So we're in Luke chapter 12.
This will be our final lesson in Luke chapter 12 today that
we started last beginning of January. And so it's been a Quite a journey through chapter
12. And the last three verses tie in directly with what we've
experienced in the last several lessons here. Let's back up to verse 54 of Luke chapter 12 and
begin our reading there, and then we'll be focusing on verse
57 through 59. So in Luke 12, 54, and he said
also to the people, he'd been talking to the disciples, now
he's talking to the people at large, when you see a cloud rise
out of the west straightway, you say, there cometh a shower,
and so it is. And when you see the south wind
blow, you say, there will be heat, and it cometh to pass.
You hypocrites, you can discern the face of the sky and of the
earth. But how is it that you do not
discern this time?" And we spent our last lesson on discerning
the time, the time of Christ. And we looked at a couple other
verses in Luke where he said, you didn't know the time of your
visitation. You didn't pay attention to the
Scriptures that said someone's coming. And when someone was
here, you didn't pay attention to that because you couldn't
and now you don't pay attention to Him who's coming back. So you hypocrites, you discern
the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it that you
do not discern this time? Yea, and why even of yourselves
judge ye not what is right? When thou goest with thine adversary
to the magistrate, as thou art in the way, give diligence that
thou may be delivered from him, lest he hail thee to the judge,
and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and the officer
cast thee in prison. I tell thee, thou shalt not depart
thence until thou hast paid the very last mite. Boy, what a,
how well that, course, it's the Lord speaking, so it's going
to fit in perfectly. And that last mite, in the Greek that's a lepton,
the thinnest coin, the last the last, you're not gonna be
immune to paying the last little tiny little bit. You're gonna
be responsible for every single thing. So as we look at this, the text today is just a testimony
to grace, because that's what it takes for one to be able,
he says, how is it you don't discern the time? Yea, and why
even of yourselves judge ye not what is right? So, here again we have this warning,
you don't discern the time, you're not expecting the Messiah,
and here He is right among you, and now you're not expecting
the judge part of it to come later. and the Judge of Righteousness. If you remember back a few weeks
ago, we had some lessons from Acts chapter 17 from Mars Hill,
Paul's sermon there at Mars Hill. It has relevance to this part
on not discerning the time And why even of yourselves judge
ye not what is right? In Acts 17, 29, Paul records, For as much then
as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the
Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art
and man's device. man's device kind of gives us
the the man's thoughts about God man's natural man's idea
of God and his and that's how he comes up with all these carvings
and images and idols and things and and God is most certainly
not a a product of man's contrivances. And it's a serious mistake to
think that he is, in the Old Testament, he says, you thought
I was altogether such a one as yourselves. And he is not. And he's not subject to our whims
or our changing moralities. Boy, things just change, don't
they? Just in the time that I've been alive, things are way different. than when I was a kid. What was
atrocious yesterday was sort of accepted. And then it became the norm,
and then it became the thing to do. Encourage. So, just in
the time that I've been around. And he goes on to say in Acts
chapter 17 verse 30, In the times of this ignorance God winked
at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent, because
he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness
by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance
unto all men that he hath raised him from the dead. And clearly
these verses and acts kind of declare the same thing that we
find here in the end of Luke in chapter 12. And blessed are
those servants in Luke. We read a few lessons back here
in verse 37. Blessed are those servants whom
when the Lord cometh, he shall find watching. ones that are
looking for His coming back. And in Luke 12, 40, Be ye therefore
ready also for the Son of Man cometh at an hour when you think
not. Things that he said in Luke chapter 12. And in Luke 12, 56,
we just read where he says you discern the face of the sky and
the earth, but how is it you do not discern the time? And
you know, Paul kind of addressed that in 2nd Corinthians, and he was
quoting a passage from Isaiah, and he says in 2nd Corinthians
6-2-4, he says, I heard you, and this is from a NET translation. I liked it better, but it says,
I heard you at the acceptable time, the time that's acceptable
unto the Lord. That's what Paul said. when it
pleased God. That's when it happened, not
when I decided to. In an acceptable time have I
heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee. Boy, it points
to the grace of God in salvation there. It's not something that
we could do by ourselves. And he says, and I will preserve
thee and give thee for a covenant of the people to establish the
earth and to cause to inherit the desolate heritages. And so,
as we brought out in verse 56, the natural man, he says, how
is it you do not discern the times? And we spent that lesson
discovering that the natural man cannot receive the things. He can't discern them because
they're spiritually discerned. receive them. And as he said
to Nicodemus, unless you're born again, you can't even see the
kingdom of God. Not even a glimmer, not even
a glimpse. And he just points out that on the
days that God appoints for us, then that's when that happens.
And man must have help from above. And then in verse 57, he adds
to that lack of ability this, And what is right doesn't mean
that's what is really correct according to man's standards. It's not like, I was right about
that. That's not what that word means. And so we'll look at that. In
the Greek, the word starts out ye and why even of
yourselves judge ye not. And that judge ye not means that
you absolutely not, cannot distinguish, is what that word is. Judging
not means distinguishes absolutely not what is right. It's just
absolutely not. It's just unequivocal. And this next word is interesting. And what is right is in the Greek, dekaos, And sorry, probably about
the pronunciation of that, but I'm not Greek. But in the New
Testament, that word is translated almost all the time as righteous
or righteousness, a righteous man, a just man, or a just person. So it's a descriptive word that
talks about one that's been regenerated or the one who is the regenerator. And we have a couple of verses
we'll look at just to kind of verify that. But it tells us about one who
is a righteous one or who has been made righteous through the
imputation of righteousness, made just by the blood of Christ,
by His finished work. And in Jeremiah 23.6 it said,
in his days Judas shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely.
And this is his name whereby he shall be called and it's the
Lord our righteous. Then if you go to, I think it's
Jeremiah 31, it talks about the church and it says, this is the
name whereby she shall be called. the Lord our righteousness. And that's in the Hebrew, but
it expresses the same thing. In the New Testament, in Luke
5.32 it says, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to
repentance. And that's the same word as right
here in Luke chapter 12. Or in Romans chapter 1 verse
17, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith as it is written, the just shall live by faith. So there's
two words in there that are the same, they're forms of the same
word, righteousness and just, there in Romans 117. And then
finally in Hebrews 12, 23, It says, "...to the General Assembly
and Church of the Firstborn, which are written in heaven,
and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men,
made perfect." So back to our text now in Luke chapter 12,
in verse 57, which expresses again that the natural man, he
lacks that spiritual relationship with the Lord. by whom we're
made just or made righteous by imputation through Him? And why,
even of yourselves, judge ye not what is right?" And even
of yourselves gives us the sense of an internal, natural capability. And it says you just absolutely
don't have that. Why judge of yourselves? You
don't judge righteousness. And the sense here, if we were to
paraphrase that, and just kind of give the paraphrase based
on the definitions, that of yourselves, you absolutely cannot distinguish
righteousness. or the one by whom righteousness
is obtained. That's kind of what that means.
And you know those same truths are expressed in the Psalms,
which Paul references in Romans. In Romans 3.10 it says, as it
was written in Psalm 14, there's none righteous. Nobody in that
category. No, not one. There is none that understandeth,
there's none that seeketh after God. And through the next few
verses, Paul, he finishes that quote from Psalm 14, and it's
Psalm 73, I think, too. And he makes a relevant application
to those who believe that righteousness is earned or obtained within
and by themselves through various works, and that's kind of the
category of these people that the Lord was speaking to, these
ones that He addressed after He addressed the disciples. You
don't discern the times, and of yourselves, you absolutely
cannot distinguish righteousness or the one by whom righteousness
is obtained. Look at you. And we were just
discussing this earlier this morning about parables. And this kind of falls into a
semi-parable thing. Verse 57-59 about the man that's
on his way with this person that he's having a dispute. What a picture of us in our natural
condition. We have a dispute with God. And
we're on our way to the judge and yet we don't seem to, we
don't get that in our natural condition. But, you know, Paul,
he's writing about that in Romans 3. And he says, therefore, by
the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified or made righteous,
to be rendered righteous or just in his sight, for by the law
is the knowledge of sin. He says, but now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. It's all there. He says, if you don't believe
Moses and the prophets, you won't believe me. Because you lack
that that internal capability because of the spiritual deadness
that we are cursed with here in this world before we're regenerated. He says, even the righteousness
of God, which is by faith, this is how this is obtained, by faith
of Jesus Christ, not in, but it's faith of His faith is what
makes us right. unto all, and upon all them that
believe. For there's no difference." And
he was writing about Jews and Gentiles, the world that then
fell into those two categories. And he says, there's no difference.
It's every nation, kindred, tongue, or tribe, all affected by sin,
all affected by that same malady, and all require the same exact
divine intervention to allow us to have this understanding. He says, unless you're born again,
you can't see the kingdom of God. So now the application of
this is kind of given by Jesus in a sort of a parable regarding
this dispute over a debt. When thou goest with thine adversary,
to the magistrate." Now, I thought, well, that's a peculiar way to
write that, but really in our natural condition, that's what
Jesus is. He's the adversary and, you know,
we're at enmity with him. We're total at war against him,
hatred against him. When thou goest with thine adversary
to the magistrate, And you know, He fulfills all
the offices and every single thing that is written here, He's
the one that fulfills that. When thou goest with thine adversary
to the magistrate, as thou art in the way, or going to, give
diligence that thou mayest be delivered from him, lest he hail
thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer,
and the officer cast thee into prison. And I tell thee, thou
shalt not depart thence until thou hast paid the very last
mite." And we can, you know, we can
draw from these preceding verses, we can draw certain truths that
the Lord is making reference to Himself here in His capacity
as Savior. But we don't see him as that.
We just see him as the adversary. And later we find out that he's
the judge. And he's the executor. And he
fulfills all those offices. And he is our adversary in that
we are the one in our natural condition. We're the one that
are disputing The claim of debt and that's what these people
are doing there the in this Sort of a parable when you're on your
way to the magistrate As our in the way give diligence that
thou may be as delivered from him lest he hailed into the judge
and then You know, it just gives you the sense it that it's already
The decision has already been rendered. It's You're guilty. And if you make it to the judge,
you're just going to be sentenced. And so, truly, we are kind of from our
perspective in an adversarial relationship against God and
against His Christ. And because the carnal mind,
it says in Romans 8, 7, the carnal mind is enmity against God, not
subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. It just can't
be, it can't be. We've been, you know, we've been
made aware of the debt and the scriptures are clear, but we
don't necessarily see that because we can't discern those things. And we say, I'm disputing this
debt. That's what we're saying really
in this. When we get to the judge, I'm going to argue my case. I'm
going to dispute this debt. We're self-righteous. We don't need anything. We don't
need anyone. We even dispute the fact that
we owe anything. And we tell ourselves and others
that, and I've heard this so many times, it just breaks your
heart every time you hear it, but they say, When I meet God,
I'm going to give Him a piece of my mind. I did the best I could. And if
that doesn't satisfy Him, then I don't need Him or His religion. They dispute the debt. They don't
see a debt. I just love that Scripture in
Ezekiel where He says, when I give you the new heart, you're going
to look at yourself and then you're going to see the debt.
You're going to loathe yourself for your ways, which were not
good. But he says, I've taken care of all that. That's what
the good news is. I'm going to show it to you,
rub your nose in it a little bit, but I'm going to tell you
that I've taken care of it. Your sins have been paid for. When a person says, I'm going
to give God a piece of my mind when I get up there and explain
to Him how I did the best that I could, and I may have done
a few things, but nothing really serious. Well, that definitely doesn't
satisfy the righteousness of God, does it? And it's doubly
bad in that it's a slap in the face. It's an insult to the salvation
through free grace that He has provided. I don't need that. I didn't really... I've done
enough good to overcome any bad things I've done that I don't
really remember doing. But, you know, we're sinners
by birth, nature, and practice, and we owe the debt of sin against
God, which, you know, the worst, the main thing that kind of encompasses
everything is unbelief. That sums up all of the other
things that we're involved in because we don't believe that
there's a God. The fool, as it said in Psalm
14, the fool has said in his heart, there's no God. Well, that gets rid of a lot
of problems for the fool. He said, well, if I say there's
no God, then I don't have a debt. And if I don't have a debt, then
I'm not going to be judged. And if I'm not going to be judged,
then happy ever after. Well, he says, the fool says
that. And so when we add to that debt
by trying to pay our own way by works or keeping the law,
it only compounds the debt that we owe and which we're not qualified
to pay. We don't even have the two little
thin coins, the little mites, the thin ones. We don't even
have that to pay. And Paul wrote in Romans 4-4,
to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but debt.
It just goes in the red category over here in the stuff you owe.
And over in the right category, there's nothing on the green
side. And the time that we have to
be remedied of this debt is in this life. And that's what the
point the Lord's getting across here, but it's unseen to most. When we're in the way, when we're
going to meet with the magistrate, there can only be deliverance
in this time. And when we get to the magistrate
or judge, there can only be two possibilities. And we must be
delivered of the debt we owe before we're turned over to the
judge for sentencing. And boy, thank God that he provides
the grace for that in those in whom he exercises divine grace. So the scripture's clear. There
is of truth a debt, and the parable declares the truth of it and
the necessity to be right before the judge, before you get there.
If you get to the judge, and you're still in the adversarial
relationship, it's not going to be good. But we can't see
that because we can't see the Kingdom of God in our unregenerate
state. So the lack of the settlement
results in being, it says, you'll be cast into prison until the
last mite is paid. And when will that be? Never.
you can't come up with enough mites to pay the debt you owe,
because the only satisfactory currency is the blood and righteousness
of Christ. And so, in truth, it can never
be paid, so it results in an infinite sentence, and I think
the scripture's clear on that. You can read those if you want.
The good news of the gospel for believers, for the children of
God, is that the debt has been paid. In fact, the Bible says
double, not just barely enough. to cover whatever crimes that
you're guilty of or sins. Your sins have been paid for
double. Your warfare is accomplished. You're not an adversary anymore.
And so when he says peace, you're at peace with the judge. And when you get to that position,
he says, welcome. Welcome. Inherit the kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Isn't that great?
Instead of saying, throw him in prison until the last mite
is paid, compared to inherit the kingdom
prepared for you from before the foundation of the world.
So, Christ died for our sins according
to the scripture is the satisfactory payment that the judge will accept
and acknowledge and be satisfied with. And without that, the end
is not good. But yet, we don't see it. And
he said that to those people. And unless the Spirit of God
intervened in them, they wouldn't. They'd just say, well, I don't
see that happening. I'm leaving. So we're going to
wrap it up there. This is our last lesson in Chapter
12 and next time we'll be starting in Chapter 13. We talk about the Galileans whose
blood Pilate mingled with the sacrifices and what that means. Thank you for your attention
as always and be free and we'll be having a little fellowship
time here now. Yeah.