Latest / HBCWestminster / 6.13.21 Luke 16:14-18 Pastor Danny Gardner

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6.13.21 Luke 16:14-18 Pastor Danny Gardner · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  Our text this morning is Luke chapter 16, verses 14 to 18. Luke 16, 14 to 18. When you've turned there in your Bibles, if you wouldn't mind standing in honor of God's word as I read our text, and then we will pray and begin. In verse 14, the Pharisees who were lovers of money heard all these things and they ridiculed him. And he said to them, you are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.
• 0:29
  The law and the prophets were until John. Since then, the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the law to become void. Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery. Would you pray with me? Lord, this is your church. It's not ours. And so we pray for your glory and not ours.
• 1:00
  We want to do your will and not ours as we preach your word and not ours. And we ask that you would lead us in your way and not ours so that the world may see the one truth, the one way, the one life. And it's in his name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you, church. You can be seated. Well, what is Jesus doing to me? Following the most difficult parable of the Bible with a passage on divorce? Really?
• 1:29
  And although this morning's text actually maybe seems a little obscure and awkward and kind of a tad disjointed, it actually does make sense in the flow of Luke's argument. Jesus had just finished a parable on generosity, about using our resources and specifically our money, if you recall from last Sunday, to invest in eternity, earthly income.
• 1:50
  Eternal investment was our title from last week about living today in light of that day, that there will be a day when we all stand in judgment. And that day, that day far off in the future for some of us should change the way that we live today. And his conclusion was that you cannot have two masters. You cannot serve God and money. And then the next verse, verse 14, provides us with some context. It helps tie these sections together when it says in verse 14 that the Pharisees were lovers of money.
• 2:20
  Lovers of money. What an awful thing to be known for. If you'll turn back with me to the left to Luke chapter 1, go all the way back to the very beginning of Luke's gospel, Luke chapter 1 and verse 3, you'll recall that the book itself was commissioned by and then dedicated to a man named Theophilus. In verse 3 of chapter 1, Luke says, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you,
• 2:51
  Most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught. The book's author, Luke, we remember was a doctor. In fact, Colossians chapter 4 and verse 14 calls him Luke, the beloved physician. But don't think like wealthy, kind of luxury car kind of doctor. Physicians in the ancient world were very frequently hired by those wealthy people to attend to their personal physical needs. And it may be possible.
• 3:20
  that this Dr. Luke was under the employ of Theophilus and was loaned out to the Apostle Paul for the purpose of caring for the great missionary to the Gentiles. Theophilus himself was likely a Gentile and remembered that Paul had severe health issues throughout his life that at times even hindered his ministry. The Apostle Paul, we don't often consider this, but the Apostle Paul had some severe
• 3:45
  health issues that just plagued him and even affected and hindered his ministry. Galatians chapter 4 and verse 13, the Apostle Paul writes to the churches in Galatia, you know that it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first. So apparently the Apostle Paul's plan was to continue to travel through, not to stop in Galatia, but because of this bodily ailment, he had to stop in Galatia. And that's how he ended up planting these churches in the region of Galatia.
• 4:13
  Galatians chapter 4, just a few verses later in verse 16, the Apostle Paul says, if possible, you would have even gouged out your very eyes and given them to me. And so some would speculate, and I probably agree, that maybe this ailment that the Apostle Paul suffered from was a problem with his eyesight, that there was something wrong with his eyes. The Galatians felt such compassion for him and heart concern for him that they would have even gouged out their own eyes and given them to the Apostle Paul if they could have.
• 4:41
  Perhaps this wealthy Gentile Theophilus sent his own private doctor, Luke, to accompany the apostle in order to ensure that he had the best medical care available as he made disciples and planted churches. That may be true. But we also see in the introduction to the book of Luke in verse 3, and then again in the second volume of Luke, which is called the Acts of the Apostles, the book of Acts, that both of those books are dedicated to this man, Theophilus.
• 5:11
  Most likely, he was even responsible for the funding of these books. Now, who was this guy, Theophilus? Scripture never says. In fact, Theophilus was almost certainly not even his actual given name, but rather a pseudonym so that he could retain his anonymity. Only two things are known about Theophilus in any way from the scriptures. One is that he was willing to sacrifice his own money.
• 5:39
  Because he was funding the Dr. Luke to go and accompany the Apostle Paul, his own money, and even risk his own health because this was his personal physician. So he was willing to sacrifice his own money. He was willing to sacrifice his own health for the sake of the gospel. But what we also know about him was that his pseudonym, his nickname, if you will,
• 6:01
  was lover of God. Theophilus, not his given name, but rather his nickname literally means lover of God. God, lover. What a great nickname that would be. If your nickname, church, were chosen based on your character and your actions, what would your nickname be?
• 6:25
  Let's say your nickname had to be lover of something, lover of blank. And it was based on your character and your actions. What would your nickname likely be? You know, funeral services are always a good indicator of a person's true passions. What they love the most always comes up at funeral services. And man, I hope, I hope.
• 6:50
  My love for the LA Dodgers does not come up at my funeral. Someday, whenever that day is, if that's next week or 30 years from now, I hope that my love for baseball, my love for the Dodgers does not come up. It's because it just doesn't matter to me. Although I talk about them an awful lot. I hope that my nickname would not be Dodgerophilus, right? Lover of the Dodgers or Fly Fishingophilus. I hope that it would be something much more along the lines of Theophilus.
• 7:18
  We go back now to our text in Luke chapter 16. We see the Pharisees and now their nickname. If you look at verse 14, the Pharisees were lovers of money and the Pharisees love of money. And then Jesus's clear and direct teaching against that love of money raised the question of his authority. Does Jesus...
• 7:48
  have the right to tell us what to do. Some may have heard me tell the story of when Hallie and I were newlyweds. We went to breakfast with some very good friends of ours who had a little toddler, a little girl named Michaela. Michaela is all grown up now. She is married and, in fact, having her first child this summer, which we are excited about.
• 8:12
  But when Michaela was just a little tiny girl, maybe three years old, we all, the five of us, Hallie and I, then the parents, and then Michaela went to breakfast together. But we chose a restaurant that Michaela did not want to go to. Michaela, because she was just a little squirt, kind of pitched a fit, was kind of screaming and kicking and stomping her little toddler feet, having a temper tantrum, we would call it.
• 8:34
  crying about the fact that she didn't want to go to this restaurant. And I can so vividly remember her father looking in her beautiful little blue eyes and saying, Michaela, what you want doesn't matter. What you want doesn't matter. I don't want to go here. What you want doesn't matter. I don't like it here. What you like doesn't matter. You may say, well,
• 9:01
  Doesn't the Lord promise to give me the desires of my heart? Doesn't the Lord promise he will give you the desires of your heart? Yes, but only if you delight yourself in the Lord. In other words, if your greatest desire is the Lord, then you will be rewarded with the desire of your heart. And the reality is, church, it doesn't really matter what you want. It doesn't even really matter what you think.
• 9:26
  Perhaps the greatest thorn to humanity in the past several decades in my opinion is the development of social media because of its Unfortunate consequence that it has given a platform for every person on earth to publish what they think But the honest truth is it doesn't matter
• 9:46
  what we think. It doesn't matter what we want. Humanity, every person on earth, must bend their will and intellect to the will and intellect of God and not the other way around. Rather than asking, what do I think? We should instead ask, what does God think? The bottom line question being asked in our text is this, who has the authority to speak?
• 10:12
  for God? Is it the Pharisees who claimed to have that authority? These were the religious leaders. These were the religious elite. These were the superstars in the ancient world, okay, religiously speaking. These were it. These were the top-tier religious guys. Did the Pharisees have the right to speak for God, or did Jesus have the right to speak for God? In other words, who is the boss?
• 10:39
  Who is the boss? And with that in mind, let's turn again to our text. Often the greatest opponents to the Lord's work are not the irreligious and atheists. The greatest hindrance many times to the kingdom's advance comes frequently from those who claim to know God, many of whom even claim to represent God on earth. The Pharisees were the religious leaders of Israel.
• 11:01
  And yet they opposed Christ's work over and over. It was the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the people who were clearly portrayed in the gospels as Jesus's arch enemies. And the last phrase of verse 14 gives a clue into the reason why. You look at verse 14, the Pharisees who were lovers of money heard all these things and they ridiculed him.
• 11:31
  The Pharisees were scoffers. They mocked him openly. And this morning's text becomes yet another turning point in the gospel of Luke. Because until now, Jesus had been willing to entertain the Pharisees. There were even times, chapters 7, 11, and 14, where Jesus went into the homes of Pharisees to eat, to have question and answer sessions, right? And these didn't always end well because he was bound to tell the truth. And the truth was that the truth offended them.
• 11:59
  But until this point, he'd always been willing to entertain them. What we see now is another turning point in the Gospel of Luke where Jesus is basically just letting them have it. He's cutting them off. From this point forward in the Gospel of Luke, there is not another private session with the Pharisees. This is going to be the very last one because they had made up their mind. They were determined. He was not only to be rejected, he was to be mocked.
• 12:26
  And so Jesus kicked their dust off of his feet, what began with curiosity and developed into animosity, eventually developed further into hostility, and eventually even a secret scheme to have him murdered. And so they ridiculed him. And that word for ridiculed is a funny one, ekmukteridzo. Ekmukteridzo in the Greek, the ESV translates it ridiculed. Other translations use mocked or derided.
• 12:56
  That word, ekmukteridzo, has as its root mukter, which is the Greek word for nose, the nose on your face. That's the root word there. A literal translation would be to turn up your nose. Isn't that funny? We use that phrase even in English. You turn your nose up at something. It means you kind of sneer at it or you treat it with contempt.
• 13:25
  You know, we are rejoicing that this year there are a whole bunch of babies being born in our church, a whole bunch of them, and the more the merrier, the more the better, but parents of all these new little Highlanders will soon bump into the reality that on their sweet baby's first birthday, they will give them birthday cake for the very first time. That's kind of a normal tradition. For the very first time, they turn one, they get to have cake for the first time, or ice cream, or whatever it is, sugar for the first time. In that moment,
• 13:54
  Before their babies can even formulate words, their babies will realize in that moment that there is more to life than strained carrots. And from that point forward, from their first birthday forward, their sweet babies will turn up their noses at what they had been fed for their first year. The same Greek word is used in Galatians chapter 6 and verse 7.
• 14:20
  Although it's in the passive voice when it says, do not be deceived, God is not mocked. God is not mocked. Now, that of course does not mean that no one ever mocks the Lord. It happens frequently, in fact. But rather, Galatians chapter 6, when it says God is not mocked, he's saying that the Lord will not endure mockery. You're not going to mock God forever. Make no mistake, Galatians says, God will have the last laugh.
• 14:51
  And so these Pharisees who were lovers of money, who were so offended at what Jesus had just said, turned their noses up at Jesus, ridiculed him, treated him with contempt, sneered at him, mocked him openly. And why would they do that? Why would they turn their noses up at Jesus? Simply because Jesus told them what to do and they didn't like it.
• 15:17
  The truth is, church, we still don't like people telling us what to do. Jesus' response to their ridicule in the following verses explains what it was about him that they hated so badly. And the first, the first, was that they were wise in their own eyes.
• 15:36
  They were wise in their own eyes. Perhaps they were even a little bit wise in the eyes of others, but there was evil in their hearts. And so they rejected their Lord's approval and instead sought the approval of men. Let me say that again. We find first that they were wise in their own eyes, perhaps in the eyes of others, but there was evil in their hearts. They had rejected their Lord's approval and instead sought the approval of men. Look at verse 15. So he said to them,
• 16:05
  You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. You ever imagine yourself as bigger than you actually are? Are you bigger in your own mind than you are in reality? Have you ever been...
• 16:27
  bumped down a few notches. Surely that has happened to you. Many years ago, I was a college pastor. My full-time job was to disciple college students at my old church. My old church had a very large gymnasium available to us. And so one of the normal things for our college group to do was to, on Friday nights, late at night,
• 16:47
  play dodgeball in the gymnasium. It was really fun. We'd get between 20 and sometimes 40, 50, 60 kids. We'd have these two massive teams, 20 on 20, 30 on 30. We'd divide and we'd have these, you know, those rubber kind of inflatable hand balls, like whatever that, you know, kids would use, elementary school balls. And we have those things. We'd use them as dodgeballs and we'd be throwing these things, whatever, pelting people and running around and, you know, getting drilled. It was really, really, really fun.
• 17:14
  There were always a couple of the guys that were just physically superior to everyone else. You know, these young guys who are 20, 22, 24 years old, who are taller and stronger and faster than everyone else, who could throw harder than everyone else.
• 17:28
  One of these guys, especially named Weston, Weston could just chuck one of these things so hard. He had a bazooka for an arm. And his hands were so big that he could palm those balls, those big ones, you know, he could palm it. And so he could really throw it like a baseball, you know. He could throw it differently and harder and faster than everyone else. So anytime Weston had one of these balls, everyone else in the court, anytime he'd run around, everyone else would scatter like roaches, you know, when the lights came on. It was just this big clearing in front of Weston because nobody wanted to get hit.
• 17:57
  It hurt so bad. Another one of these larger boys decided that he had had enough of Weston's dominance. And so grabbed one of those balls himself, held it in two hands. His plan was when Weston threw the ball, he was going to hold this other ball up and block it and then use that ball to peg Weston himself. And so he's holding this ball. He jumps out in the middle of the court and he just said, OK, Weston, let's see what you got.
• 18:23
  Right? Weston saw him, came at him with that ball, took a big hop and threw it as hard as he could at this other kid. That ball moved so fast and so hard that the kid standing like this with that ball, his plan was to move it up and block, didn't even have time to do that. The ball hit the kid's square in the nose. The glasses that he was wearing exploded. They went into different parts all over the gym and he just fell straight back, landed on his back on the gymnasium floor and just started moaning. He was still holding.
• 18:52
  the ball above him. And he was like, what happened? What happened? What hit me? It happened so fast. He thought he was big. Turned out to be pretty small. Notice here what's going on in verse 15. Jesus says, you are those who justify yourselves before men.
• 19:14
  I know you think you look big. I know you think you're big, but you're only comparing yourself to other people. He says you are justified before men, but not justified before God. Self-justifying is very simply a declaration that man has no need for a savior.
• 19:36
  that their own strength is sufficient to overcome their inadequacy and sin. It is, in essence, a declaration of independence against God. That is self-justifying. It's making themselves big and God small. Now, there's no doubt they had a zeal for their religion. There is no doubt that they were genuine in their beliefs. There's no doubt that they were sincere. But as one man has said, you can be sincere and be sincerely wrong.
• 20:04
  You can believe with all of your heart that the fire won't burn you. You put your hand in the flame and your sincerity will be for naught. Their justification went, we find, only as far as man's opinion. You justify yourselves, he says, before men, which means it didn't go very far at all. Justification in the sight of men means nothing, but it is not before men that we will stand in judgment.
• 20:32
  We must be, Scripture says, justified before God. Romans chapter 5 and verse 1 says, Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And the reality is, church, that we are completely dependent upon the Lord for our justification. Without Him, we can do nothing.
• 20:56
  This last week at VBS, one little boy who was kind of a troublemaker came and talked to his teacher, Miss Jane. Miss Jane was his teacher and he went to her and he said, I need Jesus. And she was just thrilled to get to share Jesus with this little boy. He said, I need Jesus. And she asked why. And he said, because I can't obey without him.
• 21:22
  I can't obey without him. And church, from a kindergartner? What an awesome truth. We can't obey without him. We can stand there and dare the Lord. All right, let's see what you got. We can be holding that dodgeball. But the truth is, church, if we seek to justify ourselves, we will be the ones on the gymnasium floor moaning and asking what it is that hit us.
• 21:49
  Notice he continues that the Lord equates that self-justification with self-exaltation and self-exaltation is an abomination to the Lord. He continues in verse 15.
• 22:00
  You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. You may ask, well, why is self-justification such a big deal? What's the big deal? Why is it such a big deal if you think you're a pretty good person who never did anything too bad and therefore will probably be approved on Judgment Day? Because that is what most Denverites think. Almost everybody in town thinks that.
• 22:26
  If I just do a good job, if I just live a good life, then if there is a God, he'll accept me on that day. Why is it such a big deal? The answer is because if we can justify ourselves, then we can worship ourselves. It's the same thing. Whoever does the work gets the worship. If we say, I can justify myself, I can save myself, which is what the Pharisees were saying.
• 22:52
  Then he says, then you have no need for a savior. And if you have no needs for a savior, you might as well declare yourself to be God. It is an abomination in the sight of God. So that is first, they sought to justify themselves. They were wise in their own eyes, but there was evil in their hearts. Second, notice they rejected the kingdom. And by extension, they rejected the king. They rejected the kingdom. And by extension, they rejected the king. Look at verse 16.
• 23:21
  The law and the prophets were until John. The law and the prophets were until John. Now, biblical history and prophecy can kind of be divided into two categories. There is the law and the prophets. That is the Old Testament era, which ended with the final Old Testament prophet, Jesus' own cousin, John the Baptist. That is the John to whom the scriptures give reference here in verse 16. From Genesis 3,
• 23:48
  And the prediction that one would come who would redeem mankind from the fall until that John's preaching that the kingdom of God was at hand, the message was that the Savior would soon come who would usher in a new era, an era of peace with God through a once-for-all sacrifice for sin. Genesis 3, it's declared that one would come, one of Eve's descendants would come who would crush the serpent's head and make all things new. That was Genesis 3.
• 24:17
  John the Baptist, thousands of years later, the entire Old Testament is written. John the Baptist shows up baptizing in the Jordan River and declaring the kingdom of God is at hand. He was still declaring that same message. All of that was one era. Eventually, John says, a savior will come, the Messiah, who will make a once-for-all sacrifice for sin. Pick up in verse 16. The law and the prophets were until John. That's the Old Testament era.
• 24:47
  Since then, the good news of the kingdom of God is preached. So the good news is that the king came. And he did, in fact, usher in a new kingdom era, what he himself called a new covenant in his own blood. And that's the very same message that we continue to preach today. The good news of the kingdom of God is preached.
• 25:15
  That a righteousness, apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, has been made manifest through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. That's Romans chapter 3, verses 21 and 22. So he says the law and the prophets preached that a Messiah would come. The Messiah came.
• 25:37
  and is able to give us righteousness apart from the law, because we're all law breakers, apart from the law through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. That is the truth of the gospel. Verse 16 continues, and everyone forces his way into it. Everyone forces his way into it. Now, this is kind of an awkward way to say that. I think maybe a better rendering.
• 26:00
  is actually provided in the footnotes of your Bible. If you're holding ESV, there's probably a little footnote here, number one, translator's note, right at the very end of that verse. If you look down at the footnote, another way to translate it, same, just as good a translation would be, everyone is forcefully urged into it. And I think that's probably better. Another translator has said, everyone is urged insistently to enter. And you say, well, of course they are.
• 26:31
  Because there's no salvation in anyone else. Listen to 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 20. It says, we are ambassadors for Christ. God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. I'm begging you, he says, repent and be saved. A savior has come.
• 27:02
  Repent. And so he says, the law and the prophets preached that the Messiah would come. Since then, the good news of the kingdom of God is that the Messiah did come and ushered in a new era. And we beg you, we beg you to repent and be saved. And then he says in verse 17, but it's easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the law to become void. You say, well, what does this have to do with Christ's argument?
• 27:27
  This again showed the Pharisees' attempt to challenge Jesus' authority. Do you have the right to tell us what to do? Jesus reminded them in verse 16 that the entire Old Testament predicted this new era would come. And yet, these same Pharisees rejected the notion that the Old Testament predicted any such thing. He says, not one dot of the law in the Old Testament has become void.
• 27:57
  It continues to say the same thing all about me, that I would bring in a new kingdom and I'm here. The king is here. And yet they refused, refused to believe and rejected that very Old Testament notion. That's second. What is it about Jesus they didn't like? They didn't like that he came in to be the king. They didn't like that he had the authority to tell them what to do. And notice the verse 18, it flows right along with it.
• 28:25
  Verse 18, they rejected the king's authority. They rejected his authority outright. Look at verse 18. Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery. He who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery. And this, again, may seem like a verse out of place, but follow Jesus' flow of thought. The men he was addressing were outraged.
• 28:53
  that Jesus would receive sinners and tax collectors. Do you remember that? Chapter 15 and verse 2, they grumbled because in their minds, he was receiving lawbreakers. I mean, these people, these sinners, these tax collectors were viewed as the dregs of society. They were the outcasts. And so he told three parables about finding such lost.
• 29:12
  people and the joy that should follow. He hammered home his point when he tacked on the story of the older indignant brother who refused to celebrate the lost son's return. Theirs was a focus on external obedience. But the Lord preached internal obedience from the heart. They felt no guilt whatsoever over internal sin. What was going on in their hearts and in their minds, they didn't even count as sin.
• 29:41
  As we've already said, they only concerned themselves with what others could observe in the sights of men, and they therefore thought themselves to be righteous. They thought they had never broken the law, and yet many of them lived in open defiance of God's commands, even in the most fundamental areas of their lives, like marriage. Now, the Pharisees did not openly condone divorce. They wouldn't say that God approves of
• 30:08
  Divorce? However, they took an extreme liberty with Moses' Old Testament allowance for divorce and broadened its definition to include anything about their wives they didn't like. You guys catch what I'm saying? The Pharisees would say, can I get a divorce for no reason? Of course not. But can I get a divorce for any reason? Yes.
• 30:36
  So they so broadened Moses' allowance in the Old Testament for divorce. They so broadened that, that they literally could take anything, any reason that they didn't like their wife, if she did anything wrong, and they would justify themselves in saying that they were allowed to get divorced. Can I get a divorce for no reason? No. But can I get a divorce for any reason? Yes.
• 31:07
  freely divorced their wives and remarried. It was a common occurrence. They were the first ones, if you'll allow me to say it this way, they were the first ones to practice what our nation now calls no-fault divorce. No-fault divorce. Did you know that you can get a divorce in Colorado right now if you can answer four simple questions? Number one, are you a resident? Number two,
• 31:34
  Are your children older than 18? Number three, will your spouse sign the papers? Number four, do you agree on how to divide the property? If you can answer those four questions positively, you can get a divorce. In fact, I found a place online, $137 to file the paperwork for you. You literally can call them, just say, yeah, we agree on all of that, done. No other reason necessary, 137 bucks. And honestly, church, that's a pretty low view of marriage.
• 32:02
  That's how our state views marriage. You answer those four questions on 130 bucks and you're done. That's how low we view it. Marriage is held in contempt almost in our country. And yet, as low a view of marriage as we have theirs was perhaps even lower.
• 32:21
  The point of this passage and the reason for Jesus' inclusion about marriage and divorce was not necessarily to discuss the possible grounds for divorce and biblical divorce and biblical remarriage. That's not what Jesus was touching on. The Bible has plenty to say in other places about that issue, especially in 1 Corinthians chapter 7. There's all kinds of detail given there about the Lord's expectation. I know.
• 32:47
  That many listening today have been affected by divorce. Many have lived through broken marriages. The devastation that that causes. I just want to reassure you. Can I take an aside for a moment and just reassure you? If that's you, if you have questions about divorce and questions about remarriage and questions about what does the Bible say and what does God think about divorce and remarriage, our pastors are available to you. Our elder board is available to you. We would be happy to walk you through what scripture says.
• 33:15
  about divorce and remarriage, but I don't think that's what Jesus's point here in verse 18 is. I don't think that he's giving a lesson on divorce and remarriage. Rather, I think what he's doing is pointing out the hypocrisy in the Pharisees' hearts. They thought they were above the law. In fact, they thought that they were perfect, flawless.
• 33:36
  blameless according to the law, that they'd never broken it. And yet Jesus says in the very fundamental relationship on this earth, your marriage to your wife, you have broken the law. I think his point in verse 18 was to issue an ethical call to live with integrity, even though we now live in this new era of forgiveness.
• 34:03
  It is easy for us, church, and it was easy for them to diminish, to diminish sin, our view of sin, because forgiveness is so freely offered. If forgiveness is so freely offered, then I'm just going to live however I want, right? Why is sin such a big deal? If I can just be forgiven any time, and Jesus says, no, sin is still devastating. It is.
• 34:27
  painful. It hurts. It ruins our lives. It has consequences and fallout, which will last sometimes for generations. It affects our kids and our kids' kids. And so he says there is this ethical call to live with integrity, even in an era of forgiveness and grace. Allow me to conclude with just a few simple questions that'll make sense now that we've gone through the sermon. Number one, what would your nickname be?
• 34:54
  What would your nickname be? The Pharisees, lovers of money. Theophilus, lover of God. What would your nickname be? What are your pursuits indicating about what you're most passionate about? Number two, do you ever turn your nose up at the Savior because you don't like what he has to say? Do you ever sneer at him? Do you ever just say, I don't want to follow him? You mock him or ridicule him? Maybe not openly and out loud, but maybe in your own heart. You ever turn your nose up at the Savior because what he says is hard?
• 35:25
  Last thought is this. You cannot justify yourself. Maybe in your own eyes or maybe in the eyes of men, but not before the Lord. It's impossible. Just like that little boy at VBS. It's impossible without Jesus. It's impossible. You need his help to obey. And apart from the Lord's grace, we can do nothing, church. We know that that's true. And so any effort to the contrary will only end up with us knocked out on the gymnasium floor wondering what hit us.
• 35:56
  And Lord, I pray, I pray for your grace. I pray for the courage to live with integrity. God, give us the grace and courage, like I've already said, to walk according to your expectations, according to your commands. The one who obeys you, Lord, you said, is the one that loves you. And so, Lord, we want to walk in not a fear of others, but rather a fear of you, a true and genuine fear.
• 36:24
  of the lord which will change the way that we live lord we love you and we are so thankful for your word which speaks so clearly and it's in jesus name we pray amen