, of course, is the great danger of being a PK, or any other kind of K, I guess, but you know, pastor's kid. You see that guy up there? That's my dad. Yep, that's my dad. And there are two reactions that PKs have to being PKs, you probably know this. You either say, I'm not being that way, I'm my own person, then they rebel. Just act out, happens all the time. Don't categorize me. And then you become maybe eventually like a tax collector, hopefully not forever. The other way is to become a Pharisee and you say, well, I will try to live up to my reputation. I'm sure I sort of deserve it. After all, I dress up pretty nice on Sunday, too. As a kid, I wore a tie. I hate ties, but I wore a tie. Did that make me think I was a little bit special? Yeah, you know, I kind of think it did. It was a little thing, but it was stupid, but it was true. We dress up on Sunday. I wish I could take this tie off. I don't like ties, I don't like jackets. I'm kind of a casual guy anyway. I spent a summer in Southern California. They said I fit right in. Just be casual. But here is the Pharisee who looks so good, this worthless man who looks so bad, went home justified, not lost at all. He had nothing that counts. How does he get everything when he has nothing that counts? The Pharisee was thinking. Not like that tax collector over there. The precious gift of salvation, we say we know it, the gospel, from the worthy one, Jesus Christ, who humbled himself truly to the death of the cross, that we might, the unworthy, have been counted worthy like that thief on the cross. How is that fair? Now come on. The thief is hanging on the cross next to Jesus, and he deserved to die. And the other thief was kind of making fun of Jesus too, and the other guy, how in the world can you make fun of Jesus? We deserve to be here. That man has done nothing wrong, nothing wrong. Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Jesus doesn't go, well why, what have you done for me? How can I bring, you're dying on the cross and you deserve it? You think you're gonna be with me, the Lamb of God? Who, oh, I guess he does take away the sins of the world. The thief last minute conversion. Now, don't think you can use this and go, well, I'm gonna wait to the very end. Well, you won't, not on your own. This thief had a genuine experience of repentance, though he had lived an entire life of iniquity. Today, you will be with me. in paradise. It seems to make no sense except under grace. The lesson, the application, the conclusion is just profound. Please listen. Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. There is no hope for us. Because if it's up to us, how are we ever going to humble ourselves? We're naturally proud of anything and everything. Pick something. Well, at least I'm not that way. At least I have this. At least I have that. Does God actually ever save proud people? Well, yeah, that's the only people that there are. Does God ever save any Pharisees? Why would he do that? He condemns the Pharisees. But has God ever loved some Pharisees enough to change them, to humble them, to actually justify them, and hear their simple, truly humble prayers? Let me think. Did God ever save a Pharisee? Hmm. Oh! The Apostle Paul, maybe? Riding on the road to Damascus, knocked off his horse, that's what it took, lying there in the dust, looking up at Jesus, who says, what do you think you're doing? It took God knocking him off his horse a long time of self-examination. Sometimes God has to knock us off our horses, I'm serious. What is it gonna take for each of us? Paul used to be a great guy, and he knew it, He put confidence in himself. He said this. And he tells people not to put confidence in the flesh, and then he speaks about himself. I have great reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. So here's what Paul's prayer used to be. I thank God that I am circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, as to the law, yes, I am a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless. If Paul had stayed in his sin, his gravestone would have said, Paul, the blameless guy. Now it would say, Paul, the chief of sinners, and he wasn't kidding. He could have extinguished the church if God had not stopped him. So he says, whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I counted everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ, my Lord. He's not Lord anymore, as he thought. chief of sinners. It has sometimes been said, there will be two surprises in heaven. First surprise is who is there. That repentant thief, that tax collector who cheated and lied and stole from people, there he is. That sorrowful prostitute falling at Jesus' feet, forgiven much. And of course, who is not there? Some famous preachers and elders and church leaders who trusted in themselves and were in it for themselves all along. Two surprises, who is there, who is not there? Actually, it's not quite true that that's the quote. C.S. Lewis actually said there are three surprises in heaven. Who's there, who's not there, and the fact that you are there. Can you believe that God saved me? If you're still in your pride, you go, yeah, I can believe that, come to think of it. You look around, why, how? How is it you know yourself? How is it that you got there? Do you count it all lost to leave behind your humble bragging or outright boasting in what you are and what you have done and what you know and how good you look or you want to look to others? I thank God that I am not like other men, going to church twice a day, even prayer meeting, putting my offering in the offering plate just so. I do wear a nice suit or dress, not like those pagans and non-reformed people. Some of them don't even wear ties in the pulpit. Reciting those same humble words, but hiding wickedness and pride in your heart. I told you the danger of thinking that we might be the only perfect church. Better not be, not a church at all. Sometimes said, don't join it, it won't be perfect anymore. Of course, we're all sinners. We're not better than anybody else. There are churches around here that are faithfully preaching the gospel. And you better admit it, there are some that are not, sadly, of course. But there are churches that are faithful to God's word and may their number ever increase by the grace of God. Denominations two. I thank thee that I am so humble. Not like that Pharisee over there. I start all my prayers by saying how humble and unworthy I am. Don't you see the Bible verse strapped on my head? Of course I'm humble without really believing it. Listen to what Jesus says about that person, if that's you. This man who said, God be merciful to me, a sinner, went home to his house justified, we forgot to mention the meaning of rather than the other. This is not what I say or what the people would have said. But Jesus is saying this man is going to hell. The other, the tax collector, is going to heaven through Jesus Christ and him alone. If you do not deny your pride, confess it. Go to Christ. Tell God how proud you've been. You've got to do it. It stinks. Do you count it all game when to know Christ, to suffer for Christ, to confess your sins, even when others then know who you are? One of the elders of one of the churches in the past, happened to be in Matthews, used to say, if you have humbled yourself before God in dust and ashes, what does it matter what other people think of you? I still remember it. What difference does it make? We all ought to know it's true of every one of us. What difference does it make when it shows the love of God to Christ to unworthy sinners such as you, such as me? And if when you are finally truly humbled and God might have to do something pretty tough in your life to do it, whatever it takes for God to humble you, I don't know what it takes to knock you off your horse. Then what happens is he gets all the glory and guess how much glory you get? Zero. We sing it, oh to God be the glory, great hymns I have sung. No, that's not it. Don't you see? You get zero glory. You say to God alone, be the glory. Do you believe it? Or do you still keep some for yourself? If he gets all the glory and you get none, that's the way it ought to be. Shall we pray? God in heaven, we don't know what else to say except be merciful to us. Forgive us for our pride as you did for the Apostle Paul and every other sinner that comes to you with pride in his heart, which is really all of us, and humble us as you did the tax collector, but we can't become that on our own. Teach us, show us, and we pray a dangerous prayer too. Do whatever it takes to humble us. might be hard, teach us again by your mercy and by your grace. In Jesus' name.