Well, the word justification or justified appears all throughout the New Testament. It is a word really that every Christian needs to know, needs to understand, needs to really grasp and wrestle with. And the reason is because this word justification really lies, lays at the center and heart of the message of the gospel. Nobody truly understands the gospel until they really plunge the depths, the breadth, the width, the scope of this wonderful Word. And so what is justification? I think it's important for us to sort of define it, at least in a very simple way, before we enter into our text this morning. So put simply, justification is the act of God whereby He declares a sinner righteous. I'll repeat it again. Justification is the act of God whereby He declares or pronounces a sinner righteous. This is a legal declaration. It is forensic in nature. It is very similar to the way in which a judge would pronounce a defendant not guilty in the court of law. And I mention this because as our sermon title suggests, as it states, our passage this morning is really a story about justification. It's a provocative parable that teaches really who is right before God. In Jesus' day, the people that would have heard this parable would have stood absolutely stunned. The parable would have really been a paradigm shift, would have flipped a common belief upon its head. And for many that were there that heard this parable for the first time, some of them would have been, quite honestly, offended at Jesus' words. And so today, this parable continues to speak, continues to challenge us in the very same way as it did when Jesus first told it. And so this is what we're going to be looking at today. Before we dive into our passage, let us first read this parable, and I want to invite everyone to open their Bibles and read Luke chapter 18, verses 9 through 14 with me. Luke chapter 18, verses 9 through 14. Here now are the words of the living God. And it reads, 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. And 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. This is the word of the Lord. So this morning I don't have any sort of outline. We'll simply just walk through these verses together. So let's just begin first and foremost with verse 9. I'm going to read it again. Luke writes, He, that is Jesus, also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt now verse 9 really sets the settings that's the context of When Jesus told this parable and first we learned that really Jesus is telling a parable and a parable is simply a metaphor drawn from either common life or nature and it was a story of or an analogy that was meant to really make a particular point, and oftentimes Jesus really didn't give the meaning or explanation to these parables, leaving many to really ponder in their minds really what the point of the parable was. What was its meaning? What was its application? And really, this was Jesus' preferred method of teaching to the crowds, teaching His disciples as well. One-third of Jesus' teaching is parables, and it's not something that He invented, but He did rather popularize them. We found them all throughout the Gospel. And so here before us, we see Jesus beginning to tell a parable. The second thing I want us to notice in verse 9 is that this parable is actually directed. It's trying to target a specific type of person. First, Jesus aims this parable. He describes this person as someone who trusted in themselves that they were righteous. These were these people who had a confidence in themselves, in their right standing before God. And the basis for their confidence in themselves was simply because of who they were. Or put in the negative, who they were not. They put their confidence in themselves because of what they did. Also stated in the negative, what they didn't do. If you were to ask this type of person, what makes you righteous before God? What makes you believe that you are righteous before him, righteous before this holy and righteous God? Answers would have been everything from, I follow God's law, to I'm a Jew, to I go to the temple to make sacrifices and I pray and fast often. Really, the sin or the person that Jesus is describing here is a self-righteous person. But Jesus not only targets this sin of self-righteousness, but He also calls out their treatment. Jesus says, read with me in the text again, they trusted in themselves, they had a faith in themselves. And it was not only trust, but it was also the treatment of others. Jesus describes them as treating others with contempt. This Greek word contempt really conveys the idea of considering something or someone to be absolutely worthless. This word contempt is actually used to describe the treatment of Jesus at his crucifixion by the Roman Empire. Peter also uses this same word for contempt to describe the ways in which Jesus was rejected by the Jews. And the assumption here is that their self-righteousness caused a sense of moral superiority, of judgment that led them to neglect and have a disdain for others that they themselves considered to be unrighteous. And so in summary here in verse nine, Jesus gives a parable directed at a self-righteous person who has contempt in their heart for those who they regard to be sinners. You're saying it's the root cause of this sin of self-righteousness, this contempt that they have for others. Really, to boil down these two sins, really hatred in the heart for people, a self-righteousness, this trust in themselves. If we're to boil down these two, really it comes down to the sin of pride. Pride is an ignorant, exaggerated valuing of oneself. One theologian even put pride as, it is really the idolatry of self. Pride is a monstrous sin with a history that leaves everything in its wake in destruction and chaos. Pride was found in Satan, in heaven, and it is this sin that turned angels into devils. Pride also continued in earth with our first parents in paradise, wanting to be like God, and it turned a righteous image of God into a child of wrath. And the end of the history of pride, ultimately, for everybody who is prideful and continues in this sin, in all of its manifestations, ultimately leads to hell. One famous British pastor and evangelist and also author said that pride is the national religion of hell. And we read all throughout the Proverbs, too, of the warnings about what pride does. Proverbs 8, verse 13 says, pride and arrogance are the way of evil. Proverbs 16, verse 18 says, pride goes before destruction in a haughty spirit before the fall. Dear saints, pride is a dangerous sin. And why is that? Well, where pride begins, dependence on God ceases. by the very nature of pride is to trust itself rather than anything else. It doesn't want to place its trust in God. Pride also sees no need for grace or mercy from God, no help from others. Pride can only want and view self above everything else. This is a description of a self-righteous person. And secondly, the nature of pride, wherever pride begins, love ceases as well. The nature of pride is to justify self, and to condemn others, to judge and compare others to the standards that we believe that we meet. Pride never seeks to extend grace and mercy as well. And you're saying verse nine is important for us because there is no sin that man is more prone to fall into than pride. It's common in all people, common in all places, times, and generations. It's found in the Christian and the non-Christian, J.C. Rowlett writes that pride really cleaves to us like our own skin. Pride is also one of those sins that is hard to find in ourselves, but we can surely detect it in others. Pride is blinding. But I think verse nine is helpful because really this description of this idea of having contempt in our heart really helps us to diagnose where our pride might actually lie with a simple question, which is who do you have contempt for? And the reason why this question is so revealing is because it's often the case that self-righteousness and contempt are holding hands together, they're friends. Sometimes the people we are frustrated or angered filled with the most hate towards is really not fueled by righteousness, but rather self-righteousness. Very much like checking your fuel gauge to see if you need a refill or not, sort of a litmus test of where we're at. This question could very well indicate areas of your life where pride actually lays. And in all honesty, verse nine is just very revealing, because although Jesus is trying to target a specific type of person, which we'll get to here in a moment, The reality is that all of us carry some self of self-righteousness and struggle with the sin of pride in various areas of our life, and therefore, really, this parable is for all of us in some way, shape, or form, and we ought to heed, really, the meaning of this parable. It's for all of us here in this room. And so we now go to verse 10. Read with me. Jesus says, two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. Jesus introduces these two men which would have been very familiar to the people of his day. These two people were familiar, rather, for two very different reasons. One was highly respected, let's say famous, and you could say the other one as highly despised, which would be infamous. Now, the Pharisee would have been a man that would have been viewed as someone with an upright character. He would have been regarded as someone that was a member of the most conservative sect of Judaism, both politically and religiously. They weren't the liberals that were the Sadducees or the weird back sort of people out there in the negative called the Essenes. These were a conservative sect of Judaism. They were teachers of God's law. They were men devoted to the Lord. And they were often seen in public places both praying and fasting. Their clothes also were very distinct from the common people and their attire that they would wear. In fact, the name Pharisee actually means separated ones, or those who are separated, so those who are set apart. And they were the Jewish model for religious purity and piety. This was the Pharisee. But now we look at the tax collector, and this person was infamous. hated amongst the Jewish people. One even commentator said that in the eyes of the Jewish community, they were the scum of the earth. They were hated. Tax collectors in Jesus' day were viewed as traitors to the Jewish community. And the reason was because they were employees of the Roman Empire. They were government employees. Tax collectors were often extortioners as well, especially towards their own people. They were viewed as crooks and thieves. And they would often charge more than what the Roman Empire would request in order to pocket some of the extra cash for themselves. Today, just to use an illustration, the equivalent today would be like an American worker working for the Chinese government after they conquered the United States. They were sort of the IRS employee of the CCP, and they would extortion their own countrymen. There were traitors, there were crooks, there were people that were not seen very fondly. And the tax collectors were also known as being the dregs of society, the outcasts, because they weren't supposed to participate within the community as well, and therefore they were often seen with prostitutes, thieves, and murderers. And so they were placed in this category amongst the Jewish society as being really the apex example of what a sinner was. To the Jewish audience before Jesus, the tax collector and the Pharisee could have not been more opposed and opposite to one another. Just even Jesus saying, a tax collector and a Pharisee, this would have gotten everybody's attention. People would have known that these were polar opposite people. Jesus says in verse 10 that both of these men went up to the temple for the purpose of prayer. The temple was the central place for Jewish worship. The temple was the location where God himself would have dwelt. The temple was also a place where sacrifices were continually being offered for the atonement of sin. And both the tax collector and the Pharisee are entering here in this parable to pray to the Lord. And Jesus allows us here in this parable to actually hear the words of their prayer. And he does it for one reason, and it's to reveal the spiritual condition of both men. We can often affirm certain doctrines, we could affirm and recite some of the greatest Christian creeds that we have, but as many people have pointed out, what we pray often reveals what we really believe, not only about God, but also ourselves. And this is one of the reasons why Jesus takes us in to what their prayers actually are. And so let's look at verse 11 and 12. Jesus begins with the Pharisees' prayer. Jesus says in verse 11, 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. Now here, if there was a prayer that ever oozed pride, it's this one. We'll look at some of the reasons here. First, you see that there's no recognition or no acknowledgement of sin or need for God's help. Prayer contains no confession, no plea for mercy. The prayer is absence of any really acknowledgement of any transgression. Second, we see that this is a self-centered prayer. Although the appearance is towards God, the true object of his prayer is really himself, and we even see this in his posture. In fact, when Jesus says that the Pharisee was standing by himself, it really assumes that he is standing alone in an area which would have been seen by others. It's not prayer, it's a performance. We know this prayer is also self-centered because he repeats the word I, referring to himself, a total of five times. If you look at the text with me, 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. One commentator writes, the Pharisee glances at God but contemplates himself. This is exactly the prayer of the Pharisee. And also it's self-centered because instead of praying for his neighbor, he thanks God that he is actually not like them. Self-righteousness. Third, there's a tremendous amount of self-righteousness in his prayer. He wants God to know what he has been doing and what he has done. He wants to make his piety known to God. The Pharisee reminds God of his extreme faithfulness to him. Although the Mosaic law required for the people of Israel to fast once a year on the Day of Atonement, the Pharisee is telling God that he actually fasts twice a week. And although the Mosaic law required a 10% of his tithes, the Pharisees were very meticulous of tithing everything that they received, even spices, not only income, not only their crops, but it was to try to show their faithfulness, their righteousness before God. J.C. Ryle writes, sort of summarizing this prayer here, he writes that it's nothing but a boasting recital of fancy merits, accompanied by an uncharitable reflection of his brother's sinner. In short, it hardly deserves to be called a prayer at all. Now I want us to turn and reflect on our own prayer. our own life in prayer. How is your prayer life? It's another way that we could diagnose the areas of pride in our lives. When we come to the Lord, is it a recital of fancy words? Is it filled with uncharitable reflections and descriptions of our neighbor? Is it absent of thanksgiving? Is it absence of confession of sin? Are they prayers filled with ourselves? It's the only time you pray in public. And I ask these questions because sometimes how we pray, what we pray, and when we pray reveals what we truly believe about ourselves and God as well. He that does not feel the weight of his sin never brings it to the Lord. He that does not feel his need for God's grace and mercy never comes to him. And often the reason we never come before the throne of grace is because of pride. And like the Pharisee, we believe Me, myself, and I have it all under control. Our prayers might not be exactly like the Pharisee, but in many ways there are elements of pride that maybe we might find in ourselves. Prayer could be, in the way that we pray, an area of pride within our lives, especially towards God. But what about the tax collector? Let's look at his prayer. Read with me verse 13. Jesus says, 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. The tax collector, his prayer is very, very different from that of the Pharisee. It's very evident just reading it. And first, the tax collector, we can see that he has a sense of shame. and recognition of his sin. In the first place, he's standing far off, which communicates that there's this cautious approach to God. He doesn't come to him lightly. He knows who he is before his creator. It also says that he would not even lift his eyes to heaven. I've heard some people say that the eyes are the window to people's soul, and you could even tell if someone is ashamed or even lying to you. I remember one time my brother, going through a particular issue, said that he had did something. And he came to me and didn't look at me and said it, and I said, you're lying to me. And he automatically looked down, and automatically I knew he was lying, right? And there was just this sense of shame of not wanting to look at me because of who he was lying to, right? There was a sense of shame. And in the very same way, we have this here. The tax collector feels a sense of unworthiness in himself, not in other people. You could say that the only sin that he really sees is himself. Second, the tax collector is sorrowful, and we know that. because it describes that he's beating his breast, he's striking his chest, and in Jesus' day, this was an outward sign of those who were experiencing tremendous grief. In fact, in Luke 23, verse 48, the people that witnessed Jesus' crucifixion are said to have returned home beating their breasts after what they witnessed, which was the crucifixion of their Savior. And so there's shame, there's sorrow, there's an acknowledgement of sin, And third, the tax collector's shame, right, we really learn the root of all this, and it's already been said, but the tax collector's shame and sorrow are because of his sin. And we find this in his prayer. It is a short prayer, but although it's not a prayer of length, it definitely is one of weight. He says, God be merciful to me, a sinner. It's a short prayer that contains both a plea and a confession, and the plea is for God's mercy. He says, be merciful to me. It is a petition for God to withhold the punishment he rightly deserves because of his sin. The tax collector, confessing that he is a sinner, knows that ever since the garden, the consequence of sin is death. However, I want us to note something that isn't found quite obviously in our translation, but what the tax collector is actually asking is something a little bit more specific than mercy, although it does contain it. In the Greek, the word translated in our Bible, merciful, is helelestai, a Greek verb that literally means propitiate or atone. In other words, what the tax collector is asking God is this. God, provide a propitiation, an atonement for me, a sinner. And the reason the tax collector is pleading with God for a propitiation, an atonement, is because of the sacrificial system of the Old Testament. The Old Testament required a perfect, spotless animal, whether it be a lamb or a goat or a bull. and this animal itself would die, would be sacrificed in your place as a substitutionary sacrifice. The high priest would lay the hand on the animal, which represented the transferring of your sins onto the animal, onto this innocent animal, and the priest then would proceed to slaughter the animal alive on the altar, which represented God's wrath towards sin. The sacrifice represented the requirement for the atonement of sin. The sacrifice represented both the averting of God's wrath, but also the complete removal of your sin as well. This is what the Pharisee is actually asking the Lord. The tax collector's prayer is very similar to that of the psalmist in Psalm 25, verse 11, where he says, For your name's sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great. It is also like the psalmist who writes in Psalm 79, verse nine, when he says, help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name, deliver us and atone for our sin for your namesake. And in summary, the tax collector does not boast in what he has done, but rather he places his confidence completely and utterly on the Lord. There's a sense of humility. Instead he simply cast his entire mind, his body, his soul upon God's mercy, asking God to provide him something that he cannot do for himself. You see here a vast contrast to that of the Pharisee. He has no confidence in himself to make a propitiation, to be righteous before God. He's a man that utterly recognizes his sin before his holy creator. And dear saints, like the tax collector, do we recognize who we are before our Creator, especially when we come to Him in prayer? We live in a culture where the subject of sin is avoided, and the category of sinner is often rejected. We don't like to think that we are sinners. We may think others are sinners. It's a hard pill to swallow to confess that we have sinned and that we are sinners ourselves. But the Bible teaches with clarity that all of humanity, you and I, no matter what we have done and who we are, all have fallen short to the glory of God. We have all sinned. And sin is actually a word that's used both in the Old Testament in Hebrew and also in Greek as a description to describe what would be an archer missing his target. All of us has fallen short of God's law. All of us are breakers of God's commandments. We are all transgressors of his law. Paul says in Romans chapter three that none is righteous, no, not one. No one understands, no one seeks for God. All have turned aside and together we have become worthless. No one does good, no, not even one. In Isaiah chapter 64 verse six, the prophet writes, we have all become like one who is unclean and all our righteous deeds are like polluted garments. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall and our sins sweep us away like the wind. Ecclesiastes chapter 7 verse 20 says, there is not a righteous man on earth that does good and does not sin. And the list of the description of all of humanity as sinner could go on and on and on. But understanding our sinful condition is important because it's honestly and truly what makes the gospel the gospel. Prior to becoming a Christian, You know, I attended church very often, went with my father, and if you were to ask me, you know, what was the gospel, I'm not sure that I would be able to actually explain it to you. Fast forward years later when I'm in college and I'm handed this book by R.C. Sproul, What is the Gospel? I'm sorry, not What is Reformed Theology, it was the book. And I'm reading the first section, which is about covenant theology, so, you know, at the time as a young Christian I was absolutely lost But the second half of the book is about the doctrines of grace. And there was a chapter that was simply called Total Depravity. And when I read that book, read that section rather, read that chapter, it was finally the moment where it clicked for me as to why I needed a savior. Having a sense of one's own sin is important. It makes the gospel the gospel. It makes the good news the good news. One ought to understand what the bad news is before we can understand why the good news is good news. And I mention this because he that does not realize that the consequences of sin is death will never plead for God and his grace and mercy. He that does not understand that his sin is an offense to God will never see his need to be reconciled with him. And as it was for me and many of us here, he that does not see himself as sinner will never see their need for a Savior. We'll never see that sin is actually the thing that separates us from God. This is something that the Pharisee, rather, the tax collector recognizes. Now let's look at verse 14. Lastly, read with me Jesus' final words. of this parable. This is where they would have been stunned. This is where the parable becomes provocative. Jesus says, And simply put, what Jesus is saying is this. It is the tax collector Not the Pharisee that God actually declares righteous. It is actually the tax collector, the irreligious. Not the religious that went home that day righteous before God. It was the traitor, not the pious, that was made right with God. And once again, this parable would have stunned, would have offended, it would have confused everyone who heard it. Because Jesus often didn't explain the meanings of his parables, many would have been left asking the question, how can this be? And for many of us, for many people, this is actually the question that we have after hearing the parable itself. Dear church, this parable really exposes a common error in the mind of man in false religion. which is the belief that people can gain God's favor and attain a right to standing before him simply by being good enough. It's common to believe that if your good works outweigh your bad works, heaven's door is open to you. Or that so long as your moral bank account in the end is somewhat in the positive or not in the negative, salvation is earned. There are many people that assume that just because they attend church every Sunday, that they pray often, that they tithe, they attend Bible studies, they give to charity, they support conservative politics, or vote for a certain politician, they might preach every Sunday, maybe be involved in activism, civil rights activism, that it is those things that will merit your justification, your right standing before God. Just like it is a common belief today, so it was in Jesus' day. However, Jesus blows this notion of earning our righteousness before God right out of the sky. What Jesus is saying is that if you believe you can merit God's justification through what you do and what you are not and who you are, you're wrong. It's false. No amount of good works can earn justification. rather the one that leaves home justified as the one that recognizes their sin and places his faith completely and utterly on God's mercy and grace for the right standing before God. And dear church, this is the gospel in a parable. It's actually good news. God's grace and mercy was manifested 2,000 years ago in the person of work of Jesus Christ, the same one who tells this parable. He is the propitiation that the tax collector desired. Hebrews chapter two verses 17 says that Jesus was made like us so that he could make propitiation for the sins of his people. First John chapter two states that he is the propitiation for our sins. In first John chapter four, he says that God loved us and sent his son to be a propitiation for our sins. In Romans chapter three, Paul states, for there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short to the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift. Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by blood to be received by faith. And in summary, what all these texts are telling sinners like us is this, that not only does the death of Jesus cover our sins, remove our guilt, but it also averts the wrath of God. The way we receive this atonement, the way that we receive this propitiation is not by works, not in a confidence in ourselves, but rather through the simple act of faith in Jesus Christ. It is a faith that does not rest on our own accomplishments, but rather the accomplishment of Jesus Christ himself. who died and lived for us in our place to be reconciled to God. And dear church, my prayer is that we would say like Paul when he wrote in Philippians chapter three, I glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. I count everything as a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I might gain Christ and be found in him. Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for sending your Son to be that once for all propitiation, Lord, for sin, for averting God's wrath, for living the life that we cannot live, Lord, and accomplishing a righteousness, an external righteousness for your people, Lord. Lord, help us to be a people that pray, Lord, and recognize their sin. Help us to not have confidence in the flesh. Help us to mortify our sin of self-righteousness, contempt for other people. Help us to thirst and have a desire for your grace and mercy in our life. Help us to pray often and come to you, Lord. And Lord, continue to sanctify this church, Lord. Continue to sanctify us, Lord, through your word, through the sacraments, through prayer. And Lord, we ask all these things in Christ's name. Amen.