The true religion, the religion of Scripture, the true way of salvation says you cannot.

By your own effort, your own self-righteousness, your own morality or your own religiosity

or spirituality, please God in any way, therefore earn acceptance with him.

Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson. They are cliches you've probably heard for years. You can do anything you put your mind to. The only thing holding you back is you. And to be truly fulfilled, you must believe in yourself. Love yourself

more. Become the master of your own destiny. Now, advice like that may sound inspiring, but as Charles

Spurgeon said, anything which leads to self-esteem leads to the utmost jeopardy.

And why is that so?

That's John MacArthur's focus today as he continues his series titled, Who Can Be Right with God?

Now, here's John with the lesson.

Let's open the Word of God to the 18th chapter of Luke's Gospel, Luke chapter 18 and we are looking

at a beloved and familiar parable which our Lord taught, the parable of the Pharisee and the

tax collector.

This was certainly a jolting, stunning idea conveyed by the Lord Jesus in this story.

When he came to the punchline and said the tax collector went down to his house justified and not the Pharisee, he put himself

one hundred and eighty degrees away from the prevailing Jewish theology of salvation.

And for that matter, the theology of all world religion.

Jesus was saying it is not the man who is good, who is justified, but the man who knows

he is wicked that is justified.

The dominant religious idea in Judaism at the time of our Lord, the dominant religious idea

in the world always then and now is the idea that good people go to heaven, that if you are moral and religious, you can

achieve salvation.

Escape from divine judgment, become acceptable to God.

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