The Self-Righteous Sinner

Introduction

Over the course of the next few weeks I have a very specific goal in mind for all of us. You see, I desire to see this church grow. I want these pews to be full, I want to have to figure out how to expand, I want to see a bunch of babies running around. I believe through God it can be done. However, before we grow in numbers we must grow spiritually, and we must continuously grow spiritually. We are going to move through multiple sermon series that I pray will help us accomplish this. The first of these series I will challenge your salvation. Let me be clear. This is not an accusation that your salvation is false. It is not an attempt to convince you that you are failing and you need to get saved. Rather it is a challenge for you to search out your own salvation and make sure it is right. We will be discussing attributes that self-proclaimed “Christians” possess that are actually evidence to a lost soul. To kick this series off is today’s sermon on self righteousness. You may think we are immune to this line of thinking, but the reality is we have all seen it all over the place. Sadly, self-righteousness leads to a heart that does not truly desire God. We will study today how a self-righteous heart leads to arrogance, which leads to jealousy, which leads to hatred for God and those who truly humble themselves before Him.

A greater love for the temple than for God Luke 18:8-14

Read this story from Jesus. Have you ever met anybody like this Pharisee? Have you ever met anybody like the publican that humbled himself? As we study this story, think about the fact that God seems to always call the meek and lowly, do you know why?

Will Jesus find faith on the earth? v.8-9

Jesus is moving from one parable to another here, and if you’re not careful you’ll miss the significance of these two parables spoken together. The parable from verses 1-8 is declaring God’s faithfulness to His people. Jesus is saying that if an unfaithful judge is able and willing to answer the pleas of this woman, but only because she is annoying Him so much, wouldn’t God be even more faithful to His own? He suffers our outcries day in and day out, but He is faithful to answer us. But what is important here, and the connecting phrase is the last half of verse 8 “shall he find faith on the earth”. Unfortunately this foreshadows a worsening of faith in the world rather than a strengthening of it. Verse 9 tells us the subject of the next parable is people who liked to compare their own righteousness to others. If this is happening in the days of Jesus, how much worse is it two thousand years removed from His personal influence?

Two men enter, God calls all and can save all v. 10

Immediately we notice that we have two separate ends of the religious spectrum of Jesus’ time entering the church. You have a Pharisee, who are seen by men to be righteous, learned, and faithful; then you have a publican, who are seen by men as traitorous, despicable, and greedy. The thing to remember as you see these two people is that both of them have the same exact access to salvation. In biblical times the Pharisees were seen as almost their own class of people. You had to be born into it, they had money, were highly educated, and much political power. The publicans, however, were tax collectors for the Romans, who were Israel’s current oppressors. Even still, both men needed salvation just as much as the other, and both men could gain eternal life just the same.

Now we see the self-righteous heart v. 11-12

We can already tell what kind of person the Pharisee is by the way he opens up his prayer “I thank you I’m not wicked and sinful like these other guys”. He even calls out the person he’s in the temple with in his prayer! After he debases the people he’s around, lifting himself up, look how he continues to shine the light on his own supposed piety. “I fast more than others, I tithe more than others”. The Jews normally only fasted three days a year: The Day of Atonement, the day before Purim, and the Ninth of Ab to commemorate the fall of Jerusalem; but the Pharisees in their “good will hunting” faith fasted 2 times every week. Notice how they then tried to “cash-in” their deposits of supposed faith. In a similar manner he professes his great faith through his tithe. The requirement was ten percent of earnings, but he says “I tithe all my belongings”, so not only what he makes, but everything he owns. Here’s the thing, though: if you don’t give with a glad heart God doesn’t want your money!

True faith from a sinner v. 13-14

Now, in the publican we see what true faith is. Do you know that not one of us deserves to look God in the face? Every one of us should bury our heads into the ground when we speak to Him, because He is holy and we are wicked. This publican doesn’t dare to lift his eyes from the ground. Then he goes on to beg God for mercy as he is a sinner. Luckily for him and all of us, God had mercy to send Jesus to be a propitiation for our sins! He was our mercy, and to realize that, to become poor in spirit just like this publican, is the first step to salvation. You see, the publican went home justified. How are we justified? By the blood of Christ! He is our mercy, He is our justification, He is our propitiation. Were it not for Him it wouldn’t matter if we fasted six days a week and donated everything we owned to the church, we would still all be destined for Hell.

Self-Righteousness leads to contempt Luke 15:25-32

The parable of the lost son is one of my favorite parables in the Gospels. The reason for this, is because it shows God’s mercy not only to the faithless that ran and came back, but also to the supposed faithful who grow jealous. Christians love to talk about, teach, and preach this parable but they only focus on the lost person in this story, they only focus on the younger son. There are two sons, however. The older son is jealous, because his father is throwing a party to celebrate the return of the younger son after he left and blew all of his inheritance on the things of the world. The older son grows resentful because as he said “I have served you and followed your commandments”. Does this sound familiar? “I fast twice a week, I tithe all my belongings!”. God’s mercy and love is great enough to encompass all who call upon Him. We talk about that a lot, but let’s look at a specific example. Paul was the greatest sinner to ever live, and yet, when he humbled himself before God he was forgiven and given eternal life. Paul was a murderer, bounty hunter, Pharisee, apathetic at the killing of Stephen the Martyr; and yet God still gave him life. Let me ask you, if we are sitting in church one Sunday and a convicted criminal walks in here, falls on his knees, and begs God to forgive him, and accepts Jesus Christ as his lord and savior, would you believe him, or would you scoff? Would you put your hand on your weapon, hold your purse a little tighter, scoot closer to your spouse, glance nervously at the door? What is the difference between these actions and the prayer “I thank God I’m not like these people”. We have to practice what we preach!

Conclusion: 1 John 1:5-10

I believe the most telling attribute of a self-proclaimed Christian that is in truth lost, is one who is self-righteous. John says in verse 8 that we say we are blameless we’re lying to ourselves, and to God. To walk in the light we have to know we are sinful, admit we are sinful, and live in obedience to God’s word. If you skip the first two steps you are not walking in the light.