Justified Before God Luke 18: 8-14

Welcome to Faith Bible Church, everybody. We thank you all for being here today. Happy Mother's Day, of course, to all the wonderful mothers out there. We definitely appreciate all of you. We're gonna do announcements real quick.

This Wednesday, May 15th, at 530, we have our Bible study where they're going through a series called Praying with Paul. It's a book. That's a extremely enriching study that they're going through there.

I've tuned in on a few occasions, and it's amazing, actually. Women's Bible study will be this Saturday, May 18th, at 10 a .m., and our missionary of the month is Miss Penny Hardin out of Vallejo, California.

She worked with the BMW Deaf Ministry. Just pray for her. Dear Lord, we thank you for today. Thank you for bringing us all here. Thank you for getting us safely through last week, Lord, and Lord, we just pray that you would open our hearts today and help us to understand what Ilgin is going to preach to us today from your Word, Lord.

We just thank you for just everything you provide for us, Lord. You know, we don't deserve any of it, Lord, but you give it to us despite it—despite it all, Lord. And we love you,.

And.

We just pray, Lord, that we can worship you today, Lord, and just keep in mind all the amazing things that you've done for us, all the things that you're doing, all the things that your Word says you're gonna do, Lord.

We, Lord, we just want to keep those things on our mind as we worship you today, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Worship Songs and Scripture Reading

Well, let's all stand together. This first song that we're singing is, You Are My All in All, and this was written 35 years ago, plus or minus, and it was by a gentleman that just sat down to the piano during a worship service, and it was a communion, I think, and he was—his wife recalls that he had his left hand playing music and his right hand writing feverishly notes on a paper, because musicians—and I can't relate to that level of musicianship, but I know Lauren has some of those tendencies—you can—if things come to mind, you just write them down.

So this is that song. It's a great meditative song to begin our service today. Our next song is, Just As I Am, and it's a tremendous message of hope and salvation, and if you haven't put your faith and trust in Jesus as your personal Savior, meditate on these things.

Think about what these words are saying.

Today we're going to be reading Romans 3, 27 through 31. Romans 3, 27 through 31, and this is ESV for those who are wondering. Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded by what kind of law? By a law of works?

No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means. On the contrary, we uphold the law. Thank the Lord as always for his work.

Let's stand together again as we sing of the love of God. Jeremiah 31 3 says, I have loved you with an everlasting love, and it's a love that this world does not know, but we know through Christ. Excellent singing, and I wanted to say thank you to Tovia who stepped in to play our final two songs there, so thank you, Tovia.

She's here just for your information. She goes back to UCLA to continue on with the quarter, so she'll only be here for a little bit before she heads back to school. Our next song is When I Survey the Wondrous Cross by Isaac Watts.

This is, Isaac Watts was one of the first English hymn writers back in the early 18 -16 hundreds, and Charles Wesley, who wrote over 6 ,000 hymns, said he would do away with all of those if he could save this very one written by Isaac Watts, so that shows how significant and how deep this hymn is, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.

Think about these words.

Mother’s Day, Women’s Calling, and Church Announcements

Mother's Day to all the mothers out there. We're grateful for your faithfulness and commitment to your calling to raise up your children who are given to you by God, and we would say there is no greater calling.

For.

Humans than to be moms, to personally disciple children who are gifts from God, and all the sacrifices and all the tears and prayers that you pour out before God, and and then there's really no relationship like that between a mom and her child, and.

And.

Unfortunately, our culture does not see the value and worth and how precious it is, but here at Faith Bible Church we do appreciate all the moms out there, and this day might be hard for some of you who may have lost your mom or did, maybe even confusing if your.

Mom.

Wasn't a kind and compassionate mom, but we we do hope that you can celebrate the mothers here who are faithful and who do love their kids, and we thank you all for your support. One other announcement, there is a form out there with all sorts of writing.

This is mainly for the summer and also what comes after the summer break. One is about summer Greek class that Diane recommended for a couple years now. If you're interested in that, please let me know what time you would like to have that.

Diane and I are very flexible over the summer. And then the biblical counseling course is ending this month, but we do hope to start it up again after summer. There are options there, too. If you want to learn about biblical counseling or be counseled biblically, which are basically the same thing, but you don't want it in a large group setting because you don't feel comfortable sharing what you went through, please just circle you would like a private setting, and and we'll try to make that work with the preferred time of your choice.

It is, it's a great program. I didn't write the program. I'm just going over the curriculum. Dexter and I've been teaching it, and it's been great for even my personal development, but also great to see other people who are helped to view themselves as how God sees them.

And then flush out the lies that they've told themselves or Satan or the world did, right? And really get closer to God and find healing spiritually. So please fill that out, and there are other classes there as well if you're interested.

There's also membership class if some of you want to be a member or prayed about it. That's also an option, too. Just let me know by filling out the form and hand it to me when you can. With that, let's all turn to Luke chapter 18.

The Pharisee and the Tax Collector in Luke 18:9-14

Luke chapter 18 verses 9 through 14. Luke chapter 18 verses 9 through 14. And 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'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.

And the tax collector standing afar off would 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 the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Father, we're grateful that we're justified not by our works, but by our faith in Jesus Christ.

Thank you that we're declared righteous not because we've done well, but because Christ has died for our sin on the cross. And that our righteousness is imputed on us, that it's placed on us, not by our doing, but because.

Christ's.

Death and resurrection help us to come to you to be justified in Christ alone. In his name we pray.

Amen.

Justification, Soteriology, and the Problem of Self-Righteousness

So today's text continues on from Jesus' teaching regarding discipleship. Last couple of weeks the focus was on eschatology, the doctrines and things that relate to the last day. Today we move on to soteriology.

Soteriology just means the focus on salvation. While the previous couple passages dealt with how God will in the end vindicate his people when Jesus comes back to rule physically, today's passage shows what kind of person God would vindicate.

So there it's not a completely off topic discussion. Last two passages were about God's judgment and those who are his will be in the right. Today's text shows us who are his people? What kind of people are in the right?

And what type of person does God justify? A short little discussion on justification. It is a theological term and it's an important theological term. Justification is an act of God. It's when God declares a sinner to be righteous.

When God makes a sinner righteous. And what that means is God declares a sinner to be right with God. And that is an important part of the gospel. It's an important part of salvation. After all you can't be saved unless God declares you righteous.

And that presumes that we were not right with God.

Inherently.

God is the one who declares us to be righteous. And today we will learn from this passage how anyone can have right standing before God. And this is an important question because our eternity is at stake.

We are all born sinners. We naturally sin. One may say sin is our second nature. No one has to teach a baby how to sin. No one has to show a baby how to be selfish. No one has to teach a kid how to lie.

It's second nature. However, before the holy God sin is the biggest problem. Because every sin is an offense to the holy God. And God cannot just ignore sin. Because that would make him unjust and unholy.

Any judge who can ignore injustice is not a just judge. However, he does deal with sin. He has to justly carry out punishment for every sin. Not only that the punishment is eternal. Because that is the only outcome of offending the infinitely holy God.

There's a lot of stake here. And today's text answers this crucial question. How can anyone be justified before God? How can anyone be justified before God?

The Pharisee’s Self-Justification and Contempt for Others

First,.

The self-righteous hold others in contempt because they trust themselves to be justified. The self-righteous hold others in contempt because they trust in themselves to be justified. Verse 9 tells us the setting in which the parable is told.

Also, he spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. Jesus tells a parable that is specifically geared towards those who trust in their own righteousness.

They trust in their own goodness. They're good enough. But not only that, they trust in their righteousness, which in turn they look down on others. This is because pride not only puffs up the person, but it also deflates the others.

In their eyes. Arrogance brings the person higher yet brings the rest down. And it's to those people Jesus tells a parable. And because Jesus is a master teacher, he knows what will get through the thick skulls of those who depend on their own righteousness.

After all, just plainly rebuking them for their self-righteousness will definitely not stick. They will deny it. They will find ways to justify their even own self-righteousness. Instead, Jesus shows the ugliness of self-righteousness through a parable.

Well, this helps because most self-righteous people, they're going to hear that story and they're not going to automatically think it's about them. And they're going to see the ugliness of the pharisee.

And they will.

Agree with Jesus that self-righteousness is in fact disturbing and disgusting. Until the punchline. Well, you're like the pharisee. Verse 10 introduces the character. And verse 11 shows us the prayer of the first character.

Verse 10, two men went up to the temple to pray. One a pharisee and the other a tax collector. This parable has two characters here. And they both go to the holiest place in all of Jerusalem. The temple.

These two characters show us that you could not get more opposite type of people. A pharisee and a tax collector. A pharisee was a highly regarded religious person. So a sort of like a religious teacher.

But with more moral authority because back then Israel was more theocratic. Right? The religious leaders governed. They made decisions. The pharisees were especially highly regarded for their religious zeal.

Because they knew the old testament like the back of their hands. They were publicly respected. And the people actually looked up to them. They loved them. Although they served as a minority in the Sanhedrin.

About 70 group of religious leaders. Almost like a court. Like a supreme court. 70 religious leaders. Although they only made up the minority. There weren't that many serving there. The ruling council.

They actually held a lot of power because of the popular support. The crowd loved them. Now then we have the tax collectors. They were hated by the rest of the Jews because they were known to abuse their power for their personal gain.

Remember the Roman empire was huge. And with just any huge empire you can't govern from the central government. So what they do is they recruit the natives to collect taxes. The direct taxation was then done by fellow Jews who were commissioned to take a specific amount for Rome.

But they could charge extra because again, they have to go around town by town to collect taxes. There's personal cost. And one can imagine how the personal surcharge would often rise to an unethical amount.

After all Rome wouldn't really care as long as they get their money. In fact, even secular people in those days grouped tax collectors with adulterers and pimps. They were not the type of people you would want to be around or associated with.

And we have those two people who enter the temple at the same time. Now we get to hear the Pharisee's prayer. 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. Now when you read the book of Psalm, you will notice that many prayers actually start with thanksgiving.

Right? The psalmist often thank God for his attributes, his character in nature, how compassionate he is, how loyal he is, how faithful he is. Or sometimes thanksgiving for his.

Action.

How he's delivered his people. The Pharisee's prayer also starts with the thanksgiving. However, the focus is not God, but on himself. It's actually perverse. It is the appearance of godliness, but the praise returns to himself.

God is not praised through this prayer, but the very person who is praying. If you're in doubt, count how many times he mentions himself in his prayer of two verses. Thank you that I am not like other men.

And I'll skip the list.

I.

Fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess. Five times. Five first person personal pronoun in mere two verses of his prayer. In the span of two verses, the Pharisee definitely brings attention to himself.

Even the grammatical structure shows us who is truly the focus in the Pharisee's heart. Me, me, me, me, me. And verse 11 shows what he is thankful for. He is thankful for what he is not rather than anything else.

He is not an extortioner. He's think, think of thieves or swindlers. They take money from the poor or anyone who's gullible. Well, he's thankful he's not that. He's thankful that he's not an adulterer.

You know, the unfaithful. And he's, he's also thankful that he's not unjust. That's just a general category of sinners. And he's also to put the cherry on top. He's thankful that he's not a tax collector.

Good thing he's standing right here. I almost forgot. I could be like that guy. Now this is presumptive because being a tax collector is not inherently sinful, right? Just because you work for the IRS doesn't mean you are always you know taking people's money unjustly.

Yet the pharisee makes the assumption that this tax collector is a sinner and he is definitely better than this tax collector. And what this shows is that when you're righteous in your own eyes, everyone else is worse than you.

I mean who can be better than the righteous? And when you're righteous in your own eyes, you get to judge other people's character. You don't have to see their heart. No way. You get, you're the righteous guy.

You get to decide who's righteous or not. And when you're righteous in your own eyes, you're the supreme judge. That's the ugly head of self-justification. And verse 12 shows the basis for his self-justification.

I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess. He is better than all of these people because of this verse. He is better than all of these people because of his works, because of his good deeds, because of his fulfillment of the law.

He fasts twice a week. In the old testament, Israel was only commanded to really fast only on the day of atonement, which occurs once a year. So faith fasting twice a week was really going above and beyond the call of duty.

He's the super spiritual guy. He's got to be close to God. Not only that, he gave more than he was required to. Tithing, it was under the old testament law. We're not under that. Where you give 10

Of your fruits.

Now what he's saying is he gave 10 of all that he possessed. So under the law, he would have to give 10 to the Lord, whatever he produced. However, this Pharisee's tithing practice is that he's actually tithing what he's what's already been tithed.

So for example, if a farmer tithes 10 and sells his crops to this Pharisee, this Pharisee will again tithe the 10 that he got from even though that crop has been already tithed for. So he's doing extra.

He's a super giver. He's generous toward God. Right? He deserves a plaque.

Right?

He's that angel donor, right? Whenever you go to a big monument or hospital and you get a whole wall of donors, big names, bigger font if they gave more, he'd be up there. His basis for justification is in the end his own actions.

He is right with God according to him based upon his obedience to God's law. He is right with God for what he has done. And this Pharisee's prayer is not meant to be awe-inspiring. There is a problem if we think this is the model prayer.

This is not the prayer you want to copy in your life. The point of this prayer is for Jesus' audience to see the ugliness of self-righteousness and self-justification. Self-justification is the act of making one self-righteous.

It is the act of declaring yourself to be in the right. And this is all too common in our society.

Self-Justification in the World and in the Church

First,.

Self-justification is not just for the religious. Non-believers do this all the time. Non-believers who believe they are pretty good and they hear the gospel and they don't want to trust in Jesus because they're pretty good.

Well, after all, I'm generous and caring. I didn't kill anyone. I contribute to the society. I've never hurt anyone. That's self-justification. You're justifying yourself as to why you don't need the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ.

Because in your eyes, you're righteous.

Now,.

It only gets uglier when you get to the religious. Those who believe their good deeds will add to their salvation. So the religious people can also self-justify. Similar to this Pharisee, they believe their good works add to their standing before God.

Maybe they might not publicly proclaim this, but deep inside they believe God must be thankful that they're saved as if God needs their great generosity and superb service. Self-justification in the church does not even have to be this obvious.

It's even any notion that your good action or behavior can contribute to even one percent toward your salvation. Even the minimum. When that happens, you end up justifying yourself. And this is the danger of the heretical doctrine justification by faith and works.

That's the Catholic Church's doctrine. They do believe in faith. They would say faith is very important. Ah, yes, but you gotta show with your works. You gotta, you gotta add your works to that faith.

Even if your works contribute to your salvation by one percent, it is in the end self-justification. And this is because you end up viewing Christ's atoning sacrifice on the cross insufficient that you have to step in to bear the little bit of weight that Christ supposedly allegedly couldn't.

So in the end, Christ needs you. He couldn't completely save you through his death on the cross. He needed some of your cooperation. And that's blasphemous. And third, they might have the right doctrine on the justification by faith alone.

But these people justify their sins as not bad. They may, they can give you the right doctrine, but whenever they sin, they will have an excuse. It's those at least, well, at least I didn't sleep around before getting married.

Or at least I never got drunk. At least I did not murder. At least I'm not that one guy. At least, at least, at least. In the end, any attempt to lessen your sin so that you get a pass is self-justification and it is despicable.

What do these cases all have in common? You get to decide what is good. You get to decide what is bad. You get to set the standard and you get to pass the judgment on others. You decide who's a sinner.

You decide that you're not the sinner. And when you justify yourself, you get to be the judge. When you justify yourself, you outright remove God from his judgment seat. Because there's can't, there can be only one judge.

That's self-justification. And with self-justification, others are held in contempt. Because when you're the judge, you're not going to be able to stand the sinners. Because you remove the compassionate judge.

Who loves the sinners. Now, what is the appropriate way to stand before God? God only justifies those who humbly trust in his mercy alone. God only justifies those who humbly trust in his mercy alone.

The Tax Collector’s Humble Cry for Mercy

Unlike the Pharisee's long self-focused prayer, we get a concise contrite prayer from the tax collector. And the tax collector standing afar off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.

Notice even the tax collector's position. I think Jesus tells this parable with this intent. He stands afar off. This tax collector does not even presume that he can approach God that closely. Because he is fully aware of his sinfulness.

Not only that, he cannot even look up to heaven. Rather, he beats his chest in contrition. This man fully knows that he's undeserving of God's presence and his mercy. And he knows he has nothing good to contribute to God.

His request is short and desperate. God, be merciful to me a sinner. Here, the word mercy actually comes from the same term as atonement. The atonement, or the atoning sacrifice, is a sacrifice to remove sin.

And thereby, God's wrath is no longer upon them, which means God's favor is upon them. There's both, uh, for systematic theologians out there. Atonement includes both propitiation and expiation. Propitiation is an act to make God propitious toward us, that God would be favorable toward us.

Expiation is the act of removing God's wrath from us. And they both go hand in hand because if God's wrath is removed from us due to this atoning sacrifice, well, then he is looking towards us with favor.

Favorable. God looks towards us in blessing because sin is removed. That's the importance of atonement. There's both picture. This text collector fully knows that his sin before God is the most urgent and alarming problem in his life.

This text collector is fully aware that only God can remove his sins because he is.

Merciful.

Only God can remove his sin because that's who God is.

He's compassionate.

After this short prayer, Jesus ends the parable and shares the punchline. 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.

The plot twist ending is that it is the text collector who is the only one, not the Pharisee, who goes home justified. The text collector is the only one, not the Pharisee, who is forgiven. It is the text collector, the only one, not the Pharisee, who was made right with God.

That's the plot twist. All the Jewish audience who listened to this parable would have thought it would have been the Pharisee. Well, not after those two prayers. What it shows is your forgiveness does not depend on the little size of your sin but to whom you surrender to, to whom you depend on.

The passive verb here justify means that it is God who justified this man. The man doesn't justify himself. And the reason is this, the text collector contritely humbled himself before God. He did not take it upon himself to justify but placed himself at God's mercy because he had the right view of himself.

He was an undeserving sinner. He trusted his justification to come from God alone, not any of his deeds. He knew of nothing that he could bring to the table that would add to God's mercy. While God did not justify the Pharisee because he justified himself, the text collector who trusted in God's mercy went home justified.

The important lesson here is that if you trust in yourself to be justified, you won't need God to justify you. In another lesson, in another sense, if you trust your good works to be right with God, God will not justify you.

And that's because if you trust in your good works, you don't need God. What need is there for God's mercy and grace if you can depend on your good works? And when you justify by yourself, you actually take judge's seat from God.

In the end, the self-righteous must depend on themselves to be justified. And this is because the judge is also the Savior. The judge who gets to decide what's right and wrong also gets to decide the terms of salvation.

And when you justify yourself, when you become the judge, you get to decide the terms of your salvation. Hence, God's judgment is out of the picture. Hence, God's mercy and grace no longer play a role.

And when we think about it, saving oneself is a daunting task. In fact, it's an impossible task. No one can stand before the Holy God and expect to be guiltless. Our sin, no matter how much we think it's not a big deal, is treasonous and filthy before the Holy God.

Consequently, all sinners must pay the penalty for their sin, which is death. And it's not just the physical death as if you're all done after you die and you can rest. It's the spiritual death. It's the eternal condemnation.

It's eternal separation from God. It's eternal torment. Now, what hope do we have if we all have sinned? Well, just like the tax collector, we must not trust ourselves, but only trust in God's mercy. We must fall down before God knowing that it is not our goodness that saves us, but it is God who justifies us.

And the question is, how does the perfectly holy God justly justify sinners? After all, God cannot sweep sin under the rug. That would make him a criminal. That would make him unjust. God deals with our sin not by ignoring our sin, but by taking it upon it himself.

Jesus, God incarnate, the son of God, in his rich mercy, bore our sin on the cross. And faced the judgment that we deserved. So that we could be found in his righteousness alone. This is the beautiful doctrine of substitutionary atonement.

You take the doctrine of substitutionary atonement out of the gospel, you don't have the gospel. This is the core of the gospel. Substitutionary atonement, as the name suggests, is that Jesus is the substitute.

A sacrifice on your behalf. He takes your place in judgment. So that you could take his place in righteousness. That's the core of the gospel. Jesus died for me so I can live. That's a one-sentence example of substitutionary atonement.

A kid can understand that, but that's how rich it is. Where do we find this in the bible? Second Corinthians 521. Second Corinthians 521. Among many texts, but this I think is the clearest one verse, substitutionary atonement verse.

For he hath made Jesus, in this context it's Jesus, for God hath made Jesus to be sin for us who knew no sin. That we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Jesus, who knew no sin, he had nothing to do with sin.

He's a sinless man. He's guiltless. He's innocent. For God had made Jesus, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. On the cross, Jesus was treated as sin so that we would be made righteous before God in him.

We can't forget in him. We're not made righteous because of our own righteousness. We are viewed as righteous because we belong to Christ now. That's what in him is. You're found in him. What that means is because Jesus dealt with our sin himself, the moment we trust him, God sees us in Christ's righteousness alone.

When you trust Jesus' death and resurrection, God does not see all the filth that you've committed. Rather, he sees his son's perfect righteousness. And you have not contributed a single thing to make this a single good thing, to make this a reality.

It's not that, oh Jesus, let me help you with this. Your justification is completely done by Jesus alone. And what's necessary? What's the necessary response to be justified in Christ alone?

You.

Trust not in your works, but trust in Christ's atoning work alone. It is just like the parable. You cannot trust in yourself. You cannot trust in your good deeds. You cannot trust in your impeccable record.

You have to trust in God's mercy alone. Just like the text collector. And for us, the most beautiful picture of God's mercy is that an innocent man who didn't deserve to die took on your sin, your record, and he faced the wrath that you deserved in your place.

So that not only would you be forgiven, but that you would also be found righteous in Christ. That's your new identity. Christ has put on his righteousness on you. And any attempt to contribute to Christ's finished work with your deeds will only lead to self-justification.

That's the danger of self-justification. You won't be justified by Christ. If you justify yourself. As this parable shows, those who justify themselves will not be justified by God. Which means we must not cling on to our good records.

We must not attempt to add to Christ's record. We can't. And the moment we try to do, we lose his record. You can't have his record if you try to add to his record. I would end with a very important statement that Jonathan Edwards said.

Jonathan Edwards, a Puritan theologian, probably one of the most well-known American theologians in history. America as in, you know, the colonial times. He said this,.

You.

Contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary. You contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary. That is justification.

By grace alone, through faith alone.

Let us pray. Father, we are grateful that it is not up to us. It is not up to our record. It's not up to our good deeds that save us, but it is up to us humbly trusting that only in God's mercy found in Jesus Christ that we are made right with you.

We're declared righteous before your throne. Help us to live that way for the rest of our lives. Please lead us away from the temptation of justifying ourselves. What a horrendous thing to do, to lose, to let go, to reject God's mercy.

We're trying to hold on to our own good deeds, which are filthy in nature. In Jesus' name.

Closing Song and Benediction

Stand together with us as we close with a song of praise to the Lord, realizing of all the things that he blesses us with is one of the things is the justification. Thank the Lord for that as we go this week.

Praise God.