WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.360 the pulpit this morning, a true friend of our church over many years. Please welcome Pastor 00:00:06.360 --> 00:00:17.140 Jonathan Clark. Hey, good morning, friends. As John said, my name is Jonathan Clark. I've been 00:00:17.140 --> 00:00:21.740 around Cheyenne Mountain Presbyterian Church for a long time. I interned with Cheyenne Mountain 00:00:21.740 --> 00:00:27.160 Pres when I was in seminary. I actually had a cup of coffee with the wife of the pastor who started 00:00:27.160 --> 00:00:32.200 Cheyenne Mountain Presbyterian Church. He actually baptized me when I was a baby. So many of you 00:00:32.200 --> 00:00:37.659 have known my parents for a long time. So yeah, it's good to be with you again. I work currently, 00:00:37.880 --> 00:00:45.340 as John said, as a college pastor with the college ministry of the church that Cheyenne Mountain is a 00:00:45.340 --> 00:00:51.039 part of in denomination. It's called the Reformed University Fellowship. And so my call is to preach 00:00:51.039 --> 00:00:55.280 the faith once delivered to all the saints to college students in Colorado Springs, both 00:00:55.280 --> 00:01:02.760 at UCCS mainly, but also we're looking at Colorado College and Pikes Peak, other places. And so it's 00:01:02.760 --> 00:01:08.920 a real, I love my job. And it's been an exciting year to do campus ministry in Colorado Springs. 00:01:09.540 --> 00:01:16.140 It's a delight. We've seen the Lord work in some amazingly awesome ways. I just had a girl text me 00:01:16.140 --> 00:01:21.540 today a couple weeks ago. She said, Jonathan, what's the Trinity? I don't know what this thing is. And I 00:01:21.540 --> 00:01:25.580 said, well, let's dig into the Word and start learning what it is and how God loves you. And 00:01:25.580 --> 00:01:29.680 other students, we have a student who's on our servant leadership team who said, hey, I think I 00:01:29.680 --> 00:01:34.320 want to step back from servant leadership because I want to be able to do more ministry that I can do 00:01:34.320 --> 00:01:38.920 on my own with RUF than having to do other stuff. And so he said, I want to lead Bible studies and do 00:01:38.920 --> 00:01:43.700 this. So the Lord's really been blessing RUF. If you're interested in hearing more, I'd love to, 00:01:43.820 --> 00:01:48.060 I actually have a couple of my end of year newsletters left over. I can share one of those with you or 00:01:48.060 --> 00:01:54.420 get a cup of coffee, whatever. But this is not why we're here today. We are here to worship the 00:01:54.420 --> 00:02:02.060 living God. And so if you would, please turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 18. Luke chapter 18, 00:02:02.180 --> 00:02:07.599 or it's printed in your bulletin. And I'll be reading verse 9, starting in verse 9. 00:02:08.960 --> 00:02:16.199 This is God's Word, so pay careful attention to it. This is Jesus speaking. He also told this parable 00:02:16.199 --> 00:02:21.039 to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt. 00:02:22.359 --> 00:02:28.159 Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The 00:02:28.159 --> 00:02:35.259 Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus, God, thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, 00:02:35.500 --> 00:02:43.479 unjust, adulterers, and even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get. 00:02:43.479 --> 00:02:50.479 Verse 13, but the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, 00:02:50.879 --> 00:02:59.399 but beat his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his 00:02:59.399 --> 00:03:05.019 house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who 00:03:05.019 --> 00:03:12.039 humbles himself will be exalted. This is God's Word. Would you pray with me? Father in heaven, we have 00:03:12.039 --> 00:03:19.000 come from so many different places and times and distances and stories to be with you now. 00:03:19.579 --> 00:03:24.219 And we pray that you would meet us across all of that with your Spirit through your Word, 00:03:24.780 --> 00:03:29.699 that you would minister to each of us as we uniquely need, that you would convict, that you 00:03:29.699 --> 00:03:35.219 exhort, that you would admonish, and that you would shape Christ in all of us, that we would walk out of 00:03:35.219 --> 00:03:40.340 here more able to glorify you and love our neighbor. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. 00:03:42.180 --> 00:03:48.539 So, I was recently reading a short story by one of my favorite short story authors, a woman named 00:03:48.539 --> 00:03:54.099 Flannery O'Connor. Flannery O'Connor is an author who writes in what's called the Southern Gothic 00:03:54.099 --> 00:04:01.780 style of literature, and she writes during the 1950s. And she's a Southern writer, so she's writing in 00:04:01.780 --> 00:04:06.780 the American South around Georgia in the 1950s. And so, she's dealing with questions of race and 00:04:06.780 --> 00:04:11.960 gender and also righteousness. And she writes a story about a woman named Mrs. Turpin. 00:04:12.879 --> 00:04:18.560 The story's name is Revelation. And Mrs. Turpin is a good Christian woman. She's a good Christian woman, 00:04:18.560 --> 00:04:24.540 and she always goes to church. She's polite to strangers, to people who are new or different, 00:04:24.660 --> 00:04:30.459 that she's very kind. And she's always finding ways to look at another person and just observe. 00:04:30.459 --> 00:04:37.199 And maybe in little and small ways compare herself to these other people, right? And so, 00:04:37.379 --> 00:04:41.259 she begins to write, you know, to have these comparisons with a black person because she's 00:04:41.259 --> 00:04:47.219 in the American South in the 1950s. She would say, well, I'm white. With the Ritz person, she would say, 00:04:47.219 --> 00:04:53.679 well, she's just a decent salt of the earth kind of person, right? Which the smart person, she would 00:04:53.679 --> 00:04:59.379 say she's a simple person. With the foolish person, she'd say, I'm educated. I'm educated, right? 00:04:59.379 --> 00:05:05.019 And she's the kind of person, we've all met the person like Mrs. Turpin, who will smile at you, 00:05:05.379 --> 00:05:11.259 greet your hand, offer you a piece of pie. But you can tell that maybe there's something else going 00:05:11.259 --> 00:05:18.279 on behind the smile. We get a sense that perhaps silently this person is judging us, right? That they 00:05:18.279 --> 00:05:24.620 think that there may be a little bit better than us. And Mrs. Turpin, in biblical terms, we would 00:05:24.620 --> 00:05:30.280 describe Mrs. Turpin as self-righteous, right? Self-righteous person. And one day in the story, 00:05:30.360 --> 00:05:34.980 Revelation, Mrs. Turpin is sitting in the doctor's office. And she's sitting in the doctor's office, 00:05:34.980 --> 00:05:41.840 and she's talking with the other patients about how thankful she is for her life, that she's not 00:05:41.840 --> 00:05:47.340 sick, that her husband is the one who's in the doctor's office. And she's talking and comparing 00:05:47.340 --> 00:05:52.560 herself to these people. And at one moment, in euphoria, she cries out and she shouts out. She says, 00:05:52.560 --> 00:05:59.259 when I think of who I could have been besides myself and what I've got, I just feel like shouting, 00:05:59.759 --> 00:06:08.160 thank you, Jesus. Thank you. Thank you, Jesus. We've probably all had an experience with someone 00:06:08.160 --> 00:06:14.100 like a Mrs. Turpin. In fact, many of you have probably had an encounter that left you with a 00:06:14.100 --> 00:06:18.840 bad taste in your mouth or a poisonous feeling, right? And if you've grown up in the church, 00:06:18.840 --> 00:06:22.379 you've probably had a feeling where you're like, I don't know if I want to go to church 00:06:22.379 --> 00:06:28.420 again. This person was so full of themselves, so self-righteous. I don't know if I want to be 00:06:28.420 --> 00:06:33.579 around them, right? And these are painful moments. And what I love about our story today is that the 00:06:33.579 --> 00:06:40.759 Bible speaks precisely to those moments. It speaks precisely to this. In fact, the Bible is very 00:06:40.759 --> 00:06:46.939 interested in what we experience when we meet a Mrs. Turpin, and it's actually very interested in 00:06:46.939 --> 00:06:52.100 Mrs. Turpin. And so if I could summarize what I would hope we would come away from today, the main 00:06:52.100 --> 00:06:59.720 thing is this, that the gospel turns self-righteousness into repentant contentment. The gospel turns 00:06:59.720 --> 00:07:03.339 self-righteousness into repentant contentment. For those of you who are note-takers, we're going to 00:07:03.339 --> 00:07:10.300 look at this in three ways. First, the universality of self-righteousness. Second, the danger of self-righteousness. 00:07:10.300 --> 00:07:16.759 And lastly, the way of repentance to contentment. So first, the danger, the universality of self-righteousness, 00:07:16.860 --> 00:07:20.960 the danger of self-righteousness, and the way of repentance to contentment. So first, let's start 00:07:20.960 --> 00:07:26.060 with the universality of self-righteousness, right? So in our text that I've read for us, Jesus tells 00:07:26.060 --> 00:07:33.960 a parable. And a parable is a short story that Jesus would often use to make a very specific and 00:07:33.959 --> 00:07:41.279 powerful spiritual point. He wants to get us, he wants to get at a profound spiritual truth, right? 00:07:41.319 --> 00:07:46.240 And sometimes parables are a bit confusing. You know, there's parables that I'm still honestly not 00:07:46.240 --> 00:07:53.120 sure I understand, old wine and new wineskins and all these, but not this parable. Jesus is very clear 00:07:53.120 --> 00:07:57.859 about what the point of this parable is, right? He tells us very clearly if you look at verse 9. 00:07:57.860 --> 00:08:05.180 Luke says, he told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated 00:08:05.180 --> 00:08:15.740 others with contempt. Luke is not subtle about this parable. This parable is a story about and a story 00:08:15.740 --> 00:08:24.160 for people who think that they are upright, moral, on the right side of history. This parable is for 00:08:24.160 --> 00:08:31.140 Mrs. Turpin. And he tells us, all right, what's the parable? He says, verse 10, two men went into 00:08:31.140 --> 00:08:38.379 the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other tax collectors. To understand what this parable is 00:08:38.379 --> 00:08:43.340 doing, we have, this is very challenging for us, particularly those of us who have grown up in the 00:08:43.340 --> 00:08:50.660 church for a long time. We have to try and strip off our 21st century Christian glasses and hear this 00:08:50.659 --> 00:08:56.860 story, at least verse 10, the way that the original audience would have heard it. So the Pharisees, 00:08:57.120 --> 00:09:04.339 back in Jesus' time, were the pinnacle. They were the high point of moral excellence, right? 00:09:04.899 --> 00:09:11.000 They were untouchable. They were someone who was respected by all. They knew the Bible backwards and 00:09:11.000 --> 00:09:16.360 forwards. If there was a rule, they followed it. If there was something that was to be done for a pious, 00:09:16.360 --> 00:09:21.740 worshipful behavior towards God, they did it in spades, right? 00:09:23.379 --> 00:09:27.700 These are the people who are loved and respected by all. And it's very challenging for us to actually 00:09:27.700 --> 00:09:31.879 find groups like this, because no matter who you name, somebody doesn't like them in our moment today. 00:09:32.259 --> 00:09:38.100 The closest I can think of in our moment would be like a Mr. Rogers. Everybody loves Mr. Rogers, 00:09:38.100 --> 00:09:46.960 right? Everybody, he loves kids. He's gentle. He sings. He's a Presbyterian. Everybody loves Mr. Rogers. 00:09:47.700 --> 00:09:52.080 That's what the tax collectors were. I mean, sorry, that's what the Pharisees were. The tax collectors, 00:09:52.200 --> 00:09:57.000 on the other hand, they're the bad guys, right? They are essentially, for that time, they were 00:09:57.000 --> 00:10:03.680 government-sponsored thieves. Government-sponsored thieves. They were in collusion with the imperial 00:10:03.679 --> 00:10:08.779 invading Roman government, and they could tax essentially as much as they wanted, as long as 00:10:08.779 --> 00:10:14.359 they made the quota that they were supposed to give the Roman government. And so for us, 00:10:15.359 --> 00:10:24.719 it would be like a corrupt IRS agent who's in cahoots with the Russians. That's what the tax collector is. 00:10:24.959 --> 00:10:30.639 Somebody who's charging you far more taxes than they're supposed to, and working with an invading, 00:10:30.639 --> 00:10:37.679 oppressing enemy. And so this is, we've got Mr. Rogers and a corrupt tax agent. 00:10:39.379 --> 00:10:46.620 And what this story then does is it sets up expectations for us. It makes us expect that 00:10:46.620 --> 00:10:54.399 the Pharisee would be a Mr. Rogers, the good guy. He's the upright one. He's the virtuous one. And this 00:10:54.399 --> 00:10:59.319 tax collector, clearly, he's the bad guy. He extorts the poor. He's an unpatriotic traitor. 00:10:59.320 --> 00:11:07.600 He's the bad guy. And the Pharisee even starts his prayer thanking God. He goes to church, and he 00:11:07.600 --> 00:11:11.920 prays, and he thanks God even. And it sounds very similar to what Mrs. Turpin would pray, right? 00:11:12.580 --> 00:11:18.800 Verse 11, the Pharisee, standing by himself, stands off, looking at him, says, prays thus, 00:11:18.799 --> 00:11:24.659 God, I thank you. How are you supposed to start every prayer? Thank you, God. Thanks for this day, 00:11:24.740 --> 00:11:32.819 right? He is off to a great start. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. I thank God 00:11:32.819 --> 00:11:38.939 for who I am. I thank God, he says, thank you, God, that I am not like other men. 00:11:38.940 --> 00:11:46.680 Extortioners, like that tax collector. Unjust, like that tax collector. Adulterers, or even, 00:11:47.340 --> 00:11:54.020 like that tax collector, right? Here's a man who stands up and prays and says, 00:11:54.580 --> 00:11:58.460 thank you, God, for who I am and what I've done. Thank you, God, that I'm good. 00:12:00.120 --> 00:12:06.740 This is a man who views himself as good and who society views as good. This is a man who is 00:12:06.740 --> 00:12:12.100 self-righteous, right? And it's easy, it's really easy to beat up on the Pharisees, right? 00:12:12.519 --> 00:12:16.659 It's easy for those of us who have been around the block with the Christian faith to go, I know 00:12:16.659 --> 00:12:23.299 where this is going. I know where this is going. But Jesus wants us to take a hard look at ourselves 00:12:23.299 --> 00:12:29.259 here because the first lesson behind this parable is, is frankly, the hardest one. And it's this, 00:12:29.259 --> 00:12:39.019 that at the heart of the Christian faith is the core conviction that the human heart has the capacity 00:12:39.019 --> 00:12:44.720 for this self-righteousness, that every person has the seeds of self-righteousness within us, 00:12:44.740 --> 00:12:48.980 right? And let me try and show you how. So first, there's a religious version of this. 00:12:49.399 --> 00:12:53.720 There's a religious version of this, right? And we know this one because if you've been in a church 00:12:53.720 --> 00:12:58.139 for more than a week, you've seen this. This is the Mrs. Turpin, the Christian goody two-shoes, 00:12:58.139 --> 00:13:02.759 right? The one who shows up to church, who reads their Bible, who knows their Bible, 00:13:02.879 --> 00:13:08.000 who votes a certain way, who invites people to church. And we know this person because, frankly, 00:13:08.179 --> 00:13:13.220 they're probably miserable to be around because we feel like they're constantly looking at us and 00:13:13.220 --> 00:13:18.779 assessing us and judging us in small ways. And this is the person who, what does our text tell us, 00:13:18.960 --> 00:13:26.159 trusts in themselves. Verse 9, he told this parable to some who, what, trusted in themselves. 00:13:26.159 --> 00:13:35.679 And at its worst, this kind of self-righteousness leads to at least religiosity, you know, but at 00:13:35.679 --> 00:13:40.639 worst, it leads to religious extremism, which in any of its form is really bad for society, 00:13:40.839 --> 00:13:46.659 right? And this is the person who says, we are so right that we are ready to march into society and 00:13:46.659 --> 00:13:52.439 compel and force everyone to be like us. I thank God that I am not like other men. 00:13:52.440 --> 00:13:56.360 And for those of us who are Christians in the room, 00:13:57.900 --> 00:14:03.580 there are hard words that Jesus might say for us in this, right? Because it's this, that perhaps the 00:14:03.580 --> 00:14:12.440 greatest threat to your faith is your own religiosity. The greatest threat to your relationship with the 00:14:12.440 --> 00:14:21.200 Lord is how pious you have been. That it is so possible to make an idol out of your religious behavior. 00:14:22.440 --> 00:14:28.600 Now, that's the religious version. Now, some of you here may be exploring or questioning the 00:14:28.600 --> 00:14:32.780 Christian faith or not sure. Or maybe some of you are saying, I am not a Christian and this is great. 00:14:32.860 --> 00:14:37.640 He's hitting Christians hard. I am here for this, right? You think, yeah, pastor, get them. Get those 00:14:37.640 --> 00:14:42.380 fundamentalists. Get those self-righteous, bigoted Christians, right? Religious extremism, 00:14:42.500 --> 00:14:47.580 that's what's wrong with our world. And to you, I would say, no, wait a minute. Wait a minute. 00:14:47.580 --> 00:14:52.000 Because this is not just a Christian problem. Remember, I would argue that this is actually a 00:14:52.000 --> 00:14:58.420 human problem. This is something that's beyond just religion. And if you'll excuse me, I want to 00:14:58.420 --> 00:15:03.040 delve into something that's a little passion of mine. It's been a hobby forever. And it's 20th 00:15:03.040 --> 00:15:08.080 century philosophy. Stay with me. This will be fun. All right. So there's a 20th century philosopher, 00:15:08.280 --> 00:15:14.860 a guy named Michel Foucault. He is the father of modern philosophy of the, of the, 00:15:14.860 --> 00:15:20.240 a modern understanding of the individual, of the individual. And so if you see, if you drive, 00:15:20.320 --> 00:15:23.700 you know, you go to old Colorado city or Manitou Springs, you go into some of those, 00:15:23.700 --> 00:15:29.200 those trinket shops and you'll see bumper stickers that say, be true to yourself or be you only you 00:15:29.200 --> 00:15:35.279 can do it or express yourself today. Something like that. That's Michel Foucault. That's his philosophy 00:15:35.279 --> 00:15:43.279 at work, right? And Foucault's top priority as a secular non-Christian philosopher was to discern a 00:15:43.279 --> 00:15:50.559 way for the self to be independent and apart from all other expectations and norms in society, 00:15:50.559 --> 00:15:54.879 because he thought that those were going to hold the self down. And so he said, what we've got to do 00:15:54.879 --> 00:16:00.600 is we've got to be free from all the expectations of society and just let the individual express 00:16:00.600 --> 00:16:05.899 themselves, right? And this process of finding yourself, expressing your individualism, 00:16:06.639 --> 00:16:11.419 that's what humanity is for. That's the free self, right? And so if you're not a Christian today, 00:16:11.419 --> 00:16:16.879 I would argue that Foucault is sort of the foundation of how you think about the world, 00:16:16.939 --> 00:16:21.159 right? It's almost how, you know, the idea to be yourself, to be an individual, right? 00:16:22.519 --> 00:16:29.679 But here's the problem. In his writing, Foucault even admits that this process of expressing yourself 00:16:29.679 --> 00:16:36.279 demands that you assess yourself in comparison with all the other selves in the universe. 00:16:36.279 --> 00:16:44.539 And you look at every other person and say, I'm unique from them, and I'm a better self than them. 00:16:44.659 --> 00:16:51.679 I'm an individual distinct from all the other masses. And I can only validate myself as superior, 00:16:52.059 --> 00:16:58.539 valid, by looking at everyone else and saying, I'm not like them, right? So in other words, Foucault, 00:16:58.620 --> 00:17:02.980 the modern understanding, the father of the modern understanding of self-acceptance, 00:17:02.980 --> 00:17:10.099 demands that we assess ourselves and others in the same way of self-righteousness. 00:17:10.599 --> 00:17:15.539 You can't get away from it, friend. That even if you say, I'm not a religious person, 00:17:15.539 --> 00:17:20.180 if you are going to say that I'm a unique person, you have to do it in a way that looks at everybody 00:17:20.180 --> 00:17:26.700 else and says, I'm not like them. And so you may say, well, I'm a secular person, but perhaps you're 00:17:26.700 --> 00:17:32.319 convinced that the world needs a more inclusive and less bigoted place. But don't you see that you're 00:17:32.319 --> 00:17:39.019 creating the same performance metric that the religious person has, the same virtue signaling, 00:17:39.159 --> 00:17:47.740 the same self-righteousness? And so what I'm hoping to show you here is it doesn't matter who we are, 00:17:48.559 --> 00:17:54.700 Christian, non-Christian, somewhere in between, all of us, the heart posture is the same. 00:17:54.700 --> 00:18:03.120 And it's this, that every person has the seeds and the potential and the impulse to self-righteousness, 00:18:03.259 --> 00:18:09.779 to look at themselves in comparison to others and say, I'm not like them, and to trust ourselves. 00:18:12.580 --> 00:18:17.279 And what's most dangerous about this self-righteousness is that it's self-concealing. 00:18:17.279 --> 00:18:23.420 It hides from us. Most other vices in our world, you know, perhaps New Year's resolutions, you say, 00:18:23.759 --> 00:18:28.299 I've got this thing I need to work on. You're aware that you need to work on it, right? If any, 00:18:28.399 --> 00:18:33.960 if you have an addiction to alcohol or, or you get angry with your kids or whatever it is, you know, 00:18:33.980 --> 00:18:40.319 it's a problem. Self-righteousness is so insidious, it hides from you. You don't think you have a problem. 00:18:40.319 --> 00:18:47.139 In fact, you think you don't have a problem, which is precisely the problem. That's what's so 00:18:47.139 --> 00:18:52.839 dangerous about self-righteousness. It blinds you. You think you are doing right. You think you are 00:18:52.839 --> 00:19:01.059 good. It deludes you into saying, I am a good person. And that blindness leads you to have pride 00:19:01.059 --> 00:19:06.179 in yourself and contempt for others. So our first point is that self-righteousness is a universal 00:19:06.180 --> 00:19:12.220 human problem. It's a Christian problem. It's a non-Christian problem. It is the human ability, 00:19:12.740 --> 00:19:19.620 the human propensity to trust in ourselves as righteous, as good, as valuable in contrast to 00:19:19.620 --> 00:19:25.940 others. And moving to our second point, it's incredibly dangerous. It's incredibly dangerous. 00:19:26.120 --> 00:19:29.840 And this point is shorter, but I'll tell you this. Well, what does it do? What does self-righteous do? 00:19:29.840 --> 00:19:35.700 Well, for starters, it leads to contempt. Look at our text. Those who trusted in themselves, 00:19:35.700 --> 00:19:43.840 that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt. I take that and as causal. Their 00:19:43.840 --> 00:19:50.980 trust in themselves leads them to look at other people and say, that person. 00:19:53.460 --> 00:19:59.259 It leads them to look at others with contempt. Mrs. Turpin, in her story, in Flannery O'Connor's 00:19:59.259 --> 00:20:05.660 story, is the picture of contempt. The self-righteous person says, at least I'm not that bad. Thank God, 00:20:05.700 --> 00:20:18.059 I am not like her. Not like him. At least I'm not liberal. At least I'm not a bigot. At least I'm not 00:20:18.059 --> 00:20:24.400 blank, fill in the bank. And so wherever we're finding the thing that says, at least I'm not X, 00:20:24.400 --> 00:20:31.900 at least I am this, that's the place where there's probably self-righteousness positioning itself 00:20:31.900 --> 00:20:37.519 in my heart, in your heart. And we do this because it's the only way we can support ourselves is to 00:20:37.519 --> 00:20:43.620 lift ourselves up in comparison to someone else. The Pharisee, thank God that I am not like this 00:20:43.620 --> 00:20:50.560 sinner. And friends, this is the story of our society today, is it not? If you just spend half a minute on 00:20:50.560 --> 00:20:57.280 pretty much any media platform of your choice, you will see that the gravitational pull of social media, 00:20:57.279 --> 00:21:04.019 of news is to compare and contrast my group with that group, my people with that people. 00:21:05.599 --> 00:21:10.740 We do this in our society. We do this racially, do this economically. We do this sexually. 00:21:11.960 --> 00:21:18.059 Pick a thing and we say, at least we're not like them. We're the good guys, right? Why do we do this? 00:21:18.500 --> 00:21:25.440 It's because we're all so self-righteous. It can lead to contempt for anyone who's not liked me. 00:21:25.440 --> 00:21:32.759 Second, it leads to misery. It leads to misery first towards yourself, right? Because the self-righteous 00:21:32.759 --> 00:21:38.019 person is incredibly lonely because no one wants to be around them at the bare minimum, and we've 00:21:38.019 --> 00:21:44.660 experienced that before. But second, the self-righteous person is dreadfully afraid that at any moment they 00:21:44.660 --> 00:21:52.259 could be found out. The self-righteous person has a keen awareness that they have the pressure to keep 00:21:52.259 --> 00:21:59.000 up the facade, keep up the performance, that any moment if somebody finds out that's what's really 00:21:59.000 --> 00:22:05.079 them, they're like, they're exposed. Then they are on display. They could be found guilty or canceled or 00:22:05.079 --> 00:22:11.500 kicked out, and so there's no room for mistakes. There's only perform, perform. And that's miserable. 00:22:12.160 --> 00:22:17.640 That is not a pleasant place to be where you cannot be honest with yourself, with others. 00:22:17.640 --> 00:22:23.080 And lastly, self-righteousness leads to eternal spiritual destruction. 00:22:24.520 --> 00:22:29.980 Look at verse 14. This is Jesus speaking. He says, I tell you, this man, talking about the tax 00:22:29.980 --> 00:22:35.600 collector whom we'll get to, went down to his house justified rather than the other. 00:22:37.140 --> 00:22:44.420 Those last four words are terrifying, rather than the other. Jesus has strong words here because that 00:22:44.420 --> 00:22:53.360 word justified is a crucial word in the Christian faith because it is a legal declaration that God 00:22:53.360 --> 00:23:05.320 accepts a person as clean, as legally cleared from guilt. Only one man goes away justified, and it is 00:23:05.320 --> 00:23:12.360 not the one that we expect. It is not the one that society would say, right? It's a shock to the audience. 00:23:12.359 --> 00:23:19.339 It's not the Pharisee. And the point is clear here that self-righteousness does not bring 00:23:19.339 --> 00:23:25.240 justification from God. And in fact, when we tease it out, when we pull it out to the very end, 00:23:25.459 --> 00:23:33.699 it leads to condemnation and spiritual death. Self-righteousness pushed out long enough in your 00:23:33.699 --> 00:23:41.939 life will lead to God not accepting you. And friends, that is a deadly thing. Self-righteousness 00:23:41.940 --> 00:23:50.120 to the end of your life means death. So it's very dangerous. Well, what are the signs? How do I know 00:23:50.120 --> 00:23:55.299 if this is me? How do I know if this is in my heart? How do you know if this is in your heart? Well, first, 00:23:55.840 --> 00:24:02.440 contempt towards others. Where are the places in your life that you feel contempt towards others? 00:24:02.440 --> 00:24:08.720 people who are different from me? Where are the people who you say, at least I'm not like them? 00:24:11.200 --> 00:24:16.940 Second, self-righteousness. And the second sign of it is a coldness towards God. 00:24:17.820 --> 00:24:23.000 One, now hear me say this, not the only reason. There are many reasons why we may feel cold or far 00:24:23.000 --> 00:24:28.799 from God in our faith. But one of the reasons may be that you feel dry in your faith is that God is far 00:24:28.799 --> 00:24:33.960 away is because in your heart of hearts, you actually don't think you need God. You think 00:24:33.960 --> 00:24:41.019 that actually I'm doing pretty good or I can do this on my own. God is, I don't need him in my life. 00:24:41.079 --> 00:24:47.859 And so you feel coldness towards him. Third sign is an inability to feel weak or vulnerable with others. 00:24:50.019 --> 00:24:55.200 That if people really knew you, they wouldn't accept you. That you have to keep up the appearance, 00:24:55.200 --> 00:25:02.360 keep up the facade of self-righteousness. So here's the question. Is there someone in your life who knows 00:25:02.360 --> 00:25:06.920 you at your most vulnerable? If the answer is no, there's probably some self-righteousness in you. 00:25:09.380 --> 00:25:14.500 Fourth is, if you fail, you can't own it. You have to explain it away. I do this all the time with my daughter. 00:25:14.840 --> 00:25:20.759 I'll fail my daughter. I'll snap at her and then I'll instantly go to her and say, well, you didn't obey the way 00:25:20.759 --> 00:25:27.539 daddy asked you to. Or I'll say, well, daddy had a long day. And I go, oh man, can I not just own that 00:25:27.539 --> 00:25:34.400 I wasn't loving to my daughter? Can I not just admit that I was not as gentle as I should have been to a 00:25:34.400 --> 00:25:41.160 four-year-old? Self-righteousness is, if when you fail, you can't own it, but you have to excuse it. 00:25:41.200 --> 00:25:48.220 That's self-righteousness. It wasn't my fault. Lastly, in your heart of hearts, the last sign is you feel 00:25:48.220 --> 00:25:54.440 a tremendous amount of vulnerability and insecurity. That one slip, one bad text, one time 00:25:54.440 --> 00:26:02.259 forgetting to delete your search history will lead to total exposure. So our second point is that 00:26:02.259 --> 00:26:09.839 self-righteousness leads to misery and lonely in this life and destruction in the next. Now, what do we do 00:26:09.839 --> 00:26:16.980 with this? What do we do with this? Well, the gospel comes in at this moment and offers us the way of 00:26:16.980 --> 00:26:22.519 repentance to contentment. And this is our last point. We look at the prayer of this tax collector. 00:26:23.759 --> 00:26:31.399 Look at verse 13. But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, 00:26:31.399 --> 00:26:39.799 but beat his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. There's so much for us to notice 00:26:39.799 --> 00:26:45.200 in what this tax collector is saying. I'll try to draw out a few of them first. The whole emphasis 00:26:45.200 --> 00:26:53.099 of the language here is of distance. If the Pharisee is standing in a prominent place by himself so 00:26:53.099 --> 00:27:00.200 others can look, this tax collector is at the back end of the kitchen by himself. He doesn't want 00:27:00.200 --> 00:27:05.419 anybody to see him. In fact, if he could find any way to pray not being at the temple, he would do it 00:27:05.420 --> 00:27:11.620 because he says, I don't belong here. He stands far off. He does not even look up into the presence 00:27:11.620 --> 00:27:18.539 of God. He beats his chest. The word beats his chest is not once, but it is consistently over a period of 00:27:18.539 --> 00:27:26.759 time. This man is an emotional, spiritual, and existential puddle. He's at the end of himself. 00:27:27.400 --> 00:27:33.180 And the Greek word here is powerful. He says, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And that word 00:27:33.180 --> 00:27:41.240 merciful in the Greek actually says, propitiate me. God, be propitiated to me. And that's a rare, 00:27:41.320 --> 00:27:46.840 but it is a crucial word in the Bible because what he is saying, he's saying, God, solve the great 00:27:46.840 --> 00:27:53.840 existential and spiritual gap between you and me. There is a void between you and me that only you 00:27:53.840 --> 00:28:02.759 can and can span. Clean the great stain on my soul. In the Greek, he does not say, God, be merciful to me, 00:28:02.759 --> 00:28:09.079 a sinner, but he actually says, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. He says, if there is a sinner out 00:28:09.079 --> 00:28:16.879 there, I'm him. He brings nothing to the table, but his great need and his spiritual brokenness. This is a 00:28:16.879 --> 00:28:24.519 man who is deeply aware of his unrighteousness, who knows that he is broken apart from God doing 00:28:24.519 --> 00:28:31.960 something mysterious and wonderful in his life. And verse 14 is the great shock of the story. 00:28:32.400 --> 00:28:38.099 What is it? I tell you, that's Jesus' way of saying, pay attention. I tell you, this man, 00:28:38.299 --> 00:28:45.639 who doesn't deserve it at all, went down to his house. What is the word? Justified. 00:28:45.640 --> 00:28:54.740 Justified. Justified. Accepted by God. Legally absolved of all the guilt that he is so powerfully 00:28:54.740 --> 00:29:03.900 aware of. Cleaned in the presence of the most piercing eye in the universe. Valued and accepted 00:29:03.900 --> 00:29:10.100 independent of his performance. That's what justified is. This man is justified in his house. 00:29:10.099 --> 00:29:16.719 How is that possible? How does a simple prayer do all that? Well, friends, it's because of Jesus. 00:29:18.059 --> 00:29:22.500 It's because of who he is and what he has done. And we know from the rest of the gospel, we don't hear 00:29:22.500 --> 00:29:28.240 it here, but in the rest of the gospel, Paul tells us in Romans 3 that the righteousness comes to us, 00:29:28.359 --> 00:29:35.419 how? Apart from the law. Distinct. Not connected to our performance, but apart from the law. But how? 00:29:35.420 --> 00:29:41.380 Through faith in Christ. Who he is and what he has done on our behalf. 00:29:43.660 --> 00:29:48.240 And so here's this Pharisee who thinks he is righteous. He thinks he is righteous, but the 00:29:48.240 --> 00:29:54.080 really, truly righteous one, the really, truly justified one is the tax collector. The one who 00:29:54.080 --> 00:29:59.940 is, it's an amazing irony, the one who is most aware of his unrighteousness is the one who is 00:29:59.940 --> 00:30:06.000 declared righteous, and the one who thinks he is the most righteous is dreadfully not righteous. 00:30:07.660 --> 00:30:14.420 It is that faith in Jesus, as we confessed in our catechism, the resting and receiving 00:30:14.420 --> 00:30:25.200 on Jesus Christ. It is the tax collector, and he cries out, propitiate me. And what does 1 John 2 tell us? 00:30:25.200 --> 00:30:32.779 It tells us this, that just, that Jesus is what? The propitiation for our sins. 00:30:34.200 --> 00:30:42.420 Jesus answers this man's prayer by bridging this great spiritual gap, the void between him and God, 00:30:42.519 --> 00:30:48.000 and saying, I am your righteousness. And friends, he does that for you today. 00:30:48.000 --> 00:30:56.559 That when you feel the great sting of your contempt towards others and realize this is self-righteousness, 00:30:56.660 --> 00:31:02.819 Christ comes in and says, I am your righteousness. Receive and rest that alone. 00:31:05.380 --> 00:31:11.019 This is the man who goes away justified. That's the gospel difference. Because of the Christian gospel, 00:31:11.019 --> 00:31:17.279 we recognize that we are not accepted or valued by anything in this world based on our performance, 00:31:17.420 --> 00:31:23.980 but based on who Jesus is and what he has done. And friends, that is so freeing. That is such good news. 00:31:26.480 --> 00:31:30.839 That I am a great sinner and Christ is a great savior. That's the Christian. 00:31:30.839 --> 00:31:37.339 Justification. Justification then is a gift from God, not something that we deserve, 00:31:37.819 --> 00:31:43.240 not something that we earn. And the tax collector understood that. You read Psalm 130. That's what 00:31:43.240 --> 00:31:51.980 Psalm 130 is all about. From the depths of woe, I cry to thee. God in his steadfast love hears and 00:31:51.980 --> 00:32:00.679 receives. And that's the gospel. That's the good news. Now, how do we know if that's striking 00:32:00.680 --> 00:32:06.600 my heart? How do I know if this is beginning to impact and influence me? Well, for me, I think 00:32:06.600 --> 00:32:11.660 there's two things that happen at the same time. This is ironic, right? How do you know if the gospel 00:32:11.660 --> 00:32:17.840 is striking your heart? You will feel both unvaluable and invaluable at the same time. 00:32:19.220 --> 00:32:24.000 The gospel is striking your heart when you feel unvaluable and invaluable at the same time. You will 00:32:24.000 --> 00:32:29.860 feel unvaluable because you know that you are a sinner. You know that you are unrighteous. You know that you 00:32:29.859 --> 00:32:36.559 are in desperate need of a Savior, but you feel invaluable because the truth of the gospel of who 00:32:36.559 --> 00:32:44.359 Jesus is and what he has done and who you are in him says that you are valued, loved, cherished by the 00:32:44.359 --> 00:32:50.839 most valuing, loving, and cherishing person in our world. And friends, that leads to contentment. 00:32:50.839 --> 00:32:54.299 It leads to peace and it leads to joy. 00:32:58.579 --> 00:33:04.119 Repentance leads to contentment. It leads to justification. And that is the great hope 00:33:04.119 --> 00:33:11.399 of every person, I would argue, in our world. So what do we do with this? What do we do with this 00:33:11.399 --> 00:33:18.079 Monday morning, Wednesday afternoon, Friday, 2024? Well, some of us need to be challenged in our 00:33:18.079 --> 00:33:22.339 self-righteousness. I know I do. I was looking over these notes again this morning and I was like, 00:33:22.439 --> 00:33:29.599 oh man, I need to be challenged again in my self-righteousness. And most of us, I guarantee 00:33:29.599 --> 00:33:36.240 most of us have at least one or two places in our lives where we tell the same story as the Pharisee, 00:33:36.899 --> 00:33:42.559 where we look and say, at least I'm not like so-and-so, where we feel like we can trust ourselves, 00:33:42.559 --> 00:33:51.799 right? Friends, self-righteousness only leads to misery and contempt. Repent. Give up that rat race. 00:33:52.299 --> 00:33:56.859 Recognize that it is fruitless in this life and destructive in the next. And turn in faith to 00:33:56.859 --> 00:34:02.960 Jesus for the first time, maybe for some of you, or for the thousandth time for some of you. 00:34:04.519 --> 00:34:09.179 Some of you, maybe you're at the other end of the spectrum and you are beating yourself up and you 00:34:09.179 --> 00:34:15.019 wondered how you dragged yourself in here this morning and you are deeply aware of your unrighteousness. 00:34:15.139 --> 00:34:21.059 And it is hanging over your heart and your head, that one sin that condemns and hampers you. 00:34:22.519 --> 00:34:29.059 And to you, Jesus would say, I am your propitiation. Go to your house justified. 00:34:30.599 --> 00:34:35.480 Go receive the grace. Rest in my completed work on the cross. 00:34:35.480 --> 00:34:41.840 In RUF, we talk about one of our top goals with students is that they grow in grace. 00:34:42.360 --> 00:34:48.079 Grow in grace. What does that mean? It is the process. It is a process where each person 00:34:48.079 --> 00:34:55.559 has an increasing awareness that I'm a sinner, an increasing awareness that I am unrighteous, 00:34:56.699 --> 00:35:01.340 and an equally growing awareness that God loves and saves sinners. 00:35:01.340 --> 00:35:07.300 If there's one thing that I would pray for your heart in 2024, it's a growth in grace. That is a 00:35:07.300 --> 00:35:13.860 greater awareness that you are a sinner and Christ loves sinners. If that's what you spend 2024, if 00:35:13.860 --> 00:35:21.240 that's what you spend your life meditating on, you can do no better. God loves you despite your sin. 00:35:21.700 --> 00:35:30.019 Grow in that grace. Cycle back to Mrs. Turpin, the end of her story. So right after Mrs. Turpin's 00:35:30.019 --> 00:35:35.699 self-righteous prayer of, thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus, there's this shocking moment in the story, 00:35:35.759 --> 00:35:40.179 and there's this girl who's been watching Mrs. Turpin in the doctor's office, and she's an ugly girl. 00:35:40.559 --> 00:35:47.860 She's very, very ugly. And this girl is just fuming at Mrs. Turpin, and right after Mrs. Turpin's 00:35:47.860 --> 00:35:52.539 exultant prayer, this girl jumps at Mrs. Turpin and tackles her, grabs her around the throat, 00:35:52.539 --> 00:36:00.840 and starts throttling her. And she screams at her, go to hell, you warthog. Right? And this sends Mrs. 00:36:00.840 --> 00:36:07.659 Turpin into a furious rage, because this girl has attacked her, has insulted her, has accused her 00:36:07.659 --> 00:36:12.659 of deserving hell. Everything that she didn't believe about herself. And at the end of the story, Mrs. 00:36:12.739 --> 00:36:18.059 Turpin storms home, and she's furious, and she goes out to her pig pen to wash her pigs. 00:36:18.059 --> 00:36:23.299 And she's so offended, and she's mad at everyone. She's mad at God. She's mad at the girl. She's 00:36:23.299 --> 00:36:30.039 mad at her husband. And she's furious, and she's washing her pigs. And Flannery O'Connor is a 00:36:30.039 --> 00:36:36.960 masterful writer. She says, as Mrs. Turpin is washing her pigs in the evening, the sun begins to set, 00:36:37.659 --> 00:36:47.279 and a blood-red, crimson sunset lights up the sky. And Mrs. Turpin has a vision of the poor of the earth, 00:36:47.280 --> 00:36:55.940 the poor in spirit, the tax collectors of the world, rushing into heaven, singing, rejoicing, clean, 00:36:56.640 --> 00:37:02.160 running into the arms of their Savior, into the blood-red sunset for the first time in their lives. 00:37:03.640 --> 00:37:09.860 And Mrs. Turpin realizes that actually that girl, that ugly girl who said, you're nothing but a pig, 00:37:09.860 --> 00:37:17.019 was right. And that all of her righteousness was worthless. And all she has to do is join this 00:37:17.019 --> 00:37:25.360 throng of ugly, broken, disgusting people running into a blood-red sunset to receive the grace, 00:37:26.039 --> 00:37:33.000 to receive the righteousness from outside of herself. And that she is only a pig before God, 00:37:33.000 --> 00:37:38.159 and that her only hope is to admit it, and to run into the mercy of God. And there she finds the 00:37:38.159 --> 00:37:44.099 secret of contentment and true righteousness. Friends, that's the gospel. That's what's on display. 00:37:44.840 --> 00:37:53.659 That's what's on offer for you. Receive it and trust it. Accept the contentment that the gospel offers you. 00:37:53.659 --> 00:38:04.579 Let me pray. Father in heaven, we are convicted, but also encouraged that we are somehow invaluable and 00:38:04.579 --> 00:38:11.159 unvaluable at the same time. Lord, I pray that that would move in our hearts as each of us uniquely needs, 00:38:11.500 --> 00:38:18.059 that the gospel would challenge us, but at the end of the day, it would throw us into the sunset of 00:38:18.059 --> 00:38:27.739 Christ's righteous propitiation for us, that we would trust and receive that for 2024, for our families, for our 00:38:27.739 --> 00:38:34.500 marriages, and that we would become people who proclaim the sweet joy of the gospel, that you would be glorified, 00:38:35.199 --> 00:38:38.340 that we would be content in you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.