Take your Bibles with me and turn to Luke 18. We're going to be looking at verses 9 to 14 this morning.

As you're turning there I want to tell a little story from my recent history. A couple of months ago I was browsing Facebook and I saw a Facebook ad for an interesting IQ test. It looked like it would be fun to take so I clicked on it and went through the test. It was, I don't know, 20-30 questions and it took me a few minutes. At the end it said, "Would you like to pay to get your results?" and I was like, "No but I already took this test so how much does it cost?" It was a couple of dollars so I thought, "Sure I'll pay a couple of dollars to get this IQ test results." I paid the couple of dollars with my credit card and got the results and didn't think anything of it.

Until the next month when I noticed there was something like a $45 charge from this IQ test company. I thought, "Wait a minute, I didn't sign up for that. I paid a one-time fee for an IQ test result." Well I got on their website and it turns out, in the fine print, I was signing up for an ongoing subscription for IQ tests. You know what that means? That means I failed the IQ test right there. And I had to fight to get out of that script subscription and fight to get my money back.

I hate the bait-and-switch. I hate when people promise you one thing and give you something else entirely. There are a lot of scammers out there and there are a lot of people trying to trick you into taking your money or taking your time.

You know what's worse than little petty scams that we meet day to day? The worst bait and switch of all time would be to go through this life thinking that you're righteous, thinking that you are right in God's eyes, only to die and stand before God and find out that you're not.

Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7, verses 21 to 23, something that I think about all the time.

21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
Matthew 7:21-23 (KJV)

The Lord said there are going to be many religious people that stand before God expecting to go to heaven and God is going to say to them, "Depart from me. I never knew you. You are not my own."

Imagine going through life thinking that you're justified in God's eyes, thinking that you're going to die and go to heaven, thinking that you're righteous, only to stand before the only judge that matters and realize that you have failed the test, that you were not justified. That is the worst bait and switch of all time.

Our passage today tells us how religious people can fall into the delusion that they're justified before God when they're actually not. And it also tells us what we have to do to truly be justified, to truly be righteous in God's eyes.

It's actually surprising and counter-intuitive. Are you in Luke chapter 18?

It's been a couple weeks. We had Palm Sunday and then Easter. We took a little bit of a break from this part of the book of Luke. We're back here now. Before we left off we were talking about prayer. Jesus had just taught the parable of the widow and the unjust judge. We talked about what that teaches us about prayer: that God is good, that God is not like this unjust judge, and we're not like the widow.

Jesus goes right from that parable about prayer into another parable about prayer. That's what we're going to look at this morning.

9 And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:
10 Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.
11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.
12 I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.
13 And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon 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 every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
Luke 18:9-14 (KJV)

To us this story is familiar. But to the people standing there that day it would have landed like a grenade.

In the Jewish mind the Pharisees were religious heroes. They did more than anybody else to obey the law and live righteously. They were the ones that stood up against the Greeks in the Maccabean revolt, refusing to give up their religious liberty. They had proven time and again that they would die before they would do things that were against the law. Many of them had already been crucified by the Romans.

They had started as a group all the way back in the Book of Ezra, when during a time of national revival the Jews decided they were not going to follow idolatry anymore as a people, that they were going to live by the law. They started in a true revival and claimed that religious heritage.

And more than anybody else in Israel they tried to live by the law. They made a great deal of emphasis about the clothes that they wore:

• The phylacteries, which were little boxes with scripture in them that they wore on their forehead and on their wrists.
• The tassels that they wore.
• The length of their beard.

They went to great emphasis to tithe not just on their regular income but on everything that came in. They tithed on their garden herbs. They went to great emphasis to do more than was asked. You know the Jews were only required to fast once a year on the day of atonement and yet the Pharisees fasted twice a week. They took everything to the extreme. They had the highest standards of anybody in the land and everybody looked at them and they thought that is what religious people should be. Those are the religious heroes of our day. They had a great deal of respect in Israel.

So when Jesus said that a Pharisee went to the temple to pray, people were not thinking that's the bad guy. They were thinking, "Yes that is what true religion looks like; that is what I'm aiming to be."

And when Jesus quoted this Pharisee's prayer, the people wouldn't have had a hard time with it like we do. If you think about it, what's wrong with thanking God for not falling into terrible sins?

Sometimes I hear about people that fall into sin and I feel for them and I pray for them but I also sometimes think, Lord, thank you for saving me from that one. Read that way what the Pharisee says seems kind of normal.

When the Pharisee mentions the publican people would have been clapping at that too. Publicans in this day were the exact opposite of the Pharisees. The publicans were the most wicked people that anybody knew. They were working with the Roman government to steal taxes from their own country. Morally they were on the same level as a pimp or a gangster today.

So when Jesus said that it was the publican that left justified, that was a shock. It was meant to be.

I think one of the hardest people to come to Christ and find true religion are those that are inoculated by false religious righteousness. The people that think that because I go to church, because I live a certain way, because I'm one of the good people, God's going to accept me. Those are the hardest people to win. Those are the hardest people to show that they are actually going to stand before God and face his judgment.

And maybe that's you today. Maybe you're one of these people that thinks, because of your righteousness, because of the clothes that you wear, because of the Bible you read, because of the church that you attend, because of the money you give, that you are going to have some special favor with God. God is going to welcome you into heaven with claps and cheers and hurrahs. You're going to get a ticker tape parade right down the golden streets, right through the pearly gates. Everybody's going to say how good you are.

You need this parable. It shows us how a person can be deluded into thinking they are justified before God when they are really not, and it shows us what it truly takes to be justified.

So what I want to do this morning is give you two points. The first point is how to delude yourself into thinking you're justified when you're not. And the second point is how to be truly justified before God.

Let's pray and we'll get into this.

Heavenly Father, my prayer this morning is that this passage opens the eyes of people that are trusting in their own righteousness, that are looking down on others, that think they are justified when really they're not. Father we know that you warned of this several times and you did it because it's a common thing. It's a common thing for people to think that they're right, to think they've done many wonderful works in your name but you say that they'll hear, "Depart from me. I never knew you."

Lord I pray that at the end of this message people would have clear eyes of what it means to be justified before you. That people would understand that what religion does for us and what it doesn't do for us. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

The first thing we're going to talk about today is

1. How to delude yourself

The Pharisee in this story is the example for us. He thought he was something but Jesus said very clearly at the end of this parable that he was not justified before God. This Pharisee had bought into the bait and switch of false religion.

It's really hard to tell if somebody has false religion or not but one window into their soul is the way that they pray. In this prayer that this Pharisee brings before God we can see a lot about who he really was and what he was really trusting in.

Jesus said these prayers happened in the temple, in the court of Israel, where it would have happened. This is where people went to pray. They would get as close as they could to the altar of incense. You imagine this Pharisee walking right up there in front of everybody, standing completely straight and tall, holding his arms up and looking up into heaven. Letting everyone see his gorgeous religious clothes with his big phylacteries, you hear his prayer.

God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.

That prayer is a window to that man's soul and there are three things in that prayer show us how you can delude yourself into thinking you're saved when you're not.

The first thing that we see that's wrong with this man's prayer and his attitude is

A. He made it all about himself.

Notice that at the beginning of the prayer it says he prayed thus with himself. This was all about him. He may have been addressing God but he was really talking to himself.

Five times in this prayer the man uses the word "I".

• I thank thee
• I am not as other men are.
• I fast twice a week.
• I give tithes of all that I possess.

It was all about himself. Making himself feel good. Making himself look good.

And that is the first red flag because Christianity, the true religion, is not about you. It's not about me. It's about the Lord. I want you to understand that if you go to heaven it's not going to be because of your religious works; it's going to be because of the righteousness of another. That other is the Lord Jesus Christ, the one that came and lived the perfect life you couldn't live and died on the cross on your behalf.

When you start patting yourself on the back for the life that you live, the righteousness that you have, your faithfulness, your goodness, and your standards, you need to understand something. That might be a sign that what you have is built on the wrong foundation.

We'll talk more about that in a few minutes but the second thing that his prayer shows us that's a sign of bad religion, of not being truly saved, is…

B. He trusted in his own works.

This man had a lot of works. There's no reason to think he lied here. He was a Pharisee. He walked the walk. He truly did tithe of everything he possessed. He truly did fast twice a week. This man never abused the Sabbath. He was just doing everything he possibly could to be a righteous person.

And he was trusting in that. He was trusting in his own righteousness. Nothing is more dangerous for somebody than to think that their righteousness, that their works are going to get them to heaven. That's not how justification works. That's not how salvation works.

You can pile up good work after good work and God will look at it and see nothing but filthy rags. It doesn't matter if you are Mother Teresa. It doesn't matter if you're Billy Graham. It doesn't matter what your external reputation of righteousness is. What matters is what God sees. When God sees us he is not interested in counting up how good we are.

So we can see:

1. The red flag number one is all about him.
2. Red flag number two: he was trusting in his own works.
3. There's a third red flag that we see here and that is…

C. He compared himself with others.

Listen to him. He says, "I am so glad that I'm not like other men are. I'm not an extortioner. I'm not an adulterer. I've been faithful to my wife and I'm not like that publican over there."

The publicans were despised. They were untouchables. They were outcasts for good reason. They were so despised they weren't allowed to testify in court or speak in the synagogues. They were looked at as the lowest of the low, the sickest of the sick.

And this man says, "I'm not like them."

Jesus makes it pretty clear that this is a red flag when he says this whole parable was for people that trusted in themselves that they're righteous and despised others.

One of the biggest red flags is when you start comparing yourself to other people and being like, "Well I'm better than he is. I'm better than she is."

Folks, I can't tell you how many times I've had a gospel conversation with somebody and that is exactly where they go. I've been in jails and prisons before witnessing to people that are convicted of terrible crimes and you know what they say? "Well that guy's worse." The temptation is always there to find somebody worse than you and to compare yourself favorably to that person.

But that is not what matters. What matters is our reputation before God. God doesn't compare us with some other snake down the road. God doesn't compare us with the floozy you know about on your street that's sleeping around. God doesn't compare us with the drug addict. God doesn't compare us with the immoral snakes of this world. God doesn't even compare us with some other church person that we're slightly better than. God compares us with himself, with his own holy standard of righteousness.

And that is a standard that none of us are going to live up to. That is a standard that all of us fall short of.

23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Romans 3:23 (KJV)

When you start comparing yourself to other people, that is a giant red flag that you're trusting in yourself, that your religion isn't built on the right foundation, and that you are not going to find yourself justified before God.

So we can see in the Pharisees' prayer how religious people delude themselves into thinking they're saved when they're not. But what it would have been just as surprising, and maybe more surprising, was what Jesus said about the publican.

Again, publicans were the worst of the worst. They were the lowest of the low. They were absolutely despised. If Pharisees were the heroes, then publicans were the villains. And Jesus pointed at the publican and said that man's justified.

So if the Pharisees' prayer shows us how we can delude our self, the publican's prayer can show us

2. How to truly be justified before God.

We see the Pharisee right up in front, right where everybody can see him but the publican is standing afar off. Maybe he's barely stepped into the court where people came to pray.

The Pharisees, standing erect, eyes up to heaven, all eyes on him, and the publican, standing in the back, won't even lift up his eyes, so he is looking down, pounding on his chest.

Look at what the publicans said again. Very short, very simple. Just seven words.

13 God be merciful to me a sinner.

But in those seven words the publican teaches us how to truly be saved, how we can be justified.

By the way I've been using that word justified quite a bit. I'm using it because it's a word that Jesus used here in the text. The word justified means to have our sin debt erased before God and to be righteous in God's eyes. It's a synonym for being saved.

If you're saved, if you're born again, you're justified. If you're justified, you're saved and you're born again. It speaks specifically to our sin debt, to our righteousness.

Salvation isn't primarily about getting out of hell and getting to go to heaven. That's the effects of salvation but the problem salvation is trying to solve is the problem of sin.

And that's the first thing the publican shows us about how to truly be justified.

A. You have to view yourself as you really are, which is a sinner.

This man wouldn't look up to heaven. He's pounding his chest because he knows that's where his problem is. It's in here. It's in his heart. He knows he's a sinner.

In fact the Greek language is even stronger. It doesn't say "a sinner"; it says "the sinner". He's not saying I'm one among many sinners. I am the worst. I am the worst person. I am a sinner in God's eyes. He's not trying to sugar coat it.

If we are going to be justified, if we're going to be saved, if we're going to be born again, then it starts with seeing ourselves as we really are: we are sinners whose only hope is the mercy of God.

That's the second point, the second thing the publican shows us: that we need to truly be saved. We have to view ourselves as we really are, a sinner and

B. Understand that we need God's mercy.

Mercy is not getting what we do deserve. Mercy is when somebody that did the crime gets off without doing the time.

And mercy is what we need because we're guilty sinners before God. We deserve everything God throws at us. We deserve God's judgment. Our hearts are wicked before God. We need mercy.

When you say, 'Hey I'm better than those people,' that's not the point. It doesn't matter. What matters is you have a debt that you can't pay. You've committed crimes. It doesn't matter if other people committed more crimes. You committed crimes and you are going to stand before a holy judge and your only hope is His mercy.

The publican realized this. He didn't have any of his own righteousness that he could cling to. He reminds me of the thief on the cross who says to the other thief on the cross, "Hey we deserve to be here but this guy, he's done nothing wrong."

There's a third thing that we can see in this seven-word prayer that shows us how to truly be justified and that is

C. Trust that God gives his mercy through his propitiation.

You might think that's a bit of a stretch. Where are we getting that from this seven-word prayer? It's actually in two different ways.

The place where the sinner was praying is important. He's in the temple; he's right near where the offerings happen and it seems that he understands that his only hope for God's mercy, his only hope for forgiveness, is what is happening in that temple. In that temple, pure lambs are killed and they are sacrificed and their blood is applied for sinners. It seems that this man understood that that's where his hope was.

But it's actually also in the words that he said. The word translated “mercy”Is a unique word. It's not the normal word for mercy. It's actually only used one other place in the New Testament.

17 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
Hebrews 2:17 (KJV)

In that verse the phrase "to make reconciliation" is the exact same word as "mercy" here in Luke chapter 18. You see this publican understood something. He understood that his only hope wasn't found in himself. His only hope was in the atoning work, the reconciling work of another.

And that in church there's no temple anymore. There's no tabernacle. There's no sacrifices and the reason there is no temple and no tabernacle and no sacrifices is because the ultimate sacrifice was made. Those things were always pointing to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ came to this earth as the Lamb of God. He's the one that perfectly fulfilled the law and on the cross Jesus Christ took our sins upon him and he was punished for our sins. He was punished as our sacrifice so that we could be reconciled to God.

I used the word “propitiation”. Propitiation is the biblical act of appeasing God’s righteous wrath against sin through a sacrifice, satisfying His justice and averting judgment.

Because Jesus Christ died on the cross, we can be justified. We can have our sin debt wiped away. We can be made right with God.

Conclusion

So as I wrap this up, let me ask you a question. Which one of these guys are you? Not which one you admire, not which one you want to be, but which one of these guys are you?

Are you trusting in your own works? Is your religion all about you? Are you justifying yourself by comparing yourself with other people?

Or are you like this publican that realizes that you're a sinner in God's eyes and your only hope is in the reconciling, propitiating work of another? Your only hope is the mercy of God and your trusting in that.

Jesus said there's going to be many people that stand before him in judgment and say, "I did wonderful works in your name." God's going to say, "Depart from me. I never knew you." Then here in this passage he gave us a diagnostic tool to show us which one we are.

What are you trusting in today? If you've realized through this message today, through this scripture today, that you're trusting in your own righteousness and your own religion, I want to challenge you to put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ alone.

To come before God and say, "I am a sinner. My only hope is your mercy. Save me through the work of your Son." That and that alone is what will justify you. That is what will cause you to be born again. That is what will give you new life in Christ and a home in heaven.

Don't try to do it through your own works or through your own religion. Let's stand together and pray.