1. A couple of months ago, Bro. Randy Williamson attended a funeral and the Episcopalian minister said that the deceased must be in heaven because his good deeds outweighed his bad deeds.
2. This is what the average person thinks. Lately, we have heard reports that Betty Shabazz, the widow of Malcolm X is in heaven, and the famous actor, Jimmy Stewart, is in heaven. It seems that every time someone dies, most people assume that they went to heaven.
3. Of course, there is absolutely no Scriptural basis for this. The problem is that most people ignore and disregard what the Bible has to say.
4. Back in the days of the Lord, the religious leaders, the Pharisees, did not trust in God, but rather, they "trusted in themselves" (Luke 18:9).
5. Not only did these religious people trust in themselves, but they "despised others" (18:9).
6. So we can see that things have not really changed all that much. The average person considers himself "good," and therefore worthy of heaven. To the average person, hell is only for very bad people. Of course, their definition of "bad" is rather vague.
7. I would like for us today to look at this parable of our Lord concerning the good man who went to hell and the bad man that went to heaven.
8. The good man was religious but lost – just like most religious people today. The bad man was not very religious but he repented of his sin and was saved.

I. THE GOOD MAN WAS LOST (Luke 18:9-12).

1. This Pharisee had rather high standards (like the orthodox Jews today):

1. He went to the temple, probably on a regular basis (18:10).
2. He prayed (18:10) – but, unfortunately, he prayed "with himself" (18:11). He went through the motions but was not really speaking to God. What he was actually doing was boasting of his religious accomplishments.
3. The great expositor, G. Campbell Morgan, said: "Can you find anything in literature to surpass that for satire?"
4. He lived a clean, moral life (18:11).
5. He fasted, even more than he was required to (18:12).
6. He tithed (18:12).

2. The apostle Paul was just like this man before he was saved (cf. Acts 22:3; Phil.3:5-9).
3. The Pharisees were outwardly very righteous but our Lord said that inwardly they were "full of hypocrisy and iniquity" (Matt.23:28).
4. There are multitudes of people like that today. Moral and upright on the outside – corrupt and wicked on the inside! I remember a few months ago, an Episcopalian minister (and I’m not tying to pick on Episcopalians today!) caught some crack-heads breaking into the church. The newspapers played it up – he was a big hero!
5. Till a few days later when the police arrested him – they found him sitting at his computer working on his Sunday sermon, smoking a crack-pipe!
6. Some folks here might be thinking, "Well, I don’t smoke crack, I’m not that bad!" Listen, my friend, if you have never been born again you are just as lost as any dope-head.
7. It is a solemn fact that needs to be repeated, and repeated often – hell is filled with religious, church-going people.
8. This Pharisee was "good" in man’s eyes, but he was lost in God’s eyes.

II. THE BAD MAN WAS SAVED (Luke 18:13,14).

1. He was a publican (tax collector), and most of them in our Lord’s day were dishonest and corrupt.
2. They were Jews collecting taxes for the Roman government and so they were despised by their fellow Jews.
3. But this publican confessed to God that he was a sinner, that is something that the Pharisee would not do.
4. This confession of sin (to God, not to a priest) is vitally important. Months ago, a member called me to say that an acquaintance told her it was not necessary. This is one of the big problems we face – worldly, unrepentant, unsaved people who think that they are saved, but have never been genuinely born again.
5. A person must be honest before God in order to be saved (cf. Pro.28:13).
6. The publican was literally saying: "God, be propitiated to me, a sinner" (18:13; cf. Scofield notes, bottom of page).
7. The word propitiation means that God is satisfied with the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

III. WHICH MAN ARE YOU, SAVED OR LOST?

1. Our Lord told this parable before He went to the cross. Before Calvary, a devout Jew would go to the temple. David wrote: "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord" (Ps.122:1).
2. The publican looked to the mercy seat in the temple as the place where a sinful man could meet a gracious God.
3. Now, after the cross, we look to the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ (which the blood on the mercy seat typified). It is our Lord’s shed blood that propitiates (cf. Rom.3:25).
4. The humble, contrite "bad man" asked God for mercy and Jesus said that he went home justified, i.e., he was saved. Have you asked the Lord to be merciful? Have you asked Him to save you?
5. If you are not saved, don’t be like the proud, self-righteous Pharisee who exalted himself. The man who exalts himself, Jesus said, "shall be abased."

CONCLUSION:

1. A farmer was out walking in his wheat field with his young son to see if it was ready for harvest. "Father," said the boy, "look how straight those stems hold up their heads. They must be the best ones. Those others that hang their heads down are probably no good." The farmer plucked a stalk of each kind, and said, "See here, son – this stalk that stood so straight is light-headed and almost good for nothing, while this that hung its head so modestly is full of the most beautiful grain."
2. How about you? Are you proud and almost good for nothing, or are you humble and ready to get things right with God?
3. Repent of your sins – humble yourself – trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, not your good works – and He will save you.