that she said God I understand your purposes and Jesus’s Parable taught that in fact when God comes he’ll see that they get Justice that God has is in the business of ordering the Affairs of men and I don’t know about you but I pray nationally and internationally every day now for our world because there’s so many things happening and yet in the midst of all of it God is applying Justice to the Nations to the rulers to those who are in authority over us and we’re

told to pray for them them and yet Jette the parable said that God’s business is Justice righteousness our business is living by faith what is it that’s guaranteed it’s guaranteed that every day that he’s ordered for your life you’re going to live and after that there’s no power on Earth that will keep you on this planet he’s guaranteed that he knows every hair of your head he knows of all or the lack of hair of on your head and Doug Doug and you know a few

of the guys over here you know this a weird some of these men that glue this stuff on their head H anyway we’re gonna talk about men today and so brace yourself guys where’ I go that our job is to live by faith and you know I I’ve had some who said in this last week well John that’s easy for you to say about the Widow because she was a can do woman and I’m not like that I’m a glass half empty kind of guy I’m

the kind of pessimist that says in fact I don’t think things are going to work out too well for me and you know part of this I guess is a frame of mind a farmer lived next lived on a piece of ground where he farmed the ground and he had a regular discourse with his neighbor and he would get up in the morning and if the Sun was shining he would say it’s a beautiful day and our crops are going to get sun his neighbor would

say our crops are going to probably get burnt by the Sun a true pessimist and another day would come up and it would be raining and he’d say God has given us the rains that we need for our crops and he would say Well they’re probably going to drown so this man this farmer said I’m going to teach this guy a lesson and he went out and purchased the smartest dog he could find and he taught that dog tricks that no other dog knows and then

he invited his neighbor to go bird hunting with him and in bird hunting they both squared up and shot and knocked down a number of ducks and the optimistic farmer said to his dog go fetch the Ducks and the dog raced out on the water walked on top of the water grabbed each duck and brought him back the Optimus said to his neighbor what do you think about that and he said what he doesn’t know how to doesn’t know how to swim so sometimes sometimes you

just can’t break out of that darkness that you’re in but that Parable is a wonderful Parable I hope you go to it regularly and it says you keep praying you understand what God’s job is and that’s guaranteed to happen and you understand what our job is and it’s not guaranteed when Christ comes back to Earth he’ll find some of us in various stages of faith and growth and lack of faith because of the way we’ve lived our life and the scriptures talk about that but in

this it says Jesus says will he find faith on the earth and then in the sequel of talking about faith we immediately move in to the next Parable and the parable this is of the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector today we’re going to be on the Pharisee and the tax collector next week we’re going to be on the parable of the rich ruler and that will move us through the Book of Luke and Parables and we’ll be back in Matthew to finish up

Parables under this series that we’re calling face to face are asking and answering the question what would God do parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector Reading in verse 9 to some who were confident of their own righteousness and looking 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 Pharisees stood up prayed about himself God I thank you that I’m not like other men robbers evildoers adulterers or

even like this tax collector what a joke j I fast twice a week and I give a tenth of all I get but the tax collector stood at a distance he would not even look up to heaven but he beat his breast and he said God have mercy on me a sinner and Jesus said I tell you the truth this man rather than the other went home Justified before God for everyone who examines himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted this

is a parable Jesus is teaching on the heels of teaching about Justice and faith and now he wants to teach about humility and pride and this lesson in the scriptures for understanding these Concepts has to start for us not in Luke 18 but in Genesis chapter 2 because the inclination that we have to be people of hum Pride or contrasting humility comes out of the Earth of the Garden of Eden where we find God originally created man and woman and was delighted in them and said

they’re very good in fact so much so that in Genesis 1 Adam and Eve were made in the image and likeness of God and in Genesis 2 Adam has given the task of tending the garden and for everything that was very good there was something that was not good he was alone and so in Genesis 2 God created woman he put Adam to sleep took a rib out of Adam and gave him who Adam later on named Eve and we’ve said before that in the whole

created order and we’re talk about this more next week I’ll give you the last chapter rather than the first at the end of today we’re going to talk about the anatomy of a man and we’re going to ask you l us to stop listening and I’m going to talk just to the men next week we’re going to talk about the anatom anatomy of a woman and we’re going to ask you guys to stop listening while we talk to the women in our congregation but for today

and for Adam he was thrilled because he had one who was created out of him unlike the whole of the human race we all the rest of us come from woman this woman Eve came from man and so much was Adam delighted by that that he said this is bone of my bone Flesh of My Flesh and she shall be called woman because she was taken out of man she shall be called Isha in the Hebrew because she was taken out of ish man naming her

after his own kind and the text says for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and cling and be and be United and they will become one flesh so the whole initiation of Human Relationships male and female happen in the garden and it was full of Glory Full of praise full of very good there were angels in heaven celebrating everything in Genesis 1 and two was thrilling and then Genesis 3 comes along and the serpent appears because he knows the instructions that Adam

and Eve were given were to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil and came not to the man but to the woman and I think there’s a purpose in that I think there’s a vulnerability that women have apart from their men in fact 1 Timothy 2 in terms of leadership in the church talks about that but Satan came to the woman and he said hey I hear you understand that you cannot eat from the fruit of the tree of the garden

of the knowledge of Good and Evil and Eve overcorrected him and said well we can’t eat of it and we can’t even touch it and then she decided that she would eat of the tree as you know she gave to Adam and he gave and he ate of the tree as well and God came back into the garden and said where are you this is where human design deteriorates because of sin Adam and Eve could not scrub off the image and likeness of God quick enough

to disobey the clear instructions of God as they were tempted by the serpent so God came back and first went to the woman and said excuse me to the man and said I heard you in the garden and you were afraid the Lord said where are you he answered I heard you in the garden I was afraid because I was naked so I head now the end of Genesis 2 they’re naked and there’s no shame now there is shame there’s fear and he’s naked and it

becomes a precursor to God’s inquiry of Adam they says what have you done what have you done that I’ve commanded you not to eat from the man said the woman gave it to me we get the first illustration of the shr drinky dink spineless reaction of a man who says it’s not my fault she gave it to me and that’s the that’s the plumbob of of masculine diminishment in the Bible it is the way in which a man says I’m not going to own up for

what I did it’s not my fault she gave it to me and the consequences to the man will come shortly so then the Lord goes to the woman and says have you eaten from the tree tree excuse me have I have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from and after saying the woman gave it to me the Lord says to the woman what is this you’ve done the woman does the same the serpent gave it to me so now we

find that in the human race we are first of all in a fallen State inclined to not take responsibility that has become the measure of humanity that is really a measure of the fallenness of male and female and so God says to the serpent cursed are you you’ll crawl on the ground because of this I’ll put enmity between you and the woman the woman’s seed will crush your head and you will strike his heel that’s a look at the coming of the Cross and the ultimate

defeat of Satan at the cross and the crushing of his head with the defeat of death and yet the Striking of the heel is that there’ll be an adversarial relationship between man woman and Satan from this point forward and in fact that’s what the scriptures teach to the woman he says I’ll greatly increase your childbearing with pain you’ll give birth to children and then a verse that’s often overlooked but it’s critical your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you so one

of the consequences for woman is that she has over her the leadership of a man and she has a push-pull relationship certainly in marriage if not in the community the push pull is her desire is for him which attracts her to him and yet he’s going to rule over you which pushes her away from him so this is really the first marital conflict predicted in the Bible and it comes because of the Fall because of the garden and because of the woman’s Disobedience to the instruction

of God and that’s fleshed out in the New Testament to the man it says because you’ve listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you must not eat cursed is the ground because of you through painful toil you’ll eat of it all the days of your life by the sweat of your brow you’ll eat your food so to the man what was a joy and a privilege of work and tending the garden becomes now a labor and a and a test

of endurance for those of us who still have the responsibility of working and of leading but now we’re done we’re doing it in a fallen nature if we didn’t pick up the initial distinction between responsibility and irresponsible possibility between owning our our sin and disowning and saying it belongs to somebody else if we had the time we’ go to Cain and Abel and there in Cain and Abel you remember that God was pleased with the offering of Cain but he looked with disfavor to Abel and

then that dialogue with Cain and Abel said but the Lord said to Cain why are you angry why is it you for your face is downcast if you do what is right will you not be accepted but if you don’t do what is right sin is crouching at your door it’s desire that’s that same Hebrew word that was spoken of in chapter three about a woman’s desires for her husband its desire is for you but you must Master it so Cain ignoring that advice went out

and killed Abel so we have the dynamic in the start of the human race in the garden of E enen a real conflict between what is my responsibility what is God’s instruction to me and where do I give him the authority to make directions in my life when we get to the New Testament and the Pharisees we come to a group of people who should have been an example to the New Testament excuse me to the Jewish nation in terms of what was Spiritual Living they

represented as it were the old test the prophets the sages those who God used with Israel to bring and carry the promises of Abraham into the New Testament but these Pharisees were not like that these Pharisees were charlatans they were phony in fact they were so phony that at one point later on in Jesus’s Ministry he takes a period of time in Matthew 23 to really out them to tell the world who these men really were he said for example in Matthew 23 woe to you

teachers of the law your Pharisees your Hypocrites you shut the Kingdom of Heaven in men’s faces wo to you as teachers of the law you Pharisees you Hypocrites you travel over the land and see to win a single convert and what he becomes one you make him twice as much as son of of hell as you are with wild words woe woe are to you blind guides you Pharisees if anyone swears in the temple it means if it means nothing but if anyone swears by the

gold of the temple he is beyond by his oath and he goes on and on Jesus does in Matthew 23 to say these guys were charlatans and so we’re not surprised in our Parable today that in Luke’s 16 we have a Pharisee who tips his hand as to who he is it’s introduced in verse 9 to some who were confident of their own righteousness and looking down on everyone Jesus told this Parable these are men who behind the curtain had no interest in an honest and

genuine following of the god of the Old Testament they were in it for the praise for the Accolade for the benefits that came to them in fact their pride was such that as Proverbs has said in the wisdom literature it overtook them to their own demise Proverbs says a man’s Pride will bring him low but the humble in spirit will retain honor Proverbs 29:23 before his down downfall a man’s heart is proud but humility comes before honor when pride comes then comes disgrace but with the

humble there is wisdom Proverbs 112 Pride goes Before Destruction a hotty spirit before a fall Before Destruction the heart of man is hotti so the scriptures have been clear that these Pharisees who Jesus has disclosed as being ones who were confident of their own righteousness who look down on everyone else were men who were providing a false narrative in terms of the true kingdom of God as some of you know that my former life I taught at a bible college and I was asked one day

to meet and get to know and introduce a speaker and so I went in and this man was a man in high standing and one of the major christian organizations in America and it became pretty apparent to me as I talked to him that first of all he wanted to be referred to as doctor so and so instead of by first name he seemed to be quite impressed with himself he had little humor or tolerance for people that made mistakes around him he expected to have

a deferential position even in this setting that we were in and I suggested to him what I’ve said at other times that you know I found that a doctoral degree is kind of like the curl in a pig’s tail it doesn’t add any value to the pig but it tickles the ham he did not like that he he there was no humor in him so I got up in Chapel and I was to introduced this man and he gave me a two and a half page

resume I was to read before he spoke I got about a third of the way through it and I said folks I think we’ve got the Apostle Paul incarnate here and I sat down the school never asked me to introduce another speaker after that but you know the Pharisees were something like that they were ones who were impressed with their own standing and they were quick to tell you that and so this Pharisee said thank the Lord I’m not like this tax collector can you imagine

saying that with the tax collector next to him think that I’m not like him I’m not robbers and I’m not an evildoer I’m not adulterer I even give 10% we’re going to talk next week about how gifts and givings to the Lord can distract you from Eternal issues you remember the man who come and said what must I do to inherit eternal life and Jesus said you know first and second commandment and he says’ I’m doing all those things and then he said give what you

have to the poor and he goes away we’re going to talk about that next week but these Pharisees were quick to give a tenth they kept more for themselves than they gave but they’ll give a tenth of what they have to follow what they thought was a letter of the law and in fact this Parable says they were by contrast not followers of God the tax collector the one who was considered despised the one who was considered an outlier in the community of Israel was not

appreciated was so humble that in fact he could not even look up to heaven but from a distance he beat his breast and said Lord have mercy on me a sinner you know that the outward be appearance of worship can give you an indication of a person’s heart and in this case this tax collector was so gripped by the difference between himself and his standing as a sinner and God who was holy that all he could say is pleading from a distance have mercy on me

a sinner and in fact in that situation Jesus said I tell you the truth this man rather than the other went home Justified before God for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and and he who humbles himself will be exalted so this humility that is spoken of in this Parable is one that is built on the premises of what God has done for us not what we have done for him now the confusing things we get among some some instructors is to encourage us to

think that we can’t love God unless we love ourselves it’s nowhere in the Bible the only passages that you can find that seem to suggest that are the first and second commandments and when it comes to loving the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and loving your neighbor as yourself in Luke chap 10 that passage is not an instruction that we’re to love ourselves and in fact if we don’t believe that just look at what the Good Samaritan did he took

of his own resources his own time and cared for the traveler that was injured we don’t have anywhere in the Bible an encouragement to love ourselves before we can love God in fact quite the opposite we’re to take of the natural disposition that we have everyone has a natural concern and awareness of ourselves and the Bible will speak to that and say take that kind of inclination that you have as you review your own life and place that kind of love and concern on somebody else

the other passage besides Luke chapter 10 that some would use to suggest that in fact we need to love ourselves before we can love God is Galatians chapter 6 and Galatians 6 is the only passage in the Bible that talks about testing ourselves it says that if anyone thinks he’s something when he is nothing he deceives himself each one should ta test his own actions then he can take pride in his own self without comparing himself to someone else that’s the closest you get to the

Bible telling us that we are to cultivate a standard of care and pride in what we do and it says test yourself that context in galatian 6 is a brother who is sinning and who needs to be turned from his way and there the text says as you go and enter into Ministry in the lives of other people check yourself out make sure that you’re in good standing you’ve got a clean standing with God you have addressed the issues in your own life that let you

qualify to serve and meet the needs of others Jack Hayford was a famous a well-known Pastor on the west coast and he talks about attending a seminar where in fact men it was a men seminar they were taught to to really for lack of a better term to take a high opinion of themselves and in fact it became a point of distraction in his own Ministry and had to speak to it and on this Hayford had a regular Ministry of ministering just to men and he

tells this story recently I heard Jack Hayford tell a story about a married couple who attended a seminar taught by one of the Demag one of the demagogues showing that scripture teaches that a man is in charge at home he’s kind of terrible this kind of terrible teaching on submission that turns women into lowly how lonely mates the husband just loved it as he never heard anything like that before and he drank it all in his wife however listening to the same message said nothing when

he got in the car this man says well what did you think and she said nothing and so he said well I thought it was great and he got home and he again asked his wife that night at dinner what do you think of the think of the message you know I think it was great in fact I think we need to apply that in the home and I need to take a greater position of providing direction to you on things like house Affairs cooking household

Affairs cleaning the house and she stood tight lipped and listened to him and he said what do you think and then Hayford says you know that woman that that man excuse me did not see did not see that woman again for two weeks his wife until after two weeks one of his eyes came back open from and you know that woman handled it I think probably pretty appropriately although I wouldn’t I I don’t know that I’ I’d suggest that but and and here’s the point gentlemen

in terms of Pride and humility and on this I’m talking to myself as well as you okay ladies tune out every woman in this assembly knows that men are not naturally given to humility we are not we are not humble beings there are two genders and of our gender we are not humble by natural inclination and if you don’t believe it just analyze your conversations and the way in which in coners ations you’re quick to listen to someone but then to enter in and give your

own opinion as if it’s a greater opinion now there there’s certain there’s certain Fallout that comes from us being made in the sons of Adam we’re we’re designed to lead we’re designed to provide initiative we’re designed to be the ones who provide the kind of direction that both our individual mates and our churches and our communities need but the problem is that when our fallen nature we’re not inclined to that we’re not inclined to be people who are humble and in fact the woman that we

live with the women that we minister to understand humility better than we do if if we need have no other indication of that we find it not only in Genesis chapter 3 where we’re told that we’re going to rule over woman but we find it in Ephesians chapter 5 and I want to encourage enourage you gentlemen that in Ephesians 5 we’re given the ultimate standard for what it means to relate not only to our wives but also to women when Paul writes first of all subject

yourself one to another in the reverence of Christ and so the whole concept of submission in the Bible is not a male and female thing uniquely it is a body wide kind of activity that says we are people that subject ourselves to the interest in needs one to the other and then Paul writes to the husband and says husbands love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy cleansing her by the washing with water of the

word and to present her to himself as a Radiant Church Without stain or wrinkle rather blemish holy and blameless in the same way that phrase buries itself in this text husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies there’s the instruction as like we have a natural inclination to be interested in our own frame in our own body in our own appearances and our own well-being Paul says in the same way love your wife as you love yourself in other words transfer that initial disposition

toward self-interest to the one that you live with after all no one ever hated his own body but he feeds and cares for it just as Christ does the church for we are members of his body for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be United to his wife and the two will become one flesh so that instruction to the husbands is to take that natural bent that we have toward ourselves toward frankly asserting leadership over and dominating over the weaker sex

so to speak and to take that self-interest and apply it by way of love to the women that are in our lives even as one as Christ has done for the church that’s a great challenge it’s an honorable Challenge and yet it’s one that I don’t know about you but on a regular basis in the course of my work I have regular encouragement to make things right between the men and the women the between the women in my life and the ways in which I provide

direction for them the truth is Ed DIY is right he says Christianity is a te team sport and it is and gentlemen you cannot do this on your own you can’t if you’re not listening to The Good Counsel of a woman that you live with or of men that you associate with it will slow down if not stop your progress in terms of Christian growth you need to be in a situation where you’re held accountable for your behavior in an honest way you want to do

something scary ask your wife today how am I doing she’ll be honest enough to tell you and you should be then you know appropriate in terms of listening to it and acting on it so that kind of things that we do as men I mean we’ve got tailor made situations for that we’ve got a men’s group on Saturday morning that’s phenomenal if you’re part of it it’s a one where we apply the scriptures as men in a way that I think is active and encouraging but

there are other groups there’s there’s the Monday night group what’s the name of it the some fellowship I can’t some number of our men are at that Monday night Group H BF yeah B yeah BSF and there’s actually a women’s group as well so there are different groups in town but you as men gentlemen your wife can get kind of worn out because you don’t listen to her but you can listen to Good Counsel in a way that directs you in a way to live with

your wife in an understanding way as Peter says as with a weaker vessel giving her honor as a joint heir of the grace of God so Hayford is right stay away from those seminars that talk about men are in charge so we are in the parable where it talks about humility it talks about pride and we are people who have to understand that the giving in life to us comes from the direction of honest evaluation of where we are James chapter 1 speaks about that so

not only in this in the in the wisdom literature of the Old Testament but in James 1 it says Believers in Humble circumstances ought to take pride in their High position but the rich should take pride in their humil humiliation since they will pass away like a wild flower for the sun rises and scorches and Withers the plant it Blossom fails and its beauty is destroyed in the same way the rich will fade away even while they go about their business we have a measurement in

our society that we measure our standing by what we do by what we drive by how we live by the kinds of relationships that we have and the standings we have in our community and those things James says count as nothing in fact they’ll set you up they’ll set you up if you’re rich that you’ll rely on your wealth and you rely on your standing and your physical position on this planet in a way that will work against humility in fact it’s the one who is

in Humble circumstances who understands better as this Widow did in Luke 18 that she was in a desperate situation without God that passage also is true in James 4: 6-10 when again James writes about the fact of Pride and humility and says but he gives more grace that’s why the scripture says God opposes the proud but gives favor or grace to the humble submit yourself therefore to God redist the devil and he will flee from you come near to God and he will come near to

you when you w you wash your hands you Sinners and purify your hearts you double-minded grieve mourn and wail change your laughter to mourning and your joy to Gloom humble yourself before the Lord and he’ll lift you up that was the picture of the tax collector in Luke 18 he was a man of humility so humble he couldn’t bear to even be near like a religious position in terms of taking a request to to whoever was the in he was dealing with he’s from a distance

looked up into heaven and said take mercy on me a sinner and in fact the scriptures said that’s the way we’re to Humble ourselves now false humility I’ll say this for a minute false humility kind of stinks so be careful about that you know one who says oh you know I’ll play the game that’s kind of what the Pharisees did and they would you know put themselves into high positions and beat their breasts like they were serving God and in fact it was all phony but

true humility is one that says I’m going to honor the fact that I’m serving God I’m thrilled about the place I’m at in my relationship with God and there’s nothing of my own that’s that’s brought me to that it’s all of the grace of God and the gifts of God First Peter chapter five also speaks to this when Peter says and writes in the same way you who are younger submit yourselves to those who are Elders all of you clothe your self humility toward one another

because God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble humble yourself therefore under God’s Mighty hand that he may lift you up Up In Due Time cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you what a wonderful passage that is from Peter and you know it really Echoes the words of Jesus in Matthew 11 when he said come to me all you are H are hungry and burdened all the weary and burdened I’ll give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn

from me for I am gentle and humble and you will find relief and the Y for my yoke is easy and my burden is light so that whether it’s the words of Jesus or the words of Peter says you can like the Widow take that impossible situation you’re in and say it’s not my own resources that’s going to pull me through this I’m trusting God to provide the kind of Direction and results in life that I need the Old Saint who offered the following prayer to

God I think picks up the fact of this truth when she wrote I asked God for strength that I might achieve I Was Made weak that I might learn humbly to obey I asked God for heal that I may do greater things I was given infirmity that I might do better things I asked for riches that I might be happy I was given poverty that I might might be wise I asked for power that I might have the praise of men I was given weakness that

I might feel the need of God I asked for all things that I might enjoy life I was given life that I need but when God places a trial in front of us and we drop to our knees we say Okay God I’m going to humbly believe that you’re in control in my life and the Affairs of this situation is going to work out according to your purpose let’s pray Lord we can do no better than to follow the example of him who is our savior

in fact your word teaches us that our attitude should be the same as was in Christ Jesus who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be grasp but made himself nothing taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness and being found in appearan as a man he humbled himself and became obedient to death even death on a cross Lord we can do no better than to Bow our knee and say that in the circumstances of life

that you put us in we are most gifted from you to be know to know you and to be drawn to you by by the work of Christ and we now exalt in the fact that we can from our station life be used in a way that gives praise and honor to you in Jesus name amen would you stand and join us take these hands LIF them up I have not the strength to praise you near love for I have nothing I Have Nothing Without You

take my voice pour it out let it sing the songs of Mercy

Transcript machine-generated from the sermon audio, so it may contain errors. 6,313 words.