Tuesday, February 13, 2007
The Pharisee and the Tax Collector, Part 31 of 44
TEXT: "Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: 'Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, "God, I thank You that I am not like other men -- extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I possess." And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, "God, be merciful to 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, and he who humbles himself will be exalted' " (Luke 18:9-14).
IDEA: Humility comes from seeing ourselves before God.
PURPOSE: To help listeners understand how to be humble.
When you think of a humble person, what kind of person comes to mind?
Is it possible for someone to be an atheist or an agnostic and be humble?
It would depend, of course, on how you defined humility.
Such people can be modest.
Such people can be sober-minded about their abilities.
In the biblical sense, they can’t be humble.
Humility is a virtue in the Bible always related to our standing before God.
I. Humility can be as much a virtue for the strong as for those whom people consider weak.
It springs from what we are before God.
Job was declared by the biblical writer to be the most righteous man of his time. Three times God said that about Job (1:1, 1:8, 2:3). Throughout the book, Job refuses to confess sin that he doesn’t know about.
Would you say that Job was a strong man?
At the end of the book he catches a vision of God and says: "I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (42:5-6).
Seeing God shows us ourselves.
Seeing ourselves, we see our sin.
Seeing our sin, we call out for forgiveness.
Isaiah, in the cream of young manhood, saw God, high and lifted up. When he saw the vision, he cried out, “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts” (6:5).
This is the same pattern: Seeing his sin, he cried out for forgiveness.
The apostle Paul: “This is a faithful saving and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief” (1 Timothy 1:15).
Notice the verb am. Not that Paul had been the worst of sinners, but even as he writes at the end of his life, he sees himself as the worst of sinners. The reason is found in v. 17: “the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.”
Seeing God, he saw his sin.
Seeing his sin, he saw himself as the worst of sinners.
Paul saw himself as the worst. The tax collector saw himself as “the sinner.” That’s not modesty. That’s just the reality. Anyone in that position sees himself that way. Once you say, “I’m not that bad,” you don’t need saving grace.
