The following message was given at Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. If you have your Bibles, we are in Luke chapter 18. Luke chapter 18, and we'll be picking up in verse 9. He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves. that they were righteous and treated others with contempt. Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee standing by himself prayed thus, God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get. But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. This is the reading of God's word. Luke again, he begins our passage with that helpful sort of, this is what's going on summary. And he says that this is a parable that was directed to those who trust in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt. I wonder, have any of you ever once in your life described yourself as one who trusts in yourself that you are righteous and treats others with a contempt? Hi, my name's Jason. I have a habit of treating others with contempt and it all stems from me trusting myself that I'm righteous. Does that happen? Have you ever done that? Right on. Most of us have not gotten that far. We look at a description like this, and here is the big pitfall with a passage like this. Jesus directs a parable to a certain group of people, and we say, well, that's not really me. Well, cool. You don't have to listen for this sermon. Don't even worry about it. Take a nap, right? No, we're a people of the word of God and we hear something like this. And even if you're thinking, huh, I don't know what that means. Something is telling you because of your respect and love for the word of God, something is telling you, huh, but I should look at this. I should look at this. No, I have never gone and described myself as one who trusted myself that I'm righteous and I treat others with contempt, but maybe just maybe the living and active word of God has something to say to me today. And so we're going to go to a passage which might feel alien, which might feel like, oh, I know who this is about and it's not me, right? We go to this passage in faith and we say, Lord, show me. If you had a lethal and wildly contagious disease, would you want to know? You'd want to know, right? Even if ignorance is bliss, there's still the other side that is contagious. You can't go wandering around bringing death to your loved ones and your colleagues because you didn't want to know, right? If we had that kind of disease, we would want to know. If we are, in fact, not just the tax collector of this picture, but we are actually the Pharisee, we'd want to know. So I want you to give me a little slack here. I want you to come with me a little ways and I want to present a question for us for this entire passage. Do you think it might be talking about me? Do you think the Lord might be talking about me? We're going to look at this passage. We're going to look particularly at this Pharisee. We're going to ask, does the shoe fit? Is that me? So it's a parable with two characters. It's a famous parable. You probably know this one. Two characters, a Pharisee and a tax collector, they go to the temple to pray. And the Pharisee gives perhaps the worst prayer you have ever read in your life. God, thank you that I am not like other men. Huh. Okay. Yeah, I'm starting to doubt your real thankfulness, Pharisee. I'm starting to doubt your heart here. So what he does, thank you, Lord, that I'm not like other men. And then he goes and he lists off this little list of sins, external sins, that he's not guilty of or not apparently. Guilty of and so he's gonna go through and he's gonna be like man Thank you that I am NOT an extortioner. I'm not unjust not an adulterer. I'm not like this guy over there the tax collector Thank you Lord that I'm not like that and the proof Oh God that I am NOT like that Have you seen what I'm like? Have you seen how good I am? Have you seen all the good stuff I do? I fast a lot. There's only one fast that was really required by the law. And so for a guy to say, I fast twice a week, that's way above average, right? If you're required one and you do what, 105, that's pretty good, right? I fast a lot, God. You know what? I also tithe a lot. Some people, they just give like ties off of this much. I give ties off of everything. God, I'm pretty good. Thank you. Thank you. Right? You know what's funny? This is the original humblebrag. Do you guys know what I'm talking about? I know I do things that like you guys never know what I'm referring to. So the humblebrag, it's a social media phenomenon. It's where you go and you say something that sounds like it's self-deprecating, but really it just makes you look good. Oh, it's so embarrassing the way people stare at me when I drive my Lamborghini. That is an inspired by real life humblebrag. No, seriously, someone wrote that. You see what they do. They try and make you think that they're acknowledging something bad, but really they want you to know, I drive a Lamborghini, right? This guy's prayer, Lord, oh, thank you for making me so awesome. That's the original humble brag. And what you see in this guy, This was a parable that Jesus gave to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt. You know what this Pharisee sounds like? He sounds like a guy who trusted in himself that he was righteous and treated others with contempt. Bible study principle. I think we know who we're looking at there. But there's another character. There's a tax collector. We've talked about tax collectors before, but just to remind you, tax collectors were like scum of society kind of people. The reason is, I mean, if you ever thought the IRS was bad, imagine what happens when you open up tax collecting to a bid. Imagine there's all these third party companies going around, hey, government, I could totally get you $1,000 out of that guy. And the other guy's, no, no, no, no, I could get you $1,100 out of that guy. Does that sound bad? Well then it gets worse when the guy's like, oh good, you get the bid. Now here's some soldiers. Go collect whatever you can. You can keep everything on top of that. So seriously, if you've ever hated the IRS, just thank God you didn't live in Rome during this time. It was much worse. So a tax collector, just so often viewed as just the scum of society, one who's just betrayed his people for a buck. And so you've got a tax collector, a very different individual than this Pharisee who seems to have it all together. And here he is standing at a distance. And he can feel his alienation from God. He can feel it, his guilt. You can tell it burdens him. What he's done in his life as a tax collector and just as an ordinary sinner burdens him. And he goes to God, he's got nothing to brag about. There is no checklist of things of, look at, I do this, I do this, I do this. No, he beats his breath. This just intense showing gesture of sorrow and all he can say, God be merciful. God be merciful to me, a sinner. It's not, God, I've got my act together. Give me what I've got coming. It's God be merciful. I am a sinner. Two characters with two very different views of where they stand with God. As it would happen, God views them very differently as well. God views them very differently. Jesus would say in verse 14, I tell you, this man, the tax collector, He went down to his house justified, rather than the other. He says there is only one that is right with God after that kind of situation. It's not the one who looks good. It's not the one who thinks he's good. It is the wretched sinner, the scum of the earth, pleading with God for mercy. That is the one who's made right with his God. That is the one. And Jesus wants to bring back this basic principle. This is basic Bible right here. The way he closes for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who exalt who humbles himself will be exalted. If that sounds familiar, it's because he's already taught us this chapter 14. You remember the wedding guests. You remember the ones who they wanted the very best seat. Right? You remember? Jesus said the same thing. The one who exalts himself will be humbled. The one who humbles himself will be exalted. This is a fundamental principle of how the creation, that's us, relates to the Creator. This is the divine economy. God will humble those who lift themselves up. But those who are humble, he will lift up himself. Why do you think Jesus repeats this? Again, is this like a sermon we can skip? Well, I know that. We did that. We did a whole sermon on that. I've read that. I've studied that. Why do I need to hear it again? Why do you think Jesus repeats something that is just basic fundamental relationship with God kind of stuff? I would hazard this because it's important. I think the son of God repeats something, not because he forgot what he already covered, but because it's important. I think it's captured in Luke's gospel, not because he wants to be repetitive, but because it's important. The Son of God wants us to repent of our self-exalting attitudes. Now, why? Does he just want to put us in our place? You don't deserve that. Get out of here. Well, actually, that's true, right? But He also doesn't want us setting ourselves in opposition to God. He doesn't want us opposing God. The heart of God is that he wants us to flee from the ways we've been opposing him. When we just live our lives as those who just exalt themselves, we have set ourselves on the opposing side against the king of heaven. God doesn't want that for us. Moreover, when we've set ourselves on the opposing side, you know what we've also done? We've taken ourselves out of the way of blessing. We removed ourselves from the path of God's grace and God's mercy. God wants us to be blessed. God wants us to have his grace. God wants us to have his mercy. God does not want us to oppose him. We know what's going to happen if we oppose him. And he says, this is what you can happen if you will humble yourself. Jesus wants us to embrace this basic way. He wants us to remind us this is fundamentally how you need to relate to your God. Don't exalt yourself. Humble yourself. So we got to look in the mirror, don't we? Again, what if I'm like, hey, raise your hand if you exalt yourself. I know some of you, you'll raise your hand for me, right? But again, we don't want to raise our hands. And even if it's not just our pride kicking in, it could just be simple ignorance. When do I do that? I'm an everyday kind of person, right? I'm down to earth. I'd exalt myself. I don't do that. Do we? We're going to look in the mirror. We're going to let the Pharisee teach us the lesson that Jesus wants us to learn. How do we exalt ourselves? How do we exalt ourselves three ways? We exalt ourselves by thinking little of others. We exalt ourselves by thinking little of others. Jesus gives this parable to those who the way they were showing that attitude was they would treat others with contempt. What that means is they would treat them like they were worthless, like they did not have any value. They had a very low view of other people. What's your view of other people? This is kind of like a spiritual, religious thing. What's your view of other Christians? I couldn't help wondering if I just could get a knee-jerk reaction out of you and I said, on a scale of one to ten, with ten being excellent, rank your average Christian. Don't say it. That'll just get us in trouble. Where did you rank them? Low on the scale? Okay, that doesn't prove anything, right? Let's go concrete. Do you respect other people's opinions? Do you? Do you respect other people's opinions? Do you ever really need the advice of anyone? Or do you just kind of always know the right thing to do? Do you always know the right answer? Do you always have it just in and of yourself? If someone comes to you with a different opinion, can they ever change your mind? We don't care about other people's opinions because other people's thoughts are unimportant. We have a low view of what comes out of those brains, out of those hearts, and we don't care. Do you apologize regularly? When was the last time you apologized? Not like, sorry, I bumped into you. When was the last time you apologized because you were guilty, because you were wrong, because you had been confronted and you were going to own it? The sad answer is for a lot of us, it's actually fairly hard to think of that. Some of you are great at this. Some of you are like, well, in order to apologize, I'd have to do something wrong. Seriously, right? But some of the reason that we don't apologize is because when someone comes to us with something that they say is wrong or that we've done is wrong, we don't apologize because their feelings don't matter to us. The way they feel is unimportant. Why would I apologize? Do you do things that other people want you to do when you don't want to do them? So someone comes to you, hey, would you do this? And you don't want to do it. Do you ever go along with that? If you don't, is it just because people's wishes are unimportant to you? When you're going to hate, do you drive while distracted? Are you the person having a conversation with someone in the backseat? Are you the person pressing all the buttons on the stereo? Are you the person who's texting? What's that have to do with it? You know, I looked this up. Do you know you are 23 times more likely to crash while texting? So while you're driving that piece of machinery that weighs anywhere from like one to three tons, And while you're looking down at your hand and going along at 55 miles per hour, by the way, your average text message, you are going to drive the length of a football field before you look back up again. Why would we do that? Because other people's lives are unimportant? We say, oh no, I think people are valuable. No, people are worth a lot. And then you look at our actions. Do our actions back up our profession? What we're looking for is we're looking for a pattern in ourselves because what we do has a lot more weight than what we say. And what you can find in our lives is there are plenty of ways often that we all the time treat people like they are unimportant. Do your concrete actions demonstrate that you value people? Because if not, You may have found that the shoe is fitting so far that you are exalting yourself like this Pharisee. You say, how? How does this have anything to do with exalting myself? Well, one step in making yourself look good is to make everyone else look bad. So you say, oh, I got a C on the test. That's bad. Except if everyone else got a D, in which case I'm better than you all. If I can make you all look bad, I can build myself up. We exalt ourselves by thinking little of other people. Second way, we exalt ourselves by thinking little of our sin. The Pharisee says, Oh, I'm so glad I'm not an extortioner. I'm not unjust. I'm not an adulterer. I'm not a tax collector. That'd be really bad. See, what he's done is he's gone through a list of the so-called serious sins. Not that there weren't sins involved, but this is his list of what it means to have a really serious sin. And he's like, I'm not that, I'm not that, I'm not that, I'm not that, whew, it's not me. I'm so glad that's not me. Now you could look at a guy like that and you say, okay, we're all really glad you're not a raging criminal. That's great. But if that's all it takes to pass God's standards, maybe we've set the bar a little bit low. Maybe we've set the bar a little bit low. So you know what his problem is? He doesn't think highly enough of God's standards. He doesn't think highly enough of God's standards. If he thinks that him living the good life means not being an extortioner, unjust adulterer, or tax collector, he has seriously undermined, underestimated the standards of God. One of the things Jesus did when he came, it was not just this message of love and grace and mercy, it was also this realization of, do you guys realize what the law really stands for? Do you realize how demanding God's law really is? And so he came and he showed them, no, murder's not the only problem. Hating your brother is plenty guilty. in God's eyes. He said, it's not just about adultery. It's about lust. What he showed us is that the law went far farther than people were giving it credit for. So this Pharisee takes these basic external sins that he doesn't think that he commits. And he says, Oh, I'm good. But God's standards are not anywhere near that easy to pass. They're not. You know, we do this too, right? Where we think little of our sin, our modern equivalent. I'm a decent person. Decent. We like that, right? If you said, oh, I'm a good person. Well, some people say that, but that might be saying too much. You still want to be humble, right? I'm decent. Now you're also not going to go the other way. You're not going to, oh, I'm wretched. I'm the worst. No, no, no. I'm not that bad. I'm not that good. Decent. Got any decent people in the room? Yeah. I'm a decent person. Why? Why do you think you get to be a decent person? It's because you've never done the things that you think are terrible. Or maybe you've stopped doing them. Or maybe you just don't do them very often. But the things that you think are really bad, you think you're passing. And so therefore, I'm a decent guy. You know what really helps us to think highly of ourselves is to hang out or just have nearby someone who has done those things. Someone who has committed those sins. Someone who has violated our list of the so-called serious sins. If we can have that person around, just like the Pharisee, we can be like, oh, I'm so glad I'm not that guy. Thank you, Lord, for not making me a tax collector like that guy. And so we say, oh, I'm a decent person because I don't have legal problems like so-and-so. I don't have personal problems like so-and-so. I don't have marriage problems like so-and-so. I'm a decent guy. We convince ourselves that we are good with God because we are not guilty of the sins that we think are important. God doesn't agree. God does not agree. How do you think your character really stands up before the high standards of God, by the holy standards of God? Because the truth is, even if your externals are squeaky clean, he can see the pride in your heart. The God who knows all things can see the envy that's driving you at work and in your relationships. He can see the anger brimming under the surface that never quite explodes, but is murdering everyone around you in your heart. He can see the lust that's infected your thoughts. He can see the greed. He can see the laziness. He can see the selfishness. There was a time when Jesus confronted Pharisees over an issue just like this. It was Matthew chapter 23, and he said, woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Okay, so you can fool us. You could fool me your entire life. I could never catch you in your sin if you're really good at it. You look good, you look respectable. People think I want to be like that person. But Jesus says that righteous coat of paint you've thrown over the exterior, it's not going to help if inside you are rotting away. It's not enough. That fake righteousness that you've tried to put on your life, it is not actually enough. So if you want on that last day before God's judgment throne to stand up and say, God, I'm ready for my pat on the back, because look at how good my character has been all this time, you better be prepared for some severe humbling on that day. When you have to step up to the real standards, not just the ones you have selectively made up, When you have to step up to the holy standards of God, God will humble you and you will not like it. Though we might pass by the world's standards, we fail miserably by the true standards of God. So we exalt ourselves by making little of others. We exalt ourselves by making little of our sin the third way, the last way. We exalt ourselves by thinking much of our good deeds. By thinking much of our good deeds. So what did the Pharisees say? Hey, I fast all the time. I give a lot of money. Look at all these things that I do. This is an appeal to law keeping. The first appeal was an appeal to basically a lack of law breaking. This is an appeal to law keeping. He wants to appeal to the importance of his obedience, the importance of his law keeping. What do we think of our obedience? What do we think of ours? What is it that we actually do that makes us think that we're the decent people we like to say we are? What do we actually do? If I had to ask, you know, what do you do that's so upright? I mean, we have standard things, right? I have good values. I was raised right. I take care of my family. I've got good manners. I'm good with people. I read my Bible twice a day. And I go to church every week, multiple times a week, right? That all sounds good, but is that all that God has commanded you to do? I've done this to you before, so forgive the repeat, but I can't help it. Anytime you want to talk to someone who thinks that they're living up to the law of God, the standards of God, let's just try the good old fashion, love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. How are you doing at that? Oh, that's right. And do it all the time. All the time. You don't get a break. You don't get a vacation. All the time. Pray unceasingly. Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do all the glory of God. How you doing at that? How are you doing at that? And while there's only so many opportunities to read your Bible or go to church, it turns out those opportunities are with us throughout the day. So what you end up having, if you want to step up on a track record, you're like, OK, I did the Bible thing. I did the church thing. OK, those are the two things I did. And then there are like thousands that you didn't. Thousands of times you didn't love your neighbor. Thousands of times you didn't love your God. Didn't glorify Him. Didn't pray. And so we have this joke in this church, right? Soccer versus baseball. Your guys' joke is that baseball is better. But the thing that we can agree on, whatever sport you like, is that if your record is 2 in 2,000, that's a terrible record. It's a terrible record whatever sport you are in. And that's the record we try and take to God when we're saying, hey, look at my law keeping. Hey, look at all that I have done. We go to God and you're like, look at, look at those two things. And behind us, we are dragging all the sins and disobedience that we've also brought. Our obedience doesn't come anywhere near standing up to our disobedience. And you know what God's law demands? Perfection. Perfection. It's pass or fail. There's no, hey, you get in if you got like 75% or above, which wouldn't be good enough for us anyway, but it's pass or fail. I've taught my kids in the Bible class before. It's not like walking like on a curb. It's like walking on a tightrope. The law of God is like walking on a tightrope because it doesn't matter if you step an inch off of the tightrope or you can jump 10 feet off, you're plummeting down to the ground below where you're going to die. That's the law of God. Says you do it all, you do it all right, or you're guilty of it all. And the truth is our obedience cannot come close to our disobedience. If you want to stand on that last day in judgment and give God a list of things that you have done right, you are going to be in for some severe humbling. So do we exalt ourselves? The shoe fits a little more comfortably than we feel comfortable with. To put it all together, we see this Pharisee in ourselves. When we stand before God and we say, I'm a decent kind of guy. I'm not so bad. In fact, I'm doing pretty good. No, the truth is you actually are so bad. You are doing awful. Feel good message for the day. You are so bad. And before God's standards, you were doing awful. And so this is the moment I've been praying for because in this one moment, this is our shot. God, by your Holy Spirit, let the right ones here. Some of you need to hear you are the hypocrite. You are the Pharisee. And it's not going to be the people who look like a wreck. It's probably going to be the people who look pretty good. And God in his mercy wants you to see that you are the Pharisee. You are the Pharisee. Your character is nowhere near as impressive as you think it is. Your obedience is terribly, terribly incomplete. And you stand just as guilty before God as all those people that you like to judge. On that last day, if you want to step up and say, God, thank you that you did not make me like other people. Thank you for all the ways I never violated my select list of sins. Thank you for all the ways I obeyed you. Can I come in now? God will take everything that you think you are using to make your case and he will use it as evidence against you. What that quote say, you remember? You have to either reject your righteousness or Christ's. You reject yours to embrace his. And if you're gonna hold on to your righteousness, you're not gonna hold on to his. If you wanna go on your track record, judgment is going to be eternally awful for you. Your merit, in other words, what you deserve, is going to get you in very bad trouble. The best person in this room, whoever that may be, is doomed on that last day if all he or she has is their track record. Where does that leave us? What hope is there? Our only hope is mercy. Our only hope is mercy, and Jesus Christ wants you to find mercy in him. This is what the Bible is trying to accomplish. It wants you to look at yourself through the lens of God's word, through the lens of God's law, and then it wants you to utterly despair. It wants you, God wants you, to look at yourself through that lens and think, there is no hope for me. The Pharisee never did that. In this parable, he left confident of himself, confident that he was righteous in and of himself, confident that it was going to go well for him on that last day. But God wants better things for you. God wants better things for you. Once you can see how wicked you are, Once you can see how dirty your soul is, how bad your obedience really is, it is in that moment that we can see God truly. That is when we can see God truly. Jesus Christ is the one who did have perfect character. Jesus Christ is the one who never broke a command, who always kept the commands. Perfect obedience, married to perfect character. And the gospel is the stunning news that Jesus Christ looks at you and says, I'll trade you. I will trade you. I will trade you my perfection for your wickedness. I will trade you my obedience for your failure. I will trade you all the rewards I have coming to me for your condemnation. The believing sinner, the repentant sinner, he cries out to God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Don't give me what I deserve. And God in Jesus Christ says, it's a deal. It is a deal. The gospel is good news to broken sinners and failed Pharisees. Find mercy, find mercy in the perfect son of God. The gospel is the good news for the brokenhearted because I know in this room, it's not just people who are puffing themselves up. I know that in this room, there are those who struggle so mightily under their sin. It breaks you. It hurts you. You weep over it, don't you? You want to punch something you're so frustrated in your sin. And for you, there is good news. You who are in fear, you who are in guilt, you who doubt your salvation because you are just such a wicked sinner. There is very good news for you. Mercy triumphs over judgment. Mercy triumphs over judgment. Believe it. Believe it. All you who mourn and weep over your sin, who wonder if God could possibly cleanse such a sinner as you. Mercy triumphs over judgment. When the broken sinner calls out in faith for mercy, do you know what God gives him? Mercy. Mercy. Cry out for mercy and faith and He will give you mercy. All you who are broken down, believe that you in mercy are accepted in God. Because of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, you are accepted. Doubt it no more. Struggle no more. Wrestle no more. His goodness is greater than your wickedness. His faithfulness is greater than your betrayals. Don't just spend your life languishing in the sin and the guilt. You don't have to stay up at night wondering if God will have you. Cry out for mercy and he will give you mercy. It is yours, it is yours for the taking. Return to Christ, come back to Christ, turn from your sin, be set free from all the guilt that has plagued you all this time. Mercy triumphs over judgment. You who mourn, you who are brokenhearted, he will comfort you. You who cry out under the burden of your sin, he will cleanse you. Wider than snow. The sinner who comes to God in faith, with nothing in his hands he can bring, but simply to his cross he'll cling, the one who comes for mercy and grace will receive it. He will. And on that last day, when all the lifelong Pharisees are being humbled, those who are humbled in their sin, they will be exalted. The Lord himself will lift you up, reject your track record, and cling to his. Let go of your righteousness and cling to his. Child of God, seek mercy in Christ and you will find it. Let's pray. Our God, we thank you of the good news of mercy in Jesus Christ, our Lord. We thank you that you have not given us what we deserve. Lord, even today there's enough to damn us. And God, we are so grateful for the forgiveness we have in Jesus Christ. Lord, free us from our fair saism. Free us from that feeling that we're good enough, that we're decent enough, that we've done enough. Lord, free us And then help us to embrace the mercy of the tax collector. May we come to you and just drop everything we think we've done. And may we come to you and take hold of all that's been done in Jesus Christ. Thank you for mercy. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. We hope that you were edified by this message. For additional sermons as well as information on giving to the ministry of Grace Community Church, please visit us online at gracenevada.com. That's gracenevada.com.