In his sermon on the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector from Luke 18:9-14, Robert Bosley discusses the themes of self-righteousness and humility. He contrasts the Pharisee, who trusts in his own works and looks down on others, with the tax collector, who humbly seeks God's mercy. Bosley emphasizes that the parable addresses every sinner, as all are prone to self-righteousness. He argues that true righteousness comes from God's grace, not from works, and highlights the importance of humility in the Christian life. The sermon also draws parallels with the Apostle Paul's transformation from a self-righteous Pharisee to a humble follower of Christ. Bosley concludes by encouraging believers to rely solely on Christ's righteousness and to live lives marked by humility and grace.

Good afternoon church. If you would take out your Bibles and open up to the Gospel according to Luke chapter 18. The Gospel according to Luke chapter 18. We're going to be continuing in the series on the parables. We're going to look at verses 9 through 14 with one of the more well-known parables, the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.

So let's begin reading verse 9. 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 a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank you that I am 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. And the tax collector standing afar off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breasts 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." Let's pray. Lord we come before you this afternoon and we thank you again for caring so well for us, your people. Lord, you have fed our bodies during our lunch hour and you have fed our souls this morning.

We pray that you would do so again this afternoon as we again look at your word. Lord, we pray that you would teach us and instruct us from your words. Help us Lord to see and grow in grace from what we read here today and what we see and help us to live in obedience to it. In Jesus name, amen. So again we're continuing the parables and like so many of the the parables this one comes in the context of a larger discourse that Jesus is giving, or at least in how Luke has arranged it.

This follows immediately after the parable of the persistent widow, which we actually covered many months ago with the other parable that Jesus teaches earlier in Luke on persistence in prayer, but the context of all this is really begins back in chapter 17. If you look, verse 11, now it happened as he went to Jerusalem. He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee and then later on we'll see that he's getting into Jericho just outside of Jerusalem, a little bit northeast of Jerusalem. This whole part of the narrative of Luke's gospel is the journey to Jerusalem. Jesus has now set his feet and his path to go to Jerusalem to die for the sins of his people.

And like we see consistently throughout whenever Jesus is on the road, he's never by himself. He's got his disciples with him of course, but there's also a crowd that's following him. And this crowd is a mixed group. He's on the way to Jerusalem surrounded by this mixed crowd, partly disciples, partly followers who may or may not be fully committed to the Lord. We also know that there are Pharisees, because the Pharisees have been engaging with him.

There are also probably skeptics and those who do not yet believe. And that's really what this parable is addressed to, I believe, these last two categories, the Pharisees and the skeptics. Because consider how this parable begins in verse nine. He also spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others." Now this introduction to the parable is, I believe, really the interpretive key to understanding the meaning of this parable. What topic or what sin is the Lord Jesus addressing with his parable?

He's addressing really the conjoined twins of works-based righteousness and self-righteous contempt for others. That's really what he's addressing. And now, the people he's specifically addressing are not named as the Pharisees. Obviously the person who's the bad guy in the story is a Pharisee, and we can assume that he had in mind the Pharisees as the main audience for this parable. But don't let that lull us into a comfortable situation where we can think that we are not being addressed.

This parable addresses the heart of every sinner because it is man's natural inclination to trust in yourself and to despise others. Fallen man is really good at setting up his own standard of righteousness which happens to be just exactly where he's at and then look down on everyone else who doesn't exactly fall in line with his standard. So yes, we can assume that this is particularly addressing the Pharisees, but this applies to every fallen son and daughter of Adam. Because as sinners, This is what we are all like apart from God and His grace. Now the parable itself, it's a very simple parable.

Two men go up to the temple complex to pray. This is a good and noble thing. It's right for them to do so. From the outside, it seems as both these men are equally pious. They are truly religious, God-fearing men, it looks like.

They're going to the center of worship to offer worship to God through prayer. And both have the same physical posture. It says that they are both standing. For verse 11, the Pharisees stood. Then verse 13, the tax collectors standing far off.

Both are in the same physical posture they're standing, which would have been the common posture for prayer in that time. But even though they're in the same place, they're in the same physical posture, their heart disposition could not be more different. Externally, things look pretty similar, but the hearts couldn't be more far apart in how they address and how they approach God. Now there is, verse 11 reads, the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. Now there's some question of exactly how to understand and translate the words here.

It could be that the Pharisee is standing and prays with himself, and even that can be understood two different ways, praying in that he's praying silently, Or some have interpreted, and I'm not opposed to this idea, that his prayer was for his own self. His prayer was for his own ego. It didn't actually address God. Or I think more likely it's that he was standing by himself and prayed this. In other words, he was standing apart from the crowd as a show of his self-righteousness.

He had contempt for others. Remember, this is what Jesus is addressing, those who are trusting in themselves and so despise others. And I think that's what this Pharisee is doing here. He's standing apart because he's not going to mingle with the riffraff. He's one of the special ones.

He can't allow himself to be sullied by being with the rest of the common people in the courtyard of the temple. But regardless of how you take it, the prayer itself shows that his heart is not right with God. Now when Jesus first presents this parable, the people would have assumed that the Pharisee is the one who's right and the tax collector is the one who's in sin, because you could not have picked two more different categories almost of anyone in society at that time. You have the Pharisees, the religious elite, and the tax collectors, who most people viewed as traitors, taking taxes from their own people to give to the Romans. And in the process, usually shaving off a little, sometimes literally shaving silver and gold off the coins to make a little extra money on the side.

The tax collectors were despised. But Jesus flips it all, all the expectations of the crowd. He flips it on its head. The Pharisee's prayer reveals a hardened heart. Yes, he prays to God.

He addresses God, God, and even thanks God, God I thank you. But it's all a smoke screen. It's all a show. He says, I thank you that I am not like other men. And he gives three categories of men that would have been especially despised, and honestly, rightly so.

We rightly see that these are sinful lifestyles and something that we should not partake in. Extortioners, people who steal and lie to people. They're swindlers, robbers, the unjust, a general category of people who despise God's law. Adulterers, those who betray their spouse. He says, I'm so thankful, God, that you've not made me like these other people.

But his thankfulness is really a mere cloak and a justification for self-righteousness. Now, I do not believe that it's wrong to thank God when he delivers you from sin. It's not wrong for you to recognize and confess, God, I thank you that you've not let me go back to my old ways. Or God, I thank you that you've kept me from these things that I may have been tempted to do. It's not wrong to thank God that you are not running with the crowds in sin and rebellion.

As a good thing, we are called to be a holy people. And so we should recognize God has by His grace, if you've not done those things, it's God who has made you to not do those things. It's by His grace that you have been spared those things. So it's not wrong per se to say what the Pharisee said, But the problem is the Pharisee thought that, well yes God, you made me like this, but that means there's something special in me that's setting me apart. You made me like this, but it's really me, because you made me a special person.

You made me a particular way to be above and distinct and separate from the rest of mankind. The Pharisee thought there was something special in himself, granted given by God, but something special in himself that made him not like other men, and that also led him to look down on others, particularly this tax collector. And to this unique status, this unique position that he thinks he has, he adds his own works. Look at verse 12. I fast twice a week.

I give tithes of all that I possess. He's convinced that he is a better person than all the rest of mankind. God made him special. And now he's even added to what God has done. He's even gone one step further.

He's improved on this. So how could God not accept his prayers? That's the perspective of the Pharisee. God has made me special and I've even made myself better. How can I not be accepted?

Calvin commenting on this parable, he says, referring to the tax collector, he ascribes it to the grace of God that he is righteous. Now though, excuse me, He ascribes it to the grace of God that he is righteous. Now, though his thanksgiving to God implies an acknowledgement that all the good works which we possessed are purely by the gift of God, yet as he places reliance on works and prefers himself to others, himself and his prayers are alike rejected." So with his lips he affirms that all these things are the gift of God, but he's really relying on his works And he's setting himself up as superior. And so God rejects him. This was the fundamental problem with the Pharisees.

This is why Jesus opposed them so severely. These were seen as the models of obedience to God's law. And they missed the whole point. They wanted to use the law as a means of attaining righteousness. As our brother Paul has been going through in the series on the Sermon on the Mount.

They abused and twisted the law of God, trying to use it as a means of justification. They wanted to be righteous, but they sought righteousness through works. Now they affirmed, as his prayer shows, they affirmed the need of grace, but they thought that grace could only take you so far, and that your good works is what would carry you over the finish line. And this is always the great danger of every works religion. Often works-based salvation masquerades and pretends to be something else.

The Roman Catholic will say, well, we don't believe in salvation by works. It's all of grace. You just have to do these certain rituals to receive that grace, And you have to do them correctly and in our church. Well, of course, that's a twisting and complete redefinition of grace. Grace that is earned is no longer grace.

And this is the great divide between us and Rome and between us and the Eastern Orthodox so-called churches. And frankly, it's sadly the dividing line between us and many that call themselves Protestants today as well. So many want to trust in their works that they in themselves are righteous. Jesus destroys that whole paradigm. His whole ministry destroys this idea.

The Bible does not allow us to think that our works secure God's favor. In Rome, in the Eastern Churches, grace is affirmed as being necessary, but not sufficient. It's necessary, but You must add to it your own righteousness, a righteousness that is infused and inherent before you are justified. And this fundamentally confuses justification and sanctification and creates a system of salvation by works. But what does the scripture teach?

It is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not as a result of works so that no one may boast. So what can we learn from this Pharisee's prayer? Now, we should thank God when we have been delivered from sins. When the power of sin in your life has been broken and that you are no longer living the way you used to, or when you recognize that, God, if it had not been for you, my life would have been far, far different, far, far worse.

It's not wrong to thank God for saving you from a life of sin and rebellion. But we must not let that acknowledgement puff up our egos. It is merely the grace of God that makes you different. Yes it is God that makes us different, not in our nature, all mankind has fallen and we're born sinners, but God by His grace changes us and teaches us how to live a life of holiness and righteousness. But instead of having the reaction of the Pharisees, because they fundamentally trusted their own works, if we recognize that it's merely the grace of God that makes us different, that should humble us, not inflate our egos and puff us up with pride.

We must recognize that apart from grace, we are helpless, we are hopeless, we are children of wrath like the rest of mankind. Is only grace. So yes, you should pursue holiness. It's good to recognize that you're not like these other kinds of men. It's good to not be an extortioner or an unrighteous person or an adulterer.

Those are good things. We can, we can and we should thank God for keeping us from these sins. It's even good to fast and to tithe. We should pursue holiness with all our hearts. But ultimately the Pharisee was not boasting in holiness.

He was not boasting really in what God had done. He was boasting in his own works, his own ability to look clean on the outside. So if your holiness makes you think that you are superior in yourself to the rest of mankind, you've forgotten the starting point of holiness itself. Humility is grace alone that makes anyone different from the rest of mankind. We are all by nature fallen and deserve nothing but God's wrath.

It is grace that lifts us up and cleans us off and makes us new creatures in Christ. It is all of grace. Even your good works, as Calvin put it a minute ago, are God's gift to you. Ephesians 2, 10, that God has prepared good works beforehand for you to walk in even your good works are God's gift and so we're not opposed to doing good works They're a necessary part of the Christian life. Someone who does not show their faith by good works, their faith is dead and useless and vain.

But you must understand the order. You must get the relationship right. Works come from grace. They do not procure it. Grace is freely given as a gift.

And even your ability to believe, Your ability to repent is a gift of God's grace. So if we understand this and we recognize this is true, how could any of us put confidence in ourselves? If it's all of grace, how could any of us boast in what we've done? This is what the Pharisees did not understand. That's what the Pharisee in the parable did not understand that it's all of grace.

And this is why the idea of a proud Christian in the sense of an arrogant, boastful Christian, like the Pharisee who holds everyone in contempt, is so foreign to the Scriptures. It's a contradiction in terms. What do you have that you've not received? And if you've received it, why do you boast? But on the other side, the tax collector, rather than drawing attention to himself, what does it say?

Verse 13, the tax collector standing far off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. He won't even dare to lift his eyes up while he beats his chest in contrition over his sin. The language indicates that this is not just a one and done show. This is, he keeps striking his chest. He keeps praying continuously.

His only prayer, all he can seem to get out is God be merciful to me a sinner Over and over begging God for mercy So overwhelmed with the knowledge of his sin and how serious it is. He's beating his chest. He can't think of what else to do. Humbling himself, overwhelmed in his soul so that he has no other prayer than God be merciful. God be gracious.

God I'm a sinner. Help me. That's the picture of a repentant man or woman. When you understand your sin, when you understand what the law of God actually requires. That should be how you respond.

God, I have no other hope. God, be merciful. God, help me. I am a sinner. God, be gracious.

Calvin, again, he said, though he, the tax collector, is a sinner, he trusts to a free pardon and hopes that God will be gracious to him. In a word, in order to obtain favor, he owns that he does not deserve it. And certainly, since it is forgiveness of sins that alone reconciles us to God, we must begin with this. If we desire that he would accept our prayers, he who acknowledges that he is guilty and convicted and then proceeds to implore pardon disavows all confidence in works. And Christ's object was to show that God will not be gracious to any, but to those who betake themselves with trembling to his mercy alone.

All confidence in works, utterly abandoned, when you see the depth of your sin, when you see the standard that God requires, You can't do enough. Even what you can do is still insufficient. All confidence in works wiped away. And what is the result for the tax collector? He abandons all hope and works and entrusts himself solely to God's mercy.

Jesus says he went down to his house justified. He left there with a full pardon for his sins. He was declared to be right with God. But the Pharisee, the one who looked so clean on the outside, he went to his home still dead in his sins. Despite all his external conformity to the law of God, he was still under God's judgment.

He was boasting in his own good works, his own self-righteousness, and so he went home with his sins still on him. But the tax collector, seeing his need, knowing his sins, begged God for mercy and received it. Because it is only those, as Christ says, who humble themselves who will be exalted. And what is exaltation here? Exaltation is to receive the forgiveness of sins and to enjoy God, to be in his kingdom, to be welcomed in as a son or daughter of God.

This exaltation even to being seated with Christ in heavenly places, Paul tells us elsewhere. This comes only from a heart of humility and repentance. And speaking of the Pharisees, our message this morning, was it not a great example of this idea, this whole passage that we're in in Acts with the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. His conversion was so dramatic, so astonishing, partly because he was the Pharisee in this parable. That's who he was.

He prided himself in his own righteousness, assuming that God had made him better. And so how could God not accept his own works, even to the imprisonment and putting to death of innocent people? Paul's own words from Philippians 3, show us this, Philippians 3, 4 through 6, I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so circumcise the eighth day of the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, concerning the law, a Pharisee, concerning zeal, persecuting the church, concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. That's the attitude of the Pharisee in the parable.

Outward conformity to the law, blameless. But what was the heart like? Just looking from the outside, if anyone could have boasted in their own works and did, it was Saul of Tarsus. In short, he was convinced that he was better than everyone else. He believed it, he knew it, and he was counting on it before God.

But then on that road, he was blinded. And when he was blinded, he had his eyes actually opened to see how far he was falling short. What drastic change occurred in him? Well again, back to Philippians three, the next couple of verses. But what things were gained to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.

Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish that I might gain Christ and be found in him not having my own righteousness which is from the law but that which is through faith in Christ the righteousness which is from God by faith that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection of the dead. All the other things he boasted in were loss, rubbish, trash. Were loss, rubbish, trash. All of it counted as useless and worthless for the sake of knowing Christ and having him as his righteousness Because that is the righteousness that sinners need No outward obedience to the law of God will do it They need Sinners need the righteousness that only comes through faith in Christ. By God's grace, the most hard-hearted and self-righteous man can be humbled and set free from their sins.

He did it with Paul. And he's done it with many of us in this room. May he continue to do it with our children, our families, our neighbors. This is that power of the gospel that our elder was preaching about this morning. The most hardened, self-righteous man can be broken not by your eloquence, but by the gospel, because it is the gospel alone that is the power of God to salvation.

So let us go through our Christian lives, our lives day in and day out, understand that there is no room for pride or boasting. There's no room for arrogance in our hearts or contempt for other people. Peter tells us God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. Let's put aside all boasting, all self-righteousness, all confidence in works, and hold fast to Christ and Christ alone.

Let's pray. Oh Father, we thank you for this parable. Thank you for this instruction from your Son. Help us Lord to never trust in ourselves that we are righteous. Help us to put away all confidence in the flesh But to boast only in you and the cross of your son and his empty tomb God may you be our confidence.

May you be our boast may you be our hope in this life and forever in Jesus name. Amen.