Dr. Haddon Robinson - Parable of the Pharisee and Publican (Luke 18)

0:06 And I am sure that when he said that, he was speaking sober truth. This man had not made his living by driving his neighbor to the wall. He was a man who was honest. His word was his bond. When he made a promise, you could count on him. And in a day that was as sexually loose as our own, this man had not sacrificed upon some wayside altar. and his religion wasn't all negative either there were many positive things that would commend him in fact by any conventional standards either ancient or modern this man was a religious success he says I fast twice a week now that was far more than the Old Testament had asked back in that ancient volume God had required of his people that they fast once each year, and that on the Day of Atonement.

1:06 But this man and his devotion would not be held to that. And so, twice each week, on a Monday and a Thursday, he denied himself his necessary food. And in addition, he says, he gave a tithe of all that he possessed. And if we press those words to their full value, he may be telling us that he not only gave a tenth of what he took in, but that each week or each month or each year he figured up his net worth and he gave a tenth of that to God.

1:43 You see, here was a man who was in deep earnestness about his religion. You had to be earnest about religion to make yourself as miserable as he was willing to make himself. And God was at least as real to him as the shekels in his pocket. He was at least willing to lower his standard of living for God. And his religion had done him good. Everybody in the community knew that he was a moral leader. They looked up to him and respected him. Jesus is not putting this man down because he was a hypocrite. He was not the kind of a man who worshipped with his neighbor in the temple on the Sabbath and then robbed his neighbor in the marketplace during the week. He was not the kind of man who would declare 10% in giving on his income tax, but really give only a 20th to God.

2:44 He was a man of moral integrity, and the people in the community admired him. In fact, even this publican who came to services on that ancient Sabbath stood in awe of the Pharisee. Jesus said instead of standing next to him, he chose to stand afar off.

3:08 Now again, you may decide that this public and this tax collector was simply a good-natured chap who understood his limitations. But if you had been there in that first century, you would not have come to that kind of conclusion.

3:30 Decent and honorable men despised tax collectors. They thought of them as quizlings and traitors. You see, when Rome wanted to tax a province it sold the right to tax to the highest bidder. And once a man purchased the right to tax he could take anything that the traffic would bear. he often found that it would bear a great deal no newspaper told the people how much Rome wanted to collect no board of examiners looked over the tax collector's shoulder to see what he was taking in and so he took what he could get and since you could not do business without doing business with him since you could not travel from town to town without stopping at his desk he found that he had people by the juggler ray.

4:25 Extortion was just part of the game. Injustice was a way of life and since he was despised by the good and decent people in the community he lived his life with those who were immoral and sexually loose. Tacitus, a Roman historian, tells us that once in one of his travels he came to a town that had had an honest tax collector. The people were so profoundly impressed that they erected a monument to his memory. If both of these men, the Pharisee and the publican, had been running in the election last Tuesday, we would have gotten out to campaign for the Pharisee. We would have been delighted if he had received the votes to get in. And if, on the other hand, the tax collector was the one who got the votes, we would feel it was a sign of the corruption of our nation.

5:28 If both of these men came to ask for the hand of your sister in marriage, you'd be delighted to have the Pharisee as a brother-in-law. But you'd have some uneasy questions about this tax collector. You'd be sure that he was going to defame the family name.

5:51 You see, it's not quite so easy, is it? It's not quite so easy to see why Jesus turns our values upside down and why in this story he commends the man that you and I would normally condemn. And he condemns the man that you and I might easily commend. Now, we're not dealing with caricatures. We're dealing with real people.

6:22 That means that you've got to go beyond the cast of characters. You've got to look at the story even more closely. You discover as you read the story that both of the men are in the temple. And certainly Jesus is not condemning them for that. There is a kind of religion abroad today that tells us that we can worship God just as well out on the golf course as we can in church on Sunday morning. That's the religion of a walk in the park theology. That's God's convenience on a sunny day. Makes no demands on you. But really is of no use to you. But these men were in the temple and they were praying. and Jesus is not faulting them for that in fact in the previous parable he told them a story to the end that men ought always to pray and not to faint but we are getting closer it's as you listen to the prayer of this Pharisee that you begin to get uneasy don't you he says God I thank you that I am not like other men extortionist unjust immoral I fast twice each week I give a tithe of all that I take in the thing that makes us uneasy about that prayer is that we feel that this Pharisee is conceited we don't like the way he is praying in fact I suspect that if he came to us for a bit of spiritual counsel we might tell him that what he needs to do is to learn to be more modest we've got to be careful praying that way in public because people will misunderstand and it upsets folks to hear a man pray that way now what bothers us about the Pharisee

8:29 is that we feel that he is conceited but conceit is of concern to us I'm sure it's not of much concern to God we do not like conceit because conceit is at our expense the man or woman who is conceited is conceited and in doing so puts us down in order to build themselves up and we don't like that For example, you and I go out to play some tennis, and you beat me in three straight sets, and then come bounding across the net, and say to me, Look, Robinson, when I play you, my score goes up, but my game goes down, and I'd rather not do it again. A few more games like this, and I'll be back to ping pong.

9:26 I don't like that. I mean, I'm willing to admit that you're a better tennis player than I am. And everyone else is willing to admit it, but I don't like you to admit it. I'd like you to tell me that you got in a few lucky shots or that the sun was in my eyes. But you see, conceit puts me down. It's at my expense. Or you get your exam back after you've taken a tough test and there's a big fat C and you turn to somebody next to you and you say, What you get, then that person says, well, I got an A. You didn't find it hard, did you? Man, I didn't even crack a book and I got an A. I never studied for this course. Now, you're willing to admit that the other person is smarter than you are. Obviously, the teacher is willing to admit it.

10:19 What you don't like is to have him admit it. That's at your expense and it puts you down. No, we do not like the Pharisee Because he sounds conceited But I assure you of a hundred heinous sins Conceit is about a hundred and first Conceit is often just a way of talking In fact, there are a great many people who talk big Because deep inside they feel small and big talk is a way of covering up this feeling of smallness. What can speak can be just a wrong way of looking at life, a wrong way of talking, a wrong way of handling things. It can often be just wrong judgments about things. Like the young lady who came to her pastor and was deeply troubled, she said, about a sin that she had.

11:22 She said, Pastor, I've come to you because I have a besetting sin, and it happens on Sunday morning. She said, I sit there in church, and I look around me, and I realize that I'm the prettiest girl in the congregation. And I know I ought not be thinking that, but I just can't get it out of my mind. It's a sin, and I want you to help me. The pastor said to her, Mary, listen, don't you worry about it at all. In your case, it's not a sin. it's just a horrible mistake

11:56 That's often the way it is with conceit. It is something that is a wrong judgment about life. And it really doesn't concern God. You see, conceit, as far as God is concerned, is like a pimple on the skin. And God is always concerned about the bloodstream. and the problem with this Pharisee was not that he was conceited the problem with the Pharisee was that he was proud so the point of the parable is that these two men were standing in the temple which was the place of the presence of God and standing in the presence of God they thought or he thought this Pharisee thought that the distinctions that mattered among men mattered with the Almighty that the differences that mattered on earth somehow mattered in heaven.

12:59 The tax collector stood there and felt that he had no right to approach God. But the Pharisee was sure that he had. It was in the presence of God that the Pharisee thought that the differences that took place on earth made some difference in heaven. and that of course is the essence of pride you will notice that Luke introduces the story in verse 9 by saying that Jesus also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others and that is always the mark of self-righteous people that is in order to increase their self their sense of righteousness they put other people down. That's why when you're playing bridge the sport is really gossip.

14:01 That's why at the locker room people put each other down or put other people down. That's why that can often take place in church as a kind of sanctified gossip session. We often criticize other people. because we feel somehow in our spiritual insanity that if we can pull other people down, that somehow that will make our house stand taller. That if I can cut someone else down and stand on his carcass, then somehow I am taller than I really am.

14:38 And so we go around looking at other people, comparing ourselves to them, looking at their vices and comparing them to our virtues, cutting them off at the knees and putting ourselves up on stilts, because somehow in doing that we think we pass muster with God. It is the essence of self-righteousness that a man tears other people down. And you would never guess, listening to this Pharisee, that there were any serpents coiled on the floor of his soul. you would never guess that there were any wolves howling at the door of his life in order to justify himself he points out the sins of other men it was Pope Gregory the Great who said of this Pharisee that he was like a man who had killed an elephant and that he himself was killed when the elephant fell and as I read this story the stench that comes from the pages of scripture this awful smell that seems to come like sulfur from the heart of hell is the smell of grace gone putrid it is the stench of grace gone sour certainly this man was better than other men in his community.

16:14 But he had decided advantages. Look at his background. Look at his knowledge of the scripture. Look at his religious heritage. But he took all of those things for granted and somehow taking for granted these good gifts of God, he then traded into the courts of heaven thinking he was a better man and that that should matter to God. and that is the stench of grace gone putrid.

16:44 Whenever you smell it, it almost makes you nauseous. Sometimes you get it in testimonies. You get it in folks who have been saved out of a past life that was anything but commendable. when they give the testimony as it goes on, the past keeps getting blacker and blacker and the future gets brighter and brighter and their lives seem to take on an almost perfect hue.

17:18 In the past, I was a depraved person. But now I've got it all together. In the past, I have problems, but now all I've got is solutions. In the past I had all kinds of hang-ups But now I'm free of them all And when you listen to it You sense that there is grace gone putrid When you listen to this Pharisee pray God I thank you that I am not as other men are You sense that it's not all praise to God there's quite a bit of self-advertisement there. You say, yes, Lord, it's true. You cut a pretty good suit, but you couldn't have cut it if you didn't have good material to work with.

18:12 Maybe true that you have done a lot in my life, but you had a lot to work with. And that's the essence of sour grace. You can see it in many ways. you could see it at a theological seminary a school can stay true to God for half a century and true to its word and there can come a subtle temptation and that is to take that great gift of God that goodness of God and somehow think that it gives you special merit and then you begin to look at other schools schools that have not stayed true to truth and you point out all of their heresies because by pointing them out and showing their faults you think you have shown that you are better and in the criticism there are no tears in your eyes there's no sob in your throat for what has happened I thank you that I am not as other schools are I'm a cut above the average.

19:29 You find it in churches. You can find folks who go to a church where they are taught the Word of God. They've not been taught it before. And there are other folks they know who do not have that benefit, that blessing. And as a result, it's very easy to get a kind of spiritual superiority.

19:54 Thank you I'm not like all the other ignorant Christians. Thank you that you've delivered me from all of the heresies they fall into. Thank you that I know the book of Revelation and they don't. When you do that, when that becomes the essence of the prayer,

20:16 that is grace gone future. That is the spirit of the self-righteous person. For it is the mark of self-righteousness to tear other people down in order to build yourself up. And this Pharisee stood in the presence of God. And in the presence of God, he had a good eye on himself and a bad eye on his neighbor.

20:48 And no eye on God at all. The other man who came was a tax collector. Jesus said he stood afar off and kept beating on his breast and kept saying, Oh God, be merciful to me, Lieutenant.

21:09 I don't know how you feel when you first read that. You say, well, sure he's humble. But after all, he's got a lot to be humble about. He had a great advantage on other men. Look at what he was. Humility came easy to him. But you know as well as I do that you can have left-wing Pharisees and right-wing Pharisees. Like the Sunday school teacher who said to her children after teaching this lesson, Now, boys and girls, let's all thank God that we're not like the nasty Pharisees. This man could have played that way. he could have said oh God I thank you that I am not like the Pharisees a religious humbug a man who prays long prayers in the temple I thank you I am not that way I am an extortioner and I am unjust and I am immoral but at least I am honest about it I don't pretend I am certainly no hypocrite always amazed me that the folks out there think that hypocrisy is the worst of all sins.

22:20 And that somehow by trading their sins in front of people, they can turn those sins into virtues. By unwrapping all of the bandages and showing us the running swords of their lives, that somehow that gives them a measure of health. And that man is as stupid as he is rotten, who thinks that somehow by trading his vices, he can turn them into virtues a while ago two men went into one of the banks downtown they robbed it one of the men wore a mask the other didn't I don't know why he didn't wear a mask but he didn't and after they ran out of the bank in 20 minutes they were captured but I couldn't help but wonder what would have happened if at the trial one of those men had stood before the judge and said, Your Honor, I would appreciate it if you would give me special consideration.

23:23 Now, it's true, I robbed the bank just like my friend here, but what I think you need to keep in mind was at least I wasn't a hypocrite. I mean, I didn't wear a mask. I just went in there with my face naked so that everybody could see who I was. And I think you ought to give me a special kind of sentence. That might go well with a judge up in the northeast, but I don't often go too well down here in Texas. And yet how often people who are tax collector types can easily become Pharisees too. But this man didn't do that. Instead, he stood there in the presence of God and kept beating his breast and kept saying, Oh God, be merciful to me, the sinner.

24:13 And notice, Jesus is not commending the beating of the breast. Jesus is not commending the use of the words, Be merciful to me, a sinner. You meet that site, too. People are always going around telling you how awful they are, how weak they are, how decrepit they are. It's often a pious way of getting a compliment. You say, you're not as decrepit as you think you are. So you get credit for being humble, and plus you get a compliment. Now, Jesus is commending this man because he stood in the presence of God and that's what he knew about himself. In the presence of God, he saw his sin.

24:59 That's always true. The man who stands in God's presence is always more aware of his need of grace than his successes in grace. The man who knows what it is to live before God is always more aware of how far he has to go than he is about how far he came. The man who stands in the presence of God is always more aware of his sin than of his virtue.

25:35 The man who lives in the presence of God constantly cries out for mercy and grace and forgiveness. In the Old Testament, Job was declared by the sacred writer to be the most righteous man of his day. And you remember, he had his friends who came to comfort him, And they kept insisting that the reason that he suffered superlatively was that he must have sinned superlatively. And Job continually denies that that's not true. But then at the end of the book, Job catches a vision of God. And when he catches a vision of God, Job says, I have heard of you with the hearing of my ear.

26:25 But now my eye sees you. by repenting sackcloth and ashes. Whenever a man or a woman knows what it means to stand in God's presence, that person always becomes aware of themselves and of their sin and their need of grace and the forgiveness of God.

26:51 Isaiah was the cream of the young manhood of his day. a noble young man and in Isaiah chapter 6 we're told that he came into the temple and saw a vision of God high and lifted up and his train filled the temple and when Isaiah saw God he cried and said woe is me for I am undone I'm a man of unclean lips and I live in the midst of a people of unclean lips seeing God he saw himself and he saw his sin and he cried out for cleansing and forgiveness. That's always true. When a man really lives before God he sees himself for what he is and sees his need of grace.

27:44 In 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 15 the Apostle Paul says This is a saying that is sure and worthy of acceptance That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners Of whom I am chief Notice the verb Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief not that I was the chief of sinners back on the Damascus road when I was persecuting the church not that I was the chief of sinners when I put men in dungeons no, I am the chief of sinners after 30 years of preaching the gospel and establishing churches across the Roman Empire and introducing thousands of people to Jesus Christ and writing sacred literature.

28:46 After all of that, I am the chief of sinners. Why? Because in the next verse, the apostle Paul says to the king of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. But a man lives before God. he is always aware that he is a sinner and the chief of sinners always aware of his need of grace and forgiveness hear me the elders and believers chapel this man was allowed to speak to you this morning needs the grace of God today as much as the prostitute of the drug that drug addict who may be coming to Jesus Christ in some other part of the city there is never a time that you outgrow your need of God.

29:47 There is never a time that you need him less. There is never a time that you reach some spiritual plateau where you can go alone. Whenever a man lives before God, he sees himself for what he really is. And he comes to recognize that he is a sinner.

30:09 And he must have the grace of God and the forgiveness of God. and that in simple statement is the essence of the entire Christian life a man will never really come to know God personally as long as he keeps comparing himself with other people a girl will never really come to grips with Jesus Christ as long as she keeps looking at people in the church and figuring she saw it better than they do it's only when you find yourself in loneliness before God and look up and see that he is holiness itself that you come to realize that you are a sinner and that you must have the grace of God and from the depths of your soul you cry out, O God be merciful to me the sinner and it never stops.

31:14 You never get over it. If a man walks in faith before God, he is always more aware of his need of God than his victories in God. H.G. Wells was a critic of the church and in his own way I think was one of our good friends in one of the stories that he wrote for New Yorker magazine several years ago he imagined an Episcopalian bishop in a church in New York he picked on the Episcopalians but he could have picked on Presbyterians or Methodists or people in Believer's Chapel but he imagined this Episcopalian bishop he was a man who had folks come to him for counsel and he had some platitudes he used that he thought were especially effective if you said them in just the right way.

32:27 They could sound very pious and religious. And one that he liked especially was to say to somebody who would come to him with a problem, have you prayed about it? He found that if he said it in just the right tone, it seemed like spiritual counsel. The trouble was that the bishop never prayed very much himself. life was in a nice neat package for him all wrapped up in his back pocket and he didn't have much need of prayer and then one day Wells imagined that life tumbled in on this good bishop and he decided that maybe it would be good to try his own advice and one Saturday afternoon when the cathedral was empty he walked down to the front and knelt on the crimson carpet and looked up and folded his hands and thought how childlike and simple he was then he said oh God and there was a voice crisp and businesslike and the voice said well what is it the next day when the worshippers came to church they found the bishop sprawled face down in the front of the cathedral when they turned them over they saw that there were lines of terror etched upon his face What H.G. Wells was saying was simply this that there are a great many folks talking about God and perhaps in some way praying to him who would be scared to death if they discover that they were really in his presence and yet that's

34:32 where humility begins to live your life before God in comparison with him not in comparison with others humility is not groveling in the dust telling people that you are worse than they are humility is standing as straight and tall as you can stand but to stand next to God and to see yourself for what you really are. I cannot help but point out to you that Jesus said of those two men it was the tax collector who went down to his house justified declared righteous I can also imagine that a year would pass and again this tax collector would be in the temple praying And you can hear his prayer, can't you?

35:40 He might have prayed, Dear God, It's been a year now, and I thank you that in that year I have not fallen into sexual immorality. Thank you for your grace. In that year there's been a lot of difference down at the tax table. You know that I am an extortioner by heart, but in your grace you've begun to work in me and that's going and I thank you for that grace. Lord you know I'm an unjust man that's what I am by nature but you put truth in my inner being and I thank you for that grace and Lord there's my friend over here who's come today he's not been here in a long time and he's as sinful as I am, right?

36:51 but I really want to pray for you. he'll come to know your grace in his life as well Lord, I've come a long way, but I've got so far to go. There's so many things you've got to undo.

37:13 I'm a long way from home. Oh, dear God. Be merciful to me, the sinner. humility does not come from looking at other people it does not come by looking inward at some inferiority complex it comes by looking up into the face of him with whom we have to do and seeing him we see ourselves and we see our sin and we cry out for grace and forgiveness in time of need.

38:06 When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, my richest gain I count but lost and pour contempt on all my pride. forbid it Lord that I should boast save in the cross of Christ my God all the vain things that charm me most I sacrifice them to your blood That's right. Our Father It occurs to us that there may be friends here this morning. who have been playing the old religious game for quite some time.

39:08 They've been looking at Christians and people in the church and they've been looking at their failures and at their own supposed virtues and feeling that they pass muster with you. they've never really understood that all that really matters is your holiness We must deal with you.

39:41 We pray, Lord, that somehow in the quietness of this moment, you would speak to those folks.