that which is highly esteemed
among men. In verse 13 of Luke chapter 16,
we read, no servant, these are the words of the Lord Jesus,
and he says, no servant can serve two masters, for either he will
hate the one and love the other, or else he'll hold to the one
and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon
or riches, that which is trusted. You can't serve God and be a
slave to money. Verse 14, and the Pharisees also
who were covetous, that's literally lovers of money, they heard all
these things and they derided him. They turned their nose up
at him. They sneered at him when they
heard him make this statement. There was no agreement whatsoever. And look how he replied to them. And he said unto them, 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. Now these were covetous men.
I love that scripture, the love of money is the root of all evil. Money's not the root of all evil,
but the love of it is, covetousness. And when these men heard what
our Lord said, particularly the parable of the unjust steward,
they derided him. We considered that last week.
They derided him. They turned their nose up at
him. They sneered at him over this parable. And his reply is,
you are they which justify yourselves before men. But God knows your
hearts. Pray for me that I bring this
message the way it ought to be. You are they which justify yourselves
before men. Now, if you have any honesty
at all, if I have any honesty at all, we all know that we're
quick to justify ourselves. quick to vindicate ourselves,
very slow to admit to wrongdoing. We don't like to do that. We're
too proud. We're too arrogant to admit to wrongdoing, and we're
quick to justify ourselves. We're quick to vindicate ourselves,
even when we are wrong. I do it. You do it. We all do
it. Amen? It's so We're so proud that we never
want to admit to wrongdoing. You know, that's such an ugly
way to be, isn't it? Such an ugly way to be. But you
know, as bad as that is, that's really not what the Lord's referring
to when he speaks of somebody justifying and vindicating themselves. We always do it. It's wrong.
I wish we'd stop it. I wish we'd be quick to humble
ourselves. I wish we'd be quick to admit
to wrongdoing. Oh, wouldn't that be a blessing?
But what our Lord is talking about is people who justify themselves. Here's the key word, before men. Before men. Your religion is
all about what men see. What does a Christian look like?
How does a Christian act? When you see them, what do they
do? What is the appearance of a Christian? A Christian does this, a Christian
does not do that. If you were a Christian, you
wouldn't do that. How could you claim to be a Christian and do
something like that? Or think something like that?
Thought you were a Christian. Everything is about appearance. All their works, our Lord said,
they do to be seen of men. This is what the Lord is warning
against. A religion that is about appearance
before men. What you look like before men. Turn with me for a moment to
Matthew chapter 6. Sermon on the Mount. Verse 1. Take heed. that you do not your
alms before men, to be seen of them. Otherwise, you have no
reward of your Father, which is in heaven. Therefore, when
thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee,
as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they
may have glory of men. Your acts of Charity, your almsgiving. Don't do this to be seen of men.
Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. If men see you,
you've got your reward. And what kind of reward is that?
Not much of a reward, is it? He speaks of acts of devotion
to the Lord. Verse 5, And when thou prayest,
thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing
in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that
they may be seen of men. Look how spiritual, look how
devotional he is, look how righteous he is, look how he prays. Verily
I say unto you, they have their reward, and a miserable reward
it is. But thou, when thou prayest,
enter into thy closet. When thou hast shut thy door,
pray to thy father which is in secret, and thy father which
seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. Look down in verse
16, here are acts of self-denial. We've seen acts of charity, almsgiving,
acts of devotion, prayer, and now here's acts of self-denial.
Moreover, when you fast, be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance,
for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men
to fast. It's obvious this man's been
fasting. Look at his mournful face. Verily I say unto you,
they have their reward. Now what our Lord is warning
us about is a religion that is before men. The Lord said in
John 5, 44 to the Pharisees, how can you believe which receive
honor one of another and seek not that honor that comes from
God only? Now that's the honor I'm interested
in having. that honor that comes from God
only. We read in John chapter 12, verse
42, among the chief rulers, also many believed on him, but because
of the Pharisees, they did not confess him, lest they should
be put out of the synagogue, for they ploughed the praise
of men more than the praise of God. Now what a miserable place
to be. to be more concerned about what
men think, what men see than what God sees. A religion that
feeds upon what other men see. Now these Pharisees that were
covetous, these are the same ones who made a big show of the
alms they would give, but they're also the ones who wouldn't help
their parents. And they said, this money has
been earmarked for the temple after I die, therefore I can't
give to them. They were covetous. They had
a religion. They would blow a trumpet before
them when they gave an alms, and I dare say it wasn't very
much. Nobody knew what they gave when they put it in the box.
but it looked good, and their religion was about being seen
of men. I think of what our Lord said,
you were they that justify yourselves before men, and you always managed
to vindicate your position. Now, there are two kinds of people
in this world. You know, the Bible always gives
twos, doesn't it? The righteous, the wicked, those with a new
heart, those without a new heart. There are two kinds of people
in this world. There are those who justify themselves, and there
are those who justify God. Everybody falls into one of those
two groups. Now, I've not met anybody who
would say, I believe that salvation is purely by works. Have you
ever met anybody like that? that said, I believe grace has
nothing to do with salvation. Salvation is purely by works.
Paul, you were telling me about a man that said, you asked him
how much of salvation is by grace. He said, well, I think if he
thought about it, he said, I think about 80-20. And I'm not sure which part was
80 works or 20, you know, but about 80-20. He was giving an
honest answer. I've done some things I'm not
proud of, so salvation obviously can't be 100% by works. Because
I've got some bad things about me, therefore I need something
to patch up the holes in my own righteousness. I mean, there's
areas that aren't good, that I'm not proud of, so I need part
grace to patch up the bad part, and then I got the good part,
the good stuff. Now that is justification. Any
way you look at it, that's self-justification, isn't it? If any part of your
justification has anything to do with anything you've done,
it is justifying yourself. And there are those who justify
God in his condemnation. I love Psalm
51, where David said, against thee and thee only have I sinned
and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified
when you speak and be clear when you judge. He justified God in
his own condemnation. And then a believer justifies
God in their salvation. Isn't it a wonderful thing to
know that my salvation, I justify God. When he justifies me, it's
an act of his justice. I love that. It's not that, yes,
it's an act of his mercy. Yes, it's an act of his grace,
but it's an act of his justice. We justify God because of what
he has done for us. Now, He says, you are they, verse
15, you are they which justify yourselves before men, but God
knoweth your hearts. Now, anytime you see someone
that seems real religious and almost you're intimidated by
it. Remember, it's all a sham. God knows the heart. That which is highly esteemed
among men is an abomination to God. God knows the heart. Now, these people who justify
themselves before men, who are always into self-vindication,
know nothing of heart. Heart religion. My son, give
me your heart. Out of it are the issues of life. It's called in scripture a clean
heart. David said, create in me a clean
heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me. Have you ever
prayed that prayer? Create in me this clean heart.
It's called a pure heart, blessed are the pure in heart. It's called
a true heart. We just read about it in Hebrews
chapter 10. It's called a circumcised heart. It's called a broken and
a contrite heart. It's called a new heart. It's
called a pricked heart. It's called an honest and good
heart. And if you've got a heart like this that I've just described,
this new heart, remember God looks at the heart. Man looks
at the outward appearance. Remember what the Lord said to
Samuel? He said, don't look at his countenance
or his height. Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the
Lord looketh on the heart. Now this new heart that I've
been speaking of, Every believer possesses. That's the heart that
sees the wickedness of the old heart. You know, it takes a new
heart. It takes a holy heart. It takes
a pure heart to be able to recognize what sin is in the first place.
Someone who has a high opinion of themselves, they just don't
have a new heart. Now, remember, God looks on the heart. With the heart, man believeth
unto righteousness. God looks on the heart. Now look what our Lord says in
verse 15. And he said unto them, 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. Now that's strong language, isn't
it? That which is highly esteemed among men, that which men highly
esteem and value to God, it's an abomination. Now what in the
world does that mean? That which is highly esteemed
among men, outward show. The outward appearance and show
of religion, human righteousness, human praise, human recognition. That's what the Pharisees were
feeding on. You are they which justify yourselves before men.
Your religion is about what men see. That's all it's about. Kind
of like the, remember the Pharisee in the temple in Luke chapter
18. He said, Lord, I thank you. I give you the credit that I'm
not as other men are. And he put himself beside somebody
else. It's when you look at us, I look better. This fellow looks
awful. I look good. a religion about
appearances. How do I look? How do I act? How do I conduct myself? What
do men see? Can they tell I'm a Christian?
Do I show them I'm a Christian by all my goodness and righteousness? We ought to live in such a way
that people see that we're not immoral wretches. I mean, there's
no doubt about that. We ought to, but still this thing
of what our Lord was condemning these people for is all their
religion was about what men see and not about the heart. Man
looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.
That Pharisee is one who justified himself before men and God found
that offensive, unlike the publican who went down to his house justified.
This man who his religion was all about what men see, he went
back down to his house in his sins, unjustified, under the
wrath of God. Now, I don't want to be guilty
of having this religion that's all about what men see. You are they which justify yourselves
before men, but God knows your heart. For that which is highly
esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God." Now, what
is highly esteemed by God? Christ. I want you to think of
the high estimation that the Father has of the Son. He said,
this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. You know what that means? That
means if you're in Christ, He is well pleased with you right
now. Now that's the place I want to
be. Here's where all of God's favor, that's where all of God's
pleasure is. I love that scripture in Hebrews
chapter 11 verse 4, where it says that God, or I mean in Genesis
4, where it says that God had respect to Abel and to his offering. Now you couldn't separate Abel
and his offering. You can't separate a believer
and the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. They can't be separated.
That's how God is known. But y'all want you to think about
the way he said this. God had respect to Abel. Doesn't just
say he had respect to Christ, although he did. And the only
reason he respected Abel because he was in Christ, but it said
God had respect to Abel. If you are a believer, if you
are in Christ, you are highly esteemed by God himself. However highly he esteems the
Lord Jesus Christ, he highly esteems you. Isn't that amazing? But to Cain and his offering,
he had no respect. No regard. Why? Because it was outside of Christ.
Now what does God have respect for? What does God highly esteem? What does God not find offensive?
Christ and everybody and everything that's in Him. And outside of
Christ, God finds all things an abomination because He's holy.
Now look in verse 16. The law and the prophets were
until John. The Old Testament law, it was
until John. He's the last, I think it's interesting,
John is the last Old Testament prophet and the first New Testament
prophet. He's the one who said, behold,
the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Turn to Mark 1 for a moment. The law and the prophets were
until John. Mark begins with John, verse
4. John did baptize in the wilderness
and preached the baptism of repentance for or concerning the remission
of sins. Now, here is the message of the
gospel. A change of mind concerning the remission of sins. Now, all
of us are interested in having our sins remitted, aren't we?
Aren't you interested in having all your sins forgiven and put
away so that you won't be held responsible for your sins? Every
one of us in this room are interested in that. We all know of guilt
that we have, that if God judges us for it, he'll send us to hell.
And every one of us are interested in the forgiveness of sins. Now,
everybody in the world is interested in the forgiveness of sins. Everybody
believes in some kind of God. Everybody knows that God, they
have some kind of intuitive knowledge that God is righteous and he's
going to punish sins. And everybody wants their sins
forgiven. And everybody thinks, well, here's what you need to
do in order to get your sins forgiven. You need to do this. You need
to do that. You need to stop doing this and you need to start
doing that. And you need to quit this and Do whatever. I mean, this is what you do for
the forgiveness of sins. You fill in the blank, whatever
it is. Everybody, if you believe, if you repent, if you quit sinning,
if you give up your sin, if you turn around, you'll have the
forgiveness of sins. Now, when John the Baptist came
preaching, he said, you better change your mind concerning that.
It's a change of mind concerning the forgiveness of sins. There's nothing you do to get
your sins forgiven. And do you hear that? There is
absolutely nothing you do to get your sins forgiven. Salvation
begins with the full, free, and complete forgiveness of sins,
the blotting out of sins. And then in verse 14, now after
the John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the
gospel of the kingdom of God and saying the time is fulfilled
and the kingdom of God is at hand. All the Old Testament types
are fulfilled. Here I am. The kingdom of God
is at hand because I'm here. Repent ye, change your mind and
believe the gospel. Repent of anything contrary to
the gospel. the gospel of how God forgives
sins for Christ's sake. Now, with that in mind, turn
back to Luke 16. Our Lord was talking about the
law and the prophets were until John. And since that time, the
kingdom of God is preached, the gospel is preached, and every
man presseth into it. That same word is used in Matthew
11, 12. The kingdom of heaven suffers
violence. And the violent take it by force.
They must have it. Now, what does that mean? Men
press. They use violence to get into
the kingdom of heaven. They must get into the kingdom
of heaven. What does that mean? Is that a reference to how you're
willing to do whatever it takes to get into the kingdom of heaven?
You're willing to give up any sin. You're willing to give up
anything. You're willing to do anything. If you just might enter the kingdom
of heaven, whatever it takes, you're going to do it in order
to enter the kingdom of heaven. And you know how much comfort
I get from that? Zero. Zero. I think of what the writer
today, and that's the way most people handle it. I listened
to a message off sermon audio about Jonathan Edwards dealing
with this passage of scripture. And in this message, he said,
you've got to be willing to give up everything, anything, everybody,
and strive and fight to enter the kingdom of heaven. And you've
got to be willing to do it for 10,000 years. And if God decides
to cast you off anyway, you've got to realize that. But you've
got to be willing to keep pressing and keep striving in order to
enter into the kingdom of heaven. Just keep going. Keep going.
Never give up. And I thought, man, that's depressing. I mean,
if that's what it is, I'm not going to get in. I'm not going
to. Do you feel good about your efforts
in striving to enter into the kingdom of heaven? I don't feel
good about anything I've done. I really don't. The only thing
I'm comforted from is this. It is finished. That salvation is completely
accomplished by my Redeemer, and that all that God requires
of me, He doesn't look to how earnestly I strive to enter the
kingdom of heaven. He looks to His Son. Now understand,
there's nothing easy about denying yourself, taking up your cross
daily, and following the Lord Jesus Christ. Every believer
is called upon to do that, and there's nothing easy about that.
But is that what the Lord is referring to, our efforts to
enter into the kingdom of heaven? We take it by force. We're like,
you know, somebody talks about Jacob and they say, you know,
when he was wrestling with the angel, he said, I will not let
you go except you bless me. Well, he's saying, I will not
let you go unless I have your mercy. I need your blessing.
And you know, as far as, let's put it this way. You know what,
I'm going to get violent. when somebody tells me to look
somewhere other than Christ alone. Now, I'm gonna get in a fight
over that. I must have Christ only. And I'm gonna fight through
anything that would lead me away from my completeness in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Of Him are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. I'm complete in Him. I don't
need anything else, and I'm gonna fight through anything If there
would take me away from that, my only hope is this, it is finished. And if somebody says, no, there's
something else you need to do, no, we're going to fight against
that. We're going to fight our way all the way through Christ
being all in salvation. Now, we take that by force, don't
we? We can't have anything else.
We'll be violent against anything else. Because this is our only
hope. That passage we read in Hebrews
chapter 10, He hath by one offering, He hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. I hold on to that. And somebody
tries to take that away from me, I'm going to fight that.
I'm going to fight to preach this. Because I know this is
the only hope any sinner ever has. I'm going to be violent
about it in that sense. The kingdom of heaven suffers
violence, and the violent take it by force. Now, is the gospel
something like this to you, where you have to have salvation by
the free grace of God? It has to be all of grace, and
you're going to fight against anything contrary to that. It
has to be all in Christ, and you're going to fight against
anything contrary to that. You're going to use violence in that
sense. You know I don't mean you're
going to go up and hit somebody or try to get in an argument
with somebody, but you must have the Lord Jesus Christ. You press
into the kingdom of heaven. The law and the prophets were
until John. Since that time, the kingdom of God is preached
and every man presses into it. And it's easier for the heaven
and earth to pass than one tittle of the law to fail." Now, why
does he say this? Look what he says in verse 18. Whosoever putteth
away his wife and marrieth another, commiteth adultery. And whosoever
marrieth her that is put away from her husband, commiteth adultery.
That's pretty black and white, isn't it? I mean, it just says
that. And why did the Lord bring this up at this time? were these
Pharisees who were covetous and derided the Lord Jesus Christ.
What they were famous for was their supposed law keeping. They
loved to glory in their law keeping. And the Lord lets us know these
are the ones who were very famous also for divorcing their wives.
And it was big among the Pharisees. They always bring it up. Is it
okay for a man to divorce his wife? Moses said, it's okay. Moses put it in the law. And
the Lord says to them, you make your boast in the law, but what
you've done is really bring down the law to your standards. And
in reality, you're nothing but a bunch of adulterers. He was
talking about this Sin. This sin. He said, you're always
just not caring about the sanctity of marriage and you talk about
your respect for the law, but you really have no respect for
the law. And that's what these fellas
were doing. They derided the Lord. They talked
about how righteous and holy they were. And they never really
took their place as a sinner. They were justifying themselves
before men. They were trying to impress men. And the Lord
says, God knows your hearts. Now, there's only one way to
honor God's holy law. It's not to talk about how you've
kept it. Because, hey, we've already struck out. Every one
of us. Lawbreakers. That's the only way Any of us
can be described in this room, law breakers, having kept one
commandment one time. And anytime we make any claim
other than that, all we're doing is trying to bring the law down
to a human level. And we're trying to justify ourselves.
And we're trying to make some kind of show before men. And
we're really dishonoring God's holy law. And that's why he brings
this out to them, because they were making a boast of the law.
And he says, not really. Fellas, you guys are law breakers,
not law keepers. You talk about keeping the law
and impressing men with your religion and your piety and your
prayers and your devotions and all the things that you think
please men. But God knows your heart and
he knows there's nothing to it. Now, how is it that somebody
can actually honor God's holy law? I want to honor the law,
don't you? And I know. And here's where
I gotta begin. I know that all I've done is
break it. You know that about yourself?
You have not kept, I have not kept one commandment one time. You believe that about yourself?
Not once. Well, how can somebody like that
honor God's holy law? Well, turn with me to Romans
chapter three. Paul says in verse 25, whom God,
speaking of Christ Jesus, whom God set forth to be a propitiation,
a sin atoning victim, one who actually propitiated sin and
made it to where God doesn't have a reason to be angry anymore.
That's what propitiation means. If God is propitious toward me,
that means he has no reason to be mad at me. And I've got all
kinds of reasons I can think of for him to be mad at me. But
if Christ died for me, all of those reasons have been removed. And he is propitious toward me. All those sins, all the law-breaking. And like I said, I've not kept
one commandment one time. And I say that to my shame, but
I say it knowing it so. I know it so. I'm a lawbreaker.
You are too. And the only hope we have is
the perpetuatory sacrifice of Christ, that He's removed the
reason for anger. My sin, my law-breaking became
His law-breaking. He put it away. His righteousness
becomes my righteousness before God. Whom God set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in His blood. Do you have faith in His blood?
That's an easy question to answer. Do you really believe that His
blood is all that's needed to propitiate God and make you accepted
before God? Do you have faith in His blood?
Do you really believe that His blood actually accomplished that?
That it was not just some kind of roll of the dice hoping you'd
end up believing, but it actually accomplished complete salvation. To declare His righteousness
for the remission or the forgiveness of sins that are passed through
the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at this time,
His righteousness, not just His mercy, not just His grace, not
just His love, not just His compassion, but His righteousness, that He
might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Are you one of those people who
believe in Jesus? You have faith in His blood?
Paul then asks this question, where is boasting then? What
can you boast about? What can I boast about? What
can I take credit in? Where is boasting then? It is
excluded. It's put away. By what law? Works? May. But by the law of
faith. Therefore we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Is he the
God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles?
Yes, of the Gentiles also. Seeing it's one God which shall
justify the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through
faith, do we then make void the law through faith? Do we just
do away with the law? Do we just sweep it under the
carpet? God forbid, yea, we establish
the law. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. I'm a law keeper. You know, I love saying this.
I don't try to keep the law. Someone says, well, we ought
to try to obey the Ten Commandments. I don't try to obey the Ten Commandments.
I've obeyed them. I've kept them. What a gospel we have. Now he's
telling these fellows, the reason he brings this up about marriage
is he's saying you fellows are saying you're law keepers. No,
you're not. You're law breakers. What a blessing it is to see
that you're a law breaker. What's a law breakers hope? the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's his hope. Now, I don't
want to be someone who justifies myself before men, and I want
you to think about this. When it all comes to it, you
know, we want to appear. I look like a Christian. A Christian
does this, a Christian does that, a Christian does this. Isn't
it true, really, that the only thing that counts is what God
thinks? What God sees? What if everybody in this room
thinks I'm a Christian, but God knows I'm not? What good would that do me? Well,
I've really impressed people. I don't know how many times people
have said to me, do you think I'm saved? What difference does it make
what I think? Really? Really? If I think you're saved,
does that mean you are? If I think you're not, does that
mean you're not? No. What do I know? The one thing that counts, what does
God say? I love that scripture, Colossians
1, 22, that the Lord Jesus, by his death, has presented us holy and unblameable and unapprovable
in his sight. And how he sees things is how
they really are. Now I don't want to be one of
these people that my religion is about what men see. You are
they which justifies yourselves before men. And what good does
it do if you do, impressed man? Thank God for the gospel of Christ. And we're going to celebrate
this gospel as we take the Lord's table. The Lord said this, do
as often as you do it in remembrance of me. And when we're taking
the Lord's table, we're remembering right now. Here's what we're
remembering. We're remembering all of our salvation is in his
life, in his death, in his resurrection, and his intercession. We're celebrating
that, aren't we? This is a time to rejoice in
what Christ has done. Who's the Lord's table for? Anybody
who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who the Lord's
table is for. Let's pray.