Luke 16:14-15
That Wasn’t Smart
\\#14\\ Our text starts with the Pharisees responding to Jesus’
teaching in \\#1-13\\. There Jesus taught the disciples, with
sarcasm how NOT to fail. The Pharisees were offended and in response,
mocked Jesus. That’s a mistake on more levels than you can even begin
to image.
What are the lyrics to the old Jim Croce song? "You don’t tug on
Superman’s cape. You don’t spit into the wind. You don’t pull the
mask off the ol’ Long Ranger and you don’t mess around with HIM." His
lyrics were a little off.
Understand, it doesn’t matter how smart we think we are, we will
never win a battle of wits with God. So Jesus unmasked the
Pharisees.
This is another of those sections where Jesus puts the truth down on
the bottom shelf so that even the Pharisees could understand it.
Before this section is complete, Jesus will be describing hell as the
eternal home of some of those standing before Him. That may
sound harsh, but sometimes the truth is harsh. A harsh truth does not
mean a lack of love. In fact, it can mean the very opposite.
Let’s notice some truths:
I. \\#15\\ The Pharisees’ reasoning - They wanted to justify
themselves.
Luke 16:15 And he said unto them, Ye are they
which justify yourselves before men…
A. Jesus had been teaching His disciples on what to do to fail
as a steward.
B. \\#13\\ Jesus had taught that you cannot serve two masters and
He named the two He meant.
1. God and mammon
2. Mammon means possessions, money, fame, things.
C. The Bible says of these religious leaders:
Luke 16:14 And the Pharisees also, who were
covetous…."
1. It seems obvious that these leaders had worshipped mammon
and so Jesus’ words hit them hard.
2. That being the case, they felt they needed to justify
themselves.
II. \\#14\\ The Pharisees’ Action
A. "…they derided him" - They insulted Jesus, made fun of Him.
1. Typically the word "justify" means to defend or explain
oneself.
2. However, there are times when you are wrong, you know
you are wrong, and there is no defense.
3. This was one of those times.
B. When your best defense is to insult, you obviously don’t have
much going for you.
C. And when your opponent is God, you are in a lot of trouble.
III. \\#15\\ The Pharisees’ Problems - They were twofold.
A. "but God knoweth your hearts"
1. How are you going to win an argument with One who knows
everything about you?
2. You aren’t—especially if you are arguing against God.
3. When Jesus says, "You are covetous and trying to justify
yourself," the only answer you can give is, "Yes, sir.
Please forgive me" and you need to be doing that from a
kneeling position.
B. God had already made His judgment.
1. God’s judgment for the Pharisees was written into the
text.
Luke 16:15 …that which is highly esteemed
among men is abomination in the sight of God.
a. God said the things they thought were important were
actually an abomination.
b. Striving for riches, fame, possessions is an
abomination to God.
(1) That doesn’t mean it is wrong to work to live
but it does mean it is wrong to live for work.
(2) This all started with Jesus telling the disciples
how not to fail.
a. Living to work is failure!
b. Our purpose is not to work. Our purpose is to
be Christians, to serve God. We work
because we need to eat and pay our necessary
bills.
(3) To get that backwards is an abomination to God.
c. An abomination is worse than just coming short in a
matter.
(1) I know that sin is sin and God hates all sin but
the words used for sin seem to me to imply a
difference in some actions.
(a) Sin means "missing the mark" or "coming up
short." To use this word, an act does not
have to be deliberate or even against a
direct command of God.
(b) Evil implies doing what you know is wrong.
(c) Wicked implies doing what you know God
commands as wrong.
(d) Then there is an abomination.
(2) Strong’s defines it as a "detestation, an act of
idolatry."
(a) In this age of electronic Bibles, you should
take your Bible program and do a search
through both the Old and New Testaments and
see what God calls an abomination!
(b) It might surprise us.
2. Notice two facts:
a. God was not going to judge. He had already judged.
(1) Jesus was not there to DECIDE if what the
Pharisees were doing was wrong. He was there
to TELL them that what they were doing was
wrong.
(2) God has already decided what right and wrong are
and even decided what He is going to do with
every wrong and every right.
(3) Some seem to think God hasn’t made up His mind
yet about sin.
(4) Others seem to think God’s mind can be changed.
(5) He won’t. Sin was judged before God ever created
man.
1Cor 6:9 …Be not deceived: neither fornicators,
nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate,
nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor
revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the
kingdom of God.
b. God’s judgments are not based on the people who do
the acts but the acts which the people do.
(1) God’s judgments are not personal.
(2) God does not look at the person then decide the
judgement.
(3) He made the judgments based on who He is and what
is right and wrong.
(4) So you can be
(a) …nice and sin,
(b) …pretty and sin,
(c) …popular and sin,
(d) …the majority and sin,
(e) …rich and sin,
(f) …famous and sin,
(g) …articulate and sin,
(h) …a political activists and sin,
(i) …a Hollywood elitists and sin,
(j) …or anything and anyone else and sin, and
the judgment that God had selected for that
sin is still going to happen to you.
(5) And of course with God being God and knowing the
end since before the beginning, He has known
what was going to happen to you since before He
created you.
The bottom line is the Pharisees were not right with God and they
could never justify all the sins they were committing. No one can!
The best, the only response is to bow before God and confess we are
wrong. That’s the only smart thing to do!
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