A Tale of Two Sinners (Luke 18:9-14)

You are listening to the podcast of Richland

Hills Baptist Church. We are located in Richland

Hills, Texas. Our desire here is to believe,

live, and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.

As you're listening to our podcast today, if

you have any questions, you can find us on the

web at richlandhillsbc .com. God bless you. Would

you open your Bibles this morning to Luke chapter

Luke 18 · chapter mention

18? And we'll be looking at 9 through 14. Luke

Luke 18 · chapter mention

chapter 18, 9 through 14. This past year, I think

it was last year, I was looking online one day

and I saw a house for sale. Looked like a good

house. For our family, it was big. It was not

huge, but it had two stories. It had a basement.

It was yellow, but you know, you can paint a

yellow house. That seemed okay, right? You know,

it had enough bedrooms. Again, it had even a

mother -in -law suite. I thought, wow, maybe

one day my mom could come to live here. And so

it seemed nice. Not that we were in the market

to buy it, but you know, it looked nice. So one

Sunday afternoon, Just on kind of a whim, Brayden

and I jumped in the van and we drove over there

with a friend who's a realtor. It wasn't her

property, but she went over there with us. This

house was not at all like the pictures online.

It was indeed yellow, that is true. It was definitely

yellow, more mustard yellow. It had three different

types of wood siding on it. You know, it all

looked very, you know, that can look nice. Sometimes

this did not look nice. You walked inside, and

I think the living room could fit about four

of eight people in our family. You said, well,

just knock the wall out. Well, you can't because

behind the wall was the stairwell going to the

basement. Let me tell you about the stairs. It

was like a mountain climbing up and down. But

I tell you that it was very, very steep. I mean,

when you climb back, it was like climbing a ladder

almost. Well, you know, it's okay. We went through

the house and they did have bedrooms. So that's

true. Then they said, well, there's a bonus room.

I said, well, that's nice. Okay. And then on

the bonus room, there was a nice deck. And I

said, well, that's nice. Okay. That could redeem

this house. Well, the deck, they had a sign that

said, please don't go out on it because it was

bending down like this. The driveway looked like

a little earthquake had hit it. It was so concrete,

it was all messed up. The basement, if we could

just live in the basement, that was the best

part of the whole house. You know, it's funny

that online it looked a certain way. Like it

looked doable. In person, Braden and I were like.

That was the worst house you've ever seen in

our entire life. I mean, it was terrible. Even

the realtor, she couldn't find anything good

to say about the house. You know, sometimes that's

the trick of being a realtor, isn't it? You clean

up something on the surface, on the pictures,

on the wording, to try to make it seem better

than it really is. You see, in the spiritual

realm, it's not much different than that for

a lot of people. You see, for a lot of people,

we spend a lot of times cleaning ourselves up

on the surface to really mask or hide what's

on the inside. You know, you can post all the

really nice quotes when you're Facebook. You

can put the Christian bumper sticker on your

car. You can do all the religious things. You

carry your Bible with you. Wear the Christian

t -shirts. You're at church every Sunday. You

can do all the things. But if your heart is not

right with God, then none of those things really

matter, do they? You see, it's the inside. It's

the spiritual realm. You see, there are many

a people who on the surface may look good, but

their hearts are rotten. And this morning, we

are going to see a parable where Jesus is going

to really ask that question. What is it or who

is it that can be right with God? What is it

that makes a person right with God? What does

that mean to be right with him? So this morning,

we're going to look at that Luke chapter 18,

Luke 18 · chapter mention

starting at verse 9. He also told this parable

to some who trusted in themselves that they were

righteous and treated others with contempt. Two

men went up to the temple to pray. Pharisee,

a tax collector. The Pharisee standing by himself

prayed thus, God, I thank you I'm not like the

other extortioners, unjust, adulterers, and even

like this tax collector. I fast twice a week.

I give eyes of all that I get. But the tax collector,

standing far off, would not even lift up his

eyes even to heaven, but beat his breast saying,

God, be merciful on me, a sinner. I tell you,

this man went down to his house justified rather

than the other. For everyone who exalts himself

will be humbled. One who humbles himself will

be exalted. Father, may you bless your word,

the reading, preaching, teaching of your word.

May we see what it means to be right with you.

Lord, what a heart that is right with you looks

like. And so may we hear and obey your words.

In Jesus' name. Amen. Well, I believe to understand

this parable, we do have to look a little bit

at the context of what Jesus is doing right even

here in this chapter of Luke. In Luke 18, right

at the beginning, there's another parable that

Jesus tells. It's the parable of the persistent

widow. There was a widow and she was there and

in this city there was a judge. In this judge,

it says that he neither feared God nor respected

man. But this widow, she kept coming to him every

day to ask for justice. She was having an issue

with an adversary, and she was asking justice.

Every day, coming to the judge, give me justice,

give me justice. Now, he was unjust. He was really

a wicked judge, and he wouldn't grant it. But

afterwards, I mean, after another time. This

lady, she keeps coming day after day after day,

and finally, even this wicked man, even this

unjust judge, he even says, I don't even fear

God or respect man, yet because this widow keeps

coming to me, keeps bothering me, it says, I

will give her justice so that she will not beat

me down with her intentional coming. He's like,

I'm tired of this. I'm going to give her justice

just so she can get her off my back. Just get

rid of her. And it's really an interesting parable

because in the Lord says, hear what the unrighteous

judge says. And will not God give justice to

his elect who cry out to him day and night? Will

he delay long over them? I tell you, he will

give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless,

when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith

on earth? It's something that Jesus does quite

a bit. He uses the parable of lesser to greater.

If even an unjust judge at times can eventually

relent and give justice, how much more will the

God of heaven give justice to his people? How

much more if his people come to him in faith

continually, if the wicked judge can do it, certainly

God, who is greater and not wicked in any way,

of course he will. And so what Jesus is showing

here is a picture of faith. And one of the elements

that we see of faith that is persistence. One

element of faith is persistence. Going to God,

coming to Him in faith, believing that God will

do it. This widow, she believed eventually that

this judge would relent. And faith is that we

come to God believing that He will do these things

for us. That He will give justice. That God will

save us even as we think of the spiritual realm.

We come to God in faith. So Jesus is showing

what faith looks like. So really then He's going

to give another parable. In essence, this is

another parable that's going to show us what

true faith looks like. True faith looks like

persistence. Now what does true faith look like

in this parable? So he tells a story. Now one

of the things Jesus does in this story that's

really interesting, it's a wonderful storytelling

technique, is he's really going to juxtapose

two people. He's going to take two people, you're

going to see the righteous man and the sinner.

He's going to take two people and he's going

to paint a picture for us to see these two people

and for us to decide who do we want to emulate?

Who's the good guy and who's the bad guy? You

know, it's a story technique that's used in movies

and books. And one movie in particular that I

was thinking of was Rocky IV. You know, I got

to do a Rocky movie. Rocky IV is probably one

of the best Rocky of the franchise. If you remember

Rocky IV, this is where he's fighting the, he's

got to fight the Russian, you know, in the Cold

War era. And Rocky, you know, his, I hope I'm

not spoiling this for you. You know, his good

friend dies. So he's going to fight in Russia,

Ivan Drago. And so he goes there in the cold

wasteland of Russia. And one of the techniques

of this one particular scene, this is the training

montage of Rocky that they're famous for, right?

In the training montage, they show, they juxtapose

the Russian. He's training in the high -tech

facility. He's there with all the people. They're

watching him and they're looking at him, checking

his stats. They're even juicing him up, right?

Putting a needle in his arm. I mean, you see

this picture of it almost like a machine, right?

That's the idea. And then you get Rocky. He's

out in the, again, this wasteland. He's working

out in a barn, basically. He's doing all the

Just basic things, lifting up carts and people

in the cart, running to mountains. And this picture

in this movie, right, it's meant to elicit a

response. You're like, oh, that Russian. That's

not good. He's a bad guy. Barak, he's a good

guy. He's doing it the right way. Same way, that's

exactly. What Jesus is going to do here, he's

going to show us. He's going to elicit a response.

But what's really kind of interesting is there's

going to also be a twist. This is actually a

twist ending. You may not realize it because

we're not in that day. We're not a person in

Jesus's audience listening. You see, we know

the rest of the story. We know. who the bad guy

is in this. But if you were a person in Jesus'

day, an original audience member, this story

would hit a little differently. You see, when

Jesus begins, he says, I'm going to tell you

a parable. There's two people, a heresy and a

tax collector. Well, if you were sitting in the

audience with Jesus, then right away, I mean,

you would know who the good guy was. The good

guy was the Pharisee. I mean, they believed that.

I mean, he was the righteous guy. We talked about

this a few weeks ago. Wow, I mean, he's the good

guy, obviously. He's got everything together.

He's religious. He follows the law. The Pharisees

often seemed to be admirable to the people. That

was who they wanted to follow. I mean, they believed

God. They followed God. And so when he's telling

this story, I mean, immediately he is going to

be a good guy. But listen to the Pharisee. He

says, God, I thank you that I'm not like the

other man. So right away he's praying. So to

set it up, he says, listen, there's two men in

the temple to pray. You hear the beginning of

that prayer. So they're there praying. So two

men, the Pharisee, the good guy that people would

think, and then the tax collector. D .L. Moody

said that really this prayer of the Pharisee

is what you would call a prayerless prayer. There's

not really any prayer there. But here, as he's

at the temple, he's there and he's praying to

God and just listen to the words. I thank you,

I'm not like the other men. Extortioners, unjust,

adulterers, or even like this, tax collector.

I fast twice a week. I give everything, I give

tithes of all that I get. And so right there,

you hear his prayers. Do you see how many times

the word I was in there? I did this. I'm not

like that guy. I'm better. Do you hear his boasting?

It was as if he was saying, God, you've made

a lot of good things in this world, but I'm your

crown jewel. I mean, God, I mean, look at me.

I mean, just look at my life. And I mean, I'm

not like all these bad guys out there. I mean,

I'm clean. I do all the things. I post verses

to my Facebook page. I mean, I'm out there. I've

got a Jesus bumper sticker. I mean, there's many.

He's got it all together. He's not doing bad

things. He's not out there, you know, hurting

people or harming them. He is, in his eyes, righteous.

And the people, though, they would think, well,

I mean, this guy, look at him. He's tithing.

I mean, this guy would be on all the church committees.

Everybody would like him. And the people would

see that, yeah, he's not like these other people

out there. And then comes the tax collector.

I mean, immediately, when Jesus says tax collector,

that would elicit an emotional response of the

people. Immediately, they think, oh, gosh, tax

collector, trader. Wicked, bad guy. The tax collectors

most certainly were the bad guys of that society.

I mean, they'd work with the Romans, the occupiers,

the people that were in charge, persecuting their

people. And the tax collector would work with

the Romans. They would pay what's owed to the

Romans and they'd take more for themselves. They

were greedy. Sinful. They would shudder at how

wicked these guys are. They would think immediately,

he's the bad guy. He's the guy we don't want

to be like. They're swindlers. We don't want

them. And so you see this picture. But I want

you to hear his prayer. Standing far off. He

wouldn't even lift up his eyes to heaven, but

beat his breast saying, God, be merciful to me,

a sinner. That was his prayer. His prayer wasn't,

God, you know, I've tried real hard. Yeah, I've

made some mistakes, but God, I've tried real

hard to be good. God, you know, I thank you all

to give me a chance. No, his prayer was much

different. He said, be merciful to me, a sinner.

You see, nobody had to tell this tax collector

that he was a sinner. Nobody had to point a finger

in his face and say, you're a sinner. I mean,

he knew it. Everybody told him, but he knew it

in his heart. He understood that he was far away

from God. You didn't have to convince him of

his sin. He already knew it. I mean, he was so

aware of his sin that he didn't even, couldn't

even look up to the heavens. He couldn't even

look up. He just kept his eyes down and he was

ashamed. Beat down by the world. This is a man

that, again, we, our day, would pass by and think,

ah, he'll never get his life together. This guy.

Here he was. Before God. And Jesus does something.

So powerful. Again, the listener would say, well,

yeah, I mean, of course. Of course he's like

that. I mean, he's a sinner. Jesus says, I tell

you, this man went down to his house justified.

It's like if Jesus asked that question, who is

justified? They'd all say, well, the Pharisee,

of course. He's a good guy. And Jesus says, no,

no. The Pharisee, the one who went home justified,

the one who God heard his prayer was not the

Pharisee. It was the sinner. It was the lowly

man. It was the man that everybody cast away

and said he'll never get his life together. Jesus

said it was that man who went home justified.

Why? For everyone who exalts himself will be

humbled, but the one who humbles himself will

be exalted. Jesus right there is showing us a

faith. An element of faith is coming to God in

complete humility. Coming to God without a charade.

without a mask, without a facade. Not trying

to clean ourselves up to somehow make ourselves

more acceptable to God. Coming to God stripped

down. Coming to God without any sort of anything

that could somehow make himself look better.

Did you see the tax collector there? He offered

nothing. Absolutely nothing. He offered nothing

to God. He just said, be merciful to me, a sinner.

God have mercy on me. That is the twist, isn't

it? You see, what Jesus is showing is that the

person that God hears, is the person who realizes

that they have nothing to offer. The person that

God hears and justifies is the person who comes

to God with empty hands, with nothing. Who are

we in this story? You see, the Pharisee, here's

the problem. The Pharisee wasn't actually as

good as he thought, was he? The Pharisee actually

really didn't have his life together. He worshiped

who? Himself. You see, while he pretended to

worship God, while he thought he worshiped God,

when you see that prayer, he worshiped himself.

It wasn't God, it was himself. God, I thank you.

That I'm not like a sinner. God, again, he's

saying I thank you, but it's really, God, you're

lucky to have me. I mean, God, I'm a good guy.

This man was really worshiping himself. And then

the other thing that we know he didn't really

have his life together is that one of the commands

that he should be from the Old Testament is he

was not loving his neighbor as himself, was he?

He looked down on this guy. And Jesus shows in

other parables that, hey, he's your neighbor.

This man wasn't really following the law as he

thought. So Jesus, if he were here to ask us,

is anyone here like that guy? Is there anyone

here or listening that is spending their life

trying to make themselves look good on the outside?

Are you trying to clean yourself up? Are you

trying to make others think something about you?

Are you pretending? You know, it reminds me a

little bit of this past week. at camp, the theme

of camp was God's relentless love. God's relentless

love for us. And it was from Lamentations was

the main verse. But one of the passages that

we studied was the passage of the parable of

the prodigal son. We studied that on several

occasions, really. And many of you know of the

two sons, and the younger son goes to his father

and asks for his inheritance early, which really

was insulting. It was like, Dad, I wish you're

dead so that I could get your money. And so the

father gives his son his inheritance, and he

goes off. He lives in wild living, right? He's

out there. He's having the time of his life.

He spends everything. Then there's a famine and

he has nothing. And here, this young man, he's

out there and eventually he's so hungry, so broke,

so in need that he goes to work to feed the pigs.

The lowly pigs. In fact, he was so hungry that

he desired to be fed with the pods that the pigs

ate, but no one gave him anything. He couldn't

even get pig food. And so he says to himself,

he says, you know, I'm going to go back to my

father as basically a hired servant. How many

of my father's servants have had more than enough

bread? I will say to my father, I've sinned against

heaven and before you. I'm no longer worthy to

be your son. Treat me as a hired servant. Just

like that tax collector almost. He's like, I'm

going to go to my father and just say, have mercy

on me, essentially. I'm going to be like one

of your servants. I'm not your son anymore. I'm

just going to let me work for you like a servant.

Of course he comes and his father sees him along

and embraces his son as his son. Not as a servant,

not as a hired person, but as his son. And part

of that was that young man's, it was certainly

the father's love, but that young man's humility

to come back to his father. We'd imagine if he

came back expecting, Dad, I'm back. Take me up.

Dad, you have to take me back. I'm your son.

But he didn't do that, did he? But then in that

story, what's really interesting is we call that

the lost son. But I believe what Jesus is also

showing here is that there's... Really two lost

sons. But one doesn't know he's lost. The older

son, he sees all that his dad's doing. His dad's

having a party for this son. But when he comes

near and he sees all the partying, hears the

music, sees the dancing, he brings his servant

over and says, what's happening here? The servant's

excited. He says, listen, your brother has come.

Your father's killed a fattened calf and received

him back. He's safe and sound, but the brother

was angry. He was mad. His father came out. He

said to his father, he said, look, look at all

these years I've served you. I've never disobeyed

your command, and yet you haven't even given

me a young goat. But when this son of yours,

this son of yours who devoured your property

with prostitutes, you killed a fattened calf

for him. I mean, what have you done for me, dad?

And he said to him, son, you were always with

me. And all that is mine is yours. It was fitting

to celebrate and be glad for this your brother

was dead and alive. He was lost and is found.

You see, the older brother was really, I say

he's lost because he didn't understand the grace

of his father. He didn't understand what he had.

He thought that by doing all these things that

somehow that made him, But the father is saying,

listen, you were my son. It's not that you're

here. I love you and I love my younger son because

you're my son. And the brother couldn't believe

it. Imagine if these were the people in the parable

of the tax collector and the sinner. Again, the

older brother could do the same thing. He could

come before God and say, God, thank you I'm not

like my brother. I thank you I'm not like that

guy who spent all my dad's money on wild living

with prostitutes. I've been here all the time.

And the younger son would be like that tax collector.

Have mercy. Who are you? Are you the Pharisee?

Are you the older brother? Who thinks, hey, I've

done everything I need to. I live a good life.

I live a clean life. God ought to accept me.

I mean, nothing bad should happen to me because

I'm doing all the good things. I mean, I'll go

to heaven because I'm a good church member. I

tithe. I go to Sunday school. I even come to

church on Wednesday night. I mean, there's not

many people like me. There's a lot of people

in this world like that. There's a lot of people

in a lot of churches, on a lot of church roles,

that think that somehow that coming to church,

sitting in a pew, Being in a building is somehow

sufficient to be right with God. That all the

externals are what make a Christian. Or are you

like the other guy who's broken? You see, we

live in a broken world. We live in a world that

is broken with sin. We live in a world of addiction,

sexual morality. We live in a world of crime

and all the things, right? You just watch the

news, you see it. And maybe there's somebody

here today who's broken. Who realize they don't

need me to say, hey, you're a sinner. Because

they know it. And the message of this is that

if you come to God in humility, say, God, have

mercy. Forgive me. And we know the fullness of

the gospel message is that we can ask for God's

forgiveness because of what His Son, Jesus Christ,

has done. We're eligible for forgiveness because

Jesus has paid the price. He died on the cross.

He took our place. And because of that, we are

now allowed to have forgiveness. But we have

to come in faith, believing, persistent like

the widow, humble like the tax collector. And

so maybe there's someone here that needs. God's

forgiveness. You might be thinking, well, I couldn't

do that because I've, you know, what would people

think? I've been a church member my whole life.

It doesn't matter what we think. It matters what

God thinks. If there's anybody, someone who's

listening, if you've never truly put your faith

in Christ, you've never trusted in Christ, you've

been trusting in yourself, come to Him. If you're

broken and you have nothing to offer, you're

not trusting in yourself, you're just broken,

come to Him. Believe. But there's another element

here. One of the things that Jesus is doing is

he's showing, again, the error of the Pharisees.

I've been guilty of this, and I'm sure many of

us have. We sometimes look down on people in

our society, don't we? I mean, if somebody walked

in today, they didn't look like... We think they

ought to look. They looked a little rough. You

could smell the smoke of cigarettes or other

things trailing behind them. Maybe you could

smell alcohol in their breath or holes in their

clothes. If they came in, we'd be a little suspicious.

What do they want? It's true. Sometimes their

people do come in and want things and need things.

But that'd be immediately what we think. What

do they want? Why are they here? If they came

in and maybe they didn't seem to live the lifestyle

that we think they should live. They need to

get their lives together. This is a respectable

place. And we may not say things like that here.

But sometimes we think it. Sometimes we drive

by people in the road and think, there's another

one. We see the person struggling with drug addiction.

Why can't they just stop? Why are they doing

that? What Jesus is showing here, I believe,

is that we should have mercy on people. But we

should also believe that God can save anyone.

That there is nobody too far gone. You see, that

tax collector, he's too far gone. They would

never think a tax collector, could come back

to God or come to God. The people would think

the tax collector was the worst of the worst.

I mean, no tax collector could be a believer.

And so part of this is for us to believe that

God can save anyone. That if there's anyone in

your life and in my life that seems so far gone,

we never give up. We never stop praying for them,

believing that God can save them. I mean, it

doesn't matter how desperate in sin they've become.

I believe that God can save the broken. That

God can do a work of mercy in their lives. And

listen, there are story after story after story

of people who have been totally consumed by sin

and they come to Jesus and he does a miracle

in their life I mean that's really the miracle

all of our lives God can do it and I believe

that if we want to continue serving God in this

church if we want to continue to be a church

that Preaches the gospel, reaches people. I believe

that we have to always be ready and open to serve

all people. To be willing to bring in even the

people that don't fit the part, look the part,

smell the part. And say, you know what? In this

room here, you're going to hear about Jesus.

And my... or in my presence, you're going to

hear about Jesus. Let me tell you about someone

who can change your life. And I want us to be

a place of reference. A place where people can

hear about Christ. So who are we? Are we the

Pharisees? Coming with self -righteous faith?

Or are we the tax collector coming with humble

faith? Let us pray. Father, we thank You for

Your Word. Lord, that's a powerful parable. And

Lord, sometimes we can see ourselves in different

parts in a parable. Father, my prayer is if there's

any of us in here today who maybe we feel like

we've played the part of the Pharisee a little

bit. Trusting in ourself and our good works and

our righteousness. Trying to clean ourselves

up. Trying to look Christian. But Lord, maybe

our hearts aren't right. Lord, we can try to

clean ourselves all up, but if our hearts aren't

right with you, it doesn't matter. And so, Father,

I pray that if there's anyone here who, Lord,

needs to truly be right with you, to lay aside

self -righteousness, lay aside religion, and

to come to you in faith. Lord, if there's others,

if there's someone else here who's tired because

they've been living a life from you. They know

their sin. They know that they're separated from

you. Father, I pray that if there's anyone in

here like that, that this morning they would

come to you in faith. Believing that you can

save them. That you can restore them to you,

Lord. That you can bring freedom to their lives.

Father, maybe even someone's listening in, Lord,

but Lord, may they hear and believe and put their

humble trust in you. Father, would you help us

to be a church who Lord, doesn't look down on

those who are struggling or lost in sin, but

a church. Lord, the church that welcomes people

and says, come, hear about Jesus, he'll change

your life. God, may we be that church. Lord,

a place, a people, not just a building, but a

people. That love the broken. That love the hurting.

Lord, the people even in our communities, our

homes. Lord, that people that are hurting would

come to us because they could sense our love.

And God, may we always have the gospel on our

lips. Ready to share what Jesus can do. God,

let us not look down on people, but to help them

look up. So God, may you teach us. May you guide

us. May we leave here today with the desire to

have a humble faith. May you work in our hearts

now.