In Whom Do You Trust for Justification?

**Joshua Kirstine** (0:00)
Good morning, Disciples family. We're in for a treat today, church. Grab your Bibles and turn with me to the Gospel of Luke. God's Word is so good. Been just so enjoying my preparation and prayer for this sermon. Today, we find ourselves in one of the passages of Luke's Gospel account, one of the passages of Holy Scripture, one of the most important and referenced parables that Jesus taught. And I pray, and I've been praying, that it is good news for your soul, church. Helpful for your abandoning the things that you once clung so tightly to, that you would be able to cling to Christ alone. Before we go further, I want to ask you a question to consider, and then I want to read our passage in its entirety. Let me ask you this morning to take some inventory, personal inventory, and seriously consider, what are you doing well in life lately?
What are you doing well in your faith walk lately? What are things that you say to yourself, hey, you do that one pretty good.
What are temptations and sins that you feel that you are avoiding well?
The question and contemplation is not intended to just ask you to identify where there is fruit of God honoring righteousness in your life. For the true believer in Jesus, there will be much of that. No, my hope is that you would begin to consider with me this morning. To what degree do you rest in and trust in your successes and strengths instead of in Christ alone? This is fundamentally what we must do business with today. And I believe if we come to it as Justin prayed, truly humble and open for the spirit to move, today could be a very transforming day for many. Look at our pastors this morning with me. It's found in Luke 18, 9-14. He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves, that they were righteous and treated others with contempt. Two men went up into the temple to pray. One a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee standing by himself prayed thus, God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and I give ties of all that I get. But the tax collector standing far off would not even lift his eyes to heaven. He 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, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. Church, notice right away, the parable comes to its climax in verse 14 Jesus says, in his application of it, I tell you, this man went down to his house justified. The title of today's sermon is, In Whom Do You Trust for Justification? It's a critical question that every person must do proper business with. And so with that and much to cover, let's dive in. See with me first the setting. Luke says in verse 9, He also told this parable, the some who trusted in themselves, that they were righteous and treat others with contempt. The people Jesus aims to warn with this parable are the self-righteous. The words, some who trusted in themselves, alludes to a kind of person who lives in a misdirected state of self-confidence. People like this are convinced that they, on their own terms and merits, are acceptable to God. I want you to see that people think this way, are not necessarily religious. They're not necessarily pious. But I think much of mankind generally thinks that their merits are good enough to be accepted by God. To help us consider this, Percy Sproul wrote a testimony about some early days of his ministry, a minister of evangelism. And in this task, he led 200 people into the community every Tuesday night to visit people in their homes to present the gospel to them. And he said they used common diagnostic questions to get gospel conversations going. The key question they asked was, suppose you were to die tonight and stand before God. And God asked, why should I let you into my heaven? What would you say? He said 90% of people gave some kind of work, works righteousness in their answer. They would say, I tried to live a good life. Or they said, I went to church every Sunday. Or they said, I tithe my income faithfully. Or they said, I've done many good things in my life. And RC reported that 90% of the people they talked to answered they were essentially trusting in their own righteousness to get them then. He added a funny insight, but not so funny. He says the worst answer he ever got was from his young son. He asked his five year old son one day, son, if you were to die tonight and stand before God and ask God, why should I let you into my heaven? What would you say? His son answered, because I'm dead.