Scripture referenced 3 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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Luke 18:9-14 the main text of the sermon, the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector
9 He spoke also this parable to certain people who were convinced of their own righteousness, and who despised all others.
10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray; one was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector.
11 The Pharisee stood and prayed to himself like this: ‘God, I thank you, that I am not like the rest of men, extortionists, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
12 I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get.’
13 But the tax collector, standing far away, wouldn’t even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’
14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
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Keep this verse
1 John 1:9
if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
1 Peter 5:6-11
humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you at the proper time, resist the devil, the God of all grace will perfect confirm strengthen and establish you
6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time;
7 casting all your worries on him, because he cares for you.
8 Be sober and self-controlled. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
9 Withstand him steadfast in your faith, knowing that your brothers who are in the world are undergoing the same sufferings.
10 But may the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.
11 To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
The pastor opened in Luke 18, picking up at verse 9 where Jesus tells a parable about two men who go to the temple to pray. The parable was aimed at people who trusted in their own righteousness and looked down on others, and the sermon pressed that question onto everyone in the room.
What was said
Jesus told this parable to a specific audience: people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and viewed others with contempt. Luke names that audience plainly, and the pastor pointed out that the description does not require someone to be a religious type. A person can be living however they want and still quietly trust that they are good enough. The parable was aimed at all of us.
The two men in the story have only one thing in common: they both go to the temple to pray. The Pharisee was the best religious person his culture had to offer, absolutely devoted to Torah and going well beyond what the law required. He fasts twice a week when once a year was all that was asked. He tithes on everything. And when he prays, he does not ask God for a single thing. He already has everything he needs, or so he believes.
The tax collector stands at a distance, unwilling to raise his eyes. He beats his chest, which in the ancient Near East was the posture of a grieving woman, not a confident man. It was a shameful thing to do publicly. He sees the blood of the sacrificial animals and knows it is not enough to cover what he has done. He prays one sentence: "God, be merciful to me, the sinner."
Jesus says the tax collector went home justified, not the Pharisee. The pastor stopped on that word, justified, and used the Microsoft Word illustration he comes back to often: justification is like clicking align-left or align-right. It puts things where they belong. When the tax collector asked for mercy, God imputed to him the righteousness of Christ. The transfer happened because he was humble enough to admit he had nothing to bring.
The pastor connected this to a moment early in his own missionary work, when Tanya told him he was starting to believe his own press. He said he ignored her completely, and the first two weeks on the mission field were the hardest of his life. The story was not a confession for its own sake. It was there to show how easily a person can slide from gratitude into the assumption that God needs them, rather than the other way around.
The sermon closed with 1 Peter 5:6-11, where Peter, who had himself insisted he would never deny Christ and then did it three times, tells his readers to humble themselves under the mighty hand of God so that He may exalt them in due time. The pastor read it straight through: resist the devil who whispers that you are fine without God, cast your anxieties on Him because He cares, and know that everyone goes through this. The promise is that the God of all grace will himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish those who humble themselves before Him.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- The pastor described how he gradually started believing his own press during the deputation phase, convincing himself that God needed him rather than the other way around. Can you think of a time when you caught yourself, or someone close to you caught you, slipping into that same kind of thinking?
- Luke tells us Jesus aimed this parable specifically at people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and viewed others with contempt. The pastor said that description does not require someone to be a religious person. Who do you think Jesus might be directing this parable toward today, and does any part of it land on you personally?
and 3 more questions in the guide
Read the full transcript 6,642 words
Speaker 1We start twenty eighteen, seventeen seconds early. Would you stand with me? We're gonna sing There's Power in the Blood. And I am glad to be back. Thank you all.
I'm glad to be back. I got to do a wedding last weekend. So last weekend, Saturday evening, Ivy Kate, who has been here and been to this service, she has been coming out for like four or five years When she was teenager, she came out and kind of just was like our second daughter, like Pascal's sister. And she found the guy for her. And it was just a beautiful, beautiful time back home with family.
And then between the wedding and the photos for the wedding, I got a call from the little church pastor from where I grew up and he asked if I'd preach Sunday. So, did that too. But Tanya and Pascal and I were able to be around my folks and be back in the homeland, you know? It was kind of nice. We're going to sing There's Power in the Blood.
Join it. Join with me if you would. Grace greater than all our sin. Listen to this one. This is I gotta remember this.
Grace greater than all our sin. Marvelous grace of our loving Lord. Grace that extends exceeds to our sin and our guilt. Think about that. Ponder that as you sing it with us.
Grace greater than all our sin. That is a whole theology class right there. Thank you. Announcements this morning. I just blew it on the announcements this morning in the first service.
Just blew it. I I I don't think I'm going keep doing these. Is that alright with y'all? I'll find somebody else that can do this. We are doing the Hootenanny again this week.
I'm going to do them today. Don't get don't don't worry. Hoot reboot. We're going to play tomorrow night at the Hootenanny. Again, we're going to sign up and get as early as we can in the mix.
But that starts at 05:30 up at Doranen's. We're gonna play the the band from the first service and we'll just kinda go for it. Think Sarah Rodick might play violin. We'll see. We're a pickup band on Monday nights but we'll play and if you come, just know this.
You you will hear all types of music. You'll hear everything from Appalachian murder ballads. It's a it's it's a real genre. You might hear a really, really bad version of a Neil Young song. You might hear yodeling by one of the oldest mountaineers in the valley.
But we're gonna try to sing some gospel music in there too. So alright. It's it's fun. We're rather than come and see, we're doing a go and tell method for for a while here. New and returning volunteers for Awana.
We're having a meeting on September 11 in anticipation of the first club meeting, which it says September 19. That's coming fast, right? So new and returning volunteer meeting is September 11 and the first one, I think it's think it's eighteenth too. I was going to say that's eight, not seven. And both of those are on Monday nights.
So September 11 and then September 18. Students can register at firstbjackson.org or right here at the door when it comes time for that. But we're trying to have a volunteer meeting, kinda get all on the same page before it begins. And if you have ever volunteered before, thank you and we'd love to have you back. And if you haven't, it's a blessing and we'd love to have you do that too.
Carl and I, instead of being down the hall and doing Monday night meal music and message like we've done for eleven straight years, we're putting that on pause. Carl is going to lend his administrative skills and be the secretary for Awana. And I'm going to be here as a floater and be able to maybe do council time sometimes and also be a listener and just pat little kids on the head. So that's Awana. We're looking forward to that, starting back up on the September 18.
First BBQ happened in between services and I think we cleaned up afterwards faster than ever before. Games, food and fellowship abruptly ended with a little shower and brought us all back inside. It is old Bill's giving season. So the giving season is August 11 through September 15. We're in the midst of it.
If you would like to help out any charitable organization in town, any of them that have gone through this process, you can amplify your giving to, I don't know, Compass Women's Resource Center. You can do it to Good Samaritan Mission. Here at this church, we use it for our benevolence fund. And so the benevolence fund is very, very helpful. I got a call this week or last week while I was in Georgia, and it was somebody that said, We are desperate, and we're having a really hard time.
And it's something that I don't even know what to ask you to pray. It's health. It's transportation. It's moving. It's all kinds of stuff.
And we're just destitute. And I said, can we take this burden off of you? And it was the financial part of what was going on. And he breathed a sigh of relief like you've never heard. To be able to say, yes, we can help is a beautiful thing.
And we can help because you all have helped. Right? So if you want to, you can give through the Community Foundation of Jackson Hole and you give a dollar to them and it comes out the other side like a dollar 50 for us. So that's what that's all about. Precept Bible study, Isaiah part two, starting September 14, 09:00 in the morning in the fellowship hall.
Heidi is, if you want to know more about it, you can contact Heidi at (307) 203-0764. She will help with that. And sharpen your colored pencils and come on in. That's a fun study. It's a it is a study in scripture using scripture.
It's beautiful. Women's fellowship, the fall study is the book of Daniel. That's happening on Thursday nights. This is where I blew it this morning. Thursday nights.
6PM to 8PM from August 31 to November 30. We are studying this. It's going to be in the evenings. That's the ladies, sisters saved by grace. Wonderful, wonderful group of people that pray together and have a little meal together and do this together.
And it's just beautiful. Sorry, I blew it in the first service. Rooted. Growing a deeply rooted faith. It's Wednesdays ten to twelve.
This is the Jackson Hole Women's Bible Study, the community wide Bible study that is happening right here, so you can be a part of that. Wednesdays ten to twelve right here in this room. The look up. We've been advertising this for a long time, and it's finally upon us. We're getting closer and closer.
September twenty third and twenty fourth, the Mountain America Center in Idaho Falls, Will Graham is coming and doing basically an evangelistic rally much in the style of his grandfather, Billy Graham. And we've been training for it and looking forward to it and praying for it, and it's actually coming to pass. Twenty third and twenty fourth. Keep praying. And if you want to go, let us know or don't.
Just show up. You know? We're we would love to all go together, but it's it's great. Connect hour. Monday night kitchen volunteers.
So, connect our volunteers for sure are needed. Connect hour volunteers are needed. If you want to sign up, you you can do that in the fellowship hall. And if you'd like to get the weekly church emails with all of this information that I've just announced, that happens at firstbjackson.org. You can check out the website, or you can get us to email you once a week.
Any insertions, deletions, suggestions, complaints, anything? Would you stand? And we will sing. His name is wonderful. We'll Amen.
Y'all can have a seat. I'm gonna invite the ushers to come forward. I'm thankful this morning. I'm thankful lord for the opportunity to be here. Lord, without you, without you involved in our lives, Lord, our lives would have no purpose.
Without you, Lord, we would be nothing. Lord God, I think of that from my position right here, right now. But I also think of how many people are unaware of that. Lord God Almighty, would you gently love them through us in a way that would bring them out of that and into hope and into life to recognize their need for mercy. For us to recognize our need for mercy.
To recognize that we live, Lord, grace, grace, God's grace that extends beyond our sin and our guilt. Lord God Almighty, we want to share the message. We want to reflect who you are to people who don't yet know. May we be like a beggar telling another beggar where bread can be found. And in Jesus' name, Lord, we ask your blessing on this offering that you would take it and do with it as you will, that your will done in your way would be accomplished, Through your obedient servants, plan a, there's no plan b.
I pray, Lord, that you'd take this and that you'd bless everything that goes into plates metaphorically and financially and everything, Lord. Take it all and do with it as you will to advance your kingdom. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you, Judy. I've got something I'm going hold up here.
And if we're getting to this, actually, Luke 18 is where we're going. That's where we left off was Luke eighteen:eight. We're going to start with nine. That's typically the way that I always do things. You all know that.
But having been away for a little trip and then a little trip, I get nervous. And in the first service, I'm super nervous. Whenever I miss a week and get back up here, I'm so, so nervous and rattled, I can't really get a handle of things. I'm over that hopefully this morning, but I'm still recognize the weight of it. I'm going share something.
And if you were here in the first service, don't just yell it out. But who knows what this is? Just raise your hand if you know what this is. Nobody? 4050.
It's not running through your head right now. You don't know exactly what this is. Tanya, what is this? Yes. It is indeed the firing order for a three fifty small block Chevy.
It is for most old V8s. It is for most old V eight engines. But that's a firing order. And if you know that, it's a beginning point, right? It's a beginning point like you all are mostly, I take it, not mechanics.
Tanya has done some. She's gotten some by being around a mechanic or a jack mechanic for a long time. I know a lot about that because I've done that a lot longer than I've been preaching. So I know about engines and I know about how they work. And I like that stuff.
I have a good time with it. And being here, doing this, I've had the opportunity, a lot of opportunity actually for people when they are no longer trusting their car or it's messing up. People have come to call me with a, hey, my car is not acting right. Something's going on. Or I get this call too, hey, I heard you know how to get rid of old junk.
I do indeed. Been doing that my whole life too. And so they'll say, it's just not running right. And I got a new car and this one's in the way. What should I do?
I said, well, I'll come get it. And then in a couple of cases, two times since I've been here, I think we've had the process where we've been able to pass along 17 different cars since we've been here to people that were in need. And in two cases where somebody had gotten another car and told me to come get theirs, in two cases, the fire order was the only thing that was wrong with that car. Somebody changed the spark plugs and instead of putting these where they go, they put them like that. And they crossed the plugs and then it's running off of six cylinders and it's working against itself and it just won't right.
Not only do you lose confidence, you lose gas mileage, you lose all this sort of stuff. But if you know that, it's that simple to fix. It doesn't take five minutes literally, right? But if you don't know that, you don't have that. So that's one thing In this job so this has been my job for eleven straight years.
And Tanya and I moved to the mission field twenty three years ago, right? So we've been doing this for a long time. In the deputation phase, which is missionaries going around and raising support, that's not an easy thing. But there are a couple of different ways you can deal with it. And you kind of have to do it.
You have to go through it. Most of you, you can't have any debt. You to raise your own support. So we go do that. And I can't even begin to express how bad I was at public speaking.
I had passed out in an English class in the ninth grade. I felt it every time like it was going to happen, every time. Sometimes I'd get up front and I'd see all the eyes looking at me and I would think all the thoughts you're supposed to think and I would go, and Tanya is going tell you the rest about that. And I would sit in the front and she would do it because she can do that without even thinking about it. But after you've done that for a while and we were getting closer and closer to being ready to go, before we left, we had twenty seven nights in a row where we expected to be somewhere with somebody doing something where they were saying goodbye.
And missionaries kind of achieve a missionaries and pastors too sort of achieve a rock star status among the congregation. And people will, oh, yeah. You tell them what you're going to do. It's actually kind of easy to get into a position mentally to try to cope with that, to get into a place and just start believing that I'm God's man for this. I'm the guy.
He couldn't do this job without me. Went down to Mexico and used my mechanical skill and my building skill and my people skills, and everything's wonderful. And God needs us to go do this for him. You know? And you just you can convince yourself of that.
And I never would have said that out loud. I I I didn't think I was saying that out loud, but my precious and lovely wife for whom I'm very thankful said, you're getting a little big for your britches. And you're starting to believe your own press. You're starting to believe all the nice things that people are saying. And this is not a good thing.
And very, very gently, very, very gently. And I ignored it completely. And the first two weeks of being in the mission field were the hardest two weeks of my life. And so I I expressed this out of a knowing thing. This story that Jesus is gonna tell is the heart of the whole matter.
It comes up all the time in scripture, pride versus humility. Pride versus humility. And I I could have a section in every single sermon about pride versus humility, and I hope I do. But it's it's if it's not text, it's subtext in every single passage in the Bible. God resists the proud and he gives grace to the humble.
And if we ever ever ever start to think on our own we're good enough, we are sadly sadly mistaken. So dating app profiles. Dating app profiles. We might college entrance essays, scholarship applications, resumes, curricula vitae right there, or missionary endeavor support letters. What might we be tempted to do in all of these cases?
Overstate how important we are. Right? I think that there's something to be a sober judge of who we are and to present the facts, present reality. But I think that in all of these ways, we might start embellishing a little bit or convincing ourselves. This is the story that Jesus tells.
It says, now he also told this parable. If you're looking for context since it says also, he just told a parable about prayer and it was the widow to the unrighteous judge. And the widow's persistence with the unrighteous judge for him to vindicate her in a matter. He eventually said, because of her perseverance and persistence and because she's bothering me, I'm gonna give her what she wants. So it that the point of that parable is be persistent in your prayer.
Ask. Ask for what you need. And we sung the Lord's Prayer in the first service this morning. And there's there's asking there, you know. Give us this day our daily bread.
It's asking for what we need. Just quotidian bread, what we need. He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and viewed others with contempt. Thank you Luke for writing this down. Who did he say this to?
To some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and viewed others with contempt. Boy, how many of us does that? I'm going to say it again. Here we go. Jesus told this parable to those who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and viewed others with contempt.
If we're not careful, this applies to absolutely all of us. Okay? And here it is. He starts and says, Two men went up into the temple to pray. I started to say excuse me.
I started to say up here, when when somebody calls me with a mechanical question that I can answer, I'd love that. When they call with one that's too deep for me, I send them to somebody that knows better than I do. That's great, but the only thing at stake there is whether their car runs right or not. In this job, and even in missionary, but really in this job, you get calls that are really, really, really hard. I get the good calls when people are having babies born and when people are getting married, and I love to do all of those.
That's wonderful. We were home last weekend and got to do this wedding for our goddaughter that we love and this new husband that we love. And that's beautiful. But I also am cognizant. Right before we left to move to Mexico, I talked to somebody about coming to their church.
They said, you ought to come to our church. And I said, well, that's good that you want that. But what about your pastor? What what about the guy up front? Is he fine with coming and doing that?
And she said, oh, think I think so. Yeah. He'd love to. Come come see him. Come meet him.
I was like, All right. And I said, Is he a good guy? And she said this. And she said, Without him, I think I would have slit my wrists. I had no framework for that.
None. Because I had grown up in church my whole life. I love the pastor. I thank the world. Still do.
Same guy. He's back there as a pastor now. I love him dearly. He presents the word. It's beautiful.
Been there all the time when I was little. And I never thought of that. Had I myself in that position. I never got there. And I certainly wouldn't have thought to call him if I had.
But when she said that, was a It was a weight that I was like, oh my goodness. First of all, it made me want like, wow. That's a responsibility. And now I'm that guy that gets that call, and that scares me to death. So let me back up.
This is who this parable was for. Two men went up into the temple to pray. That's all they have in common. Two men went up into the temple to pray. One Pharisee, another tax collector.
The pharisees, we we get a chance to see them a lot. They're almost always the bad guy. Right? They're almost always the foil. But these were the best religious people that there were.
These were the sincere, absolutely sincere religious folk. If we have anything in our world today that is very similar to the practice that these guys would have practiced, it's Orthodox Hasidic Jewish people where they are very, very serious about Torah. And they take the word very, very seriously. They're absolutely devoted to it and absolutely separate from everyone else. And so that's the Pharisee.
And then the tax collector is a Jewish person who has agreed to collect taxes for Rome, the oppressing government. And he makes his living by collecting the taxes that he's supposed to collect for the for the government but also adding to that whatever it takes to support his own lifestyle and family. And so they were not well liked at all. And if you are a religious person, you saw a pharisee, that's he's the guy. He's the rock star.
He's the one. They they really, really are good at this. So two men went up into the temple to pray. There are two times a day at that time that the temple services went on. One was in the morning and one was in the afternoon, about 03:00 in the afternoon.
So about 02:45, they're going up the hill to the Temple Mount to the temple to pray. One's a pharisee, the other's a tax collector. Now the pharisee stood and began praying. Stood. That's the that's the posture for prayer at the time.
He stood and began praying this in regard to himself. God, I thank you that I'm not like other people. I'm exceptional. God, I thank you that I am not he's already said I twice in the first sentence. God, I thank you that I am not like other people, swindlers, crooked adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
Now the tax collector, if you asked that Pharisee to describe that guy, he would have said swindler and crooked. Those would have been the first two things out of his mouth. He is an unrighteous extortioner who is pressuring people to give their money to him so he can live hound hog. Swindlers, crooked. Adulterers.
It's interesting that he mentions adulterers because that was as low as the Pharisee believed you could go. And then when he says, even like this tax collector, everywhere that tax collectors are mentioned, it's mentioned by in the context of when the Pharisees are saying it, tax collectors and sinners. Tax collectors and prostitutes. Always. Universally.
Now, Jesus loved everybody and when you hear it from Jesus' side, tax collector is not always a bad guy. The Pharisees not always a good guy but we're used to sitting in church hearing about the Pharisees being the bad guys. In that context, pharisee was the best religious person they had to offer, and the tax collector was the worst guy that anybody could think of. Two men went up into the temple to pray. One a pharisee, the other a tax collector.
God, I thank you that I'm not like other people. I fast twice a week. You know that's not required. That wasn't required in Torah. That wasn't required in the law.
There was the day of atonement, one time a year when you were to fast, but to go over and above that. We're going to go over and above that and do it twice a week. Go above and beyond what God has written to show how holy I am. I pay tithes of all that I get, not just my income, but everything. There are things that are required to pay a tithe on and not in the law.
But he's saying I go above and beyond that. It's not just 10% with me of this and that. It's 10% of everything. I fast twice a week. I pay tithes.
I'm thanking you that I'm not like other people. You almost could get to the place of those other people, but for the grace of God, there go I. But he doesn't say that. He doesn't say that. Right?
God, I thank you. I'm not like other people. I I fast twice a week. I pay tithes of all that I get. But the tax collector.
There's a strong disjunctive with that but there. The tax collector standing some distance away. There's a posture there too. So the first guy comes in. He's right out there bold and in front.
And I want to say that I think it's the second time. It doesn't say it in the text, I'm pretty sure, though. Just the the way that it's going up to the temple. I think it's the second time of the day, the 03:00 in the afternoon time. Not the early morning.
Because the three in the afternoon time, it's when they do the sacrifices. Daily in the temple. And so there's the blood of the lambs, the blood of the pigeons, the blood of the animals that are being sacrificed. And the tax collector who was standing some distance away was even unwilling to raise his eyes towards heaven. His head in his hand, unwilling to raise his eyes heavenward.
But he was beating his chest. If you look into the ancient Near East history, you don't ever see when I hear beating his chest, go, oh, it's Tarzan. It's like bravado man, you know, kind of wrestler star. That's not this. That's not this.
For in the ancient Near East, anybody that was ever seen in literature to be beating their chest, it was a woman who was grieving. And he's a man and that's unheard of. And so he comes in. I'm sorry. He comes in.
He's brokenhearted. He's unwilling to raise his eyes toward heaven. He's beating his chest. That in itself is a shameful act. Right?
Right there in the temple during the service. We know the order of service, how things go here. They knew how things went. And after they sacrificed the animal, they gave time for personal devotion and prayer. God, I thank you that I'm not like these extortion and crookeders.
And then this guy is seeing that blood of that animal and going, there's no way that that's gonna cover it. That doesn't get it. I know it. There's no way that this could do it. He says, God, be merciful to me, the sinner.
It's not even a sinner. It's the sinner. He felt like the sinner. God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Beating his chest, unable to look up, bowing.
And Jesus says, I tell you, this is good. Whenever you see any any modern television portrayal of Jesus, there will be some scholar from somewhere that says, Jesus never claimed divinity. He did. This is one of the places that he did. He says, I tell you, this man went to his house, went down the hill to his house, justified rather than that other one.
This man who just prayed and asked God did you notice that the first guy didn't ask God for anything? He didn't he he had it all. He had everything that he needed. He had his good record. He had his good tithe.
He had everything he needed. He was just fine. But Jesus says, I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other one. Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. Good translation is humiliated.
There's a difference in English. It's humbled and humiliated, but you are brought to a place of humility because pride goes before a fall. So I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other one for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. But the one who humbles himself will be exalted. Now, words of Jesus in red.
This is not something made up. This is Jesus saying this. And this is a pretty strong absolute statement. Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. If you start believing your own goodness and your own righteousness, you will be humbled.
But the one who humbles himself will be exalted. So humbling oneself is actually possible. Actually, in first Peter, we see that it says humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. You have to recognize that God is above and you are beneath and humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God so that he may exalt you in due time. It's not just possible.
It's the requirement to be justified. And my favorite way justification is one of those things. It's a church word that you hear and it just kind of goes right by. How many of y'all use Microsoft Word ever? Yeah.
So when you're building a letter and you want things to be all stacked up against the right in a nice little row, what's that called? Justified. You're gonna justify right or you justify left or you justify center, and it puts it where you want it. And all it takes is thick, and there it is. Right?
I justified this in the center because I thought it was a good point. Wanna make it big and right in the middle. Justify center. God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. He says, this man went down justified because he had the humility to recognize his hopeless, helpless estate and have the humility to ask for mercy.
And Jesus says he received it. Ain't that good? It is the requirement to be justified. It's click left, right, and center on Microsoft Word. But what happens?
The transfer is made when we ask for God's mercy. He imputes to us the righteousness of Christ. That's good. And we are righteous, though we were not righteous. So self examination time.
Jesus told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous. Now the Pharisee, like I said, he's pretty easy to beat up on because we see the Pharisees and how they're contrary to Jesus. But it it doesn't say that it has to be a religious jerk. It doesn't say that there. It says just to the people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous.
In The US, if you ask poll, random sampling of Americans, how many of you believe in heaven? 70 to 80% say they do. If you ask on the same poll, how many of you think you're going to heaven? 70 to 80% think that they are. Now there are all manner of other reasons that people give why that's the case, but their trust in in themselves that they were righteous is a part of those people.
And when it starts off, it says Jesus told these people to some people who trusted themselves that they were righteous. It's possible to be absolutely what a Christian Southern Baptist would think is an absolutely licentious person stuck in the ditch of sin and grimy and does everything wrong, but they still trust in themselves that they're righteous. I'm not a religious jerk, that's the worst thing you can be. Right? They're trusting themselves that they're righteous.
And I view others with contempt. Those people over there are just oppressing people. I apologize for people like that. It doesn't matter. We're all without God in a hopeless estate.
And if we convince ourself that our own opinion is true and that we are better, we are hopelessly mistaken. So self examination time. If we're being practical and sincere here, which one of these two guys are you really more like? Actually, as I pondered it this week, being away helps a little bit. Being away for a little while helps give a little perspective.
And in general, I don't think I'm that guy. But boy, we can fall into that. We can look around and think, well, but for the grace of God there go I. But I'm not like that. I'm exceptional.
But we're not. We're not. God be merciful to me, a sinner. There is a mechanism. And just like the fire and order thing right here, you know, if you know that, you can start from there.
If you know pride and humility is the center of the whole matter, then you can humble yourselves. It's possible. Blake, can we go forward to right there? So there is a mechanism. And this is a good mechanism.
This is one of Bob's favorites right here. It's one of my favorites. I use this as often as any other verse in scripture because it is so helpful to know that if we confess our sins homologueo is the word. Homologueo means homo is the same, and logueo is to speak. If we speak the same as God about our sin, that's humility.
He says you have fallen short. And we say, I have fallen short. If we confess, homo logeo, say the same thing as God about our sins, he is faithful. He can be trusted. He is faithful and he is just.
He is absolutely righteous to be able to click justify. Right? If we confess our sins, if we are confessing our sins, he is faithful and he is just to be forgiving our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness. So what it takes is like the guy who was beating his chest and praying for God's mercy. He goes away justified.
We cannot do this by ourselves. We need a savior. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us of those sins that we're confessing. And he is beyond that, cleansing us from all other unrighteousness. He will convince of his goodness.
He will illumine scripture. He will convict us of sin, and he will progressively sanctify us if we will be humble before him. This is the other place. The first Peter five six through 11 is a great promise about humbling yourselves. I'm gonna read it all the way through, and then I want to sing Rock of Ages.
If Carl, if you come forward. Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. Think about this. This is Peter. This is Peter who has stepped out of the boat and sunk and been picked back up by Jesus.
This is Peter who denied Christ though he said, I'll never do that. I'm exceptional. Though everybody else does it, Lord, I'm not like them. Oh, Peter. You're gonna do it three times before tomorrow morning.
And Peter learned the lesson. He's the one who says, be careful lest ye fall and pride goeth before fall. And he says, therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God in order that or so that he may exalt you at the proper time, having cast all of your anxiety on him because he cares about you. Be of sober spirit or be sober. Be on the alert because your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.
So be resisting him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering that are being accomplished by your brothers and sisters who are in the world, it's nothing new. Everybody goes through this all the time. We're all tempted towards pride, towards self righteousness. But he says, resist the devil who's whispering in your ear how great you are and how right you are. Resist infirming your faith, knowing because the devil's whispering near that you're fine without God, and God is saying you're everything with me.
I will lead you, and I'll direct you, and I'll keep you, and I'll take care of your anxieties and your cares. Resist the devil. Firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brothers and sisters who are in the world. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you into his eternal glory and Christ will himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be dominion forever and ever.
Amen. Going back to the top, humble yourself. That's possible. It's the requirement. It is necessary to have a relationship with God.
This song, Rock of Ages, is so good at getting down to the recognition that the cross is where the transaction was made and what we have to offer. It says, Nothing in my hand I bring. Simply to your cross I cling. Would you stand with us? Carl's going to play.
I'm going to play bass and if you want to come forward and pray, you're welcome to. If you want to come forward and talk to me, I'll turn off the microphone, put the bass down. If you want to see me this week, I'm here. Would you sing with us as prayer if you mean?
Speaker 2Atone. Thou must save, and I will alone. And nothing in my hand I bring simply to the cross cycling. Make come to the fortress and helpless look to the fortress. Follow to the fountain fly.
Wash me savior, And oh, I while I draw this bleeding bird, when my eyes shall close in death, and when I soar two worlds unknown and see thee on thy judgment throne, rock of ages left for me. Let me hide myself in thee. Let me hide myself in thee.
Speaker 1Amen. Humility before God is all that is required. Right? Humility before God. He has made a way.
What that guy was praying in the temple that day according to that parable, what he was praying was God, be merciful to me, the sinner. That same prayer works and if you confess, he forgives and you can know that he has forgiven you and from walking forward with a clean slate, you know it, you can live a very, very close life with Christ and being useful for his kingdom. The benediction today is that beginning part of that first Peter five six and seven says this, y'all be humbling yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand so that he may lift you up in due time and be casting all of your anxieties on him because he cares for you. Ain't that good? He loves a broken and contrite spirit.
He loves a smoldering wick, a bruised reed, someone who has recognized that they don't have all that they need and they reach out him and they can be filled with the love of God and they can walk forward knowing that they are saved and being sanctified and they're one beggar telling another beggar where bread can be found. May we go forward just like that. Amen.
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