Latest / HBCWestminster / 4.26.20 Luke 6:1-11 Pastor Danny Gardner

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4.26.20 Luke 6:1-11 Pastor Danny Gardner · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  Well, good morning, church. We are so thankful that you could join us wherever you may be, in your homes or even around the country. We are glad that you're gathering together with us, Highland, for worship and for time in God's Word. If you have your Bibles, you can open to Luke chapter 6. Our text this morning will be verses 1 through 11. I want to say thank you to Claudia and Jana, our children's directors, for doing announcements this morning. So good to see their smiling faces. And also thank you to all of our Sunday school teachers who...
• 0:28
  Just wanted to greet our kids and just kids of Highland know that you are desperately missed. Our teachers really do miss you. They can't wait to be gathered back together with you, teaching classes again, enjoying craft time, snack time, music time, and teaching time, all of that. We can't wait until we get to do that again. Well, Luke chapter six, verses one to 11. And I would ask if you're able to stand in honor of God's word for you to do that now, I'm going to read our text. We'll pray and begin.
• 0:56
  Beginning in verse 1, and it says,
• 1:26
  On another Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching. And a man was there whose right hand was withered. And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath so that they might find a reason to accuse him. But he knew their thoughts. And he said to the man with the withered hand, Come and stand here. And he rose and stood there. And Jesus said to them, I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it? And after looking around at them all, he said to them, Stretch out your hand. And he did so.
• 1:56
  and his hand was restored. But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus. Let me pray. And Lord, we are confronted this morning with our own inadequacy. And Lord, we exult in it. The gospel which you offer, Jesus, and which we believe has as its very foundation your power over our weakness.
• 2:27
  your victory over our failure, and your life over our death. Reveal in our hearts, Lord, any grievous thing, any way that is in us that is against you. We ask that you lead us in the way everlasting. Be pleased, Father, with the preaching of your word this morning, and it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, thank you. You can be seated.
• 2:55
  You'll recall that in our previous study, the Lord Jesus revealed that the gospel he would offer would be a completely new system, like new cloth that could not possibly be sewn onto the old or adapted and absorbed into the legalistic righteousness of the day. He applied this new gospel to the invitation of sinners and tax collectors into his kingdom. Last week, we saw Levi, one of the most hated.
• 3:19
  Men in his region, the worst of the worst in that society, called to become a follower of Christ. We saw him leave his tax booth, leave his livelihood, and follow Jesus without a second glance. We saw Jesus offering a marriage proposal to Levi and to his Pharisaical neighbors. We noted the difference between those who are willing to receive the Lord's mercy like Levi did, and those who would stiffen their necks against it and rely on their own good works.
• 3:49
  Our takeaway last Sunday was that we must not pretend as though we need no mercy from the Lord. Fake Christianity, we said last week, is after all no Christianity at all. And not to offer mercy to others is to receive none in return. This morning, our Lord will show another facet of that new kingdom, the gospel that he offered as it relates to the observance of the Sabbath. The passage provides a glimpse into the window of the human soul.
• 4:20
  how prone we are toward legalism. God designs laws to shield and protect us. But we often take those laws and recreate them in order to suit our own agendas. And our passage this morning shows how prone we are to take something which God intended for good and to twist it into something heavy.
• 4:44
  And burdensome. And last week he applied the genuine gospel to the inclusion of sinners. This week he applies the genuine gospel to the Sabbath. And church, still, still the number one excuse I hear from outsiders in reply to why they're not interested in coming to church is that the church is full of hypocrites. And we always disagree when they say that because we all dislike.
• 5:14
  when others call us disingenuous. We believe in clarity. We want authenticity. In fact, we as believers in Christ despise hypocrisy. But wouldn't you agree that there possibly are some hypocrites in the church? We would all agree and say, well, yeah, there probably is some hypocrisy in the church. There probably are really hypocrites within the church's walls. Well, would you say,
• 5:45
  That you are one, you know, for being accused of being full of hypocrites. And considering that we probably agree that there really are some hypocrites within the church's walls, you know, I've never actually met somebody in the church who claims to be one. Like, yeah, there are hypocrites in the church, and I am one. Nobody ever says that. They always say, no, I am genuine. I am real. I am authentic.
• 6:16
  In church, if I'm honest, I think I have defined hypocrisy as saying one thing and then doing another. Perhaps that is accurate, but certainly that definition does not exhaust the meaning of the word. The reason this matters is that I have been able to, using this very narrow definition, feel better about my own genuineness by just carefully avoiding certain taboo subjects and actions. For instance, I have falsely defined faithful Christian living.
• 6:47
  As avoiding certain things, using certain words, not using certain words, standing up for some things, adamantly opposing some things, and voting in a certain way. And that is faithful Christian living. But what we see in this morning's passage is that it is also true that hypocrisy can be simply making too big a deal of some things in our Christian walks that honestly don't really matter.
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  and then neglecting those things which are in reality most important to our Lord. In other words, we can have an unhealthy, exaggerated zeal. The pivotal statement of our Lord in our text this morning is found in verse 5, where he says, the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath, and the Sabbath which was instituted by our Lord during his week of creation, and then given to man as a gift,
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  has ironically been the cause of more spurious division between members of Christ's body than almost any other topic. Entire divisions and denominations of the church have been formed either in observance of or in denial of the Lord's intention behind this one day per week. Some would ask, should it continue to be kept? Others, should it be set aside as part of the Old Testament law, which is no longer to be adhered to? But by declaring himself the Lord of the Sabbath,
• 8:15
  Christ measures his opinion against all others by declaring himself Lord of the Sabbath. He was not saying that his intention was to abrogate or do away with the Lord's day, but rather he was saying that he had the authority to rescue the Sabbath, to redeem the Sabbath from false thinking and teaching. Nowhere in our text this morning does the Lord cancel the fourth commandment to observe the Sabbath. He does, however, reveal his heart.
• 8:45
  for the Lord's true intention behind the Sabbath. And he sheds light on what the Lord meant when we should observe this holy day. And our takeaway this morning is simple and yet wildly profound. In fact, our takeaway is one that I will bet every single person in listening to this has already heard. It is one that I will bet every single person listening to this already agrees with.
• 9:10
  And yet, it is one that I will bet that every single person listening to this has trouble fully accepting. And let me just tell you what it is. Christianity, and church specifically, your own salvation has nothing to do with what you do. Instead, it is about who you know. Listen to Matthew chapter 7 and verse 23.
• 9:40
  Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, Jesus said, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. And on that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name? Weren't we doing all these things for you, Jesus? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. You know, church, you can do everything right.
• 10:09
  You can obey every law. You can recite all of the right creeds. You can listen to all the right music. You can neglect all the bad music. You can avoid all the bad movies and all the bad words and all the bad people and still be hellbound. Christianity cannot be boiled down to a list of do's and don'ts. If it could, then there would have been no reason for Christ to die.
• 10:39
  If our salvation were a self-righteous list, then Christ died in vain. We all know, and you've probably memorized Galatians 2.20. I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. But now listen to the next verse, and I'll bet nobody's memorized this one, Galatians 2.21.
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  I do not nullify the grace of God. For if righteousness were through the law, in other words, if I could work my way to heaven, then Christ died for no purpose. Another translation says, for Christ died in vain. If we could work our way to heaven, if our salvation had to do with the music we listen to and the people we hang out with and the movies we see and the words that we use, if it had to do with those things, our salvation,
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  then Christ died in vain. If I can get to heaven another way through my own good works, then Christ is not the way, the truth, and the life. The Father should have let the cup pass from Christ that night in the garden. Imagine the cruelty of Christ's Father in allowing his Son to endure the cross, knowing that there was another way. Christ dies in vain if we can work our way to the Father. Let me boil it down. Every time...
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  We judge the faiths of others based on their actions. We declare our own righteousness based on our actions. By castigating the tax collector last week, the sinners from last week, the Pharisees were declaring themselves to be righteous in their castigation against the Lord's disciples for eating on the Sabbath, for rubbing those grains together on the Sabbath. They were declaring themselves righteous.
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  by even levying accusation against the Lord for healing on the Sabbath in Luke 6. They were declaring themselves righteous. We are, in essence, every time we do that, declaring there is another way. Every time we wallow in guilt over our inadequacies and our failures, every time the conviction of the Holy Spirit lingers, when we feel convicted, that is the Holy Spirit.
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  But then if we don't repent, if we just allow ourselves to just linger in this guilt and wallow in shame, we are declaring a different gospel. And you may be sitting there on your couch this morning thinking, well, I haven't done that. I know and I believe that I am saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. That's good, but that's not totally where the hypocrisy lies. My theology of justification is sound.
• 13:37
  I believe the gospel is the power of God for the salvation of all who believe. I also know that I cannot be saved by my own merit, but by my actions, by my living, and by my own feeling of guilt and shame, I am declaring in my guilt that it is up to the Lord to save my soul, but then it is up to me to sanctify it. I believe.
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  that although I am saved by grace, I am sanctified by my own good works. This is proven every time I say or think, Christians shouldn't act that way. No Christ follower would say such a thing or do such a thing or listen to or watch such a thing. And listen, church, I know that it's easy to make those accusations and to make those judgments, but by making those statements,
• 14:32
  Have we not excluded from the kingdom those who could very well be genuine believers in Jesus Christ? Is it not possible to be a believer in Jesus Christ, to be saved, genuinely saved from our sin, and yet continue to sin? Yes, it is. That forgiveness is real. The Bible says nothing about the day you become saved, you ceasing to sin. In fact, it says if you try to claim that,
• 15:00
  You're a liar, 1 John 1.8 says, and the truth is not in you. You claim to be without sin. Well, what is our problem? What is our problem? And I'll tell you, our problem, our problem is we are hypocrites. Galatians 5 verse 1 says, it is for freedom that Christ sets us free. Now, freedom from what? And the answer, church, is glorious. It's freedom from everything. Freedom from everything.
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  And I've called this morning's message, The Problem of Exaggerated Zeal. We can, as believers, become crazy over some things and yet be very lax over other things. We all have our hot button issues. We all have our pet theological bents that make us like the Pharisees who would strain out the gnats all the while swallowing a camel. The Pharisees, in their hypocrisy, were guilty of putting secondary things
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  First, listen to J.C. Ryle. He says it is a bad symptom of any man's soul when he begins to put the second things in religion in the first place and the things in the second, the things ordained by man above the things ordained by God. The focus of our sermon this morning will not be an expounding upon a theology of the Sabbath. I think that there have been many excellent sermons on what the Sabbath is or isn't.
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  a proper understanding of God's expectations on the modern believer. Those will not be hard to find online. Instead, we will look at the disproportionate pharisaical response of Christ's enemies toward work on the Sabbath and how that revealed in their own hearts a work-based righteousness. In other words, we will look at the pharisaical hearts pointed at, directed toward, negatively toward Christ and his work on the Sabbath, and we'll see if there's a reflection of our own hearts in their response.
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  Scripture gives us this morning two Sabbaths to study. These were likely not consecutive, but just good examples of the types of confrontations Christ had to put up with in his ministry to hurting people. And so let's look at the first one, Sabbath number one. In verses one to five, let's just focus on the first two verses for now. It says, On a Sabbath, while he was going through the grain fields, his disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands.
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  But some of the Pharisees said, why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath? Now, this statement is simply not true. Deuteronomy 23, 25 actually allowed for the plucking of grain on the Sabbath. It said you could do that. However, the Pharisees had added their own rigid expectations to God's word.
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  They had taken their cultural expectations and equated them with God's expectations. And church, listen, when we do that, it never works out well. That is the definition of legalism. However, Scripture allowed for picking. But the Pharisees then said the rubbing together of the grain constituted work.
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  Books of Moses, the Pentateuch, or Genesis to Deuteronomy, spelled out 613 laws that every faithful Jew must follow. But the Pharisees then took those 613 laws and expounded upon them to create an entire system of thousands and thousands of laws, which they said redefined God's expectations on his people. Church, may we never go beyond.
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  What is written in God's word. What God says we should avoid, we should avoid. And our expectations on other people don't matter. Only what the Lord expects. Many of those pharisaical laws were connected to Sabbath faithfulness. And in true Jesus style, our Lord loved tearing those walls down.
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  As the ancient Jews walked around the walls of Jericho and then watched those walls come tumbling down, so also Jesus, in perfect faithfulness to the Father, metaphorically walked around the walls of the laws of the Pharisees and then watched those walls tumble to the ground. His disciples were hungry and Jesus said, you can eat. We see works of necessity are allowed on the Sabbath, but we also see the readiness of Christ.
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  to come to his disciples' defense. Look at verse 3. And Jesus answered, Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the presence, which is not lawful for any but the priest to eat, and also gave it to those with him? And he said to them, The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. I love that we see here Christ coming to his disciples' defense. He does not leave them to answer for themselves. They were accused, and his response,
• 20:09
  left their accusers silenced. The Lord does the same for us. Revelation 12.10 calls the devil, the enemy of our souls, calls him the adversary, the accuser, the accuser of the brethren. But Romans 8 promises that Christ is ever making intercession for us. He does the same thing. The devil right now is making accusations against you and I before the throne of God.
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  And Romans 8 says that Jesus intercedes. 1 John 2 says that we have an advocate with the Father when we send Jesus Christ, the righteous. He does the same for us. He comes to our defense. And I love that in his defense, Jesus uses the Scriptures to combat heresy. He tells a story of David, out of necessity, taking the bread of the presence and eating it and giving it to his soldiers as well.
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  He uses scripture to combat heresy, and so should we. Beloved church, may I ask honestly, do you know the word well enough to combat heresy? Externally, meaning questions and challenges posed to us by non-believers, those outside of the church, really just boil down to about eight topics. Typically, when theology, when sound doctrine is criticized,
• 21:37
  by our neighbors, unbelieving neighbors, friends, family members. Typically, there are about eight topics, which include questions like these. How could a loving God send people to hell? You say that he's loving. How would a loving God send anybody to hell? Another one, why is there suffering? If God is good and God is all-powerful, then why is there suffering? Can the Bible be trusted? That's another one that is often asked. Is Jesus really the only way to heaven? Now listen, church.
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  Do a little bit of reading, not even a lot. Do a little bit of reading, a little bit of study to show yourself approved, and you really will be able to answer most of what the world is asking. They only ask about eight things. Honestly, they're really just not that creative in coming up with new questions. They're the same questions over and over. Do a little bit of study, and you'll probably have answers for their questions. However, internally,
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  Meaning questions we grapple with in our own minds are actually, I think, much more difficult to combat. You are a preacher. Every single one of you, whether you realize it or not, you are preaching all the time, whether you verbalize it or not. You are a preacher, and the person you're preaching to is you. Philippians 4, verse 8 says to dwell on what is true.
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  And when you're preaching to yourself, when you're thinking, when you're just in your own mind and you're running through and processing the events of the day, the thoughts and actions, the speech of the day, your relationship with your wife, your relationship with your kids or your parents or your coworkers, when you're processing all of these things and wondering how you should interpret each of those, are you telling yourself the truth? In an age of stay-at-home orders and fear and an unknown future,
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  How are you doing at preaching the truth to yourself? My wife Hallie and I, this last week, went and visited a bunch of people from our church throughout the week, and we do that anyway, but we went and visited one of our beloved friends who is a widow here at the church, and she really is just delightful, and we love her. We just went to her house this week and knocked on the door. We stood on her front lawn while she stood inside of her door entryway and gave ourselves the proper social distancing, right?
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  that is required. And we just noticed that she was having a hard time and even tearing up a little bit because of feeling overwhelmed with our present circumstances. And in an effort to encourage her, I just said, you know, you just need to think a little farther out. Don't worry about this month or next month. Don't worry about next year. Don't worry about next year. Think of 50 years from now.
• 24:24
  50 years from now, none of this will matter. This will all be over. This will all be gone. We'll be in glory. We'll be in glory. We will not be thinking about this quarantine 50 years from now. And she just smirked kind of through her tears. And she said, well, Pastor Danny, it may be 50 years for you, but it's probably only 10 years for me. 10 years for me. And just looking forward to that, being in glory.
• 24:54
  You know, Church, COVID has confronted me with the reality that I have been setting my hopes on things that are not eternal. And not things that are sinful necessarily, just things that have little to do with heaven. And as one event after another has been canceled, and as the prospect of things returning to normal gets pushed further and further out, I am forced to look forward to things that are further and further out.
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  The reality that I now face is that it may be a very long time before things are completely back to the way that they were. And as more temporary things are taken away, I am forced to look forward to what cannot be taken away. The question that I ask myself then is, is heaven enough? That cannot be taken away. Is heaven enough?
• 25:54
  Our lives have been relatively comfortable until now. We've not had much, if any, actual persecution for our faith. We've not had much, if any, genuine suffering on this earth. We have until now, I think, been even subconsciously just depending on the American dream until the day we hoped we would slip quietly into eternity in our sleep at a ripe...
• 26:23
  old age, and then just wake up in glory. But it may not be that way anymore. And in those moments of despair, church, when more and more plans are canceled, can I just encourage us to think a little further out? When you're preaching to yourself, ask yourself the question, is heaven enough? And allow the answer to that question to correct your theology. Preach to yourself the word of God.
• 26:55
  Store up for yourself treasure in heaven, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Sabbath number one. Sabbath number two, we find in verses six to 11, and notice the allowance of works of mercy on the Sabbath. First, we saw works of necessity allowed, but notice also works of mercy. Look at verses six through eight. On another Sabbath, it says he entered the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was withered.
• 27:23
  And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse him. But he knew their thoughts, and he said to the man with the withered hand, Come and stand here. And he rose and stood there. The Pharisees were well beyond desiring to be taught. They'd already determined in their hearts, we find, especially in verse 11, we find that they were filled with...
• 27:50
  fury and disgust with one another what they might do to Jesus. They were not looking to be taught. They were not looking to hear. They did not have their listening hat on. When verse 7 says that they watched him, they watched him to see whether he would heal, the phrase could literally be translated, they watched him narrowly with sinister intent. And I love how this does not dissuade, nor does it distract Christ.
• 28:20
  from his mission. You know, often when I go to the mountains to hike, to fly fish, I end up in areas heavily populated with bugs. I don't mind the bugs because the bugs feed the fish. That's why fish are there. But those tiny little ones, you know, that are just intent on flying directly into your ears are the worst, right? You don't even realize they're there until they're all of a sudden in your ear. And then you just hear that real high pitch.
• 28:49
  Right? Like, ah! And you see a man perfectly fine. I or my boys, you know, they're watching me tying flies or whatever, tying something on. And all of a sudden, I just freak out because there's something in my ear. You know, Jesus came to save. The Bible says it. He came to heal. What I love in our passage this morning is that no amount of bugs flying around him distracted him or would keep him from doing what he came to do. He came to show miraculous mercy.
• 29:20
  He came to show love. He came to sacrifice and nothing church would stop him. Nothing would stop him. And can I encourage us? Nothing should stop us either. The way that we show acts of mercy during a quarantine and during stay at home might have to look different. That's true. But don't allow the stay at home order to keep you from showing acts of mercy. We're required to do social distancing and we will.
• 29:49
  We believe that it is for the good of others. But let us continue to show acts of kindness and love and sacrifice the way that Christ did. No amount of bugs kept him from doing what he came to do. You notice finally in verses 9 through 11, you see that Christ's day of rest didn't actually involve much rest. Look at verse 9. And Jesus said to them, I ask you.
• 30:18
  Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it? And after looking around at them all, he said to them, stretch out your hand. And he did so, and his hand was restored. You know, the Lord's example on this Sabbath teaches us that we should, every Sabbath and every other day for that matter, put ourselves at the disposal of the Lord to perform works of mercy and love and sacrifice and caring.
• 30:49
  The scriptures teach that we should observe a Sabbath, but they also teach that we must do so with the proper understanding of what the Sabbath is. One has said, the scriptures are clear, they call the man who refuses to work lazy, and they call the man who refuses to rest disobedient. And for those who are prone to neglect the Sabbath entirely, heed the example of Christ, who participated in it, who enjoyed times of rest.
• 31:19
  and quiet, and refreshing, and solitude. For those who are over strict in their observance of the Sabbath, I would encourage you to heed the example of Christ, who was, even on the Sabbath, used by his Father to teach, to minister, and to heal. Well, as a conclusion, I'll just ask a couple of simple questions. Does the freedom that Christ offers mean that a genuine believer can commit flagrant sin and still be saved?
• 31:50
  The answer is yes. 1 John 1.9 says he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Your salvation really is not about what you do. It is about who you know. That is true. But church, should that freedom be used as a license for sin? Of course not. Romans 6.4, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too must walk.
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  in newness of life. And beloved church, this is the gospel. This is what must take first place in our lives and in our preaching. Not a list of righteous do's and don'ts, but the genuine grace offered by Christ despite our actions. To preach anything else is to put secondary things first. I love the gospel because I have nothing to do with its inner workings, and yet I benefit from it greatly.
• 32:46
  And I hate hypocrisy, especially when I'm the hypocrite. And so let us not accidentally participate in hypocrisy by our declaration of another gospel. Let us be careful never to go beyond what is written. Let us be the first to recognize that our salvation has nothing to do with our own works. And let us exult in our own inadequacy. For when we are weak, church, he is strong. Let me pray. Lord, we are grateful for your word.
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  this morning, so thankful, Lord, that we could gather in our homes. And Lord, we do look forward to the day where we will gather again at Highland. But until then, God, restore the joy of our salvation. May we not become disheartened by stay-at-home extensions and orders and quarantines. God, may we be reminded this morning that there is something ahead of us that cannot be taken away, and that is the hope of heaven. And may that hope
• 33:48
  Of tomorrow, give us hope today. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.