Scoffing at the Truth, Part 1

If you have your Bible, turn with me to Luke chapter 16. Luke chapter 16, as we continue our study of Jesus Christ our Lord, as portrayed in Luke's gospel. Think back with me, if you would, to the time in which Jesus was born there in Bethlehem. He was full of grace and full of truth, and he came to present the truth. And Jesus was born in Bethlehem some 2,000 years ago, and we have no record of anything he said until he was 12 years of age, when he answered his mother's question there in the temple setting in Jerusalem, I must be about my father's business.

And then nothing was said or spoken by him that's recorded in scripture, although he did speak, we just don't have any record of it, until he came on a scene in Mark chapter 1, following the ministry of John the Baptist. And there he said, the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe the gospel. And Jesus, following his forerunner, John the Baptist, began to preach the same message that John preached about the gospel of the kingdom. And as he preached that gospel, many would come and listen.

And the curiosity surrounding Jesus was phenomenal. There would be thousands, tens of thousands of people that would come to hear him speak. And even when he would address the Pharisees, there was great curiosity, even hospitality, for they would invite him to come to their home for a meal. And so at the outset of the curiosity about this, in their mind, self-proclaimed Messiah. And then on top of that, he had all these miracles that he performed. And boy, I tell you, they were so far out there. I mean, everything was happening, blind could see, the lame could walk.

Those filled with leprosy were cleansed. The dead were raised. Quite an amazing man, this Jesus of Nazareth. And when he went back to his own town in Luke chapter four, he began to preach a message to his own crowd, the people he had grown up with, those who knew him well. And we talked to them about the gospel he came to preach and how it is the Jewish nation would not receive that gospel. They wanted to kill him. They took him to a place, a hill, a brow there in Nazareth and wanted to throw him off the cliff and and get rid of him.

And that curiosity soon became animosity. That hospitality soon became hostility. And it would grow increasingly as the years went by. And so those Pharisees who invited him to lunch would no longer invite him to have a meal with them because they began to disdain him. They hated Jesus. And there was a problem with the people because here was Jesus who did all that he did and said all that he said. And they had this affection for him. And yet their religious leaders hated Jesus. And so they were kind of caught between a rock and a hard place.

Who do we follow? And the Pharisees knew they had to gain the acceptance of the people to keep them following them. And so they would tell the people that Jesus did what he did because he's of Satan. He does it by the power of Beelzebul. He's from below not from above. And that became the mantra of the religious elite. This man does what he does by the power of Satan. He's not really of God. We are the children of Abraham. We are of God. We are sons of Abraham. And Jesus had the audacity to say, you are the sons of hell.

Now, you know, that wouldn't go over very well today in the modern evangelical church, going and telling people they're sons of hell. They're sons of their father, the devil, who is a liar. But that's what Jesus had to call them because remember he is full of grace and he is full of truth. He embodies truth. He only speaks truth because he is God in the flesh. And so a holy God can only speak truth. He can't speak error because he is pure and holy. And so everything that began with Jesus on an up note soon became downward and everybody turned against him.

But it all begins with the Pharisees. In Luke chapter 15, they grumbled that he ate with sinners. This man eats with tax gatherers and sinners. And they were grumbling publicly about Jesus. Look who he associates with. He can't be from above because he associates with all the riffraff. He associates with all the lowlife. He associates with all the nobodies. He associates with all the sinners. And therefore that proves he's not from above but from below because we are the religious elite and we don't associate with those kind of people.

We don't associate with harlots and prostitutes and tax gatherers. We don't do that. We don't want to be corrupted by their influence. But Jesus, because he's from below and not from above, wants to be with those kinds of people. And when you come to chapter 16 of Luke, they scoff at him. That's what the text says. Luke 16 verse number 14. Now the Pharisees who were lovers of money were listening to all these things and they were scoffing at him. It's a word of disdain, disgust. It's used one other time in the New Testament and that is Luke 23.

Luke 23 verse number 35 which says these words. Luke 23 verse number 35 where it says, and the people stood by looking on and even the rulers were sneering mocking, scoffing at him. There was such hatred for Jesus. We can't even begin to imagine the animosity and the hostility that was in the hearts of the religious people, the Pharisees. They were the religious elite. Which tells us one thing, that false religion is the biggest enemy of the Christ. False religion is the arch enemy of the Messiah.

And the Jewish nation, they looked at their Pharisees, those religious people, and who do they believe? And the Pharisees say, well only one can speak for God. It's either us or him. There's more of us than there is him and so you must believe what we say. And Jesus would come along and say, oh you've heard it said by your rabbis, by your teachers, by the religious elite, but I say to you, and people were confused. Well who's speaking the truth? And Jesus would say, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, your religious rulers, those people you esteem very highly, unless your righteousness exceeds them, you'll never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Which even made them more confused, because how could that ever be? They're so holy and they're so righteous and after all they tell us how holy and righteous they are, so they must be that way. And so that was the dilemma. And by the time you come to Luke chapter 16, the hatred for Christ is so strong that they scoff at everything he says. No longer is he invited for dinner. No longer do they have a meal with him anymore. It's over. And everything is fixed on how to get rid of this self-proclaimed messiah who's trying to turn the nation against us, the religious elite.

And false religion raises its head until they crucify their messiah. And that's where we are in Luke chapter 16. They were scoffing at him. Jesus would address what was behind all that. And I want to give you seven principles this week and next week as to what's behind those who scoff at the truth. Because false teachers and false leaders are the biggest scoffers of the truth. And because at this time in the ministry of Christ, they are deriding him because of what he says. What's behind all that?

What's the motivation? What's the attitude? I've changed my outline. So if you want to follow along the outline, you can. So I'll have to give it to you, a new one to you next week. But I changed it last night. I kind of do that every once in a while. But I changed my points. But I want to give you seven points that will help you understand why people scoff at the truth. And Jesus gives them to us in this passage. Let me read it to you.

Now, the Pharisees who were lovers of money were listening to all these things, and they 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. The law and the prophets were proclaimed until John. Since then, the gospel of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it. Really? That's not in the text. I just added that. Sorry.

But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the law to fail. Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery. And he who marries one who was divorced from a husband commits adultery. Wow. Why does Jesus throw that in there? Well, that's why you're here. To understand exactly what Jesus is saying. Because he addresses the heart of the Pharisees. They were scoffers at the truth. Let me give you seven principles.

Principle number one is this. The reason they scoffed at the truth is because they were preoccupied with the temporal and the material. They were preoccupied with the temporal and the material. The text says that they were lovers of money. Greed was at the heart of their ministry. Avarice was at the heart of their ministry. They did what they did not for God. They did what they did not for the benefit of others. They did what they did for the benefit of themselves. Because for them, it was a way to get rich.

For them, it was a way to be comfortable. And they would pray on poor widows. They would pray on the poor of society. And they would get them to give money to them, which would allow them to live the life they wanted to live. Sounds like people on TV today, doesn't it? They live the way they want to live because they pray on poor people. They pray on poor widows. They pray on people who are distressed and they need some kind of help and assistance. And they pray on those kind of people. And that's exactly what Jesus addresses.

They were lovers of money. And we know that first 76 says that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.

And that's why in the Bible, it speaks to the fact that if you lead in the church, you can't lead and love money too. Can't do that. That's not the way it works. In fact, the Bible says in first Timothy chapter three, first Timothy chapter three, verse number two, these words, first Timothy three, verse number two, that those who lead in the church cannot be addicted to wine, pugnacious, but gentle, uncontentious, free from the love of money.

Those who lead in the church can't love money. Jesus has already said you can't serve God and money. See that last week in last week's sermon. Okay. You can't serve God in money. You can only serve one. And then again, over in Peter's epistle in first Peter chapter five, he says, those who shepherd the flock of God among you, exercise in oversight, oversight, not under compulsion, but voluntarily according to the will of God and not for sordid gain.

That's what false teachers do in Jude 16. They lead at a sordid gain. They do it for how it benefits them financially. And Jesus says that the reason they scoff at the truth is because they are so preoccupied with the temporal and the material.

That's what motivates them. That's what moves them. Why do false teachers continue doing what they're doing? Because it benefits them materially. It benefits them socially. It does for them in a temporal setting, nothing for the eternal, but everything in the temporal setting. That's exactly what Jesus addresses over in Jeremiah chapter six. For, for from the least of them, speaking of the leaders of Israel, even to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for gain. And from the prophet, even to the priest, everyone deals falsely.

And they have healed the brokenness of my people superficially saying peace, peace, but there is no peace. They heal my people superficially. Oh, they gather them together and they say, peace, peace. Why do you think people go to stadiums and fill them up to hear preachers preach? Because they say peace, peace. God wants to bless you. God wants to do this for you. And people will pay to hear that message. Why are arenas filled to hear that message? Because that's what people want to hear. They want to hear everything's going to be okay.

God's going to bless your life. And they deal with people falsely, not truthfully. And people will pay so much to receive that blessing, but it's only superficial. It's only temporal. And Jesus says they're preoccupied with their own motives.

They just want more money. They want more cars, bigger houses. They want to be able to live a comfortable lifestyle free from any kind of distress. And they're going to pray on everybody they possibly can to get what they want. They are preoccupied with the temporal and the material. Number two, they profane, they profane the biblical, the eternal, and the spiritual.

They are preoccupied with the temporal and the material, but they profane the biblical, the eternal, and the scriptural. That is everything that deals with the truth, they are against because they live a life of falsehood. And because they live a life of falsehood, they are against anyone who speaks the truth of God's holy word. And that's what Jesus says.

Now, the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things, and they were scoffing at him. What were they scoffing at? Jesus had just said, listen, don't lay out for yourselves treasures on earth, but lay out for yourselves treasures in heaven. Send your money on ahead. Use your money to invest into the kingdom so that people will become Christians, so that when you get to heaven, they'll be there to greet you. Don't love money, love God. Don't serve money, serve God. And the Pharisees listening to that say, you know what, that's just so ridiculous.

They're scoffing at him. They're mocking Jesus, because at the depth of their heart, they were doing what they did for money. Forget about God, forget about others. It was all about money. It was all about themselves. And so they scoffed at Jesus. They profaned, they were antagonistic against that which is truth. And that's the way it is all across the ministry of Christ. In fact, religious people who have not been born again, they have a false religion, are the people who are the most antagonistic against the truth.

They despise the truth because it exposes them. That's what Jesus said in John's gospel, John chapter three. Remember that? Verse number 19. And this is the judgment that the light is coming to the world. And men love the darkness rather than the light for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. You see, Jesus was truth. He spoke truth. And truth is like a light that exposes untruth, evil, darkness. And so when the truth is spoken and the evil is exposed, what do you do?

You got to run and hide, because you don't want the light to expose your true condition. And what Jesus did was continually expose the evil condition and the evil heart of the Pharisees. And they hated him because of it. It's not that they came to a place and said, you know what, I better repent of my sin and get right with the Lord God because I'm an error. No, they began to become even more antagonistic against the Christ, because that's the way people are who do not love the Lord. Listen, whenever you see, listen carefully, an aggressive reaction to what God demands, you have false people.

Whenever you have an aggressive reaction against what God demands, you have a false heart. That's hard for some people to understand. Because you see, the characteristic of the Christian is he loves the law of God. Oh, how I love thy law. It is my meditation all the day long. And the characteristic of those who love the Lord, they love his word. You can't say you love the Lord and are antagonistic about what he says in his word. Because if you love the Lord, you love what he says. And so those who become antagonistic against the truth of God's holy word demonstrate a false heart, not a true heart, committed to Christ and committed to serving the Lord of the universe.

They have no love for the truth. Therefore, they have no capacity to receive the truth. The preaching of the cross is foolishness to them. Why? Because they are, what Paul says, are natural. They are devoid of the Spirit. And therefore, they can't receive the things of God. The characteristic of the believer is that he hears the truth and wants to respond to the truth. Jesus said that over and over again. Go back with me, if you would, to Luke chapter 6. Luke chapter 6, verse 46. Christ says, and why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?

That's always the crux of the issue. You say I'm your Lord, you call me your Lord, yet you don't want to do what I say. That does not compute. That is incongruous. If I'm your Lord, I'm your master. If I'm your master, you're my slave. If you're my slave, you do what I say. That's the bottom line of Christianity. It's obedience. So why do you call me Lord, Lord, and then turn around and don't do what I say? He goes on to say this. Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and acts upon them, I will show you whom he is like.

He is like a man building a house who dug deep and laid a foundation upon the rock. When a flood arose, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it because it had been well built. But the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly is like a man who built a house upon the ground without any foundation. And the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed. And the ruin of that house was great. You see, the Jews had built this religious house with no foundation. It was a house built on their own works, on their own righteousness.

But it wasn't built on Christ's righteousness. The foundation simply is hearing the Word of God and doing what he says. That gives you the solid foundation. They heard but were unwilling to do what he said. They were listening to him, but when they listened, they scoffed at him. They mocked him. They sneered him. They derided him. Why? Because in their minds, he was from Satan. In their minds, he was evil. And they were the religious ones. See? And that's why Jesus says, look, why do you call me Lord and not do the things that I say?

He would go on to say in Luke chapter 8, Luke chapter 8, verse number 19, these words. He said in verse number 18, therefore take care how you listen.

For whoever has, to him shall more be given. And whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has shall be taken away from him. And his mother and brothers came to him and they were unable to get to him because of the crowd. And it was reported to him, your mother and your brothers are standing outside wishing to see you. But he answered and said to them, my mother and my brothers are those who hear the Word of God and do the Word of God. He says the same thing in Luke 11. He wants to emphasize this over and over again.

Luke 11, verse number 27. And it came about while he had said these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, blessed is the womb that bore you and the breast at which you nursed. But he said, on the contrary, blessed are those who hear the Word of God and observe the Word of God or do the Word of God. You see, Jesus said this over and over again, because there are many people who profess Christianity, but because they don't possess the Christ, they don't do what Jesus says.

And the bottom line in Christianity is that you're willing to listen to all he says and then you love to do what he says. That's what a Christian is. They're not antagonistic about the words of Christ. Listen to what Christ says in John 5, verse number 24.

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment but is passed out of death into life. He hears the words and believes those words. He believes that I am the way, the truth and the life. He hears what I say about eternity. He embraces it. He accepts it. He adheres to it. He believes it. He obeys it because he knows it's true. And then over in John 5, verse number 39, he told the religious leaders, you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life and it is these that bear witness of me and you are unwilling to come to me that you may have life.

And then he says in verse 46, for if you believe Moses, you would believe me for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? In other words, Jesus says, you say you believe in the Pentateuch, the Torah, the law, those first five books of the Old Testament.

Listen, Moses wrote about me. Moses was talking about me, about the prophet that would come that was greater than him. Everything in Leviticus would point to the holy God and the foreshadowing of the Christ who would come through all the articles in the tabernacle. Everything was about me. And you say you believe Moses. Well, listen, if you believe Moses, you believe me because my words are his words and his words are my words. And they prided themselves on being teachers of the law. They prided themselves on knowing the law, but he says you searched the scriptures and you missed me, the giver of the law.

You missed me. And then over in John 11, verse number 47, says these words, John 11, 47, therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council and were saying, what are we doing? For this man is performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, all men will believe in him and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation. We can't let Jesus keep preaching. We can't let Jesus keep speaking. We can't let Jesus keep performing all these miracles. We must somehow stop him because the people, the nation will believe in him.

He's gaining their acceptance. We must somehow stop it. This was not the riffraff from the back alley. This was the religious people of Israel, the Pharisees, the scribes, the Sadducees, the people who would, were supposed to be the, the keepers of the law. And who Jesus said in Matthew 23, not only do you not know the key to the kingdom, because I'm the key. You go around from place to place, from country to country, making people twice the sons of hell that you are, because you're already going to hell and you're blocking off the kingdom from people so they can't hear the truth.

And you're making them double the sons of hell. What an indictment against the religious leaders of Israel's nation. You see, we have many religious leaders in our nation from different kinds of religions. Who do you believe? Do you believe the ones that preach and teach the truth of God's holy word? Or do you believe the ones who, who speak other than the truth of God's holy word? See, you must know what God's word says. In John chapter 12, verse number 47, Jesus said, if anyone hears my sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him.

For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. He who rejects me and does not receive my sayings has one who judges him. The word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day. So the words I'm speaking to you are the words that are going to judge you. If you don't hear my words and believe my words, because it's my words that will judge you because they're words of truth. And that's why John would say over in first John chapter two, verse number three.

And by this, we know that we have come to know him. If we keep his commandments, how do we know? We have truly come to know Christ. We keep his commandments folks. That is the repeated theme throughout the gospels. That's the repeated theme throughout the epistles. If you claim to know Jesus, you love to hear what Jesus says, and you love to do what Jesus says.

If you're here today and you don't love to hear what Jesus says, and you don't long and love to do what Jesus says you need to do, you need to ask yourselves, is my heart false or true?

Do I really love to hear the word of God? Do I love to read the word of God? Do I love to listen at the feet of Jesus? Because that's what Jesus told Mary and Martha. There's one thing that's needful and that's a sit at my feet and listen to my words. That's what everybody needs to do. That's the one thing you need to do. You can do a lot of other things, but there's one thing you have to do. You must sit at my feet and listen to me because those who claim to be followers of me love to sit at my feet and hear me speak, hear my words.

And then they love to do what I tell them to do. And Jesus comes and he preaches to his disciples, the Pharisees are listening. They're sitting back there. You don't have to do that. Are you kidding me? That's ridiculous. Jesus doesn't know what he's talking about. They scoff at him. They mock. Can you imagine mocking the son of God? Scoffing at the son of God? But that's what they did. Oh, the arrogance. And Jesus simply says, the reason you scoff is because you are so preoccupied with that which doesn't matter, the material, the temporal.

And you profane that which is scriptural, biblical, and eternal. You speak out against those things. And you can't afford to do that because the words I'm speaking are the words that will judge you on that day. Wow, what an indictment. But Christ comes and he speaks the truth. And this is a wake-up call for all of us today because as he speaks to false teachers, who the Pharisees were, in the Church of America, there are many false professors. Right? That's why Jesus talks about the parable of the sower in the soil, that as he spreads the word, there are some that jump onto Jesus' bandwagon.

But because of the deceitfulness of riches and the cares of this world, they fall by the wayside. Right? They're the ones who hear a word about Jesus and say, I want to follow Jesus. I do. But all of a sudden, when push comes to shove, it's the deceitfulness of riches, and they are deceitful. They lead that person away from Christ because of the cares of this world. They mean more to that person than Jesus does. Listen, if there's anything that means more to you than Jesus does, Jesus is not yours, and you're not Jesus.

It's as simple as that. It's not rocket science. It's basic ABCs of Christianity. If there's something that means more to you than Jesus, Jesus is not yours, and you're not Jesus'. Because those who know Jesus are so consumed with him, are so in love with him, are so enraptured by him, that that's all they want. That's what matters most to them more than anything else. So ask yourself this question. Is there something that means more to me than Jesus? What is it? Because that's idolatry. And idol worshipers never make it to heaven.

Right? Now, there are times where there are things that come in our life that we think are so important, and we adore them and cherish them, but they can't replace Christ as a priority of our lives. Jesus is everything to us. And I pray that today that would be you. That Jesus would be everything to you. If you know Jesus, he is. Right? If you know Christ as Lord and Savior, he has saved you from your sin. We're going to celebrate the Lord's table, and we're going to partake of the elements of the bread and the cup, and to rejoice in what Jesus did.

He means everything to us because he saved us from our sin. He reserved a place in heaven for us. We have been clothed with his righteousness. That's so important, because the next point says, point number three, that is, they pretend, they pretend to be spiritual through the ritual and through the ceremonial.

They pretend to be spiritual through the ritual and through the ceremonial. That's what Jesus says. He says, you are those who justify yourselves. They pretend. They're pretenders because of all the rituals that they had, all the ceremonies they engaged in. That made them spiritual. And that they do would dumb down the law of God, make it simple for them. God's a holy God, but because he's so holy, we can't meet his holiness. Let's dumb down God to our level and make a set of rules that make us acceptable in God's eyes.

And that's what they did, because they wanted to justify themselves. They wanted to make themselves righteous. Folks, let me tell you something.

The reason we celebrate the Lord's table is because we have no righteousness. It's Christ who clothes us in his righteousness that makes us acceptable in his sight because of what he did, not what we do. We can't gain his acceptance. And that's why we celebrate the Lord's table, because it allows us to rejoice in what God himself has done. I don't want you to be a pretender. I don't want you to be the one who scoffs at the truth. You might not scoff at the truth publicly. You might do it privately in your home.

But one thing is sure, if you're a scoffer, you are preoccupied with the temporal and the material. You are one who profanes that which is scriptural, biblical, and eternal, because it goes against your lifestyle. It goes against your habit patterns. It goes against what you think is best. And you pretend to be spiritual through all the rituals and all the ceremonies that you can engage in, so you can convince others that you're spiritual. But as the text goes on to say, God knows your heart. He knows it.

And he knows whether or not it's a true heart or a false heart. And my prayer for you today is that you would know for certain that your heart is truly his. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for today, the opportunity we had to celebrate you. Truly, Lord, your Word speaks right to the heart of man. It convicts us of our sin. It enables us to see, Lord, who you are. Thank you for the light that you shine down upon us through the truth of your Word. And pray for every man, woman, boy, and girl in this room today, that, Lord, they would know for certain that Jesus Christ is their Lord, is their Savior, is their Master, is their King, that they might serve you with all their heart forever.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.