Luke 18.9-14

It was an event that some of us weren't born in time for, some of us were thoroughly caught up in, and some of us looked on with wise old eyes and admired the enthusiasm of the youngsters involved. It was 1985 and it was the first Live Aid Rock and Pop concert which brought many together to raise money to feed the starving, and Bono, [the lead singer of the band U2, remembers standing next to his idol Pete Townsend [from the Who]. [and just before he was about to go on stage] asked him 'are you nervous', and he just said 'don't be stupid, I'll only be nervous when I meet my maker'."

How will you feel when you meet your maker? How do you feel praying to him right now, or earlier on in the service or at home on your own or when you talk to him in the songs and hymns you sing?

We're going to find out more about how we should approach our maker - whether in prayer or on judgement day. Turn with me to the bottom of p740 in those blue Bibles. We've been looking at Luke in our sermons in the mornings these last few weeks and we have in mind that Jesus will return; the judge will come and how will he find us? Do you remember how last week's passage ended? Look with me two thirds of the way down the page Chapter 18 second half of v8 "…when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" " When Jesus returns will he find you having faith? When you stand before your maker how will you fare? What will you say to JUSTIFY your self? Will you say; "I've been good. I've not done x, y or z. I've not been as bad as him or her." ? or will you not try and justify yourself? Will you admit that there is nothing good in you - that you cannot stand before your maker and JUSTIFY yourself at all, not in the slightest?

Our passage this morning in Luke chapter 18 verse 9-14 is about being justified before your maker. In it Jesus tells a story and Luke records who Jesus tells it to and why he tells it. It's at the beginning and end of the story; v9 and v14

This story, this parable which Jesus told is about justification. It's about being justified.

Now do we know what Jesus means by justification, by being justified? Well consider some of the arguments you've had with someone or when you've disagreed with someone. Well I don't wish to raise bad memories but do you know the feeling where you try to, and feel you have to, justify yourself; where you are convinced that you are right and someone else thinks that you are wrong? Perhaps you felt you had to justify your actions; why you were right to take the course of action that you did or make that decision, whatever it was. Perhaps you had to have the last word. Either way, when you justify yourself you try and declare that you are in the right, that you are in the right to do whatever you did, that you are innocent, that you are not guilty and that no-one should call you into question. That's what justified means. Consider it in a court of Law where you stand accused of something you didn't do and finally the judge makes a judgment and declares you innocent; not guilty. You are justified. You are declared to be in the right; innocent.

This parable which Jesus tells is far more important than that. This isn't about being declared innocent in a human court of Law but before your maker, before the God who created you, the God who will judge you, the God who sees all your actions and hears all the things you've said and even knows the depths of your heart and your thoughts. God knows it all and this is about being declared innocent before him. Look again at v14

went home justified before God

It's the same word in v9 and v14. Justified means declared right; righteous.  Have a look at v9.

"To some who were confident of their own righteousness [their own declared rightness, their own innocent-ness before God] and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable:

They thought they were righteous - they were persuaded of their own righteousness. They were convinced of it. They thought they were righteous and they trusted in that as their means to be able to approach God. Let me say that again, they trusted in their own righteousness as their means to be able to approach God. They trusted in their godliness or their goodness.

How many of us here can really say we are innocent before God? The good news; the great news, the amazing stupendous news, is you can be justified NOW. He went home justified. Wouldn't you like that? To leave this building now justified; right with God, as innocent, as a Christian, saved, forgiven

So Jesus tells a story. He tells it to people who thought they were right with God and looked down on others, and it's a story about justification, about how to be right; how we can stand as innocent before God. And in the story Jesus contrasts two men. He particularly contrasts how they approach God in prayer. Now how you approach God in prayer says very much how you approach him full stop, and how you intend to be accepted by him.

So let's contrast the two prayers, but before we do we need to contrast the two pray-ers; the two men who pray. Let's read v10-13 

Now let's get this right. I don't know how many films you watch but with most films the good guys win. The good guy gets the bad guy. The good guy is victorious and the bad guy gets what's coming to him. He gets what he deserves. I went to watch the new James Bond film this week. Now I don't approve of Bond's lifestyle at all and to justify going to see it to one of my children I said "Bond isn't very good but he gets the bad guy." No shock there then. But this story that Jesus tells should shock us. The good guy doesn't go to heaven! The bad guy goes to heaven! This is a shocking reversal of expectations - bad guys can go to heaven. The first man was the good guy. The 2nd was the bad guy.

The first man was a Pharisee. Now I know that those of us who have read the bible quite a bit or been to Sunday School and heard about the Pharisees have got it ingrained us that whenever we hear the word Pharisee we give an internal pantomime "booooooo" because we know them as hypocrites. What they were like on the inside was very different from what they were like on the outside. But the Pharisees were amazingly good morally upright members of the community. They were more religiously devout than was required of them. They tithed more. They gave more money than was required. This man's fasting twice-a-week was more than was asked for in God's Old Testament Law and "The Pharisee also went beyond the Law's requirements in tithing. The Law prescribed that certain crops be tithed but it was a Pharisaic practice to tithe even garden herbs." The pharisees were good upstanding members of the community.

The Tax collector; now he was a different kettle of fish or even box of frogs, to mix my metaphors. You may know that the tax collectors were Jewish men who collected taxes from their fellow Jews for the Roman occupying forces. It was like a french man collecting tax from the French for the occupying German forces in World War two. It was betrayal of your countryman and it was brazen public traitorship. And what made it worse was that they could collect whatever tax they wanted and keep a commission. They had the job of taking as much tax as possible without tipping the balance and starting civic unrest. And do you know what I learnt recently? These Jewish men actually had to bid for this job. Fancy that. Mad. You can tell why the tax collectors weren't liked.

And Jesus compares them. Modern day examples would be like comparing Mother Teresa with Adolf Hitler or with the leader of ISIS. I mean imagine meeting Hitler in heaven. Imagine sitting next to a saved, forgiven and justified Hitler in Church right now, or Mira Hindley or the Kray twins. This is a shocking reversal of expectations. The good guy doesn't go to heaven! The bad guy goes to heaven! The point is that the way you enter God's kingdom, the way you get to heaven when you die, they way you can be friends with God now is shocking to this world's expectations. And its great news for everyone!

Now let's contrast the prayers they say. Have a look at v10-12 again. Is any of what he prayed a lie? No. What he said about himself was true! But in the first man's prayer there is no sense of need. No sense of need whatsoever! There's no sense of sin or contrition or confession. He thinks he's good enough. There's only boastful self-centredness accompanied by an uncharitable meanness to a fellow human being. The first guy prayed about himself.It was all about himself. Notice the number of "I"s in his prayer. It's all about him! The tax collector, however, he prays a brilliant prayer; one which the Lord approves of. One which the Lord likes. He does also mention himself in his prayer before God, but he came before God with the right self knowledge. He actually knew himself better than the Pharisee did. The Pharisee compared himself to other people and thought he was better. The tax collector compared himself to God and found himself wanting. Just like David in our Psalm 51 reading. He knows he is not good enough to be friends with God and the only thing he can do is ask for God's mercy. Do you know the same? Do you know that you're not good enough to be friends with God and the only thing you can do is ask for God's mercy?

My message to you this morning depends on what sort of person you are (I dont mean a good or a bad person) I mean whether you're a Christian or not. Whether you're justified already or not.

Firstly to the non-Christian, to the person who doesn't know if you're justified before God.
What have you got to show before God to Justify yourself? Nothing!
So what can you do to save yourself? Nothing. There's nothing you can do. You're helpless. There's nothing you can do. The only way you can be saved; the only way you can be justified is by what GOD can do! You must DEPEND 100% ON GOD'S MERCY - his kindness. It's like this - you're drowning and God picks you out of the water. It is NOT like this - you're drowning and God throws you a rope but you've got to have the strength to hold on to the rope! It's not like that.
You need to fling yourself on his mercy. In a moment we're going to sing a hymn which goes like this:

Thou must save, and Thou alone.Nothing in my hand I bring,Simply to Thy cross I cling;Naked, come to Thee for dress;Helpless, look to Thee for grace;Foul, I to the fountain fly;Wash me, Saviour, or I die.

The only thing we have going for us is that we know we have nothing going for us. It is Christ who died for us on the cross paying the price for the wrongs that you and I have done. It is through Christ ALONE (as we sung in our first song) that we can be saved, forgiven and justified.

If you're not sure or want to know more then you must join Christianity Explored course tomorrow night. And if you want to become a Christian right now - if you want to go home Justified right now then say this prayer in your hearts as I say it. I'm going to say "sorry - thank you and please" I'm going to say, "
"Dear God I'm sorry that I've ignored you and lived life my own way. Thank you for sending Jesus to be the way back to you and please have mercy on me and forgive me and make me right with you."
If you've prayed that prayer then that's amazing. It's the most important thing you've ever done in your entire life and your eternal destiny has just changed for ever! You are now justified and going to heaven. Pretty good hey? Please do tell someone as soon as possible. Maybe come and tell me over a cup of coffee after the service.

Now I'd like to talk to the Christian. Brothers and sisters if you do not come before God with contrite hearts recognising your own sin then you're wasting your time. In the Lord's prayer, which Jesus taught his disciples to pray, Jesus teaches us to ask for forgiveness. Now we have been forgiven past, present and future sins but the point here is that when you approach God in prayer, even thankfully that Jesus has taken our sin away and we stand with Christ's righteousness before him, do you, at that time, approach him contritely, like in or psalm 51 in v17, with a "broken spirit," a "broken and contrite heart" or do you approach him bounding along in playful puppy-like irreverent cluelessness about who you are approaching ? Yes he loves you and cares for you but do you forget who you are approaching. CS Lewis gets it right in his portrayal of Aslan in the Narnia stories - the children are fond of Aslan the Lion and love him and can put their fingers though is thick Golden mane, but they can only come close to him on his terms. And it is like that with God. Yes he loves you and cares for you but do you forget who you are approaching. He is a holy God. He says come close but on my terms.

Even though we may have grown in godliness over the years we must never lose sight of how bad we are. Have you lost sight of that; of how bad we are? I used to be an atheist and I called God every rude name I could think of and worse. When I first became a Christian; boy was I contrite. However now I'm 25 years on in my walk with the Lord and I've grown and matured and I don't do the things I did at first am I any LESS contrite? Am I any LESS sorry for my sin? No. Although I have grown in godliness since then I have also grown more aware of my sin, of how self-centred and unloving I am, and do you know what my prayer is regularly? "Please show me more of my sin." Yes it hurts me to know my sin but it hurts God that I do sin. Like in Psalm 51 does it brake your heart that you sin against your maker? It jolly well should do.

There's another thing that I need explain to Christians here this morning - Are you slipping back into trying to depend on your goodness to be right with God? Even if (and listen to the nuance here) even if you recognise that goodness or godliness is from God - 100% from God. Even if you know that you can't be good at all without God's help, are you holding out that God-given godliness as your basis for your justification before God, your rightness with God, your friendship with God? Let's briefly look back at the Pharisee to see what I mean. He was trusting in himself. Yes, he prayed about or to himself but, he his thanking God for his own righteousness. There's no getting away from it, he is thanking God. He is attributing his righteousness, his goodness, his godliness, to God - and that's a good thing. But, he was confident in trusting in his own righteousness. He thought his own righteousness (which God had given him) was what stood him in good stead before God. 

This is basically what he says: "I thank God for my godliness and it is my godliness which I present before God - it is this godliness that I present as the basis for my justification" No! As the book of James says, which we've been looking at in the evening services, works, godliness, obedience, good deeds are proof that your faith is alive and real and genuine; so works go hand in hand with faith. But what is it that justifies you? It is the faith. It is the trust in God, the trust in what God has done through Christ. It is Christ's righteousness imputed to us which is the basis of our justification NOT our increase in godliness.

There is an old heresy which is around at the moment; that you are good and on judgement day you show that goodness to God as the basis for which he justifies you on THAT DAY. NO! That's wrong for two reasons: It is Jesus's righteousness which we hold out as the reason why God can justify us AND we can be justified NOW - right NOW! Not "on that day" IF we've managed to be good enough. It's NOW!
When did the tax collector get justified; after he had lived a good life, after he had changed, after he had proved he was a Christian? NO. He went home justified that SAME DAY. And you and I can too. We can go home RIGHT NOW justified, right with God, declared innocent, perfect friends with Almighty God our maker! Praise him. Praise God for what he has done. Hallelujah!

In summary:
When you stand before your maker how will you fare? What will you say to JUSTIFY your self? Will you say; "I've been good. I've not done x, y or z. I've not been as bad as him or her." ? or will you not try and justify yourself? Will you admit that there is nothing good in you - that you cannot stand before your maker AND JUSTIFY yourself. Do you know that the only thing you can do is beg for mercy? His mercy.
When you stand before your maker - WHEN DO you stand before your maker? You stand before him right now, right now.
Lift yourself up before God and you will find yourself put back down. Lower yourself, acknowledge your sin before God, fling yourself on his mercy and he will raise you up, right now, today.