because they are both Psalms about confession of sin. So follow along as I read Psalm 51, beginning in verse one. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgression, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from blood and guiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise, for you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it. You will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Do good to Zion in your good pleasure. Build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings. Then bowls will be offered on your altar. There is the word of God and it is to be received as such. As we look at these two men that went up to the temple to pray, one of them was the self-righteous Pharisee. Keep in mind that that Pharisee certainly had read, if he didn't have it memorized, Psalm 51, and he should have known his sin, that the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. but he would have none of it. Well, let's pray then as we come to the ministry of God's word. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for these truths that, and thank you for helping us see clearly and understand these things that you don't look on the outward, man, but you look at the heart. that you require a broken and contrite spirit, that you will reject the haughty person. You will reject man's pride, which one day you will finally and completely humble. And so now, Father, as we come to this great parable from the lips of the Lord Jesus himself, we pray that you would open our eyes to the lesson, to the truths that are contained here, and that you would enable us by your Spirit to examine ourselves. Repent of any self-righteousness that our flesh would always have us embrace, and instead, Father, we pray that we would always approach you with a contrite, broken spirit. placing all of our trust in Christ. And Father, we also want to remember the Rears this morning. We ask your blessing upon them. We pray that you would continue to restore them to health and strength. We thank you for them and for their many years of faithful service and fellowship in this church. And so we commit them to you Thank you for them in Christ's name, amen. Well, here then is this great parable that the Lord Jesus spoke in Luke chapter 18. It's not a long parable, it's verses nine through 14. And it is the parable then of the two men who go up to the temple to pray, the Pharisee and the tax collector. So follow along with me as I read it. It's in your handout or you can follow in your Bible. Luke 18, verses 9 to 14. 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'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get. But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. That last sentence, which is the point of the whole parable, everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, the one who humbles himself will be exalted, is a principle that we want to take careful note of because it's repeated over and over again, sometimes in a little bit different terminology, like the last will be first and the first will be last. or God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. And so, this is a fundamental truth about God. He is opposed to the proud. Remember Nebuchadnezzar, after he had been out to pasture, you might say, for seven years, you know, and he exalts and gives praise to the God of Daniel, and he ends his prayer, his declaration, his lesson learned with, and he says about God, Daniel's God, and he is able to humble those who walk in pride. Boom. Nebuchadnezzar had to learn that the hard way. Well, here we have an account of two men, and this is, as I said, Something to take note of, this is Jesus speaking these things himself. Now, we realize that the entire Bible is the word of God, so it's not as if somehow these are more the word of God than any of the others, but nevertheless, this is the Lord Jesus himself speaking, and he told this parable as a rebuke and a sober warning against people that the parable identifies. Luke tells us that Jesus told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt. And no doubt then, you kind of think of the scene, Jesus is telling this parable within the hearing of, if not directly at, a group of Pharisees. that are standing right there, you see. And he is the target audience, along with others that might need to hear them as well. But he's rebuking people who regard themselves as righteous, and specifically, righteous before God, all right? And they are doing so. You know, what's the foundation? What's the basis for their claim of being righteous? It's their own station in life, who they happen to be, and it's their own works. They are self-righteous people. Their righteousness, by which they insist God must count them righteous, originates within themselves, and not in Christ. And this is a sin, too, that we all battle with, it lingers in our own flesh as well and it will as long as we're in this present life and we need to be aware of how quickly it springs up and we can pridefully be self-righteous in ourselves. Paul may well have had this parable in mind when he wrote these words in Philippians 3. Indeed, remember, Paul had been a Pharisee. Indeed, I count everything as loss. Everything he used to be, all that Pharisee stuff, which he was excelling at. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake, I've suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, and here it is, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that righteousness which comes through faith in Christ. The righteousness from God that depends upon faith, you see. We will be very wise if we take serious note of the Lord Jesus' words here, This is tricky. Our sinful flesh is deceitful. Satan is deceitful. He takes millions and millions of people to hell by this very trap of trusting in their own righteousness, even though, like this Pharisee, they can be outwardly very religious people. Where does my confidence and trust lie for acceptance with God? Is it his righteousness that he's providing Christ, or am I trusting then in my own righteousness? We might summarize this parable in a couple of ways, and maybe kind of contemporize it a little bit. Two men went to church, but only one went to heaven. and the other ended in hell. That's what this parable is about. Or two men went to church. One of them most likely for the first time, the other man was a zealous active church member who was in church every week. But only one of them was justified, the other one ended in hell. in hell, just like the, well, the end of this Pharisee that we're considering right now in this parable is the same end, the same destiny of the rich man in the account of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16. In Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side and he called out, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am in anguish in this flame. This Pharisee in the parable, the day came when both he and the tax collector had died and that Pharisee was in hell and he looks up, he looks up in hell And he sees the tax collector who is in the presence of Abraham. He's in heaven, the Pharisee is in hell. Now what's the Lord's purpose in telling this parable? Luke states it plainly. Verse nine, he, Christ, also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt. I want us to think very carefully about that verse and we're going to examine it at length here. William Hendrickson, a great Bible teacher and commentator, he said in his commentary, there's no reason to doubt that Jesus addressed this parable to a group of Pharisees. That's the plain meaning of Luke's statement. Jesus addressed this story illustration to those who trusted in themselves and believed everybody else amounted to nothing. That this was not an exaggeration, but a true picture of what was wrong with the Pharisees of that day cannot be doubted. The parable presents two men, two prayers and two results. In other words, as we've said, the some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous were the Pharisees and that group of Pharisees right there. This tells us, by the way, a lot about the Lord Jesus Christ and how oftentimes people are taught in the churches today, don't give offense. Don't be harsh. Jesus knew this is why he's speaking this parable. The Pharisees are right there. He knew they were gonna be gnashing their teeth with hatred when they heard this parable that he taught. They knew he was talking about them, and sometimes we need to be bold with people like that. Those who trust in themselves, that's who he is. That's who he's talking about here, you see. When a person is righteous in and of themselves. These are the kind of people that Jesus is addressing here. People who regard themselves as righteous in God's sight, in their own sight, because of themselves. because of who they are and what they've done, the kind of life that they're living and so forth. We're told here that they are people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt. So we ask ourselves, well, how do I regard myself? I need to make careful examination of myself, you see. When a person, we see from this clearly from verse nine, when a person is righteous, when they're self-righteous in and of themselves, thinking that they will surely merit God's approval, get this now, inevitably, they will regard other people with contempt. The self-righteous Pharisee despises others. Today we might say the Pharisees were narcissists, right? They're up here, they're superior, even God must regard them as superior, and they look down their nose, they look at other people with contempt, they despise them. Those who trust in their own righteousness necessarily regard others with contempt. You know, that's an ugly word, isn't it? Contempt. I looked it up here. The definition I found was contempt is the act of despising. It's good to despise something that is truly in and of itself contemptible. It's a good thing to despise sin and evil and so forth. But in this case, these self-righteous people are people who hold other people in contempt. They despise other people. Contempt is an ugly thing, and it's revealed. It's subtle. It's wicked. Oftentimes, the self-righteous person doesn't just come right out and say, I despise you. So maybe once in a while they will. But it's usually evidenced in more subtle terms. Contempt can be revealed in actions. It can be revealed in facial expressions. It can be revealed in tone of voice. I heard parents at one point or another with their children who probably told their kids, Don't you use that tone with me, right? You can see it. Well, contempt can evidence itself just in a tone of voice. It regards people, to hold someone in contempt or derision is to regard them as having no worth. You're worthless, you're of no worth to me. I'm up here, I'm entitled, but you're down there. Self-righteous people, Their self-righteousness is betrayed, it's evidenced by when they show contempt then toward other people. Most often, just like in the case of these Pharisees, very often, the venue in which the self-righteous person shows up is in the church. It's in the realm then of religion. I've seen this kind of person, and you've seen that kind of a person. They regard themselves as righteous. I am the finest Christian. They are just certain that the Lord approves of them, and not only approves of them, but approves of them far above, far above anyone else to see. This is their thinking then. They point to their actions, they point to their accident, of birth, they point to the fact that, hey, I'm the most active, faithful, serving person in the entire church. And as a result, they regard themselves as being then righteous, you see. Jesus again saying, Matthew 7, on that day, when he comes again, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name? Those are the words of a self-righteous person. They're going before the Lord on the day of judgment, and they're telling him, look at all the things that we did. Look how righteous we are. And he says, depart from me, I never knew you then, you see. And it's interesting to me that Jesus says there, on that day, many will say to me, many. As you think about these things, you can tend to get, oh, this is a dangerous thing. I really need to be on guard. I need to guard my own heart against this self-righteousness business because it will creep up on us. And you can be, as we've seen, a very religious person, a church member, and yet your righteousness is no righteousness at all because it emanates then from ourselves. Well, again, the Lord says, Jesus himself says, this kind of person, the self-righteous person, the person who trusts in themselves that they are righteous, they regard others with contempt. And get this now, the two qualities go hand in hand. If a person is self-righteous, they necessarily will always regard other people as below them, as unrighteous. They will hold them in derision and contempt, you see. Now here's wisdom, here's wisdom. Because the self-righteous Pharisee, you know, that most godly person in the church who is in fact self-righteous, right, not godly at all, they are always at work to garner praise from others. Oh, oh, wow, that was the greatest thing you did over there, and boy, how would this church get along without you? That kind of thing, and they just feed on that, and feed on that. Well, when we see that kind of a person, we can be wise if we recognize that a self-righteous person in fact regards everybody else then with contempt. And we can be certain, you know what, I'm looking at a counterfeit. That's not a regenerate person. That's a person who is a hypocrite and on the road to hell. And so it's not someone that we want to be deceived by. They're always trying to deceive. Here's the truth, right? 1 John 2, whoever says he's in the light and hates his brother is in darkness, is still in darkness. Well, you could say there, you could read it this way too, whoever says he's righteous but he holds his brother in contempt, he's not righteous at all. He is in darkness. I don't know if 30 years ago this church were worse than others or the same. I don't know. But I do know this, and many of you will recognize this, this place was full of self-righteousness. I mean, it just reaped of self-righteousness. and then a regarding others with contempt. Paul, with numbers of times in his letters in the New Testament, would say that, you know, I'm a fool for Christ. And if you're gonna follow Christ, you gotta be willing to be regarded as a fool. Well that's because the self-righteous Pharisee and regards others with contempt as being a fool. 1 John 4, if anyone says, I love God and hates his brother, he's a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. So here's wisdom, here's wisdom. Don't be taken in by the self-righteous Pharisee. One way that we can be taken in by such a person is this, whether you be, especially if you're a new Christian, but not necessarily just a new Christian. But think of this, most churches have one of these self-righteous type, if not more, in them, all right? Now, it's a wonderful, it is a wonderful and good thing for a genuine Christian, for a regenerate person who's humble to faith, to be a faithful part of the body of Christ, all right? It's a good thing to be faithful in gathering on the Lord's day with Christ's people. It's a good thing to be faithful in your study of the word and faithful in using the gift that God's given to you and faithful in loving and serving. It's a good thing. But it's not a good thing if it is motivated by self-righteousness. That's what we don't want to be deceived by. But here's what happens. The self-righteous, we'll see this in the Pharisees' prayer here in a moment, The self-righteous person wants everybody to know just how much of a saint he or she is. And so, and if you fall for it and start thinking, man, what a holy person. Boy, I, oh, and here's the stumbling block. I'll never be that godly. I'll never be able to measure up to that. And so, you see this. The self-righteous hypocrite keeps exalting himself or herself up here and holding everybody else down here, just happy that everybody down here thinks how saintly and holy they are, right? But what's happening, if that be the case, to the people down here? They kind of give up. They aren't really growing. Their growth in Christ is hindered by a person like this. We simply cannot permit the self-righteous hypocrite to continue to play their game in the body of Christ. They do incredible things. incredible damage, and behind the scenes, if anybody knows them behind the scenes, they know that the thing is just a sham anyway. Well, verse 10, two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. Now Jesus purposely chose a tax collector. Remember, this group of Pharisees standing here, self-righteous people, trusting in themselves that they're righteous, And Jesus, with the intent of showing these people themselves, he chooses a Pharisee and a tax collector. Now, what was going on in the Pharisees' minds when they heard that? Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. Well, probably, initially they're thinking, ha, they're a loser, a tax collector, Yeah, right, he's going into the temple to pray, right? What a joke, that kind of a thing. Why would they be thinking that? Well, listen to William Hendrickson again. Publicans, or tax collectors, had paid a fixed sum of money to the Roman government for the privilege of levying tolls upon exports and imports, as well as upon whatever merchandise passed through the region. They charged whatever the traffic would bear, huge sums. So they had the reputation of being extortionists. And if he were a Jew, if the tax collector were a Jew, he would be regarded by his fellow Jews as being a traitor because he's in the service of the foreign oppressor and occupier. So the tax collector was, remember Nicodemus, tax collector, when he, came to faith in Christ when he was saved that day. Remember he said, if anybody, if I've defrauded anybody, I will repay them how many times it was. Well, it's not if he had defrauded anybody, he had defrauded. That's what the tax collectors did. Well, they go into the temple to pray. Now, why are they going? What's their motive, right? Well, the Pharisee went out of his self-righteousness. That's what his whole religion. You have to understand this. When you're dealing with a self-righteous person, this hypocrite, the moment that they walk in the church doors on Sunday morning, they're entirely motivated by, look at me, look at me, self-glory, self-glory. It's all, look how righteous I am because of who I am. regardless of the smile on their face, the kindness that they seem to, they regard, you know, let's just personalize this. They regard you with contempt. They regard you with contempt. Everybody is below them. That's why, you know, we're hesitant to think things about someone, we're hesitant Come in, and maybe you pick up on it, just some little twinge, some little hint that, oh, what they said or did, that struck me kind of wrong. Well, so we're hesitant to say, you know what? That guy regards other people with contempt. He regards me as a fool. He regards me as worthless. He regards me with derision. But that's what's going on. And we need to be wise to that. This is what the self-righteous person does. It's what makes them tip. Matthew chapter six describes the Pharisees' motivations. When you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. They love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others. That's their motive. That's why this Pharisee's going to the temple to pray there. And he's gonna pray aloud. He's gonna stand where he can be seen by others and he's gonna be wearing his Pharisee garb, right? Have that on, and Jesus said, truly I say to you, they've received their reward. Enjoy it, fellas, because that's all you're gonna get. So the religion of the self-righteous is all show. It is to be seen by others. I hope that, I hope that none of us are that kind of a person. I also hope that as you think about these things, it kind of boggles your mind, you know, that if you're that kind of a person, why don't you just go somewhere else, pick some other thing to be, why would you want to come to church for the soul purpose of being regarded as righteous, even before God. Maybe that's why such a person picks the church. Maybe that's it, you know. I want God to acknowledge that I am righteous because of me. I mean, can you think of something more wicked? Not only wicked, but it's stupid. Isn't it? Isn't that? It's stupid. to even think in our minds that this is what the self-righteous person does. That's what this guy's gonna do in his prayer. God, I thank you. I mean, he's addressing God that I'm so righteous. Look at me. I mean, what a fool. Now, why did the tax collector go to the temple to pray? It's probably not his practice. I think it's probably pretty safe to assume this is the first time he's ever gone to the temple then to pray, you see? And the Pharisees that are listening, they say, oh, sure. Yeah, that's a good one. Tell us this, Jesus. You're joking, right? He's gonna go to the temple then to pray. Let's look at the content of their prayers. If you want to call the Pharisee's prayer even a prayer, it's not really a prayer. What he's doing is, the reason he's there, is he wants to tell everybody, and he wants to tell God how righteous he is. Look at the prayer. Verse 11, the Pharisee standing by himself, but you can be sure where he can be seen. Pray thus, God, count how many times, by the way, you see the first person personal pronoun, I, I, I. 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. I, I, I. That's not a prayer. There's no confession of sin in it. There's no request of God for mercy. None of that. He's just telling God, you know? And he does it in a pretense. Oh, I'm so thankful, God. He's not thankful. He's not thankful to God. He's just addressing God. Hendrickson described it this way. The Pharisee was inwardly, and actually, the Pharisee is talking about himself to himself. That's a good insight. He's talking about himself to himself. He's not really, this is not a prayer, you see. It's all about himself. And you can say then, yeah, well, how do you describe the self-righteous hypocrite, the godliest person in the whole church, the pillar of the church. The church wouldn't be able to get along without such a person. How can they be described? Well, they're all about themselves. That's what they're about, you see. this self-righteous, and remember this, remember now, that a self-righteous Pharisee regards others with contempt. If you are a Christian, if you're born again, if you know the Lord, right, and you're humble, this kind of person, this pillar of the church, regards you with contempt. Contempt. You think initially, oh, that's a pretty strong word. Surely, you know, when I come, he's got a smile on his face. Maybe he's always the guy at the door, you know, or whatever. But are you really sure they regard you, yes. Yes, he regards you with contempt, then, you see. This guy, the Pharisee, his prayer, no doubt, is uttered aloud for everybody to hear. He wants to be seen, you see. He is heaven's gift then to the church. That's how he regards them. Now, why does he regard himself as righteous? Well, it's because he's comparing himself to the wrong standard. As Hendrickson said, he is talking about himself to himself. He is comparing himself to himself. This is like the stupidity of taking one of those wooden yardsticks, say, or a ruler, and you say, well, I need to calibrate this yardstick. How do I know that this yardstick is accurate and so you just take another wooden yardstick and you come back, okay, they match there, it's calibrated. But we know that somewhere there must be an ideal yardstick, a standard of measure someplace. I had to look this one up, but there's an International Bureau of Weights and Measures It's near Paris, France. It was established in 1875. And all these guys that are on the board there, they meet like twice a year. That must be an exciting group. And they're going to talk about the standard of what is an inch and what's a meter and all this kind of stuff. And actually, it's kind of interesting how they define almost atomically different measurements. If you're gonna check the calibration of this yardstick, you better find out where the yardstick is to compare it against. But that's not what self-righteous people do. Self-righteous people compare themselves with themselves. Paul talked about that in 2 Corinthians. Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. That's what he does. Self-righteous person commends themselves. When they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they're without understanding. They're stupid. It's stupid. Proverbs 26, do you see a man who's wise in his own eyes? The self-righteous man. I'm self-righteous. Well, how do you know? Well, because I'm self-righteous in my own eyes, you see. That's how it goes. And Proverbs says, there's more hope for a fool than for him, than for that kind. Look, what is the standard of true righteousness? It's God. It's Christ. God is holy, holy, holy. There's never been, and there never will be, some Pharisee stand before God and boast about how, well, what happened to Isaiah? When Isaiah saw, and Isaiah was a righteous man, but he sees God holy and exalted in the temple, you see? And Isaiah's response is, I'm undone. Woe is me, he's not gonna march up and say, hey, look how righteous I am, you know. It's not gonna work that way, but that's what the self-righteous person does. That's what this Pharisee was doing. God, oh, I'm so thankful that, you know. And really, God, you should be thankful too, because I'm so righteous. I'm not like other people, you see. And so, these kind of people come into the church. And we can't let them get away with it. This is what happens. Look, if you let a self-righteous hypocrite, Pharisee, have their lead in a church, what's gonna happen? They're gonna be a stumbling block to others, they're going to work their cunning ploys, deceptions, pretty soon, they're gonna be the top dog, and everybody's just almost worshiping them. It has to be nipped in the bud, but oftentimes then, it's not. People fall for their deception, and before long, the whole church, just like the church in Ephesus, when John said, you know, I've heard that guy in your church, Diotrephes, and I know what he does. He loves to be first. That's what he wants. And he's oppressing Christ's true people. And when I come, when I come, I'm going to call attention to his deeds in front of everybody. I'm going to call him on the carpet. This is one of the reasons I'm so leery anymore of denominations. You know, we've had our experiences with joining denominations. Every time, every time we've tried to be part of a denomination, it seems to be going good at first and so forth. Inevitably, what happens is you find out that sure enough, he is who's running the show. Because if you let it, if you just let it happen, they rise to the top and people fall for their disguise. Where did this Pope business all come from? It's from this very, very kind of a thing, you see. Well, what about the other man? What about the tax collect, conviction that was making him beat his chest? We read about earlier in Psalm 32, and to some degree in Psalm 51 as well, this being broken, humbled, and contrite, and being, overwhelmed with the guilt of one's sin as God is convicting us of our sin. That's what's happening to this man. He wouldn't even look up. Why was he there? Because God had got a hold of him. God's spirit had done a work in him and brought him to conviction of his sin. And you can bet, he was a tax collector. His sins were many, sins were many. And yet, here he comes. He's just like, you could say he's like a Christian in Pilgrim's Progress. It's great how that opens, how Bunyan opens that up. I saw this man with a book in his hand and a burden on his back. The book is the word of God and he's been reading it and he's under conviction of his sin. and impending judgment, that's what the burden is all about. And that's what this man is, this tax collector, as he's coming. And so, now you can bet, what do you suppose the Pharisee, well you don't even have to make other men, extortioners and adulterers and this tax collector, and I bet the Pharisee said that aloud to where the tax collector then The tax collector came, convicted that he was condemned by God. He knew Psalm 51, the first few verses in your handout. This is after David had sinned. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love. See, blot out my transgressions. wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. I know my transgressions, my sin is ever before me. That's what was upon me. My strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. That's why the tax collector went to the temple to pray. He had been under that conviction of self-righteousness. Just remember this, if anyone comes under this kind of conviction. First, God's showing us our sin. But secondly, there's a remarkable, remarkably easy solution, right? I'm on my way to hell. I was the chief of sinners. The sinner. God be merciful then. This is the starting point of salvation. We must be brought by the spirit of God under conviction of our sin to the fact where we, it's weighing down us. I understand that I am a sinner, that I don't deserve anything from God except his justice. We've got to get hold of that first. That's what? There's none righteous, none, not even one. No one has done good, not even one, over and over and over again for God's mercy because he'd been brought under that conviction. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say most people that claim to be Christians today come under that conviction then. of their sin. Now, the second thing to take notice of in his prayer is this word that's translated, be merciful. Be merciful. He knows he doesn't deserve anything from God. The self-righteous Pharisee, oh, well, he's righteous. But the tax collector, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. God, be merciful to me. I know I deserve justice. I don't deserve mercy. But you are a merciful God, and I'm pleading for you to show me mercy. And this mercy that he's calling for is a very specific kind of mercy. The word that's translated, be merciful, listen to the first part of this Greek word. Helasthetai, helas, hear that prefix, helas? Now, helasterion, helasterion, which is translated in English as propitiation. Propitiation seat on top of the ark in the Holy of Holies is called a mercy seat or the helasterion. Why? Because it's a place where God's wrath is propitiated, God's wrath against the sinner is propitiated by the blood being sprinkled on the place of propitiation whereby God can be just and yet the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Now how much of this did the tax collector know? He's there in the temple. He knows that there's sacrifices and so forth in Jewish religion under the old covenant. He may have had some kind of inkling about how these sacrifices represented some ultimate sacrifice of some ultimate lamb that would take away sin. We don't know. But as it turns out, if you've got the faith of a mustard seed, Just a little bit there. As it turns out, even though he's back in that era, in that setting of Old Covenant, they're still in the temple, he was asking for mercy because of Christ. That's why he went away justified. His faith, though it be little, his object then was the Lord Jesus Christ. Hendrickson says, of the tax collector. He stands at a distance. He stands away, far away from the sanctuary. He's ashamed of his sins. Standing with downcast eyes, he keeps beating his breast in self-accusation and near despair. He is earnestly and fervently begging God to be propitiated. He's hungering and thirsting for the one great blessing, namely, that God's anger may be removed and his favor obtained. His prayer is in the spirit of the hymn, nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. And there it is. And so, he goes away justified. Henrickson continues, he singles himself out as the sinner. A little later, the great apostle Paul was gonna do the same thing. He was going to say, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. for most of whom I am, you see. Now, just a couple more things. This is sobering stuff. This is eternity, this is heaven and hell. Two men went up to the temple to pray. Two men went to church. Only one went to heaven, the other went to hell. and that's how it plays itself out today. These things are real. Many, many, many people go to church and sit through maybe even hundreds of sermons if they happen to even be in a place where God's word is really proclaimed, but they still end up being like the self-righteous Pharisee with this self-made, man-made righteousness which is repugnant then to God. And if we are wise, we will honestly examine ourselves, ask the Lord to enable us to examine ourselves and say, who am I? Which of those two guys am I? Which one? One left there justified, the other were safe in concluding, left there on the way to hell. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other, the Pharisee. For everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted. Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction. and many are those who enter by it. For the gate is small, and the way is narrow and leads to life. Matthew, Henry, that I attached to your handout, for your consideration, you can read that a bit later on. Father, we thank you for this parable. We thank you for these. Examine ourselves, and we pray, Father, that you would, by your Spirit, enable everyone here, everyone listening, to discern whether we are trusting in ourselves that we're righteous, or whether we're trusting in the righteousness of you, which is by faith in Jesus Christ. We pray, Father, that everyone here, everyone listening, no one would be deceived by the enemy, And that if anyone's listening that has been deceived, that's still trusting in their own righteousness, Father, we pray that your spirit would bring them to the point that you brought that tax collector where they're beating their chest and looking down in great turmoil because they know that they're not righteous before you and that their only hope is your mercy. And we pray, Father, that you would Lead them then to plead for you with that mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's in his name we pray, amen. In our Trinity hymn book, number 461, not.