SPEAKER_00: Well, there is this famous saying from a rather famous person, Socrates, who lived in the 5th century BC.
SPEAKER_00: You've probably heard this saying that the unexamined life is not worth living.
SPEAKER_00: The unexamined life is not worth living.
SPEAKER_00: And what he's getting after, this philosopher there, is that a life worth living is one where you're contemplating, you're thinking.
SPEAKER_00: Well, why are we doing what we're doing?
SPEAKER_00: You're not just a cog and a peg, having the whole thing, you're not just a hamster on a wheel.
SPEAKER_00: Why are you here?
SPEAKER_00: And what are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: The philosopher gives a great question, but he doesn't really have much of an answer.
SPEAKER_00: But his question's right.
SPEAKER_00: The unexamined life is not worth living.
SPEAKER_00: Like, think about what you're doing.
SPEAKER_00: And this happens to all kinds of people: religious people, non-religious people, everyone.
SPEAKER_00: We just kind of get into life.
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, life, it just happens, and you gotta work, and you gotta provide, and you gotta do this, and and you know, the years just kind of tick by and you feel in general like you know what you're doing, and kind of in general, why you're doing what you're doing.
SPEAKER_00: But if you stop and you begin to really dig, and you ask that why question, just again and again, going deeper and deeper.
SPEAKER_00: Why am I doing this?
SPEAKER_00: Well, why am I really doing this?
SPEAKER_00: Why is society saying we should do this?
SPEAKER_00: Why is the pastor saying we should do this?
SPEAKER_00: You're digging down.
SPEAKER_00: Another way to ask this question is really, what is it that you're looking for in your life?
SPEAKER_00: What is it you are looking for?
SPEAKER_00: It's a simple question.
SPEAKER_00: It's a hard answer.
SPEAKER_00: You take any senior, college or even high school, you take a middle-aged person, someone on the brink of retirement, and you ask them, what are you looking for out of life?
SPEAKER_00: This can be a very challenging question to answer.
SPEAKER_00: And because for most people, like we know in general we want to live a good life, we want to enjoy life, have good relationships, we want to have a nice place to live, have our meals, we want to eat.
SPEAKER_00: But there's something deeper down.
SPEAKER_00: This intrinsic meaning, something it's hard to put into words, hard to even wrap our minds around at times.
SPEAKER_00: But we know that we're made for more.
SPEAKER_00: Not just to kind of go through a routine.
SPEAKER_00: We're made for something meaningful, purposeful, intentional.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus, in his teaching, which is always so profound and yet so practical, gets at this in this passage.
SPEAKER_00: What are you looking for?
SPEAKER_00: Have you examined your life?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus would go on to teach the Pharisees and the Lords, because if you have, you would notice all these inconsistencies, all these false reasons in this just massive facade, this fake reality in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone can live a fake life, but a fake life doesn't produce a meaningful life, a purposeful life.
SPEAKER_00: The first chunk of verses, 14 through 26, and the first point here is Are you looking for truth?
SPEAKER_00: The scene is set, Jesus is here, and he casting cast out a demon from a man that was mute, and the demon has gone, the man spoke, and people marveled.
SPEAKER_00: But some of them said, he cast out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of demons.
SPEAKER_00: And then others test him, keep asking for a sign from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: What's interesting about just those first few verses is we begin to understand the crowd.
SPEAKER_00: So something miraculous happens.
SPEAKER_00: A man was made mute by a demon, right?
SPEAKER_00: So that should tell us that the power that demons have.
SPEAKER_00: They can make someone mute, unable to speak, and Jesus delivers this man.
SPEAKER_00: He speaks, and everyone marvels at this.
SPEAKER_00: This is amazing.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: There's no doubt that something miraculous has happened.
SPEAKER_00: But what is the response to this miraculous thing?
SPEAKER_00: Well, some begin this accusation.
SPEAKER_00: Well, he's doing that by Beelzebub or Satan, the prince of demons.
SPEAKER_00: And others are like, well, I don't know about that, but Jesus, can you give us a sign?
SPEAKER_00: Can you do something to show us that you're who you say you are?
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, begins to address them.
SPEAKER_00: That every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste.
SPEAKER_00: And a divided household falls.
SPEAKER_00: He begins to listen, to tell them, listen, if you think I'm casting out demons by Beelzebuble, whom do your sons cast them out?
SPEAKER_00: It was a practice within Judaism to cast out demons as well.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is saying, well, if you're saying I'm doing that by the power of Satan, how do your sons, how do you guys do that?
SPEAKER_00: Is that also by Satan?
SPEAKER_00: He's taking your logic and reversing it on them.
SPEAKER_00: But if it is my finger, it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, and the kingdom of God has come upon you.
SPEAKER_00: See, even in all the way back in Exodus chapter 8, there's this language.
SPEAKER_00: The magicians said to Pharaoh about Moses, this is the finger of God.
SPEAKER_00: It's this language of the finger of God.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is saying, if I'm doing this by the power of demons, by Satan's power, then so must you.
SPEAKER_00: As your logic would say.
SPEAKER_00: But rather, if I'm doing this by the power of God, the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is squaring up the room, making things clear of what's going on here.
SPEAKER_00: Either he is belongs to Satan, or he is God.
SPEAKER_00: Then he gives this picture, this illustration.
SPEAKER_00: When a strong man is fully armed and guards his own palace, his goods are safe, but when one strong then he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is making it very clear.
SPEAKER_00: And if he's a strong man in that community, like he's he's riding high, he's doing well.
SPEAKER_00: But when someone else comes in, stronger than him, what happens?
SPEAKER_00: He's defeated.
SPEAKER_00: He's vanquished, all of his goods are taken.
SPEAKER_00: He's not safe anymore.
SPEAKER_00: And in the in the reality of good and evil and demons and the Son of God, Satan, who is the strong man?
SPEAKER_00: Who's the strongest man?
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus revealing to them the power structure, the power dynamic of what's going on here.
SPEAKER_00: Although Satan and his demons might feel powerful, because they can make a man mute, they can possess, they do all kinds of things.
SPEAKER_00: They feel pretty good about that.
SPEAKER_00: But when the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords rolls up, they're done.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is drawing this line.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever then with me is against me, whoever does not gather with me scatters.
SPEAKER_00: He draws this very distinct line in the sand.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll see how people respond to that in a moment.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus goes on to teach them when the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest.
SPEAKER_00: And finding none, it says, I'll return to my house from which I came.
SPEAKER_00: And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order.
SPEAKER_00: Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there.
SPEAKER_00: And the last state of that person is worse than the first.
SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes, in our day and age, we don't see kind of like the demonic world as much in the way that they saw in first century Judaism.
SPEAKER_00: And there's all kinds of ways we can attribute that.
SPEAKER_00: Some people say, well, you know, the devil's just not as active, or there's been so much grace cast across America, we don't see those things.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe, but also I think it's here.
SPEAKER_00: I think we've just we've had all these other ways of masking it, all these other methods of like, well, that's just mental illness, or that's just this.
SPEAKER_00: There is genuine mental illness.
SPEAKER_00: I fully believe that.
SPEAKER_00: But as a culture that does not want to accept or believe in supernatural things, unless it's like some kind of prayer that we want answered for our little world.
SPEAKER_00: Other than that, we don't accept these things.
SPEAKER_00: These things do manifest themselves in other ways.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is teaching them.
SPEAKER_00: So someone has rid themselves or they're free of a demon, they clean themselves up, they put everything in order.
SPEAKER_00: But what's the reality?
SPEAKER_00: Well, if you don't replace that with anything, guess what's going to happen?
SPEAKER_00: The demons will come back.
SPEAKER_00: R.
SPEAKER_00: Kit Hughes puts it this way: Jesus is saying to his religious hearers that self-reformation without regeneration in the indwelling of God, the Holy Spirit, is fatal.
SPEAKER_00: Self-reformation without regeneration in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is fatal.
SPEAKER_00: We can't just clean and say, hey, look, I've got my life together and I'm good.
SPEAKER_00: I finally beat the demons of this and beat the demons of that and I'm good.
SPEAKER_00: And pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and go on.
SPEAKER_00: Again, Hughes goes on to say, if a man or a woman is empty and without God, any sin, any perversion is possible.
SPEAKER_00: A vacuum has to be filled with something.
SPEAKER_00: And if it is not the Spirit of God, there's no telling what it will be.
SPEAKER_00: So it's reality.
SPEAKER_00: And there are demons in the world.
SPEAKER_00: Take into account, if we, if you're a person, you just kind of leave yourself open.
SPEAKER_00: You say, well, I don't really know what I believe.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just kind of open to whatever or whatever the universe wants to tell me or whatever I feel like at 8 a.m.
SPEAKER_00: in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: You don't know what you're dealing with.
SPEAKER_00: You don't know the powers that you're opening yourself up to.
SPEAKER_00: You don't know the reality that there is a strong man who will guard his castle, his palace.
SPEAKER_00: And unless a stronger man comes, unless the king of kings comes, you will be enslaved by the strong man.
SPEAKER_00: This warning that Jesus is giving.
SPEAKER_00: You can clean yourself up from the outside.
SPEAKER_00: You can kind of get rid of all those things.
SPEAKER_00: But if nothing else happens, just your life's going to enter into more darkness, more bondage, and more hopelessness.
SPEAKER_00: That's the reality if you reject Jesus, if you are against him, if you scatter and don't gather with him.
SPEAKER_00: Which is very different than what Jesus says to those who would gather and would be with him.
SPEAKER_00: He says this the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles in John 7.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.
SPEAKER_00: So you have two very different pictures, two very different realities.
SPEAKER_00: If you're looking for truth, if you're looking for what is true, not just living an unexamined life, not just kind of going through your days, but you're looking for what's true, you'll find Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He is the source of all truth.
SPEAKER_00: When you come to him and you drink and you believe streams of living living water, through the power of the Holy Spirit, flow from you.
SPEAKER_00: Flow within you, which is very different than the demons who are possessing who are possessed within you.
SPEAKER_00: For those who reject, those who seek to find miraculous power, so to speak, or supernatural power, but not from God.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a reality in our culture.
SPEAKER_00: The occult and all the witchcraft and all these things that are increasing.
SPEAKER_00: These things are not games.
SPEAKER_00: And there are people turning to demons, to Satan, to do supernatural things.
SPEAKER_00: Things that Satan can do and wants to do.
SPEAKER_00: That should lead people in a good amount of fear and sobriety.
SPEAKER_00: So there's no kind of middle path here.
SPEAKER_00: Like I'm cool.
SPEAKER_00: Appreciate Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Appreciate, you know, there's people over here, but I'm just kind of doing my own thing.
SPEAKER_00: There's no middle ground.
SPEAKER_00: There is no middle ground.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus begins to answer their questions.
SPEAKER_00: And you just assume, like, look at look at me in verse 27.
SPEAKER_00: As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, Blessed is the womb that bore you in the breast which you nursed.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus said, Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to make a note for a second.
SPEAKER_00: Clearly in Luke 1, we read about the blessing of Mary.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus isn't denying that.
SPEAKER_00: But he's saying, after talking about all this demon activity and all these things, his solution isn't go like memorize this kind of poem or memorize this thing, or make sure you put this kind of cross over your headboard at night, or only sleep in this direction, or any of those things.
SPEAKER_00: Silly, stupid things.
SPEAKER_00: What he says is, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are those who hear the word and keep it.
SPEAKER_00: And it's so simple.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy for us to miss this, right?
SPEAKER_00: You know, this the supernatural realm, and it's it's complex, and it's confusing, we really don't know much about it, and it's terrifying.
SPEAKER_00: The fact that some kind of demon can come in and make a person mute or make them lame or throw them into the fire, and all these things.
SPEAKER_00: And you want like some real tangible solution.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Like something that you can just go and you can do it, and it's transacted, and you're safe.
SPEAKER_00: Hear the word of God, follow it.
SPEAKER_00: Another way of saying that is gather with me.
SPEAKER_00: Be with me.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be against me, don't scatter from me.
SPEAKER_00: Again, as John says, come to me and drink and believe.
SPEAKER_00: The solution to the fear that might cause that come from all this talk about demons and their power and what they can do.
SPEAKER_00: What's the solution?
SPEAKER_00: Come to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Find your rest in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Where you are safe, where you are secure.
SPEAKER_00: This next section.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 29.
SPEAKER_00: When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, This generation is an evil generation.
SPEAKER_00: It seeks for a sign.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, they asked for a sign earlier, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.
SPEAKER_00: For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.
SPEAKER_00: The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them.
SPEAKER_00: For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon.
SPEAKER_00: And behold, something greater than Solomon is here.
SPEAKER_00: The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it.
SPEAKER_00: For they repented and at the preaching of Jonah.
SPEAKER_00: And behold, something greater than Jonah is here.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is revealing to them what's the lay of the land, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, listen, even Jonah, who came, who was also in a fish, this is Matthew's account in Matthew 12, Jesus saying, for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus revealing to them this sign of Jonah that would be that would come.
SPEAKER_00: And what happened in Nineveh, this Gentile, pagan, wicked city, massively wicked city, in just a massive city.
SPEAKER_00: They repented.
SPEAKER_00: They heard the message of Jonah and they repented.
SPEAKER_00: The queen of Sheba came from the south to see Solomon's wisdom and his authority and his riches.
SPEAKER_00: She wouldn't hear the wisdom of Solomon.
SPEAKER_00: Here, the very source of wisdom is now present.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom incarnate is here, and they're rejecting it.
SPEAKER_00: They're rejecting it.
SPEAKER_00: So when the judgment comes, this generation will stand in judgment, Jesus is saying.
SPEAKER_00: People responded with marvel to his healing work.
SPEAKER_00: They accused him.
SPEAKER_00: Why did they accuse him?
SPEAKER_00: Because they healed some because he healed someone?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Not because he healed someone, but because he was revealing to them what they were truly after, what they were looking for.
SPEAKER_00: And then there's even the skeptical seekers, which is really common in our day.
SPEAKER_00: Like people were like, you know, I'm looking, but it's gonna line up with everything I want.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is just blowing all this out of the water.
SPEAKER_00: It's just not how it works.
SPEAKER_00: He gives these examples from Jonah and the Queen of the South rising up to judge.
SPEAKER_00: Look at this in verse 33.
SPEAKER_00: No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so those who enter may see the light.
SPEAKER_00: Light.
SPEAKER_00: Your eye is the lamp of your body.
SPEAKER_00: When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light.
SPEAKER_00: But when it is bad, your body is full of darkness.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, be careful lest the light in you be darkness.
SPEAKER_00: If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright as when the lamp with its rays gives you light.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is giving this warning.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the middle of this whole passage.
SPEAKER_00: I think this is the point that Jesus is after.
SPEAKER_00: With those who are making the false accusations, those who are talking about spirits and unclean spirits, and those who get to the Pharisees and the lawyers, this is his point.
SPEAKER_00: Your eye is the lamp of your body.
SPEAKER_00: Your eye is healthy.
SPEAKER_00: What's a healthy eye?
SPEAKER_00: What's that mean?
SPEAKER_00: One of the translations says a simple eye.
SPEAKER_00: It's single-minded, it's dedicated to the Lord alone.
SPEAKER_00: You're not looking and saying, okay, I want to serve Jesus and I want to serve myself.
SPEAKER_00: I want to follow the scriptures and I want to follow the thinking of this age.
SPEAKER_00: But when your eye is focused, it's simple, it's dedicated to the Lord, it's meditating on his word.
SPEAKER_00: It's taking in what is good and true and right and rejecting what is false.
SPEAKER_00: When that's going on, there's light in your body.
SPEAKER_00: And you're able to see then.
SPEAKER_00: You're able to see what you're looking for.
SPEAKER_00: You're able to see reality for how things really are.
SPEAKER_00: An example of this is just temptation.
SPEAKER_00: When temptation comes your way, comes into your mind, you're tempted to think something.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're tempted to believe a lie about God.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're tempted to believe a lie about yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're tempted to lust after someone.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're tempted to covet something that someone else has.
SPEAKER_00: Either way, the temptation comes in your mind, and at that moment, your mind is going to do one of two things.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to believe the lie, it's going to see it, like, yeah, I'm going to go with that.
SPEAKER_00: Now there might be a little bit of a warning sign, like, well, that's probably not like the best thing.
SPEAKER_00: But if you follow through with that temptation, what you've said is, yeah, but it's going to be okay.
SPEAKER_00: It's not going to cost me, or it's not going to cost me much.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to be okay.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: You believed that line somehow.
SPEAKER_00: You've stepped into that.
SPEAKER_00: Or the temptation's going to come and you're going to say, no, my flesh wants that.
SPEAKER_00: My sin nature wants that.
SPEAKER_00: But I know what that is.
SPEAKER_00: That's sin.
SPEAKER_00: Sin, as James says, sin brings death.
SPEAKER_00: If I give in to that temptation, my affections for the Lord, it's going to kill something there.
SPEAKER_00: My hunger for righteousness, it's going to kill something there.
SPEAKER_00: What's going on in that moment, that scene when the temptation comes?
SPEAKER_00: Well, do you have a healthy eye?
SPEAKER_00: Is your eye able to see, to be clear and simple, and to say, no, I'm following God's word.
SPEAKER_00: I'm following his instructions.
SPEAKER_00: Reject temptation.
SPEAKER_00: You reject the warning.
SPEAKER_00: You reject God's word enough.
SPEAKER_00: Your eye is dark.
SPEAKER_00: Or if you've never, if you're, if you are not a Christian, your eye is dark.
SPEAKER_00: And so what's that mean?
SPEAKER_00: It means you don't see things the way they truly are.
SPEAKER_00: I know that's an offensive thing to say to someone, but I think it's genuinely true.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not a Christian, you don't see things for how they really are.
SPEAKER_00: And that doesn't mean that as Christians, we're just like patting each other on the back, like, hey, ha ha ha, at least we can see.
SPEAKER_00: Because that's a pure grace from God.
SPEAKER_00: But it is true.
SPEAKER_00: It is true.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus is revealing to them this eye, if it's healthy, then you're going to see all the things.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to illuminate for you the lies of the world.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to illuminate for you the lies of your own heart and the deceptive nature of your own heart.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to illuminate.
SPEAKER_00: Well, why are you asking for a sign when he just cast out a demon?
SPEAKER_00: Why are you asking for a sign when he's revealing the truth of scripture to you?
SPEAKER_00: Why are you asking for a sign?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: A light, an eye with a heart with light in it, is going to reveal that.
SPEAKER_00: Why is it that you're wanting the praise of man?
SPEAKER_00: Why is it that you're wanting people to acknowledge you or to pat you on the back for your knowledge of the scriptures and for your righteousness?
SPEAKER_00: But if you don't see any of that, if you have a dark, a body full of darkness, you're deceived.
SPEAKER_00: And when the judgment comes, the light will come and you will see things as they really are, not because the light's in you at judgment, but because Christ has come to judge, and you will see things plainly and clearly, and you will know yourself to be condemned.
SPEAKER_00: You have rejected God.
SPEAKER_00: Then secondly, are you looking for the truth?
SPEAKER_00: And secondly, are you looking with clarity?
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus gives this teaching and then he goes right into application.
SPEAKER_00: There's this long conversation, right?
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus does this, and the Pharisees are like, well, let's have them to dinner.
SPEAKER_00: Let's recline.
SPEAKER_00: And they wash their hands, and Jesus washed his hands, which is a huge offense to them.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's so much in the Shema about how they're supposed to wash, and I mean, it's just like ridiculous, like all these rituals.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus would have known all those things, and he knew what he was doing.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't just kind of like, hey, I'm just going to be a jerk and not wash my hands, and my heads are dirty, and we'll see what they do.
SPEAKER_00: He's revealing their name their nature.
SPEAKER_00: He's revealing their hearts.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, imagine this guy claiming to be God, casts out demons, he's doing his healings, he's doing all his teaching.
SPEAKER_00: Then you bring him to dinner, he doesn't wash his hands the right way.
SPEAKER_00: And you're just like, no way.
SPEAKER_00: Like he can't be, he can't be like God.
SPEAKER_00: There's just no way.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to him, Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup of the in the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.
SPEAKER_00: You fools.
SPEAKER_00: Did not he who made the outside make the inside also?
SPEAKER_00: What a rebuke from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: What a rebuke to the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_00: And he goes on and talking about how they're so good at giving.
SPEAKER_00: And the Pharisees were phenomenal givers.
SPEAKER_00: They would tithe on everything.
SPEAKER_00: A tenth of everything that came in, every grain, every little bit of seasoning, like literally everything.
SPEAKER_00: They were just phenomenal tithers.
SPEAKER_00: But that's about as far as it went.
SPEAKER_00: They give, but they neglect justice, verse 42 says.
SPEAKER_00: They forget the love of God.
SPEAKER_00: You should have done one, not the other.
SPEAKER_00: So what's he say in 43?
SPEAKER_00: Woe to you, Pharisees.
SPEAKER_00: You love the best seats in the synagogue and you greet greetings in the marketplace.
SPEAKER_00: Woe to you, for you are like unmarked graves.
SPEAKER_00: People walk over them without knowing it.
SPEAKER_00: Could there have been a greater insult to the Pharisees?
SPEAKER_00: You're nothing.
SPEAKER_00: You're like an unmarked grave.
SPEAKER_00: People just walk all over you.
SPEAKER_00: They don't know it.
SPEAKER_00: You are not remembered.
SPEAKER_00: You're meaningless.
SPEAKER_00: And then the lawyers who are apparently there.
SPEAKER_00: Well, hold on.
SPEAKER_00: Question here.
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of insulting us, too, you know?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is like, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: So for you guys, woe to you, lawyers.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: You load the people with burdens.
SPEAKER_00: This law, these commandments.
SPEAKER_00: Like you gotta do this, you gotta do this, you gotta wash your hands this way, and you gotta do this thing.
SPEAKER_00: Woe to you.
SPEAKER_00: For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Jesus is not holding back at all.
SPEAKER_00: He's just saying, listen, woe to you.
SPEAKER_00: You're building the tombs for the prophets that your fathers killed.
SPEAKER_00: You are in cahoots, you're with your fathers who killed the prophets.
SPEAKER_00: You are against God.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 49.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore also the wisdom of God said, I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute, so that the blood of all the prophets shed from the foundation of the world may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation.
SPEAKER_00: Woe to you, lawyers, for you have taken away the keys of knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.
SPEAKER_00: As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard, and to provoke him to speak about many things, lying in wait for him to catch him in something that he might say.
SPEAKER_00: What a powerful interaction.
SPEAKER_00: Here these guys have brought Jesus in for lunch.
SPEAKER_00: I have no idea if he got to the lunch part with these guys and all.
SPEAKER_00: But these rebukes, why?
SPEAKER_00: Why is Jesus using such strong and harsh language?
SPEAKER_00: I would submit to you, this is an act of love from Jesus to them.
SPEAKER_00: He's rebuking them.
SPEAKER_00: He's telling them their error.
SPEAKER_00: He's telling them their faults.
SPEAKER_00: In all his ministry on earth, he's been teaching about repentance.
SPEAKER_00: Teaching about repentance.
SPEAKER_00: We know later on in the gospel of Luke, there are some Pharisees who repent.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus is making it very clear.
SPEAKER_00: He's revealing to them their actions.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, are you looking with clarity?
SPEAKER_00: Are you looking to be those who follow God?
SPEAKER_00: Or are you just looking to be people who make their own laws and then slap each other on the back for keeping part of these laws?
SPEAKER_00: Are you worshipers of God?
SPEAKER_00: Are you lawmakers?
SPEAKER_00: Another quote here from a commentary.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' appeal was similar to his response on a similar occasion.
SPEAKER_00: Quote, you hypocrites.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you.
SPEAKER_00: These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
SPEAKER_00: They worship me in vain.
SPEAKER_00: Their teachings are but rules taught by men.
SPEAKER_00: This is Jesus in Matthew 15, quoting Isaiah 29.
SPEAKER_00: Their external lip service was at odds with their internal heart reality.
SPEAKER_00: Their freshly washed hands and their clean garments did not match the condition of their hearts.
SPEAKER_00: And how easy it is for us also to get caught up.
SPEAKER_00: I think it is hard for us to understand just the reality of Israel at this time with the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the law and how religious the system was in this culture.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard for us to even grasp that.
SPEAKER_00: But the reality of our heart, the nature of our heart, is similar.
SPEAKER_00: We do do this where we kind of make rules, and then we want to keep the rules, and we want others to keep the rules, and maybe they're good rules, but if they're not from the Bible, then what we're doing is we're creating law that's going to make us prideful, it's going to make us arrogant.
SPEAKER_00: And how often we do this.
SPEAKER_00: Kids grow up in the church and they leave.
SPEAKER_00: Why is that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, there's a lot of different reasons.
SPEAKER_00: One is that they have to choose for themselves what they believe.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot just assume because my kids grew up in the church and they heard all the stories and they went to the youth group and they went to church camp and they did all the things that they're a regenerate.
SPEAKER_00: It's not true.
SPEAKER_00: They have to choose to follow Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But also culturally, there's just a ton of Christians who are hypocrites.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a hypocrite.
SPEAKER_00: You're a hypocrite.
SPEAKER_00: What makes us okay is that we go and we confess our hypocrisy to the Lord weekly.
SPEAKER_00: That we're claiming to follow Jesus, but yet we fail and we need his grace again and again and again.
SPEAKER_00: We don't act as if we're just all together and we're past sinning and we're good.
SPEAKER_00: We're quick to confess our sin and quick to walk in the ways of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But so often, young people have seen people who profess with their mouth a religion or a faith, but then they're wildly inconsistent in living it out.
SPEAKER_00: And they look at the lifestyle of these people, they say, yeah, that's just not for me.
SPEAKER_00: And what are they saying?
SPEAKER_00: In a sense, is I want to be more consistent.
SPEAKER_00: And so, as harsh as it is or frustrating to some people that we live in such a godless society, there is a reality, people are genuine in that.
SPEAKER_00: The facade is gone.
SPEAKER_00: There's not people just kind of acting the part anymore.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus' warnings and woes to the religious leaders should remind us the danger of just thinking we're right with God because we're going through the right rituals, we're doing the right things.
SPEAKER_00: But rather we are to trust and to submit to Him in all things.
SPEAKER_00: So we're asking the question: are we looking for the truth?
SPEAKER_00: And are we looking with clarity?
SPEAKER_00: Do we have light coming in?
SPEAKER_00: Are we seeing with good eyes, healthy eyes?
SPEAKER_00: Or darkness.
SPEAKER_00: We see the darkness.
SPEAKER_00: Are we looking with clarity?
SPEAKER_00: So as we conclude, I want to encourage you in three ways this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Seek the Word.
SPEAKER_00: Seek the Word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It is a lamp unto your path.
SPEAKER_00: It is true.
SPEAKER_00: Seek the Word.
SPEAKER_00: You will not find light, you will not find goodness, you will not find truth apart from God's word.
SPEAKER_00: You might have all kinds of difficulties and frustrations with how people have handled it or their take on it, or all those things.
SPEAKER_00: But apart from God's word, you will not find truth.
SPEAKER_00: Seek the word.
SPEAKER_00: See with the light.
SPEAKER_00: It's God's word that is sufficient for all these things.
SPEAKER_00: Don't try to take God's word and mix in modern philosophy or ancient philosophy or your friend's philosophy.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord's word is sufficient.
SPEAKER_00: Seek the word, see the light, and hear these strong warnings.
SPEAKER_00: Brother, sister, hear these warnings.
SPEAKER_00: Not to go home and beat yourselves up, but to be honest.
SPEAKER_00: Really examine.
SPEAKER_00: Am I doing any of this?
SPEAKER_00: Am I prone to any of these things where I'm making my own standards and I'm judging others against it?
SPEAKER_00: Or I'm making my own standards and I'm feeling better about myself because of it.
SPEAKER_00: Examine your hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Are you looking for the truth?
SPEAKER_00: Are you looking with clarity?
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.