our Bibles to Luke chapter 16. Luke chapter 16. When you declare to religious
men the truth that Christ is all and that Those that He calls
to faith in Him are complete in Him. When you declare this
to religious men, declare to them Christ is all. Some seem to be a little surprised
when religious men choose Moses and the Law and reject Christ. When you tell a sinner or a religious
man, you show him in the Scriptures. Over and over and over the Scriptures
declare to us that Christ is the end of the law. He's everything
the law and the prophets declare. He's the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that He sanctifies and calls to faith in Him. And
you show this to folks over and over in the Scripture, throughout
the Scripture. And some seem a little surprised
that religious men reject the very Scriptures, the Word of
Scripture, and say, no, I believe we are still under the law. We still are required to keep
the law to make ourselves more pure gradually more and more
holy and pure. And some will even tell you,
they'll say, I don't believe Christ is all. I don't believe
we're complete in Christ. There's still, we have our responsibility. There's things we have to do
under the law, men will say. And some of us seem surprised
that that's the case. We ought never to be surprised
because when God Himself In human flesh, the Lord Jesus walked
this earth and declared this gospel to religious men and women
in this earth. They rejected God. They looked
Him in the face and rejected Him when He declared this message. So we ought not be surprised
if they reject us. Now, our message tonight is in
Luke 16. Just before we get to our text,
the Lord declared the parable of the unjust steward. And this steward was given all
his goods by his Lord. And his Lord gave him these goods
to be a steward of those goods to use for the glory of his master,
for the furtherance of his house, And that was what he was to use
them for. But instead, this man used those
goods for his own glory and for the furtherance of his own house.
That's what made him unjust. And our Lord declared this. And
when he finished, he told us the meaning of that parable in
verse 13. Luke 16, 13. He said, No servant
can serve two masters. For he will either hate the one
and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise
the other. You cannot serve God and Mammon. But the Pharisees were listening
to our Savior when He said this. And here was their answer, verse
14. And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, derided, heard
all these things and they derided. him. They mocked him and rejected
him. These were the most holy appearing
in appearance. They were the most holy, most
religious men of the day. And here they stand before God
in human flesh and they reject what He says to them. We ought
not to be surprised, should we? Now listen to what our Lord declares.
He said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before
men. But God knoweth your hearts. For that which is highly esteemed
among men is abomination in the sight of God. The Law and the
Prophets were until John. Since that time, the Kingdom
of God is preached. And every man presseth into it. And it's easier for heaven and
earth to pass than one tittle of the Law to fail. Whosoever
putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, commiteth adultery.
And whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband,
commiteth adultery." And then our Lord said, there was a certain
rich man. A man who in his own eyes, in
his own estimation of himself, was rich. which was clothed in
purple and fine linen, the clothing of the honorable, the clothing
of those that men regard as honorable and wealthy. And he fared sumptuously
every day. And there was a certain beggar
named Lazarus, a man men looked down upon, a man that men don't
esteem as anything. which was laid at his gate full
of sores, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from
the rich man's table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked
his sores. And it came to pass that the
beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. He was carried to glory. And
the rich man also died and was buried and in hell. He lift up his eyes, being in
torments, and saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom. Now, I want to show you tonight
that the one reason that religious folks reject the Gospel, the
one reason that religious folks reject the Gospel that declares
Christ Jesus is all, every aspect of salvation from beginning to
end. And believers have no part in
it by our works. The reason religious folks reject
that message is very simple. Christ is not all in their hearts. Christ is not all in their hearts. Their hearts are divided. They
have hearts set on earthly treasure on riches of the earth including
their religious treasures. Those works they do to be seen
of men to get glory for themselves which belongs only to God. That's
the reason. That's the reason. That's what
our Lord declares here in our text. And I pray God to give
us ears to hear this. Pharisees in His day are no different
than Pharisees in our day. They are no different. Now first
of all, our Lord says that God requires that all who worship
Him must worship Him only with a whole heart. With the whole
heart. He says this, no servant can
serve two masters. He, for he'll either hate the
one and love the other, else he'll hold to the one and despise
the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Mammon means earthly treasures,
earthly riches. You can't serve God alone and
serve earthly riches. Seek earthly gain and earthly
prosperity. That's just self-seeking glory
for self. You can't seek God and for God
to have all the glory and at the same time be seeking for
self to have glory and to be your salvation. You can't do
that. These two are impossible, our Lord says. And whatever He
says is so. It's an impossibility. Absolutely
impossibility. Now, you and I at no point, even
you and I who He's called, we still have sin mixed with everything
we do. Christ Himself, the Son of God,
came from heaven to this earth to serve God with a whole heart
perfectly. And He did that. He came here
and He served the Father representing His people. And when He did so,
He did so with an undivided heart. He did so totally glorifying
God in everything He said and did. And that is our That is
our righteousness and that is our holiness, what He did in
perfection. And when He comes to us in the
day of His grace and gives us a new heart, a pure heart, a
purified heart, a washed heart that's washed in regeneration,
He gives you a heart to rest in Him through faith and follow
Him, giving Him all the glory knowing that we don't get any
glory and that there's no part of salvation that's by our hands
and He makes you follow Him only. And when He does that, He makes
you use even the goods that He's given you in this earth for His
glory, for the furtherance of His kingdom. In other words,
He gives you a pure heart to serve Him with your whole heart.
He does that. The law doesn't do that. The
law doesn't contribute to that other than Him using the law
to show us that none of our righteous religious needs were righteous
and holy. He does this work. He makes you
to serve Him with the whole heart. And He does it through this message
that declares that He alone does it. Listen to this. Scripture said, let us draw near
with a true heart. What's a true heart? One that
draws near in full assurance of faith. You know what the full
assurance of faith is? Christ is all. Christ has done
it all. In Christ I have full acceptance
with God. Nothing else needs to be done
to make me accepted of God forever. Why would I go back to the law?
Huh? Why would I go back? In Christ,
God says, I'm righteous. God says, I'm holy. God says,
no charge can be laid against me. God says, I have no sin. There's no record of sin. There
will never be a record of sin. Why then would I go back to the
law? I can't have full assurance of
faith while trying to get assurance in my deeds of the law. He says,
let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. How do we get it? Having our
hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. An evil conscience
is one who constantly is thinking Christ is not enough. I need
to add to this work and then thinking I haven't done enough.
I need to add more to this work. That's an evil conscience. Always
looking at the sins of others. but drawn near, having our hearts
sprinkled from that evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure
water." And when he does this, look at Colossians 3, when he
does this work, now we are no longer serving him with a divided
heart. Colossians 3 and verse 10, this
is the word of our Lord delivered through the Apostle Paul. He
says, we have put on the new man. Colossians 3.10, we have
put on the new man. Through faith in Christ, we have
put on the new man, and that new man is renewed in knowledge
after the image of Him that created him. You see, God created him,
and God created him and gave him the knowledge of God. He made him in the image of God
in spirit. He has made us in the image of
God. He has given us the knowledge of God. This is the new man. And He continually renews us
in that image, in that knowledge. Watch, where there is neither
Greek nor Jew. You see, our hearts are not divided
anymore. We now know that all our blessings
came to us because God made us His holy generation. He made
us His holy race. How? He blessed us when He chose
us in Christ and blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places. And our hearts are not divided
between that and whether or not we are a Jew or a Greek. Whether
or not we are of this race or that race or who our father was.
That's all the Pharisees were interested in. We are of our
father Abraham. They thought that's what election
was just because they were the natural sons of Abraham. Our
hearts are not divided between that anymore. that we have all
blessings in Christ because we are His holy children by God's
election of grace. Look at this. Look at this. And neither is there circumcision
nor uncircumcision. That represents being under the
law or not under the law. We now know we are not divided
between Christ being all our righteousness us contributing
by the works of our law obedience. We're not divided on that anymore.
Our hearts aren't divided on that. We trust Christ is all
our righteousness now. He came and circumcised our heart. He made us holy in heart and
separated us out of that divided heart so that now we see He's
all our righteousness. And look at this, there's neither
barbarian or Scythian. You know what that had to do
with? Wisdom. Barbarians were unwide. They
were uncouth barbarians. Scythians. We are not now looking
to whether or not, we are not looking at our knowledge and
our education and divided between that and Christ being our wisdom. God has made Christ our wisdom.
He is our prophet that teaches us. All of our knowledge and
all grace comes to us from Christ and it is all concerning knowledge
of Christ. So we're not divided on that.
Look, not bond or free. No more bond or free in this
new man. We're not divided over where our redemption came from
and where our liberty came from. We're not divided as to whether
or not we're bound under the law anymore or whether we're
free under it. We know Christ has redeemed us
and we're brought out. now. We're redeemed out by Him
from the curse of the law. And we're out from under it.
We're following Christ now. And that's settled in our heart.
Look at this. Here's what He says. None of
that is of any effect to us, but Christ is all in and all. The one thing He requires of
all who come to Him in faith is a sincere, single, undivided
heart trust in God in Christ. That's what's required of it.
So that he gets all the glory for all our salvation. And only
then will we take the things, we see then everything that we
have, our earthly stuff that we have, our job and our money
and our health and all the goods that came to us from God and
we just have it as a stewardship. to use it for the furtherance
of His house, for the preaching of His gospel, for His glory,
and not for our own. And He will provide. Now, you
only know this when He is giving you this single heart. So when
you hear people, you tell this to people, and people say, well,
I believe we are still under the law. There is a divided heart
there. There's a divided heart between
looking to Christ and looking to you. Between looking to Christ
and looking to their works. There's a divided heart there.
And a man, Scripture says, a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Those who come to God must come
to Him in faith. With a mind and a heart set on
Him and we must serve Him that way. So that's the problem, Christ
said. That's the issue. Now look, the
Pharisees rejected the Lord because they were covetous of earthly
things. They wanted to appear religious
in their worship like they were honoring God and serving God,
but they had a heart divided for earthly things. And so that
spilled over and that was the sum and substance of all their
religion too, was covetousness. And that's what Christ says.
Look at verse 14. The Pharisees also who were covetous heard
all these things and they derided Him. They derided Him. And He said unto them, You are
they which justify yourselves before men. He is describing
their religion. You are they which justify yourselves
before men, but God knoweth your hearts. For that which is highly
esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. I titled
this message, Christ's Message to Pharisees. And this is His
word to Pharisees. To men who think that they are
required to go back and keep the law, or that they can even
keep it, and that they must do it for righteousness, or for
holiness, or for whatever other reason they've been told. And here's the offense now. This is where God draws the line
right here. Some folks may think they have
to go back and keep the Law. God says that's fine as long
as they don't reject the Gospel, reject His people, and they'll
continue to meet under the sound of the Gospel. He says you don't
judge them and they're not to judge you. But when they reject
our Gospel, like the Pharisees did right here, like they rejected
Christ, that's where they manifest that they trust those works.
That they're saying those works are necessary, that those works
are required or you can't be saved. Now you're mixing law
and grace. And that's what the Pharisees
were doing. The Pharisees always rejected Christ. Pharisee is
like a denomination. It's like you give a name, a
denomination. They always rejected Christ when
He walked this earth. And Pharisees reject Him today. They reject His people, they
reject His message today. Have you ever looked in the Scripture
to see why they rejected Christ? One of the very first things
for which they rejected Him. And this was something, I am
going to preach a message on this very soon. As I looked at
this more and more as I was preparing for this message, you may want
to just preach a message on this. Our Lord made a point to show
mercy on the Sabbath day. He made a point to make certain
that His disciples did things like eat corn, pull corn and
eat corn on the Sabbath day that the Lord knew would offend the
Pharisees. This was the chief thing, the
number one thing and the first thing Christ intentionally offended
them with this. And what it was they hated most
is He declared to them that He is the Lord of the Sabbath. What
does that mean? It means He's God, He's Sovereign,
who ordained the Sabbath day. And it means, and we'll see when
we look at it later, that He did it to teach that He is the
rest of His people. You know, by showing that He
is the Lord of the Sabbath, that He is the end of the Sabbath
day, the rest of all His people, He was declaring He is the end
of the whole moral law for His people as well as every other
law in the old covenant of Moses. He was showing He is the end
of it because right there in the middle of the Ten Commandments,
dividing the table that is toward God and the table that is toward
man, you have remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. And so by Christ
declaring He is the Lord of the Sabbath, He is the one who gave
it and He gave it to show He is the rest of His people. He
is the one in whom His people find all our rest. The Sabbath
day said, do nothing, do no work on the Sabbath. Do no work on
the Sabbath. Don't make your servants do work.
Don't make your animals do work. Everybody gets to rest from all
their works on that day. And the Pharisees, religious,
naturally religious man, takes that law and adds so many commandments
to it, to where when they get finished with it, all you can
do on that day is work to try to show other people that you
are not working. And Christ said, I am the Lord
of the Sabbath. He did mercy on the Sabbath. He showed mercy
on the Sabbath. He saved people on the Sabbath.
He allowed His children to eat on the Sabbath. He did good on
the Sabbath because that's who He is and that's what our Sabbath
does. And we keep Him holy. We remember
Him and sanctify Him above all and keep Him holy, separate from
everybody else and all their religion and all their commandments
and all their deeds, saying, He alone is our Sabbath rest. Yeah, we obey that commandment. by believing on Christ and resting
in Him. That's right. That was the first
thing that offended him. Because by saying that, he said
that all their religion, all their works, all their so-called
law obedience was vanity and could not save. And that is what
men hear when they hear that Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believes. When they hear
us declare that, it means He's all. that He is our righteousness,
that He's all, He's our holiness. They hear that and they hear
what they heard when Christ declared He's the Lord of the Sabbath.
And it takes all their works out of their hands. And they
hate Christ now just like they hated Him then. Now you can candy-coat
it and try to say that's not what men are offended by, but
I guarantee you that's it. That's what they were offended
by then, that's what they're offended by now. And then they
hated Christ because He received sinners. Let's look back up at
Luke 15 and verse 1. It says, Then drew near unto
Him all the publicans and sinners for to hear Him. And the Pharisees
and scribes, the scribes were not lawyers like we think of
lawyers, like civil lawyers and trial lawyers. They were men
who searched the law of Moses. and told you what the law of
Moses said. They were lawyer, legal men.
And the Pharisees, that's what they were. That was all of their
religion. And they looked and they said,
this man receiveth sinners and eateth with them. And so he gave
that parable about a man losing one of his sheep and going to
find it. And then he gave the parable
about a woman losing a coin and sweeping the house till she found
it. because He is declaring to them. That is why He came, to
save His elect sheep, to save His treasure, His people. And
He is going to all ends to find them, call them out, put them
on His shoulder and bring them home. That is why He came. He
said, I did not come to call the righteous, I came to call
sinners. You see, in most of these churches where Pharisees
worship, it is like having a hospital that won't allow sick people
in it. If they found out that you were a sinner, you'll get
kicked out of the church. Christ said, I'd like for you
to find out you're a sinner, and when you do, come and join
me and my people. You see, that's why we're here.
He didn't come to call the whole need not a physician, but the
sick. And it's not righteous folks
who They don't need Christ. That's why the Pharisees wouldn't
come to Him. They thought they were righteous. It's sinners
that need Him. And this offended them. This
offended them. And then look, they hated Christ
because He would not recognize them and all their religious
deeds and glorify them and glorify them before men and say good
things about them. They hated Him for that. When
you read the parable of the prodigal, that our Lord gave. You know
where the Pharisees fit in in that. They were there when He
was telling all these parables and there's some aspect of these
parables that apply to them. The Pharisees are the son who
never left. They're the son who stayed home.
They're the son who stayed there and served his father. Now look
here at that son. Look at 1527. He said unto him, The son that stayed home heard
all the feasting and everything when the prodigal son came home.
And he asked somebody, what's all this music? What's all this
about? And the man said to him, thy brother is come, and thy
father hath killed the fatted calf because he received him
safe and sound. It was a time to rejoice. This
was like a sinner being saved by grace. It's a time to rejoice. Verse 28 says, and he was angry. and would not go in. He wouldn't go in where the father
and son and the children were rejoicing. He wouldn't join them.
He was angry. Therefore came his father out
and entreated him. And he answered, said to his
father, Lo, these many years... And what our Lord said is He
named the years. The exact number of years. and
the day, and the month, and the day, and the hours, and the seconds. Because Pharisees keep up with
everything they've done to serve God. He said, all these many
years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy
commandment. Pharisees lie and try to say
that they've kept God's commandments, just like this boy did. And yet
thou never gavest me a kid, A goat, you never sacrificed a fatted
calf for me that I might make merry with my friends. A Pharisee
does not rejoice in Christ and he does not consider God's friends
his friends. Verse 30, but as soon as this
thy son was come which hath devoured thy living with harlots. A Pharisee
always points out the sin of others and exalts himself thereby
thinking he is holier than they are. And He said, as soon as
he comes down, it is killed for him the fatted calf. This is
self-righteous, will-works religion. It is envious and it hates God's
grace toward His people. That is the truth of it right
there. And they hated Christ because He would not acknowledge
them. That was what pharisaical men
say to God. We have served You all this time.
We have never broken Your commandments. We've done all this for you.
These people are ungodly sinners. And look what you've done for
them. And you never do that for us. You've never done anything
for us. And you owe us. That's what He's saying. And
that's all that Pharisaical religion is about. It's trying to say,
God owes me for something. That's why men hate the Gospel
we're preaching. Christ said, you are they which
justify yourselves before men. But God knows your hearts for
that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in
the sight of God. He said you just put on a show
for men and God hates every bit of it. How did they do that? Matthew 6.2 says Christ said
when you do your alms, He doesn't say if you do, He said when you
do. We are going to give. That's what God's people do.
We try to help the poor and show mercy and give of our of what
God's given to us because that's what it's for. It's to provide
for his house and his people and anybody that's in need and
we're going to do alms. But he said when you do your
alms do not sound a trumpet before you do them as the hypocrites
do in the synagogues and in the streets that they may have the
glory of men. You know when a entertainer or
athlete does anything that's good for somebody, why do they
do it? So they can go on the news and
blow the trumpet so everybody can see he did this. It's a publicity
thing. Why? To promote them. And that's
what the Pharisees did for you. You go on a religious website,
a church website, they're going to tell you who all they're supporting
and what they're doing. All the ministries they have.
Why? Same reason. They want that to be the cause
that glorifies them so much in your eyes that you'll go join
with them. That's why Christ said, don't publicize it. We
won't want people coming here for that. We want them coming
here for Christ, not for that. He said in Matthew 6, 5, 8, We
now prayest, Thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are. They love
to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets
that they may be seen of men. In all of this, He said, they
have their reward. They wanted to be seen. That's
the reward they sought. They got it. And that's all.
That's all. We don't pray. We pray in a restaurant
quietly. You don't have to close your
eyes. You don't have to lower your head. You don't have to
move your lips. You can in your heart thank God for your food.
But with the Pharisee, one of the first things they're going
to do in a crowded restaurant is they're going to want you to bow your
head and pray with them so everybody can see it. Christ said don't
do it. Don't pray to be seen of men.
If you're with them, just let them do it. But you don't have
to do that. You don't have to do it anywhere
to be seen of men. You pray to the Lord in secret. He'll reward you. He sees in
secret. He spake to the multitude, to
His disciples. He said, The scribes and the
Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. And all therefore whatsoever
they bid you observe, that observe and do. But do not do after their
works. He said, because here's their
works. They bind heavy burdens and grievous
to be born. And they lay them on men's shoulders,
but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. but all their works they do for
to be seen of men. Let me tell you something, especially
about God's preacher. Eric, this will be good for you.
You'll be the first one to have something in your hand if there's
something to do. This ain't a business, this ain't
management. You don't run it like a business. The quickest
way to get people to say, all he does is go around trying to
boss people. You'll be the first one to do it. Put it in your
hand and do it. Because God's people lead by
example. God's people lead by doing what
needs to be done. If it needs to be done and you
tell other people to do it and you won't do it, that's the same
as being a Pharisee. They bind all these burdens.
This is what Christ was talking about when He said, if you're
burdened and heavy laden. He wasn't talking about if you're
just tired from your job. He was talking about if you're
tired and sick of religion burdening you down with do's and don'ts.
Come to me and I'll give you rest. Christ did all the work
that needed to be done for His people. And He said, now you
just come and rest. That's the example we're to set.
As a pastor of God's people, the example showing what Christ
did. He did the work so that you wouldn't
have to do the work. You know what that makes God's
people want to do? It makes them want to come and help do the
work. Every time. but every time. But those that
come and show up because they're being bound and they have all
these burdens put on them, they may come and do. But they'll
be just like the Pharisees. They don't want to be there and
they ain't really there. God's people do what they do
because they want to, because they're thankful for what Christ
did for us. But anyway, you know, all these things they did to
be seen of men. They brought in their phylacteries,
they wore certain clothes, and they did all these things to
be seen of men. They wanted all these titles
to be called by different titles, you know. And he said, and they
would tell people you've got to pay tithe of mint and cumin,
all these, every little thing. And the Lord said, but they've
omitted the weightier matters, judgment and mercy and faith. These are the things the law
teaches, judgment and mercy and faith, how we're to deal with
one another, how Christ dealt with us in judgment and mercy
and faith and how we're to deal in judgment, mercy and faith.
The other they should have done, we should tithe of everything
God gives us. Well, we give it, we don't tithe.
We do it freely. But we shouldn't omit teaching
judgment and faith and mercy. Those things. All these things,
he said, they do. And he said they are like whited
sepulchres on the outside, but inside they are like graves.
They are like coffins. They are like full of dead men's
bones. So outwardly they look beautiful
to men, but inwardly the heart is wrong. That is not right with
God. Now I want to... I have gone too long, but these
last things our Lord said here in our text, He said He showed
His glory, their sin, He showed their sin in the light of His
glory. He said the Law and the Prophets were until John. But they were still teaching
the Law and the Prophets. That's all. They won't tell men they
had to be saved by the Law. He said the Law and the Prophets
are fulfilled. They were until John. And when
John came, he came preaching Christ. Since that time, the
Kingdom of God is preached. Christ the King, Christ the end
of the law, Christ our righteousness, Christ who fulfilled the law
and the prophets for which they were all written. And every man
presses into it, not just Jews, every man, Jew and Gentile, poor
desperate sinners that God loved and called and are elected and
called from the foundation of the world. They press into it.
They do violence to get into it because religion, all religion,
like the Pharisees, wouldn't go in and they try to prevent
others from going in and so God's people have to press to get into
His kingdom. Because broad is the way and
that's the way all religions go and there's few that enter
in at the straight gate, the narrow way which is Christ. So
you have to press to enter in. You have to It's hard to follow
Christ in a world where everybody else says there's something else.
That's what he's saying. And he says here, but it's easier
for heaven and earth to pass than one tittle of that law to
fail. Everything Christ came to do
was to fulfill the law. And for those who think that
they can keep it and that they are required to keep it and they're
teaching others to do it, there's not one tittle of that law that's
going to fail toward them either. they will be judged by the law. That's why he gave that parable
of that man in hell. But look here now, he says, whosoever
puts away his wife and marries another commits adultery and
whosoever marries her that's put away from her husband commits
adultery. This was one of their laws that
they brought down to man's level and they made all these concessions
while a man could leave his wife and divorce her and marry another.
And what Christ is saying, He's showing their sin. He's showing
everything the law requires has got to be fulfilled and He's
showing them by this, you have not fulfilled it. But at the
same time He is showing them, because everything has to be
fulfilled, Christ has come. Christ's bride was given to Him
before the world was made. She was betrothed to Him before
the world was made. And He made a vow to God in eternity
as our surety that He would never give her up under any circumstance
but would love her forever. And so when she fell in her sins,
when we fell in our sins in Adam, He still didn't put us away,
though He could have. lawfully, but He gave His Word
and He wouldn't go back on it. And then He came and He wouldn't
just sweep the law under the rug because the law had a claim
on us like a husband does on his wife. And so He came and
He was made sin for His people, made a curse for His bride, and
He paid the justice we owe. He answered it and gave His life
and suffered that cruel death of the cross so that now we're
free to be married to another. So both points of that law that
he quotes there, he fulfilled it. He wouldn't put away his
bride and he also wouldn't allow his bride to leave her legal
requirements to the law until all that was fulfilled so that
now she can be married to him. In other words, he didn't let
one tittle of that law fail. He fulfilled it all. That's what
we preach. And that's what we rejoice in.
I pray, brethren, that God will make us see the same thing for
which they rejected Christ then, they reject Christ now. Same
thing. Man always wants to have his
part in it. He wants glory. He covets that
glory. And the rest of what our Lord
is teaching there about covetousness, that man who covets for God's
glory and preaches the law and preaches against covetousness
and all that, In everyday worldly things, He's more covetous than
anybody else. And everything He's doing, He's
doing to set His nest on high. I pray God make us know these
things, trust Christ, rest in Him and Him alone. Amen. Let's stand together and we'll
be dismissed in prayer. Father, we thank You for Your constantly showing us how sin
and sinners never changes. The same reasons that this world
rejected you, they reject you now. Lord, it's hard for us to
part with friends and loved ones, but according to Your Word, anybody
that loves anybody else more than You, Anybody else that would
side with any sinner or any religious man over you is not worthy of
you. Make us to know, Lord, that following You requires the whole
heart, total commitment, and we can't be divided. We cannot
ever have our hearts divided between Christ's works and our
own. Christ is the fulfiller of the
law. This is our Gospel. This was
what the Law and the Prophets declared and this is what we
declare now. Lord, make your people now press into this Kingdom. Make them press past the religious
men who would try to turn us aside and try to turn you from
Christ and bring in questions and strife like the Pharisees
constantly did. Lord, make your people press
into Christ and toward Christ and follow Christ in this narrow
and straight way, Christ the way. We ask it for your honor,
for your glory, and ask you to forgive us, Lord, for our covetousness.
Forgive us for our sins and looking to other things and the vain
confidence of our flesh. Keep us ever trusting Christ.
We ask it in His precious name. Amen.