God Knows Your Hearts

So this week we are going to be picking up where we left off last week in Luke. And last week what I did was cut the text short. I read the teaching, the story that Jesus told, but we stopped short of reading the response to it because there was too much. And so this week we're going to read the whole text again that we read last week, plus a few more verses, which is the response. or the conclusion of it. And we're going to be focusing on this last part. And so I'll make some quick summary statements about what the teaching was, what the story was, and the consequence of it at the beginning. But it was a difficult passage to understand. And so if you weren't here last week, this sermon will probably make more sense if you listen to last week's sermon. And so you can go to our website and you can listen to it. It doesn't mean that it won't make any sense today.

There were a lot of moving parts in last week's sermon, and it's important that we understand what Jesus was teaching last week because we're dealing this week with the response of the Pharisees and how Jesus deals with the Pharisees. And so their response has a context. Would you stand now for the reading of God's word? From Luke chapter 16, we're going to be reading verses 1 through 15. This is the word of the Lord, and it is eternally true. Now, he was also saying to the disciples, there was a rich man who had a manager. And this manager was reported to him as squandering his possessions. And he called him and said to him, What is this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager. The manager said to himself, What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig. I am ashamed to beg. I know what I will do, so that when I am removed from the management, people will welcome me into their homes.

And he summoned each one of his master's debtors and he began saying to the first, how much do you owe my master? And he said, a hundred measures of oil. And he said to him, take your bill and sit down quickly and write 50. Then he said to another, how much do you owe? And he said, a hundred measures of wheat. And he said to him, take your bill and write 80. And his master praised the unrighteous manager because he acted shrewdly. For the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light. And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings. He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much, and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. Therefore, if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you? And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own?

No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things and were scoffing at him. And he said to them, You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts. For that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. So all but the last two verses we addressed last week, ending with, you cannot serve God in wealth. And so what was going on? Well, a rich man had a manager and his manager was unfaithful. And his manager was stealing from him. And when it was reported to the master that the manager was stealing from him, he calls the manager in to fire him. But before the manager comes in to be fired, he goes to his master's debtors, forgives a...

a large portion of their debt, and then goes to be fired. And as he's fired, the master praises him for acting shrewdly. And it seems contrary to what should happen, that he would be praised for stealing and for trying to bankrupt his master. And then Jesus comes along, continues on, and he says, basically, we're to be like that unrighteous manager. Not in stealing and in... misleading and dealing falsely. But the thing that that man understood, that the sons of this age understood, was that they needed to be provided for when that job was over. And there's a correlation between that man's job and our life. There's something that comes after this life that we need to prepare for. And in the same way that that unrighteous manager prepared during his tenure as a manager, for the time afterwards, we ought to, in this life, prepare just as shrewdly for the life to come. And at the end, we're told that if you're not faithful with little things, meaning this life, you will not be faithful with big things, meaning the life to come. And the text was concluded by Jesus saying, you cannot love God. You cannot serve God in wealth. You have to have one or the other. You will have one or the other. You cannot have both.

You can't love them both equally. And then Luke comes in in chapter 14. Can you go back to 14, Zach? Thank you. And so verse 14 is Luke, the author of this gospel, his interjection. He explains something about the Pharisees. And then verse 15 is Jesus addressing the Pharisees directly. And so we'll start with Luke's interjection. Now the Pharisees were lovers of money. We're listening to all these things and they were scoffing at him. So we learn three things about these Pharisees who were listening to him. The first is that they listened to Jesus. And this was their habit. They regularly were around listening to Jesus. And you have to ask, why did they listen to Jesus if they had no interest in doing what he said? Well, they listened to him because they were trying to catch him in something that he might say. They were trying to get rid of him. They were looking to make an accusation against him. And so they listened to him closely, but they did not listen with the intention of believing what he said. Now, it's interesting that it says that they listened to him.

Well, the reason it's interesting is because there's a difference between listening and hearing. When the crowds are described, they go out and they hear. They wanted to hear what Jesus had to say. But the Pharisees just listened. And it may seem like a small thing. And in the grand scheme of things, it is fairly small, the difference between listening and hearing. And yet there's some benefit to us realizing this difference. So what is the difference between listening and hearing? Well, the one who hears has the intention and the purpose to understand. or to follow what's being said. You ever talk to somebody and it's very clear they're not hearing what you're saying? They're looking at you, and you know they can hear your voice, but they just are not paying attention. They don't have an interest in what you're saying. They are listening, however, and if you ask them later, to varying degrees, they could tell you what you said, but they didn't hear what you said because they didn't intend to do what you said.

And this is often quite obvious. You can tell the difference. You can see it in other people. You can see it in yourself. You know when someone's talking to you and you don't want to hear what they have to say. And this look just comes over your face like, are you done yet? And it comes right through your fake smile. Are you done yet? Because I could care less what you have to say. And you're listening. Listening is passive. It doesn't have the same intention. The crowds went out to hear Jesus. The Pharisees came out to listen to him. We must hear what Jesus has to say, not simply listen. There are many, many people who have heard what Jesus has, or they've listened, they're aware of what Jesus has said, but they haven't done what Jesus said. And the fact that they've listened to it is of no benefit to them. And so the Pharisees go out to listen. And what do they do?

They don't have an interest in doing what Jesus says. And so what they end up doing is scoffing. Now, why did they scoff? Well, because they can't refute what he's saying. They can't make a reasonable argument against what Jesus is proclaiming, what he's saying, the truthfulness of it, even though that's what they're there for. They're there to try to catch him in something he would say, but what he says is above reproach. They can't say, you're wrong. Even when he's arrested and he comes before the Sanhedrin, they lie about what he said. And it's pathetic what happens because all of these liars that they've had to come in and to tell lies about Jesus, they can't get their lies straight. They can't accuse him of having said something that's worthy of death. And so they just go on over the top and say, kill him anyway. And yet at this point in Jesus' life, they weren't to the point of just openly and viciously just putting him to death. And they couldn't oppose him publicly because if they opposed him publicly,

the people were going to be in play. And the Pharisees, for everything that they are, they're not dumb. And they know that if they oppose Jesus to his face publicly and they try to argue with him, all of the people who are watching are going to witness what happens. And if they know they don't have a leg to stand on, they know they're going to lose their influence. And so they don't oppose him publicly here. They scoff instead. Now, what is scoffing? What is scoffing? Is it silent disagreement? No, it's not. I think it's a difficult thing for Americans to understand because it would seem so inappropriate for us to vocally, publicly oppose what someone is saying or to distract from what they are saying. We have it in our minds that you just don't talk while other people are talking. It's just rude. We're easily distracted.

Babies make noise in the worship service, and we go, oh, that baby's so noisy. And if you had ever been in a synagogue or you've ever been to a gathering of people who are not Americans, the noise level is so much higher. There's so much more going on. There's so much more competition. But in America, we don't understand it. And so if someone's saying something that we don't like, the idea of laughing because you think they're an idiot, it's just not something we would do. And the Pharisees are scoffing. They're providing a vocal opposition. They're trying to distract and to turn the people away from what Jesus is saying. And so, as a Christian, have you ever been in a situation where you've said something or you've been thought to believe something and someone looks at you and goes, you don't seriously believe that, do you? That's scoffing. That's what they're doing. And what is your response?

What is your temptation? Your temptation is like, if I say yes, you're all going to think I'm what he thinks I am. And the whole purpose of them saying that to you is to call into question your integrity and the truthfulness of what you're saying or what you believe. And they can do it in a way that's very opposed and very vocal, or they can do it in ways that are very subtle. And all of that's based on how the crowds are going to respond and what they want from the crowd. Do they want to be seen as similar to you, but... but smarter, or do they just want to shame you into the ground and make you look like a complete idiot? Scoffing can take many forms. But in this account, we're not given the impression that the Pharisees' scoffing was this, I can't believe you just said that sort of scoffing. Who in the world do you think you are? And the reason they couldn't say that is because the people wouldn't have tolerated it. They would have said what he's saying is true. And so the Pharisees have to take this tack against Jesus that's,

that's contrary but not openly contrary to him. And so they're laughing at him. They're mocking. They're scoffing at him. They're snickering. You know when you're in a classroom and the teacher says something or does something and there's just this murmur in the class? That's scoffing. They're all making fun. They're all going, what did you see? Now the reason that we need to talk about them scoffing at Jesus is that Christians are going to be scoffed at. That's just part of it. You're going to face it in some way or another. You're going to have people think you're an idiot. You're stupid. You're simple. You're dumb. You're worse than that. And yet it's enough for us as disciples of Jesus Christ to become like him. He's our teacher. He's our older brother. And so if the world scoffed at him, if the Pharisees mocked him, we shouldn't have in our minds that we're going to live a life of faithfulness and never endure this sort of treatment.

Matthew Henry says about this text, he says, It is no disgrace to a man to be laughed at, but it is a disgrace to deserve to be laughed at. And so sometimes you'll be made fun of and you'll be mocked for righteousness' sake and there's no shame in it. None. There's nothing to be disgraced by. And yet sometimes people do things that are shameful and they deserve to be laughed at. Sometimes when people say things that are outlandish and just... Laughter is the right response. To just laugh at them for saying something that was so crazy and so foolish. So the Pharisees went out to listen to Jesus. They scoffed at him. And Luke tells us why they did this. Why did they do it? Why did the Pharisees scoff at Jesus? You remember what he's just said? Right before that. You can read it. Right up there at the end of verse 13. He says, you cannot serve God in wealth. And then Luke interjects. And he says, now the Pharisees.

who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things and were scoffing at him. And so we learn something about the Pharisees. We learn what motivates them. They love money. They love their status. They love their place in the culture and the world that they live in. And Jesus is a threat to it. Now, whenever you talk about people's motivations, there's always the question of whether or not they will agree with what has been said about them. And most of the time, people won't agree with what's said about them. So Luke says of the Pharisees, they love money. And all he's doing is taking what Jesus has just said and applying it to them. He says the unrighteous manager did not love money. He cared more about provision after his job was over, and he saw to it that he was provided for. And Jesus says we should be like him. And one of the biggest hindrances to that is the love of money. And then Luke comes right in after this as he's writing his gospel.

And he says, the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening and they were scoffing at him. Now, would the Pharisees have agreed that they were lovers of money? Would any of you be willing to say, I'm a lover of money? Some of you might. But do you think that it would be a fair representation of who actually loves money in here? Do you think every one of us that does love money would be willing to say we love money? Some of us would scoff at it, just like the Pharisees, that it would even be said, such a thing would be said of us. And some of us would agree and say, yep. And then some of us would be in the middle saying, I don't think I love money. I try not to love money. I'm not sure if I do. Why do you think I love money? And there would be all these varied responses. But most of the time, when someone accuses us of sin or sinful motivations,

We don't take it well. Does it make it any less true? Are the Pharisees any less lovers of money if they were to say, no, I'm not? No, they're not. Was Luke's comment appropriate? Is it appropriate that when something is obvious to point it out? It seems uncharitable. It seems inflammatory to say what he said. I can tell you that in my life, when people have taken that sort of tack with me and said, you know what your problem is, Dave? No, please tell me. And when they do, the one thing I know is I'm not going to agree with them. I'm going to have some excuse or defense or some reason why they don't understand. But Luke says the Pharisees who were lovers of money were listening to all these things and were scoffing at Jesus. He assigns motives to their behavior. He applies what Jesus says to them. You have to wonder why did Luke say this?

I mean, why does he say it? Because he interjects this in the middle of what Jesus is saying. He takes a break from what Jesus is saying, and he says, now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening and were scoffing at him. And then the next verse, we come right back to what Jesus says about the Pharisees. And so Luke, when he says that they're lovers of money, he's providing context for what Jesus is about to say. Next. He says they love money. Now what is the love of money? Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 6 that the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil. And some, some people, by longing for it, have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. And so we have to ask ourselves, if the Pharisees are lovers of money, what does loving money look like? What does loving money look like? And each one of us could come up with what we think it looks like. And there would be a lot of different responses.

If it was simple, plain old, flat out love of money, it would be people who steal and who hoard and who keep for themselves and are greedy and stingy and they don't care or give to anybody except themselves. And they take advantage of other people for their own gain. That's probably the most obvious, clearest, bad example of what it means to love money. But is that all that loving money is? Think of the Pharisees and consider whether they... served God or wealth? Which did they serve? Which was their priority? It's clearly wealth. It's clearly wealth, or Luke is crazy for what he's saying. Because Jesus says you cannot serve God and wealth, and Luke immediately says the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, hated what Jesus had to say, basically, and were vocal and outward and public in their hatred for what he had to say.

And Luke says the reason they didn't like it is because they love money. Jesus drew a clear line in the sand and Luke said they're on this side of it because you can see how they're behaving. And then we come back in verse 15 to what Jesus says. He said to them, and the Pharisees are them, you are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men. But God knows your hearts. For that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God. So think for a minute with me about what justifying yourself in the sight of men actually looks like. When does it happen? What does it look like? Well, in its most basic understanding, it means to explain yourself to someone who's suspicious or has concerns about something you're doing. When do kids give, when do they justify themselves? Well, when mom or dad calls them over and says, what's going on? Why is he crying? How'd this get broken? Where's that at? And then comes the justification.

There's been some question or some suspicion of their involvement in something that they shouldn't have done. And so then comes the justification. Now, that's an example of reactive justification. You've been caught. You've been questioned. And so you give an example. Now, it happens sometimes in my house anyway that I'll have a child come to me. And I won't have a clue that anything bad has happened. They've been outside playing or I wasn't at home. As soon as I come on the scene, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, I didn't do it. You didn't do what, son? That thing, you know, that's not what he said. That's not what happened. This is the first I'm hearing about what's happened. This is proactive justification.

We don't even have a suspicion yet because I haven't learned what's happened, but my son's coming to me and saying, I didn't do it. I didn't do it. And so justification can either be proactive. I'm going to come to you before the bad guy gets to you, and I'm going to tell you how it wasn't my fault and how what he's going to say about me is a lie. And other times it will be the other way around, where I call him in and say, you're going to have to explain something to me, what happened here. But either way, whether it's proactive or reactive, the purpose of justifying yourself is to settle some sort of dispute or conflict. You should also note that there has to be some sort of conflict for there to be justification. Something has to be at least suspected of having gone wrong. People don't just walk around explaining their motivations and their actions to anyone and everyone. We generally explain ourselves.

or justify ourselves when someone's suspicious or curious of what we're doing or why we're doing it. And so we can reasonably understand that the Pharisees endured some level of suspicion and that the way that they dealt with this suspicion was to justify themselves. Some people were wondering about their behavior, wondering about their conduct, questioning, especially since Jesus has come on the scene. And so they've justified themselves in the sight of men. They've worked to maintain their position, their respect, their honor. In Matthew 23, we read that they loved the seats of honor at the banquets. And they loved to be called rabbi. And they loved to make long prayers. And they loved to be esteemed in the sight of men. Well, that takes maintenance. I remember when Vanessa was still at IU.

And we're still in school. I remember going to this. She was a musician. And I remember going to this class with you. And I don't remember what it was. If you were helping teach or what you were doing. But we went to this class down in the basement of the Mac. And there was this teacher who was teaching all these freshman string players, I'm pretty sure. And he was a proud man. And I never met him before. But I know he was a proud man. Because at one point, one of the musicians, messed up and he corrected like what they did. And that was good. And then he said to everyone, I never make mistakes. I have never made a mistake. And they're all sitting there just going, you're amazing. I want to be like you. And I'm sitting in the corner with this scowl on my face. Like who in the world do you think you are? And he looked at, he saw me and immediately, I never said a word and I never met him. I don't know his name.

I was trying to remember yesterday. He was a guest conductor. There you go. And I just could not believe the nerve of that man to just lie to all these kids. And you know what? They all believed it. And he saw what I said, and he shot back the nastiest look at me for me looking at him like, how can you say that? Because he knows it's not true. He knows he just lied. And he went on talking to the students. Justifying himself. Justifying what he said. He was talking to me, but he was talking to them. He was talking about how wonderful he is and how great he's been and all these things he's done. And he was justifying himself. He was maintaining his reputation in their eyes and trying to establish it in my eyes. And it didn't work. At least not with me. And so justifying ourselves, explaining ourselves in the sight of men to maintain our reputation, to maintain our place, is very common to us.

So is explaining yourself wrong, if someone has a question about something you've done, is giving an answer inappropriate? Is that what I'm saying? No. Not in every situation. Though if you're like me, you have an inappropriate interest in justifying yourself. You care too much about what people think of you. And you can't sleep at night if you're worried about it. And what I've come to experience and to believe and to know that's true is that over time, the truth will be made clear. And you can spend a whole bunch of time talking about yourself, justifying yourself, and explaining your reasoning and your rationale. But if what you say is true, it will become obvious over time. What I say to Vanessa and to the kids is I say the truth will out. The truth always outs. Liars are always caught. They may not be caught in this lie. They may not be caught next week. But the truth will always come out. And if you're on the side of...

Righteousness. You don't have to waste your time justifying yourself in the sight of men. You just don't have to do it. You remember when Jesus stood before Pilate, he was silent. Are these things that they say about you true? He was silent. And you think that if anyone had a place to stand and to say, no, they're not. Let me tell you about the people who are accusing me. Jesus was the one to do it, and yet he, like a lamb before the slaughter, was silent. And when Pilate gets angry at his silence and his unwillingness to justify himself, do you not know that I have the authority to kill you or to set you free? Then Jesus has something to say to him. And what does he say to him? You'd have no authority to do any of those things unless it was given to you from above. Even when he spoke, it wasn't in justification of himself. And you contrast that with the Pharisees who justify themselves in the sight of men. I'm not saying you should never give an explanation for what you...

what you do or why you do it, right? Don't answer a fool according to his folly lest you become like him. And then what's the next verse say in Proverbs? Answer a fool lest he become wise in his own eyes. And so it takes wisdom to know when you should answer and how you should answer and how thorough your answer should be and what tone it should have or whether there should be no answer at all. It takes wisdom. But here we see the Pharisees are the type who justify themselves and it's wicked of them. And so it would follow that if someone's justifying themselves and it's inappropriate, what should it produce in the eyes of the people who are looking on? What should the crowds think of the Pharisees who justify themselves? Say that again. You would think that the crowd would see through it, right? That they would see things for how they are. That they would see that the Pharisees simply love money and their position and that they chase people across heaven and earth to make one convert.

You would think that the people would be able to see that, but they don't. You justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts. For that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God. Now you have to ask, how is it that things become highly esteemed among men? How did the Pharisees become highly esteemed among men? It was through their justification. It was through the explanations that they made. The people believed it. The people wanted to believe it. They expected to believe it. They were their spiritual leaders. They expected them. To be upright, to be honest, to be hardworking, to be faithful, to fear God, to lead them in the paths of salvation. They expected that of their people. And so when the people said, that's all I'm doing, they believed them. And so their justification produced respect and esteem. It wasn't obvious because the people wanted or they expected it to be true that these Pharisees would be good men, faithful men, instead of hypocrites. Now it would be easy at this point to find fault with the crowds.

Why didn't they know better? Why couldn't they see through it? But Jesus, instead of finding fault with the crowds, takes up those who are misleading them. Comes to the leaders, comes to the Pharisees and directs them. And what he says to them is, you know that you're wicked. And you know that the things that you're doing are wicked. And the fact that these people have believed your lies is of no benefit to you because God knows your heart. And you might live your whole life with the whole world thinking that you're wonderful. And the very things that have elevated your position in the eyes of men are the very things that are an abomination to God. That which is high esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God. God knew their hearts. He knew the things they were doing. He knew why they were doing the things they were doing. And yet the people were misled. And this is because men, we look on the outward appearance. We look at what we can see. But God doesn't fool by those things. He's not fooled by the smoke and mirrors of our...

of what we present. He knows our hearts. He knew their hearts. And even though they had fooled all the people around them, God was not fooled. He was not misled. He was not turned off of their true character. And so one of the things that is going on, it's this fairly normal interaction that's going on here, or common, I should say, where you've got people who disagree, and they're both saying things and doing things that... and there are people who are observing it, and those people are drawing conclusions. All this is, I mean, this happens at your dinner table every night. Every piece of news you read, you've got people saying, well, this is true, and someone saying, this is not true. This is why they did it. No, no, no, this is why they did it. And the truth is in there somewhere. Think of this for a second. If you had been there, and you had come out to hear what Jesus had to say, and you were following him, and there were other people there,

who were snickering and laughing and scoffing and mocking what Jesus had to say, how would you have responded? Now, we can all quickly say how we should respond. We can all say, that was inappropriate of them. And it's clear as day that what they were doing was wrong to us now. But if you were there in the moment, and the people that you loved and that you respected and that you had trusted were snickering at Jesus and denigrating what he was saying, How would you have responded? Who would you have believed? Another way of asking it is, are you different than the people who were listening? Would you have seen through all of the layers of confusion to what was really going on? And what I expect is that too many of us wouldn't have understood what was going on, wouldn't have understood the consequence, the significance of what was going on. The Pharisees scoffing at Jesus.

You think it's like, well, if they're trying to justify themselves in the sight of men, scoffing doesn't seem to be the way to do it. And yet it's an integral part of their justification. What the people always noted about Jesus was the way that he taught. You don't teach as the scribes and Pharisees do. You teach as one with what? Authority. Which says of the Pharisees, they don't teach that way. And that's why the people followed him. And what's often said of people who... Speak with authority. And even what was said of Jesus more than one time was, that's a hard saying and who can bear it? It seems unreasonable what you're saying. Sometimes they say, we can't believe what you just said. And sometimes they just leave. And so when the Pharisees come in and they scoff, what they're doing is presenting themselves as the more moderate, palatable, reasonable articulation of what Jesus is saying.

And which one of us wants to be cast in with the zealots and the intense people and the rigorous ones? Don't we all want to be reasonable, seen as reasonable? And so the people were being misled by the Pharisees scoffing. They were going, oh, well, maybe that is how we ought to. And so Jesus says of them, you justify yourselves in the sight of men. God knows your hearts. What's esteemed highly among men is detestable in the sight of God. Jesus makes it clear what's going on. What is he teaching the people? Well, he's teaching them to be discerning, to understand the game that's being played. So what's the application to us? Well, we need to be discerning in two ways. First, about what's going on in our own hearts. The temptation to justify yourself is constant. It's just constant. It's a part of our nature. None of us, you know, the nature that we were born with has no place in it.

For us being accused of wrongdoing and saying, you're right. That is an unnatural response. To admit wrong. To confess sin. To repent. These are unnatural things. And so we have to come to examine our own motives. If Jesus and Luke together say that the Pharisees are lovers of money and that it was the driving force behind them, we have to look to ourselves and say, what role does money Instead of saying, do I love money? The better question is, how do I love money? You should take it as a given that you are tempted to love money. And that having been tempted, you on more than a few occasions have given into it. And that you may well currently be living in it. And that you can't serve God and wealth at the same time. You should just assume of yourself from the beginning what Scripture says is true of us. And then we should come...

beyond that and say, okay, so I can either throw my hands up in the air in despair, like Judas, who killed himself. You have to ask, did Judas love money? Remember he went and they negotiated the price of his betrayal. How much is it worth to you? And yet when he's overcome with the reality of his sin, he throws his hands up in the air and he goes and he kills himself. And that's not how we ought to respond. That's not a faithful response. And so you don't have to be afraid of finding sin in yourself. Because to act like there's not sin is just to lie and to deceive yourself and to maintain your ignorance and your vulnerability to the schemes of Satan. You have to grow out of ignorance into understanding and discernment. And that starts with our own hearts. How do I love money? How do I present myself to other people? What do I just want to put on Facebook and Instagram and Snapchat? What do I never want to get on Facebook and Snapchat and Instagram? What do you present?

What do you want people to think of you? We have to be discerning about our own hearts. And I'll tell you that as you become discerning about your own hearts, your opinion of yourself will not go up. Your opinion of yourself will go down. And that's a good thing. It's good for us not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to, but to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. It's good for your estimation of yourself and of your own intellect and your reasoning and your rationale. It's good for you to be suspicious first of yourself and your own motives. Why did I do that? Why do I want that? Why is that so important to me? You should ask these questions of yourself. And then you should answer them honestly. Secondly, we have to be discerning about what goes on around us. There's two ways of processing what goes on around us. Because you have two things going on.

and everything that's happening, and you have the word of God. And we're to filter what goes on in life through the word of God. And in that process, we're to determine what's true and right and good and what's wicked and evil and detestable. Now, the temptation is to do it the other way and to take the world and to filter the word through it and go, What fits through without causing a ripple, a wave, a conflict? Well, that's the part we can hold on to. But the parts that get caught, something must be wrong. And so I'll end with an example, just a few minutes. You guys are all aware of this baby in the U.K. that's died this week. So how did he die? They took him off his vent, and he was killed.

Yeah, what David said is a better way of describing it. They withheld palliative care. And palliative care just means providing the basic necessities of life. You give water, you give food, you give comfort, and you help with breathing and those sorts of things. That's palliative care. It's not a cure. Providing those things does not heal people. When people are about to die at the end of their life and they go home to hospice care, you're familiar with hospice? What happens in hospice is palliative care. We're not trying to fix what's wrong with them anymore. They've been taken off of the machines and the medicines and that sort of stuff, and they go home to die. And yet all of their care is not removed from them. They're still provided with food in whatever manner they're able to take it and water until they die. And that's what was removed from that young man.

And it wasn't his parents' will for that to happen. Now, it's all over the news, and there's lots of voices on both sides arguing about what was going on and why. There's a big ruckus. Are you seeing this? So what's the truth? What actually is going on there? Why did what happened happen? Unless we understand that, we're ignorant, and we're going to be led around. And we're willing to believe whatever's said to us. And so the first thing you have to understand about this situation is that that boy was killed. He did not die. He was killed. And he's not the first one to have had this happen to them. A year ago, it was Charlie Gard. Some different particulars, but a similar type of situation. Back in the, I believe it was the early 2000s, late 90s, Terry Shivo down in Florida. You remember Terry Shivo?

She was killed. She was starved. In Bloomington in the late 80s or early 90s, Baby Doe, do you remember when that was, Taylor? Not that you were necessarily alive then. Do you know when it was, Daniel? I think it was the late 80s. There was a baby in a similar situation down in Bloomington, Indiana, just an hour south of here, that had the same thing done to them. They decided that this child's life was not worth living, that it didn't have value. And so they killed them. Now that's awful, right? You're all sitting here. If you could be where I'm at and watch the change in all of you as I started to talk about this, you'd understand. There's something that wells up inside of you and goes, that is wicked and it should never be done. But do you know why? Why shouldn't that be done? The reason that that should never be done is because that little child and every one of them is made in the image of God.

And as such, from the point of their conception, they are worthy of protection and care and love all the way through until they die of natural causes or old ages or however it is that the Lord takes them. And the danger to us is that when we see these sorts of things go on in our world, that we would be up in arms about them. And it seems strange that I'd say that's a danger to us, but it is a danger to us. And the reason it's a danger to us is because if we only care about this sort of stuff when it shows up in our Facebook feed, we've believed a lie. And the lie is that this only happens once in a while. But the rationale that took that little boy's life is the same rationale that takes over a million lives in our country every year through abortion. And it's the same rationale that increases people who are dying increases their morphine and kills them. Because no one blushes at the question of whether or not that life is worth living anymore. We feel okay to ask it. And we think, well, if I wouldn't want to live like that, I don't think you should live like that. And so should we be appalled at this sort of thing going on in our world? Yes, you absolutely should. But you should not be ignorant to the reality that this is a constant in our culture.

in our world. And it's not for your entertainment. Is there any defense given for Alfie Evans' life being taken? Yeah. There's plenty of reasons for doing this. So say the people who are doing it. They've determined his life's not worth living. His quality of life is too poor. There's no hope of him getting better. And what you have now, behind underneath all of it, is you have men Taking the place of God and determining who is allowed to live and who is allowed to die. And it's not our place to make those decisions. Now I want to push you a little further. I don't want to get into an argument about socialized medicine and politics and all of that. But you consider, what role does money play in the decision that was made? Now the Pharisees were lovers of money. And they scoffed at what Jesus had to say. And they wanted to put him to death. They had no fear of God.

And the rationale by which they killed Jesus was no better or more palatable than the rationale that this little one was put to death by, or that anyone in our land is put to death by through abortion. Now, if you're like me, you only have so much tolerance for this level of intensity in your Facebook feed or wherever it is you get your news. And at some point you go, I don't want to see that anymore. If you're just honest about what goes on inside of you, you just go, no, I don't want to have to. I just don't want to see it. I don't want to deal with it. I don't want to have to bear it. But this world is the world that God made. And he's placed us in it as his people, as instruments of redemption and reconciliation. And if we're unwilling to see and to discern and to act according to what's actually going on around us, then we're a salt that's lost its saltiness and we are worthless. We've become...

As the Pharisees who scoff at the word of God and who say, when it's palatable and when it's in season and when it doesn't have a cost associated with it, I'm all for it. But when that's not the case, I have a question. It's my desire that that would not be true of us. And to the extent that it has been or is currently true of us, my desire is that we would grow out of that, that we would mature beyond that, that we would process absolutely everything that goes on in this world and in our own hearts. through what Jesus has to say, what he's revealed to us in his word, and that we would put our hope and our faith and our trust in what he has revealed, not in our own reason, not in our own comfort, not in our own logic, but simply in what he has said and what he has done. So that when these sorts of things happen in our world, we'll have something faithful to say, and we'll understand what it means to do something faithful. I don't want any of us to be like the Pharisees.

who think more highly of ourselves than we ought to and who justify ourselves and who believe the misleading, lying deceptions of other people. I want us to be discerning. And it's hard work. It's difficult work. But it is fruitful work and you'll be useful and you'll be satisfied and you'll have joy that you won't have any other way. And so don't love money. And when you see something wicked going on, in your own heart or in someone else, you should question money. Where does money fit in this? Just be a normal question that you ask. How does money affect this decision? Would I do the same thing if money were not a part of it? Would I take this job? Would I quit this job? Would I go into this field of study? Would I buy this house? What would I do if money wasn't a part of it? And you'll see how integral money is to all of the decisions that you make. And then you'll be able to...

to determine what it means for you to love God and to serve God rather than money. And you'll be able to see clearly through all the smoke and mirrors that are thrown up in society, in our world, and you'll grow in holiness. And I read you one quote from Matthew Henry on our text, and then we'll be done. Speaking about the Pharisees and their response to the word of God, he says, it is common for those to make a jest of the word of God who are resolved that they will not be ruled by it. So those who mock the word of God are, There's a straight line between those who do that and their determination not to be ruled by it. But they will find at the last, when they die, that it cannot be turned off so easily. And so we've heard now. And so it's incumbent upon us now to act in that knowledge, to live in that knowledge. Let's pray.