2016-09-18 Luke 18:9-14 Getting "In" (3): Propitiate Me

GETTING “IN” (3): PROPITIATE ME (Luke 18:9-14) September 18, 2016 Intro – Farmer Jones called Bob Tateyama and said, “My best milking cow has a fever. How did you treat old Bessie when she got sick last winter?” Bob replied, “I put a mixture of cod liver oil and Turpentine in her food once a day for 4 days.” Farmer Jones thanked him and implemented the solution. But after 4 days, the cow died. Farmer Jones called Bob again: “I gave me cow that mixture just like you said, but my cow just died.” Bob said, “Yep. So did old Bessie.” Okay, so the point is, repeating a failed process and expecting different results is a fool’s errand. That’s exactly what Jesus is trying to prevent with this wonderful, grace-filled parable. It is addressed to “some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous” (v. 9). Where did they get the idea they could self-justify -- bend the rules and declare themselves right with God? They got it from their leaders – the Pharisees who believed their good efforts obligated God. The people followed their example. But the end was going to be death not life. Jesus told them in Mt 23:15, “For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.” If your solution kills you, it will kill your followers as well. The true way of salvation had been there all the time in their OT Bible. Isa 45:22, “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.” God didn’t say, “Turn to yourself and be saved.” He said, “Turn to me.” Jonah got that when he prayed from the belly of the fish, “Salvation belongs to the LORD!” We can no more save ourselves than Jonah could have. Spurgeon hit the nail square on when he said, “Salvation is looking from yourself to Jesus. There are men that quite misunderstand the gospel; they think their righteousness qualifies them to come to Christ; where sin is the only qualification for a man to come to Jesus.” To teach that, Jesus gave this stunning parable – 2 men, 2 prayers, 2 radically different results. Jesus gives 2 photos Jesus to say, “This is who you are. This is who you must be to be accepted by God.” The first photo shows a Pharisee working from the outside in – completely self-oriented – determined to be good enough, and in fact, probably better than most of us. Yet across that photo, Jesus stamps, LOST. Lost. Unacceptable. Not justified. 1 So who is declared righteous? The tax collector, a bottom-feeder. Jesus is showing salvation is within the reach of anyone. The only qualification is that we have sinned. This man realized he had nothing to offer. His approach is God-centered, not self-centered. It is inside-out – from the heart, not outside in. And Jesus declares, “14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other.” Across this picture, Jesus stamps in capital letters: JUSTIFIED. SAVED BY GRACE. So let’s examine what it took to get that verdict? What is required to be accepted by God? I. The Wrong Way – Outside-In (Self-centered) II. The Right Way – Inside-Out (God-centered) A. Humility Before God – not trying to bridge gap himself 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast.” This man reeks of humility. He dared not even lift his eyes, but beat his breast – a sign of extreme sorrow. The Pharisee was seeing himself from his perspective; this man was seeing himself from God’s perspective and it led to deep sorrow, humiliation and guilt. It is always so when men really see God. Job – whom God called a “blameless and upright man” (1:8), when he stood alone before God reacted with deep humility. Job 42: 6) therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” David, a man after God’s own heart, described his encounter with God in Psa 40: 12) For evils have encompassed me beyond number; my iniquities have overtaken me, and I cannot see; they are more than the hairs of my head; my heart fails me.” All of these people were getting a great dose of reality. And they saw themselves for the hopelessly lost sinners that we all are. The Pharisee in Jesus’ parable removed from the crowd and approached the altar on his own, but this tax collector made no effort to bridge the gap between himself and God. He saw the gap for what it was – unbridgeable by human effort. When a sinner comes to God, it is not to bargain or negotiate – not like the Pharisee was doing. You can’t negotiate when you have nothing to offer. Outside of Christ we are spiritually dead, with no claim on God whatsoever. That is a catastrophic position to be in. Catastrophic and humbling. Early in the Civil War, U. S. Grant, who was a captain at the time, captured in quick succession Ft. Henry on the TN River and Ft. Donelson on the Cumberland at a time when Union hopes were at a low ebb. The original Confederate commander, General Pillow, had escaped leaving Gnrl Simon Buckner who had served with Grant in Mexico to surrender. Buckner asked 2 for terms. Grant famously replied, “No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender.” Having no recourse, Buckner surrendered. When the men met, they talk pleasantly about Mexico and then Buckner said, “General, as they say in Mexico, Mi casa es su casa (my house is your house)” and the surrender was complete. And so it must be with God. Unconditional surrender are the terms, Beloved. That tax collector offered nothing of his own doing, but surrendered his life to God – no negotiation, no bargaining, no hold back. B. Repentance to God The Pharisee was self-justifying; the tax collector was repentant. According to v. 13 he says, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ Except the English translation does not have it quite right. He does not say “a sinner.” There is a definite article there in the Greek. He says “God, be merciful to me, the sinner!” As opposed to the Pharisee who said, “I am no sinner,” this man humbly acknowledges, “I am the sinner.” Wow! What a difference! You see, to solve the problem of righteousness, of acceptance by God, you must come to understand repentance in the fullest sense. If you think of sin externally and comparatively, like the Pharisee, there’s always somebody who has done more sins than you, right? So if you’re thinking of sin comparatively, you’re only ever a sinner; you’re never the sinner. By only looking at individual, outward sins, the Pharisee judged himself to be comparatively so free of sin as to be essentially no sinner. But the tax collector was looking beyond the external, individual sins to the sin beneath the sin – to the fact that he was by nature a sinner. He realized that his individual sins were a reflection of a greater problem – of a heart that was conceived in sin. True repentance must eventually get past the individual acts to the sin nature beneath it all. And that’s what this man was doing. When this man says, “Lord, me merciful to me, the sinner,” what he is saying is, “I confess that my worst problem is not the individual acts of larceny and betrayal and rebellion that have characterized my life; my worst problem is that I am a sinner from the inside out. It is my heart that must be changed.” And if we want to fix the righteousness problem, we must do the same. We have to at some point say, “Lord there have been periods in my life in which I’ve lived pretty badly. I’ve done things I should not have done. And there have been periods in my life in which I’ve been pretty good and I’ve kept my nose clean and done the right thing. But now I see the reason I did the good things was pretty much the same reason I did the bad things. I’ve always wanted to be my own Savior. I’ve thought I could put you in my debt and 3 not to be in your debt. I’ve always been doing this outside-in thing. But it has not worked. I am still hungry for approval. So today, I repent the sin beneath not only my sins, but the sin beneath my GOOD deeds. I plead for your grace as my only hope. Please replace my heart of stone with a new heart, and give me the righteousness of Christ in place of my sin.” That is true repentance without which there is no right standing before God. The day we can swallow our pride and say, “My record is bad, but my nature is worse. The anxiety feel is right,” that’s the day there is hope. Ed Clowney used to say, “If you have a negative self-image, maybe you’re just being realistic.” He was right! David said in Psa 51:5, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” True repentance not only acknowledges individual acts of sin but the indwelling sin that caused them. Ray Pritchard tells of sitting in his chair one day watching a ballgame. Suddenly there was a loud crash from the backyard. Before Ray could even get up, his youngest son ran in and said, “Mark broke a glass in the screen door.” But right behind him, Mark came running in and said, “Don’t worry, Dad. I only broke part of it – down by the corner.” When Ray went to check, sure enough there was a hole about the size of his fist in the lower right-hand corner of the glass. The boys had gotten his golf clubs out and were practicing their swings. One got away and went through the screen door, but Mark was sure that it was okay because he had broken only part of it. Dad had to explain that even though only part was broken, the whole needed to be replaced. Similarly God assures us in Jas 2:10, “10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.” There is no such thing as breaking part of the glass, being a little pregnant or being a moderate sinner. We are all “the” sinner! Until we confess that, we have no hope of acceptance by God. As Brennan Manning notes: “Paradoxically, what intrudes between God and human beings is our fastidious morality and pseudo-piety. It is not the prostitutes and tax collectors who find it most difficult to repent: it is the devout who feel they have no need to repent.” If we are offering God even the smallest iota of our goodness to gain His favor, we are hopelessly lost. Out only hope is to confess what we really are – the sinner. Only then can His forgiveness flood our heart. That’s repentance. C. Faith in God Not again: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” His faith is entirely in God; not in himself. But there is a beauty in Jesus’ words here that goes deep beneath 4 the surface. Once again, you can’t see it in the English. I hate to say that, but there are times when translators simply can’t express the depth of meaning in a word and that is the case here. So follow closely. The word “merciful” that Jesus uses is not the normal Greek word ελεος. That word is used, for example, later in the chapter, Lu 18:38 when a blind man calls out to Jesus, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Care for me. Help me. But the word the tax collector uses goes much deeper. It is the Greek verb ιλασκομαι, which means to propitiate or atone for. He knows he needs more than mercy. Mercy first requires sins to be paid for and so he cries out, “God, be propitiated to me, the sinner!” Propitiation. Big word. What’s it mean. Provide satisfaction, pay the penalty for me. That’s what he’s asking. Or, “God make atonement for me, the sinner!” He’s not just asking mercy; he’s asking God to take His penalty. That’s faith! The imagery comes directly from the OT temple. The center of the temple was the Holy of Holies which was entered only once a year on the Day of Atonement. Inside was a box -- Ark of the Covenant which was highly symbolic. Above the ark was a cloud which represented the presence of God. Inside the ark was the tablet on which God Himself had written the Ten Commandments. That symbolized one had to pass the scrutiny of the law to be accepted by God. But who could pass that scrutiny? No one, so over the Law was a gold cover called the mercy seat. In Hebrew it was called caphar, covering. In Greek hilastarion the very word the tax collector is using. By faith he is asking God to be his mercy seat! But in the OT, mercy could only be granted when sacrificial blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat symbolizing payment for the people’s guilt and allowing God to forgive them. All of that symbolizes that sin must be covered. It can only be covered by a blood sacrifice. On the basis of that sacrifice God could forgive sin. And that is what this man is pleading. “God, please be my mercy seat to cover my sin. I know you cannot just overlook my sins, but I want to come, but I need your mercy to atone for my sin.” And did God answer that prayer? Oh yes, He did. How? I Jn 4:10: “10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation (mercy seat, same word the tax collector used) for our sins.” God sent His own Son to be the sinner; taking the place of that sinner, so that based on Jesus’ payment for his sin, God could forgive him and declare him righteous. Want to know what it means to propitiate? II Cor 5:21, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” It can’t be 5 stated any simpler than that. He took my place on the cross so I could take His place having full acceptance by the Father. Wow. And it only gets better. I Jn 2:2, “2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” In other words, He has made payment for the guilt of anyone who will come to Him by faith and accept His gift. Anyone who will humble themselves before God, repent to God and place their faith in God can be saved. The Pharisee tried to cover his sins by comparing with others and denying them -- and he went home lost as could be. The tax collector trusted God to cover his sins and he went home justified. That’s the gospel, Beloved. It’s not what we can do; it’s what He has already done that justifies us. In the words of one of our great new hymns: “Because the sinless Savior died, / My sinful soul is counted free; / For God, the Just, is satisfied / To look on Him and pardon me./ To look on Him and pardon me.” Conc -- On May 21, 1946 in Los Alamos, NM a young scientist was conducting an experiment to determine the amount of U-235 necessary for a chain reaction – critical mass that would ignite an atomic bomb. As he had done many times before, he pushed two hemispheres of uranium together. Then just before the mass became critical, he would push them apart with his screwdriver, interrupting the chain reaction. But this day, just as the material became critical, the screwdriver slipped! Instantly the room was filled with a dazzling bluish haze. Young Louis Slotin, instead of ducking and possibly saving himself, tore the two hemispheres apart with his bare hands and thus interrupted the chain reaction. By his quick action, he had saved the lives of 7 other people in the room. But he himself had suffered a lethal dose of radiation. As he waited for the car to take him to the hospital he told a companion, “You’ll come through all right. But I haven’t the faintest chance myself.” Nine days later, he was dead of radiation poisoning. Similarly Jesus on the cross broke the awful chain reaction of sin that had would otherwise have destroyed mankind. Jesus became “the” sinner in the place of that tax collector – and in the place of every other person who will place their faith and trust in Him. So who represents you this morning – the Pharisee or the tax collector? “Two men went to pray; or rather say, / One went to brag, the other to pray; / One stands up close, and treads on high, / Where th’ other dare not send his eye. / One nearer to the altar trod, /The other to the altar’s God.” Let’s pray. Sing Before the Throne of God Above. 6