is in Christ alone. Take your Bibles, and we're going to go to Luke 18 in a minute, but I want to go to Romans chapter 4 before we go to Luke 18. So, turn to Romans chapter 4, this great epistle called Romans, and someday I plan to get there, Lord willing, to go through this, perhaps the greatest of all the epistles in the Bible, I think, is the book of Romans. where Paul lays out the gospel, and in chapters 1-3 he talks about how all men are under condemnation, that all men have sinned and come short of the glory of God, that all men are in the rut of depravity and cannot free themselves, and they are estranged from God. But then you come to the end of chapter three and into chapter four, we begin to see how men are saved, how men are brought nigh or near to Christ through faith. And in Romans chapter four, Paul uses the illustration of Abraham to make this point. Now Abraham, as you, maybe you don't know, it's what Abraham was to Israel, George Washington is to our country. George Washington is the father of America. Abraham was sort of the father of Israel, the father of the Jews. And so Abraham was looked up to, he was lifted up, he was revered among the Jews, especially in Jesus' day. In fact, they considered Abraham to have become right with God simply because of his good works. In fact, this is filled throughout Jewish writings, they would say things that Abraham was said to have become right with God because of his obedience. Or in some other Jewish writings, one called the Prayer of Manasseh even asserted that, well, this is how it goes, therefore you, O Lord, God of the righteous, have you not appointed repentance? for us, and that Abraham was not a sinner against you." Wow. So in one writing, the Jews claim that Abraham was even without sin. But Paul comes along, and he makes the point that Abraham was made right before God because of his faith. Romans 4, let me just read the first five verses of Romans 4. Romans 4, beginning with verse 1, Paul says, What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Now to the one who works his wage is not reckoned as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness. That is a powerful, powerful reminder that Paul uses the person of Abraham. Abraham is the supreme example to all of us, especially to the Jews, the supreme example that one is saved by faith. Abraham lived 2,000 years before Christ, and people were saved in the exact same way Then, as they were in Jesus' day, as they are in our day, the Bible does not teach more than one way of salvation. It's always been by faith. You can go back to the days of Abraham, 2,000 years before Christ, and there is Abraham, according to Genesis 15, verse 6, that says, which is quoted here in Romans 4, Abraham believed God, and his belief was reckoned to him as righteousness. Abraham is used by Paul because he's a flesh and blood illustration that justification before God is by faith alone. that he is the extreme, the perfect example for the Jews. Again, the majority of Jews in Paul's day believed that Abraham was made right before God because of his own righteous character. And again, there's all kinds of quotes in their writings to tell us that. If Abraham was not and could not have been justified by keeping the law, then no one could be. If Abraham could have done it, then surely he would have done it. If Abraham was justified solely on the basis of his faith in God, then everyone else must be justified in the same way." Abraham is the standard. Abraham is the torchbearer. And so Jesus is going to come along, and in a very, very short story, a story, a parable, all of his parables seem to be counterintuitive. All of Jesus' little stories seem to run against the general, run-of-the-mill thinking. Conventional thinking is always turned upside down and inside out with some little parable that Jesus tells. He's gonna tell us another one of those parables that turns the religious leader's thinking literally inside out. What he's gonna say in this parable is the reverse of everything the Jews believed. It is the idea that one is not saved by their good works. Surely, if I had that up there, I forgot that I had that up there. So the question is, as always, for everyone that's out there, how can I be right with God? Now, a lot of people aren't even aware of this question, or they don't give it two seconds of thought, how can I be right with God? Or if they do, they're thinking, well, I'm pretty good, so God's going to accept me. But this is the supreme question that everyone must deal with to some degree. They will be made to deal with this one day if they ignore it today. And so we were reminded, as I've said over and over again, that there are really only two religions in the world. There is the religion of human achievement, and there is the religion of divine accomplishment. And every religion that has ever existed in the world apart from one, namely biblical Christianity, every other religion in the world teaches that you are made right with God by human achievement, by what you do. You get to God by being good, morally good, religiously good, ceremonially good, ritually good, religiously good, and on and on and on. And I don't care what the name of any religion is, they all will teach salvation is by works, except for biblical Christianity. Men need to understand their sinfulness before God. It's the hardest thing. Humanly speaking, it's impossible for me or for you to convince somebody of their sin. It has to be a God thing. And so the key question is, who is made right with God? Again, we're reminded, as I said before, that verse that Paul quotes here in Romans 4, He says, then he, this is in the context of Abraham, he, Abraham, believed in the Lord and he, God, reckoned it to him, Abraham, as righteousness. Way back in Genesis 15 it says that. That a man is saved by faith alone. He is made righteous by faith alone. There are other verses that make it clear, for instance, over in Isaiah 53, that great 53rd chapter of Isaiah, where it says, God speaking here, My servant, speaking of Messiah, My servant, the righteous one, Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, will justify many. Or over And there's some other verses, and I didn't put them up there, but we need to understand that righteousness comes from Christ alone. We're told to be holy. God says, be holy, for I am holy. That's found throughout the book of Leviticus. It's even quoted by 1 Peter chapter 4, I believe it is. The Bible requires absolute perfection. The Bible does not require just being good. Let me say it again. The Bible does not require just being good. The Bible requires absolute perfection. If you can talk to your unsaved loved ones and neighbors and simply tell them, gently and lovingly but boldly say, you know, being good is not good enough, they're going to be shocked. They're going to be Well, then no one can make it, and precisely that's the point. No one can make it. No one can be perfect as God is perfect. Or as Jesus says of the Pharisees, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will in no wise enter the kingdom of God. Over and over again that is taught, but when you get to the day of Jesus especially, they've missed all that. They've missed that they are sinners. They've missed that point from the Old Testament. They've missed the point that salvation, even in the Old Testament, is by faith alone. they've developed a cultic religion, a cultic form of Judaism that was not what was originally taught in the Old Testament. And so we come to Leviticus, excuse me, we come to Luke chapter 18, that's another L book. Luke chapter 18, I wanna read now verses nine through 14, and this is our text for this morning. And he also told them this parable to certain ones who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax gatherer. The Pharisee stood and was praying thus to himself, God, I thank Thee that I'm not like other people, swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax gatherer. I fast twice a week. I pay tithes of all that I get. But the tax gatherer, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breasts, saying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his home justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted. First of all, as we look at this text, we find in verse 9 the corruption through self-righteousness. And we learn right off the bat in verse 9, He, Jesus, also told this parable to certain ones who trusted in themselves. That's a very broad category. Certain ones. Literally whoever the ones in the Greek. Whoever the ones. That's a very, very broad expression to simply, it's sort of a shotgun expression. Anybody who has an inkling of a thought that they're going to go to heaven based on their own religious, moral, or good works, this is addressed to you. But specifically, we also know that it's addressed to the religious leaders. Because back in chapter 16 of Luke, verses 14 and 15, Jesus made this comment, he said, now the Pharisees, or actually Luke says this, now the Pharisees who were lovers of money were listening to all these things and were scoffing at him, and he said, he, Jesus said to them, you are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts, for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God. Jesus has been haranguing the religious leaders over and over again to the point that they wanted to kill him, and that they will kill him. Jesus, in our particular context here in Luke, has been addressing the issue of the kingdom of God all the way back in chapter 17, verse 20. He began talking about the subject of the kingdom of God. Back in 17, verses 20 and 21, we saw that the kingdom of God is a spiritual kingdom that it's something that Jesus says, it's already in your midst, verse 21 of Luke 17. It's already in your midst. So there's a spiritual aspect to the kingdom that Jesus touches on, but then in verses 22 to the end of the chapter of Luke 17, he addresses the coming physical kingdom of God is going to be coming through a series of things that are mentioned there. He describes how it's going to come and that there's going to be great judgment. So there's a physical side to the kingdom that's going to be brought in that's going to be preceded by a lot of judgment, which you find in the book of Revelation, Revelation chapter 6 through 16 or 17 right in there where it's talking about. the various judgments that are unleashed upon the world, that's the context of Luke 17, verses 22-37. Luke 17, 22-37, is found in the book of Revelation 6-18. The destruction that's found in Revelation 6-18 is what's being discussed here in Luke 17, verses 22-37. So Jesus has been talking about the kingdom over and over again, and the religious leaders say, well, Jesus, show us a sign of the kingdom. And they were expecting some kind of sign that was described in the book of Joel, something celestial or some kind of massive earthquake or something, things that Joel talks about in the book of Joel in the Old Testament. But Jesus doesn't give them that kind of sign. He says the kingdom's already here. It's internal. Oh, that kingdom to which you refer to, yeah, the millennial kingdom, that's still future. And he describes it in verses 22-37 of Luke 17. But then, in chapter 18, he continues with the idea of the kingdom in Luke 18, verses 1-8, and he talks about how we ought to be praying. in these kingdom days. As we, as caught in between His first coming and His second coming, how ought we to pray? And he admonishes his followers in Luke 18.1 that we ought to always pray and not lose heart, because there's plenty of time within His first coming and His second coming, in that period in between His comings, where we need to pray, because it's a long time for us. For God it's nothing, but for us It's been 2,000 years and counting, and it seems like a long, long time. He came the first time, but he hasn't come the second time. We're still waiting. We ought always to pray and not lose heart. Be like this widow who kept knocking at the door and just bugging this unjust judge for an answer for justice. We are to be praying to God like this widow went to this unrighteous judge, knowing that God is far, far more willing to give us the answer to our prayers than even this unjust judge found in Luke 18, verses 1-8. Now we come today to verse 9-14, and the answer really comes to the forefront, who is going to be a part of this kingdom? Verses 9-14 answers the question, one question it answers, who's part of this kingdom? That goes all the way back to chapter 17, verse 20, a kingdom discussion. Now who's a part of this kingdom? And only those who are justified by God, those who are His through through some kind of work of God, an external work of God that He makes us righteous, those are the ones who are part of this kingdom. This is all in a kingdom context here. And so, Jesus told Nicodemus on one occasion, on John chapter 3, verse 3, He said, Nicodemus, unless you are born again, you will in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven. You will in no wise see it, John 3, 3. So self-righteousness is the opposite. Being self-righteous obstructs one's ability to get into the Kingdom. Only those who are justified, made righteous, are the ones who are allowed to go into this Kingdom. Again, the Kingdom of God is spiritual, and it's physical. I noted last time that there are lots of churches and theologians today who simply look at the kingdom as some kind of spiritual foggy, some kind of ethereal type of thing. But God's kingdom, there is a spiritual side to it. You must be born again. But there's also the physical side. There's the coming millennium that we're going to be a part of that as believers. It's a wonderful time when God, Christ Himself, is ruling the earth for a thousand years as described in the book of Revelation. So there's a spiritual side, and there's a physical side. There's both. It's not simply some kind of foggy type of thing. When we talk about the kingdom, it's something that's concrete and real. There's going to be nations, and there's going to be activity, and there's going to be work, and there's going to be worship, and there's going to be commerce, and there's going to be farmers growing their crops in fields that produce a hundred times, a thousand times what they produce today. There's gonna be some amazing things during that a thousand year reign of Christ. But who gets to go into his kingdom? Only those who are justified, and that's what verses nine through 14 is addressing. And so we find here, we find this particular man, verse nine, go back to the text, certain ones who trusted in themselves. That word trusted there is in the perfect tense in the Greek. You say, well, what does that mean, Dave? It means they are guys, man, the perfect tense means something that happens in the past in the Greek and has ongoing results. And so here are people who have trusted themselves, and they keep trusting, trusting, trusting, trusting. They're always trusting in themselves, trusting in themselves. I can do it. I trust in myself. They're constantly trusting in themselves that they are righteous. That's verse nine. The whole idea that they've arrived. I told you one time that when I lived in Olathe, Kansas, which is just a suburb of Kansas City, that I had a next door neighbor who went to another seminary in the community, and he proudly proclaimed to me that he was sinlessly perfect. No one's ever told me that before, except this one guy told me that he was sinlessly perfect. And my first instinct was to make a fist and hit him. To test it. showing my own depravity. But that's what my instinct was. And I got to talking, and he was a nice guy, don't misunderstand me. He was a good guy, we enjoyed their company, but he had some curiosities in his theology that just, I could not get over. And one of those was his idea of sinless perfection. He had to redefine the word sin. And I found out, as I probed, that he redefined the word sin as anything you did intentionally. If you didn't intentionally do it, it's not sin. And I said, well, that's not what the scriptures say. The Bible says we're inherently sinful, and sin is anything that we think or do or fail to do can be sin. And it isn't just something that's intentional. It could be unintentional, but you still did it. And that's me, and that's you. We are sinners. We are little sin factories, even after coming to Christ. Calvin described believers as just, that's his idea. We are factories of sin. and we just produce sin because we do it so naturally. For instance, Isaiah chapter 64, verse six, all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all of our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment. All of us wither like a leaf. All of our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. Or over in Jeremiah 17, nine, the heart is more deceitful than all else and desperately sick. Who can understand it? See, I sin, not just intentionally, but I do it without even knowing it. Psalm 143, verse two, and do not enter into judgment with your servant, for in your sight, God, in your sight, no man living is righteous. See, the Old Testament makes that very, very clear, that no man is righteous. And so in verse nine here, going back to the text, here is a man, certain ones who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed all others with contempt." They would look down their long, skinny nose and view everyone else as less than them. They viewed them with contempt. with contempt. They elevated themselves and they would compare themselves with themselves. Paul says over in 2 Corinthians 10, verse 12, for we are not bold to class or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves, like the religious leaders, they constantly commend themselves. We don't, aren't gonna be like those who compare themselves with others. He says, but when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding. In other words, you're foolish. If you're gonna make comparisons between you and someone else, that's a foolish comparison because, because the comparison is between you and God, not you and somebody else. The comparison is not find somebody who's a real dirtbag and say, yeah, I'm better than him. Well, OK, great. But that's not the right comparison. You compare yourself against the perfect holy God. That's the comparison you must make. And so quickly, Paul He, you know, when he was writing to the Philippians, he reminded them that he used to think this way. He was himself a Pharisee, a religious leader. In fact, when he was talking of himself to the Philippians, he says, He says, although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh, that is, in what I can do, if anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more, because I'm going to top you. If we're going to make a comparison, Paul says, look, if you think you're pretty good, let me tell you about me. I was circumcised the eighth day of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law a Pharisee, as to zeal a persecutor of the church, as to the righteousness which is in the law found blameless." You want to talk about how good you are? Check out my cred. Check it out. I've trumped you, buddy. This is me. But then in the very next verse, which I don't have on the screen here, he says, but what things were gained to me, those things I have counted loss for Christ. He says, these are the things I used to count as gain. They were in my positive category. They were the things that were to my credit. But all those things that were I thought were gain, I've just, I've count them as rubbish now in order that I may gain Christ. And so we find here the corruption through self-righteousness. The corruption through self-righteousness. Again, Jesus says in Matthew 5, verse 20, I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Guess what? That's a standard, but even that standard falls short. But Jesus is just using that because everybody elevated the religious leaders this high. Jesus says you have to get past them. You have to be at least as good as them, but even that's not good enough because God is the real standard. And he's way up there. That takes us secondly to the contrast to self-righteousness. And we see there in verse 10, two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. Now, let me just tell you something here. They would have twice a day, at 9 o'clock and at 3 o'clock, they would have a prayer time, well, a sacrificial time. They would call it, Jesus called it a house of prayer, meaning it's a house of worship. that people would gather at nine o'clock and at three o'clock, there would be like two services. And the priests would be offering burnt offering sacrifices for the sins of those who would bring those offerings or those who would simply come and want to participate in the observance of those offerings because it was a kind of worship. And it would happen at nine o'clock and at three o'clock. And following those sacrifices, there would be The giving up of incense would be a time of prayer because after the way is opened through sacrifice, you could pray to God. So they had a logical order to it. There would be the offering of the sacrifice and the giving up of prayers symbolized by the putting up of incense. And on those occasions, there would be all kinds of people there. And on any given day, there would be Pharisees there, and there would be people who were considered dirtbags there, like a tax collector. So it would be very typical for a Pharisee and a tax collector to be there at the temple during the offering times made at either 9 o'clock in the morning or 3 in the afternoon. Now, tax collectors, I keep using the word dirtbag, but they were like the lowest of the low. To be a tax collector means that you basically were a traitor to your own country. A Jewish guy would have to buy the right from Rome to tax his own people. So if I'm little Joe Israelite, I gotta go to the Roman authorities and say, I wanna be a tax collector. Okay, Mr. Dave, you wanna be a tax collector? That'll be $10,000 for you, and you are legally then can open up your tax franchise, but you give us $10,000 or whatever it was. I'm just making the 10,000 up, but they would have to give a sum of money. And then when I would go and collect my taxes from anybody and everybody, Then I would have to give a portion of those to Rome, and I'd get to keep the rest myself. So if I wanted to charge Doug some taxes over here, I would make sure I would collect enough from Doug to take care of not only what the Romans required me to give them, but then I would get a little bit too. And I would do that times however many number of people I could touch base with. And I would become a very rich man, albeit a very hated man. Because basically, I am screwing my own people. I am ripping them off. I am taking advantage of them because I've opened my authorized tax agency to take money and the Romans have authorized me. I have sold my soul out to Rome to do this. So here is this tax collector who's going there and he probably, like a lot of people, we'll see this in a few weeks, was Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus realized that he was a was a scum to his own people. He comes to Christ, we see that in chapter 19. And so here is this tax collector, and these two men, and verse 10 says, they went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood, and there's nothing wrong with standing. You can stand, you can lay down, there's different postures for prayer, that's not a big deal. The Pharisee stood and was praying thus to himself, And he would oftentimes pray out loud, because there's a lot of people there, and he wants to be noticed by people. And he would pray, God, I thank you that I'm not like other people, swindlers, unjust adulterers, or even like this tax gatherer. I fast twice a week. I pay tithes of all that I get. That's a pretty arrogant prayer. Pretty arrogant. He's talking about his own distinction there. I'm not like other people. I'm distinct. I fast twice a week. I deprive myself twice a week. I'm devoted because I pay tithes of all that I get. Now, two things I want to note here. First of all, fasting. And then we're going to talk quickly about tithing. But with fasting, did you know that the Old Testament only requires one day of fasting for the Jews per year? I'll say it again. The Old Testament only requires one day of fasting per year for the Jews. And that was on the day leading up to the Day of Atonement. You can find that in the Book of Leviticus. I'm not going to go back there because the clock's already against me. So fasting was not something that was just, you know, was commanded. Even in the old days, it was not. Just one time, Jews were asked to fast. One time a year. But here, the Pharisees, like all religious people like to do, they like to invent rituals and ceremonies and all kinds of procedures in order to lift themselves up and make themselves look better. That's what this guy does. This Pharisee, he's part of a system that's going to lift him. He says, I fast twice a week, even though it's not required, but I do it. And undoubtedly, he would probably go and show on By the way, there were two market days during the week in Jerusalem. On Mondays and Thursdays were the market days, and those would be the days that would be the heaviest traffic into Jerusalem, and those would be the days that the religious leaders would want to show themselves off by showing everyone that they're fasting. put all this ash and stuff on their face and look hungry and look really like they're depriving themselves. They're such a holy person because they're doing this. And they would do it for show. They would do it for show. And they would do it typically on Mondays and Thursdays because those were the market days. Those were the days when the crowds were bigger. Those were the days when you could get an audience to do this. So he says, look, I fast twice a week. Not only that, I tithe of all that I get. Now let me just explain tithing real quick. Tithing in the Old Testament was required giving. I'll say it, tithing is always required giving in the Old Testament. And tithing, if you go and you can look up the verses, would support the sacrificial system, and it would support the other activities of the system in order to help the poor. They would collect a tithe. There was a tithe for a fund or a national festival. They would collect tithes for that. And if you add up the tithes, there were two tithes that were 10% per year, and then there was one tithe that was done every third year. And when you add that up, that adds to a total of 23%. The average Jew pays every year in tithes. Then on top of that, there's free will giving, where you give as you have just led to give. There's no required amount. You give free will gifts. So the tithes, essentially, was like a national taxation system. Think of tithe equal taxes. I mean, a lot of people today, it varies from state to state. I mean, if you live in California, it's different. But typically, people in our country today pay anywhere from 20% to 30% of their yearly income in taxes, something like that. Some of you might say, well, I pay 40%. Well, okay, I mean, people out in California pay close to 50%. If you make a lot of money, they're giving nearly half of it to the federal and the state government out there in California or something like that. I haven't looked at all. But so my point is, and then you come to the New Testament and nowhere in the New Testament are believers commanded to tithe. So in the Old Testament, it was a form of taxation. We're told to pay taxes in the New Testament. Rent under Caesar, the things under Caesar. We're told that by the Lord Jesus Christ. We pay our taxes. In fact, we're in tax season right now. Just got mine off the other day, and I'm glad. I hate tax season. I just hate filling out those forms. Anyway, I've always had a bad attitude towards it. But I digress, back to the message. And so taxes and tithing were the same idea in the Old Testament. And nowhere in the New Testament, nowhere in Paul's writing are we commanded to pay tithes. or commanded to give free will giving, as you wish. For instance, over in 2 Corinthians 9, verses six and seven, Paul says, now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must do just as he purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. You give because you want to You want to honor God with this free will gift. And so people say, well, I give 10%. Well, if you only feel led to give 5%, then just give 5%. There's no requirement, no percentage requirement in the New Testament on how much you are to give. You give as God has led you to give. And you give it cheerfully because you're not honoring me. You're not honoring the church, you're honoring Christ. It's an act of worship on your behalf. We're not commanded to tithe at all. So here is this, going back to the text, here is this religious leader, this Pharisee, and you see his conceit in his own accomplishments, his own piety. He's all caught up with himself. And then you move to verse 13 and you see the contrite sinner and this tax collector who has bought and purchased the right to tax from Rome. He is a traitor to his own country. And you see his conviction there in verse 13. He was unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven. He was beating his breast in contrition. And he was confessing, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. God, be merciful to me, a sinner. By the way, in the Greek, and the New American does the right job here, it's literally translated, there's the definite article there in verse 13 where he says, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. The definite article is in the Greek there. It hasn't been left out, so he's only looking at himself. It's like the Apostle Paul over in 1 Timothy 1, verse 15, he says, I am the chief of sinners. I'm the foremost of sinners. It's like, I'm not thinking about anyone else's sin. I know that I'm the foremost, the chiefest of the chiefs. I am the sinner. My eyes aren't thinking about anyone else and comparing myself with they're worse than me or they're on the FBI's top 10 most wanted. No, that's not the point. That's not the point. He identifies himself in verse 13 as the sinner, the sinner. So that's the contrast that you see there. And there's all kinds of other verses that talk about how We are justified here, but thirdly, the third point there, if I have it here, I think I skipped over, did I skip over that point? Oh, I didn't get the third point up there. Point number three should read the condemnation of the self-righteous, verse 14. For some reason I left it off the screen here. The condemnation, that's point three, the condemnation of the self-righteous. Because verse 14 brings it all to a head here as the clock is beginning to squeeze me a little bit here. But here's the point. Jesus says in verse 14, He's going to pronounce justification for this tax collector. Verse 14, Jesus says, I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other. Again, The word justified here, just like the word trusted back in verse nine, is in the perfect tense in the Greek, meaning he was justified at a point in time and it has continual ongoing results. He was justified by his faith at this point, it has ongoing results. He's justified, justified, he remains justified, justified, justified, justified, ongoing indefinitely into the future, cannot be lost. He was justified, just like those who back in verse nine, they were trusting in themselves, trust, trust, trust, trust, trust. This man was justified. And by the way, it's also in the passive, meaning, what does that mean? It was done to him. He didn't justify himself. It's in the passive voice in the Greek, means it was something that was done to him. I want you to see. So it's like saying, I was hit by the ball. The ball did something to me. I was passive and the ball hit me. Well, this man was hit by justification because of his faith. Not anything that he did from the inside, it was all done from the outside. It's an outside justification coming upon him because he believed, not because all of a sudden he was innately perfect in himself. No, he believed, and his faith, just like Abraham back in Genesis 15, verse 6, he believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness. So, there's a pronouncement of justification. I had this quote here. By the way, there's all kinds of verses here, and I don't have time to go through those, but I want to give you this quote by some guy you've never heard of. I won't even try to pronounce his name. He's a Presbyterian pastor from the 1700s. He was in Scotland. He wrote this, and I like this quote. He says, if a man attempts to add any works of his own to the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ as the ground of his justification before God, Christ profits him nothing. If you try to justify yourself before God by your own good works, then why do you need Jesus? I can do it myself. Or you can sing like Frank Sinatra, I did it my way. So, Christ prophesied, no, the obedience and the death of Christ have become of no effect to him. In other words, if you can justify yourself, why do you need Jesus then? You don't need Jesus, because you're so good. You can do it yourself, right? Okay, well, that's not how, but justification only comes from Christ because of what he has done. But there's also a promise of judgment there at the very end, and we'll close with this. At the very end of verse 14, for everyone, this is a promise, for everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled." The religious leaders, the Pharisees, they exalted themselves. They are going to be humbled. But he who humbles himself, like the tax collector, shall be exalted. There's a promise of judgment on those who have exalted themselves. There's a promise of justification for those who humble themselves and recognize their own sin. And so, we're gonna sing here in a moment a very appropriate song, Jesus Paid It All. And as the musicians and the singers come, I wanna remind you that justification means that we have been declared righteous before God. It's a position. Justification is not something you feel. Justification is a position, like you are an American citizen. That's a position that you have by birth. Justification is a position that we have before God by being, by birth, by being born again. by trusting on Christ. Have you been justified in the eyes of God? Do you stand before God righteous? If you were to die today, would you stand in the merits of Christ or in your own merits? The ultimate question. But we know that Jesus had a sacrifice that paid everything that we need to have justification before God.