I think of the Lord Jesus using
these words, woe unto you. If the Lord says, woe unto you, my, I can't think of anything
that would be more frightening for the Lord Jesus to say, woe
unto you. Now, why did he say this? Let's read this verse again together. Verse 42. But woe unto you, Pharisees. The word Pharisee means a separated
one, one who truly believed that their works had separated them
from other men. I've done this, therefore I'm
separate from you. Woe unto you Pharisees, for you
tithe, mint, and rue, and all manner of herbs, and Passover,
judgment, and the love of God. Now these ought ye to have done
when he was speaking of tithing. He's not criticizing them for
tithing. He says these ought you to have done. but you should
not have left the other undone. Now, his criticism of the Pharisees
was that they were very careful and exact in their tithing. They
didn't only tithe their income. They even tithe the herbs that
came through their house. They gave 10% of those. And the Lord was not criticizing
them for this. He says, these ought ye to have
done. Now, somebody is thinking, well,
should we tithe? Should we give 10% of our income? The Lord said through the Apostle
Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 16, to give as God has prospered
you. And if you and I give as God
prospers us, I would dare say that most of us would be giving
more than a tithe, more than 10% of our income if we gave
as God prospered us. I love what Brother Mahan said.
He said, if you tithe, you're under law. If you don't tithe,
you're an outlaw. So the only thing to do is give
more than a tithe. I want to give more than what
the law required, don't you? I want to give more. So our Lord is
not criticizing them for time. He says, these ought you to have
done, but you shouldn't have left the other undone. You passed over something far
more important, the judgment of God and the love of God. You see, there are some things
that are more important. That's what I entitled this message.
There are some things that are more important. Now, in Matthew chapter 23, we
have pretty much the same message. I believe it was given on a different
time. As a matter of fact, it was the message that led to the
Lord's crucifixion. After he brought this message,
they said, we're not going to have this anymore. We're going
to arrest this man. We're going to get rid of him. but he said much
of the same things in Matthew chapter 23 that he said in Luke
chapter 11. This was delivered at a different
time, but turn with me for a moment to Matthew chapter 23 and look
how this is said. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, Matthew chapter 23 verse 23. Woe unto you, scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrites, For you pay tithe of mint and anise
and... I asked Dwayne how to pronounce
that next word. Is it cumin or cumin? I asked
Dwayne and Dwayne said, I'm from Boyd County, how should I know?
I thought, what a response. But Lin, cumin, cumin. Okay. You pay tithe of mint and
anise and cumin and have omitted, have left out the weightier matter. of the law, and he names them
as judgment, mercy, and faith. You've omitted, you've passed
over, you've left out what is more important. Now I would be
loath to make myself one who takes some part of the Bible
and says, this is more important than another part. But here,
the Savior does it. He says, this is what's more
important. This is what is way near. Mercy. Judgment. Judgment first. Judgment. Notice
the order. Judgment must be taken care of
first. Judgment. And only when God's
judgment is satisfied. God's just. And only when his
absolute justice is satisfied is he able to dispense mercy,
judgment, mercy. And when he gives a sinner mercy,
you know what happens as a result of that? Faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Judgment, mercy, and faith. Now go back to Luke chapter 11,
if you would. You might put a marker in Matthew
chapter 23 because we're going to go back there. But back to
Luke chapter 11. The Lord says, Woe unto you Pharisees,
verse 42, for you tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs
and you pass over judgment. You just neglect that and the
love of God. These ought you to have done
and not to leave the other undone. Now, why would someone do this?
Why? Well, he tells us in the next
verse, woe unto you Pharisees, for you love the uppermost seats
in the synagogues and greetings in the markets. You love recognition
of men. You love to be praised of men. And if you preach truly
what God says regarding judgment and the love of God, you'll no
longer have that. And then he says in verse 44,
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are as graves
which appear not, and that men walk over them, and they're not
aware of what's really there. Nothing but dead men's bones
and all uncleanness in Matthew's account. The reason you do this,
he says, is because you're wicked. You may appear to be righteous,
but you're like a grave that looks beautiful on the outside,
but within you're full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. That's why men would do this. You've omitted the weightier
matters of the law. Now, I want us to consider these
two things Luke says. We've looked at Matthew 23, verse
23 several times over the years, so I want to just look at what
Luke says when he says to these people, you've tithed, and you
should have done that, but you've passed over judgment and the
love of God. Now, the word judgment here is
literally the crisis of God. That's the Greek word, the crisis.
And it's always used with regard to judgment day. There's a day
coming called judgment day, when the righteous will be rewarded
and the wicked will be punished. Now, don't you know that's so? The day is coming, judgment day. And you and I are going to have
to stand before God and hear him pronounce our judgment. Every time judgment day is referred
to, this is the word that is used. Now, God is just and he's
the judge of the earth. I love what Abraham said, shall
not the judge of the earth do right? Now, what does a judge
do? He justifies the righteous. He pronounces
them just or he condemns the wicked. That is what a judge
does. Now what would you think of a
judge, even an earthly judge, who if someone committed crimes
and the judge just indiscriminately said, well, they're going to
be forgiven. and lets them back out into society where they can
cause trouble and be dangerous and commit those crimes again
on other people. Well, we would get rid of a judge
like that, wouldn't we? A judge must be just. He must sentence
the people for the crimes that they've committed. And if he
didn't do that, we wouldn't want to have anything to do with him,
would we? I want a just judge. God is a just judge. He said in Exodus chapter 34,
I will by no means clear the wicked. Clear the guilty. Now I want you to think about
that. Under no circumstance will I clear someone who's guilty.
If you're guilty, God says, I will not clear you. You will be punished. Now that's judgment. That's what
the word means. It means the punishment. Either
the justification of the righteous And if you're justified, it's
because you're not guilty. You've not done anything. You
stand perfect before God. If he punishes you, it's for
the crimes you have committed. I will by no means clear the
guilty. God is absolutely, essentially
just. He can't be anything else. I
love what the psalmist said. Justice and judgment are the
habitation of thy throne. Now the gospel of God's grace,
essentially, you listen to me very carefully, I know I say
this all the time and I don't apologize for that. There's nothing
more important than this. The gospel is essentially a declaration
of how God can be just and justify the ungodly. Now I'll tell you
who that catches their attention. Now there are some people who
Think of that as theology, doctrine. There's somebody else who hears
that and it catches their attention. That person who is ungodly. That person is very interested
in how God can be just and punish all sin and yet justify someone
who is unjust. When he himself said, I by no
means clear the guilty. That's what the gospel is all
about. It's about how God can be just. and by no means clear
the guilty and justify somebody like me, laden down with my own
sin. That is the gospel message. I believe one of the most amazing
scriptures in all the Bible is in 1 John chapter 1 verse 9,
when John says, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and
just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I'm asking myself this question.
When's the last time I ever truly confessed my sin before God?
When's the last time I took sides with God against myself, confessing
my sin before Him? I'm not talking about just saying,
forgive us of our sins, kind of as the way I usually do it,
oh Lord forgive me of my sins, you know, and I don't even know
which ones I'm not confessing, but I'm talking about truly taking
sides with God against myself. He's right, I'm wrong. Whatever he does is right, holy,
just, and true. If we confess our sins, he's faithful. Anybody who confesses
He ordained that they would confess those sins. He said they're going
to do it and He's faithful to cause them to do it and hear
their confession and accept them and receive them. Not only is
He faithful to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us of all
unrighteousness, He's just. Not just merciful. Not just gracious,
although, thank the Lord, He is merciful. And He is gracious,
He delights in mercy. I'm so thankful for that. But
He is just, the very justice of God demands the forgiveness
of my sins. You see, my sins were placed
upon Christ. And God punished Christ. And Christ paid that debt. And now the very justice of God
says, forgive him. His sins are blotted out. They're
gone. God's justice, not just God's
mercy and grace, but God's justice. Aaron Greenleaf, you said this
to me a month or two ago, or three months, I don't remember,
but I love this statement. He said, justification is better
than forgiveness. And it is. It is. It's a lot better. I'm thankful
for forgiveness. Don't get me wrong. I want my sins forgiven.
But if I'm justified, I have no guilt before God. Now that's
the gospel. The gospel tells how God can
be just and justify the ungodly. Oh, the justice of the cross.
Would you turn with me for a moment to John chapter 16? Now remember, the Lord counts
this as the weightier matter of the law, and the first word
He uses is judgment. Judgment. These are the Lord's
words. Judgment. This is the weightier
matter of the law. In verse 8 of John chapter 16, the Lord is
talking about the coming of the Holy Spirit. And He says, when
He has come, He will reprove. He will convict. He will convince
the world of sin, and of righteousness and of judgment, of sin, because
they believe not on me. And let me tell you, when you've
been convicted by the Holy Spirit, when you see that even faith
is out of your reach, You're so sinful that you can't even
believe and don't even know what it is to believe. Faith is out
of your reach. You've never believed the gospel
until you found you can't. Did you know that? It's only
when you find you can't believe, that's when God will give you
faith. That's the true conviction of the Holy Spirit. He'll convince
the world of sin because they believe not on me. In verse 10,
of righteousness, because I go to my father and you see me no
more. Now, when you're convicted of
the Holy Spirit, you're convinced that the only righteousness that
there is, is that perfect righteousness that he brings to his father.
Are you convinced of that? Are you convinced? That's Holy
Spirit conviction. That's what you believe when
God the Holy Spirit works on you. Look at the next thing.
He says in verse 11, of judgment. Same word, because the prince
of this world has been judged. Is judged literally has already
been judged. You are convinced that judgment
took place on the cross. The prince of the world was judged. Now, how do men pass over judgment?
Because I'd say most religious people believe that there's going
to be a judgment day of some kind. Well, how do men pass over
judgment? And this is what he accused him
of. He said, you've passed over judgment. You've tithed, more
power to you, but you passed over judgment. Well, let me give
you three ways men pass over and omit judgment, even though
they might use the word judgment. Here's the first way. By believing in salvation by
works. In any way. If you believe in
salvation by works, you've got to realize this. You know what
the Bible says about our works, our righteousness? What's it
say? It says in Isaiah 64 6, our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags. And if I believe in salvation
by works in any way, I believe God can accept my filthy rags. I'm bringing God down to my level.
I'm taking the holy God and humanizing him and modifying him and making
him to where he can accept something that comes from me and I pass
over his judgment. There's a second way you pass
over judgment. You pass over judgment when you
believe that God can punish the same sin twice. And this is what
most people believe. Jesus Christ died for everybody's
sins. He was punished for your sins.
But if you don't do whatever it is you need to do to make
what He did work for you, if you don't accept Him and receive
Him as your personal Savior, even though He died for those
sins, you're going to be punished again, thus taking away the justice
of God. Now, there isn't anything more
denying of the justice of God than believing that Christ can
die for somebody and pay for their sins and then God turn
around and make them pay for them again in hell. Let me tell
you something, there isn't going to be anybody in hell that Christ
died for. Everybody he died for must be
saved. It's absolutely necessary. And
if somebody says, well, Christ can die for you, but you might
wind up in hell anyway, that's passing over the judgment of
God. And what did the Lord say regarding
those people? Woe unto you. Woe unto you. Thirdly, I pass
over judgment when I lessen the reality of substitution. Now, what do I mean by that? Let's say my dear daughter murdered
someone and she was sentenced to die
in an electric chair for what she did. And what if I said,
I'll take her punishment? Would there be any justice in
that? No. The only one who can take
the punishment is the one who did the crime. When Christ died,
He wasn't simply taking my punishment. He did the crime. My sin actually
became His sin. He was made sin. He actually
did the crime. He died under the wrath of God,
being forsaken by God because he was guilty. That's why he
didn't open his mouth when he stood before Pilate. He didn't
open his mouth. He didn't defend himself. I tell
you, if I'm not guilty of something, I know I'm going to defend myself.
I've done it so many times, even when I was guilty of it. I'd
defend myself anyway. Shouldn't do it, but I mean,
that's human nature, evil nature. But Christ didn't try to defend
himself because he was guilty. And woe be to that one who lessens
the reality of substitution. Because it's unjust. It takes
away from the judgment of God. Now, because of judgment, turn
to 1 John chapter 4. 1 John chapter 4. Verse 17. Herein is our love made perfect,
that we may have boldness in the day of judgment. That is
an awesome thing to think about, isn't it? To stand before the
thrice holy God in judgment and have boldness, confidence, not
a bit scared. Bold shall I stand in that great
day, for who ought to my charge shall lay. Fully absolved from
these I am from sin's tremendous curse and shame. Now how is it
that I'm going to have boldness on the day of judgment? Because
as He is, So are we in this world. However he is, is he accepted
by God? Is he loved by God? Is he perfectly
justified before God? Is he altogether lovely? However
he is, that's how everybody that is that's in him. And hence boldness
on the day of judgment. Now may the Lord deliver us from
being of that number, and we will apart from his grace, but
may the Lord deliver us from being of that number that pass
over judgment. God's just, that's who he is.
And oh, woe to the man, woe to the woman who passes over, omits
judgment. And the next thing he says in
our text in Luke chapter 11, if you turn back there, Now, obviously what we're talking
about is not theological differences and theological hair splitting
because the Lord says, woe unto the man who passes over judgment. And the next thing he says in
verse 42 is, woe to that man that passes over the love of
God. Now this religious generation
that we live in today has passed over the love of God. Just passed
it over. Now, the term is used by every
religious person. Every quote church talks about
the love of God. Oh, we believe in the love of
God. God loves you and I do too. Smile, God loves you. God loves
everybody. Now, all that kind of saying
does is make the love of God utterly and completely meaningless. That's all that does. I hope you'll be able to see
that as we consider what God's Word tells us about the love
of God. Like I said, men don't pass over God's love in the sense
of using the words. But the message I hear preached,
God loves you, Christ died for you and wants to save you, but
he can't unless you let him, unless you accept him, unless
you do something. That message is a passing over. It's a denial. of the love of
God. Now, as briefly as I can, I want
us to see what the Bible actually says about the love of God. I
want to be somebody God loves, don't you? I want to be somebody
that God loves. And you can't just automatically
assume, well, He loves everybody, because I know He'd love Esau.
He said, I've hated Esau. He said that himself. Jacob have
I loved, Esau have I hated. So you can't just automatically
assume I'm an object of God's love and I'm an object of God's
favor. What does the Bible teach regarding this thing of the love
of God? Well, first, God has a different
reason for loving than you and I have. I love thinking about
this. I love Lynn. I love her. And every reason I have for loving
her is purely selfish. Every single reason. I love her
for what she does for me. And if she didn't do those things
for me, I probably would not love her the way I love her now. You see, our reason for love
is selfish, isn't it? I love her and I can give you
so many reasons why I love her. But you know, God doesn't love
a man. God doesn't love me. God doesn't
love you. for any reason in us. It's not because of anything
you can do for God. It's not because of anything
you can give to God. God loves because He is love. It's His nature to love. And there's nothing I can do
to add to Him or that I can give to Him that will make Him love
me. No, He does it because He is love. Hold your finger there
in Luke and turn to Deuteronomy chapter 7. This is Moses speaking to Israel. He says in verse 6, For thou
art an holy people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath
chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all people
that are upon the face of the earth. Now that could be said
of all of God's elect. He's saying it of Israel here,
but this could be said of all God's elect. He's chosen you
to be a special people above all the people of the face of
the earth. Now look what he says in verse 7. The Lord didn't set
his love upon you nor choose you because you were more in
number than any people, for you were the fewest of all people,
but because the Lord loved you. That's why I loved you. Because
he loved you. If he had to look for a reason
in me to love me, you know what? He wouldn't do it. And he wouldn't
love you either if he had to find a reason in you to love
you. but he did it simply because he would. Herein is love, John
said, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his
son to be the propitiation of our sins. Now, God's love, when
we talk about biblical love, what the Bible teaches about
God's love is God's love, listen very carefully, this is so important,
God's love is saving love. You know a few minutes ago when
I said there won't be anybody in hell that Christ died for? There's not going to be anybody
in hell that God loves. His love is saving love. Ephesians 2, 4, But God, who
is rich in mercy, for his great love, wherewith he loved us,
even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with
Christ. By grace are you saved. You see, everybody God loves,
God saves, all without exception. God's love, according to the
scripture, is sovereign, distinguishing love. known from that passage
in Malachi chapter 1 and Romans chapter 9 verse 13 where God
said, Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated. I've heard people say, well,
that means he loved Esau less. God could love less. I don't
think so. God can't love less. Jacob have I loved, and Esau
have I hated. Now, if you and I were choosing
which one we'd love, I dare say that most of us would choose
Esau. Esau was more of a macho man. He was a athletic man. He was a mighty hunter. He was
the favorite of his father. And the scripture says regarding
Jacob, he was a plain man. He was a mama's boy. He was a
snitch. The scripture says his name means
heel. And if you would have chosen
one of the two, I know I probably would have chosen Esau over Jacob. But you know, that's not the
way the Lord is. He said, Jacob have I loved. And what name does
God give himself more than any other name in the scriptures?
The God of Jacob. God's love is distinguishing
love. And if that's the way God's love
is, I love it that way. And I'm not going to find fault
with that. Well, how could God hate Esau? Well, I know this.
I know how easily it would be for him to hate me. He's holy.
He's just. I have no problem with that at
all. God is, he's holy. I can understand why he would
hate a man. But oh, how amazed we are at
his love for Jacob and every other sinner saved by grace. His love is distinguishing love. And God's love, according to
the scripture, is eternal. That means it never had a beginning.
And that means it'll never end. There was never a time when God
began to love any of his people. I know that so because He said,
Behold, I've loved you with an everlasting love, a love that
had no beginning. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. I know that so because the Lord
said regarding the love of the Father to His people, He says,
Thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Now, did He ever
begin to love Jesus Christ? No. and he's never began to love
his people. It's a love that never had a
beginning, and it's a love that'll never have an end. John 13 one
says, having loved his own, which were in the world, he loved them
to the end. A love that cannot stop. And I love this point just as
much as any other point. The love of God is for sinners.
Romans 5a says, God commended his love toward us in that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Are you a sinner? How do you answer that question?
Are you a sinner? Well, no, I wouldn't. I mean, I make mistakes, but
I I do wrong things, I mess up sometimes, but, well, if that's
the case, I can't give you any assurance at all that God loves
you. And if you die in that state, you'll find out he never did
love you. He'll say, I never knew you. But if you're a sinner,
that's all I'm asking. If you're a real sinner, God
loves you. and all the benefit there is
of the love of God. You see, to say that God loves
you and Christ died for you, that's the assurance of the believer.
If God loves you, you're saved. The Lord knows
you. His hand is on you. You know, if you're not a sinner, you exclude
yourself from his love. You really do. If you can't take
your place as a sinner, you exclude yourself. You know, when people
get fired from jobs, I love this saying. I know it's not all the
true with human beings. Sometimes people have got fired
from jobs for a wrong reason. I realize that. But for the most
part, this is true, isn't it? If you get fired, you fire yourself.
You fire yourself. It's your fault you got fired.
If you would have done your responsibilities, you wouldn't have been fired.
Now, regarding this thing of God's eternal love, if I don't
take my place as a sinner, I excuse myself. I can't say, well, it's
not fair for God to not love me. If you're a sinner, he does,
and if you're not, he doesn't, because his love is for sinners. And I like thinking about this.
God's love is a planning love. Now, most of us, when we have children,
we make plans for them, don't we? We make plans for their education. If we could, we'd like to plan
out who their spouse would be. If I had that power, I'd do that.
I would pick Stephen. Stephen, that's it. So don't
worry. I would pick Stephen. I love having him as my son-in-law.
It's like he's a son to me. So don't start thinking, well,
who would you have picked? You. You. But the point is, We make
plans. We would plan for them to be
successful. We would plan for them to have
good jobs. We would plan for them to be
great citizens and responsible citizens. And we make all these
plans for them if it were in our power. How much power do
you have in that? None. We do our best, but all
of our plans, they may, if the Lord's merciful, they might work
out, but for the most part, they don't. Something different about the
Lord, though. He's got the power to make sure his plans for his
children come to pass. Ephesians 1 verse 4 says, according
as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the
praise of the glory of his grace. wherein He hath made us accepted
in the Beloved." You see, God predestinated that all of His
children be just like Christ. And He's got the power to make
sure His plans come to pass, and how giving God's love is. God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son. I'm thinking about this scripture
where Paul said in Galatians 2.20, he said, I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life that I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave, what? Himself. himself for me." That
is the heritage of every single believer. He gave himself, just
like he was the only person he did it for. He gave himself for
you. He can't love more, he can't
love less. Thou hast loved them as Thou
hast loved me. However it is that God loves
His Son, that's how He loves His people. And let me say this
also about the love of God. The love of God is always reciprocated. You know what that means? If He loves you, you're gonna
love Him back. We love Him, John said, because He first loved
us. I do love him and I trace that
love not to any ability in me. It's because he loved me and
gave himself for me. And you see the reason all of
this is so, when we talk about God's eternal, distinguishing, saving love. The reason this is all so is
because all of God's love is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Nothing shall be able to separate
us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. And that's where we have this
confidence regarding God's love. It's in Christ. If I'm in Christ,
God loves me and I have all of the love of God. However much
God loves his son, Jesus Christ, that's how much he loves me.
And we wouldn't dare believe that unless the Lord taught that
in the word. But because the Lord said that
in his word, We believe it. Now, woe be to that one who passes
over the judgment of God. God is just. And woe be to that one who passes
over the love of God. love the judgment of God, don't
you? I love justification. I love
how he saves in a way that honors his justice. I love that. And
I love the love of God. Oh, his love is like nothing
else. May God give me and you the grace
not to be people who pass over, judgment, the judgment of God
and the love of God, but people who glory in the judgment of
God and the love of God. Let's pray together.