Real Life Radio

David Jay: Today, on Real Life Radio.

Jack Hibbs: A Christian is of a broken and contrite spirit of heart. That is a Christian, meaning God hears my prayer just as much as he hears your prayer. He doesn't hear my prayer or your prayer more than my prayer or your prayer.

David Jay: This is real life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I'm David Jay thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God's word, the Bible. You ever feel like your Christian values are under constant assault? In a world where biblical truth is often labeled hateful or backward, how do we stand firm without becoming combative or isolated? Pastor Jack Hibbs wants to help you find answers with this month's featured resource when culture hates you. It's written by Natasha Crane, and in this straight talking book, you'll discover how to tackle tough conversations, maintain biblical convictions, and respond to cultural hostility with both grace and truth.

Now, think of it as your essential guide for navigating a world that often views faith as the enemy. You'll learn how to speak confidently on issues of morality, identity, and belief without losing sight of God's love because sometimes the strongest stance is one that balances conviction with compassion. Now, if you're ready to stand strong in an ever shifting culture, look no further. When culture hates you, it's available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com/realradio. One more time, jackhibbs.com/realradio. On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack now continues his series called The Parables of Jesus with a message titled Parable of the Pharisee and Sinner.

Now, whenever Jesus spoke to the crowds, he often spoke using relatable stories with common everyday themes the Bible calls parables. And in this parable, Jesus is teaching about humanity and true righteousness. You see, the Pharisee in this parable trusted in himself. When he prayed, he prayed about his own status rather than seeking mercy. The Pharisee praised himself and scorned the tax collector, missing the very heart of humility Jesus was teaching. So today, Pastor Jack teaches that the Pharisee and the tax collector both came to the temple to pray. But it was the tax collector who God listened to.

The sinner's desire for mercy captured God's heart, and he answered his prayer. Now, with his message called Parable of the Pharisee and Sinner, here's pastor, Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs.

Jack Hibbs: Father, we ask Lord that tonight as we get into this parable, Father, that so many great scholars of antiquity have said that this may very well be the most important. It seems like we say that every week regarding these parables. And truly, this is a very powerful parable that you taught to the audience, to the legalist, to the self-righteous, to no doubt the disciples who were hearing, to the crowd that was there. Well Lord, tonight we pray 2,000 years later, we pray that the reality of it all would strike true to our heart tonight. And Lord, woe unto us if we do not embrace the relevance of this parable.

This is serious stuff. So Father, give us ears to hear, we pray, in Jesus name, and all God's people said

Guest (Male): Amen.

Jack Hibbs: Amen. Grab your Bibles tonight and turn, if you would, church to the book of Luke, Luke chapter 18 and uh as the monitor is announcing the parable of the Pharisee and Sinner. The parable actually goes by a couple of names, but uh this is the most popular uh the parable of the Pharisee, the professional religionist, and the sinner being the professional tax collector, which in the Hebrew mind thinking of Israel in the day of Jesus 2,000 years ago was the epitome uh to the Jewish mind uh of a turncoat um trader, a tax collector. Worse than our tax collectors today, at least for now anyway, is this type of tax collector in Pharisee.

Now, the Pharisee, before we dive into this parable, the Pharisee is somebody that is viewed as uh by the people as being exceptional. This is the guy that you want to be like because if this guy doesn't make it to heaven, nobody's making it to heaven. This guy, the sinner, the tax collector, ain't no way he's going to heaven. Uh predominantly most often he's Jewish. He has turned on his own nation. He's become an employee of Rome. Hey, you know this, Matthew Levi, the writer of the Gospel of Matthew. What was it What was his occupation?

He was a tax collector. Matthew Levi. His last name's Levi. Matthew Levi. Matthew Levi was not only a tax collector turncoat, he was such a turncoat. His last name is what?

Guest (Male): Levi.

Jack Hibbs: Levi. He was of the priestly line.

Guest (Male): Yes.

Jack Hibbs: And he divorced himself from his nation, divorced himself from his Judaism. He was working for Rome when Jesus walked through his tax booth. That had to be a cool thing to see. And followed Christ. And this sinner in our parable is someone who is hated by the Jewish people. So follow along with me. It's a short parable, but it's a powerful one. And I don't know how far we'll get tonight, but uh starting at verse 9 down to verse 14, also he, Jesus spoke this parable, watch this, to some who trusted in themselves. You can circle those few words and put your initials next to that.

We laugh, but it's true. That they were righteous and despised others. Verse 10, Jesus speaks. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. That's kind of funny, huh? In some of your translations, it says that the man stood and prayed to himself. That's actually the meaning of it. He prayed to himself. He doesn't even pray to God. He thanks God for nothing. He actually informs God of his greatness. Verse 11, and so the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself.

God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess. And the tax collector standing afar off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner. Jesus speaks in verse 14, I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Church, take your highlighter, get your pen ready.

Man, I tell you as we look into this, look at verse 9, and he, Jesus, spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves. And there's two things they're guilty of, two things we're guilty of when we trust in ourselves. Number one, that we're righteous. We We trust in ourselves. Why? Because we knowingly or unknowingly view ourselves as somehow trustworthy, able to be dependent upon, righteous. In other words, I can do this, whatever it is. Mark it now. Number two, there's the despising of others. This is very very important stuff. Jesus speaks the parable, and it slaps us right upside the heart in an instant because even though he's speaking about the sinner and the Pharisee, don't misunderstand for a moment, you and I are all plagued with this thing about depending or trusting in ourselves.

It It sometimes manifests itself in even in things like this. Um by the way, how many of you are in in any form of leadership, management uh at at work, uh anything? Are you responsible for anything, anybody? Is anyone responsible for any some of you? Okay. Are In this culture, are you all unemployed now? Is that what it is? Isn't it terrible? And we can all who who have who have been in places of leadership, is it easier for you and I just to do it ourselves or to train someone to to do it? It's much easier to do it yourself.

Is it not? Um yet a good leader will get someone to step out and to do it, and you've got a monitor it, you watch it, and they'll fail three four 100 times before they get it right. But you you that's how you replicate. You've got to do that. It's painstaking. It's It's tough. And one of the things, and we've all felt this, and I'll confess it for you too, is that when someone does it, there's this thing about leaders or people uh in responsibility uh where it's uh okay, I'll I'll tolerate their their performance on it.

I certainly could have done it better. It's one of the frustrations. When you take that kind of I can do it and you translate it into religious settings, it's a mixture for disaster. It's one of the great disconnects about what you and I can accomplish in the world and then thinking, well boy, I can just translate that into my church service, into into what I do with the body of Christ. And it doesn't work that way at all. But there's this this tendency within us as humans to lean upon our own resources, our own strength, our own power.

Listen, um we all know the older we get, the wiser we become it's true. The wiser we become, and one of the ways that we exercise wisdom is um getting the young people to do things. Now I I say that it is a truth, and yet there is a point to it where, for example, have you noticed that all the gray-haired guys uh with all the bars on their shoulders or collars uh in the military, have you noticed that they're all in the command center when when all the the soldiers go into battle? Why is that the case?

All the young guys are on the front line, and all the old guys are back at the command center. Why? Because the old guys are smarter. I find that highly offensive. Oh, calm down. Listen, it's true. It's true because the old guys realize, you know what? um I could get shot. Tell a young man that if he rushes the front line that he could get shot, he won't believe you. Have you noticed that? It's not that old guys send young guys into battle. The old guys train the young guys because the young guys want to run into battle.

It's interesting. Why? Because they're leaning upon themselves. I can do this. Now look, as an American, and what I love about being an American is all of us, where are you from? I mean, my my descendants came from the Azores Islands. um Where do you Where are your descendants from? Whatever your DNA is if you're an American, you're an American, and it doesn't matter where you've come from in the world, it's what you've decided to be. I've decided to become an American. You're not born an American by spirit. Do you understand that? It's a decision you make.

It's kind of cool. No other nation in the world you can boast that when you say, I'm a German. That's great, awesome. I'm English. That's great. I'm whatever. That's great. We live here because well, we're supposed to be living here because we believe in the spirit of what makes this America. Having said that, we have all been taught and by the way, the world expects us as Americans that Yankee spirit. Have you ever heard of that? In World War II, we were famous for having nothing stop us. If something broke and we didn't have the tools, we would make the tools to fix the thing.

And Americans were famous for you know, the MacGyver. You know the MacGyver thing? Anybody remember MacGyver? That whole MacGyver gig, that was all based on the can do spirit. And it's it's commendable until you bring it into a faith setting, and then then it's not commendable. So I want you to keep that in mind as we look at this because we're not exempt from what's being taught here. This particular parable could easily be applied to various topics, by the way. For example, the issue of worship. They're going Look, they're going to the temple. We could talk about worship regarding this parable or the issue of pride, one was a Pharisee, or the issue of sin, one was a tax collector.

There are many topics that this parable can apply to.

David Jay: You're listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. You know, to hear more episodes and maybe catch up in the series, just go to jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com. And for now, let's get back to our teaching. Once again, here's Pastor Jack.

Jack Hibbs: But more than anything, church, mark it down as we get into this study, this parable is in regards to our standing before God. Can you write that down? Our standing before God. Now, we're going to talk a lot about prayer in this parable. That's certainly our standing before God. And one of those things as we look at this parable we'll see qualification, justification, and exaltation. So the parable of the Pharisee and the sinner, look with me in verse 10. Mark it down. Number one, qualification in the sight of God. What is qualification in the sight of God?

And what do we mean by qualification? Here is a sinner, tax collector, and a Pharisee. Jesus is saying they are both going to the temple. They're both going to pray. Going to the temple, going to pray, listen, doesn't qualify you before God. Well, I go to church. That doesn't qualify you before God. And we know this, you know, listen. Christmas and Easter it's hard to it's hard to get in this building. In fact, for that matter, it's hard to get into any church in America on Christmas and Easter. Why? Cuz the creasters are there. And what they do, they come on those holidays.

It's their religious duty, and what they are saying to themselves is, I went to church. I'm good. And what's the old saying? um going to church doesn't make you a Christian just like going to Winchell's doesn't make you a donut or Krispy Kreme a donut. You don't go to church and and and all of a sudden you're marked as a Christian. Jesus is saying two men go to the temple. That's a big deal. And they're going to go pray. That's a big deal. What is our qualification before God? Number one, look at this. It's Who does God listen to?

This is a question. Who is God? Who will get his ear, God's ear? And so Jesus says that some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. And so the two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, one a tax collector. So watch this. As you break this down, two men as God sees them, two men. Notice, it's two men. In their culture, it's one righteous man on the surface. Wow, if anybody's going to heaven, it's him. And if anybody's going to go to hell, it's this guy, the tax collector.

Completely opposite ends of the spectrum from man's perspective. Isn't it interesting what Jesus says? He simply says, two men. God looks into this sanctuary tonight and says, there's two men. Are you Are you uh a righteous man here tonight? I don't mean that in a derogatory way at all. Maybe you're a very very good man, and that's fantastic. We're grateful. That's super. But listen, is there somebody else in here tonight that they're a very very bad man? Isn't it amazing that from man's perspective we have this level, and yet Jesus says two men go to the temple.

They're going to go pray. And that's how God sees people. He's not swayed by status. The Bible says that we're all before him as equal. That's hard for us to fathom, and yet that's the way God sees us. So when we think about qualification, we ask the question, as they go to pray, who is God going to listen to? And Jesus is going to drive home a point. Notice again that they go to the temple to pray as God desires people to do. That's beautiful. One a Pharisee, one a tax collector. Now, that's as man sees them.

Interesting. And so they trust in themselves, the Pharisee does. He's very Now look, let's not beat him up too bad. Let's understand something. He's highly respected. A Pharisee would be highly revered in the culture. He's a man that everybody on the surface, you look, everybody would look up to this guy. Honored in the community. Religious man. Look, he says it of himself. The guy's a legend in his own mind. He announces, oh, look at all these things I do. And isn't amazing as as Jesus brings our heart and our mind into this teaching that he shows us that the man in the parable is thanking God for his own performance.

Isn't that weird? That's what would be like an oxymoron. I'm a Pharisee, I know God, but in reality he's announcing, I don't really even care if I know God. I'm so good. I'm a savior to myself. I'm so good. Some of you may need God. I don't need God as bad as you need God. That's what this guy's emanating. It's remarkable. So listen, the word that these Pharisees or religious people, these self-righteous ones trusted in themselves, that word means that they were pacified. Listen, the word means to be pacified. You ever seen a baby cry and you stick the pacifier in their mouth and they stop crying?

This guy is not Listen, this is so serious. He's not hungering after God. He is calm. He's got no fervency to his walk with God because he's impressed with himself. He's been pacified by his own performance. Self-righteous. That word also means this, to be convinced, to lean upon self, to give dependence or authority to himself. This man is an authority to himself. Think about that for a moment. And then this word that they were righteous means self-approving. See, this all gets him set to look down upon others. The word despised here, they despised others. The word means to be contemptible.

Listen, it means to look at other people, think now, to look at other people less valuable than yourself. How do you know if someone is like that? Because this word carries with it a verbage to it or an action. I am a religious person. I don't talk to these kinds of people. And so in conduct they just turn away from them. They don't acknowledge their existence. This is serious. Is it not serious? I told you guys before, but it's in my mind. I can see it happening again. Years ago when the wall came down, the iron curtain um we went right into Russia in the very early 1990s.

And we were preaching the gospel everywhere. It was It was amazing because everything had fallen apart in Russia. We were in Moscow. There There were no police because the police couldn't be paid, so they stopped showing up for work. But the Russians have been taught to be so obedient. And I mean, nobody stepped out of line. And uh but we were preaching and nobody would stop us. And we were preaching the gospel on crates right in front of Lenin's tomb on in Red Square. And people were gathering around. And this religious leader that I was told later by somebody is called the Metropolitan in the Russian Orthodox Church in all of the fancy religious garb clothing with his entourage walked across Red Square, walked right straight to us and took his robe like Dracula would do like this, went like this and turned and walked away.

And our translators went, And I was like, what's what is with that? What's what? And they said, oh, that is a that's a display of disgust and rejection. They They're not happy you guys are here. A very pharisaical act or response to the preaching of the gospel. We didn't fit their mold. And that's that word, to to shun. As a Christian, are we tempted or do we ever shun someone because what they smell, they're poor, uh they're rich, or they're uh what? They're white. They're black. See, I can say that cuz I'm I'm Portuguese. I'm 50% Portuguese, so I'm right in between.

I can say the white people and the black people and every color in between people. Do we look at Do we look at a group that's outside of us and say, no no, uh don't don't Jesus would never do that. Never. He He's never done it. He will not do it.

David Jay: Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on Real Life Radio with his message called Parable of the Pharisee and Sinner. Thanks for joining us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called The Parables of Jesus. It's a series that highlights the teachings of Jesus while he was ministering here on this earth. And we'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. Are you looking for some solid biblical teaching that speaks to the world today? At jackhibbs.com, you have access to Pastor Jack's entire library of sermons on demand anytime, anywhere. Whether you're commuting, you're at the gym, or you need a moment of encouragement, you can dive right into some powerful verse by verse teachings that make God's word really come alive.

From deep dives into scripture to practical messages on everyday issues, Pastor Jack's teachings help you understand the Bible in a way that's clear, it's relevant, and it's easy to apply. You're going to find sermons that address today's toughest questions with biblical insight and hope in the midst of life's challenges. Now, whether you're new to the faith or you've been around for a long time, these messages are designed to meet you right where you're at and inspire you to grow deeper in your walk with God. So don't miss out. Visit jackhibbs.com and let's just start exploring the sermon library today.

You're going to like it. That's jackhibbs.com where powerful teaching is always just a click away.

Jack Hibbs: Have you ever felt alone? Well, of course you have. We all do. We go through those seasons. But what's important is not what we feel, but it's what God's word says. And God has promised to never leave us, no matter what we're facing. In fact, it's been my experience in life that what we're facing is not just a problem, it's an opportunity for God to reveal himself to us. He's even found in the silence. So Lord, in Jesus name, bless my brother, my sister as they may think that the heavens are shut up to them, but Lord that you would speak to them and encourage them as they are facing the giants in their life.

May you be the one that delivers them in Jesus name. Amen.

David Jay: This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in his word. We'll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.