“How Do You See Yourself?”
Luke 18:10-13
When you look into a mirror what do you see? How do you see yourself? Few of us look in the mirror and come to the conclusion of Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Namath. During his heyday as a player, Namath wrote a book titled I Can’t Wait Until Tomorrow...’Cause I Get Better-Looking Every Day. One survey revealed that more than half of us want to alter our tonnage. Another 32% want to doctor our bodies, age, or intelligence. A fifth of us would love to change our height or hair. 13% of American women consider themselves pretty. 28% of American men think themselves handsome.
But more importantly, how do you see yourself in relation to God and eternity? Two men a Pharisee and a Publican approach God in prayer. How they approach God is based on how they see themselves. One sees himself using the standards of the world. The other sees himself as God sees him. A right view of who and what we are is essential to a right relationship with God.
I. How Man sees himself
A. Luke 13:11-12 “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.”
B. The Pharisee does three things:
1. He says he’s satisfied with the way he is. He feels he is ok.
2. Proverbs 21:2 “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes.”
3. He compares himself to others. His attitude is - I am not as bad as other people I know. There are a lot of church people who do a lot worse things than I do. I think God would have to say even though I’m not perfect I’m still ok.
4. Quite often self-righteous people tend to justify themselves by blaming or deflecting to others. Self-righteous people believe that they can be good enough in ourselves to qualify for heaven.
5. They may even believe as Anne Frank who while in hiding from the Nazis in Holland wrote on the pages of her famous diary, “in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.”
6. Proverbs 20:6a “Most men will proclaim everyone his own goodness.
7. He points to his “good” works.
8. Matthew 19:16 “And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?”
9. During an edition of the news program 60 Minutes, Dan Rather interviewed Jack Welch, the outspoken former CEO of General Electric. At the end of the interview, Rather asked Welch, “What’s the toughest question you have ever been asked?” Welch replied, “Do you think you’ll go to Heaven?” When asked how he had answered that question, Welch said, “It’s a long answer, but I said that if caring about people, if giving it your all, if being a great friend counts—despite the fact that I’ve been divorced a couple of times, and no one’s proud of that. I haven’t done everything right all the time. I think I got a shot. I’m in no hurry to get there and to find out any time soon.”
C. Romans 12:3 “For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think (ESV - Don’t think you are better than you really are), but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.”
II. How God sees man
A. 1 Samuel 16:7b “the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
B. How God sees man is seen in the simplistic words of the publican.
C. Luke 18:13 “the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.”
D. Psalm 14:2-3 “The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”
E. God sees man as failing to measure up to His standard – Jesus Christ and therefore as Romans 3:23 states man “comes short of the glory of God.”
F. God sees man at war with God
1. Romans 8:7 “"The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be"
2. Psalm 14:1 “The fool has said in his heart “There is no God.” – Can be translated literally “The fool has said in his heart “No God.”
3. This is seen in the rebellious attitude where you and I reserve for ourselves the right to make final decisions I our lives.
G. God sees man separated from Him.
1. Psalm 14:3 “They are all gone aside.”
2. Isaiah 59:2 “"Your iniquities have separated between you and your God"
3. God created man to have union and fellowship with Him but our sins have hidden His face from us.
4. Ephesians 2:12 describing those outside of Christ as “being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.”
III. Man’s dilemma
A. We are sinful –
1. Romans 3:9, 23 “we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin… For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
2. It’s worth noting that the preposition “under” (hupo) is a military term that means to be under the authority of someone or something else. It was used for soldiers who were under the authority of a commanding officer. In this context, it means that the human race is dominated by sin. We’re under its power. The phrase “under sin” implies that we were born sinful and then began willfully choosing to sin from infancy.
B. We Are Totally Depraved
1. Our character is depraved.
a. Romans 3:10-12 “as it is written, ‘There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one.
b. Choice determines character – man choice of disobedience over obedience to God has indelibly marked his heart as corrupt
c. Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it.”
2. Our conversation is depraved.
a. Someone has said “We betray our character by our speech. The heart blazes the way, and the mouth follows.”
b. Isaiah 6:5 said “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.”
3. Our conduct is depraved.
a. Romans 3:12b “…they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”
b. Isaiah 64:6 “But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags”
C. We Are Helplessly Lost
1. As stated before Ephesians 2:12 describing those outside of Christ as “being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, HAVING NO HOPE, and without God in the world.”
2. Ephesians 2:5 and Colossians 2:13 declare “we were dead in trespasses.
IV. God’s solution
A. The Amazing Grace of God
B. Grace is the very opposite of merit... Grace is not only undeserved favor, but it is favor shown to the one who has deserved the very opposite. - Harry Ironside
C. We do not deserve grace; we do deserve hell.
D. Romans 5:6-10 “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”
E. Ephesians 2:4-10 “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”
F. From A to Z our salvation is ALL by and through the GRACE of God.
G. It’s by His infinite grace alone that we are saved, not by moral character, works of righteousness, commandment-keeping, or churchgoing. We are saved by His grace.
H. Naught have I gotten but what I received;
Grace hath bestowed it since I have believed;
Boasting excluded, pride I abase;
I’m only a sinner, saved by grace!
Once I was foolish, and sin ruled my heart,
Causing my footsteps from God to depart;
Jesus hath found me, happy my case;
I now am a sinner, saved by grace
Tears unavailing, no merit had I;
Mercy had saved me, or else I must die;
Sin had alarmed me fearing God’s face;
But now I’m a sinner saved by grace!
Suffer a sinner whose heart overflows,
Loving his Savior to tell what he knows;
Once more to tell it would I embrace —
I’m only a sinner saved by grace!
Refrain: Only a sinner, saved by grace!
Only a sinner, saved by grace!
This is my story, to God be the glory—
I’m only a sinner, saved by grace! – James M Gray
