13 AUGUST 2006: THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST – Going Down to Our House Justified!

TOPIC: Righteousness; justification, humility, holiness, blamelessness

TITLE: THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST – Going Down to Our House Justified!

TEXT: Luke 18:9-14

And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: "Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: 'God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.' But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, the sinner!' I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted."

And a companion verse ...

"He has done mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart."

Luke 1:51

TRUTH/CONTEXT: There are three things we need to see about this person who "trusts in himself that he is righteous" ...

First, his righteousness is moral.
Second, his righteousness is religious.
Third, he believes his righteousness is the gift of God. [Source: John Piper]

Some other things we should notice ...

NOTICE THE REASON – Jesus gives the reason for this parable right up front: "some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt." [v. 9]
NOTICE THERE ARE TWO OF EVERYTHING - two men, two prayers, two sinners, two attitudes (one exalts self. other humbles self), and two end results
NOTICE THE LESSON - God's ways are not man's ways; God's observations are not like man's observations [Isaiah 55:7-9]

Consider man's age old problem:

[#1 BOOK] About 30 years ago there was a book that was all the rage in the business world among the shakers and the movers, Looking Out for Number One.

[VANITY PLATES] When personalized license plates were introduced in Illinois, the Department of Motor Vehicles received over 1,000 requests for the number "1". The state official whose job it was to approve requests said, "I am not about to assign it to someone and disappoint a thousand people." What was his solution? He assigned the number to himself.

[MORE ROOM] A little boy and a little girl were riding a mechanical horse in a shopping mall. The little boy, who was riding in front, turned to the little girl and said, "If one of us would get off, there would be more room for me."

Nowhere is man's creativity more apparent than in his ability to discover new and original ways to commit the original sin.

It all began in the Garden of Eden when the devil convinced Adam and Eve that he had found a way for them to move God over and become "Number 1."

Man looks for ways to be first on everyone else's priority list, first in line, first at the checkout counter, first on the highway, the first ones getting out of the parking lot. But these are mere symptoms of the real transgression. In the case of Christians, our creativity as original sinners is revealed most clearly when we look for ways to have the disciple’s gain but not the disciple’s pain.

More and more I am witnessing Christians with an identity crisis ... not only do they not seem to know if they are Christians but they don’t seem to understand the simplest of concepts about their new life in Christ. This passage is a key passage for our understanding of righteousness and justification.

You'll need to turn to Romans chapter 3 to follow my line of thinking this morning; join me there, won't you?

The fear of the Lord is actually where it all begins ... when Paul spoke of the "all" in "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" [Romans 3:23], Paul has just concluded an enormous condemnation [Romans 3:9-18] of "all" mankind with these words - "there is no fear of God before their eyes" [this is an OT quote - Psalms 36:1] ... just prior to this he had made clear that "there is neither Greek nor Jew" [v.9]. What does that mean?

It means a summation ... Paul has just finished this litany of condemnation of mankind and Psalms 36:1 comes to mind, and he adds it as an exclamation point.

When a sinner first realizes God's opinion of his condition, he is either left empty, destitute, bankrupt, broken, and all alone to deal with it or he is lifted up in pride and personal affront ... an honest man will turn to the heavens and cry out in the fear of the Lord; the ungodly will not, he will turn to his own god "self."

I am slowly beginning to believe there is little hope for the proud ... for recognizing his lack, he wastes no time with confession! Rather he immediately constructs an explanation for why he doesn’t really understand and rationalizes his responsibility and ignores the teaching of God.

"Being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness." [Romans 10:3]

What will turn this tide? Today the church is full of Pharisees looking down their noses at others deemed less enlightened. People who construct rules and regulations, policies and programs, constitutions and creeds to hide their own prideful deficiencies ... all the while looking down on those who disagree; those who, they've been unable to recreate in their own image.

But ... "beating his breast" the humble man cries out, "Oh God, be merciful to me, the sinner." This one God will exalt and “he will go down to his house,” reckoned righteous with the righteousness of Christ Jesus!

FOUNDATIONAL INQUIRY: How’re we to see Paul’s condemnation of man?
EXPANDED OUTLINE:

I. FIRST WE SHOULD SEE THE CONTEXT

Rom 3:9 What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin;

II. WE THEN SHOULD SEE THE FINAL SCORE

Rom 3:10, 11 as it is written, "THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD;

The score is God infinitely good and righteous; man zero.

III. WE THEN SHOULD SEE OUR WORTH

Rom 3:12 ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.

IV. NEXT WE SHOULD SEE OUR PHYSICAL CONDITION

Rom 3:13, 14 THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN GRAVE, WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY KEEP DECEIVING, THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS; WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS";

V. WE SHOULD ALSO SEE OUR WALK WITHOUT GOD

Rom 3:15-17 THEIR FEET ARE SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD, DESTRUCTION AND MISERY ARE IN THEIR PATHS, AND THE PATH OF PEACE THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN.

VI. AND FINALLY WE SHOULD SEE THE REASON FOR THIS

Rom 3:18 "THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES."

APPLICATION/CHALLENGE: The ungodly comes to "know of God" and, in the absence of understanding His Creator's plan for man, he creates a doctrine his ignorance can live with, and then looks down his nose at those who are not likewise enlightened.

God's program seems a perplexing conundrum, locked up in an unprovable enigma, yet it is to be accepted by trust alone.

Here again is something being turned on its head, that which is of God and toward God is demoted and replaced by something that is of man and toward man. Like the Great Command and the Second Great Command being reversed in this perverse thing we call church.

God gave the humble man the mercy he sought ... and he "went down to his house justified."

"Justification is the work of God where the righteousness of Jesus is reckoned to the sinner so the sinner is declared by God as being righteous under the Law (Romans 4:3; 5:1, 9; Galatians 2:16; 3:11)." - CARM

The tax collector was unlike the Pharisee: the one took Christ's righteousness as his own, not acknowledging his continued sinful human condition [Romans 7]; while the other knew he had no righteousness of his own, being steeped in sin, so he pled for God's continued mercy since he knew he could not avoid his evil ways [again Romans 7].

"[The parable] is not saying that he is trusting in himself to make himself righteous. No. He says explicitly he is thanking God for that. He is not trusting in himself to make himself righteous. He is trusting in himself that he is righteous with the righteousness that God has worked in him.

One thing is the issue: This man was morally upright. He was religiously devout. He believed God had made him so. He gave thanks for it. And that is what he looked to and trusted in for his righteousness before God - for his justification. And he was dead wrong." [Piper]

Like the singer who receives a beautiful voice as a gift from God, it is the ability to sing that is received, not the voice, the voice is hers; but the righteousness given to us by God is not ours, it was and is Jesus Christ's righteousness - it is His death, His burial, His resurrection, and it is His righteousness.

Christ alone, the faith He delivered to us alone, and the grace He delivered to us alone! Bottom-line, the Pharisee is as he is because there was and "THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE HIS EYES!"

The religionist, and that is what the Pharisee is, commits at least three sins:

First, he's lost sight of the Giver, by reducing "life in Christ" to behavioral rule book.
Second, in reducing God's great claims upon us to manageable rules; he then loses sight of the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man.
Third, having lost sight of our holy God and his own unholiness, the selfrighteous religionist becomes judgmental of others. [paraphrase of Piper]

So, why do you wait for others to beat their breasts ... is your pride interfering with your humility? Why wait for revival to begin in others, start with yourself!

Beat your breast, cry out to God, proclaim your uselessness and your sinfulness, plea for His mercy each day, hang your head shame … but then walk from your prayer closet and proclaim the excellent mercies of God, "in His marvelous light," and walk with your head held high, knowing you are a child of the King.

RELATED LINKS: CRIB Sermons

GENERAL TAGS: Homoletics, Preaching, Sermons

SPECIFIC TAGS: Gospel, Holiness, Humility, Justification, Luke,
Pharisaism, Pride, Righteousness, Self-centeredness, Sinfullness