Justified

Hey, good morning, church family. People don't grow unless they have an opportunity to grow. That's why over the last dozen or so years, we've been doing what we call Speaker Development Day here at The Chapel. It's an opportunity for people who don't normally get to speak in the church gathered in the worship environment, an opportunity to grow in that area. Now, it doesn't mean that we're saying that all of them are going to be doing preaching pastoral ministry for their whole life. It's just an additional opportunity for them to grow. And I know that you are such a gracious church, and that you are going to pray for them, and you're going to encourage them and you're going to welcome them in the Lord because that's how you are. That's the kind of people that I know you to be. So here at the Crosspoint campus, we have the privilege of hearing from Jon Stanke, who is the campus director of our Cheektowaga campus. Now, not only is he gonna be speaking live here at our Crosspoint campus, but he's also going to be streamed back to the Cheektowaga campus so that they can celebrate that as a family as well. So he and his wife, Carrie, and their family, wonderful part of our church, you're gonna enjoy listening to Jon. So would you join me in giving a great big welcome to Jon Stanke?

- Well, thank you guys so much for that gracious, gracious welcome. I can say that it is amazing to be here today because I see a lot of familiar faces that I don't normally get to see on a Sunday morning since, as Pastor Jerry said, I'm at Cheektowaga. So I'm grateful to be here with you today, and I wanna welcome those of you who are watching online, and a special shout out to my Cheektowaga family. I love you guys and I'm so excited to open the word of God with everybody here today. Now, I grew up in a town called Massillon, Ohio. And the group of friends that I was a part of, I mean we had this hangout house where we were at all the time. So whether that was after football practice, or Friday nights, or the weekends, or every single day throughout the summer, you for sure would be able to find at least someone from my group of friends at this house. Now, just so you can get a glimpse into my upbringing, I wanna show you a picture of this house that I spent the majority of my adolescence, pretty much from like sixth grade all the way to my senior year, and maybe even a little bit beyond. You could find us here at this place. Now, if you look at it, it looks like a pretty nice house on the outside. But what I'll say is, my group of friends, we created a lot of destruction on the inside of this thing. See, the reason why this house was our hangout house is because it was very rare that there was adult supervision there. And as you can imagine, a bunch of rambunctious student athletes having a house to their own, yeah, that led to a lot of destruction inside, like broken lamps, broken picture frames. And the group that I ran with, half of them played basketball, and the other half were wrestlers. So we had to answer that question. Who would win in a match out of a basketball player and a wrestler? I'll just tell you guys right now that it was the wrestlers that won, but there was some collateral damage with that, like hitting the drywall like with a back and it would maybe dent it a little bit. And these ones weren't that bad because we could cover that up by moving a picture frame, maybe moving the coat rack over just a little bit. But it was the holes that penetrated drywall. If a foot went through, that really like scared us 'cause we didn't wanna be in bad grace with my friend Jason's mom, Jenny. So what we would do is maybe ball up some socks and put some duct tape over there and try to match the paint. But needless to say, let me just say that this does not work. See, what we tried to do is we tried to make that look good on the outside so that way we could be in good standing with Jason's mom, Jenny, even though it was still broken on the inside. And believe it or not, this is the same mentality that the majority of adults in the United States have when it comes to being in a right relationship with God. Dr. Tracy Munseal, executive director of the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University recorded this data five short years ago in 2020, and here's what it says. Unlike past generations of Americans who readily recognize the reality of sin and the need for salvation through Jesus Christ, US adults today adopt a salvation-can-be-earned perspective with a majority, 48%, believing that if a person is generally good or does good enough things during their life, they will earn a place in heaven. Well, ladies and gentlemen, this reality of earning our way into heaven with our own self efforts or our own self-righteousness does not align with the truth in the word of God. Now, it might make us look good on the outside, but it doesn't truly fix the fact that our sin severs our relationship with God. To be in a right relationship, God, we have to humble ourselves. We have to ask for mercy and ask for forgiveness. And we will learn this truth today as we open up our Bibles together and we read through Luke 18. So if you have your Bible, go ahead and open that up to Luke chapter 18. If you need a Bible, visit the Connection Center after church because we would love to put a Bible in your hand. But today we're gonna read Luke 18. We're gonna be primarily focusing on verses nine through 14. And before we read the word of God, allow me to pray for us. Father, we love you. Lord, we just pray that you would open our minds, our hearts, our ears that we might hear from you today. Lord, help us to each leave here changed, molded more into your image. We love you Jesus, and pray these things in your precious name. Amen. All right, if you could just read along with me. Luke 18:9-14. To some who were confident of their own righteousness and look down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, "God, I thank you that I'm not like other people, robbers, evil doers, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a 10th of all I get." 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." I tell you that this man rather than the other went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. So this is a parable that Jesus told in Luke 18, and a parable was meant to drive home the main point to the listeners. And in this case, what we see rise out of the scripture is the fact that self-righteousness does not equal justification. So if you're a note taker and you wanna write that down, that's the main point of this, that self-righteousness does not lead to justification, but it is in our humility, our awareness of our sin, and having a repentant heart that makes us right with God. Now as you read through Luke, Luke often records the audience who Jesus is addressing in his parables. And it might look something like this, "One day, Jesus said to the disciples," or "a Pharisee asked Jesus and he said," or "Jesus said to the crowds." But our text today doesn't say that. So let's see who Jesus is addressing. Let's go ahead and look again at verse nine. To some who were confident in their own righteousness and look down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable. Now, there is a high probability that this might have been directed to the religious leaders of that day, the Pharisees, but this is a broad statement, and it could have been applicable to more people then. And let me tell you this, that for sure it is definitely applicable in our lives today. And maybe some of you are here, and you've been trusting in your own self-righteousness, your own good deeds to get you into a right relationship with God, to spend eternity with him. But as we see in this parable, it didn't work out too good for the Pharisee, but the tax collector, he asked for mercy. He humbled himself before God. And if you are here today and you've yet to humble yourself before God and ask him for mercy, then maybe today is the day that you take that step, you make that decision which will change your life, not only now, but for all eternity. So we know who Jesus is addressing in the parable, but now let's take a look at these characters. Verse 10. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. Now, in this parable, these men for sure had one thing in common at least, and that was the fact that they went up to the temple to pray. But other than that, it's a very clear contrast. You see, in using a parable with a tax collector and a Pharisee, that would be like me telling you this story. There was a Buffalo Bills fan and a Kansas City Chiefs fan, and they get into an elevator, and they take it up to the 33rd floor of a skyscraper. So you have this disdain towards one another. Actually, we love everyone, right, guys? But, hey, speaking of the Chiefs, man, November 4th, 4:25, the big game. I see a Bill's victory that day. And the cool thing is, like I said, it starts at 4:25, which means each and every one of you guys can actually be at church that day. So moving on. So Pharisees were were very, very strict at observing the Jewish law. And they thought that living moral lives and following the law would actually put them in a good standing with God. See, they lived their lives to put a public show on for everybody to see. They paraded around to just show everybody how holy they were. And they loved, they loved to show this righteousness outwardly. Now these words won't be on the screen for you, but Jesus says this in Matthew 23:5, here's what he says. "Everything they do is done for people to see. They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long." See, these folks were so self-righteous and so prideful. The tax collectors on the other hand, way different. Tax collectors were despised. They were hated by their own people because they ripped off their fellow Israelites by working for the enemy, the Roman government, who actually put the Israelites in oppression. And not only that, but they took the taxes from the Romans, but they also took a little bit extra so they could line their own pockets. So as you could imagine, they were not looked at very good by their fellow people. But once again, Jesus uses the paradox of the kingdom of heaven that those who humble themselves will be exalted, like the tax collector and the story. And those who exalt themselves will be humbled like the Pharisee. You see, guys, look, our self-righteousness does not get us in a right standing with God and it never will. God looks at our heart. He sees past the patch that we use to make ourselves look good and cover things up, but he ultimately knows what goes on in our minds and our hearts. So Jesus taught this parable to his listeners then, and I think we can learn a few things from this parable today. And the first thing is this, it's that self-righteousness produces pride. We look at the first part of verse 11. Here's what it says. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed. So this man went up to the temple which represented the presence of God and he stood by himself and prayed. Now, if you look in your Bible, you might possibly have a footnote that says he prayed to himself. As I was studying this text, I read it in many different translations, and there is actually a translation that flat out says he prayed to himself. See, he did not approach God with a humble or a contrite heart. He went and stood. I can picture him just walking up to the temple, robe flowing, walking right to the front of the temple, right in front of the Holy of Holies, praying nice and loud for everybody to see. As I was preparing this, I couldn't help but think of my grandma. She was the most humble lady who I knew of, and she passed away in 2013, so went home to be with Jesus, but she would always sing this song. And I'm like, "Grandma, where does that come from?" But it came out in the 1980s and I'm gonna give it a shot. Here's how it went. ♪ Lord, I find it hard to be humble ♪ ♪ When I'm perfect in every way ♪ ♪ I can't wait to look in the mirror ♪ ♪ 'Cause I get better looking each day ♪ Now, I'm probably not as good as the original. That's right. But if this guy was alive, the Pharisee was alive, then I just wonder if that would've maybe been his favorite song that he would be singing as he looks in the mirror. See self-righteousness, it leads to pride. And when we allow pride to infiltrate our lives, we are blinded to our own brokenness and our desperate need for a savior. It causes us to think too highly of ourself, but it also causes us to judge other people and to compare ourselves to other people. See, not only does self-righteousness produce pride, but it also produces comparison. Read the second part of verse 11. Here's what it says. "God, I thank you that I'm not like other people, robbers, evil doers, adulterers, or even like this tax collector." Folks, the comparison game, it's very dangerous. And it's dangerous because we're comparing ourself to other broken sinners. And when we do that, it puts a veil in front of our eyes to where we can't see our own desperate need for a savior. We're blind to that because we're looking at yet another sinner. So what really are we doing when we compare ourselves, that your sin is worse than my sin? No, no sin makes it a level playing field. See, we have one standard to compare ourselves to, and that is the holiness of God who is perfect and he is without blemish. And Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, God's Son, He is the only one who could ever live up to this holy standard and live his life without sin. Jesus is the one who we should compare ourself to, and we will never measure up. But this Pharisee, he elevated himself with a I-am-better-than mentality. See this moral man so prideful on keeping every letter of the law, he actually violated the law in doing so. In Matthew 22, a teacher of the law came to Jesus and asked him, "What is the greatest command?" And Jesus said, "To love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength." And the second is like it, to love your neighbor as yourself. So instead of loving others, this man condemned them, he judged them, he compared himself to them. See, what he did was he looked at their actions, but he totally forgot about their design. See, all of mankind, every human being is created in the image of God, and it is for this reason that every single person has dignity, value, and worth. And it is not because of the decisions that they make, but it is because of who their creator is. Now there are some who make decisions and there are consequences to those decisions, but it doesn't mean that we should judge or compare ourself to them. It means that we need to love them where they are. If I reflect on my life, I had every single part of me into the world, nothing of me wanted to follow Jesus with my life. And I could imagine people looking at me and saying, "There's Jon Stanke over there. Look at what he's doing. Oh, there he is again. I would never ever be like that." But I also had friends who loved God with all that they were. And the love that they had for God, they took that and they distributed that love into my life. See, they met me where I was, but they loved me too much for me to stay there. They discipled me and they guided me to live a dedicated life to following after Jesus, and that is where I am today, because of their love, because that is what love is. Love is meeting people where they are. That is a very, very good start, to show them love right where they are. But if you really wanna love 'em, well, then you share the truth of the love of God about His grace because it is the gospel that has the power to transform a life. But this Pharisee, in his own self-righteousness, he compared himself to others, thanking God that he isn't like them, which made him exactly like them, a sinner who needs a savior just like me, just like all of you. But this Pharisee did not see it and he didn't see it because he was so rooted in his religious practices. And that's something else that self-righteousness produces, is religiosity. So not only does it produce pride, not only does it produce comparison, but self-righteousness produces religiosity. Let's go ahead and take a look at verse 12. I fast twice a week and give a 10th of all that I get. Now, religiosity is thinking that we can earn a right standing with God by our religious behavior, by following a set of rules or commands. I mean, we see the Pharisee in this parable, he literally lists some of his resume as if that's gonna put him in right standing with God. "Look at what I did. Look at all these rules that I followed." See, when we're rooted in religion, it's all about us working our way to God. It's all about me. It's all about my. it's all about I. Now if you look at this text later, this Pharisee mentions the word I four times in two verses in this text, four times. See, we work so hard in this mentality. To have an identity to look better than everybody else. Look at me. Look how righteous I am. Look what I can do. Look what I did. And that is self-righteousness to the T. And again, that makes us work hard to try to get an identity from others how they see us. But when we are rooted in Christ, when we follow Jesus, we actually work from our identity. We work from our identity in Jesus. Then all we do is for Jesus rather than self. Now will we still do good things? Absolutely. Will we still go out and serve and love people? Absolutely. But we do not do it to put ourselves on display. No, we do it because we want the light of Jesus in us to shine into this dark world. You see, it is not religion, it's not self-righteousness that gets us into heaven. It doesn't put us in a right standing with God. It's actually quite burdensome to think so. Wouldn't you think? Was I good enough this day? Will God allow me in based off of my good works and what I did? Burdensome to think that, the uncertainty. But saving faith in Christ, it removes this heavy burden of uncertainty because we know that Jesus already did the work on the cross to reconcile us to God. So in light of what we learned about the Pharisee, I have a couple questions for you. And when I say I have questions for you, I also have those same questions for myself because we all have to process through these. When is the last time that you checked your pride? Do you have a habit of waking up in the morning and humbling yourself before God, asking Him to teach you, to guide you for the day, to show you the path that He would have for you for that day, showing full reliance on him? Or, do you wake up and it's all about yourself, where everything you think is right, that you know what is best for you, that there's no reason to open the Word of God, there's no reason to come to church to be around your brothers and sisters to encourage one another? But when you do come, your ears are closed, your heart is shut off because you don't think that you need him in your life. I'm a good person. I've treated people well. I'm good enough. And if you have this mentality, this mindset, let me lovingly encourage you to check your heart. Was I good enough this day? Will God allow me in based off of my good works and what I did? Burdensome to think that, the uncertainty. But saving faith in Christ, it removes this heavy burden of uncertainty because we know that Jesus already did the work on the cross to reconcile us to God. So in light of what we learned about the Pharisee, I have a couple questions for you. And when I say I have questions for you, I also have those same questions for myself because we all have to process through these. When is the last time that you checked your pride? Do you have a habit of waking up in the morning and humbling yourself before God, asking him to teach you, to guide you for the day, to show you the path that he would have for you for that day, showing full reliance on him? Or, do you wake up and it's all about yourself, where everything you think is right, that you know what is best for you, that there's no reason to open the word of God, there's no reason to come to church to be around your brothers and sisters to encourage one another? But when you do come, your ears are closed, your heart is shut off because you don't think that you need him in your life. I'm a good person. I've treated people well. I'm good enough. And if you have this mentality, this mindset, let me lovingly encourage you to check your heart, to check your heart. In Proverbs 1618, it says this, that pride comes before destruction. So do not let pride blind you from experiencing the grace of God. What about comparison? Do you elevate yourself by looking at others? Maybe you have social media and you might scroll through there and see something that someone posted, and you look at that and you're like, "I'd never live my life that way. Could you believe that they did that?" Or maybe you're a mom and you're at the grocery store and there's some kids misbehaving, and you look at those kids and, "I would never be a mom that allows that to happen. There's no way I would do that in my life." Maybe you have a coworker, little rough around the edges, and you might look at that coworker and say, "Oh God, thank you that I'm not like they are." But little do you know about their upbringing, about the horrific events maybe that they've experienced and they're trying to make do the best that they can? They're navigating through it. And what they need is your grace, not your judgment. So instead of comparison, maybe you can show compassion. Instead of making judgements towards them, maybe you can move towards them in love. Pray for them, pray with them, see what you could do to help them. And what about religiosity? Now, do we want you to come to church every single Sunday? Absolutely. Do we want you to give up your resources? Yes. The Bible tells us that God loves a cheerful giver. Do we want you to serve? Yes, serve well, serve as often as you can. But listen, if you think coming to church, if you think giving, if you think that following a set of rules put you in a right standing with God, then you have truly missed it. Ephesians two tells us that we are saved by grace through faith, not by our works, not by our own self righteousness, not by our own achievements. Earlier this month, my family and I, we had an opportunity to go to Lexington, Kentucky and visit the Ark Encounter there. This place, as you walk up on it, it is mammoth. And there's an exhibit, I think it's on the second floor, but there's these cupboards that you will open. And in the cupboards, there's a picture of an animal. So you get to choose what you open and there's like a mirror right there. And you see the animal and it says, "Hey, just make the face of this animal in this mirror." So you do that. But then when you walk around to the other side, you actually discover that that is a two-way mirror. So when you get there, you get to just laugh at all of the faces that everybody's making to see how goofy they look and how funny they look. But why do I say this? Why do I say this? Because if you are living a self-righteous life, it might look good to you. You might look good to yourself in the mirror. It might look good to other people, but God, he sees right through it. None of it impresses him. See, God is looking for a humble heart. So we're gonna transition here, and we're gonna look at this tax collector, and we're gonna see a few things, and we're gonna learn a few things about his humility. And when I say humility, I am talking about a genuine humility toward God. And when we have that type of humility, a genuine humility, first thing it leads to is conviction. Humility leads to conviction. Verse 13A. But the tax collector stood at a distance. See, this tax collector didn't even have the audacity to barge right into the temple, to walk up front to the Holy of Holies. Now, he stood off at a distance, probably as far away that he could get and still be there. Unlike the Pharisee, this tax collector had a deep conviction in his heart. He was cognizant of his sin and he understood that there is nothing that he can do to put him in good grace with God, but he must cry out for mercy because he knew that it was only God who could save him. So in his humility and in his deep conviction, he displayed a repentant heart, because that is what is true of genuine humility, that we have a repentant heart. Second half of verse 13. He would not even look up to heaven but beat his breast and said, "God, have mercy on me, a sinner." See, to beat one's breast that symbolized a deep sorrow, a deep remorse. And Paul wrote a letter to the Corinthians, and we find these words in the 2 Corinthians 7:10. Here's what it says. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. So this tax collector in the story, he had that godly sorrow for his sin. It led to a repentance that led to salvation because he asked for the mercy of God. And God always honors what He says. See, not only does a humble heart lead to conviction of or repentant heart, but it also leads to justification. Here's how this parable closes. I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted. Wow. There's a lot that can happen on a trip up a little hill and back down. We see two characters go up to the temple, and only one of them comes down justified. And what this means is to be declared righteous, to be made right with God. And I've had many conversations with people about the gospel, many conversations. And nearly every one of them, it starts with people wondering what it takes to be made right with God. And I think in my own opinion, I think that is the question that the world wants answered. What does it mean to live eternity in a perfect relationship with the one true and living God in heaven versus the opposite, living eternity without him in hell? Well, this text answers it. We have to be justified. We have to be made right with God. But then that poses this question. If we need to be made right, well, then what is it that got broken in the first place? Well, welcome to church today. I'm going to tell you what happened. See, in the beginning of creation, God created the world. He created us to be in his image, and we had a perfect, perfect relationship with Him. But our great, great, great, great, great, great grandparents, Adam and Eve, they rebelled against God. And the sinful nature was passed down from generation to generation. And what our sin does is our sin separates us from God because God is holy and God is perfect, and sin is not allowed in His presence. We read in Romans three that all sin fall short of God's glory. Does it just say tax collectors? Does it just say Pharisees? No, it says that we all sin and fall short of the glory of God. Then in Romans six, it says that the wages of sin is death. Death, that's what we earn for our sin, is death. And what death is is separation from God because God is life. And there is no way that our good works, no way that our self-righteousness, no matter what rule we follow, no matter how much we give to the church, no matter how many old ladies we walk across the street, none of this will put us in a right standing with God. Isaiah 64 tells us that our good works are like filthy rags compared to God, but God loves us, folks. And in an ultimate picture, an ultimate display of humility, Jesus left heaven. He was born of a virgin. He lived a perfect life, and then He laid his life down on a criminal's cross, buried in the grave and, rose again. And when this happened, Jesus, the true righteous one, he died for our sin, absorbing the wrath of God, absorbing the wrath from God that we deserve. See, our punishment that we deserve was laid out on Him. And when we trust in Him, in what he did, we are no longer guilty. We can walk free in a restored relationship with Jesus, and this is not because of our own self-righteousness. This is not because of anything that we can do on our own. No, it's everything that Jesus did for you because he loves you and he cares for you. Romans 4:25 articulates this so clearly and so perfectly. Here's what it says. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. See, we can't earn our salvation. We have to be like that tax collector, humbly calling out for mercy, having a conviction of our heart, of repentant heart, and calling out to God for his mercy, knowing that we can't get to him on our own. And when we do this exact thing, humble ourselves and call out to Him for mercy, He will answer that every single time because that is why Jesus came. That is why Jesus died, so that he might give us life to remove our guilt, to remove our shame, and to make us right with God. That was his sole purpose, and it's done. But we need to put our trust in Him. So maybe you are here today and you're similar to that house that I grew up in, looks pretty good on the outside. But on the inside, it's damaged, broken, but you try to cover it up with a smile, with self-righteousness, with good deeds, showing up to church. Well, listen, you need more than a patch. What you need is new life. And it is Jesus Christ that offers this to us. We have to accept it. We have to receive it. So if this is you, well, you're gonna have a moment here today after Pastor Dan comes out to respond to this, we're gonna have some people to talk to you about what it looks like to enter into a relationship with God. And I will say this, if you felt God calling your heart to Himself today as only He can, then I wouldn't pass up that opportunity to talk to someone who loves you, someone who cares about you, about what it means to enter into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. I'm gonna take a moment and pray for us. Jesus, we love you. We thank you for your grace. We thank you for your mercy. God, we thank you that you did what we couldn't do. Lord, in our self-righteousness, in our own good deeds and our own good works, Lord, we can never please you. But Jesus, you laid your life down on the cross to reconcile us to the holy God. And we're thankful that it is in you and through you that we have life. So Lord, we operate our lives out of the new life that you give us. Would all that we do be done to put you on display to the world. We thank you for your mercy and we call out for your mercy. We need your mercy. And as Tim said earlier, Lord, your mercies are new every morning. And it's for that that we're thankful. Lord, be with us today. Help us to leave here different, changed, and renewed. And I pray these things in your name. Amen.