Parable of the Pharisee & the Publican

Today on Renewing Your Mind.

If it were true that we could get into heaven by having more good deeds that embed these none of us could possibly make up on that basis. Because our bad deeds far surpass our good deeds. In fact, we've never done an authentic good deed in our lives essential to the culture. Even many in the church say that deep down were all pretty good people Scripture paints a different picture of the human condition, and to make that point. Controversies bowl is going to zero in on one particular passage. One of the parables of Jesus were going to consider the parable that's an exercise in contrast, in which Jesus is concerned with two men who are in prayer before God and the parable is called the parable of the Pharisee and the publican or sometimes the Pharisee and the tax collector may read it for you briefly. Also he spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others. Two men went up to the temple to pray one of Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week.

I give tithes of all that I possess in the tax collector, standing afar off with not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying God be merciful to me a sinner I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other.

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

This is a very brief fact simple parable that Jesus cares but were told at the beginning of it.

Why he gave it, and to whom it was addressed. Notice he said he spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and they despised others. If you look at all the parables of the New Testament we see recurring things one of which we've already noticed is the announcement of the crisis that is impending from the advent of the kingdom of God breaking through in the ministry of Jesus. Another motif that we hear again and again and again is that motif by which Jesus gives sober and serious warnings to those who make professions of faith but do not possess what they profess the warning assumes the teaching of Jesus, that the church is a body of people made up of both wheat and tares, what St. Augustine called a corpus per mix them. That is, the church is a mixed body and includes true believers, but also those people who make professions of faith who have no authentic faith in the contrast we see here is perhaps as vivid as Jesus can make it because the first person that he describes in the parable is the Pharisee and we know that the Pharisee was a high churchmen.

The Pharisees were a group among the Jews that began their ministry in the inter-testament will. And they were a group of men who banded together because they were profoundly concerned about the decline in religion among the Jewish people at that time and the neglect of the law of God and the Pharisees whose name means set apart ones committed themselves in spite of what everybody else was doing as they were being secularized that they were going to be totally devoted to keeping the law of God in an effort to restore righteousness to the land and godliness to the people, but in a very short period of time they became so caught up with their desire to be righteous that they soon had confidence in their own obedience to the law rather than learning from the law what the law was designed originally to teach them.

The apostle Paul teaches us in the New Testament that the primary function of the law of God is to act as a mirror that when we look at that near it reveals to us in the first place. The holiness of God and our unholiness. In contrast to God. And so what the law is to be is a schoolmaster to drive us to Christ as we realize that we are not capable of keeping the law, but rather than seeing this mirror. They looked in the mirror that show them their own righteousness, and they became smug and overconfident in their own moral achievement and pretty soon they began to have a spirit of being aloof from everybody else in the land and one of a insidious doctrines that develop among the Pharisees, was the idea of justification by segregation that is that a person would become justified in the sight of God.

As long as they could keep themselves clean from any contact with anybody who in any way was polluted and we see that here when this Pharisee has the audacity to thank God for his superiority. Actually he's quoting portion of a prayer that was found in the tell mode among the Jewish people, where the leaders were instructed to thank God for the station in life that they enjoyed being one of the set apart ones and so this man thanks God, but not with any sincerity. He said he prayed within himself and perhaps to himself as much as to God, but he did address God saying I thank you that I am not like other men he saying in a sense there but for your grace go. I these extortioners adulterers, or even as this miserable tax collector that I see over here in the temple tax collector were the lowest form of life among the Jews among the moderates the people of the earth.

They were most despised because they were quislings they were considered traders.

They made their money by collecting taxes for the oppressive Roman government of the day and they would often flip the coin a trifle and add to their collections and skim some off the top for themselves as they bled the people dry and so they were the most hated group of people in the nation. So here's this Pharisee say God I thank you that I'm not like other men like these.

Extortioners's of dollars of this miserable tax collector over there and I want you to remember God even though your law requires fasting only once a year I fast twice a week and I give tithes of all that I possess sacrificial in my giving I am the quintessential true religious man. The first thing that we understand about this Pharisee is that he has seriously distorted understanding of what justification requires. Here's a man who thought that to be justified in the sight of God would be accomplished by one's own achievement of righteousness here was a man who added to grace his own merit, who added to faith his own works add anything to the work of Christ, his own performance and there are many Christians in the world today who believe in order to be redeemed in order to be justified.

You must have faith. You must have grace and you must have Christ, but they invariably add something else to the mix. They say I must have faith plus works. I must have grace plus merit.

I must have Christ plus my own righteousness. The Roman Catholic Church, for example, to this date teaches that God will never pronounce a man justified until or unless inherent righteousness resides within that person. In other words, one must be sanctified before we may be justified which is just the opposite of what the New Testament actually teaches and what is reiterated here in this parable that was just the first problem the Pharisee had yet a completely mistaken understanding of what it takes to be justified on the policy. Jesus address this, not to this one man who was just a character in the term, but he addressed it to all who were standing there who thought that they could be justified by their own righteousness, and by extension, this parable of Jesus is given to the millions of people since and now who still trust in their own achievements in their own good works to make them right with God. People assume that God grades on a curve and as long as my sin is not as pernicious as my neighbor. I can be happy about my own performance. The apostle Paul warned that those who judge themselves by themselves and judge themselves among themselves are not why it's but we look around them. As long as we can find somebody more corrupt than we seem to be. We already reasons I am assuming that our superiority and our achievements will get us pass the throne of God's judgment of the religions say that God has scales of justice and if our good deeds outweigh our bad deeds and that will get us in to heaven. However what God requires is perfection's law is holy and we are not.

As the psalmist asked. So God of thought with Mark iniquities who would stand that's a rhetorical question. The answer is clear. No one of us could possibly pass the bar of God's justice based upon our performance and so to assume that we are going to enter heaven because we live the good life or tried to live a good life or live the better life than others around us is to be on a fools errand to make the most fatal mistake of all.

However, the second mistake perhaps is even worse than the first because even if it were the case that we could get into heaven by our own righteousness. The Pharisee would've had a greatly exaggerated view of his own achievement, even if it were true that we could get into heaven by having more good deeds than bad deeds. None of us could possibly make it on that basis. Because our bad deeds far surpass our good deeds.

In fact, we've never done an authentic good deed in our lives. As the apostle said with a real evaluation of our performance by the law, there is none who does good, no not one we say wait a minute, wait a minute can't be that dire. Remember when God considers are actually not only considers the act itself, whether it corresponds to his law, but the motivation for it that we do this particular work out of a heart that was 100% dedicated to God were called as the great commandment to love him with all of our hearts. All of our minds. All of our strength and there's no one of us in this room that was ever love God with all of his heart and one hour one minute of your life to every deed that we do is always smart by that imperfection of the dedicated art and will that performs it so this Pharisee was misguided in every regard about his redemption now standing in stark contrast to this man whose boasting of the difference between him and the publican is the publican himself. We read the tax collector, standing afar off with not so much as raise his eyes to heaven beat his breast, saying God be merciful to me a sinner could even raise his eyes to heaven and one of my favorite hymns is Augustine's top ladies him rock of ages that passage in the him nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross I cling Pharisee brought his fasting in his aunt. He brought his tithing in his hand.

He brought his status and his standing in the church in his hand where the tax collector's hand was empty.

He had nothing nothing to contribute to his own salvation.

All he had was a plea for mercy. Lord be merciful to me a sinner.

At least the publican knew who he was, what he was wasn't suffering under the delusion of a phony righteousness, such as the Pharisee carried with him every day.

What this is about is about the only hope in the only ground for justification, which is found in perhaps the most important theological concept in history.

The concept of imputation. The concept of imputation means that our justification in the presence of God is founded and grounded on a righteousness that is not our own.

It's what Luther called.

I used at CM alien and alien righteousness, a righteousness extra notes. I righteousness out side of our cell righteousness accomplished only by Christ the only one who ever kept the law perfectly throughout his life. Sometimes we asked the six-year-old child in Sunday school. What did Jesus do for you, the child will say he died on the cross for my sins. And that's true.

But had Jesus just come down from heaven on Good Friday and gone to Golgotha and took your sin upon him and paid the price before a holy God with that of been enough to redeem you. The answer is no, that would have been enough to take away your guilt. That would've been enough to remove your punishment, but what it wouldn't do would be to supply you with the righteousness that God requires from every human being. That's why Jesus had to be born.

He had to live under the law he had to do what we call a life of perfect active obedience so that in his obedience he accrued for himself perfect righteousness image that righteousness that is then transferred to the account of every person who puts their trust in him and in him alone, and as long as it Pharisee trusted that much in his own righteousness. He couldn't possibly be redeemed. I remember my mentor giving a sermon in the church one day on the radical ravages of sin after the services and your sweet little old lady came up to him and said Dr. Gerstner. You've made me feel that think he looked at her and smile and he said ma'am, it's too much. That's much too much. Don't you know that that much self-righteousness will send you health if you're trusting in your accomplishments and your goodness in your works, you know different from this Pharisee who went home to his house, unjustified the one who went home to his house justified was the one who rested on grace and on grace alone.

Now what is this mercy of justification and what was this publican looking for the very essence of justification, dear friends, is forgiveness.

What happens in justification is that God pronounces a person just to himself is not just but with that pronouncement grants the remission of sin that person sin is removed is taken away fit seven of the outer darkness is buried in the sea of forgetfulness. As far as the east is from the west and when it says that this publican went to his house justified it meant this he went to his house, forgiven Paul deals with this doctrine of justification in Romans. After he explains it all. He says therefore being justified. That is justification. The sun is already taken place.

We have peace with God and access into his presence. Pharisee had status.

He was still at war with God. He was still in unforgiven person and as a long as a person's trusting in their own righteousness, but can never experience that grace of sin is removed and forgiveness that is received.

Again, the publican had nothing to climb. The only merit he had before God was demerit. All he had to bring before God was his sin and he knew that he was a sinner.

God be merciful to me a sinner. Jesus said he went home and adopted son of God. He went home forgiven. He went to his house justified.

Then Jesus warns all of us who hear this. Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves. That's Dr. RC Sproul from his series on the parables of Jesus in your listing to Renewing Your Mind. I'm Lee Webb, thank you for being with us on this Monday in his public ministry. One of the primary ways Jesus communicated was through parables and this week Dr. scroll is giving us an in-depth look at several of them would like for you to have the series in a 12 message to DVD set is contact us today with a donation of any amount you can call us at 800-435-4343 or you can make a request online and Renewing Your Mind toward what you've completed your request log into your link in your account both on the website or on the free app.

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