Lover of Money

the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

They like the shrewdness God has called for. This is a dangerous place to be, and this is dangerous for us to understand. Religious sin has a certain kind of deceptiveness to it. Religious sin has a danger because of the self-deception, because of the way we want to self-justify. And we like to gather those around us that help us. Notice they justify themselves before men. There's a prepositional phrase that cannot follow justify yourself. You can justify yourself among friends, you can justify yourselves with your team, with your peers. There's one prepositional phrase you cannot put behind that. You cannot justify yourself before God. That's the one direction you cannot participate in that action. Because he sees us. Notice there, you justify yourself before men. Oh, it's so easy to masquerade and fake it and present ourselves in the best way. But God knows your hearts. He knows when we're pretending, when we're opposing. He knows what we did last week. He knows how we spoke to that person. He knows how we thought about that person. He knows the very thoughts that even this morning, as you were coming and preparing for worship, What you thought. Well, you're terrified if it were represented up here for everybody to see, right? He knows that. He knows we're all guilty. He knows there's no excuse. There's no justifying anything because we're that sinful. This is important for you to hear if you're new with us. If you're not a believer, there's no way we can stand before God and justify ourselves. The good news of Jesus Christ is that the God who knows everything about us, our worst thought, our worst desire, our worst words, our worst behavior, he loved us while we were sinners. He sent his son to die for us because of that sin. The real danger in thinking we're going to try to figure out how to justify ourselves and then gathering others around us that are going to give some kind of affirmation is that we might actually believe our own lie and therefore miss the truth that God, He knows our hearts. He knows how twisted we are. He knows how uncontrollable our sin is. And He comes to save us. The whole idea of justify, there's a legal aspect. God sees every guilt. And when we believe in Jesus, he counts it all forgiven. It's a legal declaration where he knows our guilt, we know our guilt, and yet he still declares us forgiven. If you wanna know the moral dilemma in scripture, it's how does he do that? How does he let any sin go unpunished? He actually doesn't. He forgives us because every sin we've committed is punished in His Son. He's able to justify us only because Jesus came to live the life we've refused, to live the life we could not. And so therefore, when Jesus died on the cross, all our sin was counted towards Him and He was punished for it. So He's just. And then He looks at us who believe and declares, you're forgiven. He's a justifier. This is the good news of Christianity. There's no justifying ourselves. There's no outdoing our wrongs with our rights. There's no presenting ourselves as if we've done something right before God because when we see Him, we will see Him as He is in His righteousness. And when we see His righteousness, we'll see all our sin. And the only way to be forgiven is if Jesus is there to declare I died for her, for his sin. It's not earned, it's not gained. So what do you need to do to be truly justified? Believe in Jesus. It's not earned. It's not something we work toward. It's just something we receive by faith, believing that Jesus died for your sin and rose again. Jesus goes further to talk about Our problem, we justify ourselves, but God knows our hearts. That's the terrifying truth, and then he explains further. Four, what men exalt is an abomination in the sight of God. We could translate this as, well, what we value, God despises. Again, there's the upside-down world. We need to be careful here. By God's common grace, there are many things that God has given us that's good, that humanity can recognize as good. Not everyone recognizes these things. We can look and see throughout history that life has been valued, marriage is good, children are good, work is good. These are things that God has given to this world, and by God's common grace, we can see that many have valued good things. But the ultimate problem is that In sin, we all take good things and we use them for the wrong end. We value them not within God's order. We value them not as God has properly given them to us. When we're evaluated by God, we will see how we misvalue him and what he gives. The Pharisees, they're the ones that are supposed to know God, to hold dear the values of God, to teach those, to value him and what is good. They're supposed to be devoted to God. Now, as we think about laws, we might say, well, you know, we should really just value the laws that keep people from hurting others. We think here that only those things that are gross crimes that hurt people, that's the things we should be focused on, you know, murder, adultery, rape. The Pharisees aren't committing those sins as we would see them declared in a law. They're doing something much more dangerous. They're misrepresenting God. They're not loving the Lord with all their heart. They're taking the Lord's name in vain by applying it to things that are not God. This is deadly. All the more amazing. God is willing to forgive sinners like them who take his word and twist it. God is willing to save sinners like us who take his word and twist it. If we're going to see something here in this passage, God sees your heart. He knows your thoughts, and yet he still sent his son to die for you. His love is not earned, it's given. His salvation is not gained, it's a gift. As we want to think about what this passage means, what is it that we value in a way that keeps us from being wholly devoted to the God who has loved us like this? What is it that regularly distracts us that we have kept in place that keeps us from truly delighting in the God who sees us and justifies us? The key is how do we stop justifying ourselves? How do we get past the presumptions and self-deception? Well, Jesus tells us in the next statement, I believe, verse 16, we must listen to what God says. Our second point, God gives the law so that we can see our sin. The sin is very clear. We justify ourselves. We value everything against God, opposed to God. We don't value Him. Well, how do we really see our sin? It's by the goodness of God and His law. Look at verse 16 and 18.

The law and the prophets were until John. Since then, the good news of the kingdom of God is preached and everyone forces his way into it. But it's easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the law to become void. Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.

We see here a common pairing, the law and the prophets. Let's make sure we know what we're talking about. The law, that refers to the first five books of the Bible. Call it the Pentateuch. The books of Moses. Moses being the primary author. Okay, Moses didn't write his own funeral. We get that. But he's the primary author of these first five books. The prophets are all that follow him. It's all that God has said. We can ask, is it true? Yes. Why? Because God said it. Is it good? Yes. Why? Because God said it. God's law reflects him and it informs us. Now, in our sin, we prefer a law that reflects us and informs God. In sin, we prefer a law that reflects our desires and informs God. We use this phrase, well, that resonates with me. Is it resonating with sin? Or is it confronting and correcting so that we actually value what God values? God gave us his laws, not so that it would resonate with us, but so that he would help us. The law of God must be understood and used according to his purpose. The law of God is the one clear solution to one clear problem. The problem is we fail to see our own sin. The problem that the law is confronting is our inability to see how good God is and how much we've sinned against him. If we step away from that one clear purpose of the law, we're gonna miss it, we're gonna be like the Pharisees, we're gonna mishandle it. The one clear teaching that we see about the law is that it's so good in reflecting God and informing us that it, It helps us hear sin. It helps us get past the self-justification, the self-deception. Now that might seem like a small task, but oh, you don't want a doctor who's not good at diagnosing, do you? You misdiagnose, you misprescribe. It's so important that the goodness of God would come to show us what's wrong so we have a right diagnosis. Because we're going to think, and pretend we're better than we are. God's law shows us more than just that mirror that shows us food in our face. No, it shows us the way in which we've rejected God, we've refused him, we've not honored him, we've not thanked him. It helps us to see what we cannot otherwise see, how sinful we are. God's law is good in what it is supposed to do, and that is show sin. Notice there, the law of the prophets. Temporal declaration were until John John the who John the Baptist Why him? John the Baptist stands as a unique figure. All right. He did somersaults in his mom's womb when he saw Jesus. All right, he's a unique figure He's the he's the last Old Testament prophet He like all the Old Testament prophets declared the kingdom of God is coming The kingdom of God is near the, the, the, the, the lamb of God, he's going to come repent, repent, believe God's word. But he stands at this unique hinge point because he actually got to say, behold, the lamb of God is here. John the Baptist looks back to all of Moses and, and all the prophets and all the promises. And he's able to say the same thing. He's coming. He's coming. Repent. Then when he saw Jesus, he declared something very powerful.

Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

You see, all the other prophets were able to say, behold the Lamb of God who covers your sin. That Lamb at Exodus, God's judgment just passed over sin. It was covered. Those lambs were all prefigurements, they were foreshadowing the one true lamb. And notice how it's so different, because Jesus Christ is the lamb who is the substitute, as our children just learned this weekend. Instead of Isaac dying for sin, a ram died in his place, a substitute for sin. But that ram did not truly bring justice to sin. No, it was pointing like every other sacrifice that they took made once a year to the once for all sacrifice. Jesus Christ's death on the cross that takes away sin. Doesn't just pass over it, doesn't just cover it. Why does he take it away? He takes it from us and puts it on himself. He takes it away from us to be judged for it and puts it on himself and he's judged for it. This is a significant change in the kingdom. This is a significant change in the plan of God, this temporal move. All the prophets are still good for us. They're still true. But we can see that up until John, the promises that it would come, then notice, since then, the good news of the kingdom of God is preached. That's what we're trying to do here this morning. Good news is a declaration of victory. Good news is it was accomplished. This word is oftentimes used in a battlefield. You send back a herald to the sound and then in the town he would declare, good news, gospel, we won. This morning we can proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God. We're not waiting on a king, the king has come. The king was a perfect human being. The king died on the cross. for all of us and all of our sin, so that if we believe in Him, we can be forgiven. The good news is that declaration, death has been defeated. Sin and its stain and the judgment to come is removed. And one of the more interesting phrases Jesus states here, at the end of verse 16, and everyone forces his way into it. You see, the preaching of the gospel is meant to be received by faith, which is contrary to forcing yourself into it. Forcing yourself into it is pushy. It's based upon our own works. I think it would be likened to that narrow door Jesus has just taught previously, that many will try to force their way into that narrow door, but they're unable. They're on the broad way, not the narrow way. They're trying to find another way into the kingdom of God other than Jesus Christ, who alone is received by faith. There's only one way to Christ. It is by faith. Verse 17,

but it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the law to become void.

This is a fantastic point. John the Baptist is a significant hinge. The Old Testament belongs to us. The words of the Old Testament are true and good. Okay, things have changed. We're not sacrificing lambs. We don't celebrate the Passover. We celebrate the Lord's Supper. There's things that are changed, but the idea of a voidness, I think there's a challenge and a charge here. The Pharisees had denied what God's Word had said. If we go back to Mark 7, if you want to look later, he makes this contrast so clear.

You make void the word of God with your own traditions.

You teach the things that are according to your way and your will, and therefore you deny what God himself has taught. The church here is these loopholes are your way of making void the word of God. Well, then he gives an example, verse 18. Please learn how to ignore or just white out all the headings of your Bible. This is not some random teaching on divorce and remarriage. Jesus is continuing his argument here. He's using this as the example of how they've corrupted God's teaching. The headings are unhelpful. Verse 18,

everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.

The Judaism of this time had a number of different interpretations of the divorce commandments in Exodus 24. Some had gone so far to give permission for divorce that if a man did not like his wife's cooking, he could divorce her. Because there's a little phrase, the thing that was grounds for divorce could be interpreted as sexual indecency or it could just be anything. And some went so far to say it's anything. The Jewish laws were many times more lenient in giving permission for divorce for men than the Roman laws, which is crazy. There was a twisting of God's law. They made it very difficult for a woman to get divorced, but made it very easy for a man, many of them. And Jesus putting his finger on it. Because of your misunderstanding, because of your mishandling, because of you making void, what God's word clearly says in Exodus 24, you are making God's word void. It's very clear. God hates divorce. How do we know that? Because God said it, Malachi 2.16. The divorce is by nature destructive of a covenant that's supposed to be made before God. Secondly, we know God permits divorce. Why? Why does God permit divorce? Because of sin. Jesus teaches this very clearly in Matthew 19, 8, the hardness of heart. Divorce is permitted according to Jesus. The thing that's referred to in Deuteronomy 24 is clearly taught by Jesus as sexual indecency. The word porneo, the word we get pornography from. Sexual sin is the grounds for divorce. What the Pharisees had done is make anything a ground. Therefore, leading God's people against God's word, therefore leading God's people into adultery, therefore promoting sin. They justify themselves, but they promote sin. They permit sin. Here, Jesus is putting the slap down on these dudes for the way they have mishandled his word. Jesus here is using one example. because they're practicing and promoting sin. Let's go back and make sure we understand. God's law is promoting the goodness of marriage. God's law permitted divorce because of our sin. Those who take the word of God are supposed to look at it and see that it shows us our sin, that it shows us how to walk according to God. Jesus has done both those things. God, he's confronting sin here and he just taught disciples to be shrewd, to be faithful. There's one thing Jesus does that the law cannot do. He forgives us. If we look into the law, we see our sin. And when we look in the law and we see ourselves truly, we're supposed to look up to God and say, wretched man that I am, who will forgive me? And then we see who Jesus is. God's law is used to show us our sin so that we can confess our sin. God's law is used to curb our sin, so it's limited. God's law is good. Notice what Jesus does next. He tells a story. I don't know if this is a parable, something fun to talk about over lunch. Is it a parable? One reason to doubt it's a parable is There's not a parable we know of Jesus that has a proper name, like Lazarus, that's pretty unique among the parables. It sounds a lot like a parable, though. Regardless if it's a parable or actually happened, we want to look at this and see how Jesus is using it. Notice there, verse 19. There's two primary characters in the intro.

There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.

Okay, this man has what he'll do, he's living the life. Every day, all day, he is clothed in the best clothes, he's eating the best food. Okay, and then we see a contrast again.

And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, whose desire to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. More even, the dogs came and licked his sores.

The contrast is startling. We see there's a man who has everything he wants and more. And then we see a man who has nothing. He's in pain. He's probably considered cursed because of the sores. There's a way in which he desires to eat the crumbs of the table. That's like eating like a dog. The dogs here, they come in like a source. He's an outcast. And the whole point of the rich man and Lazarus, the man who's in great need, is the rich man's aware of the poor man, but has probably never looked at him all the same. The assumption here is that the rich man is very aware of Lazarus and his existence, but has probably never really looked at him as another human being. Well, the story continues, verse 22.

The poor man died and was carried by angels to Abraham's side

or bosom, the nearest place. Well, here we see something significant. The poor man, he dies and angels carry him up to the nearness of Abraham. Well, why Abraham? He's a father of promise. He's connected to all the blessings of God. He's near Abraham, which is the place every Jewish man would want to be. Notice the next description.

The rich man also died and was buried.

Why the poor man wasn't buried, it might have to do with rich people had to afford a tomb. The poor man maybe couldn't have afforded the honorary way of death and being buried. The rich man, he's died, he's buried, and he goes to hell, Hades. He's in great torment. The rich man goes down and suffers, and the poor man is exalted by the angels into the very place of blessing. This is where, if this is a story versus a parable, it really helps us understand the significance. We don't build a whole theology of hell from this passage. We can build a theology of hell from Jesus and many other places. Hell is a real place. Hell is a place for all sinners who have to pay the penalty for their own sin. Hell is described as a place where the fire doesn't quench. Hell is a place of eternal judgment. To maybe put hell in a perspective, now God's judgment is against sin, but there's a grace that keeps us from feeling the full weight of his glory and his goodness against our sin? Hell's where there's no grace. There's the full weight of God's judgment on all of our sin. If there's real fire, maybe. But the weight of the judgment of God, fire can't even capture. The torment and the pain. This man is in torment. Lazarus is in a place of blessing. How much we wanna think about Abraham's bosom as a place. There are other places we could actually consider. There is some intermediate state. That's another conversation another day. The main point here is we've got two people. One is in a place of blessing. One is in a place of absolute torment under the judgment of God. The story picks up. Verse 23,

in Hades, being torment, he lifted up his eyes and he saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.

So in torment, he looks and he sees a place of blessing and he called out,

Father Abraham, have mercy on me.

Notice there's no self-justification. There's no argument, I deserve this. He is in full understanding he's a sinner who deserved this. Have mercy on me, is what he can only say. Have mercy on me.

And send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.

Pretty minor request. He understands the great difficulties and he understands it's just, he's asking for mercy just to have a small drop of water that Lazarus might come. Verse 25,

but Abraham said, child, remember that you in your lifetime received good things and Lazarus and like men are bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in anguish.

All right, again, we want to be careful. There isn't some kind of kingdom rule that rich will be tormented and poor will be exalted by definition of being rich and poor. There's something more to it. He is pointing out, you had everything you wanted and did not steward it, would be the conclusion. Abraham confronts him, he reminds him, you had everything, you had every opportunity, he would even say. Verse 26, and beside this, between us and you is a great chasm, it cannot be fixed. that has been fixed, it cannot be crossed.

In order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.

What he's asking for is impossible. So the rich man makes another request.

And I beg you, Father, to send him to my father's house. For I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they come into this place of torment.

All right, we can see something helpful here. The rich man's at least thinking of somebody else. He's thinking of his own family. There's probably a family sin here, isn't there? A love of money. A continued practice and pattern of not caring about Lazarus who's at the door, at the gate. So please, just send him to my brothers so that they may not come to this place of torment. But Abraham said again, verse 29,

they have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them.

That is what Abraham was declared. You have the good law, you had the good law. Hear what God has said. They have the good law, let them hear what God has said. The truth of what God has said is so powerful. It's sufficient. But it's not quite convinced the rich man.

No, Father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.

We finally catch that very important word, repent. Turning from a love of money and turning to love of God. Turning away from self-deception, turning to the truth of God. Abraham has made it clear the Moses and the prophets, they're sufficient. And do you see what was assumed there by the rich man? Yeah, I had that, and it wasn't good enough for me. They need something else. Oh, friend, if we think we need something else from God than what God has provided, we are even more dangerously self-deluded, in our self-delusion. And he's repent. He sees his brothers need to repent, to turn away from sin and turn to God. And Abraham responds one more time.

If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.

When we are trapped in our own self-delusion, when we're trapped in our own self-righteousness, when we're trapped in our own self-justification, we're very convincing. If God's word isn't good enough to show us, Why would he believe if somebody even came from the dead? The rich man is assuming God's word isn't good enough because he never believed it, so they need to see somebody rise from the dead. Abram's making it very clear, no, if you have not seen your own sin by the word of God, you're not gonna believe if someone rises from the dead. Oh, the third point, we cannot see the Savior without seeing our sin. He's speaking very naturally here. He's speaking very much into the truth of what is. Logically, if you do not believe Moses and the prophets, you're not gonna believe the story that comes with the dead. But oh, how much he's also saying something for us today. If you don't hear the Moses and the prophets, if you don't see your own sin, you're not gonna see Jesus as your savior. You cannot see Jesus who did rise from the grave. You cannot see Jesus who overcomes sin and death by rising from the dead. You will not see him, you will not be convinced of him as anyone good until you see your sin. Why? Because Jesus didn't come to seek and save righteous people. Jesus only comes to seek and save sinners. Jesus can only help us when we see our sin. Jesus helps us see our sin. Jesus helps us recognize how much we've fallen. We can compare ourselves with Jesus. We can compare ourselves with his law. But if we will not confess our sin, he will not save us. This morning, Christian, The question is, how much are we looking to see our sin so that we might see Jesus all the more clearly? How much are we still in some kind of self-deception and self-righteousness? Because here's the danger of that continued pattern, and we're good at this as religious people. When we create loopholes, we are losing understanding and loving Christ more. We have a faith that's stalled out because we stopped repenting. Have we created loopholes that allow us to keep ourselves distracted and away from the things of God? Are we going back to verse 13? Is there something we are pretending that we're going to love alongside of God? The beautiful invitation of Christ this morning. See that sin. Repent of it. Believe that he can forgive you. Believe that by repenting, we will not only see him, we will see him more truly. This morning, we need to recognize the danger of twisting His Word, justifying ourselves. I pray as we look at His Word, we see our sin. And now, as we reflect, let us confess our sins, and I will close us in a prayer of confession and repentance. Father, we come before you. Confess we have not loved your law. Lord, we've even avoided it. Lord, we ask your forgiveness for twisting it for our own end, for our own purpose. Lord, we thank you for how clear your word is We thank you, Lord, for what a clear mirror it presents to us. Lord, forgive us for looking into your mirror and at times walking away and quickly forgetting what we've seen. I pray that you'll protect us from that this morning. I pray that you would bring about a conviction of sin a conviction for the lack of love we've had for you, a lack of love we've had for our neighbor, a lack of love we've had for one another, a lack of honor and respect we've had for you as our God and for those who are in authority over us. Lord, help us to not be the man who walks away from that mirror, seeing sin and quickly forgetting. But Lord, help us to see our sin Walk into your presence in the name of Christ and ask for forgiveness. Restoration. I pray we would know how to be a people who lifts up your law as good. Because we long to see sin so that we would confess it. We long to see sin so that we would see you more clearly and know you more truly. What happens to not be afraid of your word? Help us, Lord, not be afraid of what it exposes, knowing that you only remove from us what is poisonous, dangerous, and deadly. Thank you for speaking your words of truth. Forgive us for not submitting to your word and trusting it and obeying it. Help us, Lord, to have the grace we need to value you and devalue all the things you give us according to your word. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let us stand and sing our song of response, Be Thou My Vision.