THE SILENT SIN OF SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS This is at the very heart of the gospel. Where we get our righteousness from will determine where we spend eternity and how we spend eternity.

Luke 18:9-14 What leads to self righteousness How do we battle self righteousness Who gives us our righteousness

What leads to self righteousness Inaccurate view of self (vs 9) “Who trusted in themselves, that they were righteous” They substituted MORALITY for RIGHTEOUSNESS Remember: “Morality (obedience/good works) DOES NOT precede righteousness as a means of being righteous, rather MORALITY FOLLOWS as a fruit of righteousness We’d rather identify as moral rather than righteous. One is measurable by men’s standards and the other is accepted by God

What leads to self righteousness Inaccurate view of self (vs 9) “Who trusted in themselves, that they were righteous” “Treated others with contempt” A high view of self will always lead to a contemptuous view of others The pharisees were content with stopping at the law, seeing they’d kept it (at least in their own minds), and feeling justified and righteous before God and therefore better than those who hadn’t like this tax collector

What leads to self righteousness Inaccurate view Self ultimately stems from… Inaccurate view of God A high view of self will ultimately always lead to a low view of God and his holiness There is only room for one rightful king on the throne of our hearts and He does not share his position or His glory with another. Mankind has been trying to save themselves and insert their own attempts to make themselves right/righteous since the very beginning. This is man’s fundamental problem, finding our righteousness within ourselves as opposed to outside of ourselves and in Christ

How do we battle self righteousness Believe the Bible’s view of self (vs 13) Enter the tax collector “be merciful to me a sinner” One man stands in the condemnation of his “self righteousness” while the other won’t even lift his gaze to a holy God. This man knew one thing very clearly, he could not and dare would not commend himself nor his deeds to a righteous, holy God

How do we battle self righteousness Believe the Bible’s view of self (vs 13b) Believe the Bible’s view of God (vs 13a) “Would not even lift his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast” When a man has a full view of God before his eyes, he has no room remaining for the exaltation of himself Isaiah 6:1-6

Jesus came to reveal all this, and they stumbled over the stumbling stone: “Being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness” (Romans 10:3). They knew about God. They knew about grace. They knew about righteousness. But they missed it. They did not understand justification by faith alone on the basis of the Redeemer alone. -John Piper

The man who comes to a right belief about God is relieved of 10,000 temporal problems, for he sees at once that these have to do with matters that at the most cannot concern him for very long; but even if the multiple burdens of time may be lifted from him, the one mighty single burden of eternity begins to press down upon him with a weight more crushing than all the woes of the world piled one upon another. That mighty burden is his obligation to God. It includes an instant and lifelong duty to love God with every power of mind and soul, to obey Him perfectly, and to worship Him acceptably. And when the man's laboring conscience tells him that he has done none of these things, but has from childhood been guilty of foul revolts against the Majesty in the heavens, the inner pressure of self-accusation may become too heavy to bear. - AW Tozer

Who gives us our righteousness (vs 14) The gospel can lift this destroying burden from the mind, give beauty for ashes, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. But unless the weight of the burden is felt, the gospel can mean nothing to the man; and until he sees a vision of God high and lifted up, there will be no woe and no burden. Low views of God destroy the gospel for all who hold them. -AW Tozer 2 Corinthians 5:21: “21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Isaiah 57:15: “For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite

Two men, two prayers, two eternal outcomes Ultimately our view of God and self and where our righteousness comes from will determine our justification or our damnation

THE SILENT SIN OF SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS