Untitled Sermon (22)

One of my favorite verses in Scripture is Isaiah 66:2. “But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.” Something about the beginning of this text grabs my attention. When God says, “this is the one to whom I will look” it causes me to stop in my tracks. Perhaps it does the same thing to you. I imagine that we are a little more like little kids than we would like to put on. You know how little kids will do handstands, cartwheels, and just about anything crazy to get an adult to look at them. They will even do the smallest little thing like running in a circle because they deeply desire your attention. They want you to “look at them”. And it is not necessarily our physical eyes and attention that they long for. It is the eyes of the heart; the attention of the heart. What they really want is approval and affection. Is this not the same thing that, in our better moments—when we are not hiding—that we often seek from God? In our better moments we do desire God’s eyes to be upon us. We want him to notice us. We want his approval. We desire His affection. Isaiah 66:2 is directly in the context of the Israelites searching for God’s approval. They had built a temple to house God—they wanted to do something that would cause God to look on them and be pleased. But listen to Isaiah 66:1, “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? (And now verse 2) All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord.” Let me paraphrase. You cannot build me something that I have not already built. You cannot build a house that will contain me. If you want me to look upon you—to be pleased—it will not be because you built me a house. Do you want to know what it is that will cause me to “look at you” here it is: “But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.”

One way to think that you can get God’s attention and approval is to be a good boy or a good girl. To give something to him. Or the other way is to acknowledge your dependence upon him.

We will see both of these ways outlined in Luke 18. Here we have Jesus looking around and seeing the temperature of those following Him…some who were perhaps following at a distance. But some he notices are trusting in their own righteousness…they aren’t dependent upon Jesus. And so he tells them a story...

Listen in:

LUKE 18:9-14

Sermon Introduction:

Put yourself in the temple for a moment. You are surrounded by other worshippers; people from all walks of life. You know some of them. In the case of some of the people you know their stories. You look behind you to see the Gentiles in the outer court. I wonder if this is the only temple they have been to today. I wonder if they’ve offered prayers to other gods also today. You’ve heard the stories. You know what Gentiles do and they way they live. Ugh! Well, at least they are in the temple—maybe God will reach them. You now fix your gaze towards the Holy of Holies. A cold chill goes down your spine. You begin to shiver. As your eyes scan the people—some familiar some not—you notice one of the religious leaders of the day. He is very close to the Holy of Holies. Certainly this man knows God. You feel yourself starting to get envious. Stop it, you’re in the temple—stop coveting. You cannot help it. Your eyes are fixed on this “holy” man. His prayers seem so passionate. He is standing by himself and he seems overjoyed to be in the presence of God. I wish I could be like that guy you think to yourself.

As you are continuing in your admiration for this devout fellow you get disturbed. Your eyes turn towards the back of the room. Oh, man it’s another one of those wicked and foolish tax collectors. I wish he would hush, he’s making such noise and disturbing true worship.

Yep, the Pharisee noticed—you see him glimpsing back at the tax collector, but he seems undistracted—he seems to be praying with more joy now. Your eyes turn back to this filthy tax collector; probably praying that God will help him steal more money from his own people. You can almost smell his dishonesty. Maybe it’s all the perspiration he’s putting forth in prayer. He’s beating his breast and keeps mumbling something. You think to yourself—change your ways heathen then you won’t be so miserable. His weeping is drowning out your thoughts. Ugh, foolish and wicked tax collector gets in my way of worship.

As you are picture this story in your mind Jesus lays verse 14 on you. Verse 14 is stunning. We assume it in our culture—in Jesus’ culture it would have been a shock. Imagine me telling a story about a Sunday school teacher and a prostitute; a pastor and a Pride marcher; a deacon and an abortionist. At the end of each of those you would expect the Sunday school teacher, the pastor, the deacon, to be the one that is right with God. Not in this parable. In this parable that Jesus tells one man goes home justified—right with God—while the other does not. And it is not the one that you would expect; it’s the tax collector. Why does one man go home justified and the other does not? Why does God look upon one man but not the other? The tax collector looked like Isaiah 66:2, the Pharisee did not.

We have to be careful as we do this, otherwise we can turn into the one in this parable who goes home not justified. We can look at this parable and think, “thank God I’m not like one of these Pharisees...”

So as we walk through this passage lets be sure that we are humbly engaging God’s Word as Isaiah 66:2 calls us to do.

I. The pride of the Pharisee

Imagine that you are reading this prayer of the Pharisee for the very first time and rip it from its immediate context and allow me to modernize it just a bit.

“God, thanks for working in my life in such a way that I am not like others. I do not take money from people. You have made me and taught me not to be unjust. Thank you that I am not an adulterer. Thank you that I am not like this tax collector. You tell us to fast during festivals—God I follow you so much that I fast twice a week. I even give back to you what you require. So, thank you God for doing this work in my life”.

What is the problem with the prayer of the Pharisee? Does he not thank God for his righteousness? This man also does all of these things. He is not necessarily lowering the bar. In fact he raises it. He probably did not take money from others. For all we know every bit of this man’s boast is true. He was probably a more moral person than the tax collector. And he is thanking God for that. What is so wrong with thanking God for the morality that he has given you? What is wrong with thanking God that you are not throwing your life away? What is wrong with thanking God for his work in your life?

If your experience with this parable is anything like mine then you have a couple of feelings as you read this. There is something about this guy that we can identify with. Perhaps we can remember our own prayers and they somewhat reflect his. After all is it wrong to thank God that you are saved? There is one sense in which we appreciate and whole-heartedly affirm the prayer of this Pharisee. But something about it also does not sit quite right. There is something within us that can sense his prayer is not such a good one. I think we can identify at least two things in his prayer that are off; his focus and his faith.

The focus of the Pharisee is where? Even though he is thanking God, it is obvious that his focus is not vertical but horizontal. Is this not what pride does? It looks at other people and it looks at self. The focus is all messed up with a prideful person. The Pharisee is looking at himself and thanking God for all the goodness that is there. The Pharisee also looks at the tax collector with disdain. Pride will do this. Pride will compare our best qualities against the worse qualities of another. Pride focuses on self and it exalts self. Very little of what this Pharisee says is false. He does live a moral and upright life and he thanks God for it. Yet, he goes home unjustified. Why? One reason is because his focus is off. His comparison is not in the right place. But secondly, it is because of his faith.

The Pharisee has a great measure of faith. And this may surprise you but the Pharisee is not necessarily self-righteous in the way that we normally think. The Pharisee is depending upon God and thanking God for the righteousness that God is creating in his life. So, there is one sense in which the Pharisee is trusting in God for righteousness. What is wrong with that?

Look at what the Pharisee is trusting in for his justification—his right standing before God. He is looking at the good that God has produced in his life. It does not matter who he thanks—it matters what he trusts in. Imagine the Pharisee standing before God. God asks him, “Why should I let you into heaven?” What would the Pharisee respond? Well, God you should let me into heaven because of the work that you have done in my life. Look at my righteousness. God you have done such a work in me that I do not commit adultery. God you have done such a work in me that I am not like the vile tax collectors. God you have done such a work and here is all of the righteousness that you have created in me. Now compare that to the Mark Dever quote that I have used numerous times:

“A Christian, therefore, knows that if he were to die tonight and stand before God, and if God were to say, ‘Why should I let you into my presence?’ the Christian would say, ‘You shouldn’t let me in. I have sinned and owe you a debt that I cannot pay back.’ But he wouldn’t stop there. He would continue, ‘Yet, because of your great promises and mercy, I depend on the blood of Jesus Christ shed as a substitute for me, paying my moral debt, satisfying your holy and righteous requirements, and removing your wrath against sin”.

What is the difference? The Christian looks totally outside himself. Rather than looking at his life and stacking up his righteousness (whether believing it is God created or not) or his unrighteousness the believer banks totally and completely on the work of Christ. He looks totally outside of himself for righteousness. Oh, God does produce righteousness in us. And we thank God for the work in our lives—but we do not trust in it. We trust in Christ.

The prideful person—and even the Christian that struggles with pride--does the exact same thing as the Pharisee. Our focus gets all jacked up and we start trusting in the wrong thing. Pride looks to self—Humility looks to Christ. Pride compares—Humility looks to Christ. Pride focuses on our triumphs and notices others failure—Humility looks to Christ. Where is your focus? Where is your faith? So far the Pharisee is the exact opposite of Isaiah 66:2—he is not humble.

II. The impenitence of the Pharisee

The second thing that we see from Isaiah 66:2 is contrition. This is another word for godly sorrow or repentance. Do we see that in the prayer of the Pharisee? Absolutely not; prideful people have no need of repentance. We see thanksgiving for his righteousness but we do not see repentance for his lack of it.

I cannot turn to a verse to show you the Pharisee’s repentance because there is not one there. And ultimately this is, I believe, why the tax collector is justified instead of the Pharisee. Without repentance there will be no forgiveness of sin. Look at the condition of such great verses as 1 John 1:9. “If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Notice the “if”. Without confession and repentance there is not a cleansing for sin.

Now that’s not saying that if you have unconfessed sin when you die then you aren’t going to be worthy of the kingdom or you aren’t going to be cleansed and will have to spend a bit of time in purgatory. No, the Bible doesn’t support that. What 1 John is meaning is a life and a pattern of repentance and confession.

It’s the same way with the Lord’s Supper. Do you receive communion when you’ve got everything all confessed, when you haven’t sinned, etc. or is receiving communion a part of that crying out to God for rescue? It’s crying out to God. It’s partaking of Christ as an act of faith that He is covering every sin.

But notice again the Pharisee. We can see the lack of repentance in the Pharisee’s life by comparing it to the tax collector. Notice the pride and arrogance of the Pharisee as he prays to God. You can smell the pride rolling off the pages. You can see his smugness as he approaches God. You see the strut. You know the confidence. You notice his posture. This man is “right” with God. You will not see torn clothes, a broken heart, or a beating of the breast. The floor will not be graced with one tear from this mans eye. There is no brokenness before God in this man.

Just as you can smell the Pharisee’s pride so you can feel the heart of the tax collector breaking. You can see in your mind a broken man. You almost see him shaking. He will not even look up to God. This man cannot seem to get low enough. His prayer is not eloquent. His prayer is desperate. His prayer is broken. Be careful how you read this. This is not a man that is held together praying an empty, calloused prayer. “God be merciful to me a sinner”. This is a cry of the heart. This is a man that is hopelessly aware of his sinful condition. There is no mention of the Pharisee in his prayer; nothing but a cry for mercy.

What is the difference? Why such a different response? Again it is a matter of focus and comparison. The Pharisee is comparing himself to such sinners as the tax collector. He wins. His pride does not allow him to look inward and compare His righteousness to the righteousness that God requires. His pride only allows him to look at the external. He only plays games that he can win. He compares himself to the scum of the earth—the tax collector—and he wins. No need for repentance here. I am much better than this tax collector…so I am sure I will make it.

We do not know it from the text but I am guessing that the tax collector has gotten a glimpse of the holiness of God. The tax collector must know at least something of the holiness of God for this is where his trembling comes from. The tax collector is having an Isaiah 6 experience. He has been confronted with the holiness of God and he—like Isaiah—is undone. Listen to what RC Sproul said about Isaiah’s experience:

“In a brief second he was exposed, made naked beneath the gaze of the absolute standard of holiness. As long as Isaiah could compare himself to other mortals, he was able to sustain a lofty opinion of his own character. The instant he measured himself by the ultimate standard, he was destroyed—morally and spiritually annihilated. He was undone. He came apart. His sense of integrity collapsed”.

It is on such a person that God will look—that is what Isaiah 66:2 says. This is the contrition that it is talking about. The Pharisee was not a broken man. The tax collector was. What about you?

III. The presumption of the Pharisee

The last thing that we see from Isaiah 66:2 is a trembling at God’s Word. Trembling at God’s Word is a very expansive thing that I cannot exhaust at this time. But one aspect is reverence. Reverence is a strange word that we do not consider anymore. Reverence is the difference between the attitude of the Pharisee and the tax collector. The tax collector understands Hebrews 12:28b-29, “…thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.” The Pharisee does not.

Notice the way that each man approaches God. In verse 11 Jesus adds an interesting note to his parable—the position of the Pharisee. Jesus says that he is “standing by himself”. Now skip down to verse 13; Jesus now mentions the position of the tax collector. Jesus says that he is “standing far off”. It is significant that Jesus mentions this because it tells us something about the way that each man views himself and God.

When Jesus says that the Pharisee is standing by himself it is not his solitude that is necessarily what is significant. What is significant is his probable location. More than likely what Jesus is saying is that the Pharisee is getting as close to Holy of Holies as possible. Remember he is in the temple. The temple was divided into sections. There was the outer court for the Gentiles, the inner sanctuary for the Jews, and the Holy of Holies—the place that only the high priest could go into once per year. More than likely what is happening is that the Pharisee is arrogantly positioning himself in a place as close to the Holy God as possible.

Now look at the tax collector. He is “standing far off”. More than likely what Jesus is saying is that the tax collector is so broken that he fails to even identify with his own people. Perhaps, he is even praying in the outer court of the Gentiles. If he is in the inner sanctuary for Jews it is probably towards the back. This man wants to get as far away from this Holy God as possible.

Whose posture towards God is correct? It depends on who you are. If you are an unredeemed sinner then the posture of the tax collector is probably the most appropriate. The problem with the Pharisee’s approach is that he is being very presumptive. He is assuming that he is holy and right with God and is able to approach God based upon his personal righteousness. He is not with “reverence and awe” approaching God. Jesus mentions this because he wants us to know that this Pharisee is arrogant. His central problem is that he is lowering the holiness of God to his level and he is exalting his own righteousness in front of God. He is defaming God and exalting himself. He is approaching God like he is simply another man and that he is on equal footing.

Now, in this particular parable the tax collector is approaching God in the way that God ought to be approached by those in the tax collectors shoes. If you need mercy you do not barge into the throne room of God and demand it. You get your knees dirty and you beg for it.

However, for those that have been redeemed his posture is not appropriate. Listen to what the author of Hebrews says, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need”. Because of Jesus we should not stand far off to receive mercy. We should confidently trust in the mercy and sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf. We should approach him with confidence that he will give us grace and mercy. Therefore, it is possible that neither posture—because of Jesus—is now fitting.

However, it is always fitting that we have a reverence and a trembling at God’s Word. The Pharisee did not have it. He was presumptuous and took God’s Word and His holiness lightly. What about you? Do you tremble at His Word?

Conclusion:

So, who do you look the most like? Do you look more like the Pharisee with pride, and unrepentant heart, and a lack of reverence and trembling at God and His Word? Or are you more like the tax collector? Humble, broken, and trembling at God’s Word. If you are anything like me then at times you struggle with being the Pharisee. You go through seasons filled with pride, unrepentance, and a flippant attitude toward God. But if you are in Christ then you are often like the tax collector to. In fact unless you have had the experience of the tax collector—unless you have had an Isaiah 66:2 experience then more than likely you are not in Christ.

Listen to what D.A. Carson says about the life-changing perspective of the Cross:

“Does anyone truly understand the message of the cross apart from brokenness, contrition, repentance, and faith? To repeat rather mechanically the nature of the transaction that Christians think took place at Golgotha is one thing; to look at God and his holiness, and people and their sin, from the perspective of the cross, is life-changing.”

The Cross is life-changing because it was there that our humility, our brokenness, and our trembling were purchased. It was there that Christ died so that God could indeed “look” upon us. It was at the Cross that the tax collector received mercy. It is at the Cross that we receive mercy today. The Cross is life-changing because to really look at the Cross will leave you humbled. To truly look at the Cross will leave you broken. To truly look at the Cross will leave you trembling.

And this is why we observe the Lord’s Supper. Jesus instituted this on the night when he was betrayed. It’s a visible picture of everything we’ve seen here. What are you trusting in?

When you are standing before God this morning what are you holding up to get his approval, his attention, his acceptance? Are you holding up your own righteousness…see Lord what I’ve done, see my faith, see my giving, see my good works, see my service, see my boldness, see how I’m not like those people in the world, see my righteousness....

Or are you holding up this tiny little cracker…”this is my body broken for you...” Holding up this little shot of juice… “this is my blood spilled for you....”

What are you trusting in this morning? Are you trusting in your work? Are you trusting in your ability to trust? Or are you simply trusting in Jesus Christ and Him alone? That’s why Jesus shared this parable. He was giving His disciples the good news that they could trust in Him and in His righteousness and not their own.