CHRISTIANITY’S TOUGHEST COMPETITOR:
MORALISM
OBJECTIVES: “Churchy” people will be reminded of their need of God’s mercy and will repent of prideful attitudes.
“Nonchurchy” people will understand God’s promise to be close to the contrite in heart and will pour out their hearts to God.
INTRO: Bill Hybels tells the story about a time in his life when he was really into playing racquetball. I’ve always enjoyed playing racquetball, too, so when I heard him tell this story, I started listening immediately.
--started playing at a gym with a few buddies, increased to almost 5 times a wk.
--saw the sign advertising tournament [advanced, intermediate, recreational novice]
--enter “stubby”, 9th in recreational novice
--the decision to play, a gauge
--15-0.
--in locker room, you said you were 9th? what about if you played 1st?
--what about intermediate champion? what about advanced champion? what about professional?
Because of his limited experience in racquetball, Hybels had made a common mistake: He had vastly overestimated his own abilities. Because of his limited exposure to the wider world of racquetball players, he thought he was a much better player than in reality he was.
But if we think about it I’m sure we can all agree that this type of thinking goes on all around us. It isn’t just in athletics. It’s in the business world. It’s in the lives of people who haven’t yet met Jesus Christ. And, unfortunately, it’s found in Christians’ lives as well.
It happens when people fail to compare themselves with the perfect standard of God’s holiness and compare themselves with their peers. When this happens, moralism begins to surface in people’s lives. Now, for those of you taking notes, I am defining moralism in this way: basing your eternal security on your adherence to a moral code. In other words, moralism is the belief that, if you and I are basically decent people – and we act in moral ways, we’ll do alright in the final judgment of God. The danger in this view is that moralism is making other people our standard for comparison rather than God.
Jesus found this problem existed even in his day. And so he told a parable, which we find in Luke 18:9-14. It begins this way, “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax-collector.
Luke 18:9-14
9To 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. 11The 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. 12I 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."
a. Pharisee - put aside all you’ve ever heard about Pharisees and listen with the ears of someone in Jesus’ original audience. You see, if you’ve been a Christian for any length of time, you know that the Pharisees represent some of Jesus’ biggest opponents, and so you have probably inherited a negative impression of them. However, this is not the case for the people who originally heard this parable. Who were the Pharisees?
Pharisees were not professional clergy (like the Priests or scribes) they were laymen. But these laymen were extremely devoted to keeping the stringent interpretations of the Jewish law handed down to them by the scribes. The very name, “Pharisee”, means “separated one”, and they strove to keep themselves separated from the impurities of the secular world. Josephus, a Jewish historian in the 1st century, points out that they were very popular with the people of the day. These were good people, trying their hardest to stay pure in an impure world. Perhaps much like a good Promise Keeper today.
b. Tax-collector - whereas I asked you to rethink your perception of the Pharisee, your reaction to the mention of a tax-collector probably is not nearly as adverse as Jesus’ audience. Again, we who have read the New Testament know that Jesus spent time befriending tax-collectors, and our hearts have probably been a little softened toward them because of this. But not so those in 1st century Palestine.
Taxes such as tariffs, import duties, and customs fees were generally collected by Jews working for the Roman authorities. These tax collectors made their living by charging the citizens higher tax rates than Rome asked for, and pocketing the difference. By its very nature, this profession was rampant with dishonesty and corruption. Tax collectors were considered traitors for agreeing to work for the Romans, and they were ceremonially unclean because of their continued contact with Gentiles. In today’s world, perhaps only a pimp, making profits off of the degradation of others, can illicit the type of reaction in us that the tax-collector would have brought to Jesus’ hearers.
And so, in order to help us understand the reaction of Jesus’ original audience I’ve paraphrased today’s text, changing the Pharisee to a Promise Keeper, and the tax-collector to a pimp.
To those who were certain of their own place in the kingdom and felt smug about it Jesus told this parable:
Two men went to church one Sunday. One a Promise Keeper, the other a pimp.
As the time for prayer came, they both went up to pray. The Promise Keeper, having recently returned from another outstanding conference, complete with “The Wave” and the “We love Jesus yes we do, we love Jesus how about you” chant, stood at the front and prayed to himself, “Dear God, thank you that you have not made me like these other people up here - they must be liars, cheaters, adulterers, people stuck in the ruts of their sinful ways of life. I come to church every week, I’m involved in a small group Bible study, I’m an usher, and I give ten percent of my gross income.“
The pimp, on the other hand, having barely stumbled into the service after a late night of working the streets, kneeled in the corner, not wanting to be too noticed and not really knowing what to do or say. But not feeling the strength to even raise his eyes heavenward he cried out “God, have mercy on me - the worst sinner here.”
I tell you the truth, this one, more so than the first, went home having been made right with God. For everyone who congratulates themselves on their successes will be humbled, but those who humble themselves will be exalted.
Getting back to our theme of the dangers of moralism, we must ask ourselves, what was the Promise Keeper/Pharisee’s fatal flaw? Was it being a member of the organization. No. There was good aspects to being a Pharisee just as surely as it is a good thing to be involved in Promise Keepers.
So what was it? I propose that it was his focus for comparison that kept him from being justified (or made right) in God’s sight that day. He had taken his eyes off of God, the holy standard of perfection, and compared himself to other people. Even during his time of prayer, he looked around and found himself to be morally superior to the others who had come for prayer. These feeling are evident in his prayer of thanksgiving found in verse 11, “I thank you that I am not like other men.” Somehow this ultra-religious man lost sight of one of the central teachings of the Bible. That sin is sin.
There is no such thing as a “small sin” in God’s sight. Each time we commit an action that falls short of God’s perfect standard, that action is sin. When we know the right thing to do and fail to do it, James tells us, that is sin. It is you and me shaking our puny little fists at God and saying, “Forget it God! I’m going to be in charge down here!” And just like the Promise Keeper/Pharisee in our parable, we, much too often, are guilty of vastly underestimating the consequence of our sins, and all the while vastly overrating our moral goodness in God’s sight.
4. If you ever need a reminder of the fact that we can never earn our eternal life, try going through this little exercise. Grab a piece of paper and write “God” at the top of the page. This signifies that God is the most perfect, sinless, holy being in all of creation. At the bottom of the page, write the name of the person whom you think is the absolute worst of all history. (Hitler, Stalin, Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer) Now, you’re going to put where you think you rank morally in between God and that awful, horrible person. But, before you do, let’s put a couple more people on our graph to get some perspective. Who is the most holy person you can think of in our generation? Mother Teresa perhaps? I would agree. Here is a woman who has given up everything for so many years to bring God’s love to the poorest of the world’s poor people. I’ve heard that even after such a life of good works and service, Mother Teresa herself felt ashamed at how sinful she really was- at how much she had NOT done that she knew she could or should have done. So, I’m just guessing, but I’d think she would probably put her name right about there (just a bit above Dahmer). Or how about Billy Graham? He too has lived a lifetime of serving God, but still, he’d have to be somewhere around Mother Teresa, wouldn’t he?
Now, where are you going to place yourself on this chart? Probably somewhere south of Mother Teresa. This proves to illustrate Romans 3:23 which says “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” We could live our whole lives trying our best to keep ourselves morally pure, but which one of us could ever say that in the last 12 months we have NEVER told a lie. Or that we have never felt sexual lust in our hearts. Or that we have not hidden ANY PART of our income from the IRS.
You see, if we were to simply make one small tally mark on that paper for each time we have, in any way, fallen short of God’s perfection, the sheet would be completely filled with ink. Every one of us. Pharisees, tax-collectors, Promise Keepers, and pimps. It would make no difference what our external appearance looks like, whether we have “churchy” clothes, or are extremely active in serving the church. We can never bridge that gap of sin between ourselves and God.
That is why the tax collector’s/pimp’s simple prayer is so important. “God, have mercy on me a sinner.” The Bible is clear that there is one way for us to be cleansed from the sin that separates from God. It is not being a decent person or being active and faithful in our service in the church. It is simply this: Jesus Christ paid the penalty for our sins, so that our sheet of paper, marked up with all our sins, could be thrown away and forgotten. And when we simply come to him, like the tax collector, and cry “God, have mercy on me! I know I’m a sinner and I’m sorry. I need you to be the ultimate leader of my life.” Then we will be freed from the condemnation of sin.
Are you guilty of trying to use moralism to gain eternal life? I urge you this morning, in just a few moments, to pray with me to ask for God’s mercy to take effect in your life and enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Or are you, as a believer, guilty of forgetting your absolute need for God’s mercy in your life. I urge you to stop comparing yourself to other believers, and to once again turn your eyes upon Jesus. And worship Him for his incredible, ongoing, work of mercy in your life.
Or, perhaps you’re a person like the tax-collector in this story. You’re here to worship but you don’t quite feel worthy to do so. Be encouraged by what Jesus taught. If you recognize your need for God’s mercy, cry out for it, and in faith receive the gift of justification from God today!
Whoever you are, let’s go to God in prayer now. I encourage you to take whatever posture seems appropriate as you approach God.
Let ‘s pray.
