Teacher, When You Say This, You Insult Us Too

So, when was the last time you heard something that triggered you? Do you know what it means to be triggered? Do you know what it means, Daniel, to be triggered? Yeah. It means that something's going to go on that might offend you. That's what it means to be triggered, is to be, like, offended. So we're going to talk about that this morning, not because the Bible talks about being triggered. What the Bible talks about is hypocrisy. And what we're going to see this morning is that the sort of offense... that's so prevalent in our culture today, is a function of hypocrisy. That's where it comes from. That's what causes it. Because that's what's going on in our text this morning, where Jesus goes into the house of a Pharisee, he's invited in for a meal, he goes in, he sits down with a meal, and he doesn't do what he's supposed to do. And they get offended. And then he addresses their offense, and they get more offended. And I'll tell you...

The pressure that you feel, that I feel, that our culture puts on us to conform, to toe the line, to speak and act and behave in just the right way is incredible. Are you allowed to think? Are you allowed to draw the conclusions that are obvious to anyone who doesn't feel the pressure? Our culture would tell you, no, you can't. You have to say what's supposed to be said. You can't disagree. You can't say no. And yet, if you were here last week, I talked to you about the Gospel of Luke. that we're going through, and I said, you know, you're meeting Jesus here, and you're finding out that he's not this soft, tender, everything's good, everything's fine, everything's happy, we're all just going to get along and be great. That's not what marks his ministry, his earthly ministry. He was surrounded by conflict, surrounded by strife, constantly stirring people up. And he wasn't sinning when he did it. He was loving his Father, and he was loving those who heard him.

And so we need to become like Jesus. We don't need to become nasty and become more sinful and mean in the way that we communicate with people. No, that's not how Jesus did it. But the lie, the central lie that we're led to believe is that if you've offended someone, if you've caused conflict, you have done something wrong. That's not true. Sometimes that's true, but that's not always true. And so as we study... Our text this morning, I want you to be thinking about hypocrisy. And we're going to come back at the end and we're going to talk about giving offense and what that looks like and when it's appropriate and when it's not. Would you please stand for the reading of God's word from Luke chapter 11, verses 37 through 54. Now when he had spoken, a Pharisee asked him to have lunch with him. And he went in and reclined at the table.

When the Pharisees saw it, he was surprised that he had not first ceremonially washed before the meal. But the Lord said to him, Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but inside of you you're full of robbery and wickedness. You foolish ones! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? But give that which is within as charity, and then all things are clean for you. But woe to you Pharisees, for you pay... tithe of mint and rue and every kind of garden herb and yet disgrace, disregard justice and the love of God. But these are the things that you should have done without neglecting the others. Woe to you, Pharisees, for you love the chief seats in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the marketplaces. Woe to you, for you are like concealed tombs and the people who walk over them are unaware of it. One of the lawyers said to him in reply, Teacher, when you say this, you insult us too.

But he said, woe to you lawyers as well, for you weigh down men with burdens hard to bear, while you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe to you, for you build the tombs of the prophets, and it was your fathers who killed them. So you are witnesses and approve of the deeds of your fathers, because it was they who killed them, and you build their tombs. For this reason also the wisdom of God said, I will send to them prophets and apostles and some of them they will kill and some they will persecute so that the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world may be charged against this generation from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who was killed between the altar and the house of God. Yes, I tell you it will be charged against this generation. Woe to you lawyers for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves did not enter and you hindered those who were entering.

When he left there, the scribes and Pharisees began to be very hostile and to question him closely on many subjects, plotting against him to catch him in something he might say. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. Okay, so I want to start out by saying, is this an offensive passage? And the answer is yes, it's an offensive passage, the vast majority of it. and then the lawyers. But I want you to think for a second. What caused the offense? What caused the offense in this passage? What happened? You know what happened? Jesus didn't wash his hands. That's what caused the offense. Did you see? That's what caused the offense. Jesus was invited in for a meal. He graciously accepts. He comes in and sits down to eat.

Everyone is surprised that he didn't ceremonially wash his hands. And then everything that comes after that is him addressing, him opening up this offense that they had. He didn't wash his hands for dinner. So was Jesus being, you know, when you think, should you wash your hands for dinner? Yes, you should wash your hands for dinner. So you're left going, why didn't Jesus wash his hands? Did he not wash his hands for the same reasons that you don't wash your hands or your kids don't wash your hands? Was it just because you forgot? Is it just because you're lazy? Is it because you just don't think it's important? Or was Jesus doing something more when he chose not to wash his hands? And you have to realize he chose not to wash his hands. Jesus is God. He knows everything. And so whatever he does, he does in the full knowledge of the universe that he created.

So he didn't not wash his hands because he somehow missed the fact that they would be offended. He wasn't ignorant of their ceremonial hand washing before they ate. He knew all of it. And he chose not to wash his hands. Why didn't he wash his hands? And why were they so offended by it? That's the question. What was Jesus doing? When he didn't wash his hands, what he was doing, he says after he had spoken, a Pharisee asked him into dinner. So is the Pharisee, happy with Jesus or not happy with Jesus at this point? Does he invite him in because he's amazed at Jesus' teaching, or is he going to try to catch him? Well, we understand from the end of the text where it says, from this point on, they were after him, is basically what it says. They began to be very hostile and to question him closely on many subjects, plotting against him, trying to catch him in something he might say. And so this is a turning point. In the Pharisees and the scribes, lawyers,

of Jesus, their allegiance to him. To this point, they've been like, okay, we're listening, we're checking out, we're seeing what's going on. Then this happens and they turn on him. And from this point on, they're looking to get him because he didn't wash his hands. So what was Jesus doing when he comes into the house and he doesn't wash his hands? He didn't do it because he was ignorant. He didn't do it because he was lazy. He didn't do it just to piss them off. He did it to teach them something. He knows everything about them. He knows them perfectly, and he knows that there's a problem with what they're doing. And so he teaches by action. He teaches by what he does. And what's he teaching them? You don't need to wash your hands the way you do before dinner. That's what he's teaching them. It's really offensive. You don't need to wash your hands the way you do before dinner. They're all surprised. And so Jesus addresses their surprise. Now, what was wrong with them washing their hands the way they did?

If you read the Old Testament, you'll see all kinds of ceremonial washings and cleansings and purification rites. There's all kinds of stuff that God commands his people to do. And all of these purification rites and all these cleansing things are not because of germs. They're meant to teach the people that they're sinful and that they need to be cleaned. They need the blood of Jesus Christ to wash them, to clean them, to make them pure, to take away their sin. That was the point of all the washing. Now one thing, so if a little bit of washing is good, isn't a little more washing better? The answer is no. And the reason the answer is no is because God commanded certain washings and certain rites and certain ordinances for them, and he didn't command other ones. And so where did these ceremonial washings come from? They didn't come from the mouth of God. He didn't command that they wash their hands before dinner. Not the way they were doing it.

And what they've done is taken their traditions, their understandings, their wisdom, and they've elevated it to the level of authority of God's word and said, you have to do this because if you don't, you're ceremonially unclean, you can't eat. And that's not true. And that's what Jesus is responding to, he's reacting to. They've taken their own traditions, their own desires, sinful desires, and they've supplanted, they've gotten rid of, God's word, what he requires, and in place, they've put their words, their things. Take your knees out of your shirt, son. And that's what Jesus is responding to. And it's really wicked what they did. Because you're wondering, okay, why? So they invited him in for dinner. It's a nice, pleasant thing. This is going to be a relational building thing. And then as soon as they hit the table, Jesus is after them. Woe to you. Woe to you. You hypocrites. You're terrible. Look at this wickedness.

And then the lawyer pipes up and he says, you too. It's not a pleasant meal. So why did Jesus have to say what he said? Well, he had to say what he said because they didn't learn from his actions. He was teaching them when he sat down at the table. Do you ever do things in your life? You want someone to learn something. You want them to understand something. And you choose, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to go do it like this in front of them. And they're going to learn. Does that work? Sadly, sometimes. But most of the time, people are dumb. They're dense. They're proud. What are they? They're not observant. They don't go, oh, maybe you're doing that for a reason and maybe I should inquire as to why. Couldn't they have said, Jesus, we know who you are. You didn't wash your hands for dinner. Would you please tell us why? Because we want to learn from what you did. Because you don't do anything wrong.

But no, they're surprised. They're amazed. They're like, what in the world is this guy doing? They didn't learn from his actions. And so they had to be rebuked because of their unwillingness to be taught, to be led. So what's that mean for us? Well, it means that we should not only learn from what God says, from what the words of the scripture are. We should learn from that. We have to learn from that. But we also should learn from the way that he says it, the way that God speaks, the way that Paul or Jesus or Jeremiah or whomever speaks. We should learn from that because it's all inspired. We should learn from what Jesus does and how he does it. They seem like little incidental things when they're in there. Jesus was invited into dinner and he didn't wash his hands. Why does it matter that he didn't wash his hands? Well, clearly it does matter. And it's in there for us to learn something. So what do we all want to learn? Well, the kids want to learn, see, the pastor said we don't have to wash our hands.

Even Jesus, he got after them because they didn't have to wash their hands. That's the wrong lesson. You remember last week I said hypocrisy makes an art out of learning the wrong lessons. And that's the wrong lesson. That's not what's being taught here. We're not being taught not to wash our hands. We're being taught not to dishonor the word of God and replace it with our own words and our own preferences and our own desires. That's what we're being taught here. And the people who... who remove God's word and put theirs in a place, in the place of God's word, and yet maintain a show of godliness, they are hypocrites. That's what a hypocrite is. They take the word of God, they take it away, and they replace it with something else and treat it like the word of God. That is hypocrisy. Jesus refused to wash his hands because of the inappropriate importance that the Pharisees or the Jews had placed on it. He wouldn't do it. He chose not to do it. I'm not going to wash my hands.

Not the way you do it. Why? Because they thought that if we do this, we'll be honoring God. We'll be doing what he said. This is a good thing that we do. And Jesus says, no. No, it's not. In Mark chapter 7, verses 6 and 7, Jesus says this. He says, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, this people honors me with their lips. They wash their hands before dinner. They cleanse themselves. But their heart is far away from me. In vain do they worship me. teaching as doctrines the precepts of men. We're going to come back to that passage in a little bit and read further on. And Jesus explains more of what hypocrisy truly is. That's what's going on in this Pharisee's home. If you use the word Pharisee now, think of it this way. When you say someone's a Pharisee or they're behaving like a Pharisee, what do you mean? You mean they're judgmental. You mean they're hypocrites. They don't do what they tell you to do.

That's what it means. If someone says you're a Pharisee, that's what they're telling you. They're saying you are a hypocrite. You say one thing and you do another. You're not a man of your word. You don't obey the word of God. You do what you want and you justify yourself. You are a hypocrite. That's what it is to be a Pharisee. This is where it came from. That's not always been the definition of Pharisees. That's not what the people in this time would have understood the Pharisees to be. They didn't look at the Pharisees and go, you guys are a big class, a big group of hypocrites.

That's not what the people thought of the Pharisees. They thought these are the religious leaders of the day. These are the people who are supposed to feed us, to give us the word of God, to teach us. They wouldn't have been thought of as hypocrites. And so when Jesus comes on the scene, he says, you guys are hypocrites and the worst kind of hypocrite. It's very serious what he's saying. It's very intense. He's not respecting them the way that they're used to being respected. He's calling them as they are. teaching his doctrines of man, teaching, I'm sorry, teaching his doctrines, the precepts of man. So they didn't learn from his actions. They didn't learn from Jesus coming in and sitting down and not washing his hands, and so he rebukes them. And he starts with the Pharisees. He says to them, you clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but inside of you, you are full of robbery and wickedness. You foolish ones, did you not know who made the outside made the inside also? Now,

If you're going to eat out of a dish, just think really practically, really simply. Think, I'm teaching my kids to wash dishes. What is the most important part for them to clean? Inside. If they gave you a cup that they've been out making mud pies with, they cleaned the outside of it really nice. They dried it up for you. Looks nice on the outside. And they say, here you go. Would you be satisfied? You'd say, you've done. Nothing. In fact, what you've done is you've misled me. You've lied to me. Because you handed me something that looked clean, but it was the very definition of filth. Because the inside was a mess. The Pharisees were concerned with honoring God. That's what we read in Mark. This people honors me with their lips. They want to honor God, but their heart is far from me. They have this custom, this thing, that God didn't require. And they say, this has to be done.

So they were inconsistent in their desire to honor God. They cleaned the outside of the cup only, not the inside. Now, if you're talking about inside and outside, think of your bodies for a moment. Think of your person, your being. You have an inside and you have an outside, okay? Where is sin rooted? Does sin have to do with your body? Yes, it does, right? But does sin only reach as far as your body, what you do with your body? No. Sin has to do with what's inside of you. It's not what a man eats. It's not what goes into his mouth that defiles him. It's what comes out. And out of the heart, a man speaks. The thing that defiles us, the thing that is sinful, that's abhorrent to God, the thing Jesus had to die for was what's inside of us. And yet, what do we want to spend our time focusing on? You want to focus on what you do. You want to focus on what you look like.

You want to focus on what people think of you. You want to focus on the outside of the cup. That's not what God focuses on. Here, Jesus says, you guys are hypocrites because you focus on that. Because what you're concerned about is your appearance and not the substance. You're concerned about your body, but you're not concerned about your soul. If we're to find the truth about us, the truth about someone, we don't look at the outside. Looks can be deceiving, right? Beauty is only skin deep. Even the world knows. At some level, they know this reality. They know that what you see is not all there is to see. If you're to know something, if you're to know it, you have to know it from the inside out. If you clean the inside, the outside will be clean. And so if all we ever do is address our behavior, what we do with our body, we're hypocrites. We have to look inside of ourselves if we're to root out our hypocrisy. Another aspect of the Pharisees' hypocrisy, this wasn't it. This was just the beginning. Jesus goes on and on and on talking to them.

rebuking them. He begins by talking about a cup. And then he talks about the way they tithe, the way they give to God, the way they serve God. You guys tithe your mint and your rue and every kind of garden herb. Are they supposed to do that? Yeah. You see, we're moving from something they've decided to do, ceremonial hand washing, which God doesn't require, and now we're moving into something that they're supposed to do. They were hypocrites over here. Now we're moving into something that God does tell them to do, and they're still hypocrites. Why are they still hypocrites? Because they've taken a command of God and neglected a different command of God. He says, you tithe your mint and your rue and every other kind of garden herb, but you neglect, you disregard justice and the love of God. You've got your priorities all screwed up.

Does that mean, is it either or? Is it like, well, are you saying they're not supposed to tithe? No, I'm not saying they're not supposed to tithe. What I'm saying is if they give themselves to justice and the love of God, they will tithe. That'll be an outworking of it. The problem is when you take that and you move it up to the front and you go, this is what we pay attention to. This is what we care about. This is what is important to the neglect of justice and the love of God. I want to read you that whole passage from Mark. Mark 7, Jesus says, He was also saying to them, For Moses said, honor your father and your mother.

And he who speaks evil of father or mother is to be put to death. But you say, if a man says to his father or his mother, whatever I have that would be of help to you is Corban, that is to say, given to God, you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition, which you have handed down. And you do many such things as that. So what is their hypocrisy? What is he describing there in Mark? He's saying you neglect the word of God for the traditions of men. Now what is it that they're neglecting? They're neglecting caring for their parents. Because everything they have that would be of use to their parents, for their support, they don't have access to. It's Corban. It's given to God. You can't have it. You'll have to go hungry. You'll have to go without the things that you need because those things are for God. Would caring for their parents not be done in service to God?

Could they not provide for their own family, their own flesh and blood, as an act of worship, as an act of service to the God who made them? Absolutely they could. But what they've done is they've displaced the greater responsibility of loving their parents and honoring them. And for that, Jesus calls them hypocrites. So in a couple of ways, Jesus goes through with the Pharisees and he says, you guys' priorities are all out of whack. You've got things all turned upside down and all screwed up. And we have to ask, why? Why did they do that? How'd they get to where they're at? What motivated them? Because they didn't just act for the sake of acting. There's something behind. There's something that motivates. There's something that attracts. When we make decisions, it's because we want something or we're avoiding something. It's not just, well, I just did it because I did it. And I'm happy to do something completely different if you ask me to. Why were their priorities the way they were? The reason is because they loved being honored for their supposed piety.

godliness. They liked the attention and the honor that they received. And so they created an environment where they could get more of it. More praise, more honor, more, oh wow, look at those guys. Who were they stealing glory from? They were stealing glory from God. Their place as teachers of God's word at that time was to bring the people to a greater knowledge and obedience and love of God. That is not what they were doing. They were stealing that stuff away. You need to have a greater knowledge of what we require of you. Wash your hands before dinner. You need to have a greater honor for us because look what they do. They've elevated themselves and in so doing they've led God's people astray. They taught them that these things, this hand washing, were really the things that were most important.

They prioritized them because they were the easy things to do, but they're also easy to condemn others of not doing. Their hypocrisy is a system that was set up to build themselves up. That's what hypocrisy does. That's the end. It's to make yourself great and at the same time to tear other people down. Build yourself up, tear other people down. That's what hypocrites want. That's what they do. That's their goal. They want to be honored for keeping the standard and they want to beat the other one down for not keeping it. So Jesus is after the Pharisees, and he's telling them what kind of hypocrites they are. And then this lawyer speaks up, and he says, Teacher, when you say that, you insult us too. Now, could you imagine doing that just for a second? If you were sitting there in this room, and Jesus was saying these things to the Pharisees, could you imagine speaking up and saying, You're insulting me, Jesus. It's hard to understand. Culturally, the Jews are very different than Americans.

we just couldn't stomach the idea of speaking up and saying, hey, you're being a jerk in real time to people. We might go home and tell our spouse, they were really a jerk tonight. I can't believe what they said in front of all those people. But it's not in our, most of us, it's not in our nature to speak up in the moment and go, excuse me, you're being a jerk. Stop it. That's essentially what they say to Jesus. You insult us too? Don't you know that we're offended by what you're saying? What should the lawyer have done? The lawyer should have kept his mouth shut and he should have learned. He didn't learn from Jesus not washing his hands. Now, he didn't learn from Jesus rebuking the Pharisees. What did he think was going to happen? A fool thinks that they can speak up in this sort of context and not get themselves right into the crosshairs of what's wrong. By saying what he said, he has aligned himself with the Pharisees. Jesus,

You're insulting them and us too. We are together. And what fool thinks that, you know, if you had a child who'd done something wrong, and you were dealing with the child for having done something wrong, and then their sibling comes up and says, you know, dad, I did that too. Even a kid, even a young child knows how idiotic that it would be. Because what's going to happen? You did? come here. But the lawyer doesn't. He doesn't know. They're so accustomed to being in positions of power and of influence that they don't even know that they're being hypocrites. They don't have ears to hear it. We're sitting here looking and going, that's the last thing in the world I would do. I would never, if I was in a room with Jesus and he was rebuking somebody, I would never, you couldn't convince me to say, I did it too. You would learn, you'd go, oh.

I should never do that again. I hope he never finds out that I did that. I'm going to work really hard not to do it again. But not the lawyer. Not the hypocrite. The hypocrite feels that they can tell you when you've offended them. You insult us too. Proverbs 12, 15 says, The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man is he who listens to counsel. It's a lawyer. I mean, are lawyers smart? Lawyers are smart, right? Apparently not. Can I say that? Can I say some lawyers are dumb? Some lawyers today currently are wicked men. They're foolish. They're hypocrites. It's still true today. Are we not allowed to say that? Do we have to honor lawyers because they went and got a lawyer degree? No, we need to say... Here's the thing. You want me to make you uncomfortable? I'll make you uncomfortable. We learn something about lawyers here that's not favorable for them. We learn that lawyers are hypocrites.

That they have a special sort of propensity to hypocrisy. They're extra special good at it. That's what it means to be a lawyer. So if one of you wanted to go to law school and I'm your pastor, what should I say to you if I love you and I care for you? I would warn you against hypocrisy because it comes with the territory. Why? Aren't you curious? Why? Why? If I'm to accept what you're saying, you're going to have to tell me why lawyers are especially tempted towards hypocrisy. I can tell you. Because they study the law. That's why they're hypocrites. They're very good at saying, you broke the law. And they're also very good at twisting the law to where they never break it. They know the loopholes. Why? Because they study the law. That's why they're tempted towards hypocrisy. Because they know all the ins and the outs. And they could condemn, you know, Mr. Smith, you broke the law for this, and turn around and defend Mr. Jones for doing the exact same thing.

well you broke the law because and then in a different way a different slant different light well you didn't break the law because it's different isn't this what lawyers do can can we can we say it if you know lawyers you should know this is something that's true about they're very smart they like to argue they're usually aggressive at least trial lawyers you know the guys who actually get a kick out of it i know a couple of lawyers and they're intense lawyers are hypocrites They're misleading the people of God. They're using their profession as a tool to oppress the people. They don't keep the law. You have other professions where it would just seem crazy to us that they would not do what they're supposed to. Think for a second about police officers. What's their job? It's to protect people, to uphold justice, to be honorable.

men of justice. Now, is that universally true of police officers? No. Is it true of some of them? Yes. But what do you have to say to a police officer? You have to say, which kind of man are you going to be? Are you going to be the kind of man who always is condemning other people, all the while you go, as soon as they're not there, and you do exactly what they were doing. And somehow it's okay for you. It's what lawyers do. It's what the lawyers do here. Jesus says to them, you weigh men down with burdens. Which they're not able to bear. You got to do this. You got to do that. You got to wash your hands. You got to do it like, you know. Have you ever gone into like a NICU or an ICU and they make you wash your hands? It's important. But I've done it where they stand there and they watch you. And they have a clock. And you have to wash, you have to scrub. And they give you a bottle of soap and you have to use the whole thing. And you stand there and you scrub up to your elbows. You scrub and you scrub until your skin's raw. In the water.

Scrub, scrub, scrub. Wash, wash, wash. Scrub, scrub, scrub. Wash, wash, wash. Because you can't go in if you don't do it. Now in that context, I think you should wash your hands well. Because you're going into an environment where that's important. But my point is saying that hypocrites make a point of giving you things to bear that you can't bear. You can't do it. And it's not, listen to me, it's not because the thing they tell you to do is so big. It's because it's so small and there's so many of them. You can't possibly keep it all together. You can't possibly do it all right because there's just too much. So you break the law. You didn't even know you broke the law. But there's the lawyer to say, you broke the law. This is what the lawyers are doing. This is what hand washing is. This is what the ceremonial hand wash... Oh, you didn't wash your hands. What's wrong with you? And yet at the same time, the lawyer's reputations grow.

Because it's their job to interpret the law. And if it's their job to interpret the law, it's only natural that we would assume that they keep the law. That they do all of the stuff that they tell everyone else to do. But they don't because they know how to get out of it. Jesus goes on and he tells them, he says, this isn't anything new with you. You guys, you're carrying on your father's baton. Your father's killed the prophets and here you are building their tombs. You're complicit in it. You're complicit in their hypocrisy, not just what they did, You're carrying it on. The final thing he says to them is that they withhold the key of knowledge. You've taken away the key of knowledge. You've taken away the word of God. You've taken away the wisdom of God. And you've replaced it with your own wisdom. Why? Because you didn't enter in. They rejected the word of God. And so what did they do? They hid it away from others. They did harm to other people because of their rebellion.

They refuse the gospel. So Jesus rebukes them all fairly intensely. And they, I mean, what would you do if Jesus said that to you? I would want to crawl under the table. That's what I'd want to do. Anything, get me out. Uncle, I quit. I'm sorry. Please stop. What do they do? They begin to plot against him. They're unwavering in their commitment to their hypocrisy. They won't be broken. They won't be shaken when they should be. They're committed to their own way of doing things, their own way of thinking about things. They can't be reasoned with. They can't be taught. They can't be rebuked. Not to the end that they repent. This is the nature of hypocrisy. It is corrupting. It makes you incapable of growing in godliness, of seeing your sin.

It demands that you spend your whole life justifying your actions. And never being able to say, as we were able to say at the beginning of the service, I sinned. I didn't do what I was supposed to do. And I didn't do it in ignorance. I didn't do it because I had no other choice. I did it because I wanted to do it. And it was wicked of me to want to do it. And there's no excuse for it. A hypocrite can never say that. They can never admit they're wrong. They can't be persuaded by reason. They can't be persuaded by logic. They can't be persuaded by patience or love. They're incorrigible. You can't change their minds. They are blindly committed to their priority. And their commitment as a central part of it is that they will accuse you constantly.

of having done wrong. Why? Because they're offended. That's why. That's why. If you offend someone, it goes without saying that if someone is offended by what you said, you did something wrong. And you have to make it right. And if what you said was true, you now have to lie. Because they're mad. But that's not what we see Jesus doing here. They were offended. They were upset. He knew ahead of time they were going to be upset. He knew they were going to kill him eventually. And it didn't stop him from speaking the truth, saying, here's how it is. So what's the application? Well, big picture, here's the application. Just because someone gets offended at you doesn't mean that you've absolutely done something wrong. Sometimes when people are offended at you, they're rightfully offended at you because you did do something wrong. But that's not always the case. And you'd be wise to realize that. That we live in a culture that's that jokes about being triggered, about getting offended. You can't say that. I can't? Why can't I? Why can't I say that? Is it offensive? Here's an example. Is it offensive to say, you throw like a girl? You all laugh. Is it offensive? Will people be offended if you say it? Yes, they will. Very offended. Very offended. Why? Because you're demeaning women.

By saying that. That's why. You're demeaning them. You're saying that they're not as strong as you. That they're not as coordinated as you. That they're not as athletic as you. That they're your inferior. So you can't say it. And you're hard pressed to find any way of saying. Generally. Generally. Girls don't throw as hard or as fast or as well. As men. Generally. And it's not. meant to be offensive. It's a statement of fact. Now, what if you said to a girl, you throw like a boy? Is that offensive? No. No one would be offended if you told a girl, you throw like a boy. Because that's a compliment. Because boys are better than girls, don't you know? God didn't say that, though. God never said that boys were better than girls. And you need to realize that you live in a culture that says men are better than women. And what they do is accuse you of being the proponents of it.

And so you can't acknowledge the obvious truth of how God's made the world, that men and women are different. And in his word, he does not give special preference to men because they're better. What he does is give different responsibilities to men and to women. And neither one of those responsibilities, sets of responsibilities, is subservient or less valuable or less necessary than the other. But we're not allowed to say it. We can't acknowledge it. Because people will be offended if I say it. I bring this up because I said this, a thing very similar to this a couple of weeks ago, and I had someone say to me, I'm offended by what you just said. And I just kind of went, okay, it's true. I'm sorry you're offended, but I didn't say anything. Because I didn't know, it was so, you hear these things. I tell you, people say this sort of stuff, and it's like, really, pastor?

And yes, really, really, really, really, they do say it. But I hadn't seen it and touched it and felt it firsthand until then. And it was like, should I tell you you hit like a man? Would that be offensive? It's the same statement, it's just switched. Is it offensive if you say, that man is a terrible husband and father because he left his wife and children? Is that offensive to you? Is it offensive if I say that woman is a wicked, terrible woman because she left her husband and her children? That's offensive if you say that. So what if that's the truth? Then it needs to be said. It needs to be said in love. But love does not mean never causing offense. Because here we see in our text, Jesus is speaking the truth to them because he loves them. And it's offensive to them. And he didn't sin when he said it. He didn't sin when he said it.

And so we have to learn that as Christians in our culture and in our society, just because you said something or did something and someone got offended, that does not immediately make you wrong. It does not necessarily mean you sinned. Jesus didn't do anything wrong when he refused to wash his hands. Nor did he do anything wrong when he persisted in not bowing to their pressure. He didn't say, oh, well, you guys shouldn't, that's so dumb the way you wash your hands, and really it's dishonoring to God, but now that I've said that, where do you want me to wash my hands? I wouldn't want you to be offended. He reclined at the table and spoke these things, and we have no indication that he ever acquiesced to their desires. And the reason is because God defines what is sin, not us. That's why. You ever feel like you did something that's sinful?

I did when I said that. I felt like I'd sinned by saying I hit like a girl. I actually said it about myself. I wasn't talking about them. I was talking about myself. I said, Dave, you hit that like a girl. And someone said, I'm offended that you said that. And it felt wrong to say it. I had this thing inside of me that said, you shouldn't have said that. That was wrong for you to say. And then I'm going, but did I sin? Was it sinful? Well, it could be sinful. It could actually be said in a way that is demeaning to women. That is not how I meant it. At all. And anyone who was around would have known that. Except the person who was offended. And what I was accused of was sinning. It was inappropriate for me to say this thing. What I want to say to you is just because something feels wrong to you, doesn't make it wrong. Doesn't make it sinful. We don't get to define, our culture doesn't get to define what's right and what's wrong. What's righteous and what's wicked. What's good and what's evil. God's word.

And his Holy Spirit do that work. Not us. And so when what God says is sinful and what our culture says is sinful come into conflict, there can't be any question about your allegiance. Because if there's a question about your allegiance and if you're trying, I think I can thread the needle, I'll tell you where you'll end up. You will end up capitulating to the world every time. That's what you'll do. Defining sin and righteousness is the primary... It's the context of our passage. The Pharisees say, you sinned. You didn't wash your hands. He says, no, I didn't. Here's how you sin. Here's the real sin here. It's not that I didn't wash my hands. It's that you guys are full of hypocrisy. Full of it. And that's what we deal with in our day. The last thing I'll tell you is that it's not your obligation as a Christian to appease everybody. It is your obligation to love them. And to love them as God

defines love. Not as you define it, not as they define it, as he defines it. That's your obligation. And when people say, that's not loving, you say, no, it's not accommodating of your sin. What you're doing is wicked and it's wrong. And God who made you knows who you are and knows what you're like and has made provision for it. You think, well, if I say that, they're going to make fun of me and they're going to reject it and it's going to be bad. And I say, well, what are you going to do instead? You're going to follow them? You're going to let them be your tutor, them be your teacher, them instruct you in the ways of righteousness? Those who teach as doctrines the precepts of man? You can't do that. We're to honor God. We're to honor his word. We're to love him. And flowing out of that, we're to love our neighbors. And we're to speak God's truth to them. The sweetest thing in my life when I became a Christian was when someone finally told me I was a sinner.

And didn't feel bad for me because I didn't have a dad. And didn't feel bad for me because I didn't already know everything that they had taught me. It was so sweet to finally have someone say, you are wrong. And what you do is wicked. And you don't have to keep doing it. That was liberating. That was freedom. That was a happy day. And that's our place in this world. Is to speak God's truth into a dark fallen place. To expose the hypocrisy. Not to support it. We could go on and on and on. I've got to be done. We could talk about the hypocrisy of our world forever. If you want to talk to me further, I'm happy to talk about it. But it's our place to expose it. And you don't have to look far at all to find it. Let's pray. Father, would you open our eyes to see as you see. To see this world as you see it. To see where it doesn't and we don't. Keep your word.

Don't honor you as your children, as your creation. Help us, Father, to love you and to love our neighbors. Father, I pray that you'd keep us from being heavy-handed or proud. Jesus was humble, Father. When you sent him here, you sent him as a baby. And he maintained this humility on through his death. And I pray that we would be humble as he is humble in our speaking of truth. And I pray, Father, that you would Show us repentance, that we would see your spirit at work in our lives and in the lives of those that we interact with. Father, would you help us to love you and to fear you, not this world. And we pray, Father, that you would bless us with fruit, good fruit, multiplication of your kingdom. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.