He Taught Them Many Parables… (The Pharisee And The Publican) # 20

Our courts are backed up for years, and most of them are due to relationship problems. For example:

(1) WE HAVE MARRIAGE RELATIONSHIP PROBLEMS

When we see the way some husbands and wives act towards each other, it is hard to believe that at one time they stood at the sacred altar before God and man, and declared their love for each other in holy matrimony.

They should not have gotten married by the Justice of Peace, but by the Secretary of War!

Illus: Someone said, “Marriage is when a man and woman become as one; the trouble starts when they try to decide which one.”

We have marriage relationship problems in this country. But also-

(2) WE HAVE NEIGHBOR RELATIONSHIP PROBLEMS

So often, someone in the neighborhood does something to cause the other neighbors to become angry. They can not understand what they have done to cause their neighbor to be so angry with them.

Illus: Donald MacDonald, from the Isle of Skye, went to study at an English university and was living in the hall of residence with all the other students there.

After he had been there a month, his mother came to visit him. She said to him, "And how do you find the English students, Donald?" "Mother," he replied, "they're such terrible, noisy people.

• The one on that side keeps banging his fist on the wall and won't stop.

• The one on the other side screams and screams all night."

“Oh Donald! How do you manage to put up with these awful noisy English neighbors?" "Mother, I do nothing. I just ignore them. I just stay here quietly in my room and I play my bagpipes."

Listen, any time you have people living together, working together, and worshipping together, you are going to have some serious relationship problems.

It is because of relationships that the Lord Jesus tells us this parable.

This is a story about a Pharisee and a Publican. Let’s look at:

I. THE PHARISEE

The Pharisees were the religious “Snobs” of their day. That is, these were very PROUD PEOPLE.

We can see this in this parable that the Lord is telling us.

Look at Luke 18: 9-12, we read, “And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.”

You do not have to ask a PROUD PERSON TO TELL YOU ANYTHING ABOUT THEMSELVES, they are going to tell you how great they think they are, even if you don’t want to hear it.

The parable of the Pharisee and the Publican was directed at those guilty of having two problems.

Look at Luke 18:9, we read they,

(1) “…Trusted in themselves that they were righteous,”

(2) “…and despised others"

Pride appears in many forms. Some of the more common appearances that we see pride on display, are in:

• Racial pride

• Spiritual pride

• Wealth pride

• Social pride

• Intellectual pride

The Pharisees were people who were so sure they were doing everything right spiritually, that they failed to notice their beliefs were taking them in the wrong direction.

During the time that Jesus walked the earth, the Pharisees were so sure they had the right spiritual understanding of everything, that their pride prevented them from recognizing Jesus as their long-awaited Messiah.

It was difficult for them to accept a Messiah that was only a carpenter’s son.

They were very proud people.

WHAT IS PRIDE?

Illus: Someone said, “Pride is an opinion of oneself that is too high; vanity.”

Illus: Holman’s Bible Dictionary has this to say about pride. It is, “Undue confidence in and attention to one's own skills, accomplishments, state, possessions, or position… Some of the synonyms for pride include arrogance, presumption, conceit, self-satisfaction, boasting, and high-mindedness. It is the opposite of humility, the proper attitude one should have in relation to God.

• Pride is rebellion against God, because it attributes to self the honor and glory due to God alone

• Proud persons do not think it necessary to ask forgiveness because they do not admit their sinful condition

• This attitude toward God finds expression in one's attitude toward others, often causing people to have a low estimate of the ability and worth of others, and therefore to treat them with either contempt or cruelty

Some have considered pride to be the root and essence of sin. Others consider it to be sin in its final form. In either case, it is a grievous sin.” (Holman’s Bible Dictionary)