God Knows Your Heart

Right, we're in Luke chapter 16, and we're going to read from verse 14. Luke 16, verse 14. Now you may remember that the Lord had been speaking earlier in this chapter of what is sometimes called the parable of the unjust steward. We remarked whether or not it was a parable was perhaps a question, but anyway, be that as it may. So we're now going on to think about the aftermath of that parable, that account that the Lord gave. And we discover that although he had spoken explicitly to his disciples in that matter, that nevertheless there were also scribes and Pharisees in attendance who heard what was being said. And this is what we read in verse 14.

And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things, and they derided him. And 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 passeth into it, presseth into it. And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass than one tittle of the law to fail. Amen. May the Lord bless this reading to us today. So, once again, although the Lord was explicitly speaking to his disciples regarding this unjust steward, the Pharisees were present and heard all that he said.

And Luke describes these men as being covetous. They were greedy men, they were greedy for money, they were greedy for prestige and honour. and they were not above employing unethical methods in order to obtain it. If these men did in any way perceive themselves to be the target of the Lord's comments in this narrative of the unjust steward, they were not ready to admit it. They were ready. to dismiss any idea of danger to themselves flowing from the words of the Lord. And instead, they went on the offensive. And we're told that indeed they were offensive and they mocked the Lord to his face.

Luke's terminology is they derided him. Just pause and think about that for a moment. Here is the son of God. Here is God Almighty in human form on the earth. And this group of religious zealots, these covetous men derided him. The sense is that they snorted at him. It was disdain, it was derision. They mocked his words, they laughed at his warning. In fact, only Luke uses this word in the New Testament, derided, and he does so twice. I wonder if you know where the other time was. The other time is when the priests and Pharisees were gathered around the cross. as the Lord Jesus was crucified. And we read in Luke chapter 23, verse 35, the rulers derided him, saying, he saved others, let him save himself. If he be Christ, the chosen of God.

And all of that suggests that these men well understood what Christ was saying concerning himself, but they refused to believe and they rejected his claims. And their response to him was that they derided him, they held him in derision. We might wonder, indeed, just reflecting on that episode around the cross, we might wonder that men, and religious men, would be so callous as mock a suffering man, mock a dying man. But mock him they did, there at the cross. They aggravated his suffering as best they were able. the physical abuse of the Lord was in the hands of the Roman soldiers but this abuse fell to the Jews themselves and they mocked him there and they mocked him here as well. The scribes and the Pharisees were always seeking to belittle the Lord Jesus and make him appear ignorant, make him appear mistaken in his doctrine and in his spiritual assertions.

In truth, things haven't changed much. Men and women still mock the Lord by their denial of his claims, by their repudiation of his gospel. Paul tells us in Galatians chapter six, verse seven, don't be deceived, be not deceived. God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

And what a proud, pompous, arrogant creature man is to deride God, to deride the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet, does not that exact same attitude prevail in the hearts and minds of those today who are too proud to need a saviour, too busy to be bothered, too self-assured to pause and listen to his words as they careen headlong towards hell. Who's the greater fool when Christ warns of judgment to come and yet men ignore his warning, despise his message and deride him to his face? These men of whom Luke is speaking here have been in hell for 2,000 years. Who's laughing now? Who's the greater fool now?

I thought about the weightiness of the response of the Lord to these men. The rebuke spoken by the Lord to these men as they mocked him. Let me just mention, in preparation to thinking about this next verse, verse 15 is where we're going, just to pause for a moment or two, but let me just lay a groundwork.

The Lord called the scribes and the Pharisees some pretty sharp names during his ministry. He called them whitewashed sepulchres. He called them children of the devil. He called them hypocrites. But I'm not sure that there are any more calmly spoken, yet more forceful or crushing words in the whole of Christ's ministry than what he says in verse 15 here. And 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. Now that, to my mind, is a crushing denunciation. If a man or a woman had any conscience at all, surely it must be cut by such an accusation. The Lord didn't rail at them. He didn't give like for like. He simply declared in truth that you justify yourselves before men, but God knows what you are really like. He knows your heart.

You labour to impress men, but don't imagine that you're impressing God. You crave all the praise and honour that you can squeeze from your self-important positions in life. But what is highly esteemed amongst you is abomination in the sight of God. Everything we think is important in this world of men is abomination to God. Everything we aspire to as natural, carnal men and women is repulsive and offensive to God.

The outward appearance of man's morality and religion and holiness and zeal is vile because God knows the true nature of a man's heart. He knows its motives. He knows its secrets. He knows its deceit. Our very best works are obnoxious, filthy rags. And I doubt that the Lord could have been more candid than that.

And the next words of the Lord are significant as well, because here the Saviour makes a great distinction between the Old Testament dispensation, or the Old Testament age, and the new age that he was bringing in. Dispensation simply means a time period or an age. Some religious groups have made a science out of chopping up the Bible into different times and different ages and different dispensations into a multitude of segments with different rules for every part. They call it dispensationalism. But we ought to prefer rather the simplicity that is in Christ. The devil will do anything he can to corrupt our minds from the simplicity of Christ's words. and here's the Lord's division.

In verse 16, he says, the law and the prophets were until John. Since that time, the kingdom of God is preached and every man presseth into it. What is the Lord saying here? Well, he's telling us what's clear, what's clear to anyone who reads the scriptures, that there are two testaments. until the time of John the Baptist, the Law and the Prophets. And the Law and the Prophets was the extent of the revelation given by God to men. However, since then, a new revelation has come. Christ himself has been revealed.

The gospel has been preached. The kingdom of God, the kingdom of grace, the gospel of God by the person of Jesus Christ, his work of blood redemption, his divine offices of prophet, priest, and king, his ministry of grace and peace has, since the time of John, been established. there has been a fuller, grander, more glorious and complete revelation supplied that strips away the outward religion of the Old Testament Jews and replaces it, or rather, perhaps we might say restores it to what it originally was, a spiritual revelation of grace and faith. the outward religion of these elitist, self-righteous Pharisees. That had come to an end. This was a new age with a new message.

It was a gospel for every man. And just as the masses and multitudes in the time of Christ now pressed upon Christ to hear his words and receive his healing, so this gospel would be carried, it would be catapulted beyond the borders of Israel into all the world for the healing of the nations. as the Lord Jesus sent forth his apostles to the ends of the earth to gather his church into the kingdom of God. And the Lord's final comment for us today returns to this law and prophets.

And he returns to the law and the prophets, I think, in order to just clarify, in order that he might stress that what he was saying, and more particularly, that what he was preaching concerning the kingdom of God that he was establishing, was not against the law, not opposed to the law, but a fulfilment and a validation of it. The Gospel is not against the prophets. The Gospel is not against the law. The Gospel is not against the prophets in as much as it is a fulfilment of their visions and their prophecies.

A fulfilment of the types and the pictures. and the precepts and promises of the Old Testament all find their full accomplishment in the person, in the miracles, in the obedience, in the sufferings, and in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Gospel of Christ does not oppose the law of God. It embraces it. It encompasses it. It answers it. It satisfies its righteous demands for sinners.

The law teaches us of God's holiness. The law shows us our own sinfulness. But it does not, it cannot bring us into union with God or grant us peace. That is the work of Christ alone in the gospel. People who call us antinomian either misunderstand what we are saying or are being purposefully mischievous.

When the Lord says in verse 17, and it is easier for heaven and earth to pass than one tittle of the law to fail, He's not advocating that the law is to be a weight around our necks, a yoke around our necks, a continuing condemning rod. He's not saying that it is to serve as the believer's rule of life. He is saying that the divine demands of holiness and righteousness will never be lessened, will never be removed. Man will always require a righteousness beyond his own ability and always require the worthy saviour that is Jesus Christ. We obtain that righteousness and we share in Christ's worthiness by faith in him. May the Lord bless these thoughts to us today. Amen.

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God Knows Your Heart

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