Well, let's turn to Luke chapter 18. We'll be in Luke 18 today. And as you know, I've been going through the parables of Christ for about a year and a half now. And this will be the last message on the parables for me. It's kind of a bittersweet thing. And I believe I've covered most of them. at least the major ones. And those that have overlapped, I didn't overlap myself. So if Matthew taught it, I didn't teach it in Luke's version. I would try to tie it in at that point. So this will be the 24th or 25th message or parable. But I wanted to close it out with this one, just providentially in Luke 18, chapter, I'm sorry, verse nine. Let's just go ahead and read it. This is Jesus speaking. 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. Amen. This is the word of the Lord. Well, as you know, Luke addressed this gospel letter and the letter of Acts to a person named Theophilus. And lately I've been reading Luke and Acts and I've really enjoyed putting myself in his shoes. where, as Paul said, the beloved physician Luke, who's traveled with Paul, who knew Paul, who did this investigation of all the accounts that happened, he wrote this for Theophilus so that it may encourage him, so that he may be certain of these things and be established in these truths. And so it's been helpful to me just to read it as though I'm Theophilus receiving this letter from Luke the physician, my friend. And he may have been a man of real means and status in life, because he called him most excellent Theophilus. And there could be a case made for the fact that based on his name, which means beloved of God, Theos, Phileo, Theophilus, you could almost say this is for anyone who's beloved of the Lord. And so let's hear this with fresh ears today and glean what we can from this. And this parable, it comes immediately after the parable of the widow. I'm sorry. Yeah, the persistent widow that was with that judge who kept on. And he told that parable so that those who would continue to pray, always pray and not lose heart And now he moves directly into this parable. And as he said, he told it to some who trusted in themselves, that they were righteous and treated others with contempt. So this parable has two main characters, doesn't it? It's a Pharisee and a tax collector. And Luke reminds us in other places in his audiences, when Jesus would preach, oftentimes both would be there. He said, when tax collectors and sinners were drawing near to hear him, he says, and the Pharisees and the scribes would be there too, and they would grumble, because he had spent time with sinners. He had eaten with sinners. And you can imagine, you know, the sinners in his audience would be those standing close to Jesus, the prostitutes, the tax collectors, just sinners of all kinds. They'd be here, probably leaning in close, wanting to hear what he said. And the Pharisees would be the ones standing kind of aloof, kind of back, stand back, and this would be the opposite of this temple situation. Oh, but with the temple, it's the sinner standing back, and it's the Pharisee who's drawing right up front, wanting to be seen. But he says here, two men went up into the temple to pray, a Pharisee and a tax collector. Now, In our day, we can almost miss the stunning impact of what's being taught just by the way we're listening and our disconnect with the culture, right? Have you dealt with many Pharisees lately? Maybe some tax collectors if you're having some tax problems from the IRS, but that would be a different thing. And I hope that's not the case, but in our minds, Immediately when we hear Pharisee, we default to bad. Oh, the Pharisees, those are the bad guys. And these tax collectors, well, we don't know much about them. And yeah, they have some job about taxing for the government. But when we hear Pharisees, we default, don't we? When Jesus' audience heard about Pharisees, in first century Palestine, they didn't view them that way. It wasn't like that. Pharisees, were the churchmen. They were the consistent churchmen, and they were always there. And as Alistair Begg said, these are the guys with the Bible in their leather case with markings all over the pages and lines and underlines and notes, and they had great quantities of it memorized. These were the church-going Bible men, so to speak. So the Pharisees held to the law and the religion, in the strictest sense, the fundamental strictest sense. They held to it accurately as they could. And they were looked up to by the common people as the theologians, as the godly people. If you want to know something about God, you go talk to that guy over there, the guy close to the temple, his head lifted up praying, go ask him. And the tax collectors, they're on the other end of the spectrum, weren't they? They worked for Rome, you know, they bought a tax franchise and they often squeezed and overtaxed Israel to get rich. That's basically what they did. And they had this clear nuance of being, you know, traitors to the country. And, you know, they were hated and despised and avoided. People would walk down the street and they would do all they could not to make eye contact with a tax collector. They would go across the other side of the street. They'd do everything they could to avoid them or take different roads so they didn't have to encounter a toll booth where a tax collector was. And as I understand it, if a parent had a child or a son that was a tax collector, it was no dishonor to lie about that fact. If you're asked, what does your son do, and he's a tax collector, Hey, go ahead and lie if you want to keep your own reputation in good tax, you see. It was that bad. There's that kind of nuance with them that they were hated. And so we have these two ends of this spectrum, tax collectors and Pharisees on this social scale, and they both went up to the temple to pray. To the temple, this was the one rebuilt in Nehemiah's day. This would be the second temple, but it was still, Pretty fabulous, nothing like Solomon's, but it was a fantastic, fabulous place. And it was the heart of the Jewish religion and culture. And we know culture runs deep, doesn't it? Well, this is the heart of the Jewish religion and culture. And it was actually one of the most magnificent buildings in the entire Roman world. It was incredible. Remember the disciples, they said, look at the stones. They didn't even say, look at the building. They said, look at the stones on that building. And so these two men, if they lived in Jerusalem, the Pharisee and tax collector, just to go up to the temple would have been an awe-inspiring experience. And if they didn't live in Jerusalem, if they're coming out of town, this once in a while journey, maybe once in a lifetime journey, if they were to come to the temple, It would be a moving experience, awe-inspiring, moving, and packed with emotion to stand there at the temple of God and to pray. Well, this is the case, and the Pharisee standing by himself, says verse 11, prayed thus. He said, 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. Now, the ESV says the Pharisee stood by himself. It may be better translated and more literally in some of your translations, I know the New American Standard says it, that he stood and was praying this to himself. Now, prayer with himself. could be an accurate translation, prayer about himself. It's an experienced meaning precisely facing himself. It's like he's looking in the mirror when he's praying. and addressing God like this. Can you imagine? Look in the mirror. It's like facing himself. God, I'm so thankful. I'm not like other men. I don't do all these things, and I do these religious things. Thank you, Lord. Especially I'm not like that guy, the tax collector. Well, this wasn't prayer, was it? This was monologue. This is self-talk. This is soliloquy, which Luke's packed with soliloquy. thinking within themselves, reasoning with themselves. And here, like he's praying to himself or about himself. And look at the major things that he's pointing out. He says, I'm not like other men. He says extortioners. I hope none of you are guilty of extortion. What is extortion? You know, it's using your power or your authority to manipulate and squeeze money out of people, whether by violence or by intimidation or by your abuse of power. You're getting money. That's extortion. And he's probably thinking, yep, that marks the tax collector to a T. I'm not an extortioner. It could be the word swindle or swindler, which means, you know, it's, Kind of the same, but it's more of cheating people out of money or assets of any kind, cheating them from fraud or deceit. That's swindling. And so he said, I'm not like that, and I'm not unjust. No injustices on my part. I obey the law. I'm according to the law, to the T. And I'm not an adulterer, not unfaithful to my wife. I'm not an adulterer, I'm unthankful, I'm not like that. And he is strongly emphasizing how unlike other typical sinners he really is. You think of it, those three things kind of serve as an umbrella over all the sins. You got the money thing, you got the injustice, unrighteous thing, and then you've got the sensual thing. And this kind of encapsulate, I'm not like any of that, none of it, and especially like those extorting, unjust, stinking tax collectors. See, they were looped in with the worst of sinners, weren't they? Often you hear of tax collectors looped in with other sinners, harlots, and just worst of sinners, the sinners and tax collectors. And just to give you a little flavor, this is not an uncommon idea among the rabbis, the Pharisees. There was one rabbi named Rabbi Simeon Ben-Jachai, And he said, if there are only two righteous men in the world, I and my son are they. If there's only one righteous man in the world, I am he. That's documented history. He said that kind of thing. And John Gill, many of you know of his commentaries, He gives some instances from rabbinical writers of their thanksgivings. You know, Gil was an expert. He spoke seven languages fluently, but he was an expert in the Hebrew languages and in the Jewish customs of the day. And he gives one quotation that said this. He said, it is a tradition of Rabbi Judah saying three things a man ought to say every day. Blessed be thou that thou has not made me a Gentile. Blessed be thou that thou has not made me an unlearned man. And blessed be thou that thou has not made me a woman. That's incredible, isn't it? I'm not like other people, even women, I'm not like them. And it's amazing, it's really incredible. But here's the thing, what's amazing to realize is that in Luke's gospel alone, not even the other gospels, Luke's gospel alone, Jesus accuses the Pharisees for these exact things. He accuses them of extortion, injustice, and adultery, all of them. And for example, in Luke 11, verse 39, he brings up their greed and their love of money. And so the Lord said, now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you're full of greed. and wickedness, you're full of it. And that's the heart of the extortioner, isn't it? They're full of greed and wickedness. They'll do whatever it takes to get more money. And then the Pharisees in chapter 16, Luke says, who were lovers of money, heard all these things and they ridiculed them. And then, you know, swindling, they even swindled their own parents. If you think this Korban rule that they made up, you know, this money that should go to my parents. Yeah, I realized that I should give it to them. But there's this rule actually called a Korban rule and we give that money to God instead, which actually was just a swindling fraudulent thing to keep more of it for themselves. So they don't even swindle strangers and people that they don't know, they'll swindle their own parents. That's how deep the hypocrisy goes. He calls out their injustice. and their neglect of loving God in chapter 11, verse 42, he said, woe to you Pharisees, for you tithe mint and rue and every herb and neglect justice. You neglect justice and the love of God. You think you're just, you aren't. In adultery, In chapter 16, there's just a little snippet that comes in where he charges actually the Pharisees with relaxing the laws of divorce. And they liked to just write a certificate of divorce and be done with their wife, because that's how they interpreted Moses. You know, doesn't Moses say we can just interpret it? Well, he went right to the heart of that matter. You know, you just write your certificate, get rid of your wife so you can get another wife. You know what? You are committing adultery. You're neck deep in it. Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery. And that's how they were doing it. So the Pharisees have been indicted by the Lord Jesus himself on these very things that they're saying they're not even like. exactly what they're accusing others of. They're declaring their own righteousness, you know, by these outward legalistic means. But Jesus, he looked where? On the heart. And he said, you are not like that. He knew that they were bold faced hypocrites, didn't he? Beware of the Pharisees. They are, the leaven of the Pharisees is hypocrisy. He pays tithes of everything he gets. And that's not how tithes worked. You don't pay tithes for certain crops that were to be given to the temple. Oh, but I pay tithes of everything. I can only imagine some of the temple people getting some mint. What's up with the mint? Thanks. This guy tithed everything. If he found a dime on the sidewalk, he would convert that to 10 pennies and give one of them temple. Isn't that godly? Everything he gives. He fasts twice a week, twice a week, which would have been Mondays and Thursdays, which were the market days when most people are in town conveniently. That's when they do their fasts, twice a week. Not once a week, twice a week. Thursday was the furthest day from the Sabbath too. Thursday and Mondays were when they could perform this fast, which is really just drinking water and eating bread only for them. And they're doing this right on the market days, trying to impress people. The Old Testament does call for one fast a year, which is the Day of Atonement. It called for the people to fast then, None of this one time of year stuff, we're doing twice a week stuff. Aren't we godly? So what's the point here? What should we get from that? In this Pharisee's mind, he's going above and beyond what the law required, above and beyond. He's doing more than the Lord asks. See, so not only should everyone be impressed, but even God himself ought to be impressed with his activities. He has more righteousness than he needs. It's sort of like the Catholic mentality of supererogation. You know, this guy's so righteous, this saint, they've got more righteousness that you can even tap into theirs. pay some money, do some prayers. It's a mess. It's just a mess. I mean, I don't even want to get into the weeds of all that. But this is the attitude. An important principle is just oozing up out of the pages. It's that self-deception, which he is, self-deception allows people to avoid guilt. It's amazing how capable we are of deceiving ourselves. And that will cause you to avoid guilt, acknowledging guilt, because you've got yourself so deceived about yourself. You know, I go, I do, I pay, I perform, look how I compare. The truth is, how you feel and how you perceive yourself does not always reflect how you really are, how you truly are. And that's where it helps, even physically, to get a good checkup once in a while by a doctor. You may feel good or you may feel okay, and he starts digging around and doing some tests, and lo and behold, you may not even have a lot longer to live. Your teeth feel okay, you go to the dentist, how's everything going? Great. No pain? No. Well, let me take a look. Well, you need to come back probably next week because there's some problems. Well, you open yourself up and honesty will do that. Because how you feel doesn't always reflect the reality, does it? It doesn't. Verse 13 now, 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. So he's standing far off in position in relation to the Pharisee. He's close. He's far off. And the contrast is clear, isn't it? He wouldn't even lift his eyes to heaven or to God, which was actually an acceptable way of prayer. You see it throughout. They would lift their hands and their eyes to heaven and pray. It's okay. But he wouldn't even do that. It was a sign of real humility. He's in the process of humbling himself. He won't even look up. He can't. And then another sign expressing his humility is he's beating his breast, his chest, and it's like this repeated blow. And this is showing his real humility too, and repentance. And he's just convicted, isn't he? He's grieved. He's grieved at his sin. Now, it's not a specific formula for repentance. You gotta beat your chest. Did you beat your chest when you were converted? No, it's not saying that at all, is it? You don't have to technically beat your chest to be converted or to repent. It's just showing he's serious. He is serious. He is not playing religious games at all. He's recognizing that he's guilty and he needs mercy. And that's exactly what he asks for now. There's no self-focused, confident boasting and comparisons with this man, is there? None. His appeal for mercy shows that he really is guilty before God because of his sins. So he acknowledges that, he acknowledges He has sinned against God. He's broken his law. He's neglected his ways. He's broken covenant with his holy creator. He's broken it. He's blown it totally. And it's not because he's a tax collector. Anyone in any job, in any position in life who has sinned against God is in the same boat. It's not the tax collector that to tax collecting that made him the sinner. You can sin in any realm of your life, young, old, female, male, anyone. And I got to thinking about it, technically, there's really nothing wrong with being a tax collector. I hope I don't get stoned saying that, but think about it. If you're overtaken by a foreign nation, Wouldn't you want a good, honest person in your country collecting taxes for them? Wouldn't you rather that be the case? So in one time, tax collectors were repenting when John the Baptist was preaching, and they were even saying, what do we do in keeping with our repentance? Tell us. He didn't say, you better go quit that tax collecting job tomorrow, first thing. What did he say? Don't collect any more than you're authorized to collect. So that's not even the issue, it was because of his sin. It was his sin. He's in a position now, because of his sin, that he's under God's just condemnation, under God's wrath, and he knows he deserves it. So his appeal for mercy goes very deep, and this is the heart of his only hope as well. This is his only hope, is the mercy of the Almighty God. That's all he has. That's all he has to appeal to. And this word translated merciful is the word halaskamai. I don't think that fan's about to fall on anyone, is it? There we go. Don't let it distract you guys. We don't want the enemy distracting, especially from this part. The word for mercy he's using is halascomi, and it's only used twice in the entire New Testament. You may think, well, I hear the word mercy all the time. Well, this word, halascomi, is only used twice, here in Hebrews 2.17. So it's not the usual New Testament word for mercy in the sense of having pity or helping. That word is eleio, and it's used 32 times. But I bring that up because this is an appeal for more than just alaio, just pity. See, when he's asking for mercy here, he's asking really for God's grace in propitiation. He's asking for atoning forgiveness. He really wants to be cleansed. He's humbly appealing for reconciliation with God. He's asking that his sin be covered, like the covering of the ark. They even took that word, the covering of the ark, that lid had a name, and that name's involved here, and it's involved in the word propitiation. But he's asking for that covering and that removal of his sin. He's asking for atonement, because this has caused this alienation from God. He just doesn't wanna get out of hell, so to speak, as a lot of people do. He wants reconciliation. He wants to be right with God. And that wrath to be satisfied and justice satisfied, and wrath removed, and that reconnecting, relationship restored. So that word's also mentioned in Hebrews 2.17. I thought I would just read it. It says, therefore he, that's Jesus, had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make," here's the word, helaskathai, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. See that? Jesus had to become this high priest for us. The son of God himself took on flesh and he Jesus satisfies God's justice and turns away his wrath for repentant sinners. He does it. He does this, making atonement. So those are the two places. And that's the word this man's using to appeal to God for mercy. So he's conscious of his sin and his need of God. And his prayer, it was everything that the Pharisee's prayer was not, wasn't it? Just one simple but real appeal to God for this atoning mercy. So he's making this appeal to God for this mercy and reconciliation, and he doesn't compare himself with anyone else, does he? Unlike the Pharisee, he says, Lord, I am the sinner, which is the right translation. I'm not sure why some say a sinner. It is a definite article, it's there in every, Every Greek text that you have, it's the word the. I'm the sinner. I'm the sinner. And that's how we are. It's not about anyone else but me and you. And yeah, Pharisee's up there at the front praying, but here I'm the sinner, a sinner. And so when he's saying that, he's also acknowledging and declaring God to be who he is. He's righteous. He's just. He's declaring him just. There was a time when Jesus was talking about John the Baptist, how he's the greatest born among women, and then how yet the least in the kingdom is greater than he. And then the people responded to that saying, when all the people heard this, and the tax collectors too, they declared God just, having been baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him. So he's declaring God just. You, God, are holy and just. I'm the sinner. And I need mercy. I need atonement. I need your forgiveness. I need your cleansing, a restored relationship. All I have to appeal to is your sovereign mercy. And then he knows he has no rights before a holy God. No one does. You realize that? We have no rights before a holy God, none, because of our sin. Your rights are gone. You cannot appeal to your rights. I have rights. People like to do that. I have rights, I'm a person, I have rights, and I declare my rights, and you can never do that with God, ever, ever. The only option you have is to appeal for mercy, this mercy. You know, John Calvin, he said that in a word, in order to obtain favor, he owns that he does not deserve it. Think about that. In order to obtain favor, he admits, he owns up to the reality that he does not deserve it. But that's the only way you'll get it. is to own the reality that you are a sinner, you do not deserve it, you make an appeal for this atoning mercy. No way you demand, like, I deserve a fair chance, I deserve this, I deserve that, you don't. Your position as a sinner has removed you from all that. And what's incredible to realize is that this moment, right here, when this Pharisee's praying, I mean, this tax collector's praying this, At this moment, the tax collector is passing into the kingdom of God. This humble prayer, Lord be merciful to me, that's his pledge of allegiance. That's God's attention has just fixed on that man and he has entered into the kingdom. Jesus said, verse 14, I tell you, This man went down to his house justified rather than the other. So the tax collector's prayer was heard and accepted. It was heard by God and accepted. His request was granted. It was granted. Whether he felt it to be true or not, it was granted. He was justified. Jesus says, I tell you, he was justified. I tell you, says Jesus, I'm telling you that this is the reality of the situation. I'm telling you this. They won't tell you this. The chief priests and the scribes, the Pharisees, they won't tell you this, but I'm telling you, this is the truth of the matter. You humbly appeal to God, really for mercy, you will be justified. You will walk away justified. And justified, This here is not an exhaustive theology on justification. Paul launches into that, doesn't he? But justified would involve this declaration of righteousness. God declares you righteous, no longer guilty. You're acquitted. I dismiss you from all the past. And it's a declared righteousness. And it's more than that. It's a restoration of that relationship he's needing. The relationship has been reestablished and made permanent, and it's a one-time thing. Oh, there's so much to go into on that, on the blessing of justification by faith alone in the free grace and mercy of God alone, justified, made right, And the reformers taught on, you get that wrong. I mean, the whole church, your whole Christian life depends on that foundational truth. They said things like the whole church, it's like the hinge on which the whole thing hangs and swings. It's everything. So he's drawing out here an incredible reality on justification. And you can imagine, just try to put yourself in the audience in that day. Put yourself in their mindset as best as you can. Put yourself in their culture. You see these two guys, this Pharisee, this theologian, the churchman, the guy who's got most of the Old Testament memorized, right up in front of the temple, praying with hands lifted up and eyes lifted up. And you have this tax collector standing off, but he's there, standing off towards the back. head bowed and just beating his chest, which one would they naturally assume would be the one who's justified before God? The one who's going to heaven? They would think, well, there couldn't be an easier question in the world than that. Well, you're wrong, totally wrong. It's the guy in the back, the tax collector. He's justified, he's right with God, and he's going to heaven, not that guy up front. It's gotta be a shocking thing, a shocking reality, but it's the truth. And as Daryl Bach says, position in the temple means nothing. Position in the heart means everything, everything. So this tax collector was fully acquitted and forgiven of all his sins. It's just amazing, full forgiveness of everything. Why? Because he started paying his tithes? No. Because he made a humble appeal to the sovereign God for mercy, this mercy. He asked God for mercy. He humbled himself. And now he's a blessed man. He's the blessed man and not the Pharisee. As Paul said in quoting the Psalms, blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin." Then Jesus goes on and says, for everyone, he's ending it now, for everyone, everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. The one who humbles himself will be exalted. Now this alone, this is a great theological principle. It seems so simple, but it is a great, principle, and truth. God honors humility. And Jesus had taught this before in chapter 14. He had applied this truth several times himself, and so have other New Testament writers and Old Testament prophets. This is like a thread that goes through almost the whole Bible, the humble, those who humble themselves before the mighty God. They are the ones He will receive and honor and exalt. He uses the word exalt. Think of this little statement, this little snippet of Isaiah, the great prophet in chapter 57, verse 15. He says, for thus says the one who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, We're talking about the one who inhabits eternity. Josh, figure that one out. Whose name is holy. He says, I dwell in the high and holy place and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit to revive the spirit of the lowly. and to revive the heart of the contrite. You want heart reviving? You appeal to him like this tax collector did. He inhabits eternity and he'll inhabit your heart. It's incredible. We read these spiritual reversals all through Luke, all the time. It's the poor guy. It's the wretched sinner. It's the lowlife. It's the person who's got nothing. It's the widow. It's the orphan. It's these, the prodigal son. It's that nasty Samaritan who's helping the guy. You see all these reversals going on. It's the rich man and then Lazarus, dogs licking him all up. He's got nothing. You see this all the time, this reversal. It's the humble. Mary, In chapter one of Luke, she's full of the Holy Spirit, starting with this, what's called the Magnificat, where she's praising God. And she's saying things like this, you will put down the arrogant and you will raise up the humble. Look at that sometime this morning or later, just chapter one of Luke towards the end of her, her prayer to God is incredible. It's just this wonderful, but this is the principle So that brings up the question and gets us to the main point. What's the main point of this parable? What's he saying? It's just that, God honors humility. It's straightforward. Luke said at the beginning, he told a parable for some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt. And he ended by saying, the humble will be exalted, it will happen. The humble will be exalted. Humility will be exalted while pride, especially religious pride, that seemed to be the one thing that just set Jesus off in righteous anger, more than anything, that religious pride. Humility is exalted and religious pride is condemned. It's just condemned. And it's the heart that's gonna be evaluated before the heart seeing God in the final day, isn't it? So that's the main point right there. And we also see you're not to compare yourself with anyone else when it comes to your justification, when it comes to your acceptance before God. People do that just almost by default they think, If there were to be asked, if there's a heaven, would you go there someday? And God, would God let you in? What's the answer that you always hear? It's, well, you know, I lived a decent life. And I know there are other people out there who've been far worse than me. So yeah, I think I would be accepted. See, that's completely carnal, completely wrong, completely deceptive. You've been good enough. You have not been good enough. Not one person on earth has been good enough to get in, so to speak, to be accepted, to be justified. It's always by faith. It's always by believing God and humbling yourself. And it's not that Well, you know, I was at church every week. Actually, I gave more than 10%. It was more like 10.5% of my income. It may have been 90%. Yeah, look at that guy. He gave 90% of his income. You know he's going to heaven. No, he ain't. Not if he hasn't humbled himself and appealed, made this appeal to God. I was baptized. Good, you should be as a believer. And I do all these things. These things can be means of grace for the Christian, but they are not ground for your justification. So what are you trusting in should leap off at you? What is it you're trusting in? This religious performance or the mercy of God? And this will determine, this will determine who God vindicates, who He justifies. You know, Spurgeon, he made a comment from some obscure Psalm. I don't know how he does that. He'll draw out some great theological truth that just comes from this little snippet. But he said, if you are wearing this garment and you wanna be accepted before God, it's like if you have one thread of self-righteousness, you're condemned. And you think of a garment with many threads, many threads in it, right? If they're all of God, those are God's threads, all of his doing, all of his, you know, his work. But if there is one thread of self-righteousness in that garment, you are condemned. Think about what he's saying. I mean, that one thread, well, it may not be, no, that one thread will glow like a neon light. It will be as though that parable where the king looks over and says, who's that guy without real wedding clothes on? This is the reality, self-righteousness. There can be none. It's all of God, all of grace, 100%, all of mercy. And I wonder how much we really believe that. how much we really do live in that light before God. It's all of His mercy and it's so liberating. It ought to be liberating. It's gospel, it's good news. Not one thing you do will earn any justification before God. Well, Good works are good though. Don't miss the emphasis. Good works are good and pleasing to God when you are humbly acknowledging the mercies of God in your life and bowing to that. We see something else here. The parable contrasts the Pharisee and the tax collector and these total opposite ends of the social societal scale. And it's their prayers that reflect their heart. It's their prayers that's reflecting. So this has a lot to do about prayer too. The other parable just before it was about prayer. Don't lose heart, keep praying. And this one's about prayer as well. And it's the prayer that's revealing their heart, isn't it? And the tax collector receives mercy and justification. As I said, full acceptance. While the Pharisee doesn't. He has his reward. He has his whatever praise for man he wanted, and that's it. But problem is, he's totally rejected by God. So the truth about every human being on the planet is this truth. This is a universal, this is true of everyone. If you are trusting in your own goodness or your own decent life, or you're being better than most, you didn't do certain things, if you're trusting in that, you will be rejected. You will be, by God, you'll be condemned. But those who own and confess, they are guilty. I'm guilty, I'm done. I need mercy, I need your mercy, I need your atonement, I need you. they will be justified and accepted. Their sins will be blotted out and nailed to the cross. And it's interesting to note, you see tax collectors saved all the time, don't you? I don't know what's up with that, but Matthew, who wrote the book of Matthew, was a tax collector. And as Jesus is, Alan and I were talking about this, as Jesus is coming to the end of his journey, into Jerusalem to die on a cross, this dialogue is happening in that journey. And he's getting close to Jerusalem. And when he comes to Jericho, which is just outside of Jerusalem, who does he meet? Up in a tree, Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector, very rich, very rich. And he really, he models all this before us, doesn't he? All of it. And he acknowledges, I've defrauded people. I'm gonna pay them back fourfold. I'm gonna give to the poor half of what I own. So he's modeling that for us right there. So this is the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Parables are incredible, aren't they? I will open my mouth in parables. I will utter. what has been hidden from the foundations of the world. And that's our Lord Jesus. So this concludes my teaching on the parable series. I hope that it's been edifying. I hope that I've taught you the truth in love and that it's been a blessing to you. Amen, let's pray. Father, thank you, Lord, for the blessed gospel, the good news that salvation is of the Lord, that you are merciful and turn away no one who humbly comes to you in repentance and acknowledging they are sinners. You are so good. Thank you for your initiative. You took this action by your grace. We love you because you first loved us. So I ask you now to bless this to your people's hearts and minds, encourage them. May they help, Lord, in their journey in this life. May you save many, save people, Lord, by your grace. In the name of Christ, I pray, amen.