Do You Know Yourself?

As we continue our worship services morning, let me invite you to open your Bibles to Luke chapter 18. I'll be reading for you Verses 9 through 14 and would encourage you to follow along with me as I read If you did not bring your Bibles, so there's one available for you in the few rack this morning Would invite you to take that Bible out in the turn to page 915 For this is a church where you will need to have your Bible open as John works systematically through the passage The title of the sermon this morning is do you know yourself? The title of the section of scripture is the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector verse 9 To some who are confident of their own righteousness and look down on everybody else Jesus told this parable Two men went up to the temple to pray one of Pharisee and the other a tax collector The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself. God. I thank you that I'm not like other men robbers, evildoers, adulterers, nor or even like this tax collector I fast twice a week and I give a tenth of all that I get verse 13 But the tax collector stood at a distance He would not even look up to heaven and beat his breast and said God have mercy on me a sinner I tell you that this man rather than the other went home justified before God for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and He who humbles himself Will be exalted Let's return to the passage you read with the head just a few moments ago from Luke chapter 18 We will continue this morning in our study of the life of Jesus Christ in the gospel of Luke Luke was the only Gentile writer of the gospels a doctor Very precise in what he said who loved detail we've seen this over and over again While you turn to that passage Let me introduce a couple of folks to you This last year we have been building a relationship with a Presbyterian church That's not what it's called but it's a Presbyterian type church in the free church of Scotland in Inverness Scotland David Meredith last spring visited our church preached here and this fall I Visited the church in Inverness and preached there several of our people have gone back and forth This week we have several elders from that church who were visiting with us We have mr. Colin McPherson. Colin would you please stand and And art mr. Archie McArthur would you please stand and Mr. Charlie Anderson would you please stand we're glad you're here. Thank you now as I as I've introduced those men to you I received a note last night from David Meredith at the Inverness church at Smithton Collagen and He wrote we have acquired we have that's why we have empty seat here this morning we have about 50 senior highs over there and then You would think you would need it lift at least 50 shaferoans with that many people, but we only have about 11 leading them In the ministry there and David Meredith wrote this John just a note to say that the IPC senior high choir have been amazing The last few days they had two great concerts and local schools and not only did they sing and speak with great conviction They mingled with the young children and openly shared their faith We had an amazing concert this evening which was very well attended and again the young folks spoke clearly about their faith With no compromise your church must be justifiably proud of these young people We would love to have more of these young people back to do a short-term mission with us or if you could spare Some for a bit longer we could use them as short-term youth workers hope you get along well with our elders. They are the quiet ones with best regards David say We're thankful that you guys are here and If you're all the quiet ones, we don't want to see the rest It's a time to stop and give thanks and we should pray for In thanksgiving for how the Lord has blessed the choir over there and also pray that he'll bring them home safely We should also then look to the Lord Jesus and ask him To teach us as we go back and look at this story that he told He's here this morning. Let's ask him to tell it again. Let's pray our Father We thank you from the good news for the good news from inverness We thank you for these elders for their families bless their families Keep them while they're away Father, I pray that That you would bless the choir as they return home father keep them safe Bring them bring them home safely We pray Father had by the power of your Holy Spirit our Father. No ministry can take place Whether it's here or on the other side of the globe that has to do with this church We can't do any ministry apart from the power of your Holy Spirit and so we look to you This morning Father. We know John Sartail can't teach so that it will make any difference in our lives But Jesus Christ is able to teach that way and he's here And so we now turn to him and we pray Lord Jesus teach us by the power of your Holy Spirit Continue to change us from the inside out change us Father. Maybe some of us for the first time In Jesus name for his glory. I'll be in Do you know yourself? What if you came home with me today and discovered that I had a wonderful trophy room You went in this trophy room and there was a trophy from the Master's God tournament with my name on it Then I showed you a case and it had two rings in it One was a Superbowl ring with mine issues engraved on it the other was a World Series ring with mine issues engraved on it As you looked further you saw there on the wall of the Boston Celtic Jersey the hallowed green and white with Sartail written across the back You would come out of that room and say John You are a fraud These aren't youers You didn't I'm the these trophies don't belong to you But I argue with you And I tell you that they are mine indeed and I tell you that I am one of the greatest Athletes in the world and that I indeed did play for the Celtics And I I won the World Series ring and the Superbowl ring and I won the Masters Once you saw that I really believed this you would say John You're still a fraud, but that's not your greatest problem Your greatest problem is that you don't know you are fraud you don't know who you are That's very much like one of them in this parable He went to stand before God and he took his trophies to display He showed off his religious accomplishments. He put his moral medals on exhibit But he was alive He really didn't have any trophies to display He didn't know himself. He did not know who he was look at verse 9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else Jesus told this parable To some who were confident of their own righteousness Does anyone have their own righteousness? Does the Bible teach that anyone is righteous in and of themselves? Certainly not the message of all of scripture is that we have no righteousness in ourselves

Was this man righteous? So this morning I'm not asking if we are sinners That is with that that is the case without any doubt But I'm asking if we know We're sinners I'm asking John Sartel. Do you know who you are? I'm asking you this morning Do you know who you are?

Let's look at this passage and look for some answers

First I want you to see a man who did not know himself Look at verse 10 to me and went up to the temple to pray one affair see the other tax collector The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself God, I thank you that I'm not like other men robbers evil doers adulterers or even like this tax gather I passed twice a week and I give a tenth of all I get He went to the temple to meet with God he went to church to speak to God So as he stood before God what did he say to God? This is how we know he did not know himself In his in his prayer he described himself as he thought he was first He thought he was good. He said I'm good God look at verse 11 the Pharisee stood up and prayed about notice himself Now skip down to verse 12. I fast twice a week. I give a tenth of all I get what was he saying? God? I am a good man. Look at my life. I am a pious man. I fast Not once a month not once a year. I fast twice a week I'm a sacrificing man. I tied I am righteous. I am good. I am deserving

Step back and see what's happening here A man is standing before God Almighty and before all the court of God

Before all the angels You know Think with me. Do you know of a scripture where God reveals himself Reveals his glory reveals his holiness actually comes down and and people can see his holiness and sees glory Is there any case where that happens where a man stands there before God and says hey God now? Let me tell you how good I am. You don't find that anywhere Why is that true because when one stands in the light of God's holiness when one stands in the light of God's glory He knows with absolute certainty who he is Calvin said if you want to know who you are Don't look at the rest of mankind if you want to know who you are don't look at your own heart If you want to know who you are ask God to reveal himself go stand before God Well, this man stood in church chorum dayo before God If you know, he didn't see the glory and he didn't see the holiness why McCaws he started telling God how good he was What does the Bible say about us? What's the Bible say about you and about me? Don't turn to these passages just listen we could read for the rest of the day passages like this Psalm 94 11 the Lord knows the thoughts of man he knows they are vanity Jeremiah 222 although you wash yourself with soda and using abundance of soap The stain of your guilt is still before me says the sovereign Lord Jeremiah 22 Although you wash yourself with so excuse me Jeremiah 179 the heart is deceitful Above all things and the yon cure. So he says about our hearts. It's deceitful above all things Listen to what the great David you know this Pharisee would have thought that he was in the tradition of David But listen to what David said when he stood before the Lord For I know my transgressions My sin is always before me I can't get away from it against you and you only have I sand and done what is evil in your sight So that God you are proved right when you speak and you're justified when you judge Surely David said I was sinful at birth Sinful from the very moment my mother conceived me before I spoke a word before I walked before I taught before I did anything when I was inside of my mother's womb I had a black art. I had a sinful heart Unlike the Pharisee David knew himself very well CS Lewis wrote a trilogy that is commonly known as a space trilogy The three books out of the silent planet Parallandra and that hideous strength Compose the greatest description of biblical evil that I've ever read outside the Bible In the second book Parallandra which is by the way a great English classic In the second book Parallandra the hero Ransom Comes before two great creatures of the other world We would call them the Bible calls them arc angels Lewis had a different name He described these these as magnificent creatures who stood in the presence of God They were without sin They are huge in form and yet beautiful to see Ransom approaches these two astounding creatures And listen to what one says to the other listen to what one of these arc angels says to the other Look on him beloved and love him He is indeed by breathing dust and a careless touch would unmake him And in his best thoughts there are such things mingled as if we thought them our light would perish people that is exactly how heaven sees us this morning as we're in church this morning the angels must wonder That we would approach him And they would say of us and in their best thoughts there are such things mingled in their best thoughts such things mingled as if we thought them our light would perish Do you know this about yourself? Do you know Can you say My heart is deceitful of the whole all things and it's beyond cure

Charles Taylor was on trial in Casper, Wyoming for stealing $69 from a shoe store and he also stole a pair of brown tan hiking boots As he stood in as he as he went to court and the judge asked him if he was pleaded guilty or not guilty He said not guilty And then there in the trial at one point He propped his feet up on the defense table and the judge did a double tape because on his feet were a pair of tan hiking vicks During recess the judge sent over to the shoe store and asked a description of the shoes They were size ten and a half from lot ten forty six They checked the man's shoes and it was size ten and a half lot Ten forty six the judge sent the man back to prison shoelace That is very much think of it this guy was sitting in court saying I'm not guilty And he had the very shoes his stolen propped up on the desk. That's very much like the Pharisee in this passage He said I am innocent. I am really really good And it was a great display of his Sinfulness Recently I spent six days in Indiana by myself. Janet was visiting her sisters and I was alone at our cottage I love being like being alone. I love being alone. Sometimes I can go to bed when I want I can sleep as late as I want. I can eat what and when I want But there's a part of me that does not like being a lame

why Because When no one is there for conversation When the television is off When the paper has been read When I'm tired of reading my novel When there's no noise whatever from the world and it's just silence just me And I've read my Bible And I pray And that's solitude When there's no noise to block it out. I'm faced with the reality Of who I am I think that's the most one of the most dangerous things about the world around us. When's the last time When's the last time for any space of time you have been and absolute solitude No noise from the world no radio We have tape machines. We have things on our ears. There's always noise. There's always people. There's no solitude

And we can hide in the noise and we can hide in the busy nest of life But when we're alone we're forced to see really who we are I'm face to see the scene that's just always there. I'm forced to see my hypocrisy And I want to run away Then his new book your god is too safe Mark Buchanan has an entire chapter on being alone and quiet before God He ends that chapter this way Leave yourself alone Inter solitude be silent And you will become less Did you hear it? He said was ain't you will really see yourself as you are Leave yourself alone Inter solitude be silent and you will understand who you are. You will become less Look in this passage and see the man who did not know himself. He thought he was good Secondly look at this passage and see the man who did not know himself. He thought he was better Look at verse 9 again Do some of you were confident of their own righteousness and look Damn on everyone else. Jesus told his parents Verse 11 the Pharisees stood up and prayed about himself. God. I thank you I'm not like other men robbers and evildoers and adulterers or even like this tax collector He looked at the tax collector. This man really was a traitor He was he was a traitor We would have thought so He was an employee of the Roman government who levied and collected taxes for the enemy He was Jewish but he was working for the enemy He overtaxed the end so he could get money for himself All righteous Jew would not shake hands with a public and with a tax collector If he brushed him on the street if he'd happened to brush up a side of him on the street He would go home and wash himself The tax collector could not serve on a Jewry. He was considered to be and was indeed a thief Now the Pharisee looked at this man. He said he's a thief He's a traitor and he said God, I thank you. I'm not like that man

You know the only way men can think they are good the only way men can think they're good They can't compare themselves to God. They'll never think they're good The only way they can think they're good is to compare themselves outwardly With other men in which evil is not so subtle As Christians do we look at other facts and say in our hearts or even out loud before our family? I'm better than that person Not when when all the truth was coming out about the sexual involvements of Bill Clinton Did you say did you think you know? I'm better than he is

Read about the woman this week that poor woman that killed ground her five children in Texas. Did you read about that? Did you think? You know I'm better than she is

If mother Teresa was still alive would she stand and just pull put and say you know I am better than Madonna. Do you think mother Teresa's better than Madonna? If you think you're better than Bill Clinton if you think you're better than that poor lady that killed her children if you think That mother Teresa is better than Madonna You don't understand who you are You don't understand who we are and you don't understand the gospel The trial of Timothy Timothy McVeigh in 1997 a friend of his was on the stand an army friend this army friend had known him for years This is what he said I've known Tim for quite a while if you don't consider what happened in Oklahoma city Tim is a good person You said what was he saying He was looking at a man you would killed all those people on purpose Men women and children and he was saying You know He's like you and me He's normal amazingly normal The man in this passage he did not know himself. He thought he was good and he thought he was better Thirdly The man did not know himself. He thought he was too good to need grace. Look at verse nine again Do some who were confident about their own righteousness? I don't need grace look at verse 12 I fasted twice a week and to give a tenth of all I get God I am good enough if I am Look at this. There's no cry for mercy. There's no cry for grace This is the great sin here. This is a transgression that is of greater evil than all other evils God gave his son Then he might forgive our sin God God gave his son and sent him to hell for our sins that he might give us grace The Pharisee was standing at the foot of the cross. He was standing Staring God's grace in the face and said I don't need your grace I don't need you. I can save myself. I'm good enough. He used his good deeds To insult the grace of God. He never been to a funeral and thought at that funeral at the funeral You know that that man that died Is not a professing Christian, but he's a better man than most professing Christians I know he was a good good man. He ever thought that I have

I thought that and it's then that God takes me to the cross The man that I thought was so good. He looked good. He was a good husband faithful to his wife He was a good father. He was a good employer. He was honest. His word was his bond But what did he do with those good works first this man who I thought was so good He used those good works and he called God a liar He said God you say in the Bible that we're sinners, but I'm not look how good I am And then he did something much worse And this is the great sin. He paid. He took his good works He took faith with his wife a good father good employer honest his words his bond He takes all of those good works and he says I'll pave my way to heaven with these God paved a way to heaven with the blood of his own son, but I don't need that I'm going to pave the way to heaven with my good works is it's all self-centered. It's look what I did It's I'm a good man It's the height of our Dollar Tree. It's saying God. I don't need you to save me. I can save myself I don't need your forgiveness. I don't need your grace Now most of us came in here this morning and we said oh, I believe in God's grace. I accept God's grace I need God's grace But there's a more subtle form of this in the church This form does not say my good works will save me it says Christ saves me But I deserve his love I deserve today save I deserve God's grace One Sunday morning in this pulpit. I mentioned a story that I'd been reading about Ted Bundy the serial right-fist and killer he was interviewed by James Dobson. Most of you remember those interviews before he was executed Remember and he talked about pornography and how pornography had started his spiraled downward And he told Jim Dobson Jim Dobson confirmed it that he had confessed his sin and that he had confessed Jesus Christ After that message Someone came to me that was in The in our sanctuary that day and said John I do not want a God who would forgive Ted Bundy Now who was that person saying that person was saying I deserve God's grace, but he doesn't he was still saying you know I'm saved by grace but I deserve it as a people by the very definition of the word what's the definition the word grace It's undeserved favor. It's something if you deserve it. It's not grace. It's not grace So if we sit here this morning and we say I am more deserving than Ted Bundy You've lost it. You don't understand It's no different than the Pharisee standing there and saying God I can do it my way

This man didn't know himself. He thought he was good. He thought he was better He thought it was too good to need God's grace

But secondly see the man who knew himself Look at verse 13 that the tax collector's sitter in the distance He would not even look up to heaven But he believes rest and said God have mercy on me a sinner Just like the Pharisee he went to the temple to meet with God He went to the church to speak to God and Jesus loved What do you ever think about God loving what you say? What do you think you could say that would please God

Jesus loved what this man said this man knew himself Why did Jesus love what he said because he knew he was bad look at verse 13 He could not even look up to heaven He believes rest and said God have mercy on me a sinner. This man was ashamed. He couldn't even look up He just bowed in total shame and disgrace He said God I am bad I'm a sinner You do you love have you loved what God made more than you've loved God Do you have idols have you worshiped idols Yes Do you take the Lord's name in vain yes Have you held the great day of the Lord the great day of salvation and disregard yes Do you disobey your parents and have you failed to honor them yes have you murdered yes Are you an adulterer yes are you a thief yes are you a liar yes Do you lust after what others have yes That is what this man was saying If you think you can answer those any of those questions with a knife Then you're a liar But if you answer those questions with a yes if you come to the Father and say this is me and I'm bad You know what he loves that that's odd and we come to church all these years and we thought God was to hear that I'm good I mean which of us tries to come to church and look bad and yet that's what Jesus says That's what he loves this man comes to church and he looks bad. He said God I am bad And Jesus loves it one time Well it wasn't many times But one specific time I Failed to do what my father told me to do he had come and he told me to do something It was very important it needed to be done And I didn't do it and when it wasn't done when I didn't do it it made him look bad I was about ten years old And the day of reckoning came I knew you'd find out when he found out I knew it and the only thing I knew to do I was ten years old I feigned illness I was really sick Well somehow my dad knew I wasn't But I can't know we don't want to wipe figure that out It came to my bedroom. I'll never forget what he did he came to my bedroom And he sat on the side of my bed And he said John You did wrong Do you know what would please me more than anything? Now here's this gruff marine sitting on a bed I knew it was going to say it would please me more than anything just a Feet a living daylights out of you But he didn't say that I thought that's what he said but I shook my head and I said no, I don't know what would please you He said it would please me more than anything It would please me more than you could imagine to hear you say dad I did wrong And I'm sorry for not doing what you told me today people That's what God wants What did we read in Psalm 51 This morning in our call to worship God does not delight in sacrifices David said Elsa would give it the sacrifices of God or what we read this a broken heart A broken and contrite heart oh God you will not despise a heart that comes and says God and bad and Jesus loves it And our whole we were brought up in churches our whole thing was shaped that you go to church to be good And you go to church to tell I got our good you are not This man knew himself. He knew he was bad Secondly, he knew he was not better Look at verse 13 But the tax collector stood at a distance. He looked at this congregation and he said well, I can't be on the front right He looked at all his people if and he said I'm worse than all of them I've got to stand in the back You know Paul wrote I in the cheapest of sinners Now who believes that nursery and who believes that Paul was the worst man that ever lived the chief of sinners We want we read that and we think that is an hyperbole for you will miss people that's an exaggeration and but It's not a hyperbole if you cut Paul open Paul was looking around And he was saying of everybody I am the worst

There's no one on the sir And I can look at and say I'm better than he is

Wow Can you say that? Do you say I mean not just religiously but really say you know

People the longer I'm a Christian The more that I read this book It would not surprise me Who'd not surprise me at all if if someday I laid aside this robe and said I can't come and stand behind this puppet and speak anymore I just can't do it Because I feel like such a hypocrite because the more I know him the more I know how dark I really am The Alexander Solzenitson fought In the Second World War he had a friend that fought with him side by side They were good good friends and they were comrades and arms and after the war Solzenitson You know he was a man of character. He was a man. It stood for something was a man had a great standard He was put in jail after he was put in jail he became he became Christian His friend his friend became a member of the KGB And his friend actually became a torture a man tortured people for the KGB and At first Solzenitson looked at the sky and he said well, he was my friend. How could he do that? And then Solzenitson said himself and these are these were his own words These are his own thoughts. He said and then I looked on the inside of me

And I knew that that man was no different from me and that I could just as easily Have become what that man became Now if there's something inside of you that says no, I don't have the potential for that You may God have mercy on yourself

But the record of scripture is that he whacked Because you don't know yourself And you think you're good and you think you're better And you don't need his grace What is Solzenitson get that? He got it from the Bible. He got it from Christ The man knew himself this sinner. He knew he was bad. He knew he was not better and thirdly and finally he knew he needed God's grace Look at verse 13 But he beat his breast. That was a Mason hole He was emotional. He was desperate. He was going down for the third time. God have mercy You've ever been about to die and you really cry out. You're desperate

This was the cry of a dying man. This was a man who said I have nothing in my hands I have no hope. I have no help God saved me. It can only be by your grace Gordon weekly was pastor of the Providence Baptist Church in North Carolina He had come to the church and was a flourishing or when he had come to the church when it was small and struggling and under his ministry It had grown into a great and large flourishing congregation under the strain of the building programs Actually building buildings under the strain of enlarging the programs and the staff and the infrastructure The pressure had been too much and he began to take sleeping pills and he began to take pills to help him keep calm These pills were addictive They made him feel stronger. They made himself feel self-sufficient But as he lost weight as as he Seemed to lose touch the deacons became concerned and This minister who was pastor of one of the largest churches in North Carolina who had traveled to Africa with Billy Graham He's family seemed so perfect. This this pastor was in fact in reality a drug addict He was incomplete denial. He said no, I'm not

And he tried to keep on and he lost his congregation in his addiction He lost his family in his addiction. He lost his ministry lost his health and you know what this once great minister Became homeless and he was living in the streets All through those years of addiction. There was one common thread He was saying I'm in the driver's seat. I'm in control. I can quit anytime. I want to quit He would thought he said I'm no drunk. I am Gordon weekly Finally he broke Finally God broke through and he saw himself as he really was And he desperately cried out He had nothing to give God. He was empty handed. He couldn't say God. I'll give you my back robe I'll give you my ability to preach. I'll give you this. I'll give you that. He just said God. I don't have anything to give you It's all hopeless There's nothing good in me empty handed Sheath of sinners and he cried out for grace. You know, thanks. It's beginning dawn on me Look at the gospel Look on every page Who is that? That's always coming to Jesus on every page. Who is it? It's not the good Presbyterians and Episcopalians and so on. You know, look. Yes It's the thieves And it's the process and we say oh, isn't that sweet. You know, Jesus takes these down front as if we weren't a part of them People these were thieves These were prostitutes Samaritan prostitutes. They're the one read it. Go home and just pick a gospel read Matthew read Luke I don't care which one just read it It's a stale day It's the bad people and you know what There's only ones crying out God save me You know people looked at Gordon weekly as he was spiraling downward and you know what they thought they thought what a tragedy Look how worthless he has become. Well, you know, maybe that was the greatest thing that ever happened to him

Yeah, it was only way he really learned who he was

Maybe that's the only way that he really really became Desperate Maybe that was the only way he really realized Who he was The question before the house is morning is not Are you a sinner? The question is do you know? Do you know? There you are Do you?