Let us turn in God's holy word to Luke chapter 18, the gospel according to Luke 18, and we'll read the first 14 verses. Our text will come from verses nine through 14. Let us hear the word of our Lord, Luke 18, verse one. Then he spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart. saying, there was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city, and she came to him saying, get justice for me from my adversary. And he would not for a while, but afterward he said within himself, though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. Then the Lord said, hear what the unjust judge said. And shall God not avenge his own elect who cry out day and night to him, though he bears long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, he will really find faith on the earth. Also, he spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. And the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess. And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise 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, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Amen. May God bless the reading of his precious and infallible word. Dear congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, We have been instructed in the past months regarding the prayer that our Lord taught us to pray, our Father who art in heaven. As I pointed out throughout that series of sermons, prayer oftentimes is what aligns us with who God is. And that alignment is necessary in prayer because of who we are. And oftentimes, we think that we are quite aligned to who God is. And maybe you yourself have heard someone pray and thought to yourself, wow, this is a very spiritual person with this There's lots of spiritual significance in their prayer. And you can hear it in their words, in their posture, in their tone. And it's just full of themselves even sometimes. And the next person you might come across in prayer, they might sound very awkward or fumbling for their next word. Maybe I could ask you a question. Who do you think God is going to listen to? The one who's stammering a few words and finally just bursts out, God be merciful to us, or me. Or the person that had some kind of eloquent stream of prayer and had it all crafted just perfectly. Who would God listen to? Jesus gives us this parable here to make sure that our assumptions are aligned with who God is and the prayers that he hears. Because the prayer of a righteous man avails much, we read in James. It's not the prayers of those who wax eloquently in their prayers that God always hears, but of the righteous. as those whose heart is right with God, those who know the grace of God. And here he reminds us that prayer is not about religious pride or some cultural way of praying with the right cliches and the right tone and everything else. No, prayer needs to come from the heart, a repentant heart. especially as we look at this parable of the two men praying, it comes in the context of Jesus speaking to those who trusted in themselves, that they were righteous and maybe even despised others. They trusted in their own eloquent prayers and despised the prayers of the humble, even those who may be fumbling for some words. And Jesus says in this parable, two men, went up to one temple to pray. One a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. And the Pharisee obviously was part of that respected religious elite of the day. And this Pharisee, he knew the scriptures well. He kept the law. He fasted. He tithed. He was an example of holiness to all around. Certainly God is going to hear his prayer. Right? And then there's this tax collector or what others would call a publican. The tax collector in those days really were serving the Roman government. And they were not liked by the Jews by any means. Often seen as traitors. Maybe even cheats. Those who were skimming maybe even off the top of these taxes. And after all, they had sold their souls, as it were, to the Roman Empire. They were despised, socially and morally. They were seen as the scum of the earth. Who's God going to hear? What Jesus is doing in this parable, he's leveling the playing field. Two men who have the very same needs, both sinners, both in need of grace, Both coming to the same temple to pray to God. They both need repentance. One has it and the other doesn't. And see, really what Jesus is highlighting in this parable is the need for true repentance and prayer. And that true repentance is what aligns us with God. Because true repentance is turning our life back to God. It's a turning away from ourself and turning to God. Seeking to be aligned to His interest. It's a turning because of an awe of who God is. And so we are willing to mortify our old nature and seek to live a new life. to God. That's really what repentance is. The biblical doctrine of repentance is so undermined in our day. If you go to a popular bookstore, you can find this out for yourself. If you look up all the different Christian psychology and the different Christian self-help books as they are and would be simply merely watered-down humanism. where millions of people are searching for answer to all the complicated questions and the complexities of their life. Complexities that are caused by sin. And yet, psychology comes along and says, we can solve your problems. We can solve your problems by helping you boost your own self-image and your own self-esteem. And so you need to get in touch with your inner self. You need to understand how you feel about yourself. Well, this Pharisee felt pretty good about himself. But God didn't hear his prayer. A publican or the tax collector, he didn't feel very good about himself. And God heard his prayer. You see, repentance isn't for the righteous and themselves. Repentance is for those who are sinners. Repentance is a grace of God. It's an evangelical grace whereby we come to understand who we are before God. Sensing the danger of sin, understanding the heinousness of sin, the filthiness of sin, and turning and trusting in the mercy of God unto eternal life. Repentance is absolutely necessary for salvation. Repentance from all sins, particular sins, including confession, pleading for pardon, desire to forsake sin, and the promise that you indeed in Christ will find mercy. You see, repentance is bringing us into alignment with God's kingdom, where Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent, align yourself with my kingdom and my priorities, and believe the gospel. It brings us in alignment with God's will as we seek to do his will. It aligns us with God's grace and His forgiveness and salvation as we trust in Him. This is true repentance. A repentance, as Paul writes to the Corinthians, that doesn't have to be repented of. So some kind of false repentance, but it's a true, godly repentance. A sorrow for sin that works repentance, not to be repented of. I'd like to look at this repentance and prayer with this parable and see, first of all, the humility that's required for true repentance. Secondly, the faith that's required for true repentance. And thirdly, the salvation that's promised in true repentance. First of all, then, humility and true repentance. And he spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. Jesus here is addressing the proud, the very opposite of humility. He isn't addressing some skeptics or atheists here. He's very clearly targeting those who are self-righteous and spiritually proud in themselves. They trusted in themselves and what they have done, and they even look down on others who maybe hadn't done as much as what they had. And that's what he highlights with this Pharisee who stood and prayed thus with himself. God, I thank you that I'm not like other men. extortioners, unjust, adulterers, and even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess. This is a spiritually proud man. Lord, just look at me. Self-confidence in his own morality. Lord, look at me, I'm doing fine on my own. I compare myself to those around me, and I don't find myself these extortioners like this tax collector, or unjust people like this tax collector, or even those adulterers that are out there. No, Lord, I thank you that I'm not like these people. I'm doing quite fine on my own. It's a comparison going on here. I'm better than you. This is a spiritual, proud Pharisee. It's like, why would you even be praying? It'd be more like going to a doctor with some kind of life-threatening disease and telling the doctor, you know what? I googled it myself. And guess what? I got all of the answer, and I'm doing quite fine. I just need you to sign one thing on my prescription thing and affirm that I have it all together. I got it all under control, and I got it all figured out. You'd say, what a fool. Listen to your physician, your doctor. And this is the same thing about spiritual pride. It deceives us into thinking that we know more than the great physician himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. In our prayers, do we find ourself thinking we're quite good? We got it all under control. Maybe even thinking to ourself, we're not as bad as those other people are in this world. They really need the grace of God. This man stood by himself. He didn't even want to be close to other sinners. He prayed with himself, or to and about himself, rather than praying to God. He uses I five times in this short prayer. The unholy trinity, me, myself, and I. What a proud man. Even his thanks to God is simply a veiled boast. It's like he's presenting his report card to God of all the good things that he's done. Proud of them. He's not asking for mercy at all, but rather he's trying to sell and market his own good works to God as if he would buy them. I fasted twice a week. Way more than the law required. I even give tithes of all my possessions. Way more than what the Lord required. And yet there's no confession and acknowledgement of who God is. No worship and awe of who God is. No dependence on God at all, but spiritual pride. You see, we can fall into the same trap. We can do all the religious things even for proud, prideful reasons. We could be in church every single Sunday, faithful attendees to all of the events. We could pray more than anyone else. We could even fast. We could give tithes even more than what you could imagine. and still be far from God. Proud in ourself. Prideful religion that would justify ourself and our own consciences and even cause us to look down on those who don't have the same spiritual disciplines and exercises we have. It takes humility to be truly repentant. Pride will never lead to repentance. But humility, on the other hand, it will. Notice the posture and the tone of the tax collector and his humility. The tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but he beat upon his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. He's standing afar off. He's not standing separate from people because he doesn't want to be contaminated with their sins. He knows he's unworthy. He doesn't even dare to go too close into the temple. And he had a hard time even lifting up his eyes to heaven because he felt shame. He couldn't even look God in the eye because of the shame that he felt for his sin. And he beat upon his breast, which was a gesture of deep sorrow, especially in the Jewish culture. and his words tell it all. God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Just a few words. Seven words, yet they carry the weight of a full prayer of true, humble repentance. God, be merciful to me, a sinner. He doesn't come to God and offer all kinds of excuses because of his sins. He knows himself as a sinner. He doesn't compare himself to other people who may be more sinful than him. No, he puts himself at the lowest place. God, be merciful to me, who is a sinner. He doesn't point to anything good in himself. It doesn't even point to his own repentance. He simply cries out, pleads with God in a humble way because he sees his sin. And he sees sin for what it is, an offense to God, something that keeps him separate from God, something that God cannot tolerate. And he sorrows over it because it breaks this relationship with God. And he has a sorrowful heart. He can't even look God in the eye. He can't even lift up his eyes to heaven. He's beating upon his breast with shame and guilt and remorse for his sin. It's the sorrow of sin that leads him to repentance. It's the shame of his sin that leads him to repentance. It's a hatred for this sin and all of its effects, all of its offensiveness to God and to others that leads him to cry out, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. It brings him down. It brings him to a place of humility in the dust before God. As we pray to God and are aligned to who God is, how cannot that bring us to repentance? when we understand our sins. If we understand our sins compared to other people, we might look pretty good. You could have two pieces of paper. One is 98% bright. You see that on computer paper or something, printer paper? It says 98% or something. The next one is 92. And you hold up those two pieces of paper, and you say, wow, this one's white. This one's bright white. And this one's a little bit off white. Now, if you hold them apart from each other, you'd say they're both white, and you can't tell the difference. When you put them side by side, you can tell the difference, can't you? That's often how we think of ourselves in light of sin. Yes, there are people who are better, and they're not quite perfect and white. They're 98, and then there's those that are 92. You know, they're a little worse. They need a little more repentance. That's not how God views sin. That's not how the Bible explains sin. It's scarlet sins, crimson sin. bright red compared to the whiteness of who God is in his purity and his holiness. That's the contrast that you get in scripture. And this is the contrast that this tax collector understands. He understands that he doesn't compare himself to extortioners and adulterers and people who maybe murdered someone or something like that. No, he compares himself as a scarlet sinner before a white and a pure and a holy God. That's what brings him to humility. That's what humbles himself. That's what breaks his heart and gives him a contrite spirit. And he cries out, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. That's what causes David to do the same in Psalm 51, which we sang in Psalm 140. Wash me, cleanse me thoroughly from all my sin. That's what causes Ezra and Ezra 9 to begin to pull out his hair. The grief and the shame of the sin of the people of God. That's what causes Peter to weep bitterly after he denies his Lord three times. That's what causes this tax collector to smite upon his breast and say, God, be merciful to me, a sinner, because they're humbled before God that they're sin. That's what leads to true repentance. As God led us, also, this gift of true repentance. And secondly, we see that it's not only humility, but it's also faith. Faith versus a self-confidence, which is also important as you consider true repentance. This tax collector, he stood afar off. He didn't even look up his eyes to heaven, but he beat upon his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. You know, notice the difference between this tax collector and the Pharisee. He begins with God. He doesn't begin with his list of all the things that he's done, but he begins with God. His trust is in God. His only hope is in God. The only place he can turn anymore is to God. He can only cast himself on the mercy of God. God, be merciful to me. This word mercy, it refers to, similar to the word propitiation, and or sometimes we translate it as well in other translations, atonement. In other words, he's saying, God atone for my sins. God provide a propitiation, provide a payment for my sin. Take the wrath that I deserve for my sin and place it on another and deal with my sin. That's what he's praying for. God atone for my sin. Cover me in your grace. Maybe this tax collector saw in the temple the offerings that were made. and knew the message of these offerings, that God had to deal with sin, and death had to take place, and blood needed to be shed, and it all pointed to the one who would come to suffer and to die, whose blood would be shed, that we would be able to have the remission of sin. And so he's praying, God, be merciful, atone also for my sin. He has nowhere else to go. He can't pay the price of his sin. But God is showing that in all of the sacrifices in this temple, and so he pleads upon it, be merciful to me, a sinner. payment made for my sin. And like that scapegoat that goes out of the camp, take my sins and place them on that scapegoat. And take my sins as far as the east is from the west. Remove my sin from me, O Lord." And what he's exhibiting here is faith that God will do even as he's promising. Promising through all of these pictures that are surrounding him in the temple. He's like this drowning man, drowning in his own miserable sin, and the guilt of it, and the shame of it, and he's drowning, and he cries out, help me! If someone's drowning in the ocean, and he can see the lifeguards who are equipped and ready and able to save him, they're gonna cry out to someone who can save them. So you believe that they have the power and the equipment and everything else to save you. You don't cry out to the baby who's in the carriage being pushed along the seashore. You cry out to those who can help you because you believe that they can. And so also this tax collector's crying out to God, God, have mercy on me. Help me. You see what repentance is. When we turn from sin, it includes faith in who we turn to. In other words, repentance and faith are the two sides of one coin. Where we turn tail to sin, and we head straight to Christ. You can't separate repentance and faith. The Pharisee, he had no repentance, but he had a lot of faith. He had faith in himself. He had faith in his own works. The tax collector had true repentance, but he also had faith, faith in God, faith in his mercy, faith in his grace, faith in his promises. And he comes to him with empty hands, well, He came with hands full of sin, and he dumps them, as it were, before the Lord to receive His mercy. He had a confidence in God, trusting in Him, for who he has revealed himself to be a great and sufficient Savior for all who come to him in faith and repentance. And so repentance is necessary for salvation. It includes humility, includes faith, but salvation It can never be yours, it can never be mine without true repentance. What does Jesus say in this parable? He says, I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted. This man went to his house justified. He's declared righteous by God. That's the very heart of the Gospel. This man didn't do anything to earn his salvation. He maybe never even tithed. He maybe never even fasted. Maybe this is his first prayer. And yet he goes to his home justified. It's not the good and the self-righteous who are justified, but it's this humble tax collector who pours out his heart and true repentance to God in prayer, who is becoming aligned to who God is in his kingdom, in his will, and in his salvation. The Pharisee, he trusted in himself, he trusted in his own religiosity, he trusted in his own works, and he was rejected. The one who trusts in the Lord and his salvation was accepted. Sometimes it seems like this whole idea turns religion on its head. Some would even say the gospel is a scandalous message. Many times we look at it in scripture and we say, Jesus, he just so flips the narrative, flips our expectations. You have a Judas who's followed him for years, three years, and you have a Mary Magdalene, a former prostitute, and who's saved? It's not the religious in themselves, but it's the repentant. Because for those who are repentant, they're like what John the Baptist says, he must increase and I must decrease. They're more and more humbled. And Christ is more and more exalted, a Savior and Lord. It's those who are willing to become like little children who will inherit the kingdom of God. It's those who are properly aligned to God who will be in his kingdom. The gospel has nothing to do with do better and you'll be accepted, but you're accepted because of what Jesus has done. The gospel is for guilty, undone sinners who know they need God's grace, they need God's mercy, and they have this desire then to live in and out of the grace that he gives them. Repentance leads to a life that desires to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. And so when we pray, we need to become like this tax collector. What do our prayers sound like? The Pharisee or the tax collector? Jesus says, I tell you, everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. If we're going to stand before God and boast in ourselves and what we have done, we will be humbled. But those who humble themselves, he will exalt. Isn't that the picture you receive in Philippians 2, where Christ so humbled himself, becoming obedient even to the death of the cross. Therefore, God has so highly exalted him and given him a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus Christ, every knee should bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord to the glory of his Father in heaven. That's the gospel. It comes through humility. And through humility, there is exaltation. The difference between this Pharisee and the tax collector is the Pharisee came with his resume of all that he had done, and the tax collector simply came with his repentance. Because all the religious activity that we could ever do in our life without true repentance from a humble heart is nothing. I ask myself and I ask you, is our faith just a show? Do we really understand the depths of our sinfulness? And do we turn to Jesus Christ, the only Savior, and cry out, God, be merciful to me, a sinner? Are we exalting ourselves rather than let God exalt us through our humility? He loves to hear the broken and humble cries of his people. God doesn't meet us at the top of the mountain. God doesn't meet us at the top of a ladder, as it were. He meets us at the very bottom of the cross, and he takes us up from there. Are you trying to prove your value to God and your worth to God? Or are you simply confessing your need, your desperate need for His grace? Because it levels the playing field. We all need the same thing. the blood of Christ which cleanses us from all our sins. These are two men in this parable. They both need salvation. It's one temple, one God, yet only one man in this story went home justified. Was it the one you thought would have gone home justified? Will you go to your home justified? Amen. Lord, we confess that we have trusted in our own self-worth, trusted in Maybe our own religiosity so often. Maybe we look down on others who don't have it all together like we do. We have sinned and come short of your glory. And confess, the attitude of the Pharisee and the pride of the Pharisee lives also in our hearts too often. Grant us grace, Lord, to come to you like this tax collector. Can we be broken because of our sin, vulnerable, filled with shame and guilt, opening up freely to you, knowing we are unworthy of your grace, pleading because we need your mercy. Lord, we give you thanks that you show us your gospel through the cross of Jesus Christ, who made atonement for sin. We give you thanks, O Lord, that there is mercy with you. And we ask, O Lord, that you would indeed wash us and cleanse us from all our sin and make us as your people to walk in humility, dependent upon your grace, and rejoicing in the salvation and even the justification that you so freely give through Jesus Christ our Lord. We pray this in his name, amen.