Latest / HBCWestminster / 1.31.21 Luke 11:45-54 Pastor Danny Gardner

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1.31.21 Luke 11:45-54 Pastor Danny Gardner · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  If you have your Bibles open to Luke chapter 11, Luke chapter 11 verses 45 to 54 are our text today. And we pick up really honestly right where we left off. We are right in the middle of a conversation between Jesus and some of the Pharisees over lunch. And I'm going to read our text. If you're able to stand in honor of God's word, I would ask you to do that now. Allow me to read our text and then we'll pray and we'll begin. Beginning in verse 45.
• 0:29
  One of the lawyers answered him, Teacher, in saying these things, you insult us also. And he said, Woe to you lawyers also, for you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe to you, for you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed, so you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them and you build their tombs. Therefore, the wisdom of God said,
• 0:56
  I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute, so that the blood of all the prophets shed from the foundation of the world may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation. Woe to you lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.
• 1:22
  As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him to speak about many things, lying in wait for him to catch him in something he might say. And you pray with me. And Lord, keep us from the doubts and concerns of this life which assail and harass at every turn. Give us rest, we ask, in the knowledge that we can trust your sovereign will without hesitation.
• 1:54
  May we not lose our hold on the rock of ages. May our grip be ever on the heaven that awaits if we will only believe. And as we open your word, Lord, be exalted in the preaching of your name. And amen. Amen. Thank you, church. You can be seated. Well, a friend sent me a joke this week. He asked this, what do you call Batman when he leaves church early? You ready? Christian Bale.
• 2:26
  If you don't know why that's funny, that's okay. But the actor who has most recently played Batman, the actor's name is Christian Bale. I thought that was pretty funny. One of the hardest things, honestly, to do in preaching to a video camera is you never know if people are laughing. So I'm going to presume that everyone is laughing hysterically at my joke. What do you call Batman when he leaves church early? Christian Bale. You know, church, I have never minded leaving early. But I hate being late.
• 2:53
  There's no feeling worse, in my opinion, than being late to something. It's strange to me that punctuality is so low on some people's priority list. I am rarely late. In fact, most of the time I am way early, which kind of annoys my wife. She doesn't like that we get to places so early sometimes. But I just enjoy being early. I enjoy being prepared. I enjoy being on time. The only time I have ever been late to a job, in fact, that I can recall,
• 3:21
  in all the jobs that I've had that I had to be on time, like clock in at a certain time, I can only ever recall being late one time. And that was the evening before I was supposed to be at work. I was a junior high teacher at the time, okay? And so that you've got a hard clock in time. You gotta be there, cause school starts. And when that bell rings and you're not in the classroom, it's a problem, right? Cause now you got a bunch of junior hires in there with no adult. And so I had to be at the school on time.
• 3:48
  But the evening before I was really struggling with allergies and Hallie and I were only just recently married, just a few months. And so I'm struggling with allergies. And she says, well, Danny, why don't you take one of these Benadryl? Now I was young. I didn't even really understand. I knew that Benadryl was allergy medicine, but I'd never taken it before. So I didn't know what it did or how it would affect me. But she said, why don't you take one of these Benadryl? So she gave me a pill. I took the pill before I went to bed.
• 4:14
  She at the time would wake up really early and go to work. She had a very early shift. And so she was long gone. I woke up at about 9.30 the next morning to my alarm going off. And my alarm had been actually going off for hours at that point. And the telephone ringing. And I was groggy. I woke up. I grabbed the phone. Hello.
• 4:37
  um hi mr gardner and now it was crystal crystal was the name of the school secretary hi mr gardner we were wondering if you were coming in today we haven't heard from you and now it's the middle of second period i had missed all of the homeroom period now i was halfway through second period and i lived about 40 minutes from the school the principal himself had gone in and covered for me i man i shot out of bed that
• 5:06
  Benadryl knocked me out and I was extremely late. My alarm clock did absolutely nothing against the power of Benadryl. 1 John 5 and verse 19 says something interesting. It says this in the ESV, here's the ESV's translation. It says, the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. 1 John 5, 19.
• 5:35
  Adam Clark, in his commentary, suggests another translation. He says, the whole world lies in the wicked one or is embraced in the arms of the devil. That's how he describes it. The whole world is embraced in the arms of the devil. In other words, the world is asleep in the devil's lap.
• 6:02
  Can you imagine that picture, that imagery in your head? Can you imagine the world being like a little child sleeping, sleeping on the lap of one of their parents, right? And the parent is just holding them, making sure that they're comfortable, careful never to wake them up because you never want to wake up that sleeping baby, right? And so the devil is almost holding, embracing the world and the world is just asleep.
• 6:29
  In the devil's lap, he continues, Clark says, that the world is carnally secure, deriving its heat and power from its infernal fosterer. He describes the devil as a fostering parent caring for this child, but that that fosterer is infernal. The world has fallen asleep, church, in the lap.
• 6:57
  of the one who hates them and will eventually drag every soul down with him to hell. That's the reality. The world is sleeping in the lap of the devil and it is our job to wake them up.
• 7:12
  In fact, that is even what evangelism is. The sharing of our faith, the sharing of the gospel, the good news is waking people up from their slumber. It is our job, like Jude verse 23 says too, and I quote, save others by snatching them out of the fire. Save others, go in and grab them and haul them out. That is our job. And how can we do that?
• 7:39
  without sounding the fire alarm how can we do that without waking people up until now it feels as though we have been very delicate it's very delicate with our unsaved neighbors like loving parents after a long car ride a long road trip right that now your babies your little kids are asleep in the back seat and they are
• 8:00
  out they are unconscious and you've been driving for hours and you pull into your driveway late at night midnight right and you and your wife climb out and you delicately get them out of their little car seat and you try to pick them up without waking them and you walk into their room and you set them down in their beds because you don't want to wake them up you're afraid if you wake them up they're going to be awake now for hours they won't be able to go back to sleep and so you're so careful you're so delicate and that is it seems to me how we've done evangelism the last several generations
• 8:30
  Like so careful. Don't wake up. It's almost like we wish that we could just kind of carry them from hell to heaven without them even being aware. We don't want to offend. We don't want to step on any toes. We just want to be so, so, so careful. But church, we can't afford to do it that way anymore. Why? The reason is because there is a war on the truth.
• 9:03
  The reality is that our unsaved neighbors, friends, and family, although they are asleep in the lap of the devil, have actually declared war on the truth, war on the church. We used to want people to tell us the truth. In fact, we even depended upon doctors being honest, mechanics being honest, teachers being honest, parents being honest. But because the truth often hurts,
• 9:30
  Many today have determined that they would rather not be told the truth at all. Listen to how one pastor describes it. He says, you could live in a world of liars, a world where no one told the truth about history, about politics, about science, about literature. You could live among deceivers your whole life and you would still be okay in that life to come as long as one person told you the truth.
• 9:56
  You can have lies about everything in this world and you would still be okay as long as you got the truth about the life to come from your pastor. As long as the pastor still told the truth and everyone else lied, you'd still be okay, at least for eternity. On the other hand, he says, you could live among a people who never deceive you, who are honest and forthright and yet be damned forever by just one liar in your whole life.
• 10:23
  if that liar was your spiritual leader in whom you trusted. He continues, it is infinitely more important to be told the truth about salvation than about anything else. Therefore, the realm in which the truth matters most is the spiritual realm. Church, there is a war on truth, and that war has been declared in the spiritual realm as well. The reason, I believe, is because the truth hurts the truth.
• 10:50
  divides, but that does not mean that we should stop telling it. That doesn't mean that we should go back and rewrite it. In fact, Proverbs 27 and verse 6, Proverbs 27, 6 says, wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses. Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses. Consider the profundity of that statement for a moment.
• 11:21
  The person who is willing to wound you by telling you the truth, that is the friend. My wife is very honest. She's very caring and respectful, but she will honestly tell me the truth. And that's why she's my friend. An enemy will come and just tell you all of the nice things that you want to hear. They will flatter you. They will never tell you bad news. That's an enemy. That's not a friend. Telling the truth, church.
• 11:50
  Has been considered by many now today to be called they think that it's hate speech Telling the truth just describing just reading what the Bible says about certain lifestyles about certain agendas about politics and other things Just reading what the Bible says is now determined to be hate speech and and I'm not saying that spiritual truth
• 12:13
  can never be told in a hateful way because it can. I mean, it can. There are ways that we can describe the truth, which are hateful and should not be practiced, right? We can tell the truth in a hateful way. And that's why the scriptures forbid doing that. Ephesians chapter four says to speak the truth, but to speak the truth in love, in love. We want to tell the truth, but we're not going to tell it in a hateful way. We're going to tell the truth, Ephesians four says, in love.
• 12:42
  1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 15 says that we are to do it. We are to share the gospel with gentleness and respect. It actually describes it with those two words, gentleness and respect. And in our text this morning, Jesus describes those who were supposedly religious leaders, but were in fact religious prisoners. He describes those who were claiming to be wise, but had become fools.
• 13:09
  who were the blind leading the blind they themselves in fact were even dragging others down as we'll see in verse 52 they were themselves deceived they were complicit in the deception of others because of their pride and self-righteousness because they refused to believe the truth they in turn refused to tell the truth and as we've said previously their problem was not a lack of religion they had religion in spades
• 13:38
  with its ritual and its pageantry that's what we saw last week but jesus classified them as an evil generation because of their unbelief and that confrontation between these pharisees and jesus that confrontation continues in our text today the false teachers of jesus's day were on their way to hell and he says and you're dragging a whole lot of others down with you
• 14:06
  We studied last week that Jesus was at lunch with a group of Pharisees. We saw that Jesus did not practice cancel culture. But so long as his enemies were willing to eat and speak, he was willing. He was willing to eat with his enemies, those who had rejected him openly, those who had even said, accused him of using the devil's power. Do you remember that? By the power of Beelzebul. As long as they were willing to engage, he was willing to engage. What we find, though, that he was not willing to do?
• 14:35
  was to change his message. He confronted them with the futility of cleaning the outside of the cup, all the while drinking the milk Pepsi hot dog cocktail. Do you remember that from last week? They were cleaning the outside of the dish, but the inside, he says, was like an unmarked grave. It was dead men's bones. And Jesus commanded his listeners last week to offer to God what was on the inside, the inner man, offer as alms that which is inside, that which is
• 15:05
  within the heart you can imagine the audacity of what they determined to be a know-nothing carpenter like a day laborer openly insulting them calling them fools and now the woes continue notice and i'm going to call it third because we pick up from last week last week was false faith loves ritual false faith loves pageantry and now point number three false faith
• 15:36
  Overcomplicates. Overcomplicates. Look at verse 45. One of the lawyers answered him, Teacher, in saying these things, you insult us also. It's like he's saying, wait a minute. Don't you realize, Jesus, that you're insulting us? I know that you said that against the Pharisees, but you're insulting us too. Surely you didn't intend that.
• 15:58
  Surely this was a mistake. Surely you're just painting with too broad a brush, right? I mean, he's just asking Jesus, you didn't intend to insult us. Certainly not us. And he said, woe to you lawyers also. For you load people with burdens hard to bear. You yourselves don't touch the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe to you lawyers also. What is...
• 16:21
  a lawyer now we know what lawyers are in our day lawyers are experts in the law they can argue the law well that's exactly what they were in jesus's day except being except of arguing political law the way that ours do they would argue religious law an expert in the religious law sometimes they're called scribes in fact our text this morning even calls them that in verse 53 the scribes and the pharisees the lawyers existed within the pharisaical sect however
• 16:50
  where the Pharisees were committed to fastidious adherence to the law by practice, the day-to-day workings of their inner external, no, the inner workings of their external obedience, the lawyers, where the Pharisees were very concerned with that day-to-day external obedience, the lawyers were the academics. The lawyers were the theologians. The lawyers were the teachers of that Jewish religious system.
• 17:20
  So it was the lawyer's job to come up with the system. The Pharisees practiced the system. The Pharisees were the practitioners of the religion that the lawyers devised. The lawyers had become what were basically the religious authorities in ancient Israel. They were the dominant. These Pharisaical lawyers were the dominant religious sect at the time of it.
• 17:48
  Jesus. And so you can imagine why the law experts were feeling kind of lumped into Jesus's rebuke. Jesus was condemning the followers of the system which they had invented. And it is important here to note that they invented the system. It's not like they were just
• 18:08
  reading the Old Testament and just simply trying to do what it said. That's not what they were doing. They read the Old Testament and they took from that and extrapolated out this entire religious system which God never intended. Their religion was invented by man. They had devised a false interpretation of the Old Testament. The books of Moses, what the New Testament describes as the law,
• 18:37
  were given by God for the purpose of awakening humanity's souls. Let me say that again. The books of Moses, the law, the Old Testament were given so that mankind would realize God's righteousness, understand their own sinfulness, and become aware of their need for a savior. The reason God gave the Old Testament was to reveal his holiness and our sin, right? That's why we read the Old Testament. That's why we have it.
• 19:07
  It wasn't to give us a whole list of things to do in order to earn God's favor. Rather, it was to give us a list of things that we could never do and thereby understand our own sin and our need for a savior. Listen to Romans chapter 3 and verse 20. For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight. You can never earn your way to heaven. You can never do it. It continues.
• 19:34
  Through the law comes knowledge of sin. You know what the law is good for? The law makes us aware that we are sinners. That's what the law does. It makes our hearts open to receiving Christ because we now know that we need forgiveness. But that is not what the Jews believed then in church. That's not even what the Jewish people believe now. Allow me to read just a small portion.
• 20:02
  of a book called Understanding Judaism, The Basics of Deed and Creed by a man named Benjamin Bleck. Benjamin Bleck is a rabbi, a modern rabbi. He is alive even today, as far as I know. I'm going to read just a small portion. He's an expert on Judaism. He is not a Messianic Jew. He does not believe that Jesus was the Messiah. He does not worship the Lord Jesus as his Messiah, okay? And listen to what he says, and I'll just read just a small portion of it. He says, for the Jew,
• 20:32
  Revelation was not a means for man to see what God looked like. We would say that it is. God reveals not his standard, but rather himself. When we read God's word, we read God's word because we want to know who God is. That's not what he says. Revelation had nothing to do with divine appearance. Rather, revelation was God's way of letting the Jews know what was important to him. He revealed his purpose rather than his...
• 21:00
  person his values rather than his vision and so we would say that revelation god's word was given so that we could get to know god that's not what they think he says revelation was given so that we would know god's requirement on us it doesn't have really anything to do with getting to know god it has everything to do with our obedience
• 21:22
  he continues revelation was not for man to see god it was for god to endow man with a view of his potential for goodness and godliness can you imagine that what he says the revelation of god god's word was given for was so that we could know how good we could become we think the exact opposite we think when we read god's word we realize how bad we are
• 21:47
  how bad we are and how badly we need a savior. He says, no, it's the exact opposite. He was showing us our potential for goodness. In other words, you can obey your way into heaven. And look what he says in verse 46, woe to you for doing so.
• 22:09
  Woe to you, for you load people with burdens hard to bear. You yourselves don't touch the burdens with one of your fingers. You don't even come close to fulfilling all of these things. What they had devised had become a labyrinth.
• 22:26
  for well-meaning, spiritually hopeful Jewish people. They devised a system which had everything to do with the body and nothing to do with the heart. It was a system so complex that it took a lawyer to interpret it. We know what that's like. Kelly and I, when we purchased our first home, I was overwhelmed by the amount of paperwork. Hundreds and hundreds of pages.
• 22:55
  dozens of signatures and I signed them. Our second home when we bought, it was much more prepared for that avalanche of paperwork, but I still didn't read it, I just signed it. When we bought our third home, I thought, you know what? This time I'm gonna try to figure out what it is I'm signing.
• 23:14
  And so I began to read. And out of the corner of my eye, I could see the agent that the escrow company had assigned to us kind of roll his eyes. Like, oh, brother. And I said, I'm going to read it, you know. Oh, brother. You know, they know.
• 23:31
  That you're not going to read that paperwork, which is why they only schedule a 30-minute appointment to make your signatures. Have you ever noticed that? They give you 300 pages worth of stuff. The agent says, you know, if you'd like to read, but here's what it says. You can read it if you'd like, but here's where you need to sign. They know you're not going to read it. That's why they only assigned 30 minutes. Here's 300 pages worth of reading. You have 30 minutes. Go. They know you're not going to read it. I started reading. I got down to the first page and I realized very quickly, I had no clue what it was talking about.
• 23:58
  No clue. So I finished the first page. I just looked up at the agent and I said, can I just ask you a question? Sure. Are you stealing from me? To which the man replied, no, I'm not stealing from you. And so I signed him. I just, man, there's no way. I'm not going to read all of this. Even if I tried to read it, I wouldn't know what it said. And what the lawyers of Jesus's time were guilty of was exactly that.
• 24:23
  They had heaped such burdens upon the people all under the umbrella of this is what God says. Just trust us. This is what God says. And because the language was so exasperating and yet so convincing, the people had no choice but to just fall in line. But church, is that what the gospel is? Is that what God's word says? Was the intention of God?
• 24:46
  To burden people with an unfulfillable duty of faith. Faith so heavy that it could never be accomplished. Church, I don't think that's what the gospel is. In fact, turn to the right with me to Galatians. To the book of Galatians in chapter 5 and verse 1. And look what it says. Galatians chapter 5 and verse 1. For freedom, it says.
• 25:16
  Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. For freedom Christ has set us free." It was just a little more than 500 years ago that a Roman Catholic monk nailed a thesis to the door of his local monastery and on it he had chronicled 95 issues he had with the Catholic Church
• 25:46
  in an effort to reform the church to a more biblical model. That monk, Martin Luther, accidentally sparked what became known as the Protestant Reformation, which is kind of a funny name considering the Catholic Church really didn't reform at all. More like, it'd be better called, probably a better name would be the Protestant Revolt. It was during his careful study of Galatians. This book, Galatians.
• 26:15
  that Martin Luther discovered God's plan of salvation for mankind by grace through faith. It was a plan which was wholly contrary to what the Catholic Church had been teaching to that time for almost a thousand years. At this time, what the Catholic Church has been teaching for 1,500 years. Wholly contrary to what they teach as the gospel. Grace by grace through faith, and that's it. No works involved.
• 26:40
  Many church historians actually claim that the cornerstone of the Protestant Reformation was laid with the Book of Galatians. Martin Luther himself said of this book, the Book of Galatians, that we just read from, the Epistle of Galatians, he says, is my epistle to it. I am, as it were, in wedlock. He says, it's like I'm married to it. It is my Catherine. That's what he called it. Now, Catherine von Bora was the name of his wife.
• 27:06
  It is my Catherine. It is what is most precious to me. It is what is closest to me. It is what I am devoted to for the rest of my life. It is my Catherine. Well, church, what is your Catherine? To what are you in wedlock? What is most precious to you? What are you most devoted to for the remainder of your life? Read Galatians chapter 5 and verse 1 again. It is for freedom that Christ set us free.
• 27:37
  The freedom which we enjoy in Christ is actual freedom, actual freedom. That's what he offers in the gospel. It's not this burdensome faith. I mean, Jesus in Luke chapter 11 says you heap these burdens on these people that they can never fulfill. You're never even going to become close. You're not even close to reaching that potential for goodness. It doesn't exist. It is for freedom.
• 28:08
  Freedom, not a burden. But doesn't it seem like the more our world preaches freedom, the more in bondage they become? The more they preach peace, the more turmoil there is, the more they preach unity. Man, have we heard that word a lot in the last two weeks. The more they preach unity, the more divided they are.
• 28:33
  The more they scream kindness and love, the angrier they become. And that is because they don't know the freedom that Christ offers, real freedom. Our flesh says, the lawyers said, do more. That is there, Catherine, do more. But Christ says, I already did everything. Christ is our...
• 28:59
  And not just obedience to Christ, but Christ himself. He is our Catherine. He is what we are devoted to. He is what is most precious to us. And church, listen, he already did everything that needs to be done. No burden. That's why he says, come to me, all you who are burdened and heavy laden. I will give you rest. I will give you rest. There's rest in Christ. Church, you don't have to do any more. Christ already did it all.
• 29:28
  And not just to give us a license or a freedom to sin, but rather to give us freedom not to sin. That is real freedom, the freedom not to sin. One of my favorite hymns states it emphatically when it says, Jesus paid it all. Jesus paid it all. Consider just for a moment, and don't linger here because there's not a lot of health in it, okay? But just for a moment, go back and consider the worst things you've ever done.
• 29:59
  And like I said, not to drum up guilt and shame because that freedom is real, but just for a moment to rejoice in what Christ paid for. Whatever the worst thing you're thinking of right now, just imagine Jesus saying, paid. I paid it. Oh, I paid that one too. New one just came to your mind? I paid that one too. It's paid. That one's paid. That one's paid. That one's paid. Can you imagine him saying, I see you over there in the corner. I see you. That one's paid too. Paid, paid, paid, paid.
• 30:29
  Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. Guilt, shame, a crimson stain. He washed me white as snow. So we see false faith overcomplicates, but we can rest in the freedom of Christ. Notice fourth, false faith is not naive. Look what it says in verse 47. Woe to you, for you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed.
• 31:00
  So you are witnesses. You consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them and you build their tombs. Therefore, also the wisdom of God said. Now, don't get too hung up on the wisdom of God's statement. What Jesus is about to quote actually right here is not found in the Old Testament. He's not quoting the Old Testament. He's quoting wisdom of God that had not yet been previously written down. Now, church, he's allowed to do that.
• 31:24
  Jesus, we know from John chapter one is the word of God. Jesus, we know from the book of Proverbs is the wisdom of God. And so Jesus can quote, right? The wisdom of God directly from heaven. He can quote that and look at the wisdom of God says in verse 49, I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute so that the blood of all the prophets shed from the foundation of the world may be charged against this generation.
• 31:50
  from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation. And quite possibly the worst aspect of false faith is that it is done with full knowledge, full awareness of its rejection of the truth. The Pharisees here, the lawyers, could not claim innocence. They could not claim...
• 32:18
  Ignorance. That's what Jesus is saying. You are fully aware. You've heard the prophets. They had been told by those prophets who the Christ would be. Born of a virgin in Bethlehem, of the tribe of Judah, the line of David. They'd been told by those prophets what the Christ would do.
• 32:36
  He would set prisoners free. He'd give sight to the blind, strength to the lame. He would subjugate demons. He would proclaim the truth of God's kingdom. All these things Jesus had done and more. And yet here were the Pharisaical lawyers, not only rejecting that clear message, but demanding that others reject that message too.
• 32:55
  In verse 51, he says, the blood of all of those prophets will rise against this generation. And Jesus's line of argument here is similar to what he said a few Sundays ago regarding Jonah and the queen of the south. Do you remember that? That they will rise up at the judgment day and condemn this generation. And that's what he does here. All of the prophets will, he says, from Abel all the way back at the very beginning.
• 33:20
  all through the Old Testament to Zechariah, he says, they're all going to rise up and call this generation cursed because of their increased cumulative revelation. Okay. In other words, this generation had received more and better revelation than any previous Jewish generation.
• 33:44
  So their revelation was clearer. Remember, the older generations had a candlelight of revelation from God. Like there was a little tiny candle flickering, and that's what we can see. This generation had the spotlight of Jesus himself, the Lord himself, and yet they refused to believe. And so he says these past generations are going to rise up. They will bring charges against you. Church, we are.
• 34:15
  We are the world's alarm clock. We are the world's alarm clock. And the world may be trying to hit snooze, right? Like happens when you set your alarm clock on and you're like, I don't want to wake up. There's no way that's right. And then you just reach over and smack that alarm clock, hitting the button over and over and over and over. And honestly, church, that's all persecution really is. All persecution is, is hitting the snooze button.
• 34:44
  You never hit the snooze button gently and orderly. You always hit the snooze button in violence, right? Shut up, stop, boom. You hit that thing. And that's what they did to the prophets. Boom, they silenced them. Boom, they're hitting that snooze button, hitting that snooze button. And yet every nine minutes, God sends another messenger. God sends another, okay, I'll be back in nine minutes. We'll start again. That's fourth, fifth, and finally.
• 35:16
  False faith hinders evangelism. We saw that false faith is not naive. They cannot claim ignorance. They cannot claim innocence. And finally, false faith hinders evangelism. Look at verse 52. Woe to you. Woe to you, lawyers. You've taken away the key of knowledge.
• 35:36
  You did not enter yourselves and you hindered those who were entering. And as he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard to provoke him to speak about many things, lying in wait for him to catch him in something he might say. From this moment forward, from this statement forward, they just said, we got to get rid of this guy. And look at the statement that made them so angry. Woe to you. You've taken away the key of knowledge. You didn't enter yourselves. So in other words, you had the key.
• 36:05
  You had the key, and not only did you not go in, but you're actually hindering others from entering. I can't think of a more frightening prospect than to imagine that I may have hindered someone's entrance into heaven. Can you imagine that? That there would be souls who, due to their earthly interaction with me, something I said, something I did, are now farther from the kingdom than when they started to speak anything other than truth. When you know the truth,
• 36:36
  hinders the entrance of those who otherwise would have been on their way to heaven. Church, we have to be careful. We have to be careful about the words that we use. We know the truth. We have the truth. And so if we say or do anything that does not communicate the truth of the gospel, it will hinder the gospel's flow. And in the same way, to neglect speaking the truth when you're sitting on the truth, so in other words, you have the truth, but you say nothing at all, hinders those who otherwise would have gone, especially if you've been placed in a position of religious authority.
• 37:08
  We know that the example of Jesus is kindness. His example was sacrifice and love and patience and compassion. But his example was also unwavering and enduring truth. Despite threats, despite opposition, despite even eventual persecution and crucifixion, he continued to tell the truth.
• 37:31
  From the time he began his ministry in Luke chapter 4, when he went to his own hometown of Nazareth and preached the truth to his friends and family, those you thought would have embraced him, but instead got so angry they tried to throw him off a cliff. They tried to execute him. He was committed to the truth.
• 37:49
  All the way from that day to the day of crucifixion when hanging on the cross he continued to speak the truth and one crucified on one side rejected the truth and the other crucified on the other side received the truth and became a believer that very moment. From the beginning of his ministry all the way to his last breath he continued to speak the truth. He didn't want to hinder the faith but rather enhance.
• 38:19
  the faith of those who would believe. You know, false faith loves ritual. False faith loves pageantry. False faith overcomplicates the gospel. False faith is not naive. False faith hinders evangelism. Well, what do we do with this sermon? I would say first, stick to the simple truths of the gospel.
• 38:49
  Don't overcomplicate it, church. Our message is a very simple one. It's hard to bow the knee. It's hard to submit to, but it's a very simple message. Don't overcomplicate it. 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 2. Christ, the apostle Paul, I'm sorry, actually says, all I'm going to preach is Christ.
• 39:09
  I preach Christ and him crucified. I'm going to preach the crucifixion of Christ. I'm not going to preach anything else. Then the people of Corinth to whom he was writing, they loved to argue. They loved debate. They loved eloquent dialogue. The Apostle Paul certainly could have indulged them in that. He was highly educated. He was highly intelligent. And yet he did not. He simply said, I will preach the simple gospel and nothing more.
• 39:33
  I gave you some homework from a few weeks ago, right? Your family to sit down over dinner and write out, articulate the gospel. Make sure those in your household know the gospel, that they can not only understand it and say yes to all the right questions, but actually articulate it themselves. I know how to get to heaven. I would say over the course of time, if your family is like mine, you're...
• 39:59
  uh right articulating the gospel would probably actually grow over time the more times you do that the more elaborate it will become now see if you can take that very complicated explanation of the gospel see if you can boil it down to its simplest terms uh you know our youth group i'm proud of our youth group pastor sam and his wife jellica all of those kids man what a great group of kids we have so much talent so much intelligence so much
• 40:27
  Passion for the truth. You guys, they are a very unique group. And I can't wait to see what the Lord does with that group of youth in the generations to come. But our youth group this last Wednesday began a study of the book of Galatians. What we just described, the freedom we have in Christ. A study of Galatians. And he began, Pastor Sam began with an explanation of the gospel. And he gave out these very simple little cards.
• 40:52
  Looks like this on the front. On the back, it says, what is the gospel? And then there's an acronym. Down the side, it says gospel. So you can remember this acronym. Very simple. God, our sins paying everyone life. That is the gospel. God, our sins paying everyone life. Gospel. And then there are some little statements that are made. God created us to be with him. Our sins separate us from God. Sins cannot be removed by good deeds.
• 41:22
  Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. Everyone who trusts in him has eternal life. Life with Jesus starts now and lasts forever. Gospel. What a great explanation. These simple little cards. Now what we've done is actually made several hundred of these. We've produced them here in-house. We got the acronym from Dare to Share Ministries. They did a great job coming up with that.
• 41:45
  Simple explanation of the gospel. We made a whole bunch of these things. You can take them, you can stick them as a bookmark in your Bible. If you're talking to somebody about the gospel, it's very simple. You just find your little bookmark and say, yeah, here's the gospel. There it is. God, and explain those six points. You're done. That is how to get to heaven. We are also going to use these.
• 42:06
  in an upcoming evangelism training that we are going to have here at the church. Our tentative date, we have to lock this down with other calendars and things, but our tentative date is going to be March 12th. On March 12th, the evening, it's a Friday evening, we're going to provide dinner here at the church, and we are going to do about an hour and a half or so simple evangelism training. Here are some tools for how to share your faith. Here's what the gospel is. Here's how to share it with others in preparation for Easter, which is April 4th.
• 42:35
  March 12th, we'll have an evangelism training here at the church. Everybody is welcome to come. We'll register on Church Center and all of that. We'll eat dinner together, and then we're going to explain the gospel and how to share it with others in preparation for Easter. I would encourage you to come. Stick to the simple truths of the gospel. Don't overcomplicate it. Second.
• 42:56
  Live free in the gospel. Live in the freedom that you enjoy in Christ. It is crazy how often I feel like in order to please God, I must do more. It's crazy how often I slip into that. Church, that is not the gospel. That is a man-made, pharisaical religion.
• 43:13
  You don't have to do anymore. I am in those times. I am like a little lawyer Pharisee. I am misinterpreting the gospel. My flesh screams at me, do more. But the gospel says, relax. Jesus paid it all. Live in the freedom that we have in Christ. And third, finally, be the alarm clock. Be the alarm clock. The whole world sleeps in the lap of the evil one. Be gentle.
• 43:43
  Be respectful. Speak the truth in love. But speak the truth. Anticipate that like a snooze button, you might get hit. I mean, they really might. But that's okay. We'll just come back nine minutes later. Because wounds from a friend can be trusted. We are going to commit to tell the truth. And God, I pray that you would be glorified every time your word is open. God, that we would be not only hearers of it, but doers as well.
• 44:15
  We love you, Lord. We thank you for the simple gospel and the freedom that we have in Christ. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.