9. To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: 10. "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: God, I thank you that I am not like other men-robbers, evildoers, adulterers-or even like this tax collector. 12. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get. 13. "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. 14. "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."
One day, when I was setting down in the Park, a young man walked up to me while I was reading my Bible. This person shared with me that he had no faith in the Bible, and he said, I believe the Bible is nothing more then a book of escapes. I said, I agree with you, he said you do, I said yes I do. The Bible is a book of absolute escape, I said:
· People who read and believe the Bible can escape Sickness and Diseases, for the Bible said, “I am the Lord your God that heal all of your diseases”.
· People who read and believe the Bible can escape Death, for the Bible said, “He that believe in me shall not perish, but have everlasting life”.
· I said, people who read and believe the Bible can escape Loneliness, for God said, “I will never leave you, nor forsake you, even to the end of the world”.
· People who read and believe the Bible can escape Depression, for the Bible said, “for the joy of the Lord is my strength, rejoice and again I say rejoice”.
· People who read and believe the Bible can escape Fear, for the Bible said, “For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and a sound mind”.
· I said, those people who read and believe the Bible can escape Poverty, for the Bible said, “it is the Lord who gives of power, to get wealth”, “for the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want”.
· Those who read and believe the Bible can escape Addiction and every kind of Alcoholism and Drugs, for the Bible said, “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be delivered”.
· People who read and believe the Bible can escape Hell, for the Bible said, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins, and to cleans us from all unrighteousness”.
Then he looked at me and said, you know I don’t believe in hell, I said, sir I don’t care what you believe in, it’s still there and you’re still on your way. He turned as red as the shirt that he had on, and He said, you mean God can’t save me? I said no way, and he said why not, and I said, you’re so eager to go to hell with your atheistic ways, so go to it, and go for it. Don’t let the people, who read and believe the Bible stop you, it’s your thing, do what you want to do. Now here is a hypocrite, he said one thing and believed another.
Now the word Hypocrite means, “playacting”, it means you pretend to be one thing on Sunday, and Monday thru Saturday you’re something else. There are 2 kinds of hypocrite:
1. The 1st is the (Non Church Hypocrites) that said “I don’t need to go to church to know God”, let me ask you this:
· Why would God allow you to go to heaven, if you won’t come into his house of God on Sunday.
· Why would God allow you to go to heaven, if you still believe, you don’t need God.
· Why would God allow you to go to heaven, when you continue to curse your own brother and sister out in the Church.
· Why would God allow you to go to heaven, if you can’t stand all of that loud praising in the church.
· Why would God allow you to go to heaven, if you can’t stand people thanking God for all He done for them.
How are you going to stand being in heaven when God comes back? I mean all that singing, and all that praising, and all that Glory to God and stuff. I mean, if you would to go to heaven, you would be in hell. Thank about it, you see:
· They’re in darkness, you’re in the light
· They enjoy moral corruption, we’re the salt of the earth
· They’re of their father the devil, we serve the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the all knowing, all mighty, eternal God, who is from everlasting to everlasting, and there is none like Him. (Praise God)
Then the 2nd kind of hypocrite is exactly the opposite, they come to church on Sunday morning; they’re there Sunday night; and they’re at Bible Study, and they are bitter to the bone. They carry a King James Bible, and they can remember every bad thing that happened in the church since 1902. Let me tell you something, Jesus said, “He that does not have my spirit, is not mean”. This mean, if you don’t have the spirit of God, you’re of your father the devil.
· Jesus was a servant, are you?
· Jesus prayed all night, have you, would you? Some of you have not prayed for an hour all week
· Jesus fasted often, have you?
· Jesus washed the feet of His disciples, would you?
· Jesus Christ died for what He believed in, would you?
· The disciples died for what they stood for, would you?
You know the story about the girl in Columbine High School, when the trench coat mafia enter into the school and put a shotgun in the face of Cassie Bernail and asked her if she was a Christian, and she said yes, knowing what they might have done, and she still said yes, and they killed her for what she stood for. What would you stand for? Again I ask you, “Who Do You Think You Are”?
Jesus told the story of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, The Pharisee said he fast twice a day, he tithes all of which he have, in some years, up to 30% of his own money. Now Jesus is saying to you, “Except your righteousness exceed that of the Pharisee, you shall not inherit the kingdom of God, for prostitute and thieves shall inherit the kingdom before you do”.
Now here is the story of the Pharisee, Pharisee is a word that mean, “Separate”, they were separate from everybody else because they were so holy.
· They did not want to be infected by associating with other people
· They were conceded
· They were ignorant
· They were pompous people
· They were selfish, and they were certainly holier then thou
· They were judgmental
· They were legalist
· They were mean spiritual people, and some of them carried a sword by their side, and if you disagree with their spiritual doctrinal position, they would cut you to pieces, in love of course.
If you could image the Pharisee climbing the stairs to the synagogue, as he swagger back and forth down the center aisle, and he finds a perfect place, where he can be seen by everyone, and he put on his bounces peacock strut, and he’s not going to pray a prayer to God, but he’s going to make a public announcement about his goodness. He said this, “Lord, I thank you that I’m not like the other men, extortionist, unjust, adultery’s, or even, as this lonesome publican here”. Today we would laugh at people like that, but then again, we dare not, because we might be laughing at ourselves.
Because in every church today, there are Pharisees in them, there are people who separate themselves from everyone else because they consider themselves so spiritually elite from everyone else. They’re deep, real deep, they are so deep that they can’t understand where they are, and they can’t understand what they believe.
Let me tell you something, God called me to preach to lost sheep, not search for submarines, and if you’re in something so deep, that you can’t explain it, by the yea, and the Amen of the word of God, your on the wrong track. There are many types of Pharisees, here are 2 types:
* There are Racial Pharisees, people who don’t want to associate with another people because of the color of their skin. Let me tell you something, we are saving souls here and not skins. There is no white church; no brown church; no black church, or no yellow church, there is only the blood bought church of Jesus Christ, and if that don’t strike you just right, hit the door.
* Then there are Social Pharisees, if you live in the right neighborhood; if you drive the right kind of car; if you have the right kind of education; or if you have the right kind of clothes, we would love to associate with you, but since you don’t, we can’t. Let me tell you something that stinks in the nostril of God. If someone come in this church, and sit down beside you in blue jeans, and they reaps of alcohol, don’t you dare say anything to them, you treat them like a child of God, because the Prince of Glory died for them too. (Give God some Praise)
Now there are many other types of Pharisee in the world, and I’m not going to go through anymore, but I am going to give you 8 ways to know if you have a Pharisee spirit:
1st you are a Pharisee when you lack the ability to receive correction, the Bible clearly portrays the wise men in the scripture as one who is eager to receive correction. For the Proverb said, “iron sharpen iron, but a rebuke person who has a religious spirit, rebuke a Pharisee who’s saturated in his own ego, and the god of self, and he or she will get angry. They will become defensive; they will be resentful, and they will be rebellious, they will even say something like this, “I’m leaving this church, and I’m leaving right now”. Let me tell you something, when you get too big to receive correction, you’re too big for God to use.
2ndly, you are a Pharisee when you boost, quote “I only listen to God, not to man”. When you open the word of God, the principle of spiritual authority is taught in the scripture, the Bible commands us to submit to one another. Hebrews 13:17 said, “obey your spiritual leaders, and be willing to do what they stay, for their work is to watch over your souls, and God will judge them, for how they do this”. Listen to 1 Peter 5:5, “like wise, you younger people, submit yourself to the elders of the church, yes all of you be submissive one to the other, for God resist the proud”. Pharisees hate spiritual authority; they don’t want to be accountable to anyone.
3rdly, you are a Pharisee when you have an inclination to see the wrong in other people, the scripture I have read in your hearing today said, “they despise others”, hear me, fault finding is not a fruit of the Holy Spirit, it is a demon spirit from hell itself. We’re not here to find fault in others; we’re here to follow Jesus Christ. The pattern of hell is to bring the criticism and shame of mistakes made in the past. You need to remember that Satan is the accuser of the brethren, and if there is something that is within you that enjoys going back through someone’s past, and rehearsing every bad thing they ever did, you are doing the work of the devil himself, and you’re not a child of God, you are a child of hell. I don’t care if you are carrying a King James Bible or if you are a Deacon, Minister, or any other leader in the church, you’re not saved.
4thly, you are a Pharisee when you feel you’ve been appointed to fix others, Jesus said, “we cannot fix others because of the beam in our own eye”, Paul said, “who are you to judge another, for by his own master does he arise or stand”. When you stand before God on Judgment Day, you’re not going to answer for me, and I’m not going to answer for you. God is going to ask me about my life, and He’s going to ask you about yours.
5thly, you are a Pharisee when you feel you are closer to God then other people, the Pharisee pray, “Lord I think you that I’m not like other people”, that’s demonic pride. That’s the spirit that was in Lucifer, when he went before God, before the earth was created and said, “I will be like God, I will ascend in the hill of God, and I’m going to replace God”, and that’s when he became the Devil. That’s why the Bible said, “Pride goes before a fall”. And that’s the foundation of ever Pharisee, egotistical pride.
6thly, you are a Pharisee when your prayer life become mechanical, the Pharisee prayer life in this story was a performance, it was not a expression of passion, it was simply a performance. He sought the perfect place of prayer; he sought the perfect position of prayer; and he made a proclamation of prayer, which was nothing about God, it was an announcement of his goodness. He forgot the purpose of prayer, listen to me, prayer is not telling God how to do your will, prayer is getting you ready to do Gods will.
7thly, you are a Pharisee when you want recognition for what you do in the kingdom of God, the Pharisee boosted, I tithe; I fast, and don’t you forget it, and that was his attitude. I brought hotdogs and hamburgers to the church picnic, and you misspelled my name in the church newsletter, that’s a Pharisee.
8thly, you are a Pharisee when you have a critical spirit of the Holy Spirit and His manifestations, let me remind you of something, I hear Christians doing this often, they refer to the Holy Spirit as “it”. The Holy Spirit is not an it, the Holy Spirit is “GOD”. He is God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and when you belittle the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, you are belittling the God head, and God the Holy Spirit wants you to have a relationship you can’t control.
Listen to this, Pharisee have to have a religion they can control, they have to get God in a box, and dare not let God get out of the box, because He might want them to do something they have never done before. But when you have an experience with the Holy Spirit, driven by wind and fire, it would be something of a passion that will consume your soul. It will burn the corruption out of your life, and make you a new born Christian, and you will begin to speak and act like you’re never done before. There will be a Holy passion in your bones that hell can’t put out, and that’s what God is looking for. (Give God the Praise)
Now let’s meet the Publican, he’s a Tax Collector, he’s a Jew who works for Rome on a percentage, this is how that works. Historically, Rome, when they want to collect a certain amount of taxes from a given district, they would come to a man, and make him a publican, that’s a (Tax Collector). Some of you are not getting it, say (IRS), now multiply by 100 %, now I think you got it. And they said to this man, we want this many dollars out of this district, anything you get over that is yours, and they always extorted their own people. So they had betrayed their fellow Jews to the Roman Government, and most of them were extortionist. The worst of the worst, let me tell you how bad it was. If a Jewish man was walking down the street, and happen to touch a tax collector, he would do these 3 things immediately:
1. He would spit instantly, to express his disgust for touching him.
2. Then he would go home and burn his clothes, everything that he had on when he touched that man.
3. Then he would take a scalding hot bath; to purify himself, to get over the varmint he just touched, they did not like them.
Now notice the Publicans prayer, the Bible said, “he stood afar off, this was not a show, this was between himself and God. It was not a performance, this was a gut wrenching confessing of the sin that was in his life. The Bible said, he would not even lift his eyes to heaven, because he felt unworthy to look at God in the face. And then he said, “Lord, be merciful to me a sinner”, that’s how it reads in the King James Version, but in the Greek text it reads, “God be merciful to me “the” sinner”. I’m not just a sinner; but I’m the worst of the worst. And then he used the word mercy, it’s not the normal Greek word for mercy, this Greek word for mercy means, he’s pleading for the (Blood Atonement). He’s praying a pray that is far over his head, as far as he know what he is saying. He’s praying for the High Priest to take the blood of the escape goat, and sprinkle it over the gold covered mercy seat, of the Art of the Covenant, and for God to have mercy on him.
Now follow this carefully, the Ark of the Covenant held the 10 Commandments which represents the Law, and I say this to you, you can’t know the Love of God, until you know the Law of God, and according to the law, this tax collector deserve death, but he was pleading for mercy. Now listen, when the High Priest sprinkled the blood of the escape goat on the (Mercy Seat), God in Heaven looked down, and before He could see the Law that said death in the Ark, He had to look through the blood, and the blood guarantee that this person would receive mercy. I’m saying to those of you who are here, and here, and here, I don’t care how much you sin; I don’t care how sorry you are for sins, if you would just ask God for mercy today, the blood of Calvary guarantees that God will give you mercy. He will give you forgiveness; He will give you a new beginning; He will give you a new life, and He will give you a new name, written down in glory, and a joy that will last forever and ever. (Give God Praise)
Finally and Closing, Jesus ended the story, with an anomaly, because the Kingdom of God defies common logic. “He that is abased shall be exalted”, by lowing yourself; you rise to your highest potential. You see, that does not compute in the mind of a Pharisee, but it is the Law in the Kingdom of God. John the Baptist said, “He must increase, and I must decrease”, by taking last place, you receive first place. That’s not the logic of the world, but it is Gods. Through death comes life; by giving, you have great gain; through the cross, you gain the crown. The Pharisee left the church a sinner, and the sinner left the church a saint, why, because of the mercy and the forgiveness of God. And I ask you this morning, where are you in this picture, are you off somewhere with your Pharisee acting self, saying, “I think you God, I’m not like the other people”, or are you on the other side saying, “God be merciful to me, the sinner”, the worst of the worst. You’re one of these two, Jesus guarantees it. (AMEN)
