We're gonna be looking at the
first five verses of Luke chapter 6, and in this passage, the disciples
of our Lord did something that, according to the law, according
to the application of the law by the Pharisees, it was not
lawful for them to do. It wasn't lawful for them. Now, We have the Pharisees here,
and they were watching. They were watching. They were
always watching our Lord. They were always watching the
disciples of our Lord, and they would see things that they didn't
agree with, that they didn't think was right, and they would
charge them with sin and with unrighteousness. And one of the
beautiful things here that our Lord does is he defends his disciples. He speaks for his disciples. They don't have to answer for
themselves. Christ answers for them. And in this passage, we're
gonna see three vital lessons regarding the salvation of God's
people. You that believe the Lord Jesus
Christ for all your righteousness. for all that you need, Christ
is all. And he gives us three vital lessons
here in these five verses that are critical, they're vital,
and he teaches them to his people. So the first one is we see the
Lord revealing and confronting self-righteousness. Self-righteousness. And courtesy of the Pharisees
here, we see what self-righteousness looks like. And that's because
we don't recognize it in ourselves, but we do see it in others. And
the reality is, it's not because it's not in us, it's because
we just don't recognize it in ourselves. But we are self-righteous
by nature, we are proud and arrogant and ignorant of our own self-righteousness
that separates us from the Lord and hearing him. And let's read
in verses one and two, Luke six, one and two. And it came to pass
on the second Sabbath after the first that he went through the
cornfields and his disciples plucked the ears of corn and
did eat, rubbing them in their hands. certain of the Pharisees
said unto them why do ye that which is not lawful to do on
the Sabbath days so under the covenant of the law and in particular
the law of Moses most labors that we would do on any given
day were considered unlawful. They were unlawful and they would
be condemned for doing those things that you did Monday or
Sunday through Friday under the Jewish Sabbath. They would be
considered unlawful and In the early application of the law,
it was the condemnation unto death for the offender. They
would be put to death even for something like picking up sticks
on the Sabbath day. Now what these disciples did
in getting food was forbidden. It was forbidden under the application
of the law as the Pharisees read it and as they understood it
to be. And they were there, positioned,
ready, watching, looking at what the Lord was doing and what the
disciples of the Lord were doing. And they set themselves up to
be their judges. They were going to tell them.
They were going to instruct them that what they're doing is wrong.
That man you're with, he's not good for you. You don't want
to be following him. You're not doing what is right.
And we see in this, these men watching and waiting, ready to
pounce on what the disciples were doing. We see a familiar
figure in that. They are of their father, the
devil. are of their father the devil. Your adversary, we're
told, the devil, as a roaring line, walketh about seeking whom
he may devour." These men were seeking. They were looking. We're
going to catch him. We just got to keep our eye on
him and we'll see. We'll see. He's not of God. And
they're always looking, always looking to find something, to
bring it out before the people, because something about self-righteousness
is envy. It's covetousness, and they envied
the Lord. They envied the popularity of
the Lord. They envied that the people were
giving ear to the Lord, and they were jealous. They were jealous,
and so they wanted to expose him. Aha, we caught you, we caught
you. See, you're a sinner. Don't listen
to that guy. You keep listening to us. That's
what they were doing. But that's the work of the devil. That's what he does. Our Lord
would tell them, ye are of your father the devil. Not here, but
the Jews. He would tell them, you're of
your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will
do. He was a murderer from the beginning,
and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. And without the power and grace
of Christ, this is what we would be. This is the natural man's
understanding of righteousness. This is right. This is how I
make myself righteous. This is what I got to do. And
if you're not doing it, well, then you're not righteous. If
you're not doing what I'm doing because I'm righteous, then you're
not righteous. And that's really the simplicity of our dead letter
religion and our false hope in dead works. And we need, we don't
have an understanding of the grace of God. It's all about
doing. Do this, don't do that. Say this,
don't say that. It's not about grace. It's not
about grace unless the Lord gives us his spirit and shows us His
salvation, gives us His salvation, works His salvation in our own
corrupt, vile hearts. And so, the Spirit has recorded
this for our learning and for our instruction because we would
get tangled up. We would get tangled up in the
web of lies and deceit, and we would put ourselves and our hearers
into the very bondage of the law, and into the bondage of
religion. And we need his grace, we need
his spirit to teach us and to deliver us from that death. There's a great sin and offense
that does take place here. There is a great offense that's
taken place here, only it's not the disciples. It's in what the
Pharisees do, and them charging them with sin and coming at them
to destroy them, because they saw sin in them, and they counted
themselves righteous because of it. And they exalted themselves
by stepping on others and putting them down in their sin. And we
should be very wary of ourselves when our great skill is recognizing
the sin and the faults of others. That's our great skill. We know
people like that, that every time we see them, they're pointing
something out that we've done wrong, and it's, It's trying. And if that's our great skill,
that's not good. I was reminded when I was looking
at this that in the 90s, I joined a friend. We had a partnership.
And we were fixing concrete that was causing trip hazards. And
what we would do is in the low end of the sidewalk, we would
drill some holes. And we would pump a mud slurry
into that hole. And it would fill the void and
hydraulically lift that that sidewalk up, and it would even
out the trip hazards. And I had never noticed it before,
but after I started doing this work, everywhere I went, all
I could see were the trip hazards. I see all the problems in the
sidewalks. I could see it on curb line runs.
I could see it in front of houses. I could see it in front of businesses.
Everywhere I went, oh, there's a trip hazard. Oh, there's a
trip hazard. And it's because it was what my mind was on. And
that's what, when our focus is on the law, That's what you're
going to see. There's a lawbreaker. Oh, there's
sin. Listen to that one. Wow, did
you hear what they said? And that's where we go. That's what
we see in everywhere we go. And for the Pharisees, that's
how they used the law. They saw it as an opportunity
to fix you. And if you wouldn't hear them, they'd condemn you.
They'd condemn you. And we call this self-righteousness. And self-righteousness is not
righteousness. It's not the righteousness of
God. It's a self-righteousness. It's
a righteousness of this flesh, and that's not what the Lord
seeks. It's not what the Lord accepts. And man may admire the qualities
of one like that, but God doesn't. And in fact, he hates it. You
know, turn over to Isaiah 65. Isaiah 65, and we'll look at
a few verses here. we'll see that there's a lot
of religious activities being described here. They're not familiar
to us. They don't sound familiar to
us, but they are exactly what we do by nature under the law. It's religious idolatry being
described here. And in verse three, Isaiah 65,
verse three, he calls He's speaking to the Jews. He
calls them a people that provoketh me to anger continually to my
face. They're doing something offensive
to God. They sacrifice in gardens and
burneth incense upon altars of brick. which remain among the
graves. And that's what Paul tells us
the law is. It's a ministration of death.
It's a ministration of condemnation. It is for, especially for those
who use the law to work a righteousness for themselves and come to God
in their own works. It's actually a ministration
of death and condemnation. and they lodge in the monuments,
right? They celebrate Moses and celebrate Abraham and the heroes
of our faith, which eat swine's flesh and broth of abominable
things is in their vessels. And the thing about a swine,
a pig, is on the outside, it appears to be an animal that
you can eat. It had a cloven hoof, but inside
it didn't chew the cud. And so it had the appearance
of holiness, it had the appearance of something good, and it's hypocrisy. It's nothing but hypocrisy. And
it's a broth of abominable things in our vessels, in our flesh.
That's what we are by nature, trying to work a righteousness
and come to the Lord in it. Which say, stand by thyself,
come not near me, for I am holier than thou. These are a smoke
in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day. And in our self-righteousness,
when that's how we see God, and we see that we look at this word
as a how-to manual, how to get yourself right with God, and
we look, oh, it tells me to do this, all right, I'll start doing
that, and it tells me to stop doing this, I'll stop doing that,
when that's what we see, We think our works are justifying us,
and sanctifying us, and making us better than what we were,
so that God now likes us more, and God will do nice things for
us now. And the more we go in it, the
more we despise and hate others who don't do what we do, and
who affect us negatively in that way. And the Lord tells us, rather
than being holy and good, you're actually doing wicked works,
wicked works. That's what Paul called the works
of the Gentiles in their religion. He said those are wicked works.
That's what the Lord saved you from, wicked works. Not sanctifying
works, not justifying works, but wicked works. Micah says
it this way. He hath showed thee, O man, what
is good. And what doth the Lord require
of thee? The Lord speaks to us, and we're
always worried about what everyone else is doing, but the Lord says,
I've spoken this to you, but to do justly. And that simply
means, if you know what's right to do, do it. Do what is right
to do, you yourself, do what's right to do, and to love mercy.
and to love mercy because that there says, I know what I am. I know how gracious and kind
the Lord is to me. He's being merciful to me that
we might show that same mercy and generous spirit to others,
to be kind and gentle to others and merciful to others and to
walk humbly with thy God. That's what the Lord shows us
because the Lord, The Lord isn't looking upon us
with favor because of how good we are and how holy we've made
ourselves in our works. He's merciful to us and he's
kind to us for Christ's sake. And so that's very different
from thinking ourselves something when we're nothing. And Paul
says it this way, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness
and going about to establish their own righteousness, have
not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. And the righteousness of God
is Christ. He is the one in whom we come to the Father. We would
not be accepted by holy God were it not for Christ's sake. And
we're not gonna add anything more righteous than what Christ
has made us in himself. He is the very righteousness
of his people. And the more you see that, the
more you see yourself a sinner and his righteousness, the more
precious he is to you, the sinner. And that's why he makes us to
know our sin. That's why he shows it, that the scripture hath concluded
all under sin, that we might come to God by faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ and not trying to come to him in some other way.
And so they despised Christ and they were blinded in their hatred
and enmity against him, they were blinded to the light and
understanding that God gives his people. Our Lord would say
to the Pharisees, I am the light of the world. He that followeth
me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. And so our Lord confronts self-righteousness. It's a vital thing that our Lord
confronts self-righteousness. He gives us so many examples
in the scriptures, especially thanks to these Pharisees that
he brought and brings to our attention, because in that we
begin to see our own nature in Adam and what he's delivering
us from. and showing us what we trust
in naturally, and shows us the preciousness of Christ. And that
brings us to our second point here, is we see Christ answering
for us. He answers for us. Now let me
just read the first part of verse three, Luke 6, three, and Jesus
answering them. Jesus answered them. They came
and they charged the disciples. They said, certain of the Pharisees
said unto them, the disciples who were eating, not to Christ,
Christ wasn't eating, the disciples were eating. Why do ye that which
is not lawful to do on the Sabbath days? And Jesus answering. Who spoke? The Lord Jesus Christ
answered for his disciples. And that's what our Lord does
in salvation. He speaks to the accuser. He
silences the accuser. He speaks for you that have no
righteousness, that can't get out of it. Oh, he's right. He
struck me. I am a sinner. I have offended
holy God. Christ speaks for you that believe
him, you that have no righteousness. Christ speaks for you. That's
his salvation, brethren. The accuser comes, and that's
what he's called, the enemy's called, the accuser of our brethren. He's our accuser. And he charges
us with sin and unrighteousness. And in this case, he's using
the Pharisees to come at them. And who speaks? The Lord speaks.
We see this, they're always coming at the disciples, right? They're
always coming at the disciples. Back in Luke 5.30, but their
scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying,
why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners? And then
here in verse two, the Pharisees said unto them, why do ye that
which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath days? Now, and then
Christ answered them. He's our salvation. Now think
about it this way. The church, these disciples,
they are the bride of Christ. He is our husband and he speaks
for us. He defends his bride. How did the serpent get to Adam?
Through his bride, Eve. He deceived Eve, and that's how
he got to Adam. It's amazing because Adam said
nothing, and that whole conversation's going on. The animals don't speak,
and yet here's a serpent speaking to Eve, and he's twisting and
destroying the word of God, and Adam is standing there saying
nothing. He didn't defend his bride, but
where Adam fell, Christ succeeded. He is successful. He saved his
people. He stepped right in there and
said, don't talk to them. Come talk to me. I'll answer
for them. I answer for my bride. And this
is a wonderful part of our salvation, that he is our Savior. He's our
champion. He's our Lord and Savior, our
husband, our friend, our almighty God. He's the Savior. And he delivers us from the jaws
of the devil and the jaws that would rip us apart and destroy
us. We read him in Hebrews 2, 14
and 15, while at the end of verse 13 it says, behold, I and the
children which God hath given me. He came for us. He came for
his people whom the Father gave him, and he shed his blood. He
redeemed his people with his own blood, and he is now our
advocate unto the Father for all that would come and charge
us with sin. It says, for as much then as
the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself
likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy
him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver
them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject
to bondage. Had Christ not interceded there,
those disciples would have been shamed, they would have been
berated, they would have been afraid, they would have tucked
tail and ran back. They would have been driven back
and most likely got all tangled up in the law. Oh yeah, what
have we done? And they would have been afraid.
They would have been afraid. They would have been in bondage
to the law. And that's what the accuser does.
Get back in that cell. Get back in that prison. Put
those shackles on. What do you think you're doing?
Who do you think you are? Well, by the grace of God, he
shows us we're a child of the Most High God. We are sons and
daughters of the Lord, our Savior. We are the bride of Christ and
he has set us free and taken us from that body of sin, destroying
it, putting it to death and delivering us from that body of death in
which we could not save ourselves under the law. And he's taken
us out from under the law. We're not in the covenant of
the law and works. brought under the covenant of
grace where he speaks peaceably to us and we don't stand in Adam
the old we stand in Adam the new Christ Jesus our Lord and
Savior under that covenant of grace and mercy and that law
has nothing more to say to us nothing more to say to us Christ
stood between them and their accuser, and he answered for
them. As John says in 1 John 2, verse
1 and 2, my little children, these things I write unto you
that ye sin not. This word is given to us that
we sin not, that we not look to be an offense to the true
and living God, And if any man sin, because we do in this flesh,
this flesh is yet still has the infirmities of sin in it. We
see it. We hear its voice in speaking
to us and tempting us. It's yet present there. And if
any man sin, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ,
the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins and
not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
Not for the Jews only, but also for the Gentiles. He is the Savior
of his people scattered throughout the world. And when it says he's
our propitiation, that's a beautiful picture of how our champion stood
up and turned the wrath of God which was against us in Adam
and put it upon himself. And so delivered us from the
wrath and destruction that that we would be in under the law.
Under the law. He saves us. And so Christ's
blood delivers the sinner. Christ's blood defends the sinner. Christ's blood covers our sin
and offenses and brings us to the Father who receives us in
His darling Son and we are robed in His righteousness and accepted
of God. And so we see even in here that
not only does he answer our foes without, and the accuser that
brings up our sin to us, but he turns us, he teaches us through
his word and by his spirit and grace, he turns us again and
again so that as we are accused and as we see our sin, we are
taught to look to Christ. I'm sure every time these disciples
began, as they began to open their mouth, they learned, Christ
is going to speak for me. And that's what he teaches us.
That's what he's teaching you that are his people. Christ speaks
for you. You're not going to be able to
answer for yourself. You're not going to be able to justify your
wicked works. But Christ has answered for our
wicked works. And he's put them away. And he's
giving you a spirit look to him. That's what he's doing. He's
turning us from the flesh and trying to justify ourselves and
save ourselves to Christ. Lord, save me. Lord, help me. Think of Peter when he was sinking
in the waves. Lord, save me. I'm sinking. I'm perishing under
the waves. That's what he does time and
time again. He's our savior. He's our deliverer. Listen to
Romans 8, 31 through 34. What shall we say then to these
things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared
not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall
he not with him also freely give us all things, not the least
of which is his grace, which has delivered us from the condemnation
and death of our sins? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifieth. Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather,
that is risen again. Who is even at the right hand
of God who also maketh intercession for us? He's still saving us. He's delivered us, and he continues
to deliver us time and time again, showing us Christ. It sounds
impossible to believe, but Christ has paid the debt that we owed.
He's put away our sins, and he says, look to me. Look unto me. I am the very righteousness that
the Father has given unto you. I have saved you from your sins.
Look unto me. And He speaks for us. He answers
for us. And we're His. And though your
flesh says that can't be, that's exactly what the Spirit says
is the very thing that is our salvation. Christ is all. He's all, brethren. And so our
Lord exposes self-righteousness, and then he shows us that he
is our very righteousness. He's the one who answers for
us. And now third, our Lord leads us to Christ in whom we have
ceased from all our labors. And so our Lord, he uses David
here as an example of mercy. And there's a similar situation
here. There's a situation regarding hunger, and the eating of bread
between David and these disciples here. And in David's case, eating
the show bread was not lawful for him to eat. It wasn't lawful
for him to eat that. Look at verse 3 and 4, Luke 6,
3 and 4. And Jesus answering them said,
Have you not read so much as this, what David did, when himself
was unhungered, and they which were with him? See, David was
hungry, just like these disciples were hungry. And he went, how
he went into the house of God and did take and eat the showbread
and gave also to them that were with him, which it is not lawful
to eat, but for the priests alone. David had been traveling three
days. You can read this later in first Samuel 21, but he'd
been traveling three days and he needed food. He was hungry.
He was hungering and the companions with him, they were hungering.
But that bread that was there, the priest didn't have any bread.
The bread that they had was hallowed bread, meaning it had already
been dedicated to the Lord, and so it was for the Lord's use,
and for the priests of the Lord, not for the common man. It wasn't
for them to eat. It wasn't lawful for them to
eat. But David hungered, and he hungered
for mercy. If David was shown mercy, he
would feed upon that mercy and be satisfied. His hunger would
be satisfied. But if the strictness of the
law was given to David, he would go away hungering. He would have
no remedy, no peace, no joy. under that law. That law would
condemn him for doing such things. So with mercy, if mercy prevails,
he eats. If the strictness of the law
prevails, he dies. He dies of hunger. And so, Christ's
death has obtained mercy for his people. Christ's death has
delivered us from the law. We're not under the law. Let's
just say in Romans 10.4, Sorry. Yeah, Romans 10. For Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. The law has nothing to say to
us anymore. We've been delivered. That body
of death has been destroyed by the death of Christ. And we died
in Christ, and we were buried with Christ, and we rose again
with the Lord Jesus Christ, so that that body of sin that we
were in in Adam has no more bearing on us anymore. That when the
law was over that body of death, condemning that body of sin,
and it has no more bearing on us anymore. We're under the covenant
of grace in Christ. And so his death delivered us
from the law and from the fear and the terrors of the law's
judgment. And Christ's death removes that
enmity which is in us by nature. That enmity which we see in Adam
and Eve when they heard the voice of the Lord walking in the garden
in the cool of the day. They ran and hid themselves from
God because they were under the works of the law. They were under
a covenant of works. Thou shalt not eat of the fruit
of that tree, and the day you eat of it, you shall surely die.
They were under a covenant of works, and Christ were under
a covenant of grace. And by His power, and our husband
teaching us and speaking to us and giving us His grace and power,
we're delivered from the law. We're delivered from that. We're
not under that law any longer. who come to God by faith in Christ
find mercy we find mercy that he might be a merciful and faithful
he died under the penalty of the law that he might be a merciful
and faithful high priest and things pertaining to God to make
reconciliation for the sins of the people and so Ahimelech,
the priest, showed mercy to David and giving him the bread. Christ
showed mercy to his hungering disciples and letting them eat
the bread there on the Sabbath day. And what the Lord is showing
us here is that many try to live by the law today. Right. That's just Phariseeism under
a new name as calling themselves Christians. And they try to live
by the law. And they tell us that the law is the believers
rule of life. No, it isn't. The law is not the believer's
rule of life. The law is the Pharisee's rule
of life, but it's not the believer's rule of life. Grace, grace, the
good news of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's our rule. He's our life. He's our all. And so we don't
live by the law. And the law tells its hearers,
you must keep a literal Sabbath day for righteousness. But the
Spirit shows us Christ. and shows us that Christ is our
Sabbath rest. In Him, we cease from all our
labors in trying to work a righteousness for ourselves. We cease from
those works and rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. We stop spending
and striving and laboring to work a righteousness and to justify
ourselves before God or to try and sanctify ourselves before
God. Christ is all that to us. He's
our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification and redemption. He's made that by God himself
unto us. He's all things. So the Spirit
shows us Christ. And we that keep the Sabbath
day in Christ, keep it perfectly. Perfectly. If you try to keep
the literal Sabbath day, you're going to make mistakes. You're
going to err. You're going to fail in it. You're going to do something,
at some point, probably over and over and over again, a lot
of times, in a lot of ways, failing and breaking that Sabbath day.
because you're trying to keep it in the flesh according to
the law. But if you keep it in Christ,
you keep it perfectly, perfectly through faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. We're not under bondage of the
law. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to them that believe. Now, this came to pass,
it says, on the second Sabbath after the first, in verse one.
The second Sabbath after the first. Christ is that second
Sabbath. The first Sabbath was a literal
Sabbath under the law. Christ is our Sabbath rest, our
peace, our all, in grace, in grace. He fulfilled the strictness
of the law perfectly and delivered us from its dominion. Now Paul
tells us in Colossians, I'm almost done, Colossians 2, verse 16
and 17, Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink,
or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the
Sabbath days, which are a shadow of things to come, but the body
is of Christ." We're not part of that body of sin any longer
in Adam. We're of the body of Christ.
We're one with him. And our Lord tells us in verse
5, Luke 6, 5, he said unto them that the Son of Man is Lord also
of the Sabbath. Believers, keep the Sabbath,
looking to Christ. He is our rest. And he says,
come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest
unto your souls." That's a Sabbath rest, brethren. That's a rest. For my yoke is easy and my burden
is light. So those are three vital lessons. He delivers us from self-righteousness. We see in him over and over again
how that he is our salvation. He's all our salvation and he
is our true Sabbath rest, brethren. I pray you bless that word to
your hearts. Amen. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.
Our gracious Lord, we do thank you for your grace. Lord, we
thank you for your wisdom. and delivering us from that covenant
of works, which we were entangled and in bondage and could not
save ourselves. We thank you for Christ and how
you've made him precious to us by your spirit and by your grace.
Otherwise we would be blind. and deaf and dumb to these things,
but we thank you, Lord, for your grace. We pray that you would make this word effectual in our
hearts. Give us more and more understanding
of these precious, vital truths in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
Lord, you know the needs of your people. Lord, we pray that you
would indeed bless your people. Lord, that we would hear these
words of grace, not that we may sin, but that we would be delivered
from it. That you would strengthen us
and deliver us in the new man, turning us from the works of
the flesh, and that we would find our all in the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's in his name we pray and
give thanks. Amen.