"Lord Be Merciful to Me" - Luke 18:9-14

In this message, the speaker discusses the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector from Luke chapter 18. The parable illustrates the two spiritual conditions of people: those who trust in their own righteousness and those who recognize their need for God's mercy. The speaker emphasizes that salvation is not based on our works or efforts, but on grace through faith in Jesus Christ. He warns against the religious spirit that seeks to add to salvation and highlights the importance of humbling ourselves before God. The message concludes by encouraging listeners to put their trust in the finished work of Christ and not in their own self-righteousness. The title of my message this morning is God Be Merciful to Me, a Sinner. God Be Merciful to Me, a Sinner. And we're going to be reading from Luke chapter 18, verses 9 through 14. Luke 18, verses 9 through 14. The Word of the Living God. He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt. Two men went up to 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 the 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, could 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. And we trust the Lord will add His own blessing to the public reading of His word today, amen. Jesus would often speak in parables. And there's a word that's thrown around quite a bit. A parable is a short story used to illustrate a deeper principle, typically spiritual principles, especially in the case of Christ. He would speak in parables sometimes to obfuscate His gospel from certain hearers. Then other times He would speak in this way to bring an illicit understanding. And so depending on how Christ used the parables, He used them sometimes to cloud the message from those for whom it wasn't intended. And He also used it at times to further explain. Here is a classic example of a parable that was given to us to explain if the Spirit of God grants us ears to hear. So in this parable, Christ describes the spiritual condition of each and every person who will ever walk on the face of the earth. There's only two camps. Self-righteous, works-based, self-made men and women that think they're good enough on their own or good enough by their works or their efforts. And then there are true and bona fide confessed sinners who know that without God they are nothing and that their righteousness must come from someplace else. So we have in this category, number one, the Pharisee, the great religious leader, the political leader of his time, a man who would have been blessed with great respect by his neighbors and his fellow man. And we have a tax collector. For all intents and purposes, a tax collector in this day and age, in this particular passage, would have been a traitor to his people, someone who's working for the enemy occupier. And so we have two men, both testifying to the types of men that are in the world, those who think they can please God by their doings and their not doings, and those who think, rightly so, that they are nothing in and of themselves. So a person is either like the tax collector, freely forgiven and justified by God, or he is self-righteous like the proud Pharisee. And you know, he's clinging to the accomplishments and deeds as proof of God's favor. But listen to me, trusting in your own works leaves you worse off for the experience. And the scripture is replete with examples that tell us just that. And so today the question is this, which camp are you in? Are you in the I'm good enough camp? I do enough. I'm smart enough. I can do anything I want to do because I'm so special camp. The self-righteous camp? Or will you be joining that poor tax collector in the corner saying, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. Jesus has already told us the key. If you exalt yourself, you will be humbled. But if you humble yourself, and in this way, this is a turn of phrase. There's a lot more in there than just you doing something to humble yourself. It speaks to the condition of a man's heart. And that condition of course is wrought by who? The spirit of God who grants us what the Old Testament talks about, that heart of flesh. That old stony heart is removed and the heart of flesh is given. And now we humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord so that we may be exalted in due time. But we're not doing the work. And I want you to understand that. This is not salvation by works. This isn't salvation by feelings. This is salvation by simply believing what the spirit of God has testified as truth to your ears in the preaching of the gospel. So let's look at these verses. Verse nine, he also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt. So Jesus was getting ready to lay down this parable to people that thought they were a-okay. You know, at times when you're preaching, people will assume that, no, that part of the message isn't for me. And there's a good chance that if you think that, that part of the message is probably for you. But these men evidently that he was talking to had a real high opinion of themselves. Did they not? The scripture says as much. The scripture tells us that they trusted in themselves. They trusted in themselves that they were righteous. And not only did they trust that they were okay in and of themselves because of their doings and not doings, because of their works, they also treated other people with contempt. Boy, if this doesn't describe the religious spirit of every human age, nothing does. Think high of yourself, go ahead. You know what manner of man you really are. And if you don't, the spirit of God can testify to that real quick. Just open up the Bible and start reading. The Bible will tell you what's in the heart of man. Oh, that's not very positive. Yes, it is. Listen, you can't ever have freedom until you understand that freedom is not about looking within. Freedom is about looking up from what's come with your salvation. Freedom is about understanding that there's nothing in us that merits eternal life, but that Christ himself is the freedom. It is for liberty that Christ has made us free. My goodness, these men thought that they were plenty good enough in and of themselves. The scariest thing I read when I was studying this passage is that these men trusted in themselves. And I think about this, and what a terrible place to find yourself on that great day. Looking at all of the things you've done and trying to quickly do a mental accounting in your own head of all the glory and all the grandeur and all the things you thought you did for God. And you're trying to add up the math. And yet on that great day, that math never adds up. The Lord will look at you and say, depart from me, worker of iniquity. I never knew you. Now think about this, beloved. You can't save yourself. And the scripture is replete with examples of just that. You cannot save yourself. Salvation is by grace through faith. And yet the religious spirit in this world that permeates even the so-called Christian church would tell you, oh no, you've got to do all these extra things to make yourself a Christian and to keep yourself a Christian. So-called reformed preachers and so-called Protestants will say things like, well, now you can be initially saved, but final salvation depends on your obedience and depends on all these other things. Hogwash. People want to hear the old, old story. But when you tell them what the old, old story really is, they don't want it anymore. They want that old time religion. But when you tell them the old time religion is free grace, they don't want that. When you tell them that salvation's like, oh, was it Rolf Barner? He said, salvation's never by chance. God saves people on purpose. But the religious spirit just permeates our day just like it does every other day. And it's the same spirit that was there on the day when they were building the Tower of Babel. It's the same spirit that was there when Adam and Eve took a bite of that forbidden fruit. Half God said. Everybody always trying to add their two cents to the treasury and storehouse of God like he needs your donation. When it comes to salvation, he doesn't want your help. You can't help. You think you can, you've got a problem. It's free grace. Now, is it cheap grace? No, it's not cheap. The Lord of Glory had to die to pay our sin debt in full. It's not cheap. But if you think you're contributing to your salvation, you're a fool. And you've yet to apprehend the gospel. You don't know the gospel. Well, I pray every night before I go to bed. Well, good for you. Are you trusting in those prayers? All right, you're an idolater. You're going to hell. Well, I don't do this and I don't do that. I'm glad you don't do those things. You're going to hell. Well, now preacher, that seems tough. It's honest. Trust in all the stuff you think you're going to do and not do. And what you're not putting your trust in at this point is the finished work of Christ. You're not going back to the source. You're not saying I am a miserable sinner, but I want to tell you about a man named Jesus who went my way, who paid my sin debt in full. And now I am forgiven and clothed with the very righteous robes of Jesus Christ. And I don't have a thing to do with it. I wasn't saved by chance. He saved me on purpose. He bled and he died to go my way. And he went that way up Calvary's Hill for a sinner like me. I don't know about you, but if I'm going to be found one day, I want to be found as the scripture says, found clothed in the righteousness of Christ. Not of works. And if I'm standing before Almighty God bragging about how many times I went to church or how many times I got my tithe dollar right down to the hundredth of a cent, then I'm in big trouble. Henry Mahan made the comment and how true it is. He said, there's more sin in a typical preacher's prayer during prayer request. There's enough sin in that prayer to send everybody in the world to hell. And you think, what do you mean? And now he can explain it better than I ever could. But basically it's this, a man, no matter how godly a man thinks he is, he gets in front of a big group of people and he starts to pray. And at first his heart is right where it needs to be. He wants to just ring the prayer bells of heaven as it were. He wants to approach the throne boldly and grab hold of the horns of the altar for his people and really pray. But as he begins to pray, he begins his mind, his old center brain starts to think, man, I bet people think this prayer is a real whippy one. I bet people are really getting their bell rung by all the fancy words I'm using at this whole bit. And so about half that prayer is to God. The other half of it is in praise to his own abilities to speak. And the whole thing is sin apart from Christ. But what makes that old center's stammering lips worth listening to? What makes the words out of my mouth authoritative? Is it because I'm so great? Of course it's not. Not a one of us deserve anything from God. That's why it's called grace. But why are these words important? Why are these words authoritative this morning? Is it because I'm Santa? No. Because they're being spoken in Jesus' name. And so yeah, I don't wanna be the fancy Pharisee, the guy that gets all the praise from his fellow man, and yet his heart is wicked and undone and lost in this world. I wanna be the tax collector. That guy, for whatever reason, and we know that reason was the Holy Spirit of God, he knew what he needed to do, which was nothing but plead for the mercy of God in Christ. All right. So Luke's gospel informs us that the self-righteous people with whom Jesus was speaking look down on others with contempt. That's the other side of the coin. I find it interesting that religious folks, and whatever religion it is, it could be the religion of staying home every Sunday. It could be the religion of going to the such and such community church and thinking that that's the be all, end all. Whatever your religious behavior is. There's something about religious people that they have this contempt for those around them. Once they think they've arrived, they look down the backside of the hill and think, well, you're still on your way, so I can maybe act a little better than you. At least I'm not like them. Matter of fact, when you ask somebody about the condition of their soul or about the sin in their heart, they might very well defend themselves by saying something like, well, I'm not as bad as the guy down the street. Well, I'm sorry, but that fella down the street, he's not the standard by which God's gonna be judging your soul. God's standard is God's holiness and God's law. And you stand guilty of breaking his law. And judgment and justice must be meted out. And the only way for self-righteous people to properly judge their soul and for self-righteous people to prove how good they think they are is to compare their lives with those around them. So they'll stand before a holy God and say, well, you know I'm not as bad as Leroy down the street. Or you know Sally, she's got that stealing problem. She's probably never walked out of a Dollar General spent more than $2. Always with a cart full of food and groceries. And God looks down and says, yeah, if only that were my standard. My standard is absolute and total perfection. God won't look on sin. And people say, well, now you grace preachers don't talk about sin. No, grace preachers actually take sin seriously. Because sin is such a problem that I'm not a stupid enough fool to think I can fix it by the works I do. You've got a sin problem. I've got a sin problem. And it is a sickness unto death. You're not gonna pray away your sin. You're not gonna do good away your sin. You're gonna fight this monster every time your heart beats for the rest of your life. And why do I know that? Because the scripture says in this world you shall have tribulation. The scripture says that when you do sin, you have an advocate with the Father. And what is the point of longing for glory and longing for that glorification that's to come if in this world some preacher can give you three easy steps to pity pat all your sin away? You're gonna battle sin every day. You're gonna battle sin today. You're battling it right now trying to pay attention to me. Sometimes you're gonna lose. But Jesus isn't going to lose. You have victory through Jesus Christ. You have victory through Jesus Christ. You have final victory through Jesus Christ. You have ultimate victory through Jesus Christ. Who has victory but he who has the Son? Because he who has the Son has everlasting life. So sin, bring it on. I will fall, I will falter, I will flounder. But guess what? I belong to Jesus. He is my stay, my hope, my peace, my refuge, the cleft in the rock. He is the hands that will never let me go. But the religious folks are happy enough holding hands with each other and talking about how good they are and how bad everybody else is. Verse two, or verse 10 rather, the second verse in our passage. Jesus says, all right, I'm gonna tell these old self-righteous jokers a little story. And he says, two men went up to the temple to pray. One a Pharisee, we talked about that, that's a religious leader in the days of the Jews. And the other, a tax collector. This fellow was typically a Jew who worked for the Romans. Bad mojo, you don't wanna be that guy. That guy is getting a lot of shade thrown at him because the neighbors are looking at him like he's a traitor. You're gonna go work for the guys that just invaded us and took over our land? Some generation ago or two or three. And so Christ begins the parable by introducing the characters. The Pharisees, that's the spiritual sect of the Jews, we talked about that. They were generally respected by the people and they wore their pride on their sleeves. They were all about the law and all about the works and all about parsing through all the different things and ceremonies like how many times should I wash my hands before this particular activity or this particular feast day? How many days should I fast? They knew all the law. Some of these guys had the entire Torah memorized. That's the first five books of our Bible. And the other character was, of course, the tax collector. Traitor to his people, sort of like the guy who would be the trustee at a concentration camp, you know? Not good people for the most part. And also these guys would be notorious for taking a little extra tax for themselves. And it was never really frowned upon as long as the Romans got there. So they were thieves, robbers, liars, swindlers, and traitors. Jesus keeps a pretty interesting company, doesn't he? Verse 11, the Pharisees, and they go into the temple, or I'm sorry, the synagogue. A synagogue is like a chapel, a place to pray, similar to our little country chapel here. And it wasn't the big temple. In this case, I believe they were just going to the synagogue. Nope, the Bible says temple. My bad, read it wrong. I don't know why I got synagogue in my head, but it does say temple. Little rusty. One a Pharisee and the other a tax collector, verse 11. 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. So a couple things about this so-called prayer. Number one, he stood by himself. This is to indicate that he was trying to draw more attention to himself. So he went to a place of prominence and wanted to make a big speech. Why else would you pray like this? Imagine going into a room and saying, Lord, I am so glad I'm not as ugly as all of these cretins. It's a real backhanded way to pray, isn't it? It'd be like the real fit and trim guy walking into a Weight Watchers meeting and saying, Lord, I'm so glad I'm not like these donut eaters, you know. What a terrible thing. So who was he praying that prayer to? Was it really being prayed to God? I think we could make some pretty easy estimations that it was not. But he stood by himself. He thanked God that he was superior to everyone else. And that makes perfect sense. Remember, Jesus is talking to self-righteous men who think they're just A-OK with God. So he lists his good works. He says in verse 12, I fast twice a week and I give tithes of all that I get. So he lists his good works, shouting to the rooftop so that others could hear him brag. So now it's like, Lord, I'm so glad I was able to donate that wing to the new hospital and clinic. And Lord, I'm so glad I was able to buy that van for the food pantry. And think about our day. That's exactly what it would be like, tooting your own horn, as it were. The Apostle Paul describes such self-righteousness in his letter to the Romans. He says this about men who would pray like that. He says, for being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. Do you see, self-righteousness is the attempt to establish yourself as righteous. Self-righteousness, it's right there in the phrase. You're attempting to establish your own righteousness that is separate and apart from God. Well, what would that be but utter rebellion and idolatry, worshiping a false God? If you trust in your own works, you're not worshiping God. You're not trusting God, you're trusting in your own works. And that's why I wonder about some of these preachers that keep telling everybody, look straight inside and constantly be taking inventory of your own heart, your own life to see whether or not you know, and really know, not just know the gospel, but like feel that you know that you feel the gospel. And they're constantly telling everybody to look within, look within, look within. And I'm telling you, look up, look in the word. If he says, believe in me and you'll have eternal life, what does that mean? Believe in him and you'll have eternal life. Debates on your works and effort? No, if it were, it wouldn't be great. Don't be ignorant of the righteousness of God. Don't think you can live this life, this Christian life by your own works because you can't. Now, what's that mean, preachers? It means once I'm a Christian, I can live perfectly. No, that's not the point of Christianity at all. Yes, we're gonna try and seek to do good by our neighbor. Yes, we wanna be honest. We wanna do the right thing because we love the Lord and he loves us. You don't wanna be a liar, a cheat, a swindler. You don't wanna be those things. If you tell somebody you're gonna be someplace at 10 o'clock, you wanna try to be there on time. You don't wanna be constantly abusing people of their own time and their own abilities. You wanna be taking care of folks. Why? Because that's what we do, we love Jesus. He loves us and we wanna love our neighbor. But the ethic is love. If you're doing any of those things because you think that's what makes me righteous, then what makes you any different than the self-righteous hypocrite who stands up in the temple to pray about how good he is? Oh, I go to church. Never miss a Sunday. Was that where the righteousness is? The Bible didn't give me that memo. Christianity's not a talent contest. If it were, we'd all already have the dong run on us. We'd already have that third X showing up behind the judge's table. We've been voted off the island. I could play the reality TV game analogies all day long. You are the weakest link. There's a blast from the past. Yeah, you're done. Oh, it's so ridiculous to hear people talk about Christianity in ways where basically you can just live and do all of these doings and not doings and tastings and not tastings and touchings and not touchings. And then boom, you're a Christian and it's all roses. Well, one day it'll all be roses. That road might have some glass shards on it. Might be a little rocky. You might be in some deep, dark valleys at times. But it's never about you when it comes to salvation. It's about Christ. Has his blood lost its power to save? Has he lost his grip on your soul? Then why are you looking at all the other things for comfort, all the other things for assurance? There is no assurance apart from the cross. Is the cross still the cross? Yes. Is his blood still the blood? Yes. Is his promise still true? Yes. Then do you believe it? Has the Spirit of God opened up your eyes to believe this truth? If the answer is yes, then what are you worried about? Get up! Take him at his word! This assurance isn't something mystical. The Puritans were dead wrong about assurance. Most of them. There's a lot of Puritans. You can't just put them all in the same book. First of all, they never all fit in the same book. They're very verbose people. But so many of them tried to write about assurance like it was this mystical attainment. You only had assurance of your faith if you had all these other characteristics. J.C. Ryle, another poison pusher, was another one about trying to tell people that assurance was this mystical journey that you had to go on in life. And you were just gonna be all just shaken all the time and only certain people ever got to this certain level of assurance. Hogwash. You know what makes grace offensive to religious people? It's the fact that they can't do anything to add to it. Oh, you go to church! Well, good for you. You're trusting in that instead of Jesus, I see. Oh, you do this or you do that. Well, what did this guy pray? He was thanking God that what? He fasted? Well, that sounds spiritual, doesn't it? Can be spiritual. Here's the deal. Here's how you know your fasting is probably healthy and good. First of all, you don't fast for 30 or 40 days and you don't make yourself sick. But when you fast, I don't ever need to know it. And neither does your neighbor. And if you wanna push back a plate of food so that you can spend more time with God in Bible reading and prayer, then okay. But if you want it to all be vain jangling, as they say, go to the rooftops and tell everybody. Get on Facebook and say, hey, y'all, just finished a five-day fast, you know. Prayer emoji hands, you know, go ahead. That's exactly what this religious leader was doing. I fast twice a week. Then he says, I give tithes of all that I get. He was all about it, wasn't he? He had that inventory, didn't he? Let's look on. But looking toward one's own efforts for justification is nothing less than attempting to establish one's own righteousness. And it is a rebellion against the true righteousness found only in the work of Christ. How do I know someone's saved? Because the first thing they'll freely admit is they're saved. I'm a sinner. I know what I am. All right, verse 13. But the tax collector, standing far off, now notice the difference. The Pharisee stood in a place of prominence. He wanted to be seen of everybody. Now, the tax collector, he's low-key. He knows who he's there to talk to, and it isn't the crowd. He's there to talk to God. The Bible says he wouldn't even lift up his eyes to heaven. So that doesn't indicate much pride, does it? No. But he beat his breast. He beat on his chest saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. My, my, my. Be merciful to me, a sinner. It's a different way to pray, isn't it? All right, the tax collector stood far off. He lowered his eyes. He knew he was not worthy in the presence of God. And he was cut to the heart by his sin. He begged God for mercy and for forgiveness. And the man cried out to God for mercy and righteousness, having nothing to offer God but a repenting heart. And what is this repentance we're talking about? It's a change of mind concerning where righteousness really stands. We need to repent from dead works and turn to the living God. What do I repent of when I become a Christian? I repent that I was a stupid enough sinner to think that I could make my way into heaven apart from his grace. I repent of that fully. Why? Because to believe the gospel is to shun works. It's to shun the activities of a busybody religious spirit. It's to say, Lord, these are dead works. And I'm wanting faith in God. I want the real deal. I want the salvation that's gonna carry me all the way home because we're not promised another breath in this life. Oh, we've got it all made here, don't we? We're cocooned in our shells of comfort in the first world. And yet every one of our lives are touched by the finality of mortality. This isn't all there is, beloved. There's so much more, infinitely more. And I wanna know that what I believe is the real deal, that I'm not trusting in myself, but I'm trusting in he who breathed the very words of life and spoke the world and universe into existence. And that same power that raised Jesus from the dead will one day quicken these mortal bodies. Again, I don't see a lot of God going, you know, I hope that they figure this out and they work extra hard for me so that I can maybe save them. That's not what the Bible says. And you know, the old tax collector, he knew this. He said, Lord, I'm not anything, but I need to be forgiven. Be merciful to me, a sinner. So the tax collector, brokenhearted over his unrighteousness, offered up true praise to God that day. And God does not despise a broken and a contrite heart. Praise God. Oh, that the cry of our hearts for mercy would ring true as is. And that cry should be, God be merciful to me, a sinner. Verse 14, I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and the one who humbles himself will be exalted. The poor tax collector leaves the temple justified by God while the self-righteous Pharisee just leaves. And you know what's funny? I bet that tax collector walked out of that temple thinking that he was A-OK. How many this morning, walking in and out of religious assemblies all over the world, thinking they're A-OK because they've done this or they've not done that. Or they've added extra thises and extra thats to the big old pot of hogswill they call righteousness. God help us. In the world's opinion, the Pharisee was impressive and important. No doubt, the politically treacherous tax collector was still seen as a terrible person and someone to not maybe invite to dinner. But in the divine economy, the economy of God's grace in Christ, the proud will place their works on the balance. And they will be found wanting. Those who have a heart of flesh to believe the promises of God concerning Christ, they will know their sin. They will confess their sin. They will cry for mercy and the Lord will hear them. So you've heard it said, I'm just as good as the next guy. And that's the average person on the street. Well, that's that comparison we talked about earlier. I'm as good as the next guy. Remember, even the Pharisee was doing it. He says, Lord, I know I'm better than these jokers. I mean, look at that guy over there, Lord. Give me a break. He doesn't stand a chance, right? That's how they talk. That's how he was praying. But when we hold our best efforts up against the perfect standards of God's holiness, we fall short each and every time. People say, well, I wonder if any sinners will show up to the services this week. And I go, you gonna be there? I'm gonna be there. I never have preached to anybody but a room full of sinners. Now, that doesn't mean you're not forgiven. But let's not think too highly of ourselves. People go around saying they live above sin. You're self-righteous. Then what'd you do? Go to the Pharisee school, learn how to pray? That's not good. Humble yourself in the sight of God. We're nothing, he's everything. And there's nothing wrong with that. He's gonna see us through but it's not gonna be by our own strength. Listen now, like the poor tax collector in Christ's story, our only hope is to cast ourselves firmly on the mercy of God, found only in the finished work of Christ. This is why Christ tells us, if any man thirsts, let him come to me and drink. What is the source of your righteousness? Are you thirsty for righteousness? Then you better drink from the source. You better go straight to Christ. He has the words of life. Are you thirsty for righteousness that only comes from God and Christ? Well, if you are, he'll not keep the cup from you. God, be merciful to sinners. God, be merciful to me. God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Lord, be pleased to show your saving mercy to the lost and encouraging mercy to the saints, for Jesus' sake. Amen, amen.