Hope for Virtue Signalers

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:03.640 That speaks to that in our hearts. So will you stand with me and 2 00:00:03.720 --> 00:00:16.550 then I'll pray after the reading of the scriptures, just from Luke Eighteen, 3 00:00:17.070 --> 00:00:23.539 starting in verse nine to fourteen. He also told this parable to some who 4 00:00:23.620 --> 00:00:30.420 trusted in themselves that they were righteous entreated other people with contempt. Two men 5 00:00:30.500 --> 00:00:33.820 went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a 6 00:00:34.060 --> 00:00:39.289 tax collector. The PHARISEE, standing by himself, prayed thus. God, 7 00:00:39.409 --> 00:00:44.929 I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust adulterers, 8 00:00:44.969 --> 00:00:49.250 are even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I 9 00:00:49.409 --> 00:00:55.320 give tithes of all that I get, but the tax collector standing far off 10 00:00:55.520 --> 00:00:59.479 would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, 11 00:00:59.799 --> 00:01:06.950 saying God be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, this 12 00:01:07.230 --> 00:01:11.829 man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who 13 00:01:11.950 --> 00:01:18.349 exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. 14 00:01:19.099 --> 00:01:22.099 The grass weathers in the flower fades, but the word of our God 15 00:01:22.379 --> 00:01:26.340 will stand forever. Will you pray with me? Father? We ask that 16 00:01:26.700 --> 00:01:33.250 this morning, as we do something that you have called us to do, 17 00:01:33.409 --> 00:01:38.010 which is to come and to worship, to come and hear your word preached 18 00:01:38.090 --> 00:01:42.170 and taught and partake of your sacrament. We asked that you, through your 19 00:01:42.250 --> 00:01:49.719 spirit, would particularly speak through this passage the spirit who inspired these words on 20 00:01:49.840 --> 00:01:53.799 this page, the spirit who has dwelled with you and the sun for all 21 00:01:53.840 --> 00:02:00.920 of eternity, and the spirit who lives and believers and changes the hearts of 22 00:02:00.040 --> 00:02:07.030 unbelievers. We asked that he would be our teacher this morning, that you 23 00:02:07.069 --> 00:02:12.110 might shape us and give us deeper repentance and faith. It's in Jesus name 24 00:02:12.150 --> 00:02:40.449 we asked this. Amen. You may be seated. I lack social interaction. 25 00:02:42.889 --> 00:02:45.840 Right, you do too, is my assumption. Some of you not, 26 00:02:46.439 --> 00:02:49.319 but even if you have a large family, you and I both lack 27 00:02:49.520 --> 00:02:58.909 social interaction with more than at least our inner circle and probably, like me, 28 00:02:59.990 --> 00:03:00.870 many of us in the room, though hopefully not all of us in 29 00:03:00.909 --> 00:03:07.509 the room, are probably spending too much time on the Internet. Maybe not, 30 00:03:07.949 --> 00:03:10.069 but at least I am, and I'm confessing that to you. I 31 00:03:10.229 --> 00:03:15.659 spend too much time on the Internet, reading articles, doing research. Now 32 00:03:15.699 --> 00:03:20.500 I realize that there's PhD people who have their PhD in the room and PhD 33 00:03:20.620 --> 00:03:23.819 students and you do real research. I don't do real research, so I 34 00:03:23.979 --> 00:03:30.370 get that y'all do real research, but also read social media posts and whether 35 00:03:30.409 --> 00:03:35.169 it's an article on the Internet or social media posts that I read, they're 36 00:03:35.169 --> 00:03:39.889 all clamoring for a response inside of me to signal to the outside world that 37 00:03:40.050 --> 00:03:46.120 I am on the right side of an issue, whether it's something about racism 38 00:03:46.159 --> 00:03:52.280 or racial justice or Covid nineteen strategies, are wearing or not wearing masks, 39 00:03:53.919 --> 00:03:59.509 social distancing appropriateness, whether it's school should start or not, or whether the 40 00:03:59.590 --> 00:04:04.710 MBA should have black lives matter painted on their courts, whether or not statues 41 00:04:04.750 --> 00:04:09.310 should be torn down, or what, if anything, should be censored on 42 00:04:09.389 --> 00:04:13.939 the Internet, or what political candidate that I should support. Even now, 43 00:04:13.979 --> 00:04:16.779 as I say that list out loud and listen to myself say at my heart 44 00:04:16.819 --> 00:04:23.740 rate rises in my breathing shortens and have to stop and take a deeper breath 45 00:04:24.449 --> 00:04:29.529 because it's anxious causing because we're invited. I'm invited, you're invited to signal 46 00:04:29.649 --> 00:04:32.449 to the rest of the world that you're on the right side of an issue, 47 00:04:34.250 --> 00:04:38.920 that we're on the right side of history, of morality, of the 48 00:04:39.040 --> 00:04:43.759 economy, of epidemiology, of the battle against racism, of Orthodoxy in the 49 00:04:43.800 --> 00:04:49.480 Church. We're tempted to draw a line in the sand, to declare what 50 00:04:49.800 --> 00:04:54.430 I believe, what you believe, is right, and view all others with 51 00:04:54.550 --> 00:05:00.230 skepticism and doubt and mistrust and with so much of our lives are, at 52 00:05:00.269 --> 00:05:03.670 least our countries, lives, lived on the Internet. Right now it's even 53 00:05:03.750 --> 00:05:11.180 more tempting to constantly signal our virtue to the world. My guess is that 54 00:05:11.300 --> 00:05:15.660 I'm not the only one in that boat. Dictionarycom, just one of the 55 00:05:15.660 --> 00:05:21.889 multiple dictionaries online, has this definition for virtue signaling. I think it's interesting 56 00:05:21.930 --> 00:05:28.329 because it uses religious language. Virtue signaling is the sharing of one's point of 57 00:05:28.410 --> 00:05:32.449 view on a social or political issue, often on social media, in order 58 00:05:32.490 --> 00:05:40.240 to garner praise or acknowledgement of one's own righteousness from others who share that point 59 00:05:40.279 --> 00:05:45.279 of view or to passively rebuke those who do not. It's not just the 60 00:05:45.360 --> 00:05:49.870 Internet. Think about yard signs that you see, think about by or stickers, 61 00:05:50.829 --> 00:05:56.949 think about people putting things on their face, masks, sometimes t shirts 62 00:05:56.990 --> 00:06:02.350 that they're wearing the sometimes we're wearing signs and stores, but it's not just 63 00:06:02.509 --> 00:06:08.100 out there. It actually comes into our inner circles, into our house where 64 00:06:08.100 --> 00:06:11.899 you and I live, whether it's with a family or roommates. My guess 65 00:06:11.939 --> 00:06:14.860 is, if you're anything like me, your tempt to divirt you signal with 66 00:06:14.939 --> 00:06:19.689 the people with whom God has placed you in close relationship. For those of 67 00:06:19.730 --> 00:06:25.769 you who are married, maybe a spouse. Today is Brittany's in my twelve 68 00:06:25.850 --> 00:06:31.529 anniversary, and even after twelve years of being married, I am tempted to 69 00:06:31.689 --> 00:06:36.040 not trust that she loves me and cares for me, even though she's been 70 00:06:36.120 --> 00:06:40.480 knowing all my faults. But I'm tempted to signal to her all the ways 71 00:06:40.519 --> 00:06:46.040 that I am good so that she loves me or keeps me in right relationship 72 00:06:46.600 --> 00:06:49.790 even more. And that on my part is not actually intimacy, it's not 73 00:06:49.870 --> 00:06:55.750 actually loving her, it's not being loved by her, as my self righteousness 74 00:06:55.870 --> 00:07:00.230 trying to communicate to her that I'm worthy of being in relationship with her, 75 00:07:00.910 --> 00:07:04.540 and that's actually really terrible. Now realize that many of us in the room 76 00:07:04.540 --> 00:07:08.819 aren't married, but we do it in other ways. Maybe it's a roommates 77 00:07:10.019 --> 00:07:15.290 to parents, two siblings, sometimes it's as simple as what you wear, 78 00:07:16.250 --> 00:07:21.649 what you choose who's to put on your face mask. Sometimes it's the way 79 00:07:21.769 --> 00:07:26.730 you tell a joke or what you're willing to talk about in a conversation. 80 00:07:27.250 --> 00:07:30.480 Well, you're willing to avoid in conversation to signal that you're on the right 81 00:07:30.519 --> 00:07:35.399 side of something for younger friends in the room. It's sometimes what you're willing 82 00:07:35.439 --> 00:07:41.800 to talk about with friends and learn about, talking about friends like minecraft or 83 00:07:41.839 --> 00:07:46.990 Legos or Pokemon, and how that puts you in the rights situation in a 84 00:07:46.069 --> 00:07:54.790 social group in school or with your friend group at Church. The human heart 85 00:07:55.350 --> 00:08:01.180 is always tempted to virtue signal, but the dangerous thing about virtue signaling is 86 00:08:01.300 --> 00:08:07.540 that we use it to reveal and to develop our self trust that we are 87 00:08:07.540 --> 00:08:13.170 right in the world. And Throughout the Gospel, Jesus rebukes this attitude. 88 00:08:13.009 --> 00:08:18.689 He warns don't stand on the corners like the Pharisees and pray for everybody to 89 00:08:18.769 --> 00:08:22.689 see you. Don't plunk your offering loudly and earn where people here that you're 90 00:08:22.930 --> 00:08:31.560 putting in so much money. He even calls people like this whitewashed tombs, 91 00:08:31.039 --> 00:08:35.759 looking clean on the outside but containing deadness on the inside. He warns that 92 00:08:35.879 --> 00:08:43.549 virtue signaling is a danger to our soul. But virtue signaling, or with 93 00:08:43.629 --> 00:08:48.909 the Bible of what Christianity Call Old selfrighteousness, doesn't just reveal yours, in 94 00:08:48.990 --> 00:08:52.710 my view, about ourselves. It affects our view of other people. And 95 00:08:52.909 --> 00:08:58.620 in this parable this morning, Jesus is tying that together in verse nine. 96 00:08:58.740 --> 00:09:01.220 Look at verse nine. Read Verse Nine with me. He says he also 97 00:09:01.340 --> 00:09:07.179 the it says he also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that 98 00:09:07.340 --> 00:09:15.570 they were righteous and treated others with contempt. When we pack all of our 99 00:09:15.610 --> 00:09:20.450 understanding of our right standing in the world into our actions and our words in 100 00:09:20.610 --> 00:09:28.799 our views, and then pack all of our understanding of somebody else's value our 101 00:09:28.919 --> 00:09:35.879 perception of their actions and words and views, it leads us to see them 102 00:09:35.919 --> 00:09:41.230 as other and tempts us to view them with contempt, especially if they're not 103 00:09:41.269 --> 00:09:50.350 meeting our standard of whatever our views are. Just walk into any middle school 104 00:09:50.350 --> 00:09:56.340 cafeteria and you'll see it at work. Peer into anybody's pre UMPTE. A 105 00:09:56.419 --> 00:10:01.539 lot of peoples Thanksgiving feasts and you'll see it at work. When family members, 106 00:10:01.580 --> 00:10:05.299 extended family members, don't signal the right things and they get into arguments. 107 00:10:05.460 --> 00:10:07.649 Maybe that's yours, maybe it's not, but it's definitely a trope in 108 00:10:09.610 --> 00:10:13.889 American culture, the contempt that people have for each other at Thanksgiving because they 109 00:10:13.889 --> 00:10:22.960 don't hold the same views. People treat each other with contempt if they don't 110 00:10:22.960 --> 00:10:28.039 signal the right virtues. The Greek word in this passage for contempt literally means 111 00:10:30.080 --> 00:10:35.509 to despise and view as worthless or having no value. I'm not going to 112 00:10:35.549 --> 00:10:39.470 go into it this morning, but that's what cancel culture is. It's viewing 113 00:10:39.629 --> 00:10:43.750 somebody else as having no worth, no value in canceling them because of it, 114 00:10:43.909 --> 00:10:48.990 maybe because they've done legitimate damage. But it's not just non Christians out 115 00:10:48.990 --> 00:10:54.179 there. It's Christians that have done it as well over a centuries. All 116 00:10:54.220 --> 00:11:00.059 of us are guilty of promoting virtue signaling and cancel culture. When we do 117 00:11:00.299 --> 00:11:05.210 it, we do it when we trust in ourselves that we are righteous. 118 00:11:07.529 --> 00:11:13.490 So often we are tempted to trust ourselves that we're righteous and in turn treat 119 00:11:13.490 --> 00:11:18.720 other people with contempt, and that's virtue signaling at work, both in the 120 00:11:18.840 --> 00:11:24.840 Bible and in our hearts today. But Jesus is talking to virtue signals, 121 00:11:24.159 --> 00:11:28.879 signalers, and there's hope for virtue signalers, because he's still talking to them 122 00:11:30.080 --> 00:11:33.190 and he's still talking to us today. So what's going on in this pearable? 123 00:11:35.350 --> 00:11:37.549 Well, the setting of this parable is the temple, the setting of 124 00:11:37.750 --> 00:11:43.830 this fictitious story that Jesus is telling to teach a point, and he sets 125 00:11:43.909 --> 00:11:46.980 the story in the temple. So what's going on in the temple? Well, 126 00:11:48.059 --> 00:11:52.700 twice a day, in the morning and in the late afternoon, God's 127 00:11:52.740 --> 00:11:56.419 people would gather together, because he commanded it, for the twice daily atonement 128 00:11:56.539 --> 00:12:05.809 sacrifice. Corporate Hymns and Psalms would be prayed and sung, ours would be 129 00:12:05.889 --> 00:12:09.889 sung, prayers of confession would be prayed and then at a certain point, 130 00:12:11.409 --> 00:12:16.039 the high priest would go back further into the temple and he would slaughter a 131 00:12:16.240 --> 00:12:22.080 lamb and offered as a burnt sacrifice. And when he would do that that 132 00:12:22.519 --> 00:12:26.519 people would continue to pray. They would pray their own individual prayers, they 133 00:12:26.559 --> 00:12:30.389 would thank God for certain things, they would pray for themselves and for their 134 00:12:30.470 --> 00:12:35.629 loved ones, and the custom would be to do it out loud. All 135 00:12:35.669 --> 00:12:39.389 that sounds familiar. That's what we do right except for the burnt offerings in 136 00:12:39.509 --> 00:12:45.899 the praying out loud individually. We don't do that as Presbyterians. But this 137 00:12:46.059 --> 00:12:48.659 is where we pick up these two men. It's the time where people are 138 00:12:48.779 --> 00:12:56.899 standing praying out loud that Jesus inserts them into the story. The priest has 139 00:12:56.940 --> 00:13:03.769 gone back, the aroma of the roasting meat is wafting through the temple, 140 00:13:05.330 --> 00:13:11.289 they can see the blood of the sacrifice and they begin to pray. So 141 00:13:11.450 --> 00:13:18.440 who's this first man? He's a Pharisee. So pharisee would be someone who, 142 00:13:20.399 --> 00:13:24.240 in the s and the s in the United States, be the equivalent 143 00:13:24.320 --> 00:13:31.830 of the moral majority. He has the signals, all the right virtues. 144 00:13:31.870 --> 00:13:37.029 This gives him social, relational one at least, some local religious political power. 145 00:13:37.870 --> 00:13:43.779 In so many ways, pharisees are Orthodox. They believe in God's holiness, 146 00:13:45.700 --> 00:13:48.860 they believe in the resurrection of the dead. They believe that God's Law 147 00:13:48.980 --> 00:13:58.009 of is of utmost importance because it reflects his holiness. So what does Jesus 148 00:13:58.049 --> 00:14:03.250 say about him? In Verse Eleven, Breathe with me. Verse Eleven, 149 00:14:03.929 --> 00:14:07.289 he says. The PHARISEE, standing by himself, prayed thus. Actually, 150 00:14:07.289 --> 00:14:09.039 we're going to stop right there. Because I'll pick up the rest in a 151 00:14:09.039 --> 00:14:13.720 minute. But what is he doing at the first everything he's doing is signaling 152 00:14:13.080 --> 00:14:18.840 to the outside world. He's standing by himself, but not so far away 153 00:14:18.879 --> 00:14:24.240 that they can't see him. He's communicating to them that I really truly believe 154 00:14:24.389 --> 00:14:26.789 in God's holiness and cleanliness. So I'm going to stand a little bit apart, 155 00:14:28.190 --> 00:14:30.909 where I'm not I'm going to make sure that I don't touch someone who 156 00:14:30.909 --> 00:14:35.029 might be unclean. So even with his posture, in his body, body 157 00:14:35.070 --> 00:14:41.539 language, he's communicating. He's signaling his virtues to the rest of the people 158 00:14:41.940 --> 00:14:46.379 in the Temple who are worshiping as well. Now let's listen to his words, 159 00:14:48.259 --> 00:14:52.340 says God. Thank I, thank you that I am not like other 160 00:14:52.460 --> 00:15:00.690 men, extortioners, unjust adulter's, even this tax collector. He's signaling to 161 00:15:00.809 --> 00:15:05.529 God and to the other people around him that what righteous is, righteousness is 162 00:15:05.769 --> 00:15:11.759 not like he's signaling who he's against. This is like a bumper sticker that 163 00:15:11.840 --> 00:15:18.000 says dump trump or a social media post that decries social justice warriors. It's 164 00:15:18.080 --> 00:15:22.789 declaring what somebody is against so that they set their selves apart with what they 165 00:15:22.870 --> 00:15:28.710 view is virtuous and right the showing how they're virtuous by what they're against. 166 00:15:28.070 --> 00:15:31.870 But he doesn't just stop there. He continues to pray and he reveals his 167 00:15:31.950 --> 00:15:41.539 view of righteousness and he's describing the ways that his righteousness far exceeds even gods 168 00:15:41.580 --> 00:15:46.899 standards. Verse Twelve continues his prayer. I fast twice a week. I 169 00:15:46.299 --> 00:15:52.250 give tithes of all I get. You See, God's law only require people 170 00:15:52.289 --> 00:15:56.730 the fast out of faith once a year on the Grand Day of Atonement, 171 00:15:56.730 --> 00:16:03.610 Yam Kippour, the great day of sacrifice and asking for God's mercy. But 172 00:16:03.690 --> 00:16:06.240 he does it twice a week, not just once a year, twice a 173 00:16:06.279 --> 00:16:08.480 week. And then he describes how he gives of his resources. That's a 174 00:16:08.559 --> 00:16:14.519 good thing, but God required people to give of their resources to care for 175 00:16:14.639 --> 00:16:18.629 the work of the temple and of the priests and of the poor, and 176 00:16:18.750 --> 00:16:26.149 he told them to give wine, flower and oil. And this Pharisee is 177 00:16:26.789 --> 00:16:33.779 saying that he's tithing of what all that he has kids in the room. 178 00:16:33.820 --> 00:16:37.620 This is like if your parent told you, your parents told you and your 179 00:16:37.659 --> 00:16:45.860 siblings to clean your room and your sibling cleaned his or her room and clean 180 00:16:45.980 --> 00:16:49.330 the kitchen and clean the bathroom and clean the Din and then said to you 181 00:16:49.850 --> 00:16:55.850 you only cleaned your room, mom and dad liked me better. That's what 182 00:16:56.169 --> 00:16:59.570 the Pharisee is doing. It's ridiculous that your parents love you just the same 183 00:16:59.809 --> 00:17:02.960 because you they love you whether you did it or not, but you're in 184 00:17:03.039 --> 00:17:06.160 good relationship with them even if you just cleaned your room and didn't do all 185 00:17:06.160 --> 00:17:12.319 the other things. He's saying that his righteousness far outsedes even God's standards. 186 00:17:17.069 --> 00:17:21.109 He's respaling his assumption, that he believes that he is able to come to 187 00:17:21.309 --> 00:17:30.460 God based on his own righteousness. What about the tax collector? WHO's he? 188 00:17:30.380 --> 00:17:34.299 What do we learn about him? What's he signaling? The tax collector, 189 00:17:34.339 --> 00:17:38.940 it says, stands far off, far off where he's less visible, 190 00:17:40.420 --> 00:17:45.970 realizing that he has no virtue worth signaling. If anything, anything he might 191 00:17:45.049 --> 00:17:53.049 signal to them might make his life worse. He's a tax farmer in league 192 00:17:53.250 --> 00:17:56.490 with the oppressive Roman government. This is not a good guy, this is 193 00:17:56.609 --> 00:18:00.039 not a hero. He betrays his fellow countrymen. He betrays the poor. 194 00:18:00.759 --> 00:18:07.279 This is like the American in the nineteen, sevent s and e s with 195 00:18:07.680 --> 00:18:11.839 spying for the Russian government. This is like the coyote, or the human 196 00:18:11.920 --> 00:18:18.589 smuggler that takes three thousand dollars for a single mother trying to cross the border 197 00:18:18.309 --> 00:18:22.349 and then gets her into the middle of the desert demands her last a thousand 198 00:18:22.390 --> 00:18:26.910 dollars that she has, otherwise he'll leave her in the desert. This is 199 00:18:26.220 --> 00:18:34.619 the Ponzi Scheme Guy who convinced your grandmother of investing your grandfather's life insurance and 200 00:18:34.700 --> 00:18:40.700 then runs off with the money, leaving her with nothing. This is not 201 00:18:40.819 --> 00:18:45.410 a good guy. This is somebody who not only betrays his countrymen, but 202 00:18:45.569 --> 00:18:52.490 oppresses people who are already in a weak and vulnerable state. How does this 203 00:18:52.569 --> 00:18:57.359 tax collector pray? Even though he's not intentionally signaling, what can we read 204 00:18:59.240 --> 00:19:04.519 based on what we see here? He's unintentionally signaling to us that he realizes 205 00:19:04.759 --> 00:19:11.869 he is not worthy. The reality of his sin and sinfulness are weighing down 206 00:19:12.109 --> 00:19:17.430 on him. He can't bring his gaze up to pray in the way that 207 00:19:17.509 --> 00:19:19.589 everybody else there would pray, because they would gaze up as they pray. 208 00:19:22.109 --> 00:19:26.180 We see it in his emotions, we see it in his body language. 209 00:19:26.700 --> 00:19:32.180 The women in his society would beat their chests when they were emotionally ain't when 210 00:19:32.220 --> 00:19:36.500 they were angry or when they were deeply grieved, as if to say my 211 00:19:36.660 --> 00:19:41.849 heart is breaking. But what he is doing is the same thing, beating 212 00:19:41.009 --> 00:19:47.650 his chest double fisted like this as it says if he's saying my sinfulness comes 213 00:19:47.730 --> 00:19:55.839 from my heart and I cannot help it. And then he prays, quoting 214 00:19:55.960 --> 00:20:00.759 psalmn Fifty One, which we've already read twice. Really he says God be 215 00:20:00.839 --> 00:20:06.759 merciful to me, a sinner. With his hands and with this prayer he's 216 00:20:06.759 --> 00:20:11.430 signaling I am not worthy. I must rely on God's mercy. But he's 217 00:20:11.430 --> 00:20:15.789 not just relying on God's general mercy. Out there pie in the sky. 218 00:20:15.150 --> 00:20:21.309 He sees the visceral reality of God's mercy. He sees the cost of his 219 00:20:21.579 --> 00:20:27.259 sins right there in that temple. He sees that the lamb that has slaughtered 220 00:20:27.940 --> 00:20:33.539 is showing him that the cost of his sin is separation from God. The 221 00:20:33.660 --> 00:20:37.329 cost of his sin is death and separation for God for all of eternity. 222 00:20:37.369 --> 00:20:44.970 He sees that that's what his sin deserves. He smells the barbecue coming across 223 00:20:45.009 --> 00:20:51.920 the room, but he what he also realizes and sees as he smells that 224 00:20:52.119 --> 00:20:57.200 smell as he sees the sacrifice in the room before him, is that his 225 00:20:57.559 --> 00:21:04.630 sins have been placed on another. Because that's what the whole sacrifice system is 226 00:21:04.829 --> 00:21:08.589 doing. It's helping the people. It's God's signaling to the people that he 227 00:21:08.910 --> 00:21:14.630 particularly takes on their sins and one day in the future he will put their 228 00:21:14.789 --> 00:21:22.539 sins on another. And the people were supposed to come in faith and trust 229 00:21:22.579 --> 00:21:27.940 in God's mercy. As they came in saw that sacrifice, people missed God's 230 00:21:27.940 --> 00:21:33.170 signal over and over again. But this human man, worst of the worst 231 00:21:33.609 --> 00:21:38.529 is seeing that sacrifice he's experiencing, seeing God's particularly mercy for all of his 232 00:21:38.690 --> 00:21:45.650 sins, and it is undoing him. Say Him, I am a sinner. 233 00:21:45.769 --> 00:21:52.240 Have mercy on me. He understands rightly, the signals that God is 234 00:21:52.359 --> 00:22:00.599 sin. The word that he's using here is a word that's connected the word 235 00:22:00.640 --> 00:22:06.750 for propitiate or tonement, sacrifice. God, have mercy on me and a 236 00:22:06.910 --> 00:22:11.829 tone for my sins. He's claiming that mercy, that particular mercy, that 237 00:22:11.950 --> 00:22:15.470 went on that spotless lamb, the wrath that went on that spotless lamb, 238 00:22:15.670 --> 00:22:21.619 the righteousness that comes to him. He's claiming it as his own. He 239 00:22:21.740 --> 00:22:27.819 truly believes God's mercy, he realizes that he has nothing to offer on his 240 00:22:27.900 --> 00:22:33.329 own, nothing to signal, and because he relied on God's mercy. At 241 00:22:33.369 --> 00:22:37.529 the end of the parable, Jesus says this man went into his daily life 242 00:22:38.210 --> 00:22:48.240 justified. So what do we do with all this? Jesus gives us some 243 00:22:48.319 --> 00:22:51.680 hints at the end of the parable, the end of verse fourteen, Fourteen 244 00:22:51.799 --> 00:22:56.599 B, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who 245 00:22:56.599 --> 00:23:03.869 humbles himself will be exalted, because God is the only one who makes us 246 00:23:03.910 --> 00:23:10.069 righteous, who justifies us. Those are the same words. We must humble 247 00:23:10.190 --> 00:23:14.299 ourselves. And so how do we do that? Where do we do that? 248 00:23:15.539 --> 00:23:19.299 We do that on playing vertically and horizontally, and relationship with God and 249 00:23:19.420 --> 00:23:23.420 relationship with a other people. So we're going to look at those two in 250 00:23:23.539 --> 00:23:29.049 the last few minutes. So we must humble ourselves in our relationship with God. 251 00:23:30.369 --> 00:23:36.769 The tax collector comes empty handed. To come empty handed before anyone is 252 00:23:36.849 --> 00:23:41.089 to humbly submit to the mercy of another. If you've ever been into surgery 253 00:23:41.130 --> 00:23:44.200 and they say take off everything, all your rings, all your jewelry, 254 00:23:44.279 --> 00:23:48.559 you're coming in with just the gown on you're humbly submitting to the surgeons. 255 00:23:48.599 --> 00:23:55.119 When you're humbly submitting, you're coming with nothing before you. That means he's 256 00:23:55.279 --> 00:24:02.990 coming empty handed, not carrying all the things in favor of his own righteousness 257 00:24:03.630 --> 00:24:07.910 from his own doing. He's also not carrying in his hands things against him, 258 00:24:10.539 --> 00:24:12.140 reasons that he shouldn't come in. Some of US need to hear the 259 00:24:12.220 --> 00:24:17.380 first thing, because we are so tempted to bring before God to prove our 260 00:24:17.380 --> 00:24:22.420 right standing and the world based on some longlist of all the good things that 261 00:24:22.539 --> 00:24:26.369 we've done. So we need to ask ourselves a question. What am I 262 00:24:26.529 --> 00:24:30.009 tempted to bring in my hands to signal to God that I'm really good? 263 00:24:30.809 --> 00:24:33.089 It's not going to be simple things. Is actually going to be really good 264 00:24:33.210 --> 00:24:38.039 things yours. In my practice of Christianity, even as crazy as it sounds, 265 00:24:38.079 --> 00:24:41.480 our practice of the means of grace that God set up to communicate His 266 00:24:41.599 --> 00:24:45.559 grace, we twist it into God. Look, I'm righteous because I do 267 00:24:45.680 --> 00:24:52.829 these things. Maybe it's your intellectual curiosity, maybe it's your open mindedness to 268 00:24:52.950 --> 00:25:00.230 ideas, maybe it's your tolerance, maybe it's your stalwart defense of the truth. 269 00:25:03.549 --> 00:25:07.900 Invite God's spirit to shine the light of his gracious truth into your heart. 270 00:25:08.180 --> 00:25:12.660 With what are you tempted to justify yourself before God? For us to 271 00:25:12.740 --> 00:25:18.779 humble ourselves before God is to lay down any argument of our virtue and righteousness. 272 00:25:22.170 --> 00:25:26.329 Others of us, and I'd say most of us, at some time 273 00:25:26.369 --> 00:25:33.930 or another, need to come empty handed and empty our hands of the case 274 00:25:33.970 --> 00:25:40.759 against us. The tax collector actually comes and he doesn't come with an argument 275 00:25:41.160 --> 00:25:44.599 of why he shouldn't come. He doesn't come with excuse. He doesn't tell 276 00:25:44.599 --> 00:25:48.240 his friends or his own conscience I can't come because I did this thing or 277 00:25:48.279 --> 00:25:52.069 this thing was done to me. He doesn't bring a list of excuses. 278 00:25:56.109 --> 00:26:00.630 So we, some of us, need to ask what in my conscience keeps 279 00:26:00.710 --> 00:26:06.900 me from coming before God? What am I holding on too? What am 280 00:26:06.940 --> 00:26:10.140 I ashamed of that I've done or that somebody else has done to me? 281 00:26:11.140 --> 00:26:15.779 What am I guilty of? Confess those things, don't hold on to them 282 00:26:15.099 --> 00:26:18.970 like to him says that actually will read in a little bit. Let not 283 00:26:18.170 --> 00:26:23.210 conscience make you linger, nor of fitness fondly dream. All the fitness that 284 00:26:23.369 --> 00:26:32.450 he requires is to feel your need of him. Some of US need to 285 00:26:32.650 --> 00:26:37.799 come empty handed of the case against ourselves and lay it aside and confess our 286 00:26:37.839 --> 00:26:40.680 sins and say, Lord, you're right, I've done all these things, 287 00:26:40.759 --> 00:26:42.200 but I know you don't hold it against me. Have mercy on me. 288 00:26:44.880 --> 00:26:49.150 Others of US need to come empty handed of the case this for us, 289 00:26:49.750 --> 00:26:57.430 for our reputation, but we also must humble ourselves before other people. When 290 00:26:57.470 --> 00:27:03.059 we really understand God's justification by grace for us, we should be compelled to 291 00:27:03.140 --> 00:27:11.220 humble ourselves before other people. The tax collector left justified at the end. 292 00:27:11.259 --> 00:27:12.779 He says it went to his house, went down to his house, left 293 00:27:12.779 --> 00:27:17.250 the Temple Mount down to his house and what he's Jesus is saying. He's 294 00:27:17.490 --> 00:27:21.650 he went into his daily life. I don't know what you and you do 295 00:27:22.329 --> 00:27:23.890 or I do in our daily life. We do nothing right now because we're 296 00:27:23.890 --> 00:27:27.809 at home, but in his day he would interact with other people. That 297 00:27:27.930 --> 00:27:30.880 means he has to interact with other people. Now. We don't see what 298 00:27:32.000 --> 00:27:37.119 happens to this man because he's a fictitious character and one of Jesus's parables, 299 00:27:37.200 --> 00:27:41.440 which is fiction, but we do see what happens to at least two other 300 00:27:41.559 --> 00:27:47.589 tax collectors who encounter God's race through Jesus. One of them happens a few 301 00:27:47.829 --> 00:27:53.230 lines past this in exit in Luke Nineteen. It's the story of Zechias. 302 00:27:55.430 --> 00:27:57.390 What do you know about Zechias? That he was a wee little man, 303 00:27:57.740 --> 00:28:03.180 we little mam see, and he climbed in a Sycamore Tree. We also 304 00:28:03.220 --> 00:28:07.940 knows that he was a tax collector. He was hated and despised and when 305 00:28:07.940 --> 00:28:12.970 Jesus encountered him all it was the talk of the area because they hated Zekias 306 00:28:14.089 --> 00:28:21.250 so much. But we also know Zechius has at least verbal response to Jesus 307 00:28:21.289 --> 00:28:30.039 when he encountered his mercy. This is Luke nineteen, verse eight. Zechius 308 00:28:30.240 --> 00:28:33.599 says to Jesus, behold Lord, the half of my goods I give to 309 00:28:33.680 --> 00:28:38.279 the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore a 310 00:28:38.440 --> 00:28:44.470 fourfold. Now we don't get to see it happen, but we can take 311 00:28:44.470 --> 00:28:48.390 him at his word that he had true heart and life change. We can 312 00:28:48.430 --> 00:28:53.230 imagine him going before other people, not holding any defense, defensiveness of saying 313 00:28:53.269 --> 00:28:56.980 like well, it was my right, I could have done it because I 314 00:28:56.299 --> 00:29:02.380 worked for the Roman government. From what his language and his contrite heart is 315 00:29:02.380 --> 00:29:06.380 right here we can see and assume that he's saying, I'm sorry, will 316 00:29:06.420 --> 00:29:11.410 you forgive me? What can I do to make it right? Sometimes that's 317 00:29:11.490 --> 00:29:18.369 what we need to do as we humbly relate to other people. Confession and 318 00:29:18.569 --> 00:29:22.569 repentance. Man, that's incredibly humbling because you give up complete control in the 319 00:29:22.609 --> 00:29:29.079 relationship and you say, will you forgive me, I was wrong, I 320 00:29:29.240 --> 00:29:30.960 hurt you, I did this thing and I shouldn't have done it and I 321 00:29:32.039 --> 00:29:36.079 have no defense against it. Is there anything? What can I do to 322 00:29:36.119 --> 00:29:41.029 make it right? And there might not be anything right now that we can 323 00:29:41.109 --> 00:29:48.069 do. It's completely humbling. We see another man who is transformed by God's 324 00:29:48.109 --> 00:29:56.420 mercy through Jesus, who's a tax collector, a man named Matthew, who 325 00:29:56.460 --> 00:30:00.819 wrote the First Gospel account of Jesus's life, and it's interesting that the Holy 326 00:30:00.859 --> 00:30:08.769 Spirit pricked his conscience, super imposing the writing of the word to dedicate three 327 00:30:10.049 --> 00:30:15.369 full long chapters of the sermon on the Mount, which really highlights what it 328 00:30:15.450 --> 00:30:18.849 means to love God and love of other people. And in the sermon on 329 00:30:18.970 --> 00:30:26.839 the mount, Jesus gives us creative license at the end in Chapter Seven of 330 00:30:26.960 --> 00:30:33.240 how to apply humbly submitting to other people. Jesus says in Matthew Seven, 331 00:30:33.279 --> 00:30:37.670 due to others as you would have them do to you. This is humble 332 00:30:37.789 --> 00:30:42.950 love because it forces us to see someone else as a human being, to 333 00:30:44.069 --> 00:30:48.190 have patience with them, like God has had patience with us, to show 334 00:30:48.230 --> 00:30:52.259 compassion and love even when they don't deserve it, even when they haven't earned 335 00:30:52.299 --> 00:30:56.380 it, because that's what God has done to us. Sometimes it might mean 336 00:30:56.420 --> 00:31:00.220 setting up boundaries, but it's treating them with the dignity of a human being 337 00:31:00.380 --> 00:31:04.930 and as incredibly difficult and incredibly humbling, because we have to step off of 338 00:31:06.170 --> 00:31:11.569 our own throne and get dirty with the brokenness and the messiness of other people's 339 00:31:11.609 --> 00:31:22.640 pride and lack of self control and hurtfulness, lack of right views, and 340 00:31:22.759 --> 00:31:27.880 actually love them. When you and I begin to realize that we're justified before 341 00:31:27.920 --> 00:31:33.670 God only by His grace through the substitute of another, we will have freedom 342 00:31:33.950 --> 00:31:38.109 to not to have to signal any virtues to anyone else. We don't have 343 00:31:38.150 --> 00:31:42.509 to use our behavior or our words to signal that we are righteous, and 344 00:31:42.710 --> 00:31:48.259 we don't have to read other people's words or behaviors or views to determine if 345 00:31:48.299 --> 00:31:55.700 they're righteous enough for us to care about them, and then when we struggle 346 00:31:55.779 --> 00:32:01.250 to fail to love well, we come back again and ask for goodness of 347 00:32:01.369 --> 00:32:07.849 God and realize that mercy comes for us, whether we've been completely self righteous 348 00:32:07.849 --> 00:32:14.049 and virtue signaling or whether we've betrayed lots of people. You and I, 349 00:32:14.089 --> 00:32:17.960 all of us, are lacking social interaction, and I'd say family doesn't count 350 00:32:17.960 --> 00:32:22.039 in that, even though family great, roommates don't count, because we need 351 00:32:22.160 --> 00:32:24.400 people, we need to gather like this, we need a bump up with 352 00:32:24.480 --> 00:32:30.509 other people who aren't in our brain. We lack that social interaction. Life 353 00:32:30.549 --> 00:32:37.470 is difficult right now and in God's providential curriculum for us it seems extra difficult. 354 00:32:38.950 --> 00:32:44.779 But God knows what it's like to enter in two difficult world, a 355 00:32:44.900 --> 00:32:51.380 difficult and broken world. The second person of the Trinity made it a plan 356 00:32:51.539 --> 00:32:55.619 from all of eternity, with the father and the spirit, to enter into 357 00:32:55.740 --> 00:33:02.690 creation and in this difficult life that you and I live in, that second 358 00:33:02.970 --> 00:33:08.049 person of the Trinity, the man Jesus, in the face of difficulty and 359 00:33:08.329 --> 00:33:15.000 difficulty and Messiness, lived a completely humble life, always loving God and submitting 360 00:33:15.039 --> 00:33:22.079 to God, never virtue signaling but actually living out his virtue, always humbling 361 00:33:22.160 --> 00:33:32.910 himself to other people, even despised Canaanite Women, even tax collectors, living 362 00:33:32.990 --> 00:33:40.579 his life of humbly loving others, living a perfect and virtuous life and then 363 00:33:40.619 --> 00:33:47.859 humbly submitting to unrighteous mob, humbly submitting to the will of the father and 364 00:33:47.940 --> 00:33:54.809 the father's wrath, laying down his life that he wasn't just signaling God's love 365 00:33:55.009 --> 00:34:04.250 for us, but he was accomplishing it on the cross. His substitute covers 366 00:34:04.690 --> 00:34:08.849 all of your sin, all of my sin, whether it's sins of selfrighteous 367 00:34:09.119 --> 00:34:15.039 virtue, signaling and despising other people, or you're breaking of vows and betrayal 368 00:34:16.400 --> 00:34:22.719 of other people, things that you're ashamed God doesn't just signal his love for 369 00:34:22.760 --> 00:34:30.230 us, he accomplishes us and accomplishes it and then exalts us into the right 370 00:34:30.469 --> 00:34:36.869 standing that only Jesus deserves. The father. You're not just forgiven, you're 371 00:34:36.909 --> 00:34:40.659 brought into right relationship for all of eternity with the Living God. Imagine if 372 00:34:40.699 --> 00:34:45.699 that you and I as individuals, that we as Christian Church and community, 373 00:34:45.940 --> 00:34:50.619 believe this justification, justification by grace, a little bit more. Imagine the 374 00:34:50.739 --> 00:34:53.650 freedom that we would feel as we come before God, come to the table. 375 00:34:53.889 --> 00:34:58.969 Imagine the freedom of not having to virtue signal to any one in our 376 00:34:59.010 --> 00:35:04.849 life, and imagine the freedom of bringing light and hope to hopeless and dark 377 00:35:04.889 --> 00:35:10.440 world as we humbly love others because God has loved us first. This is 378 00:35:10.480 --> 00:35:16.280 the freedom that the Christian Gospel brings and invites you to drink deeply of. 379 00:35:17.960 --> 00:35:22.190 So would you do that with me? Will you pray with me? Father, 380 00:35:22.269 --> 00:35:28.469 we can only do this if your spirit provokes our hearts and deepens our 381 00:35:28.550 --> 00:35:37.380 faith. Some of US are longing to rest in you because we haven't done 382 00:35:37.380 --> 00:35:43.860 it in a long time. So would you cause us to rest, because 383 00:35:43.900 --> 00:35:50.650 humility before you brings rest. Some of us have never done it. So 384 00:35:50.769 --> 00:35:53.369 we asked that you, for those people, would humble their hearts and give 385 00:35:53.409 --> 00:36:00.369 them the courage to have humility and to submit before you, because you are 386 00:36:00.570 --> 00:36:07.440 gracious. Others of US need to do it again for the thousands of times. 387 00:36:07.519 --> 00:36:09.280 We ask that you would give us the courage and the humility to do 388 00:36:09.440 --> 00:36:15.639 it. Help us to believe that we are made right with you only by 389 00:36:15.679 --> 00:36:22.110 your grace covers all of our sins and exalts us into right standing with you. 390 00:36:23.269 --> 00:36:27.710 We ask this in the powerful name of Jesus Amen